Chapter 1: Left To Bleed Out

Renee’s POV

“Fire!…” someone screamed, pushing panic into everyone in the restaurant.

The panic rose as the Fire alarm went off and the entire restaurant scenery blared red..

People were fleeing but Clark had abruptly excused himself to go to the rest room so I couldn’t leave without him…

Did he even know there was a fire? I carried my belly in my hand, stood up from the chair and walked to the center of the restaurant, while others rant towards the exit, I stood in search of my husband calling out to him as I looked around but then I heard

Crack

My heart sank and just for a split second I looked up to see it falling from the ceiling, the huge chandelier I’d once admired when we walked in, before I could think I crunched myself to the floor letting out a scream and then in minutes pain exploded throughout my body.

The fire was everywhere.

Smoke clawed at my lungs, burning my throat with every shallow breath. But I was now trapped under the crushing weight of a crystal chandelier, its jagged edges biting deep into my skin. Warm blood pooled around me, sticky against the scorched floor.

I could barely move, barely think… except to whisper amidst the growing noise of diners “Help… someone, please…”

I could only move my head a little, then I saw him.

Through the chaos of screaming guests and crumbling beams, Hockey Superstar Clark Wayne appeared… my husband. His shirt sleeve was pressed over his nose and mouth as he pushed through the stampede, heading straight toward me. Relief surged through me so fast I almost sobbed.

“Clark…” I gasped, managing a broken smile.

But he didn’t stop. He just passed right through me like I was invisible.

My eyes followed him in disbelief as he rushed past me, heading toward a closed door at the end of the hall. Behind it, someone was pounding desperately.

“Sarah!” he shouted.

The name sliced through me like glass. My husband knew only one Sarah and that was Sarah Kingston. Head doctor for the CrownLake Hockey Team. The woman who’d been “just a college friend.”

“Clark help me” I managed to hear Sarah say from behind the door

“Stand back Sarah… I’ve got you baby” Clark responded

“Baby?” My eyes wailed up

I watched my husband ram his shoulder against the door, once, twice, again and again… until it burst open. Sarah stumbled out, coughing through the smoke.

And then… They embraced.

“Sarah.. how’s the baby?” Clark asked amidst the embrace

“I feel dizzy, Clark.. the baby..” Sarah’s panic voice followed

“Let’s get you to the hospital.. come on…” Clark placed a hand over her waist and led her my way.

I lay there bleeding, watching them cling to each other like they were the only two people in the world. My body screamed for help, my vision swam… but my heart… my heart broke first.

They started moving toward me. For a second, hope came for me. Maybe they’d help. Maybe Clark couldn’t pull me out alone, he needed help so he saved Sarah first so she could help him save me.. after all she was a doctor.

“Clark, look.. that’s Renee, let’s help her,” Sarah said, her voice soft, almost innocent. As they came to a halt before where I lay half dead.

Clark’s paused and looked at me for a minute before his reply came. And when it did it sounded like a death sentence.

“I don’t think so, I think she’s better off dead to me than alive. With her gone, we can finally be a family and I’ll have the career I deserve. Let’s get out before this whole place collapses.”

And just like that, they stepped over broken glass, moving away from me.

Sarah even turned back… only to give me a small, mocking wave before disappearing into the smoke.

I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even cry. The chandelier’s weight crushed my ribs, and the pain was unbearable. My vision blurred as memories bled into each other…

“How could you Clark..” I finally gave up and lay into my world of pain.. he’d once saved me from a group of drunk guys during our college days. I thought he’d be my saviour for life.

I had pulled a lot to make him happy. On our first date he’d wanted to eat at the CrownLakers Exclusive diner… I’d made sure to set up an exclusive date for him while lying that I won a ticket for an exclusive meal for him.

On our wedding day. The day that was supposed to be my fairytale beginning… I got into an ugly fight with my father when he found out I chose Clark over his pick… Andrew Kinsley, heir to the Kinsley Group.

“If only you’d been patient till the end of the day…”

A tear slid from the corner of my eye. Not for the burns tearing into my skin, but for the gaping wound in my chest.

“I gave up my position as the Collins Family’s heiress… I gave up being The Director of the CrownLakers Hockey Team… for you, I called in favors to make you LA’s Most wanted Hockey Star under CrownLake Team,” I whispered. “And this is what I get? Betrayal… and being left to bleed out in a burning building… on our third year anniversary.”

Then I heard it… faint, distant at first yet clear.

“Renee!!!”

A voice cutting through the crackle of flames. “Renee, where are you?”

I tried to answer, but my voice was gone. The smoke was too thick. And then… through the haze… I saw him.

Andrew Kinsley. The man I had rejected for fucking Clark.

His eyes locked on me, widening in shock. He sprinted to my side “Renee… oh my God… stay with me. I’ll get you out.”

He crouched low as the ceiling groaned above us. With a grunt, he gripped the chandelier and shoved.

It didn’t budge.

“Come on… COME ON!” he roared, straining until the metal twisted free. I screamed as the jagged crystals tore from my skin, but the crushing weight was gone.

Andy knelt beside me, cupping my head in his hands. “Stay with me. Please… I’ll save you.”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to cling to his strength, but my body felt too heavy, too cold.

“I’m… sorry, Andy,” I breathed. “If I had the chance to go back… I’d choose you over Clark.”

“Don’t say that,” he whispered fiercely. “I still love you, Renee. I always have… ever since we were kids. You’ll survive this, and we’ll be together.”

But his voice was fading. The heat, the smoke, the pain.., it all blurred into a white glow that spread before my eyes.

“Renee Collins… The heiress of The Collins Fortune lived and died like a pauper for you, Clark Wayne… I wish I could rewrite my mistakes..

It was as if I was speaking to the light because it began to move faster until it stood an inch away from me.

And then… I gasped.

“If I could change the tides Andy… I’d chose you this time… take.. care.. of.. my … father…”

My eyes flew open, flooding with a blinding glare of white lights. The sharp, steady beeping of machines filled my ears, each sound pulling me further from the darkness I’d been drifting in. My chest rose and fell in a frantic rhythm as my vision adjusted…

And then I heard it…

“Renee?… Noooo!!!”

The voice. That voice.