3 Love Letters in the Embers

: The Unseen Sacrifice

In the hospital, Sylvia Travers was bustling about, tending to Mother Croft.

When Noah Croft came in, the doctor was nodding in approval.

"Captain Croft, you married a good one. She treats your mother even better than her own."

Hearing this, Noah Croft opened his mouth to speak but didn't correct the doctor. He just asked, "How is my mom?"

"It's nothing serious, just some minor burns. A little ointment and she'll be fine."

The doctor looked at the water-soaked trench coat on Mother Croft. "It's a good thing this wet coat protected her. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

Sylvia Travers took the simple trench coat off Mother Croft, tossed it aside carelessly, and replaced it with her own cashmere coat. Her words carried a veiled complaint against me:

"It's so cold at night, and Mrs. Croft went out wearing just this. How could Sia be so careless!"

Noah Croft's gaze didn't even fall on the trench coat.

'He's probably forgotten. When I was seven, my parents and I were trapped in a massive fire.'

'They poured the only bucket of water we had on me and shielded me with their bodies.'

'Choking on the thick smoke, I fell unconscious and felt like I was about to die.'

'But suddenly, a small figure braved the danger and carried me out of the sea of flames.'

'Back then, Mother Croft draped this very trench coat over my shoulders.'

'That fire took my parents from me, and the smoke I inhaled damaged my vocal cords, robbing me of my voice.'

'But in their place, Mother Croft and Noah Croft came into my life.'

'I've hidden this memory deep in my heart and cherished this trench coat ever since.'

'So much so that when I saw a brand-new cashmere coat in the corner of our closet, I was thrilled, thinking he remembered too and had secretly bought me a gift.'

'But on our seventh anniversary, I saw Sylvia Travers wearing that very cashmere coat.'

'That night, we had a huge, silent fight.'

'I grabbed a pen, writing with enough force to tear the paper, trying to convey my fury.'

'He said impatiently that he'd just get me another one, as if it were no big deal.'

'But to this day, there's been no sign of that coat in the closet.'

"Your wife mentioned your mom has Alzheimer's. It's unlikely a patient would think to douse her clothes in water to protect herself. Someone was probably there, guiding her..."

The doctor seemed to have realized something and offered the reminder.

Noah Croft froze for a moment, then quickly shook his head.

Something suddenly flashed through his mind. With a trembling hand, he opened the location tracking app on his phone.

When he saw that my last known location disappeared at the scene of the fire, a flicker of panic crossed his eyes.

Just then, Sylvia Travers's voice broke his train of thought:

"Not necessarily. We've rescued clueless elderly people and children before. When people are in extreme danger, they can act on subconscious survival instincts."

"Besides, if Sia were with Mother Croft, how could Mrs. Croft have gotten into trouble?"

"Sia has been so negligent. How could she hide from us just because she's afraid of being scolded! It's so late... Sia isn't still at home sleeping, is she?"

Noah Croft glanced at the time. The hands on the clock pointed to 4 AM.

A dark, sinister look flashed in his eyes.

"You're still here with Mom this late. Thank goodness you reminded me about the fire downtown, otherwise my mom..."

He shuddered, thinking of what could have happened.

Sylvia Travers smiled gently. "It's what I should do."

Noah Croft's voice was filled with disgust:

"There was another fire in Westgate tonight! If Sia Thorne hadn't been throwing a tantrum and giving me the silent treatment, Mom never would have ended up in such a dangerous place!"

"Sia was just in a bad mood. Don't blame her."

Sylvia Travers patted his shoulder. "You just got back. You only rested for half an hour after fighting that fire, and now you have to watch over Mrs. Croft... With Sia not here, if I don't help you, it'd be too much for you, wouldn't it?"

"You're so understanding. Not like Sia Thorne. Mom is lying in a hospital bed, and she, the daughter-in-law, doesn't even show her face."

'I watched my husband and another woman standing side by side, as if they were the real family.'

'I wanted to speak, to explain.'

'In the fire, the thick smoke blinded me, and every cough felt like it was tearing my insides apart.'

'I doused both myself and Mother Croft with water and stumbled through the blaze, searching for an exit.'

'The pain of the flames searing my skin felt like it was seeping into my very soul.'

'It's not that I don't want to show my face.'

'It's that I'll never have the chance to stand before them again.'

Sylvia Travers placed a food container on the table.

"I made some food. Noah, come and eat with me."

Mother Croft stared intently as Sylvia Travers laid out the food piece by piece.

Once she was done, Mother Croft walked over, poured the congee into a small porcelain bowl, and muttered over and over, "For Sia to eat... Eat, and you won't be sad anymore..."

'As I watched, a bitter sorrow welled up in my heart.'

'Last night, I had personally cooked a huge feast.'

'I waited until midnight, but the person I was waiting for never came.'

'And Mother Croft had tried to comfort me over and over in her own clumsy way.'

Noah Croft's brow furrowed. He stepped forward and scoffed, "She's perfectly fine, is she going to starve? Why are you even bringing her up!"

His gaze faltered, then landed on Mother Croft's chest, and his breath caught in his throat.

Parting

That was the Jade Buddha Mother Croft gave me on the day Noah Croft and I were married.

Mother Croft is a devout Buddhist. She said she had specially prayed for it for her future daughter-in-law, to bless me with a safe and peaceful life.

In the seven years of our marriage, I never took it off, not even when I showered.

Yet now, it was on Mother Croft.

A wave of irritation gradually washed over him.

He pulled out his phone. The screen was still on the messages he had sent me.

I hadn't replied.

In seven years of marriage, it wasn't that we'd never fought.

But no matter how angry we were, if it involved Mother Croft, we would always put our arguments aside.

He knew I considered Mother Croft more important than my own life.

But it had been almost five hours since Mother Croft's accident. No matter how bad the traffic was, I should have arrived by now.

Not to mention, I had even left behind my Jade Buddha.

He called my phone, and a hollow busy signal sounded in the room.

Hearing the sound, Mother Croft looked up and quickly covered Noah Croft's hand, her eyes reddening again. "Don't bother Sia. Sia is sleeping..."

Sylvia Travers soothed her in a gentle voice, "Okay, let Sia sleep peacefully. Let's eat now."

Noah Croft shot Sylvia Travers a grateful smile, but as he stepped out of the room, the smile instantly vanished.

I watched him dial my number over and over, his face growing colder and harder with each attempt.

While dialing, he slammed his fist against the nearby wall again and again.

The scrapes on his hand multiplied.

I shook my head helplessly. 'It's no use,' I wanted to tell him.

I finally took out my phone, hesitated for a long time, and typed: 'I'm really dead...'

Whether he believed me or not, this was the last thing I could tell him.

But before the message could be sent, the call on his end connected.

"Get Sia Thorne on the phone!"

He had called the housekeeper.

There was silence on the other end. Noah Croft frowned. "Is she not home?"

"Ah, no..."

The housekeeper answered earnestly, "Sir, Ma'am said yesterday was an important day and she had something important to discuss with you, so she gave us the day off to go home."

Noah Croft stood frozen, phone in hand.

It was only then that he suddenly remembered: yesterday was our eighth anniversary.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Ma'am sent you a text message early in the day. Didn't you get it?"

I watched him scroll back through his chat history with a stunned expression, but he couldn't find the message.

In a daze, I understood.

I gave a bitter smile.

So, he never received the message at all.

Who was to blame? Me, I suppose, for my inability to speak. For not being able to call him, for having to rely on a text to ask him home—a text that was so conveniently deleted.

"You're saying she was waiting for me at home?"

After getting an affirmative reply, Noah Croft hastily hung up. His expression softened slightly as he found my chat window:

"It was my fault for not rushing back in time. I know you're upset."

"There was a sudden fire in Westgate, and by the time I was heading back, another big fire broke out downtown. I've been busy ever since and am still with Mom now."

After waiting a long time for my reply, he grew impatient:

"Can you stop throwing a tantrum? What is it you want? It's just our eighth anniversary, right? I'll make it up to you later. I'm exhausted right now and I'm really not in the mood to coddle you."

"I know you're not asleep. Reply to me. Even Sylvia Travers knows to stay with Mom. She's a complete stranger, yet she's more considerate than you, the daughter-in-law."

"If you weren't throwing a fit, how could Mom have ended up in danger?"

"As long as you come here and properly thank Sylvia Travers, I'll pretend none of this ever happened..."

I stared at the messages on his screen. My fingers clenched and unclenched. I wanted to explain, but it was futile.

How could we pretend nothing had happened?

I answered him in my heart.

'We won't have an eighth anniversary. And we won't have a future.'

Message after message was sent, but each one vanished without a trace.

He angrily threw his phone down and went back into the room. Mother Croft was already asleep. He watched her, but he couldn't sleep at all, lying awake until dawn.

Staring at the empty message history on his phone, the exhaustion from a sleepless night combined with my perceived neglect finally made Noah Croft's composure snap:

"I've tolerated you time and time again, but you're just so ungrateful!"

"Something this huge happened to Mom, and you haven't even sent a single word of concern. You don't deserve to be her daughter-in-law!"

His face was ashen. He pressed his lips together as his fingers slowly, but firmly, typed out a few words:

"Let's get a divorce!"

Seeing those words, my heart felt like it had frozen solid.

I shouldn't be able to feel temperature, yet a chill seeped out from the very marrow of my bones.

He once said that it was a Croft family tradition: once you choose someone, it's for life.

Even when we gave each other the silent treatment for half a month over Sylvia Travers, even at the height of our arguments, he never mentioned divorce.

I smiled, and as I smiled, tears began to fall.

I reached out, using my final chance.

A phone vibrated—it was the notification sound for a priority contact.

Noah Croft's eyes lit up. He grabbed his phone, but just as he was about to open the message, a team member ran toward him in a panic.

"Captain! It was too dark to clear the fire scene last night. While clearing it today, we just unearthed a body!"

He was breathless from running. "It's a woman, around thirty years old!"

At the same time, the housekeeper's call came through at that very moment:

"Sir! Are you with Ma'am? I saw on the security camera that she went out last night, and she still hasn't come home!"