Chapter 2 - Not Our Problem
The fire started while Claire was finishing a late shift at the medical billing office where she worked.
A neighbor called her first.
By the time Claire reached the apartment building, flames were pushing through the upstairs windows.
Firefighters had already evacuated Mrs. Alvarez from the unit below. Her dog was safe inside a patrol car. No one had been seriously injured.
Claire stood on the sidewalk in borrowed shoes because she had left work wearing thin flats that filled with rainwater.
Everything else was inside.
Her clothes.
Laptop.
Family photographs.
Her late grandmother’s jewelry box.
The folder containing documents from the inheritance dispute that had torn her family apart two months earlier.
Claire called her parents because some part of her still believed disaster might make them behave like parents.
Her mother answered on the fifth ring.
“There was a fire,” Claire said. “My apartment is gone.”
Margaret paused.
Then she replied, “Not our problem. Should’ve been more careful.”
“I lost everything.”
“You always make drama.”
Claire heard her father speaking in the background, but he never came to the phone.
Margaret continued.
“Call your brother. He has real responsibilities.”
Miles did not answer.
He rarely did unless he needed money.
When the call ended, Claire stared at the dark screen.
The rejection hurt.
But not as much as the absence of surprise in her mother’s voice.
Margaret had not asked whether Claire was safe.
May you like
She had not asked how the fire began.
She had spoken as though she had already decided whose fault it was.
