I pulled free.
“My husband is inside!”
I covered my mouth and ran in.
The heat was unbearable.
I crawled.
I found Derek unconscious near the guest-room doorway.
I dragged him.
A burning section of curtain fell.
Flames struck the left side of my body.
I screamed.
But I kept pulling.
Somehow we reached the front door.
Firefighters took over.
Derek spent one night in the hospital.
I spent thirty-six days.
When I woke after the first surgery, he was sitting beside me.
He cried.
“You saved me.”
I couldn’t speak because of the breathing tube.
He held my hand.
“I’ll be here through every surgery.”
For one month, he kept that promise.
Then something changed.
He stopped touching me.
He moved into another room.
