Longing For The Beach Billionaire Daddy
Chapter 228

*Shelby*

My eyes flew open as I jolted awake, my heart racing. An acrid smoke had filled the room with an oppressive heaviness, but there was something more. I heard muffled cracking and popping coming from behind the door. With dread pooling in my stomach, I slowly turned my head toward the doorway and saw thick plumes of smoke billowing in.

Something was on fire. I quickly covered my mouth and nose with the sheet from the bed and alarm bells went off in my head. My babies were in danger.

“THOMAS!!!! AMELIA!!!!” I screamed as loud as I could muster, my voice scratchy from sleep and smoke inhalation.

I gasped and hot air hit my lungs. I tried to breathe deeply but choked on the meager air left in the room. There were popping sounds that filled the air, and it sounded as though something was going to splinter at any moment.

Panic raced through my veins as I turned to Michael and shook his limp body vigorously. His head lolled to the side, and when he didn’t stir, I noticed his chest was still. His skin was pale and clammy, and the silence of his breathing sent a chill down my spine.

“Michael, baby, please open your eyes. Help me,” I cried, hysterics threatening to take over.

“Michael!” I screamed. “Michael! Get up! We have to get out! The house is on fire!” I heard nothing in response, and I clenched my hands into fists.

The fear rose inside me like a tsunami, crashing against my chest and making it hard to breathe. I thought of my two young children and knew the pain of losing them would be too much to bear. I fumbled desperately for my cell phone, but with trembling hands, I dropped it on the floor and watched as it skittered away from me. It hit the wall with a deafening thud.

My heart pounded as I leaped out of bed and scrambled to pull on a pair of jeans draped across the chair. With shaking hands, I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911. The line rang incessantly with no answer as I sprinted down the hallway, my bare feet slapping against the cold hardwood, and coughing at the thick acrid smoke filling the air. I pocketed the phone out of frustration. There was no more time. I had to get to the twins’ room.

I rounded the corner to the nursery, and a wall of roaring orange flames towered before me. The heat seared my skin as I tried to make out shapes through the smoke—an overturned rocking chair, a burnt-out bookshelf, and the charred remains of a toy truck. Between me, and the twins’ beds stood an impenetrable barrier of fire.

I dropped to my knees, tears streaming down my face as I screamed out in despair, “My babies!”

The smoke overwhelmed my senses until I couldn’t see anything else. The only sounds in my ears were the crackling of the wood surrounding me burning up, and my skin felt like it was beginning to melt off. The heat was unbearable. I needed to get up and get to my babies, I needed to do something. But everything faded to black as I sank further to the floor, my breathing labored and shallow.

***

I jolted awake, chest heaving and heart pounding. For a moment, I was consumed by terror as the images of the dream filled my mind. But then a wave of relief washed over me as I remembered that Michael and our babies were safe and sound in their beds.

Tears began to trickle down my cheeks as I curled into a ball, trembling with emotion, my throat thick with sobs.

I felt my shoulders begin to shake as I held back the loud cries beginning to escape from my mouth. I tried to use the comforter to silence my panicked noises, but it didn’t work. I felt Michael roll toward me, his hands outstretched and reaching for me.

“Baby, are you okay? What’s the matter?” He pulled me closer to him, repeating the questions. Hearing his voice reminded me of his lifeless body in my dream, and I began to cry so hard I couldn’t answer his questions.

We sat like that, and he held me until I couldn’t cry anymore. He rubbed circles on my back and kissed away the tears that stained my cheeks. When I felt like I could finally breathe, I looked at his face and saw unease drawing his eyebrows together.

“Baby,” he grabbed both of my cheeks with his hands, then continued, “Talk to me, please. What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath before I started to talk. I told him about the dream, the terrifying sound of the fire crackling, and its overwhelming heat. I explained that reality had hit me like a ton of bricks when suddenly I realized what was happening—that no matter how much I wanted to save all three of them in my dream, there wasn’t anything I could do.

All of the fear and anguish that had been trapped inside my chest came pouring out as I spoke. Michael held me close as he listened and eventually, all the words ran out.

“You were gone, Michael. I tried to wake you, but you were already cold to the touch,” I cried into his chest.

When my voice trailed off, all that was left were heavy breaths and quiet sobs. He just kept comforting me with gentle touches until finally, I was calm enough to sit up and think clearly.

“I can’t sleep without the babies in here,” I stood up as I talked and began walking to the nursery. “Will you please help me get their bassinets and bring them in here with us?”

“Of course, I will,” Michael agreed, putting on his robe and following behind me. I walked with quick steps, wide awake, but Michael shuffled sleepily. I felt bad for rousing him from sleep and making him move around the house. I bet he thought I was ridiculous for moving the babies because of a dream that I’d had, but I couldn’t help it. I needed them nearby where I could hear their breathing and see their tiny faces.

We walked into the nursery, and I was relieved to see the rocking chair, the bookshelf, and all of the babies’ toys exactly where we’d left them when we put them to bed. Not a single thing was out of place, but I still couldn’t shake the image of their toys and belongings being engulfed by flames. I shivered from the memory.

Leaning over Thomas’ crib, I saw him lying on his side, snoring softly. I looked to the right, and Amelia was also sleeping soundly. A weight heavier than anything I had ever felt was lifted from my shoulders, and I sighed my relief out loud.

“The bassinets are folded up in the utility closet in the hallway,” I told Michael, pointing toward the door outside the nursery.

He walked out of the room and opened the closet. Once he had the bassinets, he took them to our bedroom and began putting them together while I watched the babies sleep. I watched Thomas and Amelia as their chests rose evenly with each breath they took.

The image of them so sweetly dreaming reminded me that I needed to be cautious about my work, and in the future, I needed to make sure I wasn’t bringing danger to our doorstep. They deserved a childhood without fear, and they deserved to grow up with their mother and father. Once justice was served for the victims in the Henderson Chemical case, I would be more conscientious about the cases I took in the future.

Michael reentered the nursery and gave me the thumbs up, so I picked Thomas up from his crib and cradled him gently in my arms. Michael grabbed Amelia, and together, we walked our sleeping infants back to our room. We laid them down in their bassinets side-by-side next to the bed, neither of them so much as fluttering an eye.

I then followed Michael to bed where we snuggled under the covers, wrapped around one another and shutting our eyes.

“I love you,” I whispered, unsure if he even heard me.

“I love you too, babe. Goodnight,” he said back quietly and kissed my forehead.

All was quiet, other than our breathing and the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall. It chimed three times, letting me know it was the middle of the night.

The moonlight streamed through the window, throwing an eerie pallor on Michael’s sleeping figure. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, but his face was tense with an emotion I couldn’t decipher. I lay there motionless, unable to take my eyes off him as the fear of sleep and its nightmares crept up on me.

“Babe, are you awake?” I whispered, almost hoping he wouldn’t answer. If he was already asleep, I wouldn’t have to admit how scared I was to him.

“Yeah, what’s up?” he asked, not an ounce of annoyance present in his voice, even though I kept interrupting his sleep.

“I’m afraid to fall back asleep,” I muttered, embarrassed by my feelings.

He opened his eyes and sat up slightly. “Hey, listen to me, it was just a dream, okay? Nothing is going to happen tonight or any night,” he reached his hand out and held my face.

“I know, but I could feel the heat from the flames and taste the smoke, Michael.” The panic from before crawled its way back up to the forefront of my mind. “What if it was some kind of premonition or bad omen?”

“I swear to you, it’s just the stress of the case. Nothing bad is going to happen. We’re going to take all the proper precautions, and we’re going to prove some bad men did some bad stuff. Hopefully, they’ll be locked up, and you’ll never have to worry about any of this ever again.”

Michael kissed me one more time and rolled over to go back to sleep. I stared at his back illuminated by the moonlight for a few minutes, then forced my eyes shut and began to do some deep breathing to try and calm myself down.

I rolled and shifted in bed for hours, the blanket a heavy burden on my chest. I usually reached for my phone to pass the time, but its light was too bright. I didn’t want to risk waking the babies, especially since they didn’t wake when they were moved into our room. My eyes began to droop as I stared at the window, watching the soft glow of pre-dawn stretch across the sky.