He kept yelling, "Lily is a guest and you left her alone at home, with the gas in the kitchen still on! If I had been a minute later, she'd be dead! I've put up with your jealousy and tantrums, but today you nearly caused a fatal accident, do you understand that?"
"I don't care where you are right now, but you'd better get to the hospital and apologize to Lily! Otherwise, don't bother coming back home! I've been far too lenient with you!" he was furious.
I was stunned by his words and didn't even have time to respond. My best friend couldn't take it anymore and grabbed the phone from me, shouting back at him, "Jacob, you're not even a man! The universe doesn't think you deserve to be a father! Do you even know the truth? Do you know how the fire started?"
"Lily this, Lily that, why don't you two brothers just stay with her from now on and leave us alone!" She ended the call abruptly.
Tears streamed down my face. Seven years of my life, two years of marriage and five years of dating, were worth less than a few words from Lily during the fire.
When she entered the house earlier today, she was even carrying gifts for me, knowing I was pregnant. Her delicate face was all smiles as she offered her congratulations to me and Jacob.
For a moment, I had thought I had misunderstood their relationship, that all my doubts were just in my head. I was thinking about apologizing to her in person at the dinner table tonight for the previous misunderstanding.
But in the blink of an eye, she had locked me in the bedroom while I was taking my medicine. She ignored my desperate cries for help. Was that also a misunderstanding?
I had always checked the gas lines in our home every quarter. How could there suddenly be an explosion today? And it was a controlled, small-scale fire at that. I didn't know the exact cause.
The first thing I did when the fire broke out was call Jacob. Normally, his phone was always available to me 24/7, but this time, it showed he was already on a call.
It wasn't until I had given up shouting that I heard Lily calling for help on her phone outside. At that moment, something inside me collapsed.
The smoke began to seep through the cracks in the door. I dampened a towel with the water I had used to take my medicine and covered my nose.
I kept calling Jacob, unwilling to give up. But no matter how many times I had called, his line never disconnected.