Chapter 6 - An Unwanted Shield
Two weeks later, the initial media storm had faded into industry gossip. I had liquidated half my personal shares to establish an irrevocable trust Claire could never be forced to touch, but which permanently bought out the building on Main Street in Galena, transferring the deed unconditionally to Claire Bennett.
I didn't send a letter. I didn't attach my name. The transfer was completed through a neutral third-party land trust.
I rented a small, modest cottage two miles outside Galena, near the bluffs. I spent my days reading, learning how to exist without a relentless schedule, and cooking simple meals on an old gas stove. For the first time in fifteen years, my hands were not glued to a device.
Yet, I couldn't stop myself from walking past her shop in the late evenings after closing hours. I never approached. I only wanted to know she was safe.
On a freezing Tuesday night in late November, the temperature plunged into the single digits. As I walked down Main Street, my coat pulled high against the biting wind, I noticed smoke curling from the second-story brick eaves of *Bennett Bindery*.
Not chimney smoke. Thick, gray, electrical smoke.
Panic surged through me. I bolted down the alleyway. Through the rear service window, I saw flames licking up an old pine support beam near the rear heating unit. Inside, Claire was coughing violently, attempting to use a small handheld extinguisher to suppress a rapidly spreading fire near stacks of rare parchment.
"Claire!" I slammed my shoulder against the reinforced service door. It held firm. "Claire, open the door!"
She turned, eyes wide with terror through the thickening haze. The extinguisher sputtered out, empty.
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I grabbed an iron tire iron from a nearby utility bin and smashed the window pane next to the deadbolt, ignoring the glass ripping into my forearm. I unlocked the latch, threw the door open, and pulled her out into the frigid air just as the ceiling plaster collapsed onto the workbench in a shower of sparks.
***
