Contents
Chapter 68
Overview
Veronica races through the burning house to rescue Teddy but finds his bedroom locked behind a code-word rule. Unable to break in and with the fire spreading, she decides to call Jeremy for the code. Smoke pours from the cellar door, and Veronica assumes the person below has perished.
Summary
Veronica hurries upstairs from the cellar, closing the door as Ezra urged, and sprints toward Teddy’s room while the fire spreads through the house. She reaches the second-floor hallway and finds Teddy’s door closed and locked.
Veronica pleads with Teddy to open up, warning him the house is on fire. Teddy, frightened but adamant, refuses to leave without the prearranged code words his parents taught him. Repeated banging and urgent explanations fail to move him, and Veronica injures her shoulder trying to ram the door.
Realizing Teddy will not open the door without the code, Veronica decides her only option is to contact Jeremy, who knows it. She races back downstairs to retrieve her phone.
As Veronica passes the cellar, smoke and scorch marks spread from under the door, convincing her that whoever is below is likely dead. She grabs her phone from the coffee table and bolts back for the stairs, determined to call Jeremy and get Teddy out before the flames overtake them.
Who Appears
- VeronicaBirth mother racing through the burning house; fails to breach Teddy’s locked door and goes to call Jeremy.
- TeddyTerrified child who refuses to unlock his bedroom without the family code words.
- JeremyFather who knows the code words; Veronica decides to call him to free Teddy.
- Ezra FletcherAlly presumed trapped below; smoke suggests he may have perished in the spreading fire.