In order to help Mia Collins pass the assessment and become a full member as soon as possible, my firefighter husband set a fire in the house while I was out.

In an instant, flames shot up into the sky, surrounding the sleeping three-year-old daughter.

When I saw the surveillance warning, I rushed home like crazy.

But all we could see was Mia holding her severely burned and unconscious daughter in her arms, and accepting the interview under the flash lights like a savior.

Next to her, Fire Captain Aaron Foster looked proud.

"This time, it was all thanks to Mia. Although she was a trainee, she risked her life to save the child who was destined to be burned to death."

"This mother is really irresponsible. She locked her child at home and went out to play while she was alone!!"

……

I stood behind the crowd in a daze.

Through the crowd, I could see my husband Aaron and new team member Mia surrounded by cameras and reporters.

Mia blushed shyly at his praise.

"Although I am the only female firefighter in the team, I just did my part, which saved the child's life."

In her arms, her three-year-old daughter's clothes and hair were burnt to tatters, and her exposed skin was covered with festering and burn wounds.

This is in stark contrast to Mia, who is fully made up and has no trace of black or gray on her face.

The reporters praised it one after another.

The flash kept flashing as I took this set of photos with extremely strong contrast, ready to make the headlines.

"The heroine and the rescued baby girl, this is bound to be a big hit!"

"The heroic figures of female firefighters should be seen by the public! Such great female heroes should not be just interns!!"

Aaron exchanged glances with Mia calmly, both of them had ecstasy in their eyes.

Mia even changed several poses in succession, wanting the camera to record her most beautiful side.

She didn't care at all that the daughter in her arms had fainted and was in critical condition.

This scene was like a tempered steel knife stabbing into my chest.

My heart ached so much that I almost fainted. I slapped myself a few times and forced myself to wake up.

Push through the crowd and squeeze towards the middle.

"Let my daughter go..."

Before I could finish my words, Aaron was the first to notice me.

He handed the microphone to Mia naturally, walked around the crowd and dragged me out forcefully.

"Where have you been? If Mia hadn't tried her best to put out the fire today, my daughter would have been burned to death!"

"I was out there putting out the fire, not for you to play outside all day. You went out and let your child get burned like this at home. How dare you come back?"

"Okay, now hurry up and pack your things so that we can go to the hospital and take care of our daughter!"

Aaron accused me fiercely.

But he forgot that I was not only a member of his fire brigade, but also a Firefighting Hero recognized by the whole city.

I can tell at a glance whether it was a natural fire or a man-made fire.

What's more, there were traces of potassium permanganate and glycerin on his cuffs.

The truth was like a knife, stabbing me and making me feel cold all over.

I grabbed my aching chest and pushed him away.

"Get lost! You don't deserve to mention your daughter!"

"You don't deserve to be a father!!"

Aaron's eyes flickered with impatience.

"I am not worthy of you. If it weren't for me, would a cripple like you be able to live such a good life now?"

"You don't need to work to earn money. If you can't even take care of the kids at home, what's the point of having you?"

"Or did you run out to meet some strange man again?"

He fixed me with a suspicious look and snatched the bag from my hand to check it.

I just clenched my phone, which contained the photos Mia sent me early in the morning.

She and Aaron were immersed in the affectionate embrace in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the hotel.

I was heartbroken and extremely hesitant. Looking at my daughter sleeping soundly in the bedroom, I finally made up my mind to give myself up.

But he didn't expect that his house would be set on fire shortly after he left the house.

Aaron finished his inspection and found nothing. He just sneered and threw the disabled worker's license back to my feet.

"You don't need to earn these little morsels. It's not shameful enough."

"Okay, if it weren't for Mia this time, you wouldn't be able to save your daughter even if you cried your heart out. Come with me and thank her properly. Do you hear me?"

Aaron lifted my arm hypocritically, with a smug look in his eyes.

I wiped away my tears fiercely and pushed Aaron away with all my strength.

"No need for you to pretend to be kind!"

"My daughter is mine, let's get divorced!!"

The sound of the quarrel attracted the attention of people around. Aaron's expression changed again and again, and he finally took into consideration Mia who was still being interviewed.

No harsher words were spoken.

I packed my things and limped towards Mia under the flash lights.

Amidst everyone's confused and speculative gazes.

I didn't have time to speak.

Mia held her daughter who was burned and unconscious and smiled at me.

"Maybe you don't know this, but she's the mother who locked her daughter at home and nearly burned her to death!"

"You don't have to come and thank me specially. Even if it's irresponsible of me as a mother, this is what I should do as a firefighter."

I didn't expect Mia to be so shameless.

At once, everyone present looked towards me.

"Oh my god, how dare this murderer show up? He almost burned his own daughter to death. He might as well have committed suicide!"

"Why didn't you come back earlier or later? Now that your daughter is about to be burned to death, what's the point of pretending to regret? If it were me, I would slap myself twice and kneel down in front of the heroine!"

"From what you said just now, she is the wife of the Fire Captain, but she has no fire sense at all. She came back and saw her daughter was burned and wanted a divorce. It would be better to give our daughter to the heroine than to her!"

Amid the discussions, Mia pretended to be modest and declined.

"Don't say that, blood is thicker than water. Even if Nina likes to go out and locks the child at home alone every day, she is still the child's biological mother!"

"It's just pitiful for this baby, he was only three years old and was burned like this... I believe this is just an accident, everyone please don't misunderstand Nina."

She shed a few fake tears and hugged my daughter tighter.

Aaron appeared behind her with a sad face.

“Nina Taylor, why don’t you come over and thank me.”

"She saved our daughter, so it's not too much to kneel down and thank her. Our daughter is waiting for you here. You caused her to be burned like this, so consider it as your atonement as a mother!"

Everyone present agreed, and the live camera was pointed directly at my face.

I wanted to capture the shocking scene of the mother kneeling down to atone for her sins, and the heroine holding the burned baby girl in her arms.

I just gritted my teeth and stared at Mia and Aaron in anger.

In Mia's arms, her daughter had begun to roll her eyes. Her life was in extreme danger!

I didn't care about anything else and rushed over to grab the child.

"Let my daughter go!"

"You're not a heroine at all, and you don't deserve to hold her!!"

Amid the in uproarious gazes of the crowd, he stretched out his foot and tripped me.

My unbalanced right leg suddenly tilted, and I fell heavily in front of Mia.

Everyone burst into laughter.

Mia sneered and took a step forward as if to help me.

I finally saw up close her daughter, whose body was covered in burns and ulcers, in her arms.

My daughter took small, labored breaths.

The painful groan between his nose sounded like he was calling for his mother in a low voice.

My heart was broken at that moment and I wanted to hug her with trembling hands.

Before his hand touched her, Mia screamed and fell to the ground.

The daughter in her arms was thrown down!

The sound of the little head hitting the ground seemed to crush my heart.

"baby!!"

I struggled to crawl over to save my daughter.

But Aaron held him down tightly.

His eyes were red and he stared at me with disbelief.

"Nina, how could you be so cruel to throw our own daughter to death!"

I shook my head repeatedly, but could only watch Mia pick up my daughter back into her arms as if she was picking up trash.

She walked back to me haughtily.

"Nina, even if you threw her to death, it wouldn't change the fact that you almost caused her to be burned to death."

"The only thing you can do is to atone for your sins!"

"Only if you atone for your sins can I safely hand my daughter over to you."

Following her voice, everyone present shouted.

Someone even picked up a mineral water bottle and smashed it on my head and face.

"Atonement! Atonement! Atonement! Atonement!"

In the deafening roar.

Mia and Aaron exchanged smug looks.

The twitching little body of her daughter in her arms felt like a steel needle piercing my heart.

I gripped the sharp edge of the phone.

He stared at them so intently that his eyes almost bled.

"Mia, you know better than me where I went before the fire."

"If you don't want the image you've carefully constructed to collapse, return my daughter to me!"

There was a flash of panic in Mia's eyes.

I haven't had time to dig out the photo yet.

Aaron came over and stepped on my hand.

A wicked smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Turned my bag upside down.

Pick up one of the photos.

"Of course I know where you went."

"I have investigated your affair thoroughly!"

Everyone was suddenly in an uproar.

Everything in my bag was poured out, and a pile of photos of me in revealing clothes and being intimate in bed with a strange man stood out.

The photo was snatched up instantly.

People present passed the photos around and displayed them one by one under the live camera.

"With so many men, how can this be considered cheating? This is just a whore!"

"She's still making this kind of money at her age. Her selling point can't be that she admires the disabled!"

"Oh, this Fire Captain is really pitiful. He ran into such a bitch. I don't think the child may even be his!"

"No wonder she burned her daughter to death and then threw her to death. This must be to cover up the secret. This mother is so vicious that she even wants our heroine to show up and save this poor daughter!"

Everyone was talking to me and spitting on me.

Aaron proudly placed the photo in front of me.

"Nina, do you know you are wrong now?"

Then I realized that he had started rummaging through my bag under the pretense of checking it.

It's just to stuff these fake photos in there.

I pulled out my phone to protest.

Aaron however crushed my hand and grabbed my hair to watch the live feed on his phone.

The number of viewers in the live broadcast room reached hundreds of thousands, and the barrage of comments was changing very quickly.