The accident
1072 Words
Wendy
I slapped his hand away from my face.
How dare he touch me like that? How dare he look at me with those sad, defeated eyes, playing the victim in a prison he built himself?
He had absolutely no right to question me about who I was with or who bought me a drink.
Logan was the man I truly loved. He was my real lover, the man I was supposed to be with. He had been long before Reed forced this ridiculous marriage into my life. If not for my father’s desperate insistence, the pressure and the emotional blackmail, I would have never married Reed. And I certainly would never have accidentally had William. That was the one mistake I could never undo.
“You don’t get to interrogate me.” I said coldly. “Not when you built this prison around me.”
Reed just stared at me with unreadable eyes. It made me angrier that he wouldn’t fight back properly. He always looked like some tragic hero enduring silent suffering.
I hated that look.
Before he could respond, I heard soft footsteps behind us.
“Mommy…” William’s small voice quivered.
I turned around and saw him standing at the end of the hallway, holding his toy against his chest. His eyes were red and watery.
“Can you cut the cake with me?” he asked quietly. “Together?”
For a second… just a second… something twisted in my chest.
Then I looked up and saw Reed watching us. And the warmth immediately vanished.
Every time I looked at William, I saw Reed. I saw the life I never chose. The future that was decided for me in a boardroom negotiation.
“I said not right now, William.” I snapped.
William flinched. But he reached for me again, and I pushed his hands away, a little harder than I intended.
“Go to your room.”
Nancy who literally raised me hurried forward and took William away, shooting me a look I was too exhausted to interpret.
I turned my furious glare back to Reed.
He didn’t flinch.
“Are you going to fix Logan’s promotion or not?” I demanded.
“It was a unanimous management decision.” He replied evenly.
I let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Unanimous?" I mocked him. "You own the entire company! They do whatever you tell them to do!"
I knew the truth.
He was deliberately targeting Logan to punish me. He wanted to make Logan suffer because he knew I loved him.
“I can't do this.” I grabbed my car keys from the entryway table. “I can't even look at you right now.”
I didn't wait for his response. I spun around on my heels and stormed toward the garage.
“Wendy.” He called after me but I ignored him.
I unlocked my white Porsche in the garage and slid into the driver's seat. My hands were shaking with pure anger as I started the engine.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Sabine’s number.
She picked up on the second ring.
“Sabine.” I breathed out the second she answered.
“Wendy? What’s wrong? Are you crying?”
“I can't stand him anymore, Sabine.” I told her, gripping the steering wheel. “He humiliated Logan at work today. Vetoed his promotion. On purpose.”
“That jealous billionaire husband of yours?” She laughed. “Pathetic.”
“I am coming over.”
“Of course you are. Bring wine.”
I hung up the phone and slammed my foot on the gas pedal, speeding out of the Wyatt Mansion gates.
I just needed to breathe. I needed to get away from the smell of that stupid chocolate cake and the suffocating walls of that house.
I looked up into my rearview mirror.
A pair of bright headlights pulled out of the mansion gates right behind me.
It was a black SUV.
Reed. It was his car.
"You have got to be kidding me." I muttered out loud.
He was following me. He couldn't even let me have one night to myself.
Furious, I pressed the Bluetooth button on my dashboard and called him. He answered on the first ring.
“Why are you tailing me?!” I screamed into the microphone, my voice cracking with pure rage. “Leave me alone, Reed!”
“Wendy…. Please… listen to me.” He said. “I just—please. Come back home.”
“Why?” I snapped. “So you can control who I talk to? Who I love? Who gets promoted?”
“It’s William’s birthday.” He said softly.
For half a second, I faltered. Then anger swallowed it whole.
"The roads are freezing and it is snowing too hard." He begged, sounding more desperate than I had ever heard him. "Please, pull over. It is William's birthday. Just give him ten minutes of your time, and then you can go wherever you want.”
Hearing him use William to guilt-trip me only made me angrier.
“No!” I yelled, tears of absolute frustration blurring my vision. “I am not your puppet! You took my everything from me! My freedom. My future. The man I love. You don’t get to ask me to come back and play happy family.”
“Wendy, slow down.”
“No.”
“Please…” He said. And for the first time, I heard something crack in his voice.
But I didn’t want to hear it.
“Stop following me." I screamed and ended the call.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter and slammed my heel down on the accelerator.
My car raced faster, speeding up dangerously fast on the road.
I needed to lose him.
I approached a dark corner and jerked the steering wheel hard to the left without slowing down.
The back tires lost their grip on the black ice. My car spun out of control.
Through my tear-filled eyes, I saw two blindingly bright headlights coming straight at me from the opposite lane.
A loud horn blasted through the silent night.
I screamed and threw my hands up over my face.
Then there came a horrific, crunching sound of tearing metal.
My head snapped to the side, hitting the glass.
Pain exploded through my body for one agonizing second.
And then, everything went totally black.
- Writer
