Chapter 1
I had just said "I do" to Jonathan Lopez this morning. By the afternoon, he had already slapped me with divorce papers.
I stood perfectly still in the bridal suite, gripping the heavy silk of my wedding gown. Through the cracked door, the muffled laughter of his groomsmen drifted down the hallway.
"Mr. Lopez," one of his buddies bantered. "You actually went through with an entire wedding just because Ms. Blake threw a little tantrum?"
I peeked out and saw Jonathan tenderly tucking a stray lock of hair behind the ear of his precious first love. His voice was dripping with devotion. "The wedding is done, and the divorce papers are already drawn up. Can you forgive me now?"
She pressed her lips together to hide a smug smile, the cold resentment in her eyes melting away completely.
I instinctively took a step forward to interrupt the touching reunion, but my own three brothers stopped me.
"She's rarely this happy. Just let her have this one win. You literally have everything else. Why make a scene over a little bruised ego? Jonathan was always meant to be hers. You should have accepted that a long time ago."
Like a team of bouncers, my brothers escorted me out of the venue, leaving the happy couple locked in a tight embrace beneath the cathedral's gorgeous stained-glass rose window.
A mechanical chime finally echoed deep in my mind.
"Target Heartbreak Level Reached. Mission Complete. Would you like to exit this world?"
Leaning against the car window, I watched the church spires recede into the distance. It was all I could do to fight back a smirk.
The lovesick act I had put on for this mission was officially a wrap. They could go ahead and live out their epic romance without me. Because as of today, I was officially retiring from playing their miserable supporting character.
*****
The air inside the car was suffocatingly thick.
My third brother, Lucas Evans, an associate professor of philosophy at the local university, was gripping the steering wheel.
He kept his eyes locked rigidly on the coastal highway ahead, completely refusing to look at me.
"Summer, you have to stop being so obsessive," he lectured. "Aiden and Lydia have over a decade of history. You really think a few reckless, impulsive tantrums are going to erase that?
"Charles and Leo are just trying to help you mature. They want to make sure you have a solid future.
"If you keep clinging to him like a desperate psycho, you're only going to make everyone hate you."
I listened in total silence, my eyes tracking the heavy metal guardrails of the coastal highway blurring past the passenger window.
The salty, sharp tang of the ocean slipped in through the cracked window, filling my lungs.
The robotic monotone resurfaced. "Disconnection in progress. Countdown: 10 minutes. Please choose a safe method of exit."
A safe method?
I didn't need safe methods.
Lucas was still talking, launching into a long-winded academic lecture that somehow connected Kant's categorical imperative to the sacrifices we have to make in relationships.
He talked until his throat went dry, finally pausing to shoot me an irritated look in the rearview mirror.
"Are you even listening to a word I'm saying?" he snapped.
I turned to him and forced a wide, incredibly stiff smile.
"You're totally right, Lucas," I said softly.
He let out a heavy breath, visibly relaxing.
"I'm glad you're finally coming around."
The very next second, without a single warning, I lunged across the center console. I clamped both hands onto the steering wheel and violently jerked it to the right.
The tires let out an agonizing, ear-piercing screech as they locked up, burning black rubber across the asphalt.
Lucas' horrified scream was entirely swallowed by the deafening, bone-shattering crunch of the impact.
Everything spun out of control.
When the metal finally stopped twisting and groaning, the front of the car was smashed into the crumpled guardrail.
Half the chassis was teetering over the sheer drop of the cliff. Hundreds of feet below, violent white waves battered against jagged black rocks.
Through the shattered webbing of the windshield, the sky and the ocean bled together into a terrifying, endless blue.