Chapter 1
Three days before the wedding, Samuel Evans' claustrophobic ex-girlfriend, Aubrey Summers, cornered my car on a winding cliffside road.
She rammed into me twelve times, doing 100 miles an hour.
By the time Samuel arrived with the police, the front of my car was a tangle of twisted metal. Firefighters worked quickly, prying the door open to free me from the wreckage.
But he walked straight past me to the limited-edition sports car that had only a scratch on the paint.
He pulled Aubrey into his arms, her whole body trembling.
His assistant stepped forward. "Mr. Evans, your fiancée is bleeding heavily from a head wound. She needs immediate medical attention."
Samuel raised his hand to block the stretcher carrying me, giving my bleeding forehead and bruised arm a quick glance. "It's nothing serious. Aubrey's got claustrophobia, and we're stuck out here in the wilderness. She's in worse shape. Take her to the hospital first."
As they were about to leave me behind, I forced my hand up, my fingers weakly grasping the fabric of Samuel's pants.
He frowned, peeling my grip away with detached efficiency. "Aubrey didn't intend this. It was an episode. You're a lawyer. You understand force majeure. Don't make this harder."
With that, he took a settlement agreement from his assistant, grabbed my limp wrist, and forced my fingerprint onto the document.
"Another ambulance is on its way. Just hold on a little longer," he said.
*****
Neglect had been my constant companion since childhood.
Hurt? Tough it out. Sick? Same advice. Sleep it off, and all would be well.
But when my eyes fluttered open again, I was floating mid-air, staring down at my body sprawled beside a totaled car.
My assistant, Ashley Bright, stood pale as a ghost, fumbling with tissues to stem the bleeding from the gash on my forehead.
Tears glistened in the young girl's eyes as she whispered, "Michelle, wake up... hold on just a little longer, don't drift off."
I reached out to brush the tears from her cheeks, only for my fingers to pass right through her.
As I stared at my own pale, breathless form, reality crashed over me. I was dead.
I gave Ashley an apologetic glance. A recent college grad, she now faced death head-on, stuck with my corpse.
Fear wracked her, making her fingers tremble uncontrollably.
The car had been barreling along at 100 miles per hour, slamming into mine twelve times.
Common sense dictated that the victim would be clinging to life by a thread.
But Samuel's thoughts were only on Aubrey.
Terrified I'd confront her later, desperate to keep her from so much as a scratch, he'd ignored my wounds and forced my fingerprint onto the settlement agreement.
I should have seen it coming.
To Samuel, Aubrey was above everyone, above even a human life.
Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder by the second.
Ashley heard them too, tears of relief streaming down her face. "Michelle, the ambulance! It's here!"
The ambulance's lights cut through the mist as it screeched to a halt nearby, and doctors and nurses hurried over, their faces set in tight, tense lines.
Sobbing, Ashley stepped aside as my body was lifted onto a stretcher.
She crossed herself repeatedly, clasping her hands so tight her knuckles whitened, muttering prayers incoherently, "God... Jesus... Mother Mary... please, please..."
She reeled off every deity she could name, choking out her plea. "Please protect Michelle, let her pull through. I'll volunteer at the shelter every week."
The doctor's urgent shouts only made her tears fall harder.
Her gaze drifted to my bag, left forgotten on the passenger seat.
"Wait, what's this..." she murmured.
Inside the ambulance, nurses fought valiantly to save me, but nothing could halt the fading of my heartbeat.
One nurse's eyes turned teary as she spoke, her voice soft but urgent, "Hold on a little longer. The hospital's just up ahead."
The doctor pulled out his phone, his voice sharp with urgency. "We have a critical patient who needs emergency surgery stat. Notify the OR, get everything prepped."
Before he could finish, his eyes flicked to the gridlocked traffic outside, agitation creasing his brow. "Tell the police to clear the road ahead now."
However, after the nurse hung up, her expression was tight with frustration. "The heir of Evans Corp blocked the road. He's setting up a huge flower archway for a friend, says it's a surprise. The whole lane's jammed.
"The police are negotiating, but even if they clear it, it'll take time."
The doctor snapped, "Ridiculous! This is a major thoroughfare. How dare they block it like this?"
The nurse looked more distraught. "The patient's fading fast. We're running out of time."
Silence settled over the ambulance, heavy and suffocating.
I fell silent, too.
The severe blow to my head before death must have erased parts of my memory, but the doctors' and nurse's conversation jogged something loose.
Some fragments of the day came flooding back.
Today was supposed to be the day we'd get our marriage license. Samuel had stood me up for Aubrey.
Not just that, he'd set up that flower archway to cheer her up.
Furious, I'd decided to call off the engagement.
But Aubrey had cornered me on the winding mountain road, claiming she wanted to explain, but she then slammed into my car, over and over, until I was on my last legs.