Chapter 3
Lance suddenly jumped up, pointing at me and yelling, "Are you even human? This is about saving your daughter's life. How can you be so heartless?"
Lucy's tears came flooding out all at once.
She sobbed so hard her whole body trembled.
Lucy choked out, "Why won't you save me..."
This was the thing that weighed on Lucy's heart the most.
Lance quickly pulled Lucy into his arms, comforting her gently, "Don't be sad, sweetheart. I told you back then, I'd sell everything we have just to get you the treatment you need.
"Don't be scared, Lucy. I'm here, and I'll always love you."
The audience erupted in angry shouts.
"See? She is a heartless woman!" someone yelled.
"She doesn't even care about her daughter's life!" another person shouted.
"She was just pretending all along. The moment money came up, her true colors showed!" someone else sneered.
The insults came crashing down on me again.
Any doubt that had crept in after that warm scene was instantly shattered.
The memory kept fast-forwarding.
Inside the car, Lance and I were still fighting fiercely over that 150 grand.
Lucy was in the back seat, scared out of her wits and bawling her eyes out.
Suddenly, a runaway truck came barreling straight at us.
In that split second, Lance reacted with lightning speed.
He jerked the steering wheel hard to the left, so the truck was heading straight for Lucy's side of the car.
Without thinking, I lunged toward Lucy, shielding her with my body and holding her as tightly as I could.
After a deafening crash, the memory on the screen was instantly swallowed by darkness.
The whole courtroom went wild.
Everyone was stunned, eyes glued to the screen, unable to believe what they were seeing.
"He actually steered the truck right at his wife and kid!" someone shouted.
"The mom threw herself in harm's way for her daughter, but the dad just wanted to save his own skin!" another person gasped.
"If a mom's willing to die for her kid, how could she ever hurt her or refuse to get her medical help?" someone else blurted out.
Some moms in the crowd, holding their own kids, couldn't help but question it out loud.
Lucy watched the footage of Lance acting out of pure self-preservation, her face drained of color, shock written all over her features.
She looked at Lance, lost and confused, whispering, "This can't be right. Did you say that Mom only cared about saving herself, and I just got lucky to survive?"
Lance's forehead broke out in cold sweat as he forced himself to sound calm. "Lucy, I was just so scared. My mind went totally blank. My body just acted on its own.
"If it ever happens again, I swear I'll lay down my life to protect you."
Some people in the audience actually tried to defend him.
"Professor Morrison's right. How could anyone think straight in a split second like that?" someone said.
"Yeah, he did the best he could. He managed to save all three of them," another person added.
But the footage on the screen was still completely dark.
The staff explained, "After the crash, she suffered major damage to her optic nerves, fell into a coma, and eventually lost her sight. The footage is blank for now. Her mind needs time to adapt and rebuild those visual memories."
From the darkness, random noises began to surface.
The audience heard a glass getting knocked over, then they heard someone bumped hard into the doorframe.
I was falling apart, crying my eyes out in the pitch-black darkness. "Why did I go blind? I can't do anything anymore."
Right in the middle of all that chaos and hopelessness, Lucy's cries suddenly broke through the darkness.
"Mommy, where are you? I'm scared..." Lucy called out.
Instinctively, I snapped to attention and started groping through the darkness, desperately trying to find Lucy.
After stumbling and falling several times, I finally managed to pull Lucy into my arms. Fighting through the pain, I soothed her gently, "Don't cry, Lucy. Mommy's here. I'm right here."
But in the background, Lance's voice cut through, full of irritation.
"Enough with the crying already. You're so freaking annoying!" Lance barked.