“Sun will come out tomorrow, right?” Piper added.
He grinned at her. This was something he always said to her when she was devastated after one of her meets did not go well. She was turning it back on him when he really needed it.
“Yes, it will,” he agreed. “You’re my whole world, you know that?”
She grinned sheepishly.
“I mean it,” Jake said. “I love you very much.”
“I love you, too, Daddy.”
Minutes later, Jake was driving Sarah’s Lexus SUV as they all headed home together. He would send a tow truck to retrieve his Jeep in the morning. The streets were dark and quiet. It was after midnight. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Piper had her earbuds in and was listening to music. Sarah sat quietly and mostly stared out the passenger window. Jake pulled to a halt at a stoplight.
“I’m sorry, Sarah. I know this is hard.”
She turned. “I’m sorry, too. I just don’t know what to do anymore.”
“We’ll figure it out. I promise.”
Jake started to ease the vehicle into the intersection. A split second later, he saw a flash of bright headlights appear right outside Sarah’s passenger window, approaching them rapidly. It looked like a large truck of some kind. And it wasn’t slowing down. He felt a surge of panic rush through him. Jake had no time to hit the gas and get out of the way. He cursed, instinctively put his right arm out to brace Sarah, protectively yelled out Piper’s name because that’s all he could do. Then he felt the explosion of metal and glass, his body jerking with a force he’d never experienced, the SUV suddenly being lifted into the air and twisting sideways, like a scary amusement-park ride. His head whipped back and forth as airbags filled the vehicle. They were flipping over and over—he couldn’t tell how many times. His chest felt like it was being crushed by the fierce tug of the tight seatbelt.
More twisting, flipping, crunching.
Then everything suddenly settled.
Jake could tell they were right side up but couldn’t see anything at first. His eyes were unable to focus. But he could smell a horrible mix of oil and gas and rubber burning. And he could hear the hissing of burst valves and pipes in the vehicle’s engine. He was surprised to find himself alert. His face felt like it was on fire. He reached up and touched his cheek and then stared blurry-eyed at his hand. Things gradually came into semifocus. His fingers were covered in blood. Piper! He turned his neck, which hurt like hell, to look for his daughter in the back seat. She was hunched over and kind of lying limp, like she was being held up by only her seat belt. Jake felt more panic. Then his daughter jerked back upright and moaned loudly. She was at least alive. But what about Sarah?
Jake pivoted to look over at his wife, who was pinned up against him from the full impact of the collision against the passenger door. He felt a wave of horror rip through him. Her arms and legs were twisted and crushed. Blood was everywhere. Her eyes were open and looking at him, but there was something hollow about them. And she wasn’t moving. He tried to say something to her but couldn’t seem to get any words out. Was his throat damaged? He reached over with his right hand, grabbed her arm, gently tugged. But she didn’t respond. It only made her head drop limply.
Jake felt his whole world sucking in on him, like a dizzying spiral. What could he do? He couldn’t move. Jake glanced up through the shattered windshield and thought he saw the shadow of a man standing directly in front of their vehicle. He couldn’t make out the man’s face. The guy was just staring at them but not really doing anything. Why wasn’t the man trying to help them? Had he at least called 911? Then the man turned and hurried off. Jake blinked a couple of times. Was he only seeing things?
More spiraling. He started gasping.
Was he dying?
Was Sarah already gone?
Was Piper going to make it?
Then everything went completely black.
ONE
One year later
After making the two-hour drive to Austin, Jake finally pulled his Jeep Cherokee into the gated driveway of his in-laws’ estate around noon on a Saturday in early November. The leaves had started to turn, and a nice chill was hanging in the air. Jake had hated coming here during his marriage with Sarah and tried to avoid it whenever possible. He hadn’t been back since she’d died a year ago. Not that his in-laws wanted him here, either. His father-in-law had directly blamed him for their daughter’s tragic death, even though all the police reports pointed toward a no-fault hit-and-run accident. Dealing with his in-laws over the past year had been a much bigger nightmare for him than the sum of all the years before that.