CHAPTER FIVE — THE HIGHWAY

What do you even say when you’re standing there, watching the people you love betray you in the worst way imaginable?

There are no words. Only silence… and the feeling of your world ending while you’re still breathing.

All I could think about at that moment was dying.

There was no reason left to live.

Who could I even call? Who could I turn to?

My “emergency contacts” were the ones destroying me.

Rosie gasped when she saw me. She pushed Malcolm away like she had the right to be ashamed. Her eyes went wide with panic as she looked around, then ran toward the bottom of the stairs.

“P–Pat, you should be in bed. It’s not what you think, you—”

“It’s not what I think?” My voice sounded strange, almost not human. I gripped the railing and started down the stairs, ignoring the pain coursing through me. “So, seeing my sister kiss my husband was just an illusion? Is that it?”

She flinched, like I was being cruel to her. Like she was the victim here.

Rosie turned to Malcolm for help. He sighed and walked toward me, gently pulling her behind him as if he was some noble hero protecting her.

“It’s my fault,” he said softly. “Don’t blame your sister. Blame me. It’s all my fault.”

The way he said it made me sick. He sounded innocent, like ruining me the way he did was collateral damage. That fake humility. He actually looked proud of himself, like taking the blame somehow made him the better man.

I turned to my parents, in pure disbelief.

My father sat on the sofa, his eyes glued to the floor while my mother rolled her eyes, annoyed.

“Alright, alright,” she said. “You’re angry, we get it. But your father and I thought it was best not to tell you they were together. You’re sick, darling. You can’t blame Malcolm for wanting to move on with his life, right?”

Her words hit me harder than any slap.

“I’m not even dead yet,” I screamed, “and he already wants to move on with his life? And with my sister?!”

It was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard yet somehow, I was the only one who thought it was strange.

“Don’t yell at your mother like that,” my father snapped. “You’re making this more dramatic than it needs to be. Think about the bigger picture here, for once in your life think about the family’s future. Who else is better to stand by your husband’s side when you’re gone than your sister?”

I froze. My mind couldn’t even process the dirty words my father uttered.

“That’s right,” my mother added with a nod, then looked me up and down, her expression filled with disgust. “I always knew you were selfish, Patricia. You should be giving the two of them your blessing, not making things harder. Why are you so stubborn when you’re going to die anyway?”

“Mom, stop! Don’t say that…” Rosie begged, reaching to hold me.

“Ah!” My scream cut her off as I swung my arm and knocked a large vase off the table. It shattered across the floor, pieces scattering around like my soul.

“You people are evil!” I shouted, my voice cracking. “You’re all monsters I swear! Sad excuses for human beings who only know how to plot and betray!”

I pointed at each of them, shaking as I pushed down the urge to vomit. “Everything you have now is because of me! Your clothes, your jobs, this entire lifestyle, this mansion, you think it’s Malcolm?”

I turned like a maniac spitting in Malcolm’s direction as he flinched in a disgusted way. “Malcolm is nothing but a figurehead! All he knows how to do is waste money and pretend he’s important! I’m the one who built Dawson Industries! I own it all!”

Pain shot through my chest like poison and I gasped, coughing violently, bending down as my blood spluttered on the floor.

“Big sis, please—” Rosie rushed to my side, her hands trembling. “Please take it easy, you’re not well!”

“Stay away from me!” I screamed, shoving her hand aside. “Don’t touch me!”

The second my hand hit her, Malcolm grabbed her shoulder and pushed me hard towards the wall. I hit it hard and fell to the floor, my body landing directly on the broken pieces of the vase.

For a moment, the only sound was my painful cry as I tried to stand the soft crackle of glass under my bare feet. The people I called family just stared at me as I suffered.

Rosie froze where she stood behind Malcom still pretending like she was the one suffering the most in the room.

Malcolm’s jaw tightened, as he looked down at me. There wasn’t even a shred of pity in his eyes, he looked like the devil. “Enough, Patricia,” he said through his teeth. “You’re losing control. Don’t make me do something we’ll both regret.”

“Malcolm!” My father said as he stood up from the sofa, reaching to pat Malcolm’s shoulder affectionately. “Be gentle with her. We still need her to sign the papers.”

My heart dropped. “What papers?”

He exchanged a look with my mother.

“The will,” he said at last. “You left everything to charity, remember? Your retirement and compensation proceeds, insurance, this house… all of it. It’s time to be reasonable. You can change it now. Keep things in the family where they belong.”

I stared at him, his words sinking deep in my bones.

So that was it.

All this… these talks about the ‘future of the family.’

Why they didn’t take me to the hospital for treatment, while I got sicker and sicker but not dying.

They didn’t care about a human being dying.

They cared about my money.

My breath started rising and falling as their faces began to blur in front of me. Thinking about everything that has happened to me till this moment.

“Trust me” Rosie had once told me.

“I see,” I scoffed, my voice barely there. “So that’s why I’m still here.”

No one answered.

I took one shaky step backward, then another, looking at all of them dead in the eye. “Over my dead body!”

“Patricia, what are you talking about…”

I didn’t know where I got the strength, maybe it was God’s last attempt as a way to help me out, but I ran. I turned towards the mansion doors and bolted out of the door.

I heard my mother’s screaming for me to stop and my father reaching to grab me but I didn’t look back.

I burst into the street, running for my life. At that moment, nothing hurt. Not my bloody feet that glass in it, not my dying body.

I ran straight into the highway, my life flashing by like the blur of headlights. That was when the car hit me. I heard a spine chilling scream. My body hit the ground with a thud and everything went quiet.

I didn’t cry for help or beg. I knew in a few seconds, I was going to die.

Instead, I whispered one last wish to God…

If I ever return to this cruel world, let it be in the same family… so I can destroy them the way they destroyed me.