Chapter 3: The Accident

Emily POV 

I barely slept. By dawn, I was already pulling a small duffel bag from the closet, my hands shaking as I packed Ethan's clothes. A few changes, his favorite stuffed elephant, and the photo album I had hidden from Margaret's purges.

"What are you doing?"

Jason stood in the doorway, rumpled from sleep, still in the guest room pajamas. He had spent another night away from our bed.

"Taking Ethan to a friend's for a playdate," I lied smoothly.

He grunted and disappeared into the bathroom. He didn't care enough to question it.

But then Margaret appeared at breakfast with an announcement that shattered my plans.

"Family dinner tonight at the country club. It is Mandatory." She sipped her coffee like a queen issuing edicts. "Jason's Singapore deal finally closed. We're celebrating. Vanessa will join us, of course. She's been instrumental to the success."

My escape would have to wait another day. I couldn't take Ethan without causing a scene that would give Jason legal ammunition for custody. I needed to be smart about this.

I just had to survive one more night.

~~~

The country club was everything I had learned to hate about Jason's world—opulent, pretentious, filled with people who measured worth in stock portfolios and social connections.

We arrived in Jason's Mercedes. He drove and Vanessa sat in the passenger seat.

"She knows the route better," Jason explained when I moved toward the front.

I climbed into the back with the twins, Ethan immediately pressing against my side while Lily scrolled through her phone.

Inside the club, business associates swarmed Jason and Vanessa. They made a striking pair—both polished and successful, radiating the kind of chemistry that made people lean in. Several guests assumed Vanessa was Mrs. Blackwell. I watched their faces when Jason corrected them with a vague gesture toward me.

"My wife," he would say, with all the enthusiasm of someone identifying a piece of furniture.

Lily gravitated toward Vanessa, who taught her how to take "perfect selfies" with flattering angles. My daughter's laughter rang out across the dining room, bright and genuine in a way it never was with me anymore.

Ethan held my hand under the table, his small fingers squeezing mine. He always knew when I was hurting.

Margaret took over the conversation, regaling the table with stories of Jason's business acumen, his brilliant strategies, and his bright future. She never mentioned me once. When someone finally asked what I did, Margaret's smile was patronizing.

"Oh, Emily takes care of the home. It's important work, I suppose."

The dismissal was absolute. I was decoration, nothing more.

Jason drank heavily—celebrating his success. Vanessa matched him glass for glass, wine flowing as freely as their laughter. She touched his arm when she talked, leaned close to whisper jokes I couldn't hear.

I nursed a single glass of water and watched my marriage dissolve in real time.

At 10 PM, Jason announced it was time to leave. He was unsteady on his feet, his words slightly slurred.

"I'll drive," I offered immediately.

"I'm fine," he waved me off. "I had worse after college parties."

Vanessa giggled, looping her arm through his. "You're so bad, Mr. Blackwell."

My protests went ignored. I buckled the twins into the back seat—Ethan behind Jason, Lily in the middle, Vanessa on the passenger side behind me. I took the front passenger seat, my stomach knotted with anxiety.

Jason and Vanessa discussed tomorrow's meeting, their voices animated, flirtatious. He was more engaged with her than he'd been with me in months.

I stared out the window at the darkness rushing past, wondering how my life had become so unbearably small.

Then I saw the headlights.

They were in our lane, swerving wildly across the center line. A truck, going at least 80 mph.

"JASON!" I screamed.

He reacted too late, yanking the wheel hard right. The drunk driver clipped our rear passenger side—right where Vanessa sat.

The Mercedes spun. My head slammed against the window. Glass exploded in a shower of diamonds. Metal screamed against asphalt. 

When we finally stopped, crumpled against a guardrail, everything went silent except for the hiss of the radiator and someone crying.

I was trapped. My door was jammed against the guardrail, the frame bent inward. The deployed airbag pinned me against the seat. Blood ran warm down my face from somewhere above my eye.

I heard Lily crying. Ethan screaming my name and Vanessa whimpering.

And Jason.

"Vanessa! Vanessa, are you okay?!"

Through my blurred vision, I watched my husband scramble out of the driver's side door. He didn't look at me. He didn't ask if I was hurt.

He rushed to the rear passenger door and yanked it open.

"You're okay, you're okay, I've got you." He pulled Vanessa out with such tenderness, cradling her against his chest like she was made of glass.

Then Lily. "Daddy's here, sweetheart!"

Finally Ethan, still screaming for me, but Jason barely registered it. He was too focused on Vanessa, running his hands over her arms, her face, checking for injuries with an intimacy that made something inside me die.

I was still trapped. Blood dripped into my eye and my head throbbed with agony.

A stranger appeared at my window—a middle-aged man from a car that had stopped. "Ma'am! Are you hurt?!"

"I can't—I can't get the door open—"

He pried at the door, grunting with effort, finally wrenching it open enough for me to crawl out.

A stranger saved me.

Not my husband.

The ER had the right lights, urgent voices, and the smell of antiseptic and blood.

I had a concussion and lacerations. Vanessa had a sprained wrist and minor bruising. The children were miraculously fine—car seats and luck had protected them.

Jason never left Vanessa's side. I watched through the gap in the curtain as he held her hand, brought her water, and adjusted her pillows.

I sat alone in my examination room until Ethan found me. He climbed onto the bed and buried his face in my chest, his small body shaking with sobs.

"Mama, I was so scared!"

"Me too, baby. Me too." I held him tight, breathing in his little-boy scent, the only good thing left in my life.

A nurse stitched my forehead. Twelve stitches, she said it would probably scar.

I didn't care anymore.

Margaret arrived at 1 AM and went straight to Lily's room. I heard her cooing, comforting her granddaughter. She passed my room without stopping.

At 2 AM, Jason finally appeared in my doorway. He looked exhausted and irritated, like I was an obligation he'd finally gotten around to.

"The doctor says you're fine."

"I have a concussion."

"Mild. You'll be okay." He sighed heavily. "Emily, this was an accident. These things happen."

"You saved her first."

"What?"

"Vanessa. You pulled her out before checking if I was okay. Your wife. The mother of your children."

Jason's jaw tightened. "She was in the direct impact zone. I made a smart decision based on who was in the most danger."

"You made a choice. You chose her."

"You're being dramatic." His voice rose, drawing glances from passing nurses. "I don't have time for this jealous tantrum. Vanessa could have been seriously hurt—"

"I WAS hurt! I was trapped and bleeding, and you didn't even look at me!"

"Because you're always fine, Emily! You always survive!" He was yelling now, face flushed. "Vanessa needed help!"

"And I didn't?"

"Stop making everything about you!"

I stared at this man I had sacrificed everything for my family, my career, my identity, and realized he didn't even see me anymore.

Maybe he never really had.

"You're right," I whispered. "I always survive."

Jason ran a hand through his hair. "I need to check on Vanessa one more time. The doctor wants to keep her overnight for observation."

He left without another word.

I sat in the sterile hospital room, Ethan asleep against my side, and pulled out my phone with shaking hands.

"I'm coming home. Tomorrow. Can you send someone?"

Richard's response came within seconds.

“Nathan is already on his way. He never stopped watching over you, Em."

Nathan.

My childhood friend. The man I was supposed to marry. The man my family had chosen, who would have united the Lothan and Zhou empires.

The man I had left behind for Jason.

I closed my eyes as tears finally fell.

Tomorrow, I will leave. Tomorrow, I would take my son and walk away from this life that had consumed me.