Chapter 5

The acrid smell of burnt gunpowder from the airbags and sweet, leaking antifreeze fills the crushed cabin.

Elliana gasps for air. Pain radiates from every nerve ending. She is pinned between the mangled third-row seat and the caved-in roof.

Warm blood drips down her forehead, stinging her left eye.

Panic seizes her. She presses her left hand against her stomach. A dull, heavy ache pulses deep in her pelvis, but she feels no warm rush of blood.

From the front of the wreckage, Garrett lets out a sharp groan of pain. He shoves a deflated airbag off his chest, his left shoulder visibly bruised and bleeding from where it slammed into the center console.

"Garrett," Elliana croaks. Her throat is raw. "Help me."

Garrett freezes. He hears her. His shoulders tense, but he does not turn his head.

Instead, he violently kicks the center console. He rips away the twisted plastic, screaming for Cristina.

Cristina is sobbing hysterically in the front seat, clutching her chest where the seatbelt dug violently into her collarbone, a dark purple bruise already forming beneath her torn silk blouse. "I'm dying! Garrett, I'm dying!"

Garrett kicks the jammed passenger door open. He drags Cristina out of the wreckage, wrapping his arms around her.

He dives back in, grabs a stunned Blair from the floorboards, and sprints away from the vehicle.

Thick black smoke pours from the Escalade's crumpled hood. Orange sparks spit from the engine block.

Elliana lies in the twisted metal cage. She watches her husband carry his sister and nephew to safety, leaving her to burn.

The last shred of hope in her heart turns to ash. She is nothing to him. A decoy. A piece of trash.

Survival instinct overrides her grief. She braces her right hand against the crushed roof pillar and pushes with all her strength.

A sickening snap echoes in the cabin. Blinding agony shoots up her right arm.

Her wrist bones grind together. Her right hand, her drawing hand, falls limp and useless at her side.

Sirens wail in the distance, cutting through the smoke.

Firefighters swarm the vehicle. They use a crowbar to pry open the crushed tailgate.

As they strap her to a backboard and pull her out, Elliana turns her head. Through the flashing red lights, she sees Garrett gently draping his suit jacket over Cristina's shoulders.

Paramedics cut away her bloody trench coat in the back of the ambulance.

The ambulance races to Mount Sinai Hospital, bypassing the waiting room and rushing straight into the trauma bay.

Hours later, Elliana lies on a stiff hospital bed under harsh fluorescent lights.

A female doctor walks in, holding a chart. "It's a miracle, Mrs. Bruce. The fetal heartbeat is strong. The baby is fine."

Elliana covers her eyes with her good left hand. A ragged sob tears from her throat.

"But," the doctor continues, her voice dropping. "Your right scaphoid bone is shattered. Even with surgery, you may never regain the fine motor skills needed for professional drawing."

The words hit her like a second car crash. Her art. Her identity. Gone.

The door bursts open. Garrett rushes in. A small white bandage covers a scratch on his forehead.

He drops to his knees beside the bed. He grabs her left hand, his voice trembling with fake emotion. "Thank God you're alive, Ellie."

Elliana looks down at the man who left her to die. There is no love left in her eyes. Only a bottomless, freezing void of pure hatred.