Shit. Matilda could sing?
Her voice filled the car, strong and beautiful, and I was floored by this hidden side of her.
“Is there any other secret you’ve kept from me?” I asked, still staring at her in shock.
“What are you talking about?” She looked at me in surprise.
“You never mentioned you could sing like that!” I barked, chuckling, still reeling.
She just punched my arm and laughed shyly in response.
“I can’t praise your music choices though,” I teased, and she gave me a mock death stare. I shook my head in mock disappointment. “Unbelievable. Out of all the songs in the world, you pick the one that makes me want to drive us straight into a ditch.”
She slapped my arm, still laughing, that sound filling the car like the sunshine she was. I laughed too, stealing a sideways glance at her, and my chest ached with something far bigger than amusement.
And then—
Headlights. Blinding. Too close. A car flying wide around the corner, crossing straight into our lane.
“Shit!” I roared, wrenching the wheel.
The world lurched sideways. Tires screamed, rubber burning against slick asphalt. The rain gave the tires no grip—we skidded out of control. I thrashed at the steering wheel, desperately trying to get control of the car. A guardrail flashed past, a crushing sound—then nothing.
We were airborne.
Everything slowed.
The sound of metal tearing apart. Glass exploding into shards. My stomach lurched as gravity flipped us end over end. Matilda’s scream tore through me—then silence as the seatbelt caught, slamming me back down. Another impact, bone-jarring. The car crunched to a stop—upside down.
Silence. Stunned. I could hear my heartbeat and my ragged breaths but nothing else. A haze fogged my mind, confusion clouding everything. Where the fuck am I? Everything hurt. Something wet dripped down my face.
Rain drummed against twisted steel. My lungs seized, desperate for air. Blood coated my tongue, metallic and sharp. My head throbbed. I forced my eyes open—twisted metal, cracks everywhere, smoke and rain mixing in the air. My heart shot into overdrive as memory slammed back in. The car. The rain. We skidded, we—
I turned.
Matilda hung beside me, limp, her hair falling like a curtain, her body suspended by the belt digging into her shoulder.
“No. No, no, no…” My fingers shook as I clawed at my own buckle. It released with a snap, dropping me hard onto the roof-turned-floor. I crawled across shattered glass, ignoring the sting slicing into my arms and legs.
“Matilda—sunshine—wake up. Please.” Bile rose in my throat at the sight of her lifeless body hanging from the belt.
Her chest rose—shallow, but there. Relief nearly broke me. I fumbled with her buckle, finally clicking it free and catching her before she could fall.
“I got you, baby. I got you.”
I dragged her out through the shattered window, the rain slamming into us, cold and merciless.
“Hey!” A voice shouted from the road above. “Hey, don’t move! I’ve called an ambulance!”
“Help!” My voice cracked, raw. “Help, please!”
A man stumbled into view, pale, phone pressed to his ear. “I’m on the phone to the ambulance—hang on! Yeah, she’s not moving,” I heard him say down the line. “I’m so sorry man, there was a deer in the road and I— Jesus I’m so sorry.” He rattled on in his panicked state but I couldn’t register the words. They were just noises in the wind.
A ragged sob ripped out of me, hot tears stinging my face, mixing with the freezing rain.
I cradled Matilda against me, blood streaking my hands. A deep cut ran just above her eyebrow, the skin already bruising. The rain fell harder, washing the blood down her face in thin streams. I rocked her back and forth, lost, helpless.
“Help!” I screamed again, my voice shattering like glass.
