Chapter 2

2.

I hadn't been lying down for long when my phone buzzed. It was Sabrina.

"Jace needs to get back to campus. Drive him."

I frowned, the exhaustion of the years finally hitting my bones. "Doesn't the house have a chauffeur for that?"

Having been rejected twice in one morning, Sabrina's voice turned sharp with rage.

"Is it really that hard for you to do one simple task?"

I sighed. There was no point in fighting her now. "Fine. I'll do it."

She sounded smug. "See? Was it that hard to just say yes?"

When I walked out to the driveway, Sabrina was waiting with Jace.

"Hurry up! Jace has an exam. Don't you dare make him late."

Jace grinned at me as he slid into the passenger seat. "Thanks for the ride, Elias."

Before we pulled away, they shared a long, passionate kiss right there in the driveway.

Once we were on the road, Jace turned to me with a look of fake sympathy.

"I'm so sorry, Elias. Sabrina can be so intense when she's into someone. Is she like that with you?"

When I didn't answer, his grin widened.

"A woman like Sabrina... why would she ever settle for someone like you?"

"You're old, boring, and honestly, a bit pathetic."

I kept my eyes on the road, ignoring him until he finally got bored and went quiet.

We were almost at his university when a car blew through a red light, hurtling straight toward us.

I slammed the wheel to the side, trying to take the brunt of the impact.

The crash was deafening. Pain exploded in my legs as the metal crumpled.

I heard Jace moaning beside me.

I looked over, panicked, but all I saw was a tiny scratch on his arm.

Still, the shock had him trembling.

The paramedics arrived quickly and cut us out of the wreckage.

My left leg was shattered―a clean break through the tibia.

Jace, on the other hand, literally just had a band-aid-sized cut.

By the time the doctors were patching him up, Sabrina had arrived at the scene.

She sprinted past the ambulance where I was lying, straight to Jace.

"Jace! Are you okay? Talk to me!" she cried, her voice trembling.

He leaned into her, whimpering about how much his hand hurt.

Sabrina immediately ordered her driver to take him to the best hospital in the city for a full scan.

She walked past me twice. Not once did her eyes land on my face.

I let out a soft, hollow laugh.

The physical pain in my leg was nothing compared to the cold clarity in my heart.

As they loaded me into the back of the ambulance, I heard the nurses whispering.

"Mrs. Sterling is so devoted to her boyfriend. He only has a scratch, and she's calling in specialists."

"Must be nice to be loved like that. Her husband must be the luckiest man alive."

I answered them silently in my head: "Being married to Sabrina Sterling is a living nightmare."

Just as they were wheeling me toward surgery, I saw Sabrina walking back toward the building, holding Jace's hand.

She finally noticed me. Her brow furrowed in annoyance.

"How are you doing?" she asked, looking at her watch.

"Why weren't you paying attention to the road? Thank God Jace is okay."

Jace looked down, playing the victim. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have asked Elias to drive me."

Sabrina hugged him tight. "Don't you dare blame yourself. You're hurt too! Come on, let's go get some dinner. You need to recover."

The surgeon came over then, announcing that my prep was done.

Sabrina looked surprised for a fleeting second, but Jace let out a small cry of pain, and she was gone again.

The surgery was successful.

When the nurse asked if she should call my family, I went silent for a long time.

"Don't bother," I said eventually. "I don't have any family."