"Clarence, you brought this on yourself."
"You were the one in the wrong. You refused to admit it. This is the consequence."
"When the police get here, I want you to take the blame for Cecil. Tell them you're the one who hit him, because this is all your fault!"
Gretchen opened her mouth to say more, but a blinding pair of headlights suddenly appeared from behind them in the tunnel.
A car was barreling toward them, horn blaring. Its brake lights burned red, but it wasn't slowing down.
"Clarence!"
There was no time to react. I was still in the driver's seat when the impact hit.
Pain tore through me like every organ inside had been ripped loose, a searing fire burning through my core.
That rear-end collision was only the beginning. One after another, more cars slammed into the wreckage.
The back half of my car crumpled under the relentless impacts, twisting into a mangled heap along with my father-in-law's body. Blood seeped steadily from the wreckage, pooling bright red on the asphalt.
The tunnel had descended into chaos. Vehicles collided in every direction, and the wail of police sirens echoed from somewhere behind the pileup.
Cecil's face had gone white as chalk. He tugged frantically at Gretchen's sleeve.
"Gretchen, this is bad. We need to go. Now!"
I locked eyes with Gretchen, too weak to speak.
She stared at the blood-slicked metal rod that had punched clean through my abdomen, her expression caught between panic and indecision.
But in the end, she gritted her teeth, turned away, and led Cecil to the Ferrari. They drove off.
Before she left, she said:
"Clarence, Cecil can't get arrested. He can't have a criminal record. His entire future depends on it!"
"You're different. The police are almost here. They'll save you."
A broken laugh escaped my throat.
There was a time when Gretchen would panic over a kitchen knife nicking my finger while I cooked.
Now she stood there, watched a steel rod impale me through the gut, and left me to die so Cecil could walk free.
I looked at what remained of my father-in-law's body. Barely recognizable.
In that moment, something inside me finally went dark.
...
Gretchen drove Cecil to a small motel tucked away in the mountains.
For three days, she kept every device powered off. Not a single call answered, not a single message checked.