Chapter 55
Olivia
The seatbelt cuts across my chest as Caleb’s car tears down the road, his hands locked tight on the wheel, knuckles white.
“Caleb, please. You don’t have to do this,” I beg, my voice shaking.
“Shut up!” he snaps, slamming his palm against the steering wheel, the car jolting slightly. “You don’t get it, do you? You don’t have a choice. You are mine. You were promised to me.”
I glance at the dash. Watching as the speed climbs higher and higher.
Mayridge is full of tight windy roads with only one way in and one way out. And definitely not built for this kind of speed.
Everything we pass is a blur of color as the engine roars beneath us.
“Let’s just slow down,” I say carefully, forcing myself to sound calm, to sound reasonable. “Maybe we can talk about this?”
He lets out a sharp laugh, his eyes wild as he shoots me a glare. “You want to talk? Okay. Start by telling me why my fiancée is fucking someone who isn’t me.”
I swallow hard. “You’re not my fiancé,” I manage, trying to keep the emotion from my voice.
His hands tighten on the wheel. His jaw clenches. “Wrong fucking answer, Olivia.”
“What do you want me to say?” I snap, the fear cracking apart as anger takes over.
“Do you want me to say I’m sorry? Because I’m not.
I hated my life. I hated the way I was handed to you without a choice.
I hated the way you hurt me, the way you threatened me.
How can you even question why I ran? You never gave me a single reason to stay! ”
His laugh is cold, sharp, and chilling. “You think I care that you were unhappy? Come on, Olivia. You’re not that stupid, surely?
This was a business arrangement between men.
What you wanted never mattered. What any woman wants never matters.
Marrying you got me your father’s business. And with you gone, I don’t get it.”
He shakes his head, his lips twisting into a cruel smile. “You think I’d have chosen you if things were different? You were handed away like scraps.”
The words hit like a slap, but I refuse to let him see it. “You’re disgusting,” I spit. “How can you act this way? How can you live with yourself?”
“I’d be very fucking careful how you speak to me Olivia.” He reaches across gripping my chin and squeezing, “I can make your life miserable. After the way you’ve behaved, you’d deserve it too and no one would bat an eyelid.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of the bridge—and the car coming toward us. My stomach twists. We’re moving too fast.
“Caleb,” I breathe.
He releases my face, his attention snapping to the road and the approaching vehicle.
“Oh, look who it is,” he laughs, the sound sharp and twisted.
It takes me half a second longer, but then I see it—I recognize the truck. Even with the distance between us, I know it’s him. Kade.
“Looks like someone’s come to save you,” Caleb sneers, his voice dripping with mockery. “How pathetic.”
I feel the car surge faster and glance at the speedometer, watching the numbers climbing. “Caleb, you have to stop,” I beg, my voice breaking. “You’re going to kill us. Please—slow down.”
A twisted look takes over his face, both hands white-knuckling the wheel as his lip curls into a sneer. “He doesn’t get to have you,” he growls. “If I can’t have you then no one fucking can.” He laughs—a wild, unhinged sound that sends terror slicing through me.
Kade’s truck looms closer, each second stretching tighter than the last. Caleb drifts into the center of the road, angling straight for him, and panic surges through me, hot and dizzying. The space between us is closing too fast, too soon.
I squeeze my eyes shut—bracing—when the car suddenly jerks hard to the side. My head slams against the window, a cry tearing from my throat. Pain flares, but it’s nothing compared to the terror that grips me as my eyes fly open.
The bridge barrier splinters around us, as we crash through it, and then we’re airborne, weightless for one terrifying second before plunging into the lake below.
The impact whips me forward. My head cracking against the dashboard. I risk a quick glance at Caleb, motionless in the front seat, his head slumped against the steering wheel.
Water surges in fast—startlingly cold as it swirls around my legs, sharp as glass, stealing my breath before the fear even has a chance to. My hands shake violently as I fumble with the seatbelt, breaths coming in sharp, ragged bursts while the water keeps rising.
“Come on, come on,” I whisper, panic clawing up my throat as the belt jams. I yank harder, but my numb fingers slip.
“Please.” I sob as my lungs tighten in fear. I look around for something, anything to help but my heart pounds so loudly in my head I can’t think.
The cold bites deeper, over my chest, my neck.
No. No, no, no.
The belt finally gives. I wrench it free, shoving against the door, against the glass but nothing moves. The car fully submerged now as the pressure from the outside stops the door opening.
Water slaps over my chin, over my mouth making me gasp and choke as it surges higher.
I try again but my limbs are sluggish, the cold water dragging me under until there’s no air left—just the weight, the cold and the darkness.
My hands reach for nothing, realization setting in that this is it as the water takes hold of me, claiming me.
My lungs burn as I hold my breath and I feel myself begin to give in, unable to fight any longer. Images of Kade float through my mind. His smile, his laugh, his touch and as I lean into it, lean into the memory of his skin on mine it almost feels real as everything slips away.