Page 139 of Be With Me
Her fingers suddenly dug into my thigh, sharp as claws. “I made a mistake,” she choked out. “A horrible mistake. Haven’t you made mistakes before?”
I swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the slick road glowing under the headlights, and stayed silent. Nothing I said would help.
"Maybe you haven’t,” she continued. "Maybe you haven’t because you’re so young. When you’re young, the mistakes you make… They don’t matter. You don’t know any better." Her voice cracked. "But, Romolo, I’m not eighteen. I’m forty-eight. I won’t get a second chance if my life falls apart."
She pressed her nails harder into my leg, her other hand grabbing at my arm now.
"Romolo, do you understand? I won’t have a second chance!"
“Alana, let go of me.” I was trying to keep my eyes on the road, but she was distracting me. Hurting me.
She tightened her grip. "Don’t you understand, you stupid boy? God, I wish I’d never met you!”
“Let go!"
Her screams grew louder, and in the chaos, I lost control of the car. The wheel jerked sideways as the tires skidded against the slick pavement.
We were on a bridge. A narrow one crossing one of the lakes.
The rain blurred everything.
The railing shattered.
For a split second, we were weightless.
Then, with a deafening crash, the car plunged into the lake.
Cold water surged in through the cracks around the windows, filling the cabin. Darkness swallowed everything. No headlights. No streetlamps. Just ink-black water, rising fast.
Alana was still screaming, a piercing sound that echoed in the confined space.
“You have to get out!" I yelled as I fumbled with my seat belt.
“Grant, Tess, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry.”
Fuck. She was in shock. She wasn’t even trying to free herself.
I unbuckled my belt and reached over to help her. “Alana, listen to me. You need to go through the window.”
She looked at me, her eyes wide and terrified, and nodded.
The force of the water rushing in nearly choked me as I rolled down the window on my side. I threw myself through the opening. We were sinking fast.
My foot got caught in the seat belt. For a moment, blind panic took hold. I thought it would drag me down, that I’d drown right there tied to the car. But after a few frantic yanks, I broke free.
The darkness outside the car swallowed me, disorienting me.
My lungs burned as I kicked upward—what I hoped was upward.
Finally, I broke through the surface and gasped for air. I swam to the bank, every muscle in my body screaming, but when I pulled myself onto the shore, a new kind of panic sank its teeth into my chest.
I didn’t hear Alana.
She hadn’t come up.
Did she even try to get out of the car?
“Shit!” I shouted into the night, my voice hoarse. I couldn’t leave her.
