Page 83 of Wild Mistake
I don’t like that he’s blaming me. It’s something Jake always did. I know I should have told Gabe and Parker, but I didn’t. The last thing I need is anI told you so.
“You don’t get to tell me how to parent,” I say, shaking my head.
“Whoa.” He lifts his palms. “That’s not what I was doing.”
“Isn’t it, though?” Anger sparks inside of me. “I’m doing my goddamn best here, Aiden.”
“Sarah—” he starts, but his next words are drowned out by the screech of tires.
A car horn blares.
Metal crunches.
The sound turns my stomach.
My gaze darts to the windows that stretch across the front of the diner. Outside at the end of the parking lot, just off the highway, there’s a vehicle, flipped upside down, its headlights shining.
“Fuck!” Aiden shouts, racing toward the door. It’s not until the jingle of the bell sounds that I realize the vehicle outside is mine.
“Gabe!” A sob breaks through my lips. My feet are moving. My heart is pounding. A buzz fills my ears. The night air bites at my skin. A shiver runs down my spine, but I don’t know whether it’s from the cold or fear.
My lungs burn. My legs falter. But I don’t stop running until I reach the car.
No. No. No, no, no.
My feet stop moving. I sink to the ground, snow soaking my jeans. “Gabe!” I cry out, waiting for a response. None comes.
The car is a mangled wreck. The airbags are all deployed, a shield that blocks any view of my child. The doors won’t open. I know that because Aiden yanks on each one. I can’t breathe.
“Sarah!” Aiden’s voice cuts through the haze. “Call 9-1-1. Now.”
I stare, unable to process his words as he hustles past me toward the diner.Where is he going? Why is he leaving when my child is inside? This can’t be happening.
A deep cold settles in my bones. My teeth begin to chatter. I can’t stop staring at the wreck before me, thinking this can’t be real.
“Sarah! Sarah, move!” Aiden shouts again, only this time he’s running back toward us. His legs cover the distance in hurried strides and in one hand he holds an iron rod. “Get your phone. Call emergency services. Now.”
Panic claws up my throat. My fingers shake as I pull my phone from my pocket, or maybe Aiden hands me his? I don’t even know. It’s as if someone else’s fingers are tapping on the screen.
Someone pulls me to my feet and drags me back.
Before us, Aiden whacks the iron rod against the passenger side of the windshield over and over again. The glass breaks, sending a spiderweb pattern across the windshield, but it holds. Aiden uses the back of his heel to stomp against the glass. It finally buckles and breaks open.
“9-1-1 what’s your emergency?”
“We need help. Now. At the diner. My boy.” Tears sting the back of my eyelids as I blink them back. “There’s been a car accident.”
The dispatcher confirms our location with the help of the stranger standing at my side. My attention is on Aiden as he crawls inside the vehicle and pushes his way behind the deployed airbags.
“Ma’am?” the dispatcher says.
“Sorry,” the person holding my phone says. “Do you know how many people are inside?”
“One.” Just one of the most important people in my life. “Please. Hurry. My boyfriend is pulling him out of the wreck.”
“Ma’am. Do not move the passenger. Please wait for emergency personnel to arrive.”
“Aiden!” I shout, scared to move any closer. Scared of what I’ll see. Gabe has to be okay. He has to. But the way my vehicle looks right now? Jesus. I don’t know how anyone could survive that.
