Chapter 1 Prologue

Five years ago,

Ruby smiled as she sat in her room with her phone in her face, talking to her parents. They were coming from the airport after a week in China. They had both traveled for work and would be home any time soon.

A twenty-year-old Ruby was happy about this because she had missed them. She had not been at home when they left. She had been at her cousin Savannah’s place. Fondly, the short woman was called Savvy, and she loved her nickname as well.

“You seem a little bit pale, Mom,” she said as she eyed her mother.

Thankfully, it was her father that was driving and not her mother. She was always jet-lagged after a long trip like that.

Her mother smiled. “Yeah, I admit I need to rest, but what can I do? It’s just not easy to put food on your table, now, is it?” she said, teasing her.

Ruby wasn’t a child, but she was treated as one, always. She didn’t blame her parents though; she was the only child, but sometimes, she reminded them of that fact.

“You know you don’t have to work so hard. I can always find a job before going to college,” she said.

Going to college was delayed for her not because her parents couldn’t afford it, but because she was delayed due to her accident. She had been coming back from a friend’s place one night when she was attacked. Ruby was a tall girl, strong as well, so she had fought back, only for him to have pushed her so hard she fell and hit her head. She had to undergo at least two surgeries and therapies to be back on her feet.

Her parents had spent a lot of money to help pay her hospital bills, including her college fund. They weren’t rich, but they weren’t poor either, and after the accident, their workload had doubled; it had been hard as well.

“Mom, you really need to stop treating me like I’m glass or something that will shatter. I can do things on my own, like finding a job and paying for college. I can even take out a student loan,” she said.

Her mother rolled her eyes. “Not while we can work to give you the best, Ruby. You’re our only child, and we won’t allow you to do something that might make you relapse. Dr. Martins warned us about you doing anything to stress yourself,” she pushed the phone away from her face for a second. “Your skull was once cracked, you know.” She reminded her.

Ruby shrugged. “Yeah, I know. But Dr. Martins also put me in the clear a couple of months ago,” she argued.

“Cupcake,” her father’s face briefly appeared on the screen of the phone. He probably couldn’t focus on the screen because he was driving. “Stop arguing with your mother. You know she means no harm. She just wants the best for you, as do I,” he said.

The best was what they wanted all right, but she wouldn’t let them do all the work just because of that. She was strong; she could do something to help them instead of watching them burn out like this.

Her father worked for an artifact company that paid barely what they used to get by, while her mother worked for a small art studio that sold overseas artwork. They had both gone to China because their work crossed part of a project. She sighed, deciding that they would have more of the conversation when they got home. She had cooked something for them, so all that remained was for them to get here.

“I hear you, Dad. We’ll see,” she said.

Her mother gave her a smile, and the next moment, a weird thing happened.

Suddenly, there was a bright white light on her mother’s face.

Her mother snapped her face up, and her eyes widened.

Ruby jumped into a sitting position from her bed with her phone still in her hand, but a trembling one now. “Mom, what’s going on?” she asked. Her mother’s voice shook, and her face went out of focus. She began to shout the name of her husband.

“Gary, oh my God, Gary.”

Ruby snapped to her feet. “Mom, what is going on? Talk to me, please,” she said.

She heard the sound that tires make when they scratch against the gravel of the road, and then, she saw a terrible shake happen on the screen of her phone, telling her that her mother’s phone was trembling in her hand as the car started to swerve.

The last thing she heard before the phone went off was a loud thud.

~~~

He dragged her into the car before stumbling to find her way to the driver’s seat. They had both drunk alcohol tonight, but he was less tipsy than she was.

He got behind the wheel of the car and started it. "You should use your damn seatbelt,” he said.

“Don’t you dare tell me what to do because we have sex together. You're not my husband,” the woman said, rolling her eyes.

The man smirked, and then he shook his head. He knew she was going to say that, the brat, but he didn't mind anyway. She always gave him everything he wanted, so that was good.

He was taking them both to his apartment, and they would go their separate ways in the morning. He glanced at her and shook his head when he saw that she was already dozing off. He wondered what she had told her family this time to be with him.

He closed his eyes for a second, and the car swerved into the oncoming lane, making him exclaim, "Holy shit. I need to get my act together,” he said, glancing at her to see that she was looking at him now.

“Are you crazy, or are you planning to kill us both?” she asked, and he grunted.

“You want to drive?” he asked her.

Shaking her head, she said, "God, no. I'm drunk.”

“So, let me focus on the road and stop yelling at me,” he said.

“I wasn't yelling, you ass.”

He looked at her again, this time studying the mean set of her jaw. She was in one of her silly moods tonight, but he wasn't in the mood.

He must have taken his eyes away from the road for too long because before he knew what was happening, a bright light shone on the side of his face, and by the time he turned to look at the car, it was too late. The cars rammed into each other, and there was a blackout.

Minutes later, he opened his eyes and wondered for how long he had been sitting there in the wreck of the car. He couldn't say, but he knew it couldn't be that long if no one had arrived at the scene. He looked at the woman sitting beside him in the passenger seat, and then he shook her.

“Wake up,” he started, but she made no move to. He shook her even more until he noticed that she wasn't even breathing. Quickly, he checked her pulse to make sure. She was dead, and he was alive.

Damn, this was bad.

First, he had been the one driving her car, and he would probably spend the rest of his life in jail. Second, he had the rest of his life ahead of him, his career, but now, everything wasn't looking that good anymore. This was not good at all.

Thankfully, he was wearing gloves on both hands. It was the beginning of winter, and that was the reason, not because he knew he would be killing someone in a car crash. Outside the car, he saw that the car they had rammed into was upside down. The people inside were probably dead as well.

He told himself he could still salvage the situation.

Quickly, he opened the door, got down from the car, and removed his shirt to clean the blood on the wheel, dusted the seat for his hair or anything, and walked around the car. Looking around to make sure no one was about, he dragged her out and into the driver's seat. It was her car, so it would make sense that she was driving when the cops arrived. He used his glove to press into the gash at the side of her head and rubbed the blood onto the wheel, shaking her so that some would splash about, then he closed the door.

He walked back to the passenger seat to see if her blood was anywhere, and luckily, there was none. That was good.

He grabbed his bag from the back seat and then looked around again. Tonight seemed to be his lucky night. Not a single car was in sight, and the place was all dark. He looked for a street cam but could only see one.

For a fact, he knew that it wasn't working anymore, so no one could tell that he was there, or was the one driving. He took a last glance towards both cars, making sure there was no sign of life there anymore, then he disappeared into the darkness.