In The Face of Death

At the scene of a massive chain-collision accident, my police officer fiancé was being interviewed by the media. Facing the public’s praise for being “selfless and just”, he calmly stated that prioritizing the rescue of the female officer trainee riding in the same car was merely a police officer's instinct. It wasn’t until the cameras turned away that he tiredly rubbed his temple. He turned his head and asked the colleague beside him in a low voice, “Where is Lea? The core area was in critical danger just now, so I had to prioritize evacuating the injured Willow. Did the other teams manage to get her out?” His colleague looked completely taken aback. “Bro, your fiancé was trapped right there in your passenger seat! When everyone saw you carrying Willow out, we all assumed you were going to turn right back around to save her…” Shawn’s expression instantly twisted into a mix of fury and shock. Yet, he forced his emotions down and said sternly, “If that’s the case… then this is simply her fate as a family member of a police officer. By sacrificing herself to save those in greater need, she died an honorable death.” Meanwhile, I was sprawled in the freezing mud and water over a dozen meters away from the wreckage of the car. Just two minutes ago, the fire had engulfed the passenger seat. In a desperate bid to survive, I had used a shard of broken glass to slice through my seatbelt with my bare hands, crawling out of the sea of fire with a fractured right leg. At that very moment, what kept me awake even more than the excruciating pain of my broken bone was the death of my heart. Chapter 1 When the chain collision happened, the windshield instantly shattered, and the deformed dashboard pinned my right lower leg down. The excruciating pain of my bone snapping brought tears to my eyes instantly. Right then, I also caught the pungent scent of leaking gasoline. “Shawn…” I gasped out, struggling to turn my neck. “My leg is broken, and there’s fuel leaking up front. Quick, undo my seatbelt for me…” Sitting in the driver’s seat, Shawn Adams’s hands trembled as he ripped off his own seatbelt. However, his gaze swept right past me and fell on the backseat. “Willow! Willow, talk to me! Where did you get hit?” In the back, Willow Benson, the new intern at Shawn’s precinct, was clutching her head and crying. She had complained that the seatbelt was too uncomfortable when she got into the car and had refused to wear it, so at the moment of the impact, she was thrown against the back of the front seat. “Shawn, my head hurts so badly. Do I have a concussion? I feel like throwing up…” “Don’t be afraid! I’m coming to get you right now!” Shawn kicked open his deformed car door, got out, and rushed to the back seat, where he expertly scooped Willow up into his arms. “Shawn!” I screamed as I stared at the layer of gasoline spread rapidly across the road. “The fuel is leaking! My leg is pinned, and I can’t get out! Just help me push the seat back first!” Shawn paused for a second as he held Willow, turning his head back toward me. “Lea, I am still in my uniform! With so many witnesses here, if I put you first out of self-interest while ignoring a citizen who is in greater danger, what kind of police officer would I be?” He looked down at me and continued, “Your airbag deployed, so you’re temporarily safe. Willow wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so she must be prioritized for treatment. As a cop’s fiancée, shouldn’t you understand that? Give me two minutes.” Without another glance at me, he carried Willow and walked briskly toward the safety zone on the outer side of the highway. Suddenly, a shower of sparks erupted from the bottom of the car’s front end. The moment the flames met the gasoline, a fire shot up half a meter high, closing in directly on the passenger door. Feeling around frantically, I grabbed a sharp piece of broken glass from the center console. Like a crazy person, I began sawing at the jammed seatbelt. The jagged edge of the glass cut into the flesh of my palm, and blood mixed with rainwater trickled down. The exact second the flames spread into the car, the seatbelt finally snapped. I bit down hard, gritting my teeth as I forced my broken right leg out from the crushed gap. The sheer pain made my vision go dark for a moment. Dragging my deformed leg, I rolled out of the car window, crashed into the muddy water, and used both hands to claw my way forward desperately. The moment an explosion went off behind me, I lay face down on the tarmac and fainted. Chapter 2 I lay in the hospital bed for fourteen long days. I suffered a severe compound fracture in my right tibia and fibula. The doctors had to perform an open reduction and internal fixation surgery, during which a steel plate and eight steel pins were inserted into my lower leg. There were six beds in my ward. While other patients had family members tending to their needs, the only company at my bedside was the nurse arriving with my scheduled anti-inflammatory injections. The freeway patrol cops had come by to take my statement. As for Shawn, he knew that I hadn’t died in that wreck, yet he hadn’t sent so much as a single text. On the day I was discharged, I changed into loose sweatpants, propped myself up on the hospital-issued crutches, and called a cab home myself. It was the house we were supposed to move into together after we got married next month. When I unlocked the door, I saw two pairs of shoes scattered messily across the rug in the entryway. The hum of a humidifier echoed from the living room, and the coffee table was piled high with imported fruits. Willow was sitting cross-legged right on my sofa, cradling the custom hand-painted mug I had commissioned someone to make. Shawn sat right beside her, staring down intently as he examined a medicine box in his hands, while the sound of chopping drifted out from the kitchen. It was Shawn’s mother cooking. Hearing the front door open, Shawn and Willow looked up at the same time. Shawn’s hand holding the medicine box froze mid-air. An awkward look crossed his face, but it was quickly replaced by a dark, stern scowl. “You were discharged today? Why didn’t you let me know so I could pick you up?” “Pick me up?” I asked, leaning on my crutches as I made my way inside, the rubber tips thudding against the hardwood floor. “I was hospitalized for fourteen days. I called you twice. The first time you hung up on me, and the second time your phone was switched off. What state secrets were you so busy with that you couldn’t even spare five seconds?” Shawn took a deep breath. He slammed the medicine box down hard onto the coffee table, adopting the same lecturing posture he used to intimidate his subordinates at the precinct. “After you were put into the ambulance that day, the precinct leadership and the media were all at the hospital offering their sympathies! I am the face of this precinct right now. If I didn’t step up to reassure a victim, how would that look to the public?” His brows knitted tight, his eyes filled with disappointment in me. “Willow kept throwing up in the ER, and the chief specifically entrusted me with the responsibility of comforting her family. As my fiancée, instead of understanding the pressure I'm under, you’re standing here throwing a jealous tantrum over such a minor injury? Lea, when did you become so narrow-minded?” “I crawled out of an exploding car and ended up with eight steel screws bolted into my leg. If I hadn’t saved my own life, I would be dead! And you call that a ‘minor injury’?” “Lea, please don’t be mad at Shawn,” Willow said while she stood up, her eyes red with tears. “It’s all my fault. Every time I close my eyes over the last few days, I’m flooded with images of the car crash. I’m too terrified to sleep alone at night. Shawn took pity on me and let me stay in the guest room for a few days. He’s just too conscientious. If you really can’t stand having me here, I’ll leave right now. It doesn’t matter even if I faint out on the streets…” Shawn immediately reached out to steady her arm. He then glared at me, his voice rising sharply. “Lea, do you really have to be so spiteful? Willow is only twenty-two. She’s just a young girl with no one else to rely on, and she’s been severely traumatized by such a horrific accident. What’s wrong with offering her the guest room for a few days to recover? Can’t you be a little less heartless?” “Heartless?” Seeing Shawn acting all self-righteous, I suddenly found the whole situation ironic. I leaned on my crutches, moving forward until I stood right in front of the coffee table. Terrified, Willow shrank back into the corner of the sofa, her hands around my mug. I reached out, snatched the cup from her grasp, and hurled it into the trash can. “If you think I’m so heartless, then get out of this house that I paid half the down payment for.” I looked up and stared at Shawn. “Shawn, let’s get one thing straight. The down payment for this place was four hundred thousand dollars. I’ve paid half of it, and my name is right there on the deed. Who are you to bring a total outsider into my home, let her sleep in my guest room, and use my belongings without getting my consent?” Chapter 3 Shawn froze. He clearly didn’t expect the very first thing I would settle with him was the ownership of the house. “Lea, what’s the point in counting pennies like this?” Shawn barked. “Yes, half the house belongs to you, but didn’t I pay for the other half? Right now, I am exercising my share of the right to allow Willow to stay here for a few days. She’s from out of town, and she just graduated only to experience a traumatic event like this. She doesn’t even have anyone to take care of her. Am I supposed to send her back to that dreary, cramped shared apartment?” “You could’ve rented a place for her. You could’ve arranged a staff dormitory for her. You could’ve paid for a hotel room,” I replied. “But instead, you chose to let her live with you in our home!” Willow came running over and grabbed my hand, tears streaming down her face. “Lea, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t know this mug was yours. Shawn handed it to me, so I just used it… I know you’re angry at Shawn for saving me first, but I really couldn’t help it. I was in the backseat with my head bleeding, and I couldn’t even stand up straight. Shawn couldn’t just leave me abandoned on the highway, could he? Why do you have to take your anger out on me?” I looked at the wound on her forehead, which was barely the size of a coin, and then looked down at my own right leg. It was wrapped in steel pins, swollen to twice the size of my left leg. “Willow, since you brought up that day, let’s make things clear right now,” I said. “That day in the car, I clearly said that the bottom of the car was leaking fuel and could catch fire at any second. By the time Shawn carried you out, the fire had started. You were fully conscious, and you watched him lock me inside a fuel-leaking car with your own eyes. Did you say anything to remind him? Did you tell him even once to go back and save me first?” Willow’s face instantly turned pale, and she couldn’t say anything. “You didn’t,” I pressed on. “Not only did you not say a word, but you clung to his clothes, crying that you were dizzy, forcing him to walk you all the way past the guardrail. Willow, you had a mild concussion; you didn’t go blind. You graduated from the police academy too, so it’s impossible that you didn’t know the car was leaking fuel. Why are you playing innocent?” “Lea, that’s enough!” Shawn snapped, suddenly stepping in front of Willow to shield her. “In a situation like that, Willow was scared out of her mind! How could she have had the mental capacity to care about whether the car was leaking fuel or not? Do you always have to twist people’s intentions into the most malicious things possible?” “Alright. That’s enough, Lea,” Shawn’s mother called out with a stern face as she walked out of the kitchen. “It’s all in the past now. You had the surgery, and isn’t your leg almost healed anyway? Everyone is safe, so why hold a grudge? Shawn has been overwhelmed with work and the aftermath of the crash for the past two weeks. You just got discharged from the hospital today. Do you have to turn the whole house upside down?” In their eyes, I had become an unreasonable, shrewish woman throwing a tantrum. Trying to reason with people who refused to listen to human logic was nothing but a waste of my life. I didn’t bother responding to them anymore. Turning around, I leaned on my crutches and headed straight toward the master bedroom. “Where do you think you’re going? You come back just to make a scene, and now you want to leave without even apologizing to us?” Shawn shouted behind me. I pushed open the bedroom door, pulled out the suitcase from the bottom of the closet, and balanced on one leg while grabbing a few changes of clothes to stuff inside. Next went my toiletries, my laptop, and then my ID, passport, and bank cards from the bedside drawer. As for the envelope containing the property deed, I shoved it separately into my backpack. Shawn followed me to the bedroom doorway, his expression finally shifting into one of panic. “Lea, what kind of drama are you putting on now? Are you running away from home? You’re almost hitting thirty, yet you’re still playing this childish game of packing up and leaving whenever you’re unhappy. Your leg is broken. Where can you even go?” I simply ignored him, and when I tried to pass by him, he reached out his arm, attempting to block my path. “Stop making a scene, okay? You decorated every inch of this house yourself. Are you really just going to walk away from it?” Chapter 4 I avoided his hand. “Three days. I’m giving you three days. Three days from now, I will return with a lawyer to discuss splitting the ownership of this house. Furthermore, the exclusive licensing for Eagle-Eye—the AI tracking system that my tech company provided to the city police department will be fully revoked.” Shawn’s expression instantly sank. “Lea, do you even know what you’re saying? The state review board is evaluating our smart policing initiative next month. This project is my ticket to the deputy chief promotion. If you terminate the licensing, the entire system will shut down. Are you trying to destroy my future?” “That is my patent. It was a stepping stone I gave you for free, and I’m taking it back now.” I pushed open the front door and walked out without looking back. The stairwell was deathly quiet. I leaned against the freezing wall, gasping heavily for breath. The pain in my right leg was so intense that it had almost gone numb. Inside that apartment were the curtains I had personally picked out, the renovation blueprints I had drawn up line by line, and a seven-year promise made by a boy whose eyes used to be filled with no one else but me. Now, all that remained of him was a man who weighed his pros and cons. What that raging fire burned away was not just the bone in my leg but the very last hope I had in this relationship. However, my mind was clearer than it had ever been before. … I didn’t book myself into a hotel. Dragging a leg bound in a plaster cast made staying at a hotel far too inconvenient. Instead, I sat on a bench outside the entrance of the residential compound and called Joanna Ford. Joanna was my college roommate, and she was currently the only person I could trust without reservation. The call went through after just two rings. “Lea? You finally turned your phone back on! I’ve been looking for you like crazy for the past half month! I knocked on your apartment door, and no one answered. Where on earth did you disappear to?” “Jo, I was in a car accident. I was just discharged from the hospital.” Joanna’s voice went up an octave. “Where are you? Send me your location. Stand still and don’t move; I’m coming over right now!” Half an hour later, Joanna’s SUV pulled up at the neighbourhood entrance. She rushed down, and the moment she saw me leaning on crutches with a suitcase sitting by my feet, her eyes instantly welled up with tears. “Where is Shawn? Your leg is broken, and he let you leave the house with your luggage?” “He’s currently busy upstairs taking care of his traumatized female intern.” I related the entire sequence of events to her, exactly as it happened. “So, he locked you inside a leaking car to go save a bitch who only suffered a few scratches? And after you got discharged, not only did he not pick you up, but he even brought her back to your home?” “Yeah.” “Fuck him!” Joanna slammed her hand hard against the steering wheel as she said, “Lea, you sit right there. I’m going up with a knife to hack that bastard couple to pieces!” I quickly grabbed her arm. “Jo, don’t go. Going to jail for people like them isn’t worth it. Don’t worry. I won’t let them have an easy time.” Joanna had known me for seven years, and she knew I was usually easygoing and somewhat soft-tempered. Yet, this time, she saw in my eyes that I had truly given up on hope. She sat back down in the driver’s seat. “Alright. We’re going to my place. I’m renting a two-bedroom apartment, and one room is empty. You can stay there.” Joanna’s apartment was in an older residential district downtown, and it was kept very clean. After helping me settle in, she went back downstairs to get me some anti-inflammatory medication and nursing supplies. That evening, I sat on the sofa with my leg propped up on a soft cushion, applying an ice pack. Walking over holding a glass of water, Joanna asked, “What do you plan to do? The house issue is easy to handle. That can be settled by filing a lawsuit. But the fact that he left you in the car on the day of the accident—do you plan to just let it go?” “Of course not. The traffic police have ruled it as an accidental rear-end collision, with the car behind holding full liability. Even though Shawn, the driver, fled the scene after the accident, he did save someone. Legally speaking, it will be very difficult to define whether he deliberately left someone to die.” Chapter 5 “So there’s really no way to punish him?” Joanna gritted her teeth in frustration. “There is. Jo, do you remember that senior from law school during our university days? The one who always drove his opponents absolutely crazy during debate competitions?” Joanna’s eyes instantly lit up. “Luke O’Connor? He’s currently the youngest senior partner in the city, specializing in complex commercial and civil dispute cases. But his fees are very high, and he doesn’t just take on any case.” “It’s fine. I have the money.” The next morning, Luke O’Connor showed up right on time at Joanna’s apartment. He was wearing a dark gray suit and rimless glasses, his expression cold and stern. “It’s been a while, Lea. Joanna has given me a rough overview of the situation over the phone, and I’ve reviewed the copy of the accident report from the traffic police.” He pulled a document out of his briefcase and laid it flat on the coffee table. “From the current official assessment, this is being treated as a standard traffic accident. The vehicle behind you rear-ended your car, causing a fuel leak and subsequent fire. As the driver, Shawn chose to rescue Willow Benson under emergency circumstances, given that she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and had sustained a head injury. Morally, he will be condemned. However, under current laws, it will be very difficult to hold him criminally liable.” “Luke, if this were just about dividing up a property, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of calling you in. I need you to help me investigate a specific vehicle.” Luke raised an eyebrow as I spoke. “The stretch of highway where the accident occurred was experiencing a heavy downpour at the time. Our car was stopped between the emergency lane and the far-right lane. When the fuel leaked and caught fire, a heavy-duty truck was in the opposite lane. Because the road was slick from the rain and the driver was startled by the explosion on our side, the truck crashed into the central dividing barrier. “The front of that truck was facing our car directly. The truck driver was trapped in his cab at the time, so he definitely witnessed the entire process. Furthermore, those kinds of long-haul trucks are always equipped with panoramic dashcams.” Luke’s gaze shifted. He adjusted his glasses, pulled out a fountain pen, and began taking notes. “If that footage can prove that Shawn had sufficient time to return and rescue you after carrying Willow out, but chose not to, and instead left the scene as the fire spread…” “Then it constitutes intentional harm by omission or the offense of desertion,” I finished his sentence for him. “It will be difficult to secure a conviction, but there are sufficient grounds to open an official investigation. More importantly, given Shawn’s special status, if this footage is handed over to internal affairs or used as evidence in a civil lawsuit, it will be sufficient to prove that he violated his duties in the face of danger and committed a major fault. “When it comes to the property division for dissolving a common-law relationship, you can demand that he forfeit his entire shared stake in the house and claim massive emotional damages.” Luke looked at me, adjusting his glasses. “Did the traffic police retrieve the footage from that truck?” “No, because that was treated as an independent accident. It was handled separately from our rear-end collision. The truck driver was severely injured and rushed to a different hospital. The footage should still be inside the truck or with the traffic police division handling that specific crash.” Luke stood up and packed the documents back into his briefcase. “Leave it to me. Within forty-eight hours, I will have that videotape or a copy of the files in front of you.” He walked to the door before turning back to look at me and adding, “Lea, a fracture is a terrible pain to endure, but I’ll make sure he pays for what he did.” Joanna let out a long, deep sigh of relief. “I told you Luke was reliable! Once we get that footage, I’d like to see how that bastard tries to argue his way out of this!”