The Crash...Then Him
The first thing Emily Wilson heard was the sound of metal twisting.
It was a horrible sound.
A long, deafening screech that seemed to tear through the night.
Then came the scream.
Her own.
“Mom!”
The car jerked violently.
Emily’s hands flew forward, searching for something—anything—to hold on to.
There was no time.
The vehicle swerved.
Her mother’s voice rose from the passenger seat.
“Emily!”
Her father’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Hold on!”
Then the world turned upside down.
The car rolled.
Emily felt herself being thrown against the seat belt as the vehicle spun across the road. Glass shattered around her. Something struck the side of the car with a violent crash.
She screamed again.
The sound seemed distant, swallowed by the chaos.
For one terrifying moment, she couldn’t tell which way was up.
Everything happened too quickly.
The flashing headlights of another vehicle.
Her mother’s terrified voice.
Her father’s hands desperately trying to control the steering wheel.
The crushing sound of metal.
Then darkness.
The car rolled again.
And again.
Until, finally—
Silence.
Not complete silence.
There was a faint ringing in Emily’s ears.
Beep.
No.
There was no beeping.
She didn’t know where that sound had come from.
She opened her eyes.
Everything was blurry.
Emily blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Her vision slowly adjusted.
The first thing she noticed was that the world was upside down.
The second thing she noticed was the broken glass.
Tiny pieces covered the seats and floor around her, reflecting the faint light coming through the shattered windows.
The smell of smoke filled the car.
Her head throbbed.
She tried to move.
Pain shot through her body.
“Ah...”
Her voice was barely audible.
She stopped.
For several seconds, she didn’t understand what had happened.
Then she remembered.
The road.
The car.
Her parents.
“Mom?”
There was no answer.
Emily turned her head.
Her mother’s body was slumped in the passenger seat.
Her eyes were closed.
“Mom?”
Emily’s heart began beating faster.
“Mom, wake up.”
Nothing.
Emily swallowed.
She tried to reach forward.
Her arm trembled.
“Mom...”
Still nothing.
Panic began to rise inside her.
She turned toward the driver’s seat.
“Dad?”
Her father’s head was tilted to one side.
He wasn’t moving either.
Emily’s breathing became uneven.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“No, no, no...”
She tried to unfasten her seat belt.
Her fingers wouldn’t cooperate.
She pulled again.
Nothing.
“Please...”
Her voice broke.
“Please wake up.”
Outside, she could hear people shouting.
“Someone call an ambulance!”
“There’s a woman in there!”
“Check the car!”
“Is anyone alive?”
Emily wanted to scream that she was alive.
She wanted someone to help her parents.
But her body was becoming heavier.
Her eyelids felt strangely warm.
She blinked rapidly.
Don’t sleep.
She couldn’t sleep.
If she closed her eyes, she might not open them again.
And her parents needed her.
Her mother had always told her she was stronger than she thought.
Her father had always joked that she was too stubborn to give up.
Emily had laughed at him every time.
Now she desperately wanted to hear him say it again.
“Dad...”
Her voice trembled.
Nothing.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
She didn’t wipe it away.
She couldn’t.
She didn’t have the strength.
Then she heard footsteps.
Someone was approaching the wreckage.
Emily tried to turn her head.
A shadow appeared beyond the broken window.
She squinted.
The figure stood several feet away.
For a moment, Emily couldn’t make out the person’s face.
Her vision was fading.
The figure took a step closer.
And then she saw him.
Her heart seemed to stop.
No.
It couldn’t be.
She knew that face.
She had seen it more times than she cared to count.
At business events.
At charity dinners.
In newspapers.
Across conference rooms.
And sometimes across crowded rooms where their families pretended to be civil while silently competing against each other.
Andrew Brown.
Emily stared at him.
Why was he here?
Why was Andrew Brown standing beside her family’s wrecked car?
Her mind struggled to make sense of it.
Maybe she was hallucinating.
Maybe the accident had affected her memory.
Maybe—
But it was him.
Andrew.
Her sworn enemy.
The one person she had never expected to see at a moment like this.
Their families had spent decades competing against each other.
And somehow, the last face Emily saw before darkness claimed her was his.
The Willsons and the Browns
To most people, the Willsons and tshe Browns were simply two powerful families who happened to own competing construction companies.
To the business world, they were rivals.
Fierce rivals.
The kind of rivals journalists loved to write about.
Willson Construction had been one of the city’s biggest construction companies for decades.
Brown Developments was just as powerful.
Both companies built luxury apartments, commercial buildings, hotels, shopping centers, estates, and major infrastructure projects.
And both wanted to be the best.
Whenever a major contract became available, people immediately began asking the same question.
Will the Willsons get it, or will the Browns?
It was almost predictable.
If Willson Construction won a project, Brown Developments would announce another ambitious project shortly afterward.
If Brown Developments unveiled a new development, Willson Construction would find a way to compete.
The rivalry had become part of the city’s business culture.
People joked about it.
Some even placed bets.
Employees from both companies secretly competed with one another.
Executives exchanged polite smiles while trying to destroy each other’s bids.
And the media loved every second of it.
The two families rarely gave the public anything to complain about.
They were professionals.
At least, they appeared to be.
At charity events, Richard Willson and Alexander Brown could stand in the same room and shake hands for the cameras.
They could smile.
They could exchange polite greetings.
They could even pretend to laugh at the same joke.
But everyone who knew them understood one thing.
The smiles were only for show.
There was something between those families.
Something old.
Something bitter.
Something that had survived for generations.
The strange part was that Emily didn’t know what it was.
Neither did Andrew.
They had grown up surrounded by the rivalry without ever being given the full story.
Emily had asked her parents about it once when she was younger.
Her father had simply told her:
“Some things are better left in the past.”
That answer had only made her more curious.
But whenever she pushed, her parents changed the subject.
Andrew’s family was no different.
Whatever had happened between the two families had been buried so deeply that even their children had been denied the truth.
So Emily had accepted the explanation everyone else seemed to accept.
It was business.
Competition.
Pride.
Nothing more.
After all, their companies did exactly the same thing.
Of course they would clash.
And if their fathers didn’t like each other, perhaps it was simply because neither man wanted to lose.
Emily had grown up believing that.
Then she met Andrew.
And somehow, the rivalry became personal.
Emily couldn’t remember exactly when she and Andrew had started competing.
Perhaps it had been at school.
Perhaps it had been at one of their families’ endless business gatherings.
Maybe it had started the first time Andrew looked at her with that irritatingly confident expression and told her she wouldn’t beat him.
Whatever the beginning was, neither of them had ever stopped.
If Emily won an academic award, Andrew would find a way to win one too.
If Andrew succeeded at something, Emily would make it her personal mission to surpass him.
At charity competitions, they were always trying to outdo one another.
At family events, they could barely stand in the same room.
Their parents didn’t even have to encourage it.
They did it naturally.
Emily hated losing to Andrew.
And Andrew seemed to enjoy making sure she didn’t forget when she did.
Once, at a charity auction, Emily had placed the winning bid on a painting she wanted.
Andrew had waited until the final second before raising the bid.
She had glared at him.
He had smiled.
She raised it again.
He raised it again.
By the time the auction ended, they had paid far more than the painting was worth.
Neither of them cared.
Emily had walked away furious.
Andrew had looked delighted.
That was Andrew.
Always irritating.
Always confident.
Always somehow appearing three steps ahead.
And yet, despite everything, Emily had never imagined him as someone capable of actually hurting her.
Not seriously.
Their rivalry had always been just that.
A rivalry.
At least, she had thought so.
Until tonight.
The sound of voices pulled Emily back to the present.
“She’s alive!”
“Careful!”
“Don’t move her yet!”
“Where’s the ambulance?”
Emily wanted to answer.
She wanted to tell them that her parents were inside.
But her tongue felt heavy.
Her vision continued to blur.
The figure outside was still there.
Andrew.
She stared at him.
He didn’t seem to notice her looking at him.
Or perhaps he did.
She couldn’t tell.
There was something strange about his expression.
He wasn’t smiling.
He wasn’t looking pleased.
He simply stood there.
Watching.
Emily tried to understand why.
Why would he be here?
Had he witnessed the accident?
Had he arrived afterward?
Had he been following them?
The questions crowded her mind.
She wanted answers.
But her body refused to cooperate.
Her eyelids began to close.
She forced them open.
No.
Not yet.
She needed to stay awake.
Someone was shouting outside.
Another voice called for the emergency crew.
The world around Emily began to spin.
The ringing in her ears grew louder.
She looked toward her parents one last time.
Her heart shattered.
“Mom...”
Her voice was barely a whisper.
She turned toward the broken window again.
Andrew was still there.
The figure became blurry.
His face seemed to move farther away.
Emily tried to focus.
She had known that face for years.
She knew the arrogant smile.
The sharp eyes.
The way he always carried himself like he owned whatever room he entered.
But now he looked different.
Or maybe she was simply seeing him differently.
The thought terrified her.
Because if Andrew had anything to do with what had happened tonight...
Then the rivalry between their families wasn’t just a rivalry.
It was something much darker.
Emily’s breathing slowed.
Her eyelids became impossibly heavy.
She tried one last time to speak.
“Andrew...?”
The name escaped her lips like a whisper.
His figure blurred completely.
The voices around her faded.
The ringing in her ears disappeared.
The darkness returned.
And Emily Willson lost consciousness.
T
