A Reckless Life

by Michelle Files

  Then the unthinkable happened. We hit the railing, it gave way, and the car with all of us in it, flew over the edge and straight into the water. Luckily, we didn’t fall far because the water was almost overflowing the bridge. The car went in, nose first and my head slammed into the steering wheel, knocking me unconscious. That’s when everything became so serene, like I was floating away. I didn’t want to wake up. It was weird because I was definitely out, but sort of aware of what was going on. Kind of like a dream. It didn’t last long though. Very quickly I started feeling the layers of darkness, the blackness peeling away, bit by bit. As I was coming out of the serenity, I could feel someone tugging at me. I instinctively swatted at them.

  “Stop it!” I heard Sarah yell at me.

  “What..what are you doing?” I still wasn’t fully awake. “Ow, that’s my leg!”

  “I know,” she yelled back. “It’s stuck under the dashboard. We have to get it out. This is going to hurt.”

  That’s when I realized where we were and what was happening. I started crying. “What about the baby?” I looked down and put my hand on my stomach. It was very still, which scared me more than anything else happening at that moment.

  “I don’t know. Let’s get you out and then we can check on the baby,” she said, yanking on my leg again.

  “Ouch! That hurts!”

  With that last jerk, my leg came free. My jeans were ripped and I could see that my leg was gashed pretty bad and bleeding. It didn’t matter though. The car was filling up with water fast and we needed to get out of there. The water was freezing and we were both shivering terribly. If we didn’t drown, we were going to all die of hypothermia.

  “We need to get out of here!” Sarah yelled above the storm.

  “What about Violet?” She was unconscious in the backseat.

  “We can’t help her if we both drown. Let’s get you out first, then I’ll come back for her.”

  “You can’t leave her here. You won’t get back in time to save her.” I yelled back. The car was slowly starting to float down the river, and was picking up speed. Sarah would never be able to get back to it.

  “Stop arguing with me. I can’t carry both of you. You are the one that is pregnant and I’m getting you out first!” Sarah meant it too.

  I had no choice but to agree. I was bleeding badly and needed Sarah’s help to get out. We were wasting time by arguing about it, and needed to do something immediately, or all of us would drown. So, with the help of Sarah, I squeezed out through the open passenger window. Sarah had had enough sense about her to roll her window down the second we hit the water. I was a pretty good swimmer, but Sarah still had to help me. With only one good leg, and a very large belly, swimming was almost impossible in the fast flowing river. Luckily it was not a very wide river and we made it to the bank in just a few minutes. I pulled myself up on the bank far enough so that I was out of the river completely. Sarah sat down next to me to catch her breath.

  “You need to go back for Violet,” I told her. With my injured leg, I was of no use.

  “Look.” Sarah pointed toward the river.

  I turned and saw the car floating away. I tried to stand up. We had to go after the car. Sarah grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.

  “What are you doing? You can’t go in there.” She held onto me tightly.

  “I have to try. We can’t let her drown,” I replied. I tried to pull free of her, but she wasn’t about to let me go.

  “You are hurt and pregnant. You wouldn’t be able to get to the car if you tried anyway. I won’t let you go. It’s too late, Abbey.”

  She was right. The river was moving fast and the car was too far by then to go after it. It was too late. There was nothing we could do. Even if I thought I had a chance to get to the car, it would just be stupid. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, put my baby at risk.

  “Oh my god,” was all I could say.

  I didn’t even like Violet, yet I burst out crying. I wasn’t even sure why. I guess I just felt so useless. I didn’t know how in the world we were going to tell Adam.

  “Hey, this is not your fault. It just happened. Someone else stabbed her. We were trying to save her. I don’t think there is anything else we could have done.” She was trying to make me feel better, but it really didn’t help.

  “Besides,” she continued, “I didn’t want to get into it in the car while I was trying to get you out, but Violet was already dead when we hit the water.”

  “What? Are you sure?” I was very surprised.

  “I’m sure. I checked her pulse while you were unconscious. So see, she died from the stab wounds. There was nothing we could have done.”

  Even though Violet had died, and that was horrible, I actually felt a bit better, knowing that none of this was because I drove us over a bridge. Still, I felt really bad. I knew that Adam would be devastated. Violet certainly had her faults, she was horrible to me, but she was his mother and he loved her dearly.

  For a few minutes Sarah and I just sat there, holding each other and crying, in the pouring rain. It really wasn’t Violet we were crying for, it was Adam. Regardless of our feelings for each other, we both loved Adam and couldn’t even fathom how much this was going to hurt him.

  Someone must have seen the accident, because right about then, two police cars and an ambulance pulled up along side us on the bank of the river. There was a road right behind us that followed along the river. We weren’t even aware of its existence until the emergency vehicles showed up. They brought a gurney and put me in the ambulance first. Sarah was fine, other than a bit of hypothermia. They gave her a warming blanket and she crawled in the ambulance to ride to the hospital with me. One of the police officers told us that he would meet us at the hospital. Sarah held my hand the entire way. It was such a loving gesture. I wondered if we could be friends.

  When we arrived, the emergency staff took me in right away to tend to my leg. Luckily I didn’t need surgery. It was not as bad as I originally thought, and they were able to stitch me up. It hurt worse than it was. They also checked the baby and everything was fine. Just as we were right in the middle of the ultrasound, Adam walked in.

  “Do you want to know the sex of the baby?” the doctor asked me.

  I looked over at Adam and Sarah. I definitely wanted to know, but I would leave it up to them. They both nodded expectantly.

  “Yes,” I told the doctor.

  “Okay then. You are having a girl and everything seems to be coming along nicely. Your little swim in the river doesn’t seem to have bothered her at all. She’s definitely a tough one.”

  We all smiled. A baby girl. Wow. All of a sudden the whole thing sank in. I was having a baby. This was actually happening. I burst out crying, which I seemed to do a lot lately. The doctor looked at me with a furrowed brow.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Yes. I’m fine,” I said between sobs. “I was just so scared.”

  He looked up at Adam and Sarah and they said they would stay with me. He told them that I was just fine and to keep me off the leg for a few days. I could go home in the morning. Then he left.

  “Why are you crying?” Adam asked me.

  “This all just seems so much more real all of a sudden,” I told him, between sniffles.

  “I know what you mean,” he said. “Oh, what room is my mother in?”

  I stopped crying immediately. While dealing with my injured leg and worrying about the baby, I had almost forgotten about Violet. Sarah and I looked at each other.

  “What?” Adam said, looking back and forth between us.

  “Um, let’s go out in the hallway.” Sarah took his hand and they walked out of the room.

  I was really glad that she did that. I was certainly not strong enough to tell him. She could do it. She was his wife after all. I could see them through the window. They were standing right outside my room. She talked for about 30 seconds, then he hugged her and started sobbing. It was one of the most heart wrenchin
g scenes I had ever witnessed. I turned my head to stare at the opposite wall, because all of a sudden, I felt like I was eavesdropping on a very private moment. That was when I realized that he would never be mine. He belonged to Sarah, and always would.

  I turned back a few minutes later, and they were gone. I was relieved and closed my eyes to rest. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, daylight was streaming in through the hospital room window. I heard snoring and looked over to see Adam fast asleep in a chair in my room. I started to get up to go to the bathroom and he jumped up.

  “What are you doing?” He asked me, coming over to stand by the side of the bed. “You should stay in bed.”

  “I have to pee.”

  “Hold on, let me get the nurse to help you.” He quickly left the room.

  The nurse came in and helped me get to the bathroom and get dressed. They were processing the paperwork and I would get to go home soon. Adam waited with me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him, while we waited.

  “Yeah, I guess. Sarah told me everything that happened last night. I want to thank you for trying to save my mother. I know that must have been very scary for you.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. But, you’re welcome. I’m just sorry that we couldn’t get her to the hospital in time.”

  “Are you the one that stabbed her?” He asked very calmly.

  Oh boy, his gratitude certainly didn’t last long.

  “What? No. Why would you ask me that?” I was shocked at the question.

  “Because Sarah said she saw you walking away from the library just as she went in and found my mother laying on the floor.”

  “So Sarah is accusing me of stabbing her? You have got to be kidding.” I was starting to get angry. How could she do that to me after all that we had just been through together?

  “The truth is that I had been listening at the door. Your mother was arguing with someone, I don’t know who. Since I felt I should just stay out of it, I left. That’s when Sarah stopped me and we talked for a couple of minutes. Did she also tell you that the back door to the library was wide open when she went in? Someone obviously took off right after the fight.”

  Adam sat there quietly, contemplating everything I had just said.

  “No, she didn’t tell me that part.”

  “That’s what I figured. Maybe you should get the whole story before you come in here accusing me of killing your mother.” He already hated me, so I didn’t think anything I said at that point was going to make it worse.

  Chapter 24

  Two days later they found the car with Violet still in it. That’s how long it took for the storm to clear up and the water to recede enough for them to find it. It had floated several miles down the river and was found wedged in a pile of large boulders next to the bank. A couple of pre-teen boys came across it as they were walking along the river road above.

  Because of the stab wounds, an autopsy was done. The results shocked everyone.

  We were all standing in the living room when the call came in. I wasn’t invited, of course, but I heard Sarah and Adam talking as I walked down the hall. Then the phone rang and I walked in. I was definitely part of everything that happened, which is probably why no one said anything about my being there with them. We were all waiting on news about Violet, and the entire house had been tense for the past two days. Without even asking, I could tell that Adam was talking to someone official. I don’t know exactly who though. It didn’t really matter. Sarah and I sat quietly and waited for the news.

  When Adam hung up the phone, his face looked like it had been drained of all the blood. He had gone white and couldn’t even speak. It took a moment for him to collect himself. He looked as if he were trying very hard not to cry. Sarah and I stood up and waited for him to talk to us. Finally he composed himself.

  He explained that the coroner found that Violet did not die from her stab wounds, as we all (well most of us) thought. She drowned. What that boiled down to was that Sarah lied. Violet was not already dead when the car went over the bridge. Sarah left her there to drown. She was probably hoping that Violet’s body would never be found. No such luck. I was absolutely horrified that she would do something like that.

  “I can’t believe that you just let my mother drown!” Adam yelled.

  I looked over at Sarah as he said this. I had no idea how in the world she was going to explain her actions.

  “Abbey! Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” he asked me.

  “What? Me?” I pointed at myself as I looked from Adam to Sarah and back. “Wait, I thought you were talking to Sarah.” I was thoroughly confused.

  “Why would I be talking to Sarah?” He said with a growing attitude in his voice.

  “Because she is the one that left your mother, alive, in the car to float away and drown. I was injured, up on the bank of the river. And pregnant. Don’t forget that part. I tried to get her to go back to get Violet and she refused.”

  “You are lying!” Sarah screamed.

  “You know I’m not lying.” I was trying to be calm. “I begged you to go in after her and you said she was already dead. You could have gone back in and saved her.”

  “Why are you saying that?” Sarah said directly to me. Then she turned to her husband.

  “Adam, after I helped her to the river bank, I wanted to go back for your mother. I didn’t tell you this before because I didn’t want to hurt you anymore than you were already hurting, but Abbey grabbed onto me and wouldn’t let me go. Your mother was still in the car, screaming. It was horrible, but I couldn’t pull away from Abbey quick enough to get to her. That’s the truth. I swear.” Sarah told him all of that with a dead serious look on her face and even managed to squeeze out a tiny teardrop, for emphasis. The woman deserved an Oscar for her performance. I almost believed her and I knew it was all a lie.

  Adam glared at me.

  “Oh my god. You don’t believe her, do you?” I asked him. He couldn’t possibly believe such a wild, ridiculous story.

  I had a bad feeling that this was not going to go my way.

  “There’s no reason for Sarah to lie. I believe her.” Adam said, taking her hand.

  “Are you kidding me?” I was shocked. “She had every reason. She hated your mother. Violet was horrible to her. And to me. You are the only one that she was nice to. Of course she never treated us poorly when you were around. But, she was a holy terror when you were out of town. I guarantee you that Sarah hated her, every bit as much as I did.” I laid it all out for them.

  “Really?” Adam asked. “You just admitted that you hated my mother. That sounds a lot like motive to me. I’m calling the cops.” He made a move for the phone.

  I saw Sarah smile and I gave her a look that caused her to immediately lose the stupid grin on her face. Then I lunged for the phone and got to it just as Adam did. He was surprised by how quick I was.

  “What are you doing?” He asked as he yanked the receiver from my hand.

  “Adam, please don’t call the cops. Do you really want to put the mother of your child in jail?” I knew Sarah would hate that I called myself that.

  “You are not the mother of his child. I am.” Sarah chimed in.

  “Is that right? Well, we’ll see about that!” And I stormed out of the room without another word. They never did call the police on me.

  A few days later, the police called Adam back. They told him that even though Violet ultimately drowned, they were treating it as a murder. She was stabbed after all. Adam and Sarah seemed to have forgotten that part. They had been so focused on the fact that I drove over the bridge and left her to drown. I knew the truth though. So did Sarah, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  Now that everyone was focusing on Violet being stabbed, the accusations started flying. I was not immune. However, I knew I was innocent and did my best to ignore them. I was sure that Sarah knew I didn’t do it. She saw me in the hallway right before she walked into the l
ibrary and found Violet stabbed. I was calm and had no blood on me. I was certainly not someone that could have a fight and stab someone, then calmly walk down the hall like nothing had happened. It would have been written all over my face and those things would have been obvious to anyone walking by.

  Because Adam was the sole heir to his parents’ estate, he got it all. This was no surprise to anyone. I was sort of hoping that Violet would leave me, or at least my baby, some money. Especially since my child would be her only grandchild, and she did promise me a lot of money if I got pregnant. But that didn’t happen. It was probably my fault that she didn’t leave me anything. I should have just told her that I did get pregnant on purpose. At least she might have honored her end of the deal then. But it was Violet. Who knew what was in that crazy old lady’s head. She may never have had any intention of coming through with her promise. Once I got pregnant, there was no way to force her to pay anything. She knew that. At least this way I could honestly say that I did not get pregnant on purpose, just to make Violet happy, and to make some money. I would hate to have to explain that to my daughter one day.

  Chapter 25

  Could I really give up my baby to those horrid people? Would that make me the worst mother ever? Yes, it might. I had to talk to Adam about it. Just him and me. Sarah was not invited. I didn’t need her spewing anymore of her lies. I found Adam working in the library and walked in quietly, determined to get the truth out once and for all.

  “Adam, can we talk?”

  He didn’t even look up from his desk. I just stood there for another minute waiting.