"Here's what we do. We pretend we fainted from the shock. As long as we don't show up and nobody pays, the outcome takes care of itself."
Now I finally understood why my daughter died in my previous life.
When the crash happened, I'd been out of my mind with terror, but maternal instinct took over. I'd unbuckled my seatbelt and thrown my body over hers, shielding her with everything I had.
But when I woke up, they told me Lily's injuries had been too severe. That she hadn't made it.
Even then, something hadn't sat right.
I was the one who should have been hurt worse. So why was she the one who died?
I'd investigated for months afterward and turned up nothing.
And my parents hadn't known a thing. Nobody contacted them. They didn't find out until Lily was already gone, stumbling across the accident on the news. They'd rushed to the hospital and arranged my surgery just in time.
If they'd arrived even a little later, I wouldn't have survived either.
My teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached. But I forced myself to breathe, to steady my hands, and picked up my phone.
I called them.
On the other end, Silas and Zoe nearly jumped out of their skin. They might as well have seen a ghost.