GOING TO LOSE YOU FOREVER! CHAPTER 5

It was a cold, harsh night.

Valeria's legs crawled leadenly, her every step weighed with the burden of regret pressing against her chest. Her legs trembled under her, fighting to support her in the face of the suffocating pain inside her heart.

When she came out of the morgue, her vision was downward-cast, the tears streaming out involuntarily veiling her sight. She had apologized but that was never enough. Never was anything going to be enough.

With her, Manager Kim also came in silence. The usually composed and professional man appeared. shattered. He could see in Valeria the shreds of the woman he remembered—the woman who built an empire of beauty, elegance, and grace, now nothing but a hollow, shaking shell.

The parking lot lay before her, lit by the cold glow of the streetlights.

 The finished, black cars, the polished, shiny cars, only made her think about what she had lost—and what she had gained. The life of an innocent woman. The life of an unborn child.

But there was something more. There was a deafening silence in the chest of Valeria.

She couldn't catch her breath.

She couldn't think.

She could hardly hold on.

Lastly, her knees gave way as they approached the car. The emotional burden was too much to carry anymore. She fell into Manager Kim's arms, her sobs raw, a ragged sob that ripped through her chest. Her fists gripped his jacket like clinging to the last vestige of reality she could cling to.

"Valeria, please." Manager Kim whispered, his voice gentle but laced with worry. His hands attempted to hold her steady, but her crying was beyond control. "Speak to me. Please."

She attempted to speak, but only fragmented sobs came out of her mouth. Her chest rose and fell, her body shaking uncontrollably. She wanted to say something. To tell him. But the words stuck in her throat like a knife.

Manager Kim's brow was creased with concern. He. He went to his knees before her, taking her shoulders. "Valeria… you have to tell me what happened that night. What really happened."

Valeria awoke suddenly, eyes wide with confusion, her short breathed, uneven gasps scattering. She looked up to Manager Kim with a face tear-stained into a grimace of agony. 

She felt guilt and sorrow. Despite the best efforts at suppression, whatever it was kept surfacing as reminders in the dark recesses of her thoughts.

"I. I didn't mean to," she faltered, needing to gasp for air. Her voice sounded like a whisper from a far distance. Her words shook upon her lips. "I never wanted it this way. It wasn't supposed to end this way."

Manager Kim didn't speak, letting her have her say. He felt the burden of her words, the pain in her voice. He needed to hear it all. He needed to know what brought them to this point.

"I-," Valeria was in denial. Her voice broke down as if refusing to say anymore. Her hands trembled upon her own chest. "I just wanted to go home." And after the show, everything was cool, right? Lights up, audience clapping, and I was so looking forward to heading back to the hotel… To be alone. It was the longest day in my life. I just wanted to duck out of the whole scene. But wit I didn't know…"

She paused, her eyes wide with horror as the memory came rushing back.

"Your car," she cried out, horror and incredulity spreading over her face. "My car. it was immaculate. I checked it awhile back that evening. It was perfect." Then her voice shook as she said, gasping in breath and sounding sheerly desperate, Then her voice shook as she said, gasping in breath and sounding sheerly desperate, "But then, I think it was when I got inside that I began to feel something wrong. I couldn't. I couldn't get a handle on it Manager Kim." 

Valeria's hands shook violently as she folded them in front of her, as if trying to hold on.

"I was driving, Manager Kim. I was trying to exit the facility, but the vehicle would not decelerate. The brakes were not functioning. I was unable to halt the vehicle. "All I can remember doing was pushing on the gas pedal and yanking up on the emergency brake—that car was just out of control!" Her eyes filled with tears again as she recalled her last moments of living terror. "I could not control it. The speed was too great. I was losing control, my life slipping away from me."

Manager Kim grasped her hands, his firmly but not tightly, as if to inform her she was not alone. He allowed her, however, to speak. He needed to hear it from her in her own words.

"The lights. The lights were all blurry. I was just going really fast down the street, but the- carjust wouldn't slow," she cried now more wildly, wrapping her fingers around his arms, nails digging into his skin as if to hold on to the real world. "God, I just tried so hard. I just tried to steer away, but I couldn't. And then… everything just happened so fast."

Her eyes blinked shut as she recalled it once more in her mind's eye—Vanessa's vehicle, inoffensively parked by the side of the road, and the ripping of tires when Valeria's vehicle rammed into it.

She breathed as though air had been forced out of her. "I… I hit them. I hit her. And I couldn't prevent it. I couldn't prevent any of it. The crash… the sound of it—it was as though it took everything away from me." Her words cracked on the last two.

Her body shook violently, and Manager Kim pulled her into his arms, having her rest against his chest and cry.

"It was an accident, Manager Kim. I did not mean to do it. I did not mean to kill them. I did not want to kill them!" Valeria's statement was a cry for understanding, an appeal for reason. "I could not have known. Someone played with the wires… Someone messed with my car."

Manager Kim straightened up. His breath caught, he took a step back to peer into her face for any sign of lying.

"Wh-what do you mean, Valeria?" he spat, his voice suddenly dropping to a low whisper heavily laden with disbelief.

Valeria found her breath quickening as she wiped her tears with her hand. "I didn't want to know. I didn't want to know it first.I was thinking it was just me being paranoid. But after the accident… I found it—somebody had intentionally tampered with the wiring underneath the hood. It wasn't my fault. Somebody did it on purpose, Manager Kim."

Her words clung in the air like a chilling accusation.