Emily's POV
It’s funny how silence can feel so loud. The moment Adam’s car rolled to a stop in front of my house, my heart started beating faster—not from excitement this time, but from something heavier, something anxious.
The kind that sits in your chest and refuses to move. I glanced at Adam, who gave me one of his signature smiles and leaned forward to kiss me softly. I tried to smile back, but my lips barely curved.
"Call me if you need anything, alright?" he said, brushing a strand of hair from my face.
I nodded, murmured a quiet, "Okay," and stepped out of the car.
The moment I walked up the driveway, something felt off. The lights inside the house were on, brighter than usual.
Curtains I always left slightly drawn were pulled open. There was noise inside. Movement. For a second, I felt like a stranger approaching someone else’s home.
I pushed the door open and there they were. My parents. Sitting in the living room as if they hadn’t disappeared from my life for over a month like it was no big deal.
"Emily!" my mother exclaimed, rushing toward me with open arms. She enveloped me in a hug, and I stood stiff as a board, unsure how to react.
My father barely looked up from his phone. "You’ve grown thinner," he commented casually.
I pulled away from my mom and stared at them both. "So now you care?"
My mother blinked, taken aback. "What do you mean, sweetheart? Of course we care. How have you been holding up?"
"Now you ask?" I laughed, but it came out bitter and hollow. "You two vanish for weeks. You didn’t call, didn’t check in. You left me all alone in this house. I could have been dead in a ditch, and you wouldn’t have noticed."
"Don’t be dramatic, Emily," my father sighed, standing up and walking toward the minibar.
I turned to my mother. "Do you even know what I’ve been through in the past month? Do you know anything about what happened with Sebastian? Or the school drama? Or how I almost lost my best friends?"
"Emily, calm down," my mom said, placing her hand on my shoulder. "There were maids here. You weren’t alone. You’re eighteen, you’re not a child anymore."
Something in me snapped.
"I am eighteen! Exactly! I’m barely even legal, and you thought it was okay to leave me here without a single adult to talk to? Do you know how lonely that was? How hard has everything been?"
She frowned. "We thought you could handle it. We wanted to give you space."
"Bullshit!" I screamed, my voice cracking. "You didn’t want to be here. You wanted to run off and play perfect couple in god-knows-where while leaving your only child behind like some kind of inconvenience!"
"Watch your tone, young lady," my father growled, stepping forward now. "You have no idea the kind of sacrifices we’ve made."
"What sacrifices? What exactly have you sacrificed for me? Because all I remember is being the girl whose parents are always absent, always too busy, too caught up in their own lives to give a damn!"
My mother’s face twisted, and for the first time, she shouted. "I never wanted you in the first place so shut the fuck up!"
Silence.
The words echoed in my ears over and over until they no longer sounded like her voice but my own subconscious repeating it like a curse.
I blinked at her. "What?"
She gasped as if realizing what she'd just said, but the damage was already done.
I shook my head slowly, took a step back, and whispered, "Thank you for finally telling me the truth."
I didn’t wait for them to say anything else. I turned around, opened the front door, and ran to my car. My hands trembled as I pushed the key into the ignition. Tears blurred my vision, but I drove anyway.
Everything was spinning in my head, the breakup, the scandal, school, Luca, Amanda, Tammy, my parents… My chest ached from the weight of it all. I felt like screaming but couldn’t.
The sobs were caught in my throat, stuck somewhere between rage and grief.
I drove for miles, not even thinking about where I was going. I just needed to get away.
I thought about Adam. About the comfort of his arms, the way his voice made things feel bearable. I wanted to see him. I needed him.
But how could I show up like this? Messy. Broken. Unraveling at the seams.
Just then, my phone rang. I sniffled and glanced down. Adam.
I wiped my tears quickly and pressed the answer. "H-Hello?"
"Emily? Are you okay? You left so quickly—"
But I never heard the rest of what he said.
Because when I looked up, headlights blinded me.
A deafening horn blasted through the night.
A massive trunk barreled toward me, and I didn’t even have time to scream.
The impact hit me like a brick wall, and everything went black.