LUCY

"Take my hand, Lucy."

I grasp onto his hand as he helps be from the car. My feet land on the ground with a thud, and I look up to Travis, smiling.

He said he had a question he had to ask me, and my heart fluttered at the possibilities.

Travis was a no-nonsense kind of guy, but he was also a romantic. And as he leads me into town, the lights flickering above us, the night sky giving out a sweet kind of glow, I could only believe his romantic side was the side coming out tonight.

I see his coat jacket pocket holding something square, and I suddenly feel giddy.

Who would have thought that seven months ago, I would have been approached by John Reynold, and asked to be with Travis, to keep him away from Jeanie who just suffered a terrible divorce.

I would have laughed.

But here I am, about to be proposed to.

"Where are we going?" I ask, peering at all the lights surrounding us. This would be the perfect place to propose.

"You'll see," Travis speaks, his voice low. I squeeze his hand and he squeezes it back.

He continues to pull me along the square until we reach a small cafe. He tells me to take a seat at one of the outside tables and I do, watching him walk inside to get into line.

I fold my legs over each other, leaning onto the table, watching him.

My lips can't hold my smile. I am bursting with so much joy I may just laugh because I cannot contain it. My lifelong dream may be coming true in the next ten minutes.

To become engaged to Travis.

I never thought I'd get this far in life. After Jeanie and Travis got married, my whole life fell apart, and I realized that I'd never be happy unless I had Travis.

Just as my life was beginning to feel okay, Travis appeared, and everything became beautiful again. He had that about him, the ability to light my whole world up.

I just can't believe he's mine.

After their wedding, Jeanie tried to contact me, to ask how I was doing, and to ask if I wanted to hang out with her. I knew it was meant as friendly, but I couldn't help but feel she was just rubbing it in. I immediately said no, and happened to lose her number and delete her contact in my phone.

I didn't need her in my life anymore.

The door opens to the cafe, and I look up, seeing as Travis walks over to me, a small tray in hand. I spot the yellow drink, and smile. He knew me so well.

I take my lemonade from him and set it down in front of me.

He got his hot chocolate.

"Thank you," I say, taking a sip. The sweet liquid fills my mouth and I am flooded with more happiness than before.

He smiles, sitting down next to me. He hands me my food which turned out to be my dessert. I bite into the cheesecake and down the bite with more lemonade.

Travis takes a bite of his cheesecake, which was chocolate.

"This is so good," I gush, sneaking a bite of his, and he does the same to mine, a twinkle in his eye. He makes a disgusted face after he swallows the bite he took from mine.

"Ew. Plain," he teases, the look still on his face.

I stick my tongue out at him. "I think it's delicious," I take another bite, pursing my lips.

Travis leans over and kisses my lips then pulls away.

I smile. "You're forgiven."

He winks at me.

We continue in silence to eat our food. It didn't take me long to devour my dessert as well as my drink, so I sit patiently, waiting for him to finish his food. He looks over at me, mid bite, then takes as long as he possibly can to get the food into his mouth. I shake my head at him.

If he is proposing tonight, he must know this is torture for me, waiting.

Although, he probably doesn't know I know, so this is normal for him.

Sweat perspiries on my forehead.

Hurry up, Travis. I want your ring on my finger.

He finally finishes his food and takes the plates and utensils inside. He returns with a refill of my lemonade and hands it to me.

"You okay? You cold?" He asks, shrugging off his jacket.

I notice I am subconsciously rubbing my arms and oblique when he places his jacket around my shoulders. I don't want to tell him that I am sweating so I pull the jacket close.

"Thanks." I smile at him.

He smiles back.

I see him fingering his side, as if he was checking his jacket pocket, but it wasn't there. I had it on. I smile. He is going to propose, and he gave the jacket containing the ring to me to wear, and he doesn't know that I know he's going to propose.

I almost laughed.

He lets out a nervous chuckle.

I almost want to hang onto the jacket to see how he will get the ring back without me 'knowing' he wants the ring.

I chuckle at Travis, watching his expression, and he clears his throat.

I place my hands into the jacket's pockets without Travis looking at me, and I finger the velvet box in the left pocket, stroking it.

Maybe I could just propose.

I laugh aloud as I take my hands out of the pocket, the box in my hand.

"Hey Travis," I say, shrugging off the jacket, the box safely tucked between my legs. "I'm kind of hot right now, but thank you." I hand the jacket back to him, and the immediate relief on his face is hysterical.

"You're welcome." He shrugs the jacket back on, instantly feeling his pockets.

He's not very subtle.

Panic appears on his face as he wildly stuffs his hands into the pockets, obviously searching for something. He looks at me, and puts on a smile.

I blink. I have to pretend I don't know what he is searching for.

"What are you looking for?" I ask in my most innocent voice.

He shrugs. "Nothing. I just thought I had something in here."

I lean forward. "Is it money?"

He shakes his head, his smile slowly fading into a grimace. I sit still as I watch him continuously look for the ring box.

"Hey Travis," I interrupt his search.

He looks at me.

"Yes?"

I smile, grabbing the ring box. "Will you marry me?" I ask, opening the ring box, showing him the ring, which had a beautiful diamond in the middle of it.

I slightly gasp, looking at it with widened eyes.

Travis lets out a laugh. "Funny thing is, I was gonna ask you the same question," he takes the ring box gently from me, and kneels down in front of me.

I pretend to gasp, omitting a toothy grin from Travis.

"Lucy Bleu, will you marry me?"

I nod. "Absolutely I will," I let out a squeal.

Travis stands, and gathers me into his arms. He pulls away just enough to kiss me right on the mouth, leaving me with butterflies in my stomach.

"You have to put it on me!" I exclaim, breaking off the kiss.

He laughs, and opens the ring box. He takes the ring and places it on my left ring finger.

I look at my left hand, wiggling my fingers, watching the diamond glitter in the lights, and feeling the happiest I have ever felt in my entire life.

I meet Travis' eyes. "I love you."

He kisses me again. "And I love you."

ELIAS

"I call shotgun!"

Dad just laughs, "That's funny, Jude. Since Richie is driving, you sit in the back," he opens the back door for me, a smug look on his face.

I shake my face, "It'll be safer with me up there," I tease, sticking my tongue out at him, and Dad lightly taps me on the back of my neck, making me jerk.

"You're too easy to scare," Dad states, and turns toward the house, "Richie, let's go!" he calls, and Rich comes out of the house, running. He has the car keys in his hand and he goes straight to the driver's side.

"I don't know why I have to drive," he mumbles as he turns the engine on.

I buckle up my seatbelt. "Because you don't have your license, and you need practice on the highway. You also have to survive Dad teaching you on the highway like I did. It means you've become a man."

Dad rolls his eyes.

Rich laughs. "Right. Only if I don't wreck, right?"

I nod. "Exactly."

The car lurches forward, and I slam my head on the back of Rich's seat. I knee the seat hard, making Rich yell in pain.

Dad has both of his hands on the dash, a scowl on his face as he turns to Rich.

"I almost wrecked. Somebody else can drive now." Rich gives dad a small smile, but it quickly fades as he gulps, no doubt reading Dad's expression very well.

I smile, watching Rich slowly pull us out of the driveway and down the street. I decide to sit in the middle, using both of the side seat belts to buckle myself. Rich looks in his window, and shakes his head at me.

"Hey, after you lurched me forward, I have decided safely is highly appreciative to me, so both seatbelts it is."

Dad laughs. "Just drive Richie."

I gaze out the window, then finger my phone on my lap. I pick it up and turn it on, going onto some of the game apps, wanting to pass the time with pleasure. These two hours are gonna be very long if Rich is driving.

Rich turns on the radio.

Dad turns down the volume.

I grin, going back to my game.

"Whatcha playing back there?" Dad asks, peering back at me.

"Temple Run," I responded, committed to my game. I wouldn't let Dad distract me. I was almost to my high score and I didn't want to have to try all over again.

"Can I see?"

I shake my head. "Nope."

He's quiet now. Maybe he got the hint.

"Hey, Jude, maybe we should talk about the company again, before we go to this meeting. That way you have a better understanding," Dad is practically poking the bear right now.

I am almost there.

Just a few more seconds.

"Jude, I want you to take over the company."

I look up instantly. "What?" I almost yell.

I look back at the game, but I'm already dead. I ran into a tree.

Pressing the power button on my phone, I set it down, leaning forward, placing my elbows on my knees. "Dad, I can't do that."

He shakes his head. "Nonsense. You're old enough now, you should be able to come into work with me, and I can teach you all about it. I know you know some, but I can show you the literal ins and outs of the company."

I shake my head. "No. I don't want that, and you know it. Rich would enjoy that so much better than I would, and you know it."

Rich guffaws, "Yeah, right, Jude!"

Dad shakes his head. "People would talk, Jude, if they knew Richie took over because no one know he's my son. You're the viable option, and I think you'd thrive."

I look between the two of them. Rich is nodding, while Dad has an impressive smile on his face.

"Have you two already talked about this?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

Rich nods. "Yeah, we have. I think this is a great idea, Jude."

Dad smiles.

I let out a hard breath. I told Rich that I wanted to be something else, do something other than what dad wants me to do. He's been pretty good about giving me my freedom, but I guess a job was never an option for me.

He'd make me work there. He'd find some way to convince me.

Well, I won't be convinced. Running Dad's company is not what I want to do with my life, and Rich knows that. He should be on my side!

I ignore the both of them.

Dad turns away from me, and goes back to helping Rich merge onto the highway. As soon as we begin to pick up speed, I go back to my game, ignoring everything else around me, including the whispered words that were being shared between dad and Rich.

An hour passes, and Dad tries again.

"So, Jude, have you thought about it?"

I give him a look, "Dad, no. My answer is no, I'm sorry."

His face turns red, but soon fades as he answers in a tight voice, "I'll take it as a maybe, because I know you don't know what you are doing. You need more time to think about it, and maybe you'll appreciate it a lot more when you come into work with me tomorrow and I'll teach you everything you need to know."

"That's a lot of maybes," I respond, peering out the window.

Dad lets out a sigh. "I'm trying to meet you halfway here, Jude. You're not helping. All this does is push me to get you into this job even harder, because you don't know much about responsibility, and how to have a job and keep it."

"Well, I won't try at all with this job because I don't want it."

"Jude..." Dad speaks in a low voice.

I meet his gaze.

We just stare at each other.

Nothing he could say could make me want this job, or even take this job. He knew he couldn't control me, and if he cut me off, then I would get a job, a different one, maybe where Rich works.

He has a decent job. I wouldn't mind working with him.

"We'll talk about this later," Dad speaks, turning back to Rich, giving him pointers, which I ignored.

We'll talk about this later? No, he'll just make me do it later.

When we get back home.

Let's hope this business meeting is worth it.

Just as I go to reach for my phone, the car jerks to the right. My face slams into the glass, spraying it with blood. I open my eyes, feeling my nose with my hands. I feel the wetness on my hand and it doesn't take a genius to figure out it was blood.

I look up to the front, and see Rich, hands on steering wheel, his grip tight. His knuckles turn white I thought they were going to explode.

There are no cars in front of us. Why the heck did he turn?

Before I can voice the question, Rich jerks the wheel again, this time to the left, and I jerk forward, the two seatbelts catching me before I can fly through the windshield.

Instead of being able to control the car this time, we go flying through the air.

The car hit the ground, and I hear my yell echo across the car. I can feel us spinning as the car continually hits the ground as we roll.

I try to reach forward to Dad, but I can't pull my hands off my head. All I saw was glass and blood.

The car lands with a huge thud, and I am thrown forward. One of the seatbelts snap, and I fly to my right, landing into the glass, breaking it. It was either that, or my head.

I feel dizzy as I try to sit up, but I keep sliding my hands on glass, cutting myself even further.

I look up to the front to see both of the airbags are on. Rich is leaning against the wheel, his hair matted with blood, his back split open. I look to Dad, and I see his eyes wide open as he lays against his chair, his face covered with blood.

I let out a gasp of relief. Rich is still breathing and dad has his eyes open.

Out of nowhere, we are hit with a giant thud, and the whole car jerks to the right. I hit the car with my shoulder bone, making me cry out. I look out my window to see a huge semi.

I look at them in the front. They both seem alright.

We're okay.

I push against Rich, trying to wake him up. He doesn't move.

Dad doesn't need to be pushed awake, so I focus on Rich.

But when I look at Dad, I look at his chest.

It isn't moving.

Panic grabs me by the throat, and I try to pull myself forward, but my seatbelt won't let go of me. I try to unbuckle myself, but my fingers are shaking so badly I can't do it.

So I claw at Dad, trying to feel his neck for his heartbeat.

I place my fingers on the correct spot.

But I do not feel a pulse.

"Dad! Dad!"

No answer.

Rich moves slightly, and I know he's awake.

"Rich?"

His fingers move.

I hear sirens.

I look behind me, pushing my hair out of my face. But when I try to reach my arm up, I feel a soaring pain. I look down at my arm, and see something poking out, covered in blood. My stomach heaves when I realize it's my bone.

Someone breaks the glass on my left, and I cover my face. I look up to see two policemen standing there. One unlocks the door, and grabs me. I want to fight him, but I don't, letting him pull me out of the car.

"Get my Dad!" I yell, wanting them to try and revive him, or even just tell me he's alive.

They break open Dad's side of the car, as well as Rich's. They pull Rich from the car, and he's still unconscious. They lay him on a stretcher, and I watch as they pick him up and bring him to the ambulance I didn't realize was there.

I look around and realize we are right in the middle of the highway.

I see them pull Dad from the car, and I try to stand. Someone grabs me, pulling me onto a stretcher, but this time I fight. I try to claw my way to my dad, the officers holding me back.

"Is he alive?" I half scream at the men carrying Dad toward me.

They look as if they have already checked.

One man kneels down to me, "Sir, your father is dead. We believe he was dead on impact," his words are emotionless. Then he leaves me, and goes back to the other officers.

I am pushed onto the stretcher, and I lay back, closing my eyes.

Dad's dead.

I feel them pick me up.

Tears stream down my face.

He's dead.