Chapter 1
My boyfriend was glued to the conversation with his childhood friend while barreling down the fast lane at
sixty, stuck riding beside a big rig.
The car behind him finally honked in annoyance, and Tessa Rowen stomped on it-pouting, she cooed at
Derek Langston, “Derek, that horn is so annoying, it scared me.”
“Block him. Don’t let him pass!” she snapped.
I glanced at the license plate on the car behind us-NVL 9X999-and my skin went cold; I warned Derek not
to start anything.
After I explained why it was dangerous, Derek finally backed off and let the lane open.
We made it to our destination in one piece, but Tessa stewed about Derek’s choice to give way; she thought
he hadn’t put her first.
Sour and sulking, she went out alone to drink away her mood, and that night-drunk and alone on the street-
she was assaulted and killed.
Derek held Tessa’s cold body and screamed like he was tearing himself apart, but after the burial he wore a
calm face and proposed to me.
–
I let myself imagine a future for a few short hours and then, on our wedding night, he drugged me and sold
me to traffickers.
In the haze I heard his voice in my ear, screaming, “If you hadn’t yapped, Tessa wouldn’t have died!”
“You’re so scared of those nines – I’ll have ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine men come
after you, to honor Tessa.”
In the end, I died under endless cruelty and humiliation.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Derek and his childhood friend decided to force that
other car off the highway.
**
4
Beep! Beep!
Two quick horn blasts jolted me from a near-death nightmare.
I opened my eyes to see Tessa swivel in her seat and yell at the car behind us.
“Can’t you see we’re in a Porsche?” she barked. “You in that piece-of-junk Volkswagen, how dare you honk at
Chapter 1
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me-watch how I fix you!”
Then she turned and ordered Derek, “Derek, block him. Don’t you let him pass!”
Her two friends egged her on. “Yeah, teach that idiot a lesson; make him think twice next time.”,
As I looked at the two trashy-looking girls beside me and at Tessa in the passenger seat, and watched Derek nod eagerly, it hit me – I’d been given another chance.
I was back on the day they egged Derek into trying to force the other car off the road.
When I glanced back, there really was a Volkswagen with that dreaded vanity plate: NVL 9X999.
Because Derek was crawling along beside the rig, he’d trapped the VW in the passing lane.
Seeing me in silence, Tessa scowled at me. “What, got something to say about me blocking that car?” she
demanded.
Derek saw her mood sour and immediately turned on me. “Mira, you’re such a drag – you act like an old woman, terrified of everything.”
“If you had even a tenth of Tessa’s energy, I wouldn’t be so sick of you.”
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