Chapter 180: The accident

He sat there with a clenched jaw, hands resting on the steering wheel.

The words came again, Home.

His father’s voice still echoed in his head.

Come back now!

He let out a slow breath, already bracing himself for whatever was waiting.

Just as he reached to start the engine. The phone buzzed again as the screen lit up on the dashboard.

He glanced at it, and it was still Alex calling.

Lucas’s jaw tightened instantly.

“Isn’t he tired of calling already?” he snapped under his breath, irritation flaring up all over again.

The phone kept vibrating, annoyingly insistent.

Lucas stared at the screen for a second longer, anger simmering beneath the surface, memories flashing too quickly to sort through.

The accusations, were dismissed.

It was just a fling.

His grip on the steering wheel tightened.

“No,” he muttered.

Without another thought, he reached over and declined the call.

Heavy silence returned.

He dropped the phone onto the passenger seat, not sparing it another glance.

“Enough,” he said quietly to himself.

Then he started the engine. The car roared to life. Lucas pulled out onto the road, headlights cutting through the darkness as he drove off toward home.

Toward another confrontation.

Because if the kidnapping wasn’t enough, he knew his father had a lot waiting for him.

Lucas drove in tense silence, the road stretching endlessly ahead of him. Streetlights flickered past in intervals, casting brief shadows across his face. His grip on the steering wheel was firm, his mind anything but calm.

His father. Alex, the kidnapping, everything tangled together, refusing to settle.

He exhaled sharply, trying to focus on the road.

Then a distant sound came. It was loud and felt wrong.

The horn kept blasting, relentlessly.

Lucas frowned slightly, his eyes shifting to the side mirror. He saw headlights. It was too fast and too close.

“What the hec…”

The sound grew louder, metal rattling, something heavy dragging, completely out of control.

Lucas turned his head and saw it. It was a truck barreling toward him, unstable and swerving.

Its horn blaring wildly like a warning it couldn’t control.

Lucas’s heart slammed against his chest.

“No… no…!”

He gripped the wheel, trying to veer off but it was too late.

The truck lurched violently and crashed

The impact exploded through the night. Metal slammed into metal with a deafening roar.

Lucas’s car spun violently, the force jerking his body sideways as glass shattered around him.

The world flipped. First came the blinding lights followed by darkness.

Everything blurred into chaos.

His head snapped forward, hitting hard. Pain burst through him.

The car skidded across the road before slamming to a stop with a sickening crunch.

Then silence.

Lucas slumped against the seat, breath shallow, vision blurred.

Smoke curled faintly from the crumpled hood.

The smell of burnt rubber filled the air.  Somewhere in the distance came voices, shouting and running.

But it all sounded too far away.

Lucas’s fingers twitched weakly against the steering wheel.

His vision dimmed and then everything went blank.

In a few minutes, sirens tore through the night. Red and blue lights washed over the wreckage, flashing against twisted metal and shattered glass.

“Move, move!”

First responders rushed in, boots pounding against the asphalt.

The truck had jackknifed across the road, its front crushed, smoke hissing from beneath the hood.     Lucas’s car was worse. It spun sideways, the front end caved in, and the windshield shattered.

“Victim in the car!” one of them shouted.

“Check responsiveness!”

A paramedic reached the driver’s side, yanking at the handle.

“The door's jammed!”

“Get the cutter!”

Another team circled, assessing quickly. “Truck driver’s alive, minor injuries. Focus on the car first!”

Lucas hung limply against the seatbelt, head tilted, blood trailing faintly from his forehead. His chest rose barely.

“Pulse is weak!” a paramedic called out after reaching through the broken window.

“Hey! Can you hear me?” another shouted, tapping lightly against his cheek.

No response.

“Damn it, hey, stay with me!”

The hydraulic cutter roared to life.

“Clear!”

Sparks flew as metal groaned and split under pressure. The door bent outward inch by inch.

“Almost, got it!”

With a final wrenching snap, the door gave way.

“Easy, easy, watch his neck,” the lead paramedic instructed, already slipping a brace into place.

“On three, one, two, lift!”

They carefully pulled Lucas free from the wreck, his body slack, his head rolling slightly before being steadied.

“Get him on the stretcher!”

They moved fast, laying him down, strapping him in.

“BP dropping!”

“Start oxygen, now!”

A mask was secured over his face.

“Hey guy, stay with me,” the paramedic urged, checking his pupils. “Come on, don’t go out on us.”

No response.

“Load him up!”

The stretcher was lifted and rushed toward the ambulance.

“Let’s go!”

Inside, controlled chaos.

“IV line in!”

“The pulse is still weak!”

“Possible internal bleeding, prep fluids!”

The ambulance sped off, sirens screaming louder than before, cutting through traffic as every second became critical.

Behind them, the wreck remained. Twisted metal under flashing lights, but ahead it was a race against time.

He barely registered the hands holding him down, the voices overlapping in a blur of urgency as the rescue team worked.

“Stay with us! Can you hear me?”

Lucas tried to respond, but the words wouldn’t form. Pain pulsed through his skull, sharp and relentless, drowning everything else. The world tilted, fading in and out like a flickering light. Then darkness.

By morning, the steady beeping of a monitor dragged him back.

Lucas’s eyes fluttered open, his vision hazy. White ceiling, sterile smell.

Then it dawned on him that he was in a hospital.

For a moment, he couldn’t move or think. His body felt heavy, like it didn’t quite belong to him.

A voice cut through the fog.

“Lucas? Can you hear me?”

He turned slightly, wincing as a stabbing pain shot through his head. A doctor stood nearby, clipboard in hand, watching him closely.

“You’re in the hospital,” the doctor said calmly. “You were involved in a serious accident. A truck hit your car.”

Accident? He tried to recall but couldn't remember.

Lucas sucked in a sharp breath, clutching at his head.

“Easy,” the doctor warned. “Don’t move too much.”

“What happened to me?” Lucas managed, his voice hoarse.

The doctor exchanged a brief look with the nurse and Alex who had been there since last night, before speaking.

“You sustained multiple injuries, but the most concerning was a severe head trauma. We ran several tests. He paused, choosing his words carefully. “The results show that the accident caused a serious head injury.”

Lucas frowned, trying to process that through the pounding in his skull.

“A… head injury?” he repeated weakly.

“Yes,” the doctor continued. “It affected your brain. Some of the symptoms you might experience are,, disorientation, memory gaps, difficulty focusing, they’re all linked to that trauma.”

A chill crept through Lucas despite the warmth of the room.

Memory gaps?

His fingers tightened against the bedsheet.

e asked, unease creeping into

The doctor stepped closer, his tone firm but not unkind.

“We need to monitor you closely, but from what we’ve observed after the tests, you’re showing signs of. It’s a direct result of that head injury. And depending on how your brain recovers.” He paused again. “It may take a little time to heal.”

The beeping of the machine suddenly felt louder.

Lucas stared ahead, his mind racing, and yet, strangely blank.

Alex moved closer to him, “Don't worry baby, everything will work out fine.”

Lucas stared at him as if trying to recall him. Then gently he asked, “Who are you?”

Alex froze.