Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Sheryl's POV

The news anchor's voice droned on like white noise while the footage played on repeat. A fiery wreckage on the elevated expressway, smoke billowing into the sky, emergency vehicles surrounding the scene.

I stood frozen before the TV, my lungs refusing to function. My skin had gone cold, as if all the blood had drained from my body in a single, terrible moment.

"No... it can't be..."

The words fell from my lips in a whisper, a desperate plea to a universe that had never shown me mercy.

With trembling fingers, I grabbed my phone from the coffee table. I pulled up Rhett's message from fifteen minutes ago—Be home soon—and hit call. Each ring echoed like a death knell.

One ring. Two. Three.

Nothing but silence.

My heart felt like it had been hollowed out with a dull blade. The pain was physical, radiating through my chest with every breath.

I stared numbly at the television screen, watching the young reporter's lips move while the ticker beneath her continued its merciless scroll: NO SURVIVORS REPORTED.

No survivors.

Three simple words that threatened to collapse the fragile architecture of my world.

My phone rang suddenly, Claudia's name flashing on the screen. If she was calling now, then the police must have...

No.

I couldn't accept it. Rhett had promised he'd come home.

I answered with trembling fingers. "Hello?"

"Sheryl..." Claudia's voice was thick with emotion. "Listen to me—"

"Is it him?" I cut her off, my voice eerily calm despite the storm raging inside.

"There's been a terrible accident on the expressway. Rhett might be—" Her voice cracked. "He might be gone."

I hung up without a word and rushed toward the door.

Rhett's head of security blocked my path as I stepped outside. "Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Hayes left explicit instructions that you remain at home until his return."

Until his return. The words cut through me like glass. I definitely hoped he could.

"Move," I said, my voice deadly quiet.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Mrs. Hayes, I'm afraid I cannot—"

In one fluid motion, I reached for the gun holstered at his hip and pulled it free, leveling it at his chest. I'd never held a gun before. It was heavier than I expected, cold and unforgiving against my palm.

His eyes widened in shock. "Mrs. Hayes—"

"I'm going to find my husband," I said with terrible clarity. "Move aside."

He hesitated and then stepped back, giving me space.

I handed him back the gun and rushed past just as a white Audi screeched to a halt at the curb. The driver's window rolled down to reveal Claudia's anxious face.

"Get in," she called. "I'll take you."

The drive to the accident scene passed in a blur. My mind refused to process what was happening, as if by denying reality I could somehow change it.

From half a mile away, I could see the black smoke still rising from the wreckage. Three vehicles—mangled beyond recognition—huddled together like skeletal remains. Police cars and fire trucks had formed a perimeter, and yellow tape cordoned off the area.

Claudia had barely stopped the car before I was out, moving toward the smoking ruins with single-minded determination.

The wind whipped my hair around my face as I approached the police line. A uniformed officer stepped forward to block my path.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, this is an active accident scene. You can't go any further."

I looked past him, my eyes fixed on the blackened shell of what had once been Rhett's SUV.

"That's my husband's car," I said, my voice oddly calm. "I need to see him."

"Ma'am, I understand you're upset, but—"

"I came to take him home," I continued as if he hadn't spoken. "Either alive or dead, I'm taking him home."

The officer's expression softened with pity—a look I couldn't bear. Claudia stepped forward, flashing her father's police commissioner badge. After a moment's hesitation, the officer lifted the tape.

I approached the wreckage slowly, each step heavier than the last. Some irrational part of me refused to believe Rhett could be gone. A man like him—so vibrant, so powerful, so alive—couldn't simply vanish in flame and smoke.

I fell to my knees beside the burnt-out SUV, my hands frantically searching through the debris. I didn't know what I was looking for. A sign. A miracle. Anything to prove that the universe hadn't ripped him away from me.

Claudia knelt beside me, her arms encircling my shoulders. "Sheryl, stop. Please. The fire was too intense. There's... there's nothing left to find."

I ignored her, my ash-blackened hands continuing their desperate search. If I just kept looking, maybe I could find some evidence that this wasn't real, that Rhett had somehow escaped.

Then my fingers closed around something solid.

A watch face. Half-melted, the band completely destroyed, but recognizable all the same. The Patek Philippe I'd helped him wear before he left.

I clutched it to my chest, feeling something inside me finally break. A primal sound tore from my throat—not a scream, not a sob, but something ancient and terrible that had no name.

I collapsed against Claudia, my entire body convulsing with the force of my grief. My fingers dug into the watch fragment so hard it cut into my skin, but I welcomed the pain. Physical agony was nothing compared to the chasm opening in my chest.

"I gave him this," I gasped between sobs. "I put it on his wrist myself."

Claudia held me tighter, her own tears falling freely. "I know, honey. I know."

I don't know how long I knelt there, cradling that fragment of metal like it was the most precious thing in the world. Time had lost all meaning. Eventually, the sobs subsided, leaving an emptiness so profound it seemed to consume me from within.

The world around me began to blur at the edges. Claudia's voice sounded distant, underwater.

"Sheryl? Sheryl!"

But I was already falling, darkness rising to meet me like an old friend.