Free Web NovelChapter 43: The accident
Emily’s jaw dropped. "A fiancée? Julian has a fiancée... No that doesn’t make any sense."
"It doesn’t have to make sense," Lyvana replied, her eyes growing hard. "Maybe I should have asked him if he was engaged or married before..."
"Before what? Did you and him..."
Her phone started buzzing again. She finally picked it up, intending to silence it for good so she could focus on getting through the day. But as she swiped the screen, her breath hitched.
She saw the missed calls from Julian, but beneath them was a mountain of other notifications which were pouring down the screen faster than she could read them. There were strange alerts from unknown numbers, and a string of urgent emails.
"Urgent: Payment Authorization Failed"
"Alert: Account Access Restricted"
Then, the most terrifying alerts appeared. One after another, messages showed large sums of money being moved.
"Transfer Confirmed: $500,000 to Account ending in 8802" freewebnøvel.com
"Transfer Confirmed: $1,200,000 to Account ending in 4491"
"Transfer Confirmed: $350,000 to Account ending in 0027"
Her money was disappearing in real-time, sent to several unknown accounts she didn’t recognize.
Her heart began to pound.
She opened her banking app.
Balance: $0.00
"What the hell!"
"Liv, what is it," Emily asked looking worried.
Lyvana turned to her, looking completely confused. She looked back down at her phone, her eyes scanning the alerts.
"Someone withdrew all my money," Lyvana whispered, her voice trembling. "Emily, the company accounts are empty. Even my personal savings."
Emily rushed to her side, leaning over to look at the screen.
"That’s impossible. You have layers of security! How could someone just... take it?"
"I don’t know," Lyvana said. Her fingers shook as she tried to refresh the app, but the screen went dark. Access Denied.
"I need to call my accountant. I... I need... we should call the bank, right?"
"Calm down," Emily said, trying to stay steady. "I’m sure the bankers are sorting this out right now."
"I can’t just sit here!" Lyvana said, grabbing her bag from the chair.
"Liv, wait! Where are you going?" Emily shouted, reaching for her arm, but Lyvana was already halfway to the door.
"The bank! I have to go to the bank," Lyvana said. "I need to find out what the fuck is going on."
"Let me go with you..." But she had already bolted out the front door.
Lyvana scrambled into her car, her hands shaking so violently she could barely fit the key into the ignition. She threw the car into reverse and sped down the private drive, her only thought being the bank. She needed to find her money.
She was so focused on the road and the alerts still flashing on her phone that she didn’t see the pick-up parked under the shade of a tree near the end of the road.
As she pulled onto the main road, the pick-up’s engine hummed to life, pulling out smoothly, keeping a calculated distance behind her.
Lyvana wiped a stray tear from her cheek, her foot pressing harder on the gas. She didn’t check her rearview mirror. If she had, she would have noticed the way the pick-up mirrored her every turn.
As soon as she turned onto a lonely road lined with trees, a heavy impact jolted the entire car forward. Lyvana’s head snapped back. The pick-up had deliberately hit her from behind.
"What..." she gasped, gripping the steering wheel. She glanced at the rearview mirror, her eyes widening.
BAM.
Another slam. This one was harder, sending her car skidding toward the edge of the pavement.
Inside the pickup were two men.
"Bro, we were just supposed to scare her," the man in the passenger seat muttered, gripping the edge of the dashboard as the pickup slammed once again into the rear of lyvana’s car. "If she keeps swerving like that, she’ll crash."
The driver didn’t ease off. He grinned, his eyes dark with twisted amusement.
"So let her crash," he said flatly, his foot pressing harder on the gas. "We’re not touching her, just the car. If she dies, that’s just unfortunate... for her."
He steered into the back of her car once more, the sound of grinding metal echoing through the quiet street. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Lyvana’s car fishtailed, her tires screaming against the asphalt as she fought to stay on the road. But it was too much. Her car veered off the road and landed in a pile of smoke and broken glass.
Everything went silent.
The pickup truck stopped near the edge of the road. The driver leaned back in his seat. He pulled out his phone calmly, acting like he hadn’t just caused a terrible accident.
"Yeah," he said into the phone when someone answered. "It’s done. Her car went over the edge. No sign of movement yet."
He ended the call without waiting for a reply and turned the pickup around and drove off.
Minutes passed in total silence. The smoke from the car engine drifted slowly into the trees. Inside the wreckage, Lyvana lay slumped against the deflated airbag. Her forehead was bleeding, and her breath was shallow.
Slowly, her fingers moved. She winced as she felt the sharp pain in her head.
With a shaking hand, she reached for the floorboard, searching for her phone. It was cracked, but the screen flickered to life.
With blurry vision, she tapped the emergency icon and dialed 911.
"911, what is your emergency?" a calm voice asked.
"I... I’ve been run off the road," Lyvana choked out, her voice cracking. "A car hit me. I’m in a ditch... I think I’m on North Road..."
"Stay on the line, ma’am. We are tracking your GPS now. Can you tell me if you are injured?"
"Everything hurts," Lyvana breathed, her eyes fluttering shut. "Please... hurry."
She tried to push the door open, but it was jammed shut. She was trapped in the crushed metal, the smell of smoke getting thicker.
"Can you tell me your name?" the dispatcher asked.
"Lyvana..." she whispered, her head falling back against the seat. Her strength was fading fast.
"Stay with me, Lyvana," the voice in her ear urged. "Help is on the way. Just keep talking to me."
Lyvana didn’t answer. Her eyes closed, and the phone slipped from her hand, landing on the floor mat. The dispatcher’s voice continued to call her name into the silence of the wreck, but Lyvana couldn’t hear it anymore.
She was already drifting into the dark.
