Free Web NovelChapter 160: The Brakes Broken
"Your phone is right here. Take your time to consider your options," Christian smiled eerily, adding, "Perhaps you might wish to abstain from choosing. In any case, I will marry you once Wendy is dead."
Obviously, Christian was making Zen choose. He had even given her a way to salvage what was left of her pride, intentionally pointing out that she did not have to choose. But by abstaining, she would have made a silent choice anyways.
Zen swallowed hard. This was indeed a temptation that was too good to miss. What was she to do?
On the one hand was Wendy, who used to be her very best friend, while on the other, the man she had loved for five years. Suddenly, she shook her head violently.
No way. She would not allow herself to continue on this slippery slope to the fiery depths of hell.
Although she loved Christian, she did not want to be drawn into his hellish world of evil and cold-bloodedness and ultimately become like him.
Besides, Wendy was once her very best friend. If she turned a blind eye now to what was about to happen to Wendy and did not try to do anything to stop it, she would never rest easy for the rest of her life.
Although she said nothing, Zen’s action was already reflecting her choice. She walked to her phone and picked it up.
Although the display screen had been damaged from Christian’s violent throw, the phone was still usable.
Noting that she was about to make the call, Christian jeered, "Ha, so much for your fervent declaration of love for me. I asked you to choose between Wendy and me, and you have chosen her instead."
Tears welling in her eyes, Zen’s lips twitched as she tried to control her emotions.
Seeing that Zen had already made the call and was waiting for Wendy to pick up, Christian tried again, "If that’s the way it’s going to be, what right have you to accuse me? You are also giving up on the one you love."
"Shut up!" Since the phone was still ringing, Zen stared at him through her teary eyes, adding, "You were going to have Wendy killed! There is no comparison to be made here!"
Meanwhile, Wendy, seeing that Zen was calling her, accepted the call without hesitation.
"Zen, are you OK?" Wendy remembered Zen’s panicked shriek earlier and was worried.
"Listen to me, Wendy," Fearing that Christian might snatch the phone from her again, Zen hastily took a few steps back before continuing quickly, "The brakes in your car have been tampered with. Please do not take the car out. Understand?"
"What?" Hearing the panicked urgency in Zen’s voice, Wendy knew that she was not kidding.
In the earlier call, Zen had already warned her, asking her to be careful. So was this it? The brakes had been tampered with? Instinctively, Wendy stepped on the brakes. True enough, they did not seem to engage! Hearing the sounds of a car in motion, Zen turned cold and asked, "Are you driving right now?"
"I’ve been on the road for a few minutes now. The brakes seem to be faulty," Wendy gulped as she turned to look at Jake seated in the back. Her son was also in the car.
"Oh, what do we do now?" Zen was in such a state of panic that she began stamping her feet.
Seeing her in that state, Christian burst out laughing.
Hearing his laughter, the horrified Zen looked at him in trepidation. free𝑤ebnovel.com
This man was scary, a downright despicable and evil man. freewebnovёl.ƈom
Christian reached out and grabbed the phone from Zen, dodging her when she tried to snatch it back from him. He simply switched the phone off.
"You! I swear I will get you if anything happens to Wendy!" Zen ranted, knowing full well that her threat meant absolutely nothing to him.
At this very moment, she did not know how else to help Wendy except to threaten Christian and try to make him stop.
"Well, I did keep my bargain and let you make the call, no?" Christian sneered.
"Did you already know that Wendy was on the road?" Zen asked in disbelief, wondering if this man even had a heart.
"Yes, I knew," Christian replied offhandedly, adding, "I am on the path of no return. Did you think that I would give you a chance to warn her?"
At his reply, Zen was stumped speechless. He truly was ruthless. And Zen did not even come close to being able to oppose him.
Despite the call being unceremoniously cut off again, Wendy was too distracted to call Zen back. At this point, both Jake’s and her safety were of the highest priority.
"Mummy, are the brakes broken?" Jake asked from the back seat, having listened in on the conversation between Zen and Wendy. "Can we do something about it?"
"Let me think..." Wendy said, swallowing hard and trying to calm herself down. She had been driving for a little over ten minutes, cruising along since there were no traffic lights with it being a rural town.
In fact, it was not until Zen had called to warn her that she had tried to use the brakes.
Fortunately, traffic was sparse and there were not many pedestrians on the road.
At this time, Jake was already placing a call to Michael.
Noting that the incoming call was from Jake, Michael was at first surprised. After all,
the two cars were travelling within sight of each other and there was no real need for them to talk on the phone.
Knowing that Jake would not try to call Michael, understanding that he was driving,
Michael suspected that there were extenuating circumstances, which was why he answered the call without hesitation, "Jake."
"Uncle Michael, There’s something wrong with the brakes in Mummy’s car. What should we do?" Jake replied, sounding calm.
Despite his high IQ, he was, after all, still a kid who had never driven a car before. And he did not know how to resolve this issue at hand. He could tell that his mom was starting to panic and had to stay focused on driving and maneuvering the road.
So, his only remaining option was to seek help from Michael.
"The brakes are broken?" Michael’s heart sank at the news as he asked, "How did that happen? They were fine when we drove out here yesterday."
At that moment, Michael realized that someone must have tampered with the brakes.
Both their cars were high-end luxurious cars that came with regular maintenance schedules. There was no way the brakes could have malfunctioned unless someone had tampered with them.
"Don’t panic. I’m in front of you and will help Mummy maintain her speed. There aren’t many cars or pedestrians on this rural road so there is no immediate danger. Let’s first look for an uphill road and see if we can reduce the speed that way..."
Michael said calmly to Jake, adding, "What speed is Mummy driving at now?"
Since Jake had the speaker on, Wendy had heard Michael’s question and replied, "72."
When he heard the number 72, Michael felt a pang of regret and blamed himself. It was his fault for speeding up when he’d filtered onto the main road. Following behind him, Wendy had naturally increased her speed as well.
Earlier, when they were still on the side road, they were driving only at about 30. At a speed of 72, if the car got involved in a collision or overturned on its own, the people inside would definitely get hurt. Although the injuries might not be life threatening, there would be injuries nonetheless.
Seated in the back seat, Todd and Leah heard what Michael had just said to Jake and looked concerned.
Todd immediately turned around and saw that Wendy’s car was travelling close to Michael’s.
"There are no uphill roads in the vicinity, " Wendy replied instantly. She had grown up in the area and was naturally very familiar with the terrain.
At that, Michael began to panic also. However, he reminded himself to stay calm.
After all, his wife and child were in that car.
At that moment, Todd was already searching online for possible solutions.
He quickly suggested, "Try using the handbrake to reduce your speed. Do it slowly and steadily otherwise the wire might snap. Try that now, Corinne."
Wendy tried what Todd suggested but found that the car showed no signs of slowing down.
"It’s not working," Wendy inhaled sharply, feeling her heart pounding rapidly.
It would not have been so bad if it had been just her in the car, but Jake was there too. It was fortunate that Michael had made Leah and Todd ride with him. Otherwise, the situation would have been even more dire.
"If the handbrake is successful, then you’d have to try cutting in, jam on the accelerator, downshift, then jam on the accelerator again, and upshift. If you don’t slow down when going downslope, the car speed goes faster and faster and the gearbox would already be very hard to open and close. You mostly wouldn’t be able to obtain a lower gear. There would still be a glimpse of hope if you use this method." Todd Lewis once again read out the method he had searched up on his phone. "Try again, Corrine."
Wendy Stewart tried again as Todd said, but it was even more serious this time.
Not only did the car not stop, but it also almost flipped.
She did not dare to try anymore.
She did not dare to take Jake Stewart’s life to try it.
"Little Jake, don’t be afraid, mummy will definitely protect you." No matter how afraid Wendy was, she still had to be calm and reassure Jake.
Nonetheless, she forgot that Jake was not a normal child. At that moment, he was even calmer than Wendy. "Mummy, I’m not afraid, you don’t have to worry about me, we can definitely think of a way."
Michael Lucas knew that the situation now was not optimistic. He turned the steering wheel and stopped the car at the roadside.
Michael said hurriedly, "Quickly get out of the car!"
"Michael, what’re you doing?" Todd did not have a good feeling about this.
"Get out!" Michael watched as Wendy’s car was already far away and roared,
"There’s no time to talk."
Carrying Leah Lewis, Todd could only get out of the car.
He had just gotten out and his legs had not stood firmly when Michael immediately engaged the car and drove off.
Watching Michael’s car, Todd had complicated feelings.
At that time, with Michael letting him and Leah get out of the car, he was very clear that Michael was regretfully about to do something dangerous.
Todd carried Leah up and for a moment did not know where he should go. He could only walk in the direction that their car had left.
Leah already knew that something had happened. She asked softly and worriedly,
"Uncle Lewis, nothing will happen to mummy and brother, right?"
"No, definitely nothing will." Carrying Leah, Todd reached out and patted her on the back, reassuring her.
Michael speedily caught up and went in front of Wendy’s car.
Michael, at that time, was unusually calm.
He sucked in a breath and said on the phone, "Wendy, listen to me. We’re about to reach the county. Once in the county, there’ll be lots of people and cars, your danger will increase. It’ll be very dangerous even if you decrease your speed now, you might very possibly flip if met with a bend. So, the best way currently is for you to crash into my car."
"No way!" Wendy rejected without a thought.
It was her car which had a problem anyway. If she crashed into Michael’s car, both cars might get into a disaster.
"Listen to me, mine’s an SUV, yours a saloon, my vehicle is a lot heavier than your vehicle. Let’s find an upslope road, a small one will do too. I’ll speed up and you crash into me at uniform speed. This can let your car reduce in speed upon hitting an obstacle, while I’m in an SUV and it’s heavy, it most likely won’t flip."
"If you get into an accident, we’ll all be in a disaster!" Wendy was completely not confident.
"This is currently the best way, it can most probably save us, do you understand?"
Michael continued to convince Wendy. "You have to think, if you reach the county and meet other cars, you’d very likely hit them too. Others have no coordination with you, the damage will be most serious. If you don’t want to crash into other cars, it’d be your car flipping in the end. Wendy, you have to think about little Jake. If you really flip, what about little Jake?"
Hearing Jake’s name, Wendy went quiet.
However, she was afraid that something would happen to all three of them by then.
Michael continued to convince her, "Don’t worry, you crashing into my car is just for you to reduce speed, nothing will happen."
