Free I See...Love (A Different Road Book 1) by Annalisa Nicole

my nightstand and push the button on the clock that tells me the time.
    “The current time is three forty-seven A.M.,” the robotic sounding female voice tells me.
    Like every morning, I wish just once I could sleep until five. That’s all I ask for. I don’t need six or seven. Five would be fantastic.
    Although, then I would have that much more time reliving my nightmare in my dreams. The sounds that play are so real. The crumpling of steel, the shattering of glass, the terrified screams coming from my mother, every detail plays over and over. The sights and sounds are so vivid that it feels like it’s happening right now. I sat in the back seat behind my father with a clear view to the passenger seat where my mother sat. My sister, Kate, sat next to me behind my mother. I usually sat behind my mother because her seat sat more forward, allowing my long legs more room. Even at ten, I was already taller than everyone in my class. But this day, I chose to sit behind my dad. I secretly thank God, if there is one, for that decision.
    I’ll never forget the screams that came from my mother when she realized what was about to happen. Being blinded from the accident is ironic. Because what I wish I could never see again, is the one thing I see as clear as the day it happened. That accident took my sight, but it left me with things I wish I could forget.
    In that split second after she started to scream, she turned her head to look back at us. I still remember the terror in her eyes and the way her hair flew through the air. Her left arm started to come to us, but her seat belt locked and kept her confined in her seat. As she screamed, ‘no,’ the out of control car hit ours head on. It hit our car with such force that the front end of the other car came halfway into ours. As I screamed, ‘no,’ the insides of our car and the front end of the other car crumpled inward and hit my mother and father straight on.
    Her screaming words stopped as if someone hit the mute button, but the terror in her open eyes stayed glued to mine long after she stopped breathing. She was killed instantly. I know she didn’t suffer and that was a great comfort. I couldn’t see my father, but I heard the gurgling that came from the seat in front of me. I don’t think my father had the same luxury of dying instantly. Did it serve him right?
    As the car crumpled, something came flying in the back seat and hit me in the head. I remember tearing my eyes from my mother’s and quickly looking at my sister. With relief, I saw only a small cut on her face. I looked back at my mother’s open, dead eyes, one last time and I tried with all I had to reach forward and close them, but I couldn’t move. Then I passed out. When I came to in the hospital a few days later, I woke to the terrifying fact that I was now permanently and one hundred percent blind.
    I was blind to the world, but left with the horrified last sight of my mother’s cold, dead eyes. I was the last thing she ever saw.
    Grief fills my heart and soul. I get out of bed and turn on the shower as hot as it will go before I lose it. I step in and let the hot water wash away what no one is allowed to see. My weakness pours unwanted and uncontrollably out of my eyes.
    I get out of the shower and get ready for my day. I like to head into the office on Sunday when no one is there. I have things I need to prepare before Sebastien comes into the office Monday like he promised. It’s time to get things moving forward to try and buy him out. Surely, money talks and everyone has a price. I need to be rid of Sebastien, now.
    I walk back into my bedroom and hear the distinct crack of Josh’s knee as he stands from a chair in the corner.
    “What is it?” I ask.
    His sigh tells it all. Something has happened.
    “Is it Kate?” I ask, concerned.
    “No, it’s nothing like that. Someone from the party last night sold a photo to the tabloids,” he says.
    I growl and ball my hands into fists. I know