The Mountain Highway That Took My Love and Child Chapter 05

The Mountain Highway That Took My Love and Child Chapter 05

Julian froze.

He gripped the doorframe, unable to what he had heard.

“What are you talking about? What crash?” he asked. “My wife, Lena, is fine. She just hasn’t come home yet.”

The state trooper remained expressionless. He showed his badge again.

“Mr. Sterling, please come with us. You can identify the body at the morgue and confirm whether it’s your wife.”

Before Julian could respond, Mia collapsed.

“Mia!”

Julian rushed forward and caught her.

She had fainted from sheer shock and blood loss from her head injury.

Once he had settled her, Julian turned to leave for the station, but Mia grabbed his hand. Her eyes, full of tears, were wide with defiance.

“I don’t believe Lena is dead. I have to see her myself.”

Julian had no choice but to take her with him.

When they reached the morgue, Julian was still in denial.

He clung to the thought that it had only been a race. How could she be dead?

Then he pulled back the sheet.

The woman lying there had a face so badly crushed that she was barely recognizable.

Without the DNA test, it would have been impossible to identify me.

Julian’s knees buckled.

He grabbed the gurney rail to steady himself.

“Lena…” his lips trembled. He wanted to scream that this wasn’t his wife—that they had the wrong body.

But the custom Tiffany setting on her right ring finger stared back at him.

It was brutal confirmation that the dead woman was his wife.

Julian reached for her right hand, which hung over the side of the gurney.

Her pinky finger was bent at an unnatural angle, stiff and impossible to straighten.

It was a reminder of the day she saved him.

The year their parents died, Julian was sixteen and Mia was eleven.

Their greedy relatives had circled like vultures seeking to seize the Sterling estate. They had even arranged a hit-and-run to kill him.

When a truck sped toward him, Lena had lunged forward and pushed him out of the way. Her right pinky was crushed beneath a tire.

Although surgeons reattached it, she was left with permanent disability.

Julian gently stroked her crooked finger, then looked up at her bloodied face.

“Lena, open your eyes. Look at me.”

“Don’t leave me. What about our baby?”

His hands frantically moved her abdomen.

Her belly was still swollen with the pregnancy, but the baby was gone.

“Lena, our baby is still there. I’m sorry. Please wake up.”

The medical examiner sighed, his voice heavy.

“I’m sorry for your loss, sir. She was pronounced dead nearly two hours ago.”

“There is nothing more that can be done for her.”

Julian glared at him, fury in his eyes.

“What do you mean, there’s no chance? You haven’t even tried to revive her!”

“Where’s the defibrillator? If you won’t do it, I will. I know CPR. Get out of the way!”

The deputies stepped in and pulled Julian back.

The medical examiner had seen plenty of grieving relatives.

But he had never seen anyone so delusional—trying to bring the dead back to life.

“She’s gone, sir. You need to accept it.”

Julian collapsed over the gurney, sobbing as he clutched my cold shoulders.

“I don’t believe it. You can’t just leave me like this, Lena. Wake up and look at me!”

“Enough!”