After a wintry January ended, an even wintrier February began. Zunnie's office was quieter than it had been in the fall. Even though her mornings were busy and her evenings short, she always left the office at seven in the evening.
However, this evening was different. She was heading to the Bai manor for dinner with her family. She hurriedly packed up her office at five and rushed to the garage with plans to pick Alex from his office. Unfortunately, the drive to Arch.deZIgns was taking longer than usual.
She had been busy fussing at how poorly persons were driving when her phone rang. Seeing it was Alex calling she immediately picked up.
"Hi hunni, I'm stuck in traffic. I should be there in fifteen minutes."
"Okay, see you soon."
Zunnie ended the call and slowly proceeded through the rush hour traffic. They were having a family dinner to celebrate Eyan and Selena's engagement. Her big brother was finally engaged and Zunnie couldn't be happier for him.
But, she was not as cheerful as her father. Hearing that his eldest and only son had found a woman to love all his life, Wan Bai became the happiest man in Una City. The moment the newly engaged pair return from their trip, he had planned a family dinner. Since she and Alex had been busy working, the dinner had been pushed to February.
At five-thirty, Zunnie finally arrived at Alex's office. When she pulled into the parking lot, Alex was already there waiting on her. Even though he had just left the office, he was still working. He ended the work-related call when he saw her and walked over to her side of the car.
"Hi cutie," he said and bent over to kiss her through the opened car window.
"Hi," Zunnie blushed. Alex was being too cute, and she couldn't contain her embarrassment seeing how confident he looked.
He was fine-looking in his dark blue suit. If she had not seen his tired eyes, she would think that he had not worked at all today.
"Let me drive."
He pulled open the door and helped her out. Alex picked her up into his arms and carried to the passenger's side like a princess. When he set her down, he buckled her seatbelt and walked back to the driver's seat.
On the way over to the mansion, they discussed the new wing his contractor would be building. Since this winter was much colder than they had expected, Alex wanted to postpone construction until it started getting warmer to which she agreed.
"Darling, did you get your gift for Selena and Eyan?" Zunnie asked him, curious to hear what he bought.
Before Alex had a chance to reply to her, their car jerked forward. It had been hit from behind. Zunnie glanced over at Alex and saw him frown. He peeped through the rearview mirror trying to make out the car behind them.
"What the…why are they so close. I can't even see the car with their light blinding me." Alex fussed.
"Should we pull over to let them pass?" Zunnie asked worried they were wanting to get by and were just bad drivers.
"I don't think they want to overtake us. This car has been following since we left the city. There are not many vehicles on this road, so they could have gone ahead." Alex replied as he furrowed his brow.
"Oh, look darling, they're slowing down," Zunnie said; relieved that nothing had happened.
Alex wanted to stop but he didn't, noticing that slowed down he continued driving, ignoring the vehicle. Deep down he could tell that it was not a mistake. Yet, he was not worried because he had Secretary Zhang install cameras to the front and back of Zunnie's Volvo.
Alex knew announcing their marriage would cause an uproar and wanted to do anything to protect Zunnie. He had not informed Zunnie of his actions because he did not want to scare her or have her worry too much.
They were nearing the exit to drive up the Bai manor when they were violently hit from behind causing Alex to lose control of the vehicle. When he managed to stop the car, he turned to look at Zunnie and his heart sank. Blood was flowing from her head. He couldn't tell if she was badly hurt or if it was just a scratch.
"Honey are you…."
The car was crashed into again, flipping it a few times off the road into a ditch. Aware of what was happening, Alex made an effort to unbuckle his seatbelt to go over to Zunnie, but it wouldn't budge. His arms were starting to numb, so after a few unsuccessful tries he gave up.
He tried to reach out to her, but his right arm would not move. His ignored the pain all over his body and attempted to call out her name which had not been successful either.
The scent of blood mixed with the wet grass filled the car and voices could be heard in a distance. Alex became angry listening to voices. He had no idea if they were from the vehicle who hit them or if they had seen what occurred and stopped to help. He tried listening but he could not make out what they were saying.
As he sat there tightly buckled in, unable to move, do or say anything, pain and fear began filling his heart and he slowly began losing consciousness.
He had tried to hard to protect her but, in the end, he failed.
Seeing her lay there unresponsive, his eyes began stinging; whether it was from tears or blood he could not tell. Alex drifted off into a dark place thinking of the last time he saw her smile.