I Knew I Loved You

Chapter Four: The Horrible Accident

Stepping out of the café, Charlene kept a tight hold of her drink as she thought about the day ahead of her; she was missing Manuel and she hoped that he was okay, she hated that he was away right now. 

They were still waiting for a call from the fertility doctor, there had been a delay in their results and Charlene hoped that they would get them back soon; the wait was killing her and she just wanted to know everything was alright. 

It was hard not knowing what might happen and Charlene was trying to focus on work since she was pretty much home alone for the next few weeks. 

Manuel was busy preparing for the Euros with Germany, he was determined to see his country win another tournament even if it did come at a bad time for him personally. 

The two of them talked when they could and Charlene didn't fault Manuel for seeming so distracted with everything that was going on. 

The warm summer sun beat down on Charlene as she made her way towards where she had parked her car; she paused at the sound of her phone ringing, causing her to stop and fish it out of her back. 

Grumbling as she rummaged through her bag attempting to find the phone, Charlene glanced towards her car for a moment before her hand came into contact with it. 

"Mama," Charlene greeted when she answered the call, she had said nothing to her mother about the tests that she had done; the last thing she wanted to do was worry anyone before there was anything to worry about. 

It would only make the situation worse and Charlene just wanted to keep their issues as quiet as possible until she and Manuel knew what was going on. 

Listening to Elise rant about how the hairdresser had cut her hair too short yet again, Charlene rolled her eyes knowing that it would be ages before she was finished complaining. 

Why Elise continued to go back to the woman despite the fact that she got her hair wrong every time was beyond Charlene's comprehension. 

Surely it would be better to go somewhere where she would get the cut and style that she wanted rather than whatever the hairdresser had done this time to her.

Pausing at the side of the road, Charlene turned around just in time to see a red car swerve off the main road and into the car park. 

She could only watch in horror as the driver struggled to regain control of the spending vehicle before it smashed into several parked cars with a load bang that sent pieces of metal into the air. 

"I'm going to have to call you back," Charlene said quickly ignoring her mother's demands to know what was going on, she could see smoke coming from the cars and she had to go and see if everyone was okay. 

Hanging up the phone, Charlene quickly moved towards the car that had smashed into the others; she wasn't the only one to rush forward to make sure that the people that had been involved in the crash were okay. 

Reaching the car, Charlene paused for a moment to see if there was anything leaking from the car; she could see that the front doors had been crushed in the crash and there was smoke raising from the engine. 

 "Mama," a voice called making Charlene's heart stop as she rushed forward to see what she could do to help; her heart broke at the sight of a little girl strapped into a car seat in the back of the car with a slight cut to her head. 

Her mother was seated behind the stirring wheel and made no more to acknowledge that her child had even spoken; instead, her eyes stared right ahead as if not seeing anything. 

"Hallo," Charlene said greeting the little girl as she peered down at her, her eyes scanning for anything dangerous in the car and how best to remove the child without getting her caught in all the broken glass.