Revenge

Chapter 10

Connie had just got out of the meeting with the board. She had expressed her opinions on the topic they had been discussing but now all she wanted to do was go home to Grace.

She looked down at her watch and she was glad to see that for once, she had finished on time. The meeting had only lasted half and hour so she had plenty time to get home.

After heading down to her office to collect her things, she made her way to the car park.

She smiled as she got into her car, surprised that she had actually managed to get away without anyone stopping her for some reason or another.

As she drove out onto the road, she noticed that the car seemed harder to controle than usual. It seemed to be struggling, especially around corners. She frowned, wondering what the problem could be but after a while she just put it down to it being a new car. She wasn't used to driving such a big car, she had been driving her Merecdes for years. That was the most logical explanation.

She hadn't taken the same route home since the crash. She just couldn't face going on that road again. She had tried, many times, but she'd always turned around and gone a different way instead. Just thinking about that drop made her feel sick to her stomach. Of course, she had never told anyone about it. She didn't want people thinking she was weak or feeling sorry for her. That just wasn't who she was.

The new route she took was slightly longer but not by much. She had to take smaller country roads instead of the main road through town but she didn't mind. The main differences were that the roads were a lot bendier and bumpier.

A few kilometers down the road, the steering hadn't gotten any easier. She felt uneasy as though something wasn't quite right with the car. She considered pulling over and taking a look for herself, but she didn't want to risk being late for Grace. She had made her a promise and she wasn't going to break it this time.

She decided she'd take it to the garage on her next day off. Even if there wasn't anything wrong with it, it was worth getting checked out.

The steering was clealy getting worse, it felt like the back of the car was dragging behind. She was finding it more and more difficult to turn corners but she was determined to get home on time.

Just as she went to turn the corner, a loud bang came from the back and the car began to swirve uncontrollably.

Not again. Not again... were her first thoughts. After that she couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. The fear was clearly visible on her face. Visions of the Mercedes going over the cliff filled her head. The tires screeching against the road caused all the unwanted memories to come flowing back.

Grace's screams echoed in her head, bringing tears to her eyes. The fear that it was happening all over again was too much for her to deal with. She squeezed her eyes closed, unable to move.

After what seemed an eternity to her but only a couple of seconds in real time, the car came to a hault in the middle of the road.

Connie slowly opened her eyes and looked up to take in her surroundings. Breathing uncontrollably, she let her head fall back onto the head rest. Closing her eyes again, she took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

After she'd taken a moment, she looked up again, this time to check that there were no cars behind her. Luckily, the roads were quiet and she was alone.

She opened the door with her shaky hands and stepped out of the car. She walked to the back of the car where the bang had come from and rolled her eyes when she saw that the tire had popped. It was completely flat.

How had that happened? It was a brand new car, she'd only had it for a couple of weeks!

She thought back to when she had bought the car and remembered that the mechanic had checked the car before handing it over to her and it was fine. She couldn't understand.

After putting a triangle at each side of the car, she decided she'd have to call a tow truck to take the car to the garage. She'd also need to get someone to pick her up.

She searched through her things on the passenger seat, looking for her phone. She removed everything from her hand bag, shook her jacket, checked her pockets and even searched the back seats but there was no sign of her phone.

She sat back down in the car and ran a hand over her face, desperately trying to think. She closed her eyes and sighed when she realised that she must have left it at home.

For God's sake! Could this day get any worse?

After sitting there for a few moments longer, she decided she'd have to walk into town and hopefully find a phone box. The thought of having to walk for miles wasn't very appealing. And what would Grace think? She looked down at her watch and realised that there was no way she was going to be back on time and she couldn't even call her to let her know!

She walked around to the back of the car and carefully removed her heels, replacing them with a pair of trainers she kept in the boot.

Once she'd locked the car up, she set off towards Holby.

After walking for over an hour, she finally found a phone box and decided to call the one person she knew she could always count on. Charlie.

Not long after she'd hung up, he arrived.

"I'm sorry Charlie, I didn't know who else to call," she said, jumping into the car.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "You can always call me," he said, recieving a warm smile from Connie. "Now, where did you leave your car?"

Once they'd driven back to the car and had a mechanic come and tow it away, Charlie took Connie home.

"Thanks for that Charlie," she said, getting out of the car. "I really appreciate it."

"Anytime," he smiled.

Connie walked up the drive, her Louboutins in hand and unlocked the front door.

"Grace," she shouted. "I'm sorry I'm so late baby. I-" She stopped talking for a minute, not having heard any reply from her daughter. "Grace?" She called out again. She ran upstairs to check if she was in her bedroom or even in the bathroom but there was no sign of her. "Grace?"

Her mind went back to the letter she had recieved that morning and she began to panic. She ran back downstairs, looking for her phone to call Grace. After finding it in the kitchen, she began dialling her number when she noticed a note on the table.

Taken Grace out for a bite to eat. Shouldn't be long. - Jacob.

She slammed her phone down on the table, furious and relieved at the same time. What was he thinking? Why did he think he had the right to just turn up and take her daughter out? Taking a seat, she picked up the note and scrunched it up her hand before throwing it at the bin.

She leaned forward and held her head in her hands. She turned to her phone and considered calling Jacob and telling him to bring Grace back straight away... but then again she felt bad enough for leaving Grace on her own all afternoon, she didn't want to spoil the rest of her day.

No, she thought. She'd wait until they got back and have it out with him then.

I've managed to write another chapter tonight. I hope you like it. This one is slightly longer than the others to make up for not having updated yesterday.

I really hope you're enjoying this story - please let me know what you think.

Thanks for the views/reviews/votes so far.