When my mom died in a terrible car crash, my entire world shattered in seconds. One moment we were driving home, and the next everything was bright lights, screeching brakes, and her scream echoing in my head. I woke up in the hospital to the devastating news—she was gone. The only familiar face there was my dad, a man who had barely been part of my life since the divorce. With nowhere else to go, I was forced to move in with him and his new wife, feeling more alone than ever.

Living with my dad felt like living with a stranger. He tried to be kind, but we had years of distance between us, and his wife treated me like an unwanted guest. I kept replaying the accident, convinced life couldn’t possibly get harder. But everything changed one night when I overheard voices in the kitchen. My dad and his new wife were talking in hushed tones, their words sharp and trembling. I knew I shouldn’t listen, but something in their tone made me stop and stay hidden in the hallway.

I pressed myself against the wall as my dad whispered something that made my blood run cold: “She told me, Jules… I found out the truth about that car crash.” Every muscle in my body froze. My heart pounded so loudly I thought they might hear it. The way his voice cracked told me whatever he had learned wasn’t just painful—it was life-changing. My mind raced, terrified to hear what would come next, terrified not to.

In that moment, I realized the crash that took my mother wasn’t as simple as I’d been told. Someone had been keeping secrets—big ones—and those secrets were now slowly unraveling. The truth was about to change everything I thought I knew about my family, my mother… and the night I lost her forever.