This Wicked Fate

Prologue

Prologue

Darcy

When I look back on that night, I try to remember if there was a warning, a sign that I missed. I'd been waiting ten years for the last day I'd be young and it happened when I least expected it. Love has a way of sneaking up on you.

I had been eighteen for ten years, ten long years. My best friend Lily was lucky, she wasn't eighteen for more than a year before she met her soulmate. Now they're both happily married and aging together with their first child on the way. Not everyone can be that fortunate. I knew that many waited far more years than I had, but I still couldn't help but dream about the moment I would meet my soulmate. It was a bit of an obsession, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. On the walk home, during dinner, when I woke in the morning, even during work, the thoughts grew in my mind.

Who was he?

What did he look like?

Would I meet him soon?

What were his hobbies?

Did he like—

"Snap out of it, Darcy. There's work to do," my boss, the head RN scolded me. Visions of white stallions and sunsets faded away and the reality of frantic nurses and the sickly stench of the hospital surfaced.

"Sorry, Margret," I said sheepishly. "What can I do?"

"There's been a thirty car pile up just east of here. A few semis were involved, so the survivors won't be pretty. I've already heard word from the forerunners that there are multiple spinal injuries and five were dead before they arrived," she told me and then dropped her voice a little. "Dr. Webber can't get here due to the weather. You're going to have to step in for him."

"Oh no," I shook my head. "Oh never, I couldn't."

"I'm afraid we don't have a choice. You've been studying to be a doctor for a while and you're the best we've got right now. If we're down a doctor, there's a higher chance of losing a patient. They'll be here any minute, so get ready."

She turned on her heel and blazed away, leaving me at a complete loss for words. I hardly knew anything about injuries to the spinal cord. Any injury to the spine came with a high risk of being paralyzed. Was I ready for that kind of pressure?

"Darcy, they're here! Come on!" Margret called to me. I took a deep breath. There was no choice, I had to be ready for the pressure.

Five hours later and things were finally starting to slow down. There were thirty-seven victims and Dr. Harrison and I didn't lose a single one. It was a happy ending to a rough night on the job. Dr. Harrison had even asked me to assist him on a surgery later in the week. My future as a doctor might be closer than I had ever imagined. It was two o'clock in the morning and I was just about to head out when a man came running through the doors, nearly knocking me over in the process.

The man was big and bulky and likely still eighteen. He looked down at my nurse uniform and name tag and then grabbed my arms in realization.

"Help, Help! It's my friend," he yelled in my face as his rough fingers pressed deeper into my skin, probably leaving bruises.

"Okay, it's okay," I said trying to release myself from his grasp. A gurney sped past us to the vehicle parked just outside the door. "What happened?"

"He was hurt during that major wreck hours ago, but he wouldn't let me bring him to the hospital. I don't know what's wrong with him. We weren't in the wreck, but he got out of the car and he was running around trying to help the people who were hurt. He got trapped under a car, but he got right back up. I-I don't know, but he-he can't feel his legs."