An ambulance was speeding, blowing through a red light due to an emergency. Other drivers pulled over, but they were confused to see a young man, perhaps in his late 20s, following the ambulance closely, flooring the gas on his motorcycle until it was going incredibly fast. It looked like the man worked at a pizza restaurant because he was still wearing his uniform.
"No... no... Sonia," he said in his heart as he kept pushing the motorcycle.
It turned out the person being rushed to the hospital was his daughter, Sonia, who was only 6 years old. While he was at work, he got a call from her nanny at home, saying Sonia had an accident, falling from the second floor when she was trying to come down. Sonia fell when the nanny was in the bathroom for a moment. The nanny immediately called an ambulance to take Sonia to the hospital after seeing her nose bleeding and passing out, not breathing.
The man quickly followed the ambulance, which happened to pass by his workplace. He used the motorcycle parked in front of the restaurant, which was normally used for pizza deliveries. Because the traffic was clearing out for the siren, the ambulance was already almost at the hospital. The man was following right behind, weaving his motorcycle through the busy road traffic.
The ambulance crossed an intersection, its siren blaring, making all traffic stop. The young man didn't hesitate to cross the road, blowing through the red light and getting honked at by many cars because he looked like a seasoned motorcycle racer. His eyes were only focused on the ambulance in front of him.
"Please... don't let anything happen to Sonia... I don't want the court to take away my custody... please... don't take Sonia from me," the young man pleaded, his eyes starting to water.
***
Yeah, at that moment, I kept praying nothing bad would happen to Sonia. My name is Zachary West, I usually go by Zach with my close friends. When I graduated high school, I jumped straight into motorcycle racing, following in my dad's footsteps. I was passionate about motorcycle racing because my dad and I were always fixing up his bike in the garage—a project he'd worked on for years after finding it totaled in someone's shed.
I'm 28 now. I met my wife, Heather, when she was 19 and I was 20, at the racetrack. She was still in college studying health, aiming to be a dentist, but she shared my passion for motorcycles. When my dad passed away from cancer—it took him suddenly after fighting for a year—I kept up his project in the garage. Heather often came over to help me or just watch, but she'd ask really sharp questions about bikes.
After dating for two years, we got married, and a year later, Sonia was born—the little girl who instantly became my whole world. I quit racing and opened a motorcycle repair shop to support my family, since I'm a mechanic. But after we got married, a new problem popped up: my in-laws, Richard and Elenor, never accepted me as their son-in-law. They constantly tried to convince Heather to divorce me and even secretly tried to set her up with men they chose, guys who could raise their social status and were "on their level." They felt this way because they came from an old-money family.
Of course, Heather refused. She even threatened to cut them off and never let them see Sonia if they kept messing with her choice of husband. After that, they shut up and ignored us. Heather and I weren't rich, but we weren't struggling either; we were perfectly comfortable and happy. We became even happier when Sonia was born because she was everything to us. But two years ago, disaster struck. A truck ran a red light and slammed into Heather's car from the side as she was crossing an intersection.
Heather died instantly. Even the medical personnel who arrived at the scene said she likely never knew what hit her. I was devastated. Even though Sonia and I received money from her life insurance, our days were completely empty without Heather. For a whole year, I was consumed by grief.
I only took care of Sonia and worked like a feelingless robot. This is what my in-laws took advantage of to try and snatch Sonia away from me. They thought I was incapable of taking care of her, that I was poor, and that I had no right because Sonia is their granddaughter.
They even dragged me to court and sued me to give them custody for Sonia's sake. Naturally, they lost in court because Sonia is 100% my child—that was reinforced by DNA tests, my track record of raising her, and receipts proving I paid for all of her needs.
But even after losing in court, they kept wearing me down. And even though I reported them to the police for harassment—because they tried to secretly pick up Sonia from daycare—and got a restraining order, they still won't leave me alone.
After that, they started harassing me in other ways. Distant relatives who had never called started commenting and interfering. Suddenly, there were bad reviews on my shop, causing many of my customers to switch mechanics. I kept dealing with lawyers, and honestly, all of it drained my money until I finally took a part-time job delivering pizzas at night.
Today, everything just went dark. I only hoped nothing happened to Sonia, but without me realizing it, today was the day my other journey began.
***
"Vroom," when he reached the hospital, Zach immediately ran to meet the ambulance in front of him, his eyes already watering, seeing Sonia laid out on the gurney and looking helpless. He went inside along with Sonia's gurney, his eyes never leaving Sonia's innocent face.
He saw blood caught in the wisps of her hair. When the gurney entered the emergency room, a nurse wouldn't let Zach go inside. Anxiously, he waited in the corridor, pacing back and forth, ignoring his smartphone which kept ringing.
Finally, after 30 minutes, a doctor came out. Zach immediately approached the doctor, but when he saw the doctor's sad and weary face, his stomach dropped.
"How is my daughter, doctor?" Zach asked anxiously.
"I'm sorry, we did everything we could. My condolences," the doctor replied, looking down.
Zach instantly collapsed to his knees on the floor, limp. His heart shattered into pieces, tears streaming down his face, his mouth gaping as his head tried to process what had just happened. In the span of two years, he'd lost the two people he loved most and who supported his life.
The doctor in front of him tried to help Zach stand up. Then, listlessly, Zach walked down the corridor to exit the hospital, ignoring the few nurses and doctors who called out to him.
His hope for life vanished in an instant. He'd rather have been betrayed so he could fight back than have everything taken from him so unfairly and suddenly like this.
Once outside the hospital, Zach walked to his motorcycle. He picked up his bike, which was lying on its side in the hospital lot, and without another thought, he rode it out of the gate. But suddenly, "BEEEP," Zach looked over and saw a speeding SUV trying to brake, heading straight for him at high speed. Instead of swerving, Zach closed his eyes and smiled.
"I'll catch up with you... Heather... Sonia, I'm coming," Zach said in his heart.
"CRASH," Zach felt nothing else. All he felt was himself flying through the air with his bike, and then the motorcycle fell on top of him. Then everything went dark after he felt pain all over his body.