Chapter 1

The Night The Sky Fell Down

She was late. She was supposed to drop Brent by Laura's by 4:45, and it was almost 5:00 now. Laura would be pissed. Come on, freakin' light! Change!

Staring intensely at the red light in front of her, she tried to will it green. When that didn't work, she resorted to glaring in random directions. When her gaze fell on her son, asleep in the backseat, her expression softened slightly. His head was tilted at an uncomforable angle, and his bottom lip was stuck out comically, moving in and out with each even breath. She paused for a moment, then smiled and look back to the light. It was green.

Smile widening, she let off the brake and pressed the accelerator, looking at her side mirror to see if she could switch lanes. She never saw the car as it sped through the red light toward her.

……………

The phone rang and Jacob and I exchanged looks. We stared each other down as the phone rang again. Jacob crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head.

"No way, man. Tell her I'm not here."

I pursed my lips and looked pointedly at the phone. "You gotta talk to her someday." Jacob shook his head. "Well I'm not answering it."

"Fine," Jacob growled, reaching for the phone on its fifth ring. "What?" he snapped into the receiver. His eyes darted in my direction and he made a face. "Uh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, here he is."

I took the phone he'd stabbed in my direction, looking at him questioningly. He shrugged to tell me that he didn't know who it was.

"Hello?"

An unfamiliar male voice was on the other end. "Yes, is this Ashley Parker Angel?"

"Yes it is. Who's this?"

"This is Officer Hayes, calling from Redding, California." My breath caught in my throat. This can't be good. "I'm afraid I have some bad news." Bad news, check. "I believe know a Katherine Williams?" He paused, and I guessed he was waiting for me to answer.

"Yeah, I do." Hell, yeah I knew her.

"You and she have a two-year-old son, Brent Caleb Parker, is that correct?"

I felt the blood drain from my face, and I swear my heart almost stopped. Oh God, don't let anything happen to Brent. "Yes," I said out loud, hardly recognizing my own voice.

"I'm really sorry to tell you this, but there's been an accident."

No, no, Dear Lord. My lower lip started to tremble, and I saw the world in front of me start to swim. I desperately blinked back tears. "I-I-what happened?" My breath caught in my throat, making it difficult to get the words out.

"The vehicle driven by Katherine Williams was hit when another driver went through the intersection." He sounded like he was reading it off a damn paper. How could he be so freaking uncompassionate? What the hell?

"The accident occurred around five o'clock this evening, Pacific Time. Ms. Williams died in the hospital at five fifty." I blinked again and swallowed the lump in my throat. "Brent is currently in critical condition at Redding Medical Center. Uh, you are now his sole legal guardian, because Ms. Williams had no immediate family listed. We'll need you to deal with some legal details soon, or to appoint someone else legal guardian in your stead." I closed my eyes and tried to stop myself from shaking. My son was laying in some damn hospital and he was worried about legal guardianship! The rational part of my brain was trying to explain to me that it was his job, and to listen to the man because he was telling me stuff I might want to know, like the phone number of the hospital and Brent's room number and what did I want to do about the legal guardianship and should he call back at a better time?

"Um, yeah, sorry." I choked out. " 'Bye." I guess the rational part of my brain lost out. I pressed the power button the phone and it fell to my lap. Pulling my knees up to my chest and leaning back against the couch, I tried to stifle a sob. No, that's not right. It's not fair. This isn't happening. No no nononono…