Chapter 1
Melissa was enjoying her drive in the country. Her long drives always seemed to calm her down after a stressful day at work. She worked as a litigation attorney at a corporate law firm. She never thought she would enjoy corporate law as much as she did. She was only twenty-eight years old and already making two hundred thousand dollars a year. She toyed with the idea of breaking into tort law, but that, of course, meant she would end up facing the very people she now represented. Working in tort law could be very lucrative. A career in tort possibly could make her current salary pocket change.
Deciding she had driven far enough, Melissa turned her Lexus SUV around and headed home. She hadn't realized she had driven three hours. Thankfully, it was Friday and she had the weekend off. Seeing a gas station ahead, she pulled in to refill her tank and get a snack for the road.
After pumping the gas, she crossed the parking lot, entered the store and purchased her snack and gas. Once back on the road, she sighed deeply, truly enjoying her drive. Her good mood quickly diminished as dark storm clouds began to form. It looked like it might be a severe storm. She hated driving in severe weather; it always made her nervous. A little while later, huge rain drops began to hit her car hard. Thunder crackled and a lightening burst startled her. The storm became more and more violent. The next thing she knew, her car was hydro-planing. She panicked and over-corrected the steering wheel. Everything happened so fast, she didn't have time to scream. She saw the tree only a split second before she hit it. The car hit the tree at only thirty-five miles an hour, but the hit was hard enough to knock her out. As she drifted in and out of consciousness, she heard the blaring of her horn and thought she saw someone approaching her car.