Chapter 2 - THE PROMISE THAT BECAME A NIGHTMARE
Three years earlier, Anna had boarded Vincent’s private jet believing the trip would be their last quiet holiday before their baby arrived.
She had packed soft clothes, a book she had barely started, and a tiny pair of white socks she kept taking out of her bag just to look at them. Vincent had smiled when he found the socks tucked beside her passport.
“You’re going to be a wonderful mother,” he told her.
Anna leaned against him. “And you’re going to be an overprotective father.”
“Absolutely.”
For a few days, she let herself believe they were happy.
Then Sophia Carter arrived at the airport.
Vincent’s first love had returned to Chicago months earlier after a long stay overseas. Anna had tried to be civil, but Sophia seemed to appear at every important moment. Vincent had invited her on their private getaway without asking Anna first, explaining that Sophia was going through a difficult time and needed a change of scenery.
“This was supposed to be our vacation,” Anna told him privately.
“It still is.”
“Then why is she coming?”
Vincent’s expression hardened. “Don’t turn this into an argument.”
Anna swallowed the words she wanted to say. She was six months pregnant, tired of defending her place in her own marriage, and afraid that every disagreement would be turned into proof that she was jealous.
The flight home began smoothly. Anna sat near the window, one hand resting on her stomach. Sophia sat across the aisle, speaking to Vincent in a low voice about old memories. Anna tried to read, but the familiar ache of being excluded followed her through every page.
Then the aircraft shuddered.
A warning light flashed above the cockpit door. The pilot’s voice came over the speaker, controlled but urgent, announcing a mechanical emergency and an immediate landing.
The jet dropped hard enough to make the cabin scream.
Anna gripped her seat belt and covered her belly with both hands. Vincent reached across the aisle, but Sophia clutched his arm.
“Vincent, I’m scared.”
“So am I,” Anna whispered.
The landing was brutal. The jet struck the runway, bounced, and skidded sideways before grinding to a stop. Smoke rolled past the windows. Emergency lights blinked red, and the cabin crew shouted for everyone to evacuate.
Vincent unbuckled himself and reached for Sophia.
Anna stared at him. “Vincent?”
He turned.
For one second, she believed he would come to her first. He was her husband. Their child was inside her. He had promised her, in a hundred small ways, that she would never face danger alone.
Then Sophia stumbled and cried out.
Vincent moved toward her.
“I’m taking Sophia out first,” he said. “I can get her clear and come back for you.”
Anna stared at him. “What about me?”
“You’re closer to the rear exit. Stay here.”
“I’m carrying your baby.”
“I know. I’ll come back.”
“What if there isn’t time?”
“There will be.” He took her hand, squeezed it once, and looked into her eyes. “I promise.”
Then he released her.
Vincent guided Sophia toward the forward evacuation slide. Outside, smoke thickened. A flight attendant shouted that passengers needed to move away from the aircraft. Vincent helped Sophia down the slide and pulled her toward the safety line.
Then he turned back.
Anna was still inside.
He started running toward the plane.
A flight attendant appeared at a rear exit, reaching through the smoke toward Anna. Vincent saw movement behind the window, then a burst of flame under the wing.
“ANNA!”
The explosion tore through the aircraft before he could reach the rear door.
The blast threw him to the ground. Heat rolled across the runway. The jet’s metal frame buckled, and the world became fire, smoke, and screams.
Vincent crawled forward until two emergency responders dragged him back.
“She’s inside!” he shouted. “My wife is inside!”
They held him down while flames swallowed the aircraft.
Search crews worked through the night. The wreckage was badly damaged, and the official report concluded that no one could have survived in the cabin after the explosion. Anna’s body was never identified, but her personal effects were found among the debris. With no evidence that she had escaped, the authorities declared her dead.
Vincent refused to accept it for weeks. He paid for searches, questioned the crew, and sent people to every hospital within hundreds of miles. He searched the shoreline near the crash site and examined every report of an unidentified pregnant woman.
Nothing.
Eventually, the lawyers and family advisers told him there was no more evidence to pursue. A funeral was held with a closed casket. Vincent stood beside the grave, staring at the polished stone bearing Anna’s name and the words he had chosen for their unborn child.
His promise had become a nightmare he could never wake from.
What he did not know was that a flight attendant had pulled Anna through a damaged rear exit seconds before the explosion. Anna had been badly injured, and she had been carried away from the wreckage by a maintenance worker who feared the fuel tanks would ignite.
May you like
By the time the rescuers reached the far side of the runway, the aircraft was gone.
And Anna Bennett Moretti was no longer among the missing.
