Chapter 5 - The Accident Changed Their Relationship
Before the accident, Landon and Camille had been engaged for nine months.
They were not perfect.
No couple was.
But Landon now remembered one argument differently.
Three weeks before the crash, he told Camille he wanted to postpone their wedding.
Not cancel it.
Postpone.
He had begun noticing how every disagreement ended with Camille deciding the final version of events. Where they lived. Which friends he saw. How often he visited his sister. Even which restaurants counted as “appropriate” for their social circle.
Landon wanted time.
Camille called it rejection.
Then came the accident.
A delivery truck crossed a highway lane in front of Landon’s car during rain. Landon survived with an incomplete spinal injury.
Everything after that changed.
Camille became indispensable.
At the hospital she spoke to doctors when he was exhausted.
At home she organized equipment.
She interviewed caregivers.
She selected Nora.
She coordinated appointments.
She became the person who knew everything.
And Landon, weakened and frightened, stopped pushing back.
The postponed wedding quietly returned to the calendar.
He never remembered agreeing to a new date.
Camille simply began talking as though they had.
Nora listened while Landon explained this.
Then she asked:
“Before the accident, were you leaving her?”
Landon stared at the floor.
“I was considering it.”
“And after?”
“I couldn’t imagine surviving without help.”
That sentence sat between them.
Not because dependence was shameful.
Because Camille knew exactly how much it frightened him.
“What happened when you started getting stronger?” Nora asked.
Landon thought about the seven-month mark.
His transfers improved.
He began showering with less help.
He started talking about returning to his architecture practice in person instead of remotely.
And he raised the wedding again.
This time he said:
“I don’t want to marry while I’m still figuring out who I am now.”
Camille’s face had gone completely still.
Two days later, his unexplained physical setbacks intensified.
The pattern finally had motive.
Not money.
Not murder.
Not even Travis.
Control.
Camille had nearly lost Landon once before the accident.
Then dependency gave her a version of the relationship in which he could not easily leave.
May you like
His recovery threatened to end that version.
---
