the Valium-addict who smashed the illusion — "saw the sudden impending headlights in…"
saw the sudden impending headlights in her northbound lane as Grace and shut her eyes and floored it right for them, the lights, never once veering
Context
The addict at the very bottom rendered as an accidental hero: a late-stage Valium case, already all over the road, who reads the oncoming headlights as Grace and floors it — and by not-veering exposes the A.F.R. mirror-trick the sober drivers kept swerving from. The end of her benzodioxane-rope makes her the only one with nothing left to lose, the private overdose-wish that "smashed the illusion."