CHAPTER 5: Nora Saves One Word

The paramedics arrived with quiet urgency, placing a brace near Nora's neck and cutting questions into small, necessary pieces.
Name. Pain. Can you feel your feet. Stay with us.
Nora answered with blinks because her voice felt trapped beneath the weight of the house. Maya stayed low beside her, shielding her from the balcony and from Marion's performance of outrage.
Dorian came down at last, escorted by a younger officer who told him twice to stay back.
'I'm her husband,' Dorian snapped.
Nora's eyes widened.
Maya saw it. So did the paramedic holding Nora's wrist.
'Sir, step away,' Maya said.
Dorian looked at Nora with a tenderness that arrived too late and too publicly.
'Baby, tell them it was an accident.'
Nora gathered everything left in her into one word.
'No.'
It was quiet. It was cracked. It was enough to change the lawn.