Chapter 10 - THE THINGS SHE TRIED TO BURN
Nora pulled the fire alarm.
The sound tore through the house.
She didn’t open the laundry-room door.
She backed away and shouted.
“Smoke!
Downstairs!”
Footsteps thundered toward her.
One of Lorenzo’s guards grabbed an extinguisher from the hall.
Another ordered the staff toward the foyer.
Lorenzo reached Nora as the doctor appeared behind him.
“Go with him.”
“Giovanni—”
“I’m getting him.”
She caught his sleeve.
“Tell him what’s happening.
Don’t just grab his chair.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
Then nodded.
The fire was small.
Paper burning in a metal bin beside the laundry sink.
A towel had caught along one edge.
Smoke filled the room before the guard put it out.
Mrs. Gable stood near the rear doorway with an empty folder in her hand.
“I was disposing of household waste.”
The guard looked at the blackened pages.
Numbers.
Dates.
Signatures.
In the foyer, Nora sat beside Giovanni while the staff waited for the smoke to clear.
Lorenzo had brought his blanket.
He had also explained every movement before touching the chair.
Nora noticed.
Giovanni did, too.
Mrs. Gable was escorted into the foyer.
Water dripped from the folder she was still holding.
Lorenzo looked at it.
“What did you burn?”
“Nothing important.”
“Then you won’t mind showing me what’s left.”
The doctor checked the air before allowing Giovanni to return upstairs.
Nora started to stand.
A cramp stopped her.
She gripped the chair.
The doctor crouched.
“Again?”
She nodded.
“How long since the last one?”
“I wasn’t counting.”
“Start now.”
Mrs. Gable watched from across the foyer.
Even then, she couldn’t stop herself.
“Convenient.”
Lorenzo turned.
The room seemed to shrink around him.
Nora saw what everyone feared in his face.
She also saw how easily the night could become something worse.
“Don’t,” she said.
His eyes came back to her.
“She needs to answer for what she did.
That doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want.”
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he looked at the guard.
“Keep her here.
Call the sheriff.
Give them the records.”
Mrs. Gable’s face drained.
Lorenzo crouched beside Nora.
“Is that better?”
Before she could answer, warm fluid soaked through her uniform.
Nora stared down.
May you like
The doctor reached for his phone.
Her baby was coming.
