Chapter 5 - The Nurse at the Door
A woman in navy scrubs stood beneath the stained-glass cross.
She looked exhausted.
Terrified.
And determined.
Emily recognized her immediately.
“Nora?”
Nora Bell had been Lily’s prenatal nurse.
She had called Emily twice during Lily’s final month, once to ask whether Lily had somewhere safe to stay.
Emily had assumed it was routine concern.
Now Nora walked toward the front carrying a sealed hospital folder.
Jason’s voice sharpened.
“She has no business here.”
Nora stopped several feet from him.
“I had business the night Lily died.”
The congregation went silent again.
Daniel stepped beside her.
“You are not required to speak publicly.”
Nora’s eyes moved to Lily’s portrait.
“I know.”
She swallowed.
“But she asked me not to stay quiet.”
Jason laughed.
“This is insane. She was a nurse, not a witness.”
Nora opened the folder.
The pages inside were turned away and unreadable.
“Three days before Lily died, she came to the clinic without you.”
“So?”
“She had bruising on her upper arm and unusually high stress markers. Her blood pressure was dangerous.”
Jason folded his arms.
“She fell in the bathroom.”
“That’s what you told the doctor.”
“That’s what happened.”
Nora’s eyes hardened.
“No. Lily told me you grabbed her.”
A collective breath passed through the church.
Rachel stared at Jason.
“You said she was clumsy.”
Jason turned on her.
“Not now.”
Nora continued.
“Lily also asked us to remove you as the person authorized to discuss her medical information.”
“That never happened.”
“It did.”
Jason stepped forward.
Daniel immediately raised a hand.
“Do not approach her.”
Jason stopped.
Nora pulled one sheet from the folder.
“On the night Lily died, the emergency department received a call from your house at 11:42 p.m.”
Emily frowned.
“The report said Jason found her at midnight.”
Nora nodded.
“The ambulance was not dispatched until 12:16.”
Thirty-four minutes.
Emily felt the church tilt beneath her.
She looked at Jason.
“What happened during those thirty-four minutes?”
Jason’s face remained still.
But a muscle jumped in his jaw.
Rachel backed farther away.
“I wasn’t there,” Jason said.
Nora looked at Daniel.
Daniel opened Lily’s sworn statement.
May you like
“Yes,” he said quietly. “That is exactly what Lily believed he would say.”
👉 Jason claimed he was nowhere near Lily when she fell—but someone had already placed him inside the house.
