The Coldest Timber
Trapped beneath a heavy oak timber during a coastal gale, Nora Vance begs her ambitious husband for help. Instead, he locks the barn door from the outside to ensure her medical emergency doesn't derail his political gala, leaving her to survive in the dark.
Fictional story. Contains depictions of physical injury, abandonment, and medical emergency.Chapter 1: The Collapse at Highcliff
Nora Vance stood inside the drafty timber barn behind her coastal Maine home, carefully resting a pair of weighted brass strips across a nineteenth-century ship registry. Outside, the early November gale beat relentlessly against the weathered cedar shingles, driving cold salt spray off Highcliff Cove. The wind had been rising steadily since late afternoon, whistling through the gaps in the heavy oak doorframes and causing the iron lantern overhead to sway in slow, rhythmic arcs. Nora rubbed her aching lower back and checked her watch. It was nearly six o'clock in the evening.
Her husband, Julian, was inside the main residence, adjusting his double-breasted tuxedo in front of the gold-leaf hallway mirror. Tonight marked the annual inaugural gala for the Regional Maritime Heritage Foundation—an event Julian had spent six months aggressively courting. As an ambitious commercial developer eyeing a prized seat on the county harbor commission, he viewed the evening as his grand introduction to the region's wealthiest political benefactors. Nora had promised to finish securing the fragile archival documents before changing into her evening dress, though a deep bone-weariness pressed heavy against her chest.