The Fixable Thing

On a Tuesday in November, Joseph Navarro swerves his truck to save a child who runs into traffic. The woman in the other lane wakes up in a hospital room, unable to walk.

He doesn't call. He doesn't explain. Every morning, he leaves a single white rose at the nurses' station and goes to work.

She tells herself she will send word to stop it. She doesn't send word.

Mary Callahan is forty-one, an interior designer who has spent years building a life that fits her exactly. She is not accustomed to...