Page 65 of Veil of Silence

She looked up.

“Jacob.”

The warmth vanished. “You’ve researched him.”

“I know what’s in the reports and what made the news. I don’t know what happened from your side.”

Nora stared into her coffee. “We dated for almost four months. He ate dinner here. Prayed with us. Talked about his daughter and listened when I talked about Christian.” She traced a small chip along the rim of her mug. “I told Wren he was steady. Then he took her son.”

Austin’s jaw tightened. “How much did he know about your family’s routines?”

“Everything he needed to know. That Wren lived in the cabin next door. Where Mason went to school. When Mom came over. Which doors we usually locked.” Nora swallowed against the pressure in her throat. “I gave him all of it without realizing I was doing it.”

“He spent months making sure you wouldn’t realize.”

“I should have anyway.”

“Did he act nervous around Mason? Ask questions that didn’t fit? Push you for access to your family?”

“No. He was patient. Helpful. He never seemed to push for anything.”

“That wasn’t an accident.” Austin leaned forward. “People like Jacob don’t gain access by acting dangerous. They become the person no one thinks they need to guard against.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I let him in.”

“No. But it changes who’s responsible for what he did afterward.”

She looked at him. His anger wasn’t directed at her. She could see it in the controlled set of his mouth and the way his fingers curled against the table.

“He told Wren this wasn’t just about him,” she said. “He still won’t say who ‘we’ is.”

“Do you think there is a ‘we’?”

“I wanted to believe he was talking big. Not anymore.”

Austin went still. “You said you dated almost four months.”

“Yes.”

“And Christian came home three weeks ago.”

Nora waited, not yet seeing where he was going.

“Jacob was already inside your family before Christian reappeared.”

“He could have been waiting for an opportunity.”

“Maybe.” Austin’s gaze held hers. “Or maybe he was put in place for some other reason.”

The floorboard creaked overhead.

Nora’s attention snapped toward the ceiling. Austin closed his notebook, the unsettling question about Jacob still hanging between them.

Another creak followed. Then footsteps moved across the second floor, slow and measured.

Nora set down her mug. She knew the difference between someone walking half asleep and someone moving with a purpose. Whatever she was hearing didn’t sound quite like either.

“Nora?” Austin’s chair shifted as he started to rise.