Chapter 29: When the Lights Fail

Nothing is more seductive than an answer that arrives too easily.

The pursuit collides with a resort developer buying the village one frightened family at a time, forcing an alliance that neither Nora Bell nor Graham West is ready to name.

The evidence survives, but reaching it requires a choice that exposes the group to a new enemy.

Nora Bell keeps the larger goal in view: save the teahouse and discover why her grandmother chose Graham as co-owner. The immediate problem is smaller, sharper, and impossible to postpone.

A small act of care unsettles them more than danger. It asks for no payment and therefore cannot be dismissed as strategy.

Their attraction grows through competence, danger, and the first honest confession.

The recurring signs of tea, snow, handwritten recipes return with a different meaning, linking this choice to what came before.

The evidence points toward someone they have both been protecting.