In that short time, she watched him change from the man he’d always thought he was to the man he would become. At first, wide, alert eyes and a parting of his lips in silent exclamation revealed his disbelief. Then a sudden flush of crimson to his face and neck, accompanied by the thrumming of a vein at his temple, suggested that he must be restraining a consuming anger. And last, a long, low sigh of grief and his directionless gaze away from the papers, told Nora how deeply his father’s wounds had pierced Jacob’s soul. She waited for what seemed an eternity, for Jacob to look at her. She prayed she would see in his eyes one final reaction, the one that would release him forever from the chains of his mother’s madness. She prayed for relief to settle on his face like halcyon breezes after a storm. Laying her hand on his arm, she whispered, “Jacob…” He grasped her hand and held it to his chest. His heart beat erratically against her palm, yet when he looked at her, his face was calm.
