The Veronica Pages

A hidden journal. A vanished girl. A truth that refused to stay buried.

In the hallowed silence of Cedar Bend Christian College, archivist Christen Vance preserves the past while her own faith lies frozen in grief. When a mysterious donation arrives-a collection of antique hymnals-she discovers one book with a spine that doesn't belong. Hidden inside are the desperate prayers of Veronica Lyle, a brilliant student who disappeared fifty years ago.

Veronica's words are not gentle devotions. They are visions of corruption: of a charismatic professor with a copper smile, of a sickness seeping through chapel stones, of a false shepherd leading his flock toward ruin. Her final entry chills Christen to her core: "He knows I've seen. The light must be hidden in the song."

As Christen pieces together Veronica's fate, the past claws its way into her present. Anonymous scripture verses appear on her desk. Evidence vanishes from her locked office. The college's charming new chaplain, Reverend Daniel Thorne-a man with a disarming smile and a copper signet ring-counsels her to let old ghosts rest, gently suggesting her grief has clouded her judgment.

But Christen cannot unsee what Veronica saw. Aided by Ben, the college groundskeeper whose quiet, rooted faith becomes her anchor, she follows a trail of crumbling ledgers and buried secrets from a secret prayer circle in a forgotten greenhouse to the inner sanctum of Cedar Bend's most powerful family.

What she uncovers is more than a cold case-it's a living conspiracy of greed and sanctified lies, one that has been funded by stolen mission money and protected by holy authority for generations. The "false shepherd" wasn't just a rogue professor; he was the symptom of a sickness woven into the institution's very foundations.

Now, the same forces that silenced Veronica are moving against Christen. To survive, she must do what Veronica could not: turn a hidden prayer into a public revelation. In a gripping confrontation where faith becomes both weapon and shield, Christen must risk everything-her career, her safety, and what remains of her belief-to prove that some truths are holy, even when they hurt.

A novel about the prayers we hide, the truths we bury, and the light that finds its way through even the darkest cracks.