Chapter 5: Whispers in the Harbor**
Without digital trackers or corporate surveillance, Dominic had to rely on old-fashioned inquiry. He walked the wet docks of Camden and Rockport, showing Elena’s picture to fishermen, waitresses, and dockworkers.
Every refusal felt like a physical blow. The realization of what he had done sat heavy in his throat: he had made Elena feel so unsafe that she chose isolation and poverty in the dead of winter over asking him for protection.
Around dusk, a young waitress at a roadside diner paused as she wiped a counter. "I saw her. She was sitting in that corner booth for hours, crying over a cup of hot water. A local community doctor from the clinic down by the bay picked her up around four."
May you like
Dominic's heart hammered against his ribs. "Which clinic?"
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