Caleb noticed that detail one winter evening when rain blurred the city lights and the wind cut sharply through the gates. Maribel clutched her coat tightly and walked away with a pace that suggested urgency rather than routine. Something about her posture unsettled him, not out of curiosity alone, but out of a sense that something essential was being hidden in plain sight.
Without planning to do so, Caleb followed.
He kept a careful distance as Maribel moved away from the manicured streets and into parts of the city rarely mentioned in boardrooms. Storefronts gave way to shuttered buildings, streetlights flickered, and the smell of damp concrete filled the air. When she turned beneath an old railway bridge and disappeared behind a cluster of abandoned service sheds, Caleb parked and stepped out, telling himself he would leave if he felt even a moment of regret.
He heard children laughing.