Elliot kept watching until the video offered something he had not expected: a frame of Mara standing on a pier at dawn, fists shoved into her pockets, watching the river swallow the sunrise. Her breath fogged the air. In the far distance, a small boat bobbed, its motor ticking like a second heart. The camera zoomed in until her face filled the square—no filter, no distance—and she looked straight into the lens as if through the page, as if into him.
