Time-Limited Love: A Contract Expired, Not Renewed novel Chapter 208

They’d searched this spot so many times already. It was just a narrow alley—one straight shot, with nowhere to hide. There was no way Dapper could be here.

Yet this time, Zinnia was certain she hadn’t imagined those two faint cries she’d just heard.

“I heard it, I swear I did.”

She gripped Zoey’s hand tightly. “He’s close by. I’m calm, I promise, it wasn’t just in my head.”

Without waiting for a reply, she raised her voice in the direction the sound had come from.

“Dapper! Can you hear me? Dapper?”

Landon watched Zinnia’s pale, desperate face—and only now did it really hit him that something was off. But the way she looked, so lost and frantic, left him no space to think things through.

“Whimper… whimper…”

Two more soft, stifled cries, barely audible.

This time, it wasn’t just Zinnia—Landon heard it too.

“Whimper… whimper…”

The sound was faint, but now it felt like Dapper was mustering all his strength to answer Zinnia’s call.

“It’s coming from here,” Landon said, already sprinting ahead of Zinnia to a manhole at the mouth of the alley.

The lid was perfectly sealed, flush with the pavement. No wonder they’d searched this place a dozen times and never thought Dapper could’ve fallen into a covered manhole.

There was no point questioning how he’d ended up down there. Zinnia dashed to the manhole as Landon heaved the heavy cover aside.

What met his eyes was a heartbreaking sight—a golden retriever, wedged awkwardly beneath the bottom rung of the narrow ladder. His once-glossy fur was soaked in murky water, his body twisted in a painful contortion. Dapper’s eyes, wide with helpless terror, flickered with the barest spark of hope as the cover opened.

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