Chapter 20 - THE SHADOW RETURNS
Two years later.
The sun was setting over a peaceful park near the city marina.
Maya was sitting on a green bench, watching her two-year-old son, Leo, play on the grass.
Leo was laughing happily, chasing a small red ball across the lawn.
Richard sat beside her, reading a newspaper with a contented smile.
Julian and Jax were throwing a football near the shoreline trees, their voices full of cheer.
Everything seemed perfect, complete, and forever safe.
Little Leo chased the red ball as it rolled near a row of thick rose bushes at the edge of the park.
He bent down to pick up the ball with his tiny hands.
A tall woman wearing a dark coat and dark sunglasses was standing behind the bushes.
She leaned down slowly toward the little boy.
In her gloved hand, she held a small, polished gold brooch shaped like a flower.
"Hello, little one," a cold, smooth voice whispered from behind the leaves.
"You look just like your mother."
Leo looked up at the stranger with curious, wide hazel eyes.
"Mommy?" the little boy babbled softly.
The woman smiled a chilling, familiar smile from under her wide hat.
She slipped a small, black folded note into the toddler's jacket pocket.
"Tell your mother that Victoria sends her regards," the woman whispered softly.
She turned around and vanished into the crowded shadows of the street.
A second later, Maya called out from the bench.
"Leo! Come back to Mommy!" Maya called, standing up and walking toward him.
Leo ran back to Maya, holding his red ball, smiling brightly.
"Look, Mommy! A lady gave me a game!" Leo giggled, pointing toward the bushes.
Maya frowned, looking around the empty park edge, seeing no one.
She reached down into Leo's jacket pocket and pulled out the small, black folded note.
Her heart dropped into an icy void as she unfolded the paper.
Written inside in crimson red ink was a single sentence:
“Did you really think a steel cage could hold me forever?”
Maya froze, her eyes opening wide in absolute, horrifying terror.
May you like
Across the busy street, inside a tinted black sedan, a pair of sharp eyes watched her from the dark.
The engine revved softly, and the car slowly melted away into the night traffic.
