Chapter 20 - The Shadow of the Past
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Marcus walked over to the desk and placed a small, elegant black wooden box on the leather blotter. There was no return address, no shipping label. Just a blank, smooth surface.
Hannah stepped closer, her heart beginning to beat a slightly faster rhythm. The peaceful illusion of the night shattered, replaced by the familiar, creeping dread of the underworld.
Victor reached out and slowly opened the lid of the box.
Inside, resting on a bed of dark crimson velvet, was a silver necklace. A delicate chain holding a small, intricate locket shaped like a star.
Victor stared at the necklace, his breath hitching audibly in his chest. All the color drained from his face, leaving him looking like a ghost. He took a stumbling step backward, his hand gripping the edge of the desk so hard his knuckles turned white.
“Victor?” Hannah asked, panicked by his reaction. “What is it? Whose is it?”
Victor didn't answer her. He reached out with a trembling hand and picked up a small, folded piece of thick parchment paper resting beneath the locket.
He unfolded it.
There was only a single sentence written in elegant, looping cursive ink.
You thought I was dead, my love. But I’ve just been waiting.
“Boss,” Marcus whispered, staring at the necklace with horrified recognition. “Is that...?”
“It’s Elena’s,” Victor choked out, his voice barely a rasp.
Hannah froze. Elena. Victor’s first wife. The woman who was supposed to have died in a car bombing twelve years ago. The woman whose grave Victor visited every November.
May you like
Victor looked up from the note, his gray eyes wide with a mixture of absolute terror and impossible hope. The war with the Russians had just been a distraction. The traitor Gregory had been a pawn. Someone much closer, someone pulling the strings from the deepest shadows of the past, had finally returned.
And as Hannah looked at the terrified face of her new husband, she realized with bone-chilling certainty that the true fight for her family hadn't even begun.
