Chapter 10 - The Shadow of TomorrowZ
Two years later.
Life had finally settled into a peaceful, beautiful rhythm. I had opened my own child safety advocacy consultancy, helping working mothers navigate background checks, home security setups, and childcare vetting processes with absolute transparency. Leo was three and a half now, talking in full sentences, obsessed with dinosaurs, and filling every corner of my world with joy.
It was a quiet Tuesday evening. Leo was fast asleep in his bedroom upstairs, soundly resting after a long day at pre-school.
I sat at my desk in the study, reviewing client files under the warm glow of a desk lamp. The house was calm, safe, and silent.
My phone rang, shattering the quiet.
I looked at the screen. It was an unknown, long-distance number displaying an unlisted precinct code from Chicago, Illinois.
Frowning, I answered it. "Hello?"
"Mrs. Claire Hayes?" a formal, female voice asked.
"Yes, this is Claire."
"Mrs. Hayes, this is Assistant Director Vance from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Special Investigations Unit."
My chest tightened instantly. The name Vance still sent an involuntary shudder through my spine, even though I knew the official had no relation to Victoria.
"Is this regarding Ryan's parole applications?" I asked, my tone instantly defensive. "I've already filed a permanent restraining order and a victim impact statement denying any reduction in sentence."
"No, Mrs. Hayes. This isn't about your ex-husband," the official replied, her voice dropping into a somber, heavy tone. "It's about Victoria Vance."
I pulled the phone closer to my ear. "What about her? Did she try to file another appeal?"
"No," Director Vance said. "Late last night, during a routine security transport between the maximum-security state penitentiary and a federal medical facility in cook county... the transport van was ambushed."
The pen in my hand slipped, rolling off the desk and hitting the floor.
"Ambushed?" I whispered, my blood turning to ice.
"An unidentified tactical team forced the prison transport vehicle off the road using armored trucks," the Director explained, reading from a classified incident report. "Two officers were injured. By the time backup arrived three minutes later... the transport door had been cut open with a thermal lance."
"Where is she?" I demanded, standing up so fast my desk chair rolled back into the wall. "Where is Victoria?!"
"Victoria Vance was extracted from the vehicle, Mrs. Hayes," the official said heavily. "She is currently unaccounted for. We have launched a multi-agency manhunt across three states, but... we believe she had external help from an international syndicate tied to her previous espionage work."
The room began to spin. The peace, the safety, the quiet home I had built over the last three years suddenly felt like a fragile glass house built on quicksand.
"Why are you calling me?" I gasped, terror gripping my heart in a vice-like squeeze.
"During the preliminary forensic sweep of the ambush site," Director Vance revealed, her voice dripping with grave concern, "agents recovered a piece of paper left behind inside the burnt transport van. It was tucked under the driver's seat."
"What did it say?" I choked out, tears of renewed horror springing to my eyes.
"It was a hand-written note addressed to you, Claire," the official said softly. "It contained five words."
I stood frozen in the middle of my quiet home, looking up toward the stairs leading to my sleeping son's bedroom.
"What were the words?" I begged, my voice breaking.
There was a brief pause on the line before Director Vance read the message aloud:
May you like
“I’m coming for my revenge.”
I slowly lowered the phone from my ear. Outside my window, through the dark suburban night, a solitary black SUV quietly pulled up to the curb across the street, its headlights turning off into the darkness.
