Chapter 3 - The Shadow of the Past
Three days after Christmas, the snow in Chicago had turned into slush, and the harsh reality of life returned with a vengeance.
The five thousand dollars Ethan had left inside the napkin had saved Jenna from immediate eviction. She had paid off her back rent, cleared the red-stamped electric bill, and filled her small refrigerator with real food—fresh vegetables, meat, fruit, and two full cartons of milk. For the first time in two years, the twins slept in a warm room with the radiator softly clanking.
However, Jenna's fragile peace was shattered on Monday morning when a heavy knock echoed against her apartment door.
She opened it to find two men in cheap grey suits standing in the hallway, smelling faintly of stale cigarettes and cheap cologne. Behind them stood a man Jenna recognized all too well: Marcus Vance.
Marcus was the loan shark her ex-husband, Greg, had borrowed money from before abandoning Jenna and the girls two years ago. Greg had taken out fifteen thousand dollars in illegal high-interest loans using Jenna's name and social security number as fraudulent collateral, then vanished into thin air.
"Hello, Jenna," Marcus said, a greasy, wolfish smile spreading across his face as he pushed his way into her small living room without an invitation. "Happy New Year."
"Get out of my apartment, Marcus," Jenna said, her voice shaking as she backed away toward the kitchen counter where her phone sat. "I don't owe you anything. Greg took that money! The police told you—"
"The police don't enforce my contracts, sweetie," Marcus sneered, tapping a thick manila folder against his palm. "Greg's gone. But his signatures are on these documents, and so are yours. With interest, the debt is up to thirty-five thousand dollars. I hear you came into some money recently. Paid your landlord three months in advance, didn't you?"
Jenna’s blood ran ice-cold. Marcus had been watching her.
"I don't have thirty-five thousand dollars!" Jenna cried out. "I spent what I had to keep my children from freezing!"
Marcus stepped closer, his smile vanishing into dark menace. "Then you'd better find it by the end of the week, Jenna. Or maybe I’ll have to take those sweet little twins of yours as payment for an adoption agency in Canada that pays very well for healthy young girls."
Before Jenna could scream, the front door—which Marcus's goons had left cracked open—was kicked wide open.
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"Touch those kids, and you won't live long enough to see the courtroom," a cold, powerful voice boomed down the hallway.
Ethan Mercer stepped into the apartment.
