Victoria felt it before she saw him.
That sensation—low and persistent—like pressure between her shoulder blades. The kind that didn’t belong to paranoia or instinct alone, but memory. Muscle-deep. Bone-deep.
She stopped walking.
The city noise continued around her—traffic, voices, the hiss of a bus pulling away—but something inside her went still.
Someone was watching her.
Not in the casual way people did.
Not curious.
Not admiring.
This was deliberate.
She tightened her grip on her son’s hand.
“Mama?” he asked, tilting his head up at her. “Why did you stop?”
Victoria forced a smile. “Just… lost in thought.”
She scanned the street casually, pretending to look for the crosswalk light.
Nothing.
No one obvious.
But the feeling didn’t fade.
It followed them all the way into th
