When Tony Stark saw the words at the top of the letter—"Tony, this is Nick. If you are reading this letter, it means I am already dead."—he stopped walking back toward the door as he read the envelope, shock knitting his brows and sharpening his gaze.
He sensed that things were not so simple.
It was not simply aliens invading Earth.
It seemed that something was right beside him, casting a heavy shadow over him and leaving him restless and agitated.
"Mr. Stark, it's good to see you. Are you picking up the mail for your wife today?" Tony Stark jolted, snapping out of Nick's letter. Turning around, he saw a mailman in a green uniform smiling at him, holding out some documents as he approached Tony Stark.
This mailman did not know that Tony Stark had an odd habit: he never accepted anything handed directly to him by someone else.
The last thing he had accepted from someone's hand had been the notice of his parents' deaths. It was not that his status made him disdain taking things from strangers; he was afraid of losing something important again.
Tony Stark swiftly folded the letter in his hand and looked up in the direction from which the mailman carrying Nick Fury's letter had come. The previous mailman had already vanished.
Tony Stark's expression darkened as he swept his gaze around the entrance to his home. Only then did he realize how strange that mailman had been.
That mailman knew about his habit of not taking things from strangers. He had placed the mail and pen directly on the mailbox, letting him sign for them.
"Thank you. Just put it there." Tony Stark glanced at the newly appeared mailman before tilting his head toward the mailbox, signaling for him to place