Soul Food Pt. 03

"How are you, Mrs. Willingham," which got a wide smile from Coraline, she was the only one at her work that knew of her marital troubles, "I hope that man high tailed it the moment you had him served," Marybeth said, with a wicked smirk.

"He didn't bother to come home, the first and only smart thing he's done, ever!" Coraline said, earning a chuckle from Marybeth. "So anything new going on?" she asked when Marybeth handed her morning coffee like she had always done for the past six years.

"No, it's pretty quiet this morning. However, this arrived for you half an hour ago," Marybeth said, handing Coraline a sealed FedEx envelope along with her other daily mail.

"Odd, I didn't order anything..." Her breath grew still, her heart seemed to stop as she noted who had sent it. "No, no, he said he'd never contact me again!" Coraline muttered into her mind.

"Are you okay?" Marybeth asked, noting how Coraline's hands were trembling. Watching worriedly as Coraline said nothing as she slipped into her office and shut the door, arching an eyebrow when her boss hastily closed the blinds.

Dropping her mail on her desk, her eyes darted to and fro as Coraline stared aimlessly out her office window at the city she's has called home since leaving college. She had thought she had put the past behind her eighteen years ago. That he would leave her alone if she didn't press charges against him for drugging her and getting her pregnant from the rape at the age of fourteen. Her parents had packed up their house and moved the day after she had put the child up for adoption, yet he had insisted that she have it aborted, something she couldn't bring herself to do. She had lied and told him she had so that he would get out of her life. The last thing she knew was he tried it again on one of his other female students, and it didn't end well when the girl's father showed up unexpectedly and caught the evil, wicked man in the middle of trying to rape his unconscious daughter. After her parents told her he was sent to prison, that was the last thing she ever heard or cared to know about the man that raped her.

"Yet why now? How did he find me?" Coraline muttered into her cup. Turning slightly, eyeing the FedEx package, wondering what the man had sent to torment her all over again. This was not how she thought her morning would have gone. She had hoped it would be like every other morning. Her reading her mail and email, reading the reports of the Hedge Funds they managed and enjoy her coffee before getting to the real work of being a VP. She was not expecting to be sent back to those fearful years she's endured thinking that man would find her once again and rape her all over. The tearing of the seal was loud in her ears, with trepidation reaching her hand into the envelope. Arching an eyebrow when there was only a newspaper article inside from her old hometown. Gasping loudly, the newspaper clipping fell from her hands and floated down onto her desk. Her eyes were wide at the man's handwriting that read: 'You fucking lying bitch!' Fainting as the image of a younger version of her rapist stared up at her.

To Be Continued...