Forever Tied to you

62

Mason

A week. I've been back at the office for a whole week and every second I'm away from Sophie, from the kids, feels like forever. Especially when we are sitting in a stupid finance meeting.

I thought this was what we paid accountants for. The company was doing great. We still held our high end clientele and the donations we received covered more than enough for the mens salaries for the pro bono cases.

Even as the boss I couldn't get out of the quarterly finance meetings. My relief to the end of said meeting, unable to be camouflaged.

"I gotta get home if that's okay?" Steven said as we all filed out the door.

"Sure." I shrugged even though I was groaning internally. "Everything okay?"

"Mia's sick. She's got the Flu. I feel bad for leaving her this long, I'm surprised Sophie isn't sick with the amount they hang out." He watched me as if he expected me to say something.

"She's actually been acting strange lately." I admitted before realizing that this was a conversation for later. Right now he had a sick wife to take care of so that she wasn't sick and having to deal with their kids. "We can talk later. Tell Mia I hope she feels better."

"I wilL. Thanks!" He smiled.

Once he left I pondered on Sophie's strange behavior. On the surface she was still the same happy Sophie, but her smiles seemed forced most days - never quite reaching her eyes. She wasn't eating as much and it almost seemed as if she was moving through the motions of the day without actually living them.

I wanted to help, but she was shutting me out each time I tried to ask her about it. I knew I needed to trust her but that was easier said than done when it was so obvious that she was hiding something.

"Steven had to leave early. Mia has the flu. I'll be home as soon as I can, love you!"

I saw the three little dots appear on the screen before they disappeared again.

"Love you too, see you later." Was all she replied.

It wouldn't have been strange except she had made it a point to text me little facts about her day since I came back to work. We weren't known for our short conversations that led no where.

My rush to get home would end up getting delayed by an emergency case. Steven had done some relations work with the local police departments while I was out on paternity leave, explained the pro bono work and how many clients we could take on. Of course that was always subjective to the circumstances of each client.

When the captain of the precinct called about a eighteen year old female who was being stalked and had already been attacked once, there was no doubt in my mind that we needed to help her, regardless of how badly I wanted to get home.

That's why instead of driving home when I left the office, myself and one of the guys, Paul, drove to the precinct. The process took about two hours.

Samantha was a petite girl, and despite her initial attempts at being strong, she eventually cracked, pushing her shoulder length blonde hair behind her ear as she wiped her eyes with her other shaking hand.

"It all started six months ago." Her voice shook a little. "I dated Harry for a few weeks after we had talked in class a little. When he broke up with me I figured I'd just get back to school. I mean he must have had his reasons and it's not like we were in love, I barely knew him. So anyway he started dating someone else and I thought we were friends, we would all hang out after class, go to parties. When his new girlfriend broke up with him he started calling me everyday, following me to my classes, to the grocery store. I asked him to stop. When he didn't I went to the school. They couldn't do anything since I couldn't prove he was following me. I made sure to never go out alone, and then stopped going out all together."

I handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes and she shot me a weak smile.

"So anyway I left my job today. I had to stop for some groceries and I just didn't think. I went back to my dorm and as I was getting stuff out of my car he came up behind me. I didn't know what to do when he..  when he grabbed me so I screamed. Some of the football players heard and started yelling at him. He ran off but I can't live like this. I don't want to change schools, but I can't keep doing this." She cried and I felt bad for her.

This was the reason I started this company. For people like her and I knew without a doubt Sophie would understand.

"If it's okay with you I'm going to have someone follow you, kind of like a body guard. You will barely know they are there, and they will be close enough to help you if you need it. That means you can go out again, work, live your life and know that someone is there to protect you."

"I can't afford to pay.."

"There's no charge." I assured her. "We have a special fund for cases like yours. I'm going to give you chase. He's one of our younger guys so he should blend in." I explained before I introduced her to chase.

After we hashed out some of the details regarding her schedule amongst other things, I was finally free and clear of the office.

I arrived home to an unusual silence. I set my work bag down and looked around the lower level before going upstairs. The twins were both asleep in their cribs, but what shocked me was Sophie.

She was asleep on the floor beneath their cribs, smeared makeup and tear stains on her face. I didn't want to wake her up, but looking at her face I didn't want to leave her alone either.

That's why I grabbed the pillows and blankets from our bed, carefully slipped a pillow beneath her head and curled up beside her on the floor. I covered us both with our blanket and wrapped my arm around her.

Whatever it was I needed her to know that she didn't have to go through it alone.