The Whiskey Files

TWO

It had been a little over a year and Susanna was just getting the last little bits of her ex-husband's things out of the house they had shared for the better half of seven years. The last box was being loaded up and shipped out that morning by 9 A.M. sharp.

Not only would she finally be free of Alexander Emmitt, but she would finally be able to put to rest the thoughts of Salem King. At least, that was what she hoped.

In reality, she thought about Salem constantly and each time it was like a fresh tear at her heart that made the bitter resentment well up in her like a hot ache. It reminded her of the betrayal of her trust and how that man had slithered his way into her life despite how hard she had fought to try to keep him out of it.

She wasn't that type of woman. Not the kind that went behind the back of the man she married, the man she took oaths for in the house of God and made promises to love, honor and cherish. She hadn't been that kind of woman till Salem had made her that kind of woman.

Sure, she hadn't been in the happiest marriage and Alex had shown himself to be the complete opposite of the man she had fallen in love with: that happy-go-lucky, devoted and tender-loving sort of man, that was the man she had met in college. The man who had wooed her for over a year and a half of dating and had asked for her hand in marriage.

That man had been a lie. Even then, that didn't make her a cheater. Even when the façade had fallen and Alex had shown his true colors she hadn't once thought of cheating. It was Alex and Mr. King who had pushed her to it.

Two men who had done nothing more than show her she couldn't trust men.

That was why now she just had her two big Dobermanns to keep her company in this big house. The 4 bedroom, two story Dutch Colonials with its dark cobalt blue paint and beautiful columns and large bay windows and its acreage of freshly manicured lawn with privacy hedges that she used to share with Alex. Filled with modern art-deco furniture and state of the art technology she didn't want that now had grown on her.

Her lawyer had been a hell of a good one and she had taken Alex not just for the house but for half of his worth, which he now paid her in alimony.

She was set for life and now that everything was just finalized, she could finally start living.

There was a ring on the doorbell that chimed through the house, it set off her Dobermanns who gave a heady bark each.

"Thank you, boys."

They were a nifty little alarm system, usually alerting her well before anyone got to the door to ring it, but she had been so busy with the box she hadn't noticed them getting up and move towards the door to alert her that the delivery driver was there to pick up the scheduled package.

The box was carried over to the door with a bit of a juggle for the door and as she opened it, the man on the other side would take one look at the dogs on the other side and took several steps back out of instinct before he stepped towards her to help her with her struggle with the box.

"Just this?"

She nodded her head.

"That's it. At least it better be."

Hopefully the last of it she'll ever have to deal with again.

She shut the door as the driver started walking off and she made her way towards her peach-colored couch to slink her way down with a sigh.

Everything in that box was a good reminder of Alex. His little hobby of toy cars he probably spent about as much money on as most men spent on real cars. Model airplanes and the like. All painstakingly wrapped up in bubble wrap and then placed delicately into the box. If anything happened to it from here? Well, it was now out of her control and no longer her problem, just like Alex.