The Poppy Field

Chapter 16

My Mum went home an hour or so later, with the promise that she'd come back at the weekend to stay with me. I texted Ben, numerous times, but he didn't answer. I told myself that he was probably just busy with work, but I wasn't sure that this was the case. It felt as if he was avoiding me. Deciding not to dwell on it too much I headed into my office, a little earlier than needed in case my boss had noticed me sneak out the other day. But he was busy with a client when I arrived and didn't bat an eyelash when I walked into his office. I placed the coffee onto his desk. He hadn't asked for it but I had worked here long enough that I knew he would want it.

'Thank you Poppy,' he said. 'Have you met our new client?' The man sat in the chair opposite to him turned to face me and I stopped in my tracks.

'Nice to meet you,' I said politely stretching out my hand to him, pretending that I had no idea who he was. 'I better get back to work,' I muttered and hurried out of the room.

I called Kara the second I reached my office. This wasn't a phone call that could wait until I was certain that no one was listening in. She picked up on the first ring.

'What?' She asked. She wasn't angry but I could tell that she was slightly frustrated that I was calling her whilst she was at work. 'What's happened?' She asked when I didn't reply.

'He's...he's...he's here.' I stuttered down the phone, anxiously looking around me, paranoid that there was somebody watching me.

'Who's here?' She asked confused. 'Has something happened with your boss?'

'You could say that,' I muttered.

'Poppy, will you please tell me what's going on?' Kara demanded, although I could tell that she was scared of what I would say next, having no idea what to expect. I almost didn't want to tell her.

'The guy we're fighting against. The guy who... attacked you.' I whispered, not wanting to mention his name. 'He's here, in the building. I think my boss is going to defend him. How does he know that we're bringing a case against him?' I asked her.

'I may have mentioned it,' she whispered. 'I went to his apartment building, trying to get the security footage myself and he was there and he started shouting at me and I was so angry and I may have mentioned that I was bringing a case against him and... I'm so sorry. I didn't think.'

'Don't be sorry,' I replied, although I wanted to scream, knowing that we were nowhere near ready to take this case to court. 'We were going to have to mention it at some point, this just means that everything may begin to move a bit faster than we'd anticipated and we might not have as much time to prepare. We're going to have to work on this case every free minute we have.' I said, the harsh reality hitting.

'Okay.' She said weakly and I hung up the phone. We'd talk later. I slumped into my chair, my head in my hands, mentally creating a list of everything that needed to get done. It was going to be a lot more difficult than I ever could have imagined. There was a knock at my office door.

'Come in,' I said, beginning to busy myself with today's jobs. The door swung open to reveal my boss, who stood smugly in my doorway.

'That was our newest client, Mr Harry Stephenson.' He smirked, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning against the door frame. 'Apparently someone is bringing a rape claim against him,' he added as if this was brand new information to him. I wondered if he'd managed to seek this man out personally and offered to defend him. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had.

'Really?' I asked, trying and failing to sound natural.

'If I were you Poppy,' he said, lowering his voice to almost a whisper. 'I'd remember which side you're on. You wouldn't want to choose badly now would you?' I didn't need to read too much into his words to recognise that he was threatening me. But it wouldn't work. I was determined not to let it work. If anything, his threats were beginning to inspire me to fight even harder than before.