Coal

COAL
Life as President of a new chapter was harder and lonelier than I’d expected, even with my family and brothers surrounding me.
A call from a potential supplier derailed my carefully cultivated life in a way that I never expected.
I went from a single man to married and a father in the blink of an eye.
It was a responsibility I’d not expected, but not one I regretted.

THEA
Our life was hard. It’s not like I chose it; it was the life I’d been born into.
When a conversation was overheard that my father was planning on selling my younger sister to broker a deal, my siblings and I knew we had run out of time.
He’d already taken my daughter’s father. He wasn’t taking my sister.
Coal was not what I expected. When he’d suggested we’d get married, I’d been shocked.
He promised I wouldn’t regret it, so I agreed.
To protect my daughter and siblings, I would agree to just about anything.
Time would tell if he would be true to his word.