Sandra lowered her head and nodded.
I didn’t miss the tears that welled up in her eyes before she did.
“I s-saw him … my ex.”
It took me a moment to understand why that was such an issue, but then I remembered what she’d revealed about her ex. “You mean, the one that …”
“Drugged and raped me with a few of his friends.” She nodded. “Him.”
“How? When?”
She paused, swallowing. “He’s the newest lawyer at the law firm I work f-for.” She could hardly get out the last words as tears began streaming down her cheeks. Sandra was a paralegal at a law firm in the city.
“Oh, sweetie,” I cooed, pulling her into a hug. I felt her body shiver as she cried on my shoulder.
After only a minute or two, I released her from the hug and Sandra began wiping away tears in an attempt to get herself together. I handed her a tissue, to which she gratefully accepted.
“I should be over this. He shouldn’t have this much damn control over me after nine years,” she declared, another tear slipping.
I swallowed. “What happened to you isn’t something you just get over.”
“Yeah, but … it’s been so long. This shouldn’t reduce me to crying like this in the middle of the day.”
I bit back the response that it was a natural reaction due to not dealing with what happened to her. But I couldn’t say those words without being a hypocrite in my own right so I held back.
“He works at the same firm you do?” I carefully asked, instead.
She nodded. “Not the same department but he was brought past my area as part of the new employee tour guide of the office. Thankfully, he didn’t see me because I was away from my desk.” She pushed out a harsh breath. “I stood there, cowering behind a wall while he passed passed with one of the firm’s partners.”
I wrinkled my brows. I wanted to be as sensitive as possible when asking the next question. “Is this the first time you’ve seen him since that night?”
Again, Sandra dabbed at her eyes while nodding. “Well, the next morning. He dropped me off at my place and pulled off like nothing ever happened. He broke up with me via text the next day saying he couldn’t trust me after what I’d done with his friends.”
“What?” Pure rage rolled through my body. How could that bastard be so goddamn cruel?
She shook her head and shrugged. “He went off to college on a football scholarship a few weeks later and has been gone ever since … or so I thought. I’ve never seen his friends since that night.” Sandra sighed heavily, and her shoulders sank. “I took the rest of the day off. Told my boss I wasn’t feeling well. I am going to work from home tomorrow but what am I going to do? I can’t work from home for forever.”
Her voice was so full of angst and fear, that pissed me off even more. That slime ball shouldn’t have the right to make Sandra feel like she has to run away from her job or completely turn her whole life around. This shit wasn’t fair.
“He’s a son of a bitch!”
Sandra let out a chuckle through her tears. “That, I know.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” An idea popped into my head but it infuriated me to even think about. Still. It might be Sandra’s only alternative to avoiding working around the person who’d violated her. “Have you considered looking for new employment?”
Sandra lifted her head, her wide brown eyes pinned to mine. “Finding a new job could take weeks or months. In the meantime …”
In the meantime, she’d still have to work with that rapist. Not if I could do anything about it. “Maybe not. I might know someone who could help. Can you email me your resume? You have a resume, right?”
“Yes, of course.” She nodded. “Who do you think could help?”
“I don’t want to say just yet. Just know it’s someone I trust.” Someone with very powerful connections throughout the city of Williamsport.
She nodded.
“Okay, I’ve got to get back to the office, but send me your resume and a good cover letter within the next hour, all right?”
“S-sure.” Sandra looked startled, as if she hadn’t expected this.
