His Secret [Completed]

Chapter Five

When Jasmine broke the news to Sophia of their eviction two weeks earlier she knew they'd have to part ways eventually. They had been roommates for little over a year and through that time they became a family. They had a couple of fish as pets and they were living happily. There were struggles for money throughout that year - sometimes there was barely enough money to eat a sustainable meal - but they were happy. Now Sophia feared that it would all be gone as if it never really happened.

She spent every night after work searching through Jasmine's slow five year old computer looking for cheap places to stay, relatively close to Queens and MKT. Her options became more and more limited as time passed; the prices were high and the ones that were affordable needed a lot of work. She had little to no options, except a small apartment - if you could even call it that. The only bed was one that folds into the couch and the bathroom opened onto the kitchen. The location wasn't much better either, it was around a forty minute walk from MKT and was in a cold, dark basement with only one small window (which happened to be above the shower). The single window looked out onto the sidewalk and the constant pounding of footsteps walking past the apartment solidified Sophia's concrete no about renting that apartment.

After searching through the internet during every free moment she had, Sophia came across a little two bedroom apartment which came mostly furnished. The advert said that they were looking for a roommate to move in immediately, so it was perfect. She emailed back and forth and knew that her backup plan was secure. There was one catch, which was that the apartment was on the outskirts of Pennsylvania and if push came to shove, she'd have to leave her job at MKT and move once again.

The thought of moving to another state angered Sophia, as her mother was born and raised in New York and it's where she met her father. To make matters worse she'd never left her home state before, so she knew no other life apart from the one she'd made for herself. There was one thing that scared her more than moving though, and that was telling her boss she has to break her contractual agreement with MKT. The contract signed stated she had no other option but to remain in his employ for a year unless he broke the agreement. She realised he owned her and even though she swore she'd never surrender herself to a man again - whether that be in employment or in life - she had done just that, and all in a time of need, once again.

Boxes filled their mostly empty apartment as eviction time neared. Jasmine owned the utensils, cutlery and pretty much every appliance they used. Shehad purchased them when she first moved in, before she met Sophia. It was a good thing, that's how Sophia looked at it. It meant that she wouldn't have to rent a storage locker or lug around extra weight when they had to leave and rent a room at a motel. When the day before eviction dawned on them, Sophia felt helpless, and as she watched Derek and Jasmine pick up a few boxes at a time and load them onto his truck, she felt alone for the first time in a long time.

It was early evening on a Sunday and she realised she had no choice but to email her acceptance to the apartment in Pennsylvania and call her boss to tell him she wouldn't be able to attend work tomorrow, or any time after that, because she'd be on a cheap bus heading to a cheap motel to wait on another cheap bus to her new life. Her hands began to shake as she clicked through her old, busted flip phone to Noah's number. She squeezed eyes shut as she clicked the green button and held the phone to her ear and waited for the call to connect.

The ringing felt like it lasted for an eternity which only made her more nervous, and to make matters worse, her nerves didn't calm when his smooth voice answered the call on the other end. "Noah McKenzie."

"Mr McKenzie, it's Sophia Jenkins."

"Is there a problem?" His voice was filled with concern, which he tried to mask.