SOUL CONFESSIONS- Excerpt
Prologue
Phillip Tomlinson
Phillip’s body tensed as he stared at the name, Jeana Sands, printed on the manila folder he had just retrieved from the back of his bottom file drawer. He had forgotten it was there. It had been years since he’d stuffed it in there in the first place. Years since he thought about Jeana Sands and the child he fathered so many years ago.
He flipped through the pages. The folder held a certified letter he’d received informing him that Jeana, an ex-girlfriend from college, wanted child support for her son. It also held a copy of the DNA test, which proved Jeana’s son was biologically his and documentation of a bank account not connected with any of his other accounts.
Phillip remembered the day he had gotten the certified letter asking for child support for a child he hadn’t known existed. The boy was nine-years-old when he received the letter. After going to court and having a DNA test performed, he found out the test proved he was the father to a 99.97% chance.
It was at that point a secret account to pay automatic monthly child support payments, was created. Soon after the account was set up, Phillip placed all documentation connecting him to Jeana in a manila folder. He scrawled her name on the tab and hid it in the very back of the bottom file drawer.
There was no way he wanted his wife to find out about the child. It wasn’t his fault that he had told Jeana she needed to terminate the pregnancy and she had gone ahead and had the child anyway without telling him. And it wasn’t his fault she waited until the boy was nine-years-old before she contacted him. He had no emotional ties to the boy and didn’t even know what the boy looked like.
Legally he would provide the child support payments, but that is where the ties ended. His life was progressing just fine. Soon after setting up the account for the boy, Phillip found out his wife, Shelby, was pregnant. He and his wife had been trying for over two years to conceive and now he had the family he always envisioned and wanted.
Jeana and her son did not fit into his plans. Phillip made it very clear to his lawyer that he didn’t want anything whatsoever to do with the boy and did not want any contact from Jeana. Jeana had complied with his wishes and never bothered him again.
There was a knock at his office door. “Hello, anybody in?”
Phillip shoved the file back into the drawer and looked up to see one of his best friends and fraternity brother, Will. “Of course I’m here. I just got promoted. I can’t start disappearing now.”
Will placed his hand on one of the moving boxes, which sat on Phillip’s desk. “You need any help packing up your things?”
“Naw, thanks, man. I won’t officially move to my new office for a few more weeks. I’ve got more than enough time to pack.” Phillip closed the drawer he had been looking in.
“Congratulations again; you deserved this promotion,” Will said.
“You’re dog on straight I deserved it. I should have gotten it a couple of years ago.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But hey, I ain’t complaining.”
“Everything happens in its own season. This is your time. God had his reasons for you getting this promotion now instead of then.”
Phillip pulled one of the filled file boxes off his desk, placing it next to the office door, “Well, it is about time, is all I can say.”
Will looked at his watch. “Hey, I just wanted to step in for a second and see if you needed any help. I’ve got to check my emails before my meeting in an hour.”
“Naw, I’m just packing a little at a time until the carpet is replaced in my new office.” Phillip’s office phone rang. “Hold on a second.” He picked up the receiver. “Hello, Phillip Tomlinson speaking.” He waited for a response from the other end of the line, but none came. “Hello, hello,” he said again. There was no verbal response but he did hear a distinctive click.
Will looked at him questioningly. “Same crank caller?”
Phillip placed the receiver down harder than he intended. “I guess. It’s kind of hard to know when they don’t identify themselves.”
Will shook his head. “It’s crazy. Why would someone waste their time calling all day long and not say anything?”
“They must not have anything better to do. I wonder how many other people are having the same problem as me with these crank callers.” Phillip said. “Shelby has even been receiving calls at home.”
“I don’t know, but I’m glad they’re not calling me.”
Phillip shrugged it off. “I’ll just be glad when they finish replacing that carpet. Hopefully, when I move, the calls will stop.”
“Or maybe the person will get a new hobby.” Will looked at his watch again. “Gotta go man. See you later. Maybe we can do lunch or something.”
“Sounds good. Give me a call later.”
Once Will left the office, Phillip closed and locked his office door. He returned to the file cabinet and pulled the manila folder, back out. Looking around his office, he spotted the paper shredder sitting in the corner of the office next to his fake ficus tree.
He retrieved the shredder and placed it on his desk. After plugging it in, he pulled the contents of the folder back out. One by one he took each sheet and shredded it. Phillip shook his head wondering why he had kept all the information in the first place. His lawyer had copies of everything safely tucked away in his own office. He should have destroyed it all years ago.
Once everything in the folder was destroyed, Phillip then shred the manila folder also. Wiping his hands as if he were removing imaginary dust, he said to himself, “Let the past stay in the past.”