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Chapter 18

Chris said he would sit with me when I told them. That he would hold my hand through the whole speech.

My parents waited patiently as I fiddled for the right words. I wasn’t sure whether I should be straightforward or say it in a roundabout way.

I settled on a frank, quick delivery.  The sooner I said it the sooner it would be over.

They were not judgmental nor scolded me. They came to where I was seated and hugged me hard. They said they understood. Not meaning that they knew what I had been through but that the last year made sense to them now.

My parents asked me if I wanted to report the matter to the cops. I hesitantly said yes. After all, I didn’t want James to do this to other girls or maybe it had already happened and they were as afraid as I was to reveal it.

After the police arrested James, two other girls much like myself, quiet and reserved, claimed James raped them too. I had done the right thing by getting a serial rapist off the streets.

Everything in my life was beginning to fall in place. I was not as shy as I used to be. In fact, the doctors told me that I was going through remission. I met the love of my life. My relationship with my parents was almost repaired. It couldn’t get any better.

After graduating from high school, I went away to college with Chris. He proposed to me one day during the summer of freshman year. The first time we had sex was our wedding night the following summer.

After graduating with my bachelors in speech pathology I assisted children and teenagers that were like I used to be. I also attended conferences for girls and women and spoke to them of my experiences and how far I had come. The events of my past were not erased but instead I drew strength from them, helping others like me see the light at the end of the tunnel.