Untitled Book Chapter One

1

It was a dark night. A lonely girl walks slowly through the crowded New York streets. A blue jean jacket was held tight around her slender, shivering form. Long dark hair blows randomly in the freezing current of air. Dark blue jeans hugged slender legs cushioned at the bottom by black army-like boots. Chocolate eyes stared ahead blinking against the freezing blasts. She sighed as she held the jacket closed, complaining about the broken zipper. Her boyfriend was nice enough to lend her his jacket but he couldn't’t get the zipper fixed first. She bent her head down unknowingly turning onto the wrong street. Minutes later she looked up to discover herself walking along a dark alley lit on each side by flaming barrels. She gazed around frightened. She began to run through a dark alleyway screaming as somebody grabbed her from behind. Her shrill shrieks were muffled as a dirty blanket covered her head, and a smelly corner was shoved into her mouth. She felt her arms held down by hard knees as fumbling fingers tore the jacket away from her body. Her boots were untied and the laces used to bind her hands together. She squirmed under the pressure of his weight as his legs straddled her stomach. She groaned as the back of a large hand came down across her cheek. Pained moans were muffled against the blanket as she felt the rest of her clothes torn away. She passed out as the man’s weight shifted lower. All she could think of as she sunk into oblivion was how mad Jay would be about the tears in his jacket.2

As her eyelids opened she found herself lying in the same spot only now the blanket that once covered her face now covered her naked body. She groaned as a new pain ran up and down her legs as she moved. She raised a shaky hand to her face and ran her fingertips gingerly across a throbbing bruise on her cheek. She sat up slowly rubbing her fingertips across her face, another bruise rose to her touch as she winced. She found her shirt and pulled it over her head as she searched for the rest of her clothes. A few minutes later she sighed and sank down onto a box her hands covered her face as she wept. She wrapped her arms around herself when she realized Jay’s jacket was missing. She twisted the ring around her finger wondering why he took the jacket but not her 24 carat gold engagement ring. She stood walking slowly and shakily as she hugged her bare arms to keep warm. She jumped as her cell phone rang somewhere among the boxes. She threw them aside until she caught a glimmer out of the corner of her eye. She grabbed the small silver cell phone and flipped it open frantically repeating “hello” until she heard Jay’s voice on the other end. “Teresa…Teresa is that you?” She smiled; glad that whoever had done it had not found her phone and taken it. “Jay…oh god Jay help me…help me please.” She whispered, afraid anyone would hear her. “Teresa, Where are you, we’ve been waiting for over an hour? The one night and you had to go and…” She interrupted knowing he hated that but figured this was a good reason. “Jay…listen to me.” She whimpered slightly as he hissed into her ear, his cold tone seemed to freeze her mind. “What?” She paused. “Jay, I don’t know where I am and…I was….” “What Teresa…you were what?” She cringed as if he had hit her. “Jay I need you to listen to me…I am lost and I was raped!” She yelled, tired of being scared of him. The silence on the other end of the line frightened her more than when he yelled. Finally he responded. “My God Teresa, Where are you?” She broke down then hearing the sincerity in his voice. “I don’t know.  It’s a dark alley. I took a wrong turn somewhere and….I'm lost” She looked around. “Ok baby…walk towards a lighted area and look for a building name or a street sign ok? I’ll stay here until you find something.” 3

She walked out of the alley headed for street lights; though everything looked the same to her. She smiled as she caught sight of a familiar place and told Jay. She hung up after his promise he would find her if she just stayed where she was. She sat on a bench looking around warily hoping the man wouldn’t find her again. She ran her palms up and down her thighs as the now familiar pain spread across her pelvis. She clutched at her stomach, remembering the feeling of the pain ripping across her body as the stranger stole the one thing she had left, the one thing she was saving for Jay for their wedding night, only months away. She sobbed as the dream melted from her mind. The memory of the stranger twisted her stomach in knots until she had to find a garbage can to vomit into. As she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand she saw Jay’s car come tearing through the alley way she had just come out of. She groaned as she sank to the floor in a dead faint, the sound of Jay’s horn and the biting winter wind faded from her mind.4

She woke again seeing blurry shapes hovering above her, as her eyes adjusted; she recognized Jay and his parents. She sat up slowly, groaning at the pain again. She felt Jay’s mother swoop down and take her into her arms whispering as she sobbed. “Oh Teresa…poor baby…oh sweetheart…” She continued as Teresa let her mind absorb every feature. Bonnie Raymond was a sweet woman with short curly black hair and soft brown eyes, a small quiet woman married to a large bear of a man. Everything a man can pass down to his son, Jason Raymond had given to his only son. Jay was a clone from his name to his attitude. Even now the two men watched silently and coldly as Mrs. Raymond clung to Teresa’s still shivering body. “All right now Bonnie let the girl go…she doesn’t need you cryin’ all over her. There’s no time for a woman’s tears.” He pulled the hysterical woman away and looked down at Teresa almost as if he blamed her for what had happened. “So young lady; what can you tell us about this attack?” Teresa could hear the sarcastic tone in his voice at the word “attack”. She could tell he didn’t believe her from the way he looked at her and the way he spoke to her. She turned away while Jay lowered himself onto the bed next to her. She could feel him taking her hand in his, his other hand stroking through her long dark curly hair. She felt sickened by his touch and she waved his hand away then turned to look at him, tears in her emerald eyes. As he started to get up, she reached out for him holding his hand in both of hers and pressing it to her lips. “I’m sorry…Jay…please don’t go.” He settled back down onto the bed and lifted her up into his arms, holding her tight against his chest, as her salty tears fell silently onto his lapel. He hushed her quietly, his warm lips against her forehead. “It’s time for you to rest now Teresa.” She lay back and looked at them all. “I can’t sleep. I’m not tired.” Jay’s father sighed exasperatingly as his wife sat beside Teresa, gently slipping a small pill between her lips then a small amount of water. “Now, you just sleep honey, the boys and I will take good care of you. You don’t have to worry about a thing.” As Teresa drifted off for the third time that night, she could hear Jay and his father arguing quietly by the doorway. 5

“Look son, you can’t stay with her now. How could she have let this happen? You should just send her back to wherever it was you found her and forget about her. Find someone who won’t let this happen to her, someone who takes care of herself…and you. Listen to me son…”6

“Dad, I already told you while she was sleeping that I had a plan. There’s nothing to worry about. So just don’t say anything to anyone. Please…just forget it…..Look…here’s my plan…………”7

Teresa fell asleep just before she could hear any more. 8