Rhonda's View

When I went to New York with Amber, Cal followed me. I never knew he was there. I just thought that I finally got away from him. Amber and I got an apartment, I got a job, went to school and everything seemed normal for about a year. I felt like I had finally moved on with my life.

Amber had some family come in from out of town and we decided to show her cousin Shawn a night out on the town. We went to one of our usual dance clubs and hung out most of the night. Knowing I had to work the next day, I asked Shawn if he would take me home early. He said no problem and we left Amber there with her friends from school. Shawn and I got into the parking lot where we were "jumped" by a bunch of guys. Two guys held me against a white van as five guys beat the living shit out of Shawn. They rammed his head into the hood of the car. They beat him until his eyes were swollen shut and he was eventually unconscious.

I tried fighting off the two guys who were holding me but they were both twice my size. I tried to scream and they threw me into the van, put a gag in my mouth and tied my arms and legs up. I looked up to see Cal sitting in the back of the van. "I guess this will teach you – you don't go home with any man but me. You're mine and you will always be mine." I felt a pinch on my arm and felt coldness running through my veins. "Sleep tight sweetheart," he said as he pulled the syringe from my arm.

I'm not sure what exactly happened after that. I know that I woke up in a hospital in Montana with tubes running all over my body. They kept telling me that I was lucky I was alive. I was severely malnourished and dehydrated along with being overdosed with a lethal dosage of pain medication.

I was pulled out of my stream of thought when Howie got up from his chair and began to walk around the room in the police station. "I'm sorry," he said, "I ...I...I just can't sit through this."
"Howie please don't leave," I said, "out of everyone here, you're the one who should hear all of this." Howie turned to me and as I gazed into his eyes I could tell that he was hurting. "Please Howie, I need you here." Howie shook his head and sat back down beside me. I took his hand in mine – I think he needed to hold my hand more than I needed to hold his.

I continued.

Apparently Cal and friends kidnapped me from New York after they beat up Shawn. I found out that Shawn was in a coma for about four months and sustained massive internal injuries. Amber says he's still not the same today. Cal took me to his parents secluded cottage in Montana. It was about 50 miles away from anything. He kept me unconscious with a variety of drugs that he fed me through an IV. One day he mixed the wrong kinds and almost killed me. He took me to the hospital and told them that I was his neighbor and he found me like that. He even made a "suicide note" and said that it was found beside me.

I woke up in the psyche ward a few days later. The hospital staff kept calling me "Dawn Slemenda" I guess that was the name that Cal gave them. The doctors eventually took me off their suicide watch list and wanted to keep me an extra day or two until my strength built back up. That's when Cal kidnapped me from the hospital. It was the middle of the night and I was sleeping when a young doctor came in "just to check on me". He fiddled with my machines and switched my IV bag that was feeding me nutrients. Again, I don't know what happened after that but this time when I woke up I was back at Cal's cottage.

"Good morning sweetheart," Cal said as he brushed the hair out of my face. "Today is our big day. I've been waiting for this for so long." I couldn't speak because my throat was so raw. I was so weak that I couldn't even turn my head to look around the room. "Here take a sip of this. You'll need your voice for today." Cal held a glass of water to my mouth to let me drink. I thought that Cal might have put something in the water but at that moment all I wanted was something wet for my throat.

"What is today?"
"Honey – it's our wedding day."

Howie went to reach for a glass of water and spilled it all over the table. "Mother fucker!" he shouted. I think everyone was taken aback because Howie rarely swore. "I'm sorry. I ... I ..." Howie closed his eyes and sat back in his chair. AJ moved over on the other side of Howie. He could tell that Howie wasn't doing very well.

"Howie, I know this is hard and I should have told you all of this sooner, but I just didn't know how to."
"I know – I know...go on."

Cal got up from the chair next to the bed and proceeded to get dressed in a tuxedo. He then pulled out a wedding dress from the closet. I tried to get up but realized that I was tied to the bed. Tears began to fall from my eyes.

"Don't cry sweetheart. This is a happy day. We've been waiting for this day for so long."
"No – you've been waiting for this day you sick mother fucker!"
Cal slapped me across the face, "Don't you speak to your husband like that! You will learn to respect and obey me."
"I will never respect you! I will never obey you! And I sure the hell will never love you!!"
Cal didn't like my response and he began to choke me. Before blacking out I heard a loud noise from downstairs. I again woke up in a hospital bed but this time Amber was beside my bed.

"She's up!! She's up!! Someone get in here now!" she shouted. A nurse came into my room, followed by a couple of doctors and some FBI agents. I was told that I was missing for 8 months and that I disappeared from a nightclub in New York.

I looked around the room and saw everyone crying. Howie had his head down on the table. Amber was crying in AJ's arms. Even Nick was crying. I just continued.

Cal was arrested and his trial lasted forever and the whole time he was out on bail he would send me pink roses. It got to the point I would go to a restaurant and he would have pink roses waiting for me. He would send them to my work, to my school, to my home, everywhere. But of course, he would never send a card, he would always pay for them in cash, or have a "friend" send them to me. I guess it was Cal's way of trying to break me down mentally. After his attorneys screwed around with the judicial system for about two years, we finally had a hearing and Cal was convicted of kidnapping, assault and some other charges for what he did to Shawn. He sent me a few letters from jail but I moved, changed my name a few times and thought he was out of my life forever.

I haven't heard anything about him until I got a letter in the mail today saying he was released from prison.

"Okay – so this guy gets out of prison after a little over three years and comes after you again. I got that part." said Detective Snyder, "So why did you kill him?"
"I didn't kill him. He killed himself," I answered.
"Honey – I understand this guy did some not so nice things to you in the past. You're fingerprints are on both guns. He is dead. Unless you can give me something else, I don't have much else to go on and have to suspect that you killed him," Snyder said.
"Why don't you just get the surveillance tape from the arena. Most places have them you know," Nick said. I don't think I ever loved Nick more than I did at that moment.
"Nick – you're a genius!" I said.
"I am?"

About an hour or so later the door opened and in walked another detective with a videotape in his hand. "Well, lets find out what really happened tonight shall we?" He proceeded to put in the videotape that he had taken from a surveillance camera and sat back to watch.
Howie and Amber couldn't look at the screen. They both just squeezed my hands until my fingers were purple.
"Wow," Nick said, "why do I feel like I'm watching an episode of Buffy?"
"No shit! Remind me never to piss you off," AJ laughed trying to lighten the mood. Howie and Amber looked up to watch the remainder of the tape. Every time that Cal hit me, Howie turned away.
The tape confirmed my story that Cal shot himself and the police let me go. "Sorry we had to keep you here all night. Its just procedure," they said.

We all walked out to the car in silence. Howie opened my car door and I broke down into tears. "Don't worry baby," he said, "he's gone now and can never hurt you again. I promise."