“Hello, my new friend. How was your weekend? Mine was a mixture of good and bad. It went great Saturday because it was my boyfriend’s birthday. He really enjoyed everything we did for his birthday. Then, he went and ruined everything Sunday. I told you I would explain everything to you so let me start at the beginning. When I first lost the love of my life, I met my boyfriend. We wound up moving in as roommates. I found he was a really controlling jerk. I hated him. It took me a long time to stop hating him and come to care for him. However, he was going to get what he wanted and what he wanted was me. We wound up hooking up, but that was it. He kept trying to get me to be in a relationship with him, but I couldn’t see past all of the things he 

“Jesse, we need to talk about Christian.” “What about him?”  “He’s four now and ready for pre-k. I found out what school he will be going to and I went to get the packet to sign him up. I thought you might want to take a look at it so we can decide together if we should send him now or wait until Kindergarten.” Renee handed him the packet as she sat down on the couch opposite him. It had been several weeks since they had really talked to each other. She had completely shut Jesse out after his little episode. He had tried to touch her, but she had just laid there, and he had decided to back away. She wasn’t sure why he didn’t just go ahead and take what he wanted like he always had before, but she wasn’t complai

Kevin read through the message. His heart ached at the backstory. He saw Marie was typing and he wasn’t sure if he could take hearing her say anymore. He felt like this truly was Renee reaching out to him and telling him what she truly wanted to say. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he saw the next message pop up. He opened his eyes and began to read the message. “Kevin, this is Renee. I know you probably thought I was dead. I’m not obviously. I have been living with Jesse all of this time because he threatened to torture and kill you in front of me. I was not allowed to leave the house unless he took me out at first. Now, I can go where I want, but I’m always worried about running away because I know if I do, that he will find you and hurt you in ways I can only imagine. I can’t let that happen. I would live in fear for the rest of my life wonder

Renee set an alarm on her phone so she could get up early and take Jesse to work. She wasn't used to getting up at 5 am anymore so she wanted to go to sleep early. She bathed Christian and put him in the bed around 7. When he finally fell asleep at 7:30, she went and took a bath herself.  Jesse came into the room as she got out. He wanted to finish what was started but wasn't sure if she would. So, he sighed and got in the shower instead.  Renee was taken by surprise that he didn't try anything with the way he had been looking at her. She dried off and dressed in her lingerie. She brushed her hair out and quickly braided her hair. She fluffed the pillows and put them behind her so she was propped up on them. She grabbed her book and started readin

Renee sat down next to Jesse. She had made plans with Valerie to listen to a band this weekend. She knew he wasn’t going to like it since it was at a bar. He put his arm around her shoulders and went back to watching the movie with Christian.    “I wanted to let you know that I made plans with Valerie this weekend. We are going to listen to a band and see if she might be interested in hiring them for the wedding.”   Jesse looked at her and his expression was dark, but he said, “Okay. Is it just going to be you two?”   “Yeah. Her fiancé is working Saturday. She’s going to come to pick me up and bring me home. Are you okay with it?”   “You already made the plans so I guess it doesn’t matter if I am or not. Where