Bill Wilson, a short, stocky bespectacled man with close-cropped dark hair arrived at the apartment he shared with Melissa Flannigan a little before three a.m. and was surprised to find his fiancée still up.
"How come you're still up, honey?" he asked Melissa after he gave her a hug and a kiss.
"Ann and I have been talking for hours," she said.
Bill looked puzzled. "Ann?" he asked.
"The lady Dad brought up to stay with us," his fiancé explained.
"Oh," Bill said, "I forgot about her. What's up?"
"Come on, let's go to bed," Melissa said, "I'll tell you about it. After hearing her story, I need to be held. Bad!"
"What's got you so upset?" Bill asked after he and Melissa got undressed and got into bed.
"Ann looked really upset when she got here," Melissa told him. "It took some doing, but I finally got her talking. I thought she was upset because of all the crap that's been going on with her boss, you know?"
"That wasn't it?" her fiancée asked.
Melissa shook her head. "Believe it or not, that's probably the least of what's bothering her. You can't imagine what kind of life that poor woman has had," she told him. "God, I don't know how she's managed to stay as sane as she has. I'm not sure I could have."
"What the heck happened to her?" Bill asked.
"Well," Melissa said, "it started a long time ago..." She began telling Bill the tragic story Ann had told her.
"Jesus!" Bill exclaimed when Melissa finished. "I see what you mean. And she blames herself because it happened? Can't she see that it wasn't her fault?"
Melissa shook her head. "I think, maybe, she started to see that she shouldn't be blaming herself when we were talking," she said, "But it could be a while before she finally accepts the fact that she really couldn't have done anything to prevent it."
"Damn," Bill said, shaking his head. "That's really kinda sad, isn't it?"
Melissa nodded. "I've heard a lot of sad stories since I became a cop," she said, "but Ann's is just about the saddest I've ever heard. Dad really likes her. Actually, I think he might feel even more than that about her."