"Kim! Eric hasn't tried anything with you has he?"
"What do you mean?" Kim said trying to sound as convincing as possible.
"I mean has he tried to fuck you? I heard from Trish that he has a history of doing shit like that."
The lump in Kim's throat was so big she almost choked.
"No."
"Kim? Has-he-tried-anything-with-you?" Rachael's voice barked an air of authority that was normally powerful enough to bring Kim to tears.
"No-he-has-n't-Ra-chel," Kim replied carefully mocking her sister's stern tone. She hoped like hell she couldn't read the fear behind her words.
Rachel was silent on the other end.
"Rach?" Kim asked pulling her hand down and looking at the display on her cell phone. When she confirmed that it still read "connected" she placed the phone back to her ear.
"Rachael?"
"I'm still here, Kim. I'm just trying to figure out if I believe you or not. I'm not going to have to come up there am I?"
"I'm fine! Eric helped me submit the petition for the restraining order. We've got everything under control over here, trust me." Kim's lips quivered with every word. There was more silence on the other end.
"Kim, I just want to be sure that you ---," Just then, a beeping noise interrupted Rachael mid sentence.
"Rachael?"
"Hold on," Rachael said. "Someone's on the other line."
For the few brief seconds that Rachael was away, Kim was finally able to breathe. She hoped her words were convincing enough to put her sister's concerns to rest, even if they weren't true.
Kim heard the line beep again and immediately sat at attention.
"Kim! I gotta call you back, it's the insurance company. Tell me again everything is alright up there. If you need me to, I'll be there."
"Everything is fine. Go. Talk to your insurance company. I'll call you later, okay?"
"All right. Watch out for Eric, Kim. If what Trish said was true, he may be sneakier than you think."
"Will do," Kim said trying to hide the irony in her tone of voice.
"Keep me updated on what's going on up there -- I'm serious, Kim."
"I will -- bye." Kim clicked the cell phone closed, collapsed on the bed beneath her and sighed. She couldn't get off the phone fast enough.
How had it all come to this? All the lies? To Rachael AND Brian. Things seemed to be spinning ridiculously out of control. She needed to get a handle on things and she needed to do it right NOW.
Her thoughts eventually fell to Ellis. HE was the one responsible for this mess. Kim was convinced that her life would be just fine if she'd never had the misfortune of meeting him in the first place...
Just over six years ago, Kim was attending Cal State University Long Beach majoring in Graphic Design when she met Ellis.
Ellis was a few years older than she and was in his Junior year as a psychology major.
Kim's memories of Ellis were of the twenty-one year old man with short black hair, brown eyes and a chocolaty dark brown skin that made her weak in the knees every time she saw him. Even then, Ellis had been extremely popular with the women on campus but had taken a sudden and undeniable liking to Kimberly Alexis Brown.
Their first year together they had a typical whirlwind romance. Quiet nights on the beach and long semi-studying semi-make out sessions. Ellis had been the perfect gentleman. Always holding doors open for her, flooding her with random gifts and compliments at every opportunity. Every girl on campus was envious -- as they should have been. Everything WAS perfect up to that point. Perfect until that cool October evening in 1999.
Kim and Ellis had been up late studying in his apartment. It was getting late and Kim was getting tired. The night had went well until Kim mistakenly decided to get up to leave.
"Where are you going?" Ellis said not looking up from his book. He could hear Kim shuffling her books and papers around while she fumbled around her chair for her jacket.
"It's almost 1:00 in the morning. I'm going home to bed."
"You can stay here, you know? You usually do."
"I know, I just have to get back to my place tonight. I've got to try to get some laundry done before school tomorrow or I'll have nothing to wear. Plus, I promised my roommate I'd give her a ride to the doctor in the morning."
Ellis stood up, glided over to Kim and grabbed her by the neck. He dug in his fingers painfully blocking off her air supply.
"I SAID, I wanted you to stay here tonight!"
Ellis quickly released her neck as Kim gasped and fell to the floor trying to figure out just what had happened. Ellis grabbed Kim by her hair and lifted her head up to his.
"And I'm not really in the mood to argue with you about it!"
Ellis released Kim's hair and let her head fall back to the floor and unceremoniously stepped over her like a pile of garbage waiting to be thrown out.
That night was the first night Kim had ever seen the evil side of Ellis Richards and that night was the first of many that he had ever forced himself upon her -- physically and sexually.
Kim had spent many days and nights thinking about what had happened, what she had done to upset him so and what she could have done to avoid it. She was completely convinced that it was her fault for not completely submitting to his wishes. Besides, he had been unrelentingly sweet, generous and apologetic to her following that night and she gave him the benefit of the doubt that his promises that it would never happen again were sincere. And they were...for a while.
Those torturous years passed like a blur, all of the brutality melding like one giant unbelievable movie she was watching. It didn't appear to be real. There were good times. VERY good times, the times just before they wed and just after. When Ellis was in a VERY good mood he could be the most incredibly polite and giving person in the world. It's just as the years waned on, those times became fewer and farther between. The "good" side of Ellis was becoming more and more scarce and the minute strands of love that still kept Kim by his side were slowly turning into an innate fear and hatred for him. The only thing that kept her around was the knowledge that if she'd have ever tried to leave him, he would undoubtedly kill her. Kim knew this. She also knew her family wasn't safe either. When Ellis was angry, he could become the most dangerous man in the world so it was best for her to try as hard as she could to make sure he wasn't angry. And THAT was becoming increasingly harder by the day. Then the drinking began. Ellis's constant intoxication was quickly hammering in the last nail of their marital coffin. Kim had to leave -- even if it meant that someone had to die in the process.
Kim lay there in her hotel bed thinking about how she had lied to Rachael about her business with Eric Jeffries. Rachael was no fool, she most likely didn't believe a word out of Kim's mouth, but for the time being she had accepted it and even though Kim tried to put it out of her mind, it lingered there threatening to drive her crazy.
She glanced over at the large Manila folder that she received from Eric that afternoon. He had been busy researching her case against Ellis and had provided her with copies of the all of the paperwork from her subsequent abuse reports against him along with various pictures taken by the police staff. Even though it was unlikely, Eric had petitioned to have the case go to trial in San Francisco and planned to use the bulk of his findings as evidence during the trial.
