~ All I Ever Wanted ~

by

Erin Moore

"Well, Amber’s story is pretty big around these parts. Everyone knows who she is. There’s not a soul in town, and the surrounding towns who hasn’t heard her name before. Let’s see it happened about..." She paused to think for a moment, "...ten years ago. I remember it happened right as I moved to town. So for me the gossip was big news, you know, getting to know people and how things worked around here."

She chuckled, "Amber having fallen head-over-heels in love with this guy, agrees to marry him. On their wedding day, he finds her in the arms of another guy, Brian Thomas, and her fiancé freaked out." She stopped and stayed quiet for a moment and shook her head sadly, "I guess I don’t blame him, he thought she betrayed him. He left town before getting an explanation from her and left her to live in hell."

Craig didn’t like the way the woman was making him sound. Even if she had no idea the guy who had left his fiancé was him. "I don’t blame him. She deserved what she got for cheating on... him." Craig caught himself in time, he almost said me.

Slamming her hand on the table, Craig jumped. He hadn’t expected her to show such anger, and didn’t expect the look of disgust on the woman’s face. "Look, I’ll forgive you that remark. Since you are new in town, and don’t know the story, but let me tell you no one deserves the kind of hell Amber had to endure."

"Because her fiancé walked out on her?" He asked incredulous.

"No, because she was raped."

Craig’s mouth fell open in shock. "Raped?" His voice was nothing more than a squeak. He never heard anyone mention rape before now. Surely, he’d have heard if someone mentioned something as momentous as rape. Would he have listened if they had? Of course, rape was serious and he didn’t think he’d turn his back on such a problem.

"Yeah, rape." She shook her head, "Okay, lets start over. What her fiancé walked in on was that bastard Brian trying to rape her. Poor Amber thought when her fiancé, I think his name was Greg or Craig, anyway she thought she was saved when he walked in the room and punched Brian out. Then to her astonishment, he started calling her all kinds of foul names and ran out, not to be heard from again. Amber tried to find him, tried to explain what happened, but the jerk took his hurt pride and headed for the hills. Unfortunately, Brian didn’t. He came back for her, madder than hell, ready to finish the job. No one knew Brian was a lunatic. Hell, he was good friends with them both."

She paused for a second to think back, then sadly shook her head, "he went after her all right. He broke into her house that same night, the night she should have been on her honeymoon, instead she was being raped. He beat the living shit out of her, almost killed her."

"Oh God." Craig couldn’t register what had just been said to him. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing.