Disclaimer: It's not mine, you know the drill.

AN: This was started in 2011 and I've been slowly working it. I still haven't finished it but I'm getting there. I was encouraged by my beta to share this story. A special thanks to the amazing Elaine, AKA Proudofyoubabe, for her beta work and encouragement. I will publish one chapter per week. I hope not to have any gaps so we'll see. It's getting crazy at work again.

Please let me know your thoughts on the start of this story. I truly appreciate your reviews but I never seem to have enough time in the day to respond.

Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum. Let me tell you my story, I'm 28 years old, widowed and unemployed. My mother is not happy about any of this. You see, the fact that I'm widowed and not dating anyone reflects badly on her. She'll never forgive me for what happened with my first husband, Richard Orr. You see I met him at Princeton. Well maybe I should back up and start at the beginning.

I had an adventurous childhood. I wanted to be Wonder Woman and I thought I could fly. I jumped off the garage roof and broke my arm. Once that healed I tried again and broke my leg. After that I gave up trying to fly but I got into trouble on a regular basis by beating up Joyce Barnhardt. In school, Joyce was a miserable little girl who bullied everyone else and hit the other kids. I didn't like it so I defended anyone she bullied. I got into trouble a lot and was grounded all the time. I was the direct opposite of my older sister Valerie.

When I was 16, I began working at Tasty Pastry during the summer so I could pay part of the cost of a trip to Italy during Spring Break. My parents said they would pay half but I had to pay the other half. Joe Morelli, the boy every mother warned their daughter about, came in one night right at closing and ordered some cannoli. The next thing I knew I was naked on the floor behind the counter and he was pushing into me while I cried and yelled no. When he was done he just pulled up his pants and walked out without paying for the cannoli. He then wrote about it on every men's room wall in the Burg, our neighborhood in Trenton. Morelli was already 18 and he had joined the Navy. He left for boot camp the next morning and just in time. My Dad had wanted him arrested for rape and even took me to the hospital for a rape kit. My mother had a fit and refused to allow charges to be pressed. She said that it would be worse for me if everyone knew. She was really only concerned about how it would reflect on her. I wasn't allowed to go to Italy, I was grounded for the entire summer and I was fired from Tasty Pastry because of my lewd act. Way to treat the victim, I mean it's not like I gave my consent. After that guys expected me to put out every time I went on a date and when I refused I was lucky to get a date to the prom.

When I was 18, I found out the truth of my birth. I was not the daughter of Frank and Helen Plum, but of Mark and Betty Juliano. Betty was Helen's twin sister and Mark had served with Frank in the Army. I knew my Aunt Betty had died in childbirth and I would see Uncle Mark every summer when he visited and he would send us money for our birthday and Christmas. He was still in the Army and had attained the rank of General. On my 18th birthday Uncle Mark told me the truth and handed me the information for the savings account they had set up for my college education. There was three million dollars in the account which showed regular deposits each month for three years before I was born and continued until the month of my 18th birthday.

I was angry when I found out and felt like my life was a lie. I moved out and rented an apartment in Newark and attended Rutgers. I was a cheerleader in high school and made the Rutgers cheer squad for football. I decided to major in Business Management. I lived off campus so I had to buy a car and I had plenty of money so I bought a brand new red Mazda Miata. I wouldn't have to worry about it breaking down.

My first day of cheerleading practice, I met the love of my life, Ricardo Carlos Manoso. He was the back-up quarterback to my friend Brian Gilman; we had gone to high school together. When Brian introduced us, Ric and I hit it off. He was 6' tall with skin the color of a mocha latte and beautiful chocolate brown eyes. You could tell he worked out because he was buff and had a smile that would light up the entire room. Ric's grandparents had fled Cuba. The Manoso family had lost all their money in the revolution and came to America with nothing but worked hard to have a good life for themselves and their children. The Santos family had escaped prior to the revolution and took the bulk of the family money with them. So there was some money but not that much left for Ric to go to college. He was the youngest of six children and he was able to get a football scholarship.

Ric and I were inseparable the first two years of college. He moved into my apartment with me after dating for a week. His parents weren't very happy but they welcomed me with open arms. Unfortunately he did not receive the same greeting from Helen Plum. She didn't approve of someone who was not from the Burg and insisted he was after my money and I was supporting him. While it was true I paid the rent, Ric worked part time to help with the bills and his scholarship had funds left to assist with his living expenses. He was too proud to let me support him, something Helen didn't understand.

Ric and I had the same birthday, August 12th and his family had a party for us at their home for our 20th. They had invited the whole family and that is the night that changed my life. Ric's cousin, Emilio Rodriguez was two years younger than us and used our party to announce to the family that he had joined the Army to avoid jail. He had gotten arrested for armed robbery and the judge told him he would go to jail for 15 years or he could join the Army and learn to be a man. Emilio's mother Emelda began to cry and begged Ric to join the Army to look after Emilio. She was afraid he would get into more trouble or get killed. Ric didn't want to join the Army; he wanted to stay with me. He was also a business major and we planned to marry after graduation. Ric tried to get Emelda to see reason and even reminded her that another cousin Lester Santos was already in the Army and could watch out for Emilio.

About a week after the party Ric came home and told me he was under a lot of pressure from his family regarding Emilio. He had joined the Army and was shipping out the next day. I was devastated, I wanted to drop out of school and move to Ft. Benning with him. I could get an apartment off base and go to college there and we could still be together but Ric said no. He broke up with me because it wasn't fair to ask me to wait for him or give up my life and move to Georgia with him. He also said that he would be transferred somewhere else when he got out of basic and couldn't ask me to up and move during a semester and what would I do if he got sent overseas? I cried for days after he moved out and left. I called Uncle Mark, he was stationed at Ft. Benning and asked him to watch out for Ric and he agreed. It was the first time I spoke to him in two years.

Ric's sister, Celia kept in touch with me and told me the news that shattered my world and broke my heart. I tried to stay away from his family; it was too hard to see them after he left. You see Emilio hit on me several times over the years and I rebuffed him. I mean I was with Ric and he was gorgeous.

Apparently Ric refused to go out and party with the other guys in basic training and Emilio begged so Ric finally gave in. He went out with Emilio and his girlfriend Sara and her sister Rachel. Well Rachel was a virgin and decided that she wanted to lose her virginity so Sara and Emilio added Ecstasy to their drinks and Rachel got pregnant. Emilio thought it was sweet revenge on me and it showed that Ric wasn't perfect. Ric felt responsible and married Rachel. I know all this because after Celia told me about the baby and subsequent marriage, Emilio sent me a letter with a wedding picture explaining how he orchestrated it. Meanwhile Emilio was dishonorably discharged from the Army because of his drug problem.

I was devastated to find out that Ric had married someone else and they were having a baby. You see a few weeks after Ric left I found out I was pregnant and I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want Ric to come back to me because I was having his baby. I knew he'd insist we get married right away and I wanted him to come back to me because he loved me and wanted to be with me. I was 27 weeks when I heard he married and I went into pre-mature labor not long after hanging up with Celia. It was Valentine's Day, a day I now hated. Celia was the only one I felt I could turn to, so I called her back. She was surprised to find out I was pregnant but told me to call 911. By the time I got to the hospital they weren't able to stop the labor and I delivered my daughter early. I named her Hope Celia Manoso, she lived for four hours and twelve minutes and I was never able to hold her tiny body until after she passed away. Celia held me as I cried at the loss of my baby. She thought it was wrong to keep it from Ric but I didn't want him to ever know. I still have the 3-D ultrasound pictures that were taken the day before. Our daughter looked so much like her father. I didn't date anyone after Ric left; I couldn't bring myself to allow another man to touch me. I concentrated on my studies and had taken 18 credits every semester plus summer classes, after Ric left I pushed myself even more. I couldn't wait to leave Rutgers and the memories it held. I graduated in three years and then I went to Princeton for my MBA.

While attending Princeton I met Richard "Dickie" Orr. Dickie was handsome but he could never compare to Ric. He was just finishing law school and he came from a wealthy family. Helen loved him and was glad I didn't marry Ric. She was even more excited when she found out Dickie had political aspirations. I dated Dickie for two years before we married. We didn't go on a honeymoon because he was campaigning for DA. I came home from work about a week after the wedding and caught Dickie screwing Joyce Bernhardt on our brand new cherry dining room table. It had been delivered that morning. I was shocked but smart enough to pull out my cell and take pictures and video footage of what I saw. I then pulled a gun out of my purse and shot Dickie right in the ass. It was a defining moment in my life. I was tired of being walked all over and I was taking control of my life again. You see Helen had talked me into marrying Dickie, I didn't love him. I was still in love with Ric.

I started divorce proceedings the next day. It was shaping up to be the ugliest, nastiest divorce in the history of Trenton but in the end Dickie made it easy. He went out after being fired and got completely wasted, climbed into his BMW Z4 convertible and decided to drive home. He drove into a cement barrier where they were doing road construction and was killed on impact. Thank god he didn't hurt anyone else. I was free and he had no will so as his wife I inherited his estate. Dickie's parents had died while he was in college leaving him millions. He had insisted we live in a huge house in a gated community. I still live there because Helen hates it, it's not the Burg and well I'm not Burg. I legally changed my name back to Plum because I wanted to get rid of all memories of Dickie. Then I completely remodeled and redecorated the house.

I had been working for a friend from high school as a buyer for her lingerie boutique, Teri's Treats. Teri Grizzoli Gilman had been a fellow cheerleader and was also a Morelli victim. The only difference was that he dated her for a year and didn't write about his conquest on the men's room walls. You see her Uncle Vito was head of the Grizzoli family and you don't mess with them. Teri had married Brian Gilman who had gone on to become the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Brian was caught up in a sex club scandal and he committed suicide about 6 months ago, some say Uncle Vito was unhappy with the scandal. Teri's small chain of boutiques suffered from the publicity and went bankrupt.

So, now I find myself still widowed and unemployed. I had received a telephone call from my dear mother today informing me I was to attend dinner tonight. I had a bad feeling that this was another one of her set ups. She couldn't stand the fact I was unmarried, after all Dickie had been dead for three years. Not that it mattered she had invited a man over for dinner the day of his funeral using the excuse we were getting divorced anyway so why be upset. I decided to drive the car my mother hates the most an Audi R8. It was a cute little sports car and something no one in the Burg would approve of. I had a feeling this dinner was going to be one for the ages.