"Okay, Mary what is your story?" The therapist leaned forward, glancing at the group.
"I was walking on the street at night and the next thing I knew a bullet passed me, and I was in an unfamiliar car. He abused me and harassed me, before raping me. Finally the morning came and he threw me out of his car onto the deserted road. I had no clue where I was. He had drove somewhere. There was nothing around. I couldn't find a house, store, nothing. It was two days before I finally had found my way home. I had told my boyfriend that my "Stepmother," brought me on vacation with her so I could be her maid. Because after my Mother died, Dominique tortured me. She made me clean and be her servant day and night. I had told her that I was at my boyfriends house, which I had been grounded for doing. For five months I had suspected I was pregnant, but was to scared to take a test. I eventually did and it came back positive. My friend Tami took me to a clinic where they told me I was pregnant too. I finally revealed that I was raped and that night I woke up in horrific pain. I was rushed to the emergency room, where they told me I was in labor. But it was too early and they had to stop my contractions. I was on bed rest for three months and the day I was discharged I had a visitor. The man who raped me broke into my house, almost raping me again, but luckily he didn't. But I passed out and was brought back to the hospital. Three hours later I gave birth to my daughter. We named her Linda Kate as her first name and no middle name. She is my life and brought joy to my life."
"Well, how do you feel about her?" Darcy (therapist) questioned soothingly.
"I love her. Like I said she's my world. I don't know where I would be without her. But I feel guilty when I wish I were never raped. My daughter was a result of that and I'm wishing it didn't happen. I don't know what to feel."
"Well Mary, we've had some other girls feel that way and I felt that way also. I was also a victim of rape and carried a baby boy. He's now five, but I still feel hurt and upset every once and a while. And that is normal. I know how most of us feel. All ten of us have been pregnant due to rape. Most of us have kept the baby and wish we had the baby, but weren't raped. Of a show of hand, how many people feel that way?" Darcy glanced around the circle, slightly nodding. "Seven of us including me. And we are the ones who've kept our children. Of a show of hand, how many think this is normal? Five of us. Okay, well it is. And in one point in our lives, we're going to have a breakdown. And believe me, when I was first going though it, I had millions of breakdowns. Then when my son was born, I kind of forgot, but then it came back to me and I realized I needed help. And I've moved on with life. I got married to my boyfriend, we had a son together, who's now two, and now we have a third baby on the way."
"I'm trying to move on, but it seems so hard." A girl spoke up. She was probably about eighteen and had a gorgeous face, with long dark curls surrounding it.
"It's going to take some time, but we're all going to get through it. We're going to make it."
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