A Fool To Think

Chapter Thirteen

"So is there anyone else that you can think of that might want to get revenge on either of you?"

"Not really." Sam shook her head. "I mean, my step father would probably love to get revenge on me, but he's been in jail for almost fifteen years. There's no way he could have done the website."

"Why is your step father in jail and why would he want to get revenge on you?" Danny asked, curious about this new piece of information concerning Sam's life.

"I was the one that put him behind bars." Sam explained, not wanting to go into great detail about it.

"Why though?" Danny asked.

Sam sighed. It looked like there was no way out and she might as well tell Danny about what happened. She knew that she could trust him to keep it a secret. After all, he seemed like a good secret-keeper.

"My step father liked to drink—a lot. And when he drank, he'd hit my mother. At least that's how it started. He'd hit her, but eventually he grew tired of always using her as a punching bag. It didn't give him nearly as much joy anymore and he searched for something else to do in addition to hitting her. That's when he started to notice me as more than just an annoyance. He would slip into my room at night after staggering back from a local bar and he would…"

She had to stop for a moment to compose herself so that she didn't start bawling in public. Her head tilted down and she shut her eyes tightly to keep tears from escaping.

Danny had a pretty good idea what Sam was going to say next and figured that he would try and spare her from having to say it out-loud. "It's ok Sam. You don't have go on. I can figure the rest out."

"No." She shook her head. "I think I have to continue. He would come in at night and rape me." She wiped her eyes dry again and took a deep breath. "At first, I didn't know what to do. I was only thirteen at the time and I had no idea how to make him stop. I tried to tell my mom about it but she was in complete denial about everything and refused to believe me."

"So how did you…how did he end up in jail?" Danny asked. His heart was breaking for Sam after learning everything that she had to go through during her childhood. He knew how painful it could be when your parents proved to be people that you couldn't trust to protect you. His own father was abusive and that left him with emotional and a few physical scars. He could only imagine what it was like for Sam.

"When I was fifteen, he got really drunk and came stumbling into the house yelling something about someone stealing his shirt. Or maybe it was his pants. Anyway, he was yelling about something stupid and untrue." She couldn't remember if he yelled about someone stealing his pants or his shirt, but decided that it didn't really matter.

"I guess my mom got in his way and they started fighting. I was asleep, but their screaming woke me up. I climbed out of bed and went to see what was going on. I got there just in time to see him throw her against the wall. Then he started kicking her in the ribs until she was coughing up blood."

"All he wanted was for her to shut up. He kept telling her to shut up and if she had, she would've been ok. But she kept screaming…she kept screaming. He finally picked up a vase full of flowers and knocked her out. Then he saw me watching."

"I'm almost afraid to find out what he did next." Danny admitted.

"I ran into my room and called the police, but he kicked down the door and raped me. By the time the police came, he was starting to beat on me too. They arrested him and took my mom and I to the hospital."

"So then your mom pressed charges, right?" Danny assumed that Sam's mother would finally press charges and remove both herself and her daughter from this horrible man.

"Nope." Sam shook her head. "She refused to press charges against him. But it didn't matter because the police had me as a witness and they had DNA evidence linking him to the crime."

"So what happened next then?" Danny asked. He knew it must be painful for Sam to talk about, but couldn't help wanting to know the rest of the story.

"My mom was really badly beaten and two days after it happened. She had a collapsed lung, broken ribs, and a serious head injury from the vase he hit her with. Two days after the attack she died." She thought back to the last conversation she had with her mom.

"I can't believe you! You ungrateful little brat!" Louise, Sam's mother, yelled. "How can you say such terrible things about your step father after everything that he's done you and for us?"

"What has he done mom?" Sam yelled, pacing around the room. "Please tell me! What has he done for us except beat you and rape me?"

"You shouldn't lie like that!" Louise scolded. "You're step father's a good man and you shouldn't make such false claims."

"Wake up mom! You're married to a monster. Who do you think put you in here to begin with? Who do you think has been hitting you for the past five years? Tom! That's who!"

"I will not listen to your lies young lady!" Louise yelled. "If you have such a problem with Tom, then why don't you just move out? Why do you feel the need to go and have him arrested?"

"Because he's hurt us!" Sam yelled, even though she knew it was useless. Her mom would never believe that Tom was a bad man. No matter how many times Tom hit her or how many times he sent her to the hospital, her mother would forever be devoted to that man. That's just the way her mom was and she had to accept it.

"Just get out!" Louise yelled. "I don't want to see you again Samantha. As of right now, you're dead to me and I don't have a daughter."

"Fine." Sam told her defiantly as she headed for the door of the hospital room. "It'll be great to get away from you and your delusions about how we're all just one big happy family."

"She died the next day and murder was added to Tom's already long list of charges."

"I'm sorry Sam." Danny didn't know what else to say to her. He couldn't believe how much she has had to go through. "I can't believe that your mother would still side with Tom after everything he did to her."

"She loved him. She didn't see his faults. She didn't see the violent streak or the abuse. All she saw was the charming, charismatic guy that swept her off her feet before he showed his true self. She didn't want to believe that he was a monster so she didn't. She made excuses for him and repressed everything he did to her. And he killed her."

"So Tom was arrested and went on trial?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I testified at the trial about what kind of a man he was and the jury sentenced him to twenty-five years to life in prison."

"Well then I guess at least we can rule him out as a suspect in the website." Danny reasoned out loud.

"Yeah." Sam agreed. "It would be really hard for him to do that from prison."

"So why didn't you press charges against Alex after what he did to you?" Danny asked, curious.

"I didn't want to have to testify. I didn't want to have to go through that again." Sam admitted. "It was hard enough the first time. Although I wanted him to get what he deserved, I wasn't ready to do that."

"I'm sorry." Danny really felt bad for her but he knew that she would be ok. She was a strong person.

"It's not your fault." She shrugged.

He didn't want to pry, but felt like this was his best chance at learning more about Sam. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to you after your mom died?"

"Well after she died, I didn't have any family left, so I was placed in the foster care system. The foster care family I was placed with had six other foster kids living there. They were nice enough people, but that place was nothing more to me than a place to eat, sleep and study. I worked really hard to get a full scholarship to college and was determined to make something out of myself. I was determined to show my family that I was worth something because they never thought I was."

"I think you've definitely done that." Danny told her. "Look at what you've accomplished so far."

"Maybe." Sam gave him a small smile. She knew that she had a lot to be proud of herself for. She had a good apartment, a great job that she was wonderful at and loved, and good friends. So why did she feel like such a failure?

"What's his name?" Danny asked.

"Who?" Sam asked, confused about whose name Danny wanted.

"Your step father." Danny replied. "What's your step father's name? I just want to look into it and make sure that he had nothing to do with it."

"Tom Henderson." Sam sighed.

"I'm really sorry that you had to go through that Sam. I know that it had to have been really hard." He really felt bad for her and wished that it hadn't happened to her. He was starting to see a pattern though.

She had the unfortunate luck of being a victim of sexual crimes. Whether it was rape or exploitation, she was a prime target for men to use her. He vowed to do everything he could to protect her from that in the future—starting with finding out for sure who was behind the website.

"Hey it's ok." Sam shrugged. "Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?"

"Right." Danny gave her a smile.