"Is the man who attacked you in this room right now?"
Silence is all that is heard as all eyes are on Eddie Janko, anxiously awaiting her response to the Prosecutor's question.
"Yes, he is," she answers, fear consuming her as the trial continues in the Los Angeles County Courtroom.
Eddie didn't want to take the stand against him, but she knew that was the only way. She was an attorney herself, and she has prosecuted cases just like this, many times before. She knew she had to take the stand if she had any chance of holding him responsible, and any chance at ever being free from him.
"Can you please point him out for the Jury," he asks.
"He is sitting right there," Eddie answers as she raises her hand out, pointing slightly to her right.
"Members of the Jury, let the record state that the victim has identified the defendant, Jake Singer, as her attacker on the night of March 13th. Thank you, Miss Janko, you may step down," the prosecuting attorney finishes.
Eddie feels some relief as she leaves the stand, but she doesn't stay in the courtroom, she needs some fresh air, and she cannot take another second of Jake Singer's smug face. Even after she identified him in the courtroom, in front of the judge and jury, he is still smiling at her. He is delusional and honestly believes his actions were justified, every single time.
Closing arguments are presented by both sides, and the jury is dismissed for deliberation. The evidence against Jake Singer was solid and Eddie's testimony was even stronger, and it doesn't take the jury long.
The court is back in session and Eddie is sitting with her mother and grandmother as she prepares herself for the jury's verdict. The next few minutes will determine the rest of her life, she thinks and says a silent prayer.
"Members of the Jury, have you reached a verdict," the Judge asks, and the spokesperson stands with the result in his hand.
"Yes, your honor, we have."
Eddie inhales deeply and exhales slowly in anticipation of the announcement that is about to be made.
"Members of the Jury, in the case of Jake Singer versus the State of California, what do you say?"
Eddie closes her eyes softly and opens them again slowly.
"Your Honor, the members of this jury find the defendant GUILTY."
Sighs of relief are heard across the courtroom as Jake Singer shakes his head in disbelief.
How could they find him guilty? Weren't they listening, he thinks to himself? She is the reason he did what he did. She made him do it every single time. Everything is her fault, he thinks, and wonders why he is the one being found guilty and sentenced to prison.
"Members of the jury, this court dismisses you and thanks you for a job well done. This court is adjourned," the judge concludes.
Eddie is instantly enveloped in a hug by her mother and grandmother, all three women with tears in their eyes.
"Everything is going to be ok now, dear," her grandmother says, but Eddie is still not sure.
Six months earlier, Eddie is waking up in a hospital room to darkness and the sound of constant beeping behind her. She looks around the room, not yet aware of where she is or what has happened.
Through blurry vision, she sees her mother and grandmother sitting beside her, and she manages a few shaky questions. Her voice is raspy and short.
"Where am I? What happened?"
Her heart rate increases rapidly as she witnesses the family members before her break down in tears.
"Mom…please," Eddie begs, struggling through tears of her own.
Her mother is too upset to form any words right now, so her grandmother is the first to speak.
"That man you claim you love so much, he did it again, dear."
All Eddie can do is close her eyes now, tears flowing freely. Her face is swollen and bruised, and lacerations cover her face, arms, and legs. She is almost unrecognizable, and her entire body aches.
Jake Singer, Eddie's boyfriend of two years, was a successful Commodities Broker with deep pockets and family money that went back for decades. He always got everything he wanted, and he had also made it a habit to beat his girlfriend for the last year and a half.
He was tall and muscular, very handsome, and so gentle and kind at first, and Eddie fell in love with him fast. The first time he hit her was six months into their relationship, just after she moved in with him. He seemed remorseful and pleaded with her to forgive him, so she did. But it escalated quickly. Before she knew it, she was deep into a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from.
Eddie Janko was a prosecutor for the Los Angeles District Attorney. She was flourishing. Things like this weren't supposed to happen to her. She put away monsters like Jake Singer, she wasn't supposed to end up as the victim of one.
Every time he would hit her, he would promise to never do it again, and every time she would believe him. She would forgive him. She was ashamed that she had allowed this to happen to her. She was ashamed that she couldn't find the strength to leave.
The truth was, Jake was possessive and controlling and she was afraid of what he would do to her if she tried. When something set him off and the rage consumed him, he wasn't the same person. He was hollow, and soulless, and could not be stopped.
When she woke up in the hospital and saw the pain in her mother and grandmother's hearts, again, at his hands, she knew she had to fight him, but she was scared and had no idea how to do it.
Her memory is coming back now, and she recounts the night to her family. She tells them how she had come home late from a long day in court, and that was all it had taken.
"He was so mad," she says, her voice cracking as she speaks. "I didn't even see it coming this time, he hit me as soon as I walked in."
Her mother can't control her sobs, and her grandmother is rubbing her leg gently.
"He punched me…and I...I remember he threw me to the ground."
She is shaking now and the beeping from her heart monitor accelerates. Her grandmother tries to calm her down with tears in her eyes at the admission of what her granddaughter has gone through again, and she reaches up to softly brush a strand of hair from Eddie's face.
"He started to kick me," she pauses as she lays her hand on her chest. "In the stomach," she finishes through her tears, realizing now why her ribs hurt so much.
"I remember, he kicked me in the head, and then…I don't know." She closes her swollen eyes to think. Opening them slowly, she continues.
"He kept yelling at me. Said I was worthless, and that I made him do it."
She can't control her tears at all now and her mother and grandmother are looking at her with sadness and fear in their eyes.
"I'm so sorry mom," Eddie says as she reaches her hand out to her mother.
"Honey, none of this is your fault, you have to believe that," her grandmother assures her softly. "But you have to end this now. Press charges against him. Fight him your way."
"I'm scared," Eddie cries out, feeling ashamed of herself again.
"You won't be alone, we'll be here with you the whole way," her grandmother says, as she squeezes Eddie's hand, and she knew they would be.
She knew she had to find the strength to fight him. This could not be her life anymore. She knew if she didn't fight back, the next time he beat her, could be the last time. He would eventually kill her. She knew that to be true.
Eddie had suffered a concussion, four broken ribs, and a broken wrist, and he left her with multiple lacerations and contusions all over her body. When she had finally pressed charges, Jake promised her she wouldn't get away with it. He told her she knew it was her fault and the jury would see it his way. He was psychotic and genuinely believed that.
He was charged with attempted murder, and she hoped he would be convicted. That would put him away for a long time, but he had so much money and so many resources, she wasn't sure she would win. She hoped the evidence was enough and that she wouldn't have to testify against him in court, but she knew it would not happen that way. She had prosecuted enough cases in her career to know that she would need to take the stand.
With his money came the best attorneys there were, and they had the attempted murder charge reduced to a domestic violence charge. After the trial was over, and Jake was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, Eddie still didn't feel like she had won anything.
She knew the sentence was short, and he would be out eventually. When he was sentenced, he had promised her it wasn't over, and she feared the day that he would be free to come after her again.
Eddie didn't have much family. Her dad had died when she was young, and her mother never remarried. She and her mother Lena moved in with her grandmother, and that is where she lived until college. She was brilliant and wanted to be a lawyer like her father, even though there wasn't much she remembered about him, just stories from her mother, but she knew enough. He was a great man, and his life was tragically taken too soon.
She devoted her time to her studies and earned a full ride to Stanford, where she eventually earned her law degree. Her mother and grandmother couldn't have been more proud.
Since her dad passed, her grandmother, Betty, had been the rock for Lena and Eddie. She was a widow herself, but she was a force of nature and Eddie took after her tremendously, until she met Jake. The man who drained every inch of life from her slowly, for almost two years. She was looking forward to putting all of that behind her and moving on.
Eddie moved in with her mom and grandma after Jakewas sentenced and tried to start her life over. She was still one of the best prosecutors in Los Angeles, maybe even better now, but she couldn't completely move on.
She lived in fear that every man was just like Jake. She lived in even more fear that when Jake's time was served, and he was free again, he would come after her, just like he promised, and she found moving on harder than she had expected. Sometimes she thought it was impossible.
Nightmares and panic attacks haunted her. Lena and Betty encouraged her to try therapy, but she insisted she didn't need that, she would get through it eventually on her own. She was stronger now. She knew she could do it.
Several months had passed since Jake was sentenced, and things weren't getting any easier for her. She started to feel like the only way to move on was to actually move. Maybe a change, a new place far away from here, was exactly what she needed.
She hated the idea of leaving her mother and grandmother, but nothing else was working. Maybe moving far away, where Jake could never find her again, would be the answer.
After waking up from another nightmare, her body soaked from perspiration, she laid in bed, her eyes glued to the ceiling, trying to calm her breathing before full panic set in.
Once her breaths were normal, she reached for her laptop on her nightstand. She had to find something else. After learning it wouldn't be easy to transfer her license to another state, she cried herself to sleep for another night.
Morning came sooner than she would have liked, and she drug herself out of bed. Her mother and grandmother were already awake, sitting at the kitchen table when Eddie walked in.
"What?" She asks with a tinge of sarcasm. Her grandmother meets her eyes directly, and with sadness in her voice, she answers her.
"You were crying again last night."
Eddie drops her head and goes straight for the coffee maker. She needs fuel before they insist on therapy again. She loves them, but she is getting tired of this.
"Honey, we are worried about you, you have to do something. You have to get help," her mother says, her tone is serious and filled with concern.
"What is this, an intervention," Eddie spits back in defense, and she feels horrible the moment the words leave her mouth that way.
She knows they just want her back to normal, and she is trying, she really is, but she doesn't want to go to therapy. She doesn't want to seem weak.
"Here, just think about it," her grandmother says, as she slides a pamphlet across the table.
That night, Eddie laid awake for hours, in part because she didn't want to fall into another nightmare that involved Jake, and in part because she didn't want to admit that her mother and grandmother might be right.
She reached for the pamphlet they had given her that morning, but she couldn't bring herself to open it, and grabbed her computer instead. She didn't need to see a shrink about her problems. She could fix herself.
She thought about the furthest place she could go to get away from Jake, and before she realized, she was researching the dates for the next BAR exam in New York.
That was her answer. Sitting for the exam again was easier than admitting to herself that therapy might help her. She truly believed that even if therapy helped her, it wouldn't save her from the man who left her to die when he gets out of prison and comes after her again.
She had gotten lucky, and the next exam wasn't too far away. The hard part would be telling her mother and grandmother what she was going to do, but they accepted the news better than she expected they would. They were happy she was at least doing something, and if she wouldn't agree to therapy, then maybe getting away would do her some good.
A few weeks later, Eddie flew out to New York and sat for the BAR. It wasn't hard. She was brilliant and knew what she needed to know. Once she received the notice that she was licensed to practice law in the State of New York, she began researching job opportunities there.
She submitted a few applications along with a promising letter of recommendation from the Los Angeles District Attorney, and within a few weeks, she received a call from the Manhattan District Attorney's office. A call that she hoped would change her life forever.
They had flown her back out to New York for an interview with Erin Reagan, Bureau Chief in the Manhattan D.A.'s office and she was presented with an offer as a prosecutor for them before she left. She had a week to make the biggest decision of her life.
For the first time since Jake was sentenced, Eddie slept peacefully. She knew this was the answer. She was going to accept the offer from New York, she just had to figure out how to tell Lena and Betty.
They knew she passed the BAR there and had gone out for an interview, but still, she hadn't confirmed anything to them yet.
The morning after she had accepted the offer from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, she sat with her mother and grandmother over coffee and bagels to deliver the news they were already expecting.
She was moving across the country. Their hearts were breaking that she was moving so far away, but for the last few days, since she had been back from New York, she seemed like a different person entirely.
She was happy again, and they had to find a way to be happy for her too. She was looking forward to her future and not living in her past. She wasn't crying herself to sleep every night and she would wake up smiling in the mornings. It had only been a few days but it was a good start to a promising future for Eddie in New York, free of Jake Singer.
She tried briefly to convince them to move with her, but they assured her that they would be fine in California and that New York was lucky to have her.
She was going to start her life over and erase the last two years of hell that she had lived through. She was a fighter and a survivor, and she was going to thrive in New York. She left the next week, with no forwarding address.