Massachusetts, 1970
The young woman laid in her bed in her dorm room, enveloped in her chenille bedspread, her messy red curls clung static against the threadbare pillowcase. She clung onto a small throw pillow as she stared aimlessly at the ceiling, not paying any particular mind to anything but her current predicament.
She'd arrived in Massachusetts earlier that fall to attend university at the insistence of her mother. She had chosen to pursue a path towards becoming an art teacher and hoped to teach at one of the many parochial schools in the state. She couldn't help but think her mother had been unusually forward thinking in encouraging her to enroll in University but the new freshman was grateful for the opportunity.
Predictably, her happiness didn't last long. Three weeks earlier, she had returned home for the Thanksgiving holidays and found her mother had invited several unexpected guests for the holiday season. She had known him and his wife since she was a child but she hadn't seen them since the death of her father several years prior.
She winced as she remembered her reaction to seeing them at the table, her mother's stern glare across from the room stopping her jaw from dropping. It was uncharacteristic of her mother to have guests, especially a former colleague of her fathers
"Dr. Hockley, Mrs. Hockley, to what do I owe this pleasure to?"
Dr. Hockley laughed heartily. "My dear Rose, your mother was very kind to host us for the holidays. It only seemed fitting."
Rose did her best to hide her confusion and took a seat at the large oak table as dinner was served. There were a number of people seated and while she recognized most of them, the dark haired man seated next to her escaped her recognition.
She didn't have to wonder for long. During the dessert round, the young man stood up and Rose once again tried to hide her confusion.
"I would like to make this toast to my lovely fiancée. Rose, I don't know you very well but I know you'll make me happy."
As the rest of the table cheered, Rose felt her blood turn cold.
After the guests left later that evening, Rose's mother, Ruth called her into the sitting room to explain.
Rose knew the family's financial situation was struggling, despite the family having all the trappings of wealth, such as their large Rhode Island estate, a small team of household staff, and a private education for Rose. It was all fitting for the young Miss Dewitt-Bukater as her parents only surviving child. Her mother was a Delaware socialite while her father had been a physician like his father before him, emigrating to America to practice medicine when Rose was seven. Her father had never before experienced the wealth he had in America and was eager to show he had made a name for himself while Ruth wanted to maintain her standard of living.
All had gone fine before Rose's father had died of pneumonia in 1967. His lack of income caused financial problems for his widow and high school age daughter but Ruth was confident her inheritance would solve them. It was only when creditors began appearing that Ruth realized the gravity of their situation.
It was why Ruth sold the family's summer home and fired all but a dozen members of the staff. It was why the family manor was starting to fall into disrepair after standing a century, the repairs were simply too costly.
And it was why Ruth had arranged for her seventeen year old to marry Cal Hockley. The young man attended Rose's university as a medical student and Ruth had used her late husband's connections and her daughter's alumni status to arrange the match.
The wedding was set for the following spring in Newport after which Rose would leave college to become a housewife. Her mother's betrayal stung but the fear of being married to a complete stranger was paralyzing.
And so, she found herself in her dorm room clutching her decorative pillow, her nightgown tear stained.
She didn't know how she was going to do it.
Her interaction with Hockley had been limited but she already knew to fear him. The first day he saw her on campus after their engagement, he had prohibited her from wearing her new flares, telling her it wasn't proper. She balked at disposing of them, until Hockley had reached down to tear a large rip in the waist of her jeans.
Rose was terrified as he looked her dead in the eyes and whispered, "you will not disrespect me again."
Rose wasn't thinking when she opened her dorm room window, feeling the cold winter air fill the room. She climbed carefully onto the large brick window sill and crouched, looking down at the ground three stories below her. She grabbed onto a brick jutting out and started breathing heavily, attempting to steel herself to jump. As she let go of the brick and inched closer to the ledge, she heard a man's voice yell "Stop!"