Chapter 8: Renee's Story

Ryan

"Ryan, can I ask you something?" Natalia asked me in a low voice only I could barely hear.

"Yeah, Natalia. You can ask me anything." I replied.

"Can you talk to Renee and ask her about her dad and step-father? While she was in the lab with me, I noticed bruises on her neck, wrists and hands."

"Of course I will talk to her."

"Thank-you so much. It's got me worried."

"Do not worry, Natalia. Please."

"Hey, Renee?" I called out.

"Yes, uncle?" she asked.

Hearing her say "uncle" sounded extremely awkward to me. This uncle business would definitely take quite some time getting used to.

"We are going to head out, okay."

"Okey dokey. Let me grab my bad really quick…"

She ran off to grab her bag out of Natalia's lab. I stood where I was and waited for her to come back.

When we were pulling out of the parking lot of the police department/crime lab, I asked, "Where did you get those bruises from?"

She acted as though she was very much offended and said, "I'm a clutz. So what?"

"I am no professional body examiner like Alexx but I know those bruises did not result from falling."

Her eyes glistened with tears and she whispered, "My step-father."

"Can you pull up your sleeves?"

She did as I asked and revealed bruises the size of softballs, some in the shapes of a hand, and she has healing cuts. The cuts looked like they were pretty deep at one time.

"He did this to you?"

She nodded and I asked, "His name is Matt Anderson, right?"

"No. Jamie Williams. Matt was only my father for a week."

"How is that?"

Renee took in deep breaths and after awhile, she said, "First my mother and my father, Austin Sindelar, conceived me. Soon after my birth, my biological father was murdered. That is how I got my mother's maiden name. Mom's biological mother named her before giving her up. Then, my mom married Jamie. Mother and I were abused for ten full years until the both of us gathered the strength to stand up to him and demanded a divorce. Then, along came Matt. Of course that marriage went down the garbage disposal right off the bat. Mom was not only hoping to find you by moving here, but hopefully to find her prince charming."

Renee

My childhood environment was horrible growing up in. I was five years old when mom had brought Jamie home for me to meet him. Even at that age, I knew there was something not right with him.

Ever since she married that bastard for a husband, mom and I have been abused in some way or another.

Every time he hurt my mom or me, I wanted to rip off his head and hang it on my wall with pride.

Telling Ryan about my abuse was my best decision I have ever made even though I only told him part of it. Mom and I have kept the agonizing secret for a little more than a decade. Letting it out there in the open made me feel like an anvil was lifted off my shoulders. Plus, it felt like I could breathe once again for the first time in what feels like to me in decades; though it was only a decade.

I love Uncle Ryan. Telling him this secret makes me feel like I can tell him anything and everything.

I think adjusting to this environment will be hard at first but I will feel like I was rewarded in the end; hopefully.

I remember when I was younger, Jamie smoked. I was his ashtray; literately. I remember how bad the burns hurt; how loudly mother screamed at him; how horrible the smell of burning flesh was; how blood-curling my scream was when the hot end of the cigarette made contact with my bare skin.

I also recall mom pulling out Jamie's gun and told him that if he did not stop, she would shoot him in the head.

When the barrel of the gun was against Jamie's temple, he grabbed mom's wrist and with one effortless twist, she was knocked out on the floor.

I thought she was dead.

The anger keeps building up inside me. If he gets the death penalty, I hope he does, I want to watch him die and scream in pain.

Every minute that it burned or hurt, I went to bed wishing he would die.