Alone in the Glade:
On a mountain up high sits a young woman. She prays for things to be different but understand why things cannot be. It's a small valley that nobody but her knows about. She must go to it in secret for fear that she will be punished. You see, she is an American girl stuck in a world she knows nothing about. She was kidnapped from her home nearly four years ago and forced to marry a man twice her age with two wives already. She had two children at the age three, they are twins. Her third child sits in her belly and she is forced to make love to her 'husband' every night. The other women want nothing to do with her so this is the only solitude she gets. She prays that she will be found soon. She knows the risks of what her family is doing to get her back could get her and her children killed. But Pakistan wants to stay on good terms with the United States so it is willing to 'play ball' or so to say.
They have sent embassy officials to the village she is being kept in. They want her and her kids released into the hands of the officials. Her husband won't give consent, but soon he won't have a choice. Pakistan doesn't want to go to war over the kidnapping of an American girl so Pakistani government officials have come to the village. She and her kids are in the valley with the herd of goats. She keeps them close to her. She knows what will happen if they are removed from her sight. As the goats move back towards the village, she picks her children up and moves with the herd. She doesn't see the government officials until they are nearly in front of her. They have American soldiers with them and all she can do is smile. Her husband looks on angrily as they begin to talk to her.
She looks straight at her husband and answers in English that she wants to go home and that she wants to take her children with her. She says she fears for their safety if they stay with their father who has repeatedly said that he will kill the kids if she ever tries to leave him. That is all the government officials and American soldiers need to hear. Two soldiers accompany her and her kids into the house where she gathers her belongings and one of the wives comes forward as well. She hands the young woman stuff that had been taken from her upon her arrival over four years prior. She offers a small smile, knowing that it will get her punished. But punishment is not what becomes of the wives.
For the other two wives are told to collect their belongings as well as their kids. They are being sent back to the countries that they were kidnapped from as well. For had the young woman known that she had allies among the wives, she would have tried harder to be nicer. But their 'husband' had forbidden them to talk to each other so they knew nothing of their former lives. Their 'husband' for his part in their kidnappings and holding them hostage for so many years, was sentenced to life in prison. He wouldn't make it a week before being killed by a man whose own daughter had been killed thanks to their 'husband'.
The soldiers removed the women and their children to the US Embassy. Documents were attained for the three women and all of their children. Passports were issued for the three women and all of their children. For the first time in four years, the young woman felt safe. For the first time in nearly fifteen years, the older women felt safe. They were able to go home to their families who lived in Ireland and England respectively. They promised to keep in touch via social media, if their families allowed them to. For now, they were all headed out on a military jet to first Germany and then their respective homes. Each little family would have a military escort back to their homes and families. And each little family would never forget what had happened to them.
For Kris Ferillo, it was back to Raintree and the Ritter's. She didn't know how they would react when they learned where she had really been. Kris knew that she would never be able to trust another man again. She would be a single mother who looked after horses, but she would never trust a man again. It was too much. She had endured too much at the hands of her 'husband' to ever truly trust men in general again. She didn't even know if she would be able to trust Matt as he had been her best friend before everything had happened.
Photo by: Unknown/Found on google