New Beginning: Tortured by the Past, Haunted by the Future

The Stokers: Chapter 26

Amy just finished getting the twins to bed and goes downstairs where she finds Mike watching the news.

Mike hears Amy coming in and motions for her to sit down next to him.

She walks to the couch, sitting next to him and places her hand on his leg.

He takes his hand and places it on top of hers but can sense that something is bothering her tonight.

"Are you alriight Amz?" Mike asks

Nodding her head yes, "Yeah I'm ok. Just a little tired, I guess." Than she says,

"Are you sure because you look like there is something else bothering you too?" Mike asks, now prying a little bit more as he mutes the television.

Amy looks at him, giving him a little smile, "I guess I also have the Gages on my mind. Wondering how Tracie is holding up.."Pausing, "I mean how they are both coping. That's all"

"Why don't you stop by there tomorrow. I have the day off, I can watch Charles and Katherine." Mike says looking at his wife and knowing that there is something else bothering her. "What else is going on Amy? You haven't really been yourself these past few months." Now taking his hand and putting it under her chin, turning her face towards his. "You can tell me anything, Amy. You do know that, right?"

Amy looks into his blue eyes and says, "Nothing. I am just worried about Tracie and can't imagine how she is feeling. That's all. Plus those two children of yours are driving me crazy."

Looking at her, he knows she is lying but won't press her anymore because he loves her too much to push her back into her shell. Plus he knows about her troubled past and that she was raped when she was sixteen, but he has never brought it up to her because she will tell him when she is ready.

"Alright, well I'm going to go up to bed. I'm beat. These past few months have been rough." Mike says to her, taking her hand into his, bringing it to his lips and kissing it. "I love you." Mike says to her before heading upstairs to bed.

Amy is left pondering her thoughts and her own anguish at what she went through when she was sixteen. So she knows that she needs to tell Mike but just doesn't know how to approach the subject with him, just yet.

Mike is getting ready for bed and knows that Amy will tell him in her own time but he just wishes that he could kill her brother and his friends for what they did to her.

Climbing into bed he shuts the light off, closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Amy heads downstairs to the basement, where she has a locked file cabinet here all of her old articles and legal papers are.

Pulling the key out of the middle desk drawer, she goes to the cabinet and unlocks it.

Not sure what exactly she is looking for, se begins going through the organized files and finally comes across the court papers emancipating her from her family at sixteen.

Pulling out the folder, she goes through it and finds the police report. Reading it, brings back some painful memories from that time in her life.

Placing the folder on the desk, she closes her eyes, and she can see her brother laughing, getting high as his friend was brutally rapping her right in front of him. As she was begging for his help, all he did was get up and leave the room to get more smack from the living room.

Amy begins to shack at the thought and opens her eyes quickly, knowing that she never wants to relive that nightmare again but unfortunately these past few months, she has relived them because Tracie's kidnapping has stirred those awful memories up.

Standing up, se puts the file back in the cabinet, locking the drawer and putting the key back where she found it.

She than opens her laptop and checks her email and sees one from her editor. Clicking on the email, she reads it.

"Amy,

I need you to give me a call tomorrow. I have a new story I want you to research and write. It's about gun control in the United States. Give me a call when you get a chance.

Thanks,

Jack"

And then she sees an email from her brother, Peter Harper.

Seeing his name, sends shivers up her spin and makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

She wants to delete it but something inside of her tells her not to and to oprn and see what he has to say.

Clicking on the email, she opens it and stares at it, not focusing on the words of the email but his name, a name that she hasn't seen in many years.

Finally she shakes off the shock and disgust, to read the email.

"Amy,

I know it's been a long time since we've had any contact with each other. I am so very sorry for everything that you went through. I know that isn't good enough but spending the last twenty years in prison on death row has made me realize a lot of the pain that you went through was because of me. I know you have a successful career as a reporter. I have read all of your articles following your career all the way. I know that you got married and had twins as well. But I just want you to know that I am sorry for everything and will not ask for your forgiveness.

Peter"

After reading the email from her brother, she begins to feel sick to her stomach and the vomit rising in her throat.

Amy tries to shake off the feeling of disgust and swallows hard as she fights back the memories of her childhood as she shuts down her computer, closing the top.

She knows she now has to tell Mike everything about her past. But how and where does she begin because all she has ever told him was that her bother was in jail and her parents were dead.

Standing up now, she heads upstairs, shutting the light and checking the house, making sure everything is locked up before going up to bed, vowing to herself that she is going to tell Mike everything in the morning.