The One That Got Away ✔

Chapter Eighteen

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TRIGGER WARNING

This chapter goes into detail about sexual assault, if you are sensitive to this topic then please skip this chapter.

This chapter was also inspired by Kim Kardashian West's 2016 Paris Robbery.

For sexual assault/harassment help, please contact a hotline listed below (apologies if your country is not listed).

USA hotline:

1-800-656-HOPE

RAINN - +18006565673

Australia:

1800-RESPECT

AWDR - 1800 333 666

Reachout.com - https://au.reachout.com/articles/sexual-assault-support

UK website:

http://uksaysnomore.org/get-help/

Please visit: https://www.rainn.org/

Canada:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/lets-stop-sexual-harassment-and-violence

http://www.awhl.org/

Toll Free: 1-866-863-0511
Toll Free TTY: 1-866-863-7868

http://www.talk4healing.com/

Telephone: 1-855-554-4325

Mental Health Crisis Line: A 24/7 helpline to assist people experiencing a mental health problem or crisis.

http://www.crisisline.ca/home.htm

Telephone: 613-722-6914

Thank you
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It was a year ago when it happened. The big bad thing that changed the trajectory of my entire life. Most people have something traumatic happen to them right? A car accident, maybe? Perhaps the death of a loved one? For me, it was my assault.

They say a sexual crime is committed every seventy-three seconds in the united states, 38% of the time the perpetrator is a friend or acquaintance, 26% of the time it's a current or former partner. The stats also say that 20% of Americans will experience sexual assault as some point in their life. How many people wake up each morning and wonder if today is the day it will happen? How many people wonder if or how it would happen to them? I know that I never did.

Let's backtrack, shall we? As I said, it was a year ago. Freddy was fifteen, Patra was nine and Ling was six. It was the first time in years that I had left them for longer than a couple of days. Mum and Tom house sat at my place to take care of them. I had left for Moscow with my assistant Bella and my friend Jane. My father, Doug was meeting us there the next day as he was attending the same art show. Friends of mine, married couple Carter and Samuel Fox were also there, as Carter's work was being transported to the gallery in Moscow. The six of us were all staying at the same hotel with Jane and I in a shared room.

It was the night of the art show when it happened.

We celebrated Carter's work and I spent quality time with my dad. Doug wore a tux and I wore a wine red dress that hugged my curves and seven-inch heels.

"Thoughts?" I cocked a brow, staring up at the 1600 x 1400 abstract portrait of a woman on a bridge.

Quick thick strokes of aqua and turquoise to replicate the seat. The girl wore red, perhaps to symbolize her pain. The piece reminded me of my own artworks that I had painted just after giving birth to Freddy. I was amazed at how far I had come in my life. I was once a pregnant sixteen-year-old high school dropout, now I'm being invited to galleries in Moscow to celebrate and to judge pieces that are worth millions.