Rebecca had moved in with her maternal grandmother, who was the only other relative in the area. About a year later, her grandmother's boyfriend had moved into the home. Rebecca never liked Scott Winfield, who made a habit of making inappropriate comments to her. He was frequently intoxicated, and during those times he was even worse. Shortly after moving in, Scott started sexually abusing her. At first, Rebecca did nothing, but she eventually built up the courage to tell her grandmother about the abuse. Her grandmother had refused to listen; insisting there was no way Scott would do something like that. In fact, she'd seemed angrier with Rebecca, for saying anything in the first place.

Weeks later, Rebecca's grandmother arrived home from work early and walked in on Scott holding Rebecca down, while he was trying to get his hand inside her clothes. Rebecca caught sight of her grandmother backing out of the room and later acting as if nothing had happened. Rebecca talked to her again, this time in tears, begging her grandmother for help. Her Grandmother had slapped her across the face and demanded this subject never be brought up again.

From that day forward, everyone had known her simply as RJ. She would not allow anyone to call her by the name which she shared with the grandmother who betrayed her.

Three months later, the body of Scott Winfield was found floating in a local river with his throat slashed. The corpse was discovered in an area where Scott often fished. No footprints were found near the scene, not even Scott's, and it seemed clear that someone had made a special effort to erase them.

His fishing pole, beer cooler, and a lawn chair still sat by the river. His wallet was still in his pants pocket, and there were seventeen dollars still in it.

No one ever found the knife used to slit Scott's throat. The Sheriff suspected Scott had fallen asleep or passed out from drinking all that beer, since there were twenty empty cans by the chair, and his attacker had quietly snuck up behind him.

The authorities questioned everyone, including RJ, but no suspect was ever located.

Twenty years later, RJ sometimes awakened from a nightmare and could again feel the sensation of Scott's hot blood pumping out all over her arms.

The FBI agents were as good as their word; they delivered her to the waiting jet and told her someone would be there to meet her when she arrived in Washington.

The flight was uneventful. The flight crew had provided some sandwiches, chips, and Pepsi. Later she'd reclined her seat and tried to sleep but found the never-ending questions running through her mind made it impossible.

Finally, she brought her seat back up and picked up a copy of USA Today, which had been provided with her food. On page three she came across an article entitled “President's Disaster Shelter Plan passes in the House.”