For so long, too long, I had lain in wait, hoping that Fate would reach out her kind, strong hand and offer it to me, pulling me back towards the correct path of life, leaving me believing that if I just worked hard enough for what I wanted, things would work out on their own, the way they were supposed to.

For so long, I was wrong.

When Rhianna slid her hand underneath my underwear, a place she did not belong, I didn't lay there, waiting for her to claim me, instead, the second her hand touched my bum, I reacted.

So many innocent and strong woman have had horrible things happen to themselves and their bodies, and it is never their fault, no matter what they are told. The only one who's fault it is, is they who finds themself trespassing on someone else's skin.

I however, I was not strong. I was weak. I had nothing. No money, no friends, no family. I realized that now. I only had myself to live for. I was on my own. It was that weakness, I decided, as realization swept in, that allowed me to rise up on this fateful day. It was this weakness that forced me to sit up, slapping Rhianna's hand away and punching her hard in the chest. Like a wild animal, I kicked, scratched and bit at any piece of her I could reach.

"No," I screamed. "I have nothing else. I will not allow you to take this from me."

"Will you stop?" Rhianna demanded. "I wasn't going to do anything to you, child."

"Yes, you were," I shouted, pushing her to the floor. As a last resort, I lunged across the bed and opened a drawer. In it, was a knife, the tip stained red with blood. Grabbing the handle, I thrust it forward at her.

"Stop! Put that down," she spluttered. "Be careful with that!"

"No," I declared, holding my ground. Suddenly, everything made sense: the blood on the knife, how Rhianna had her husbands cell phone when he was supposedly away on a trip, the lack of men's clothes in the bedroom. "Rhianna? Where's your husband?"

"He's dead," she grinned, a terrifying, merciless cackle filling the room. "I killed him. I set myself free."

"Why?" I asked, terrified. I figured that as long as I had her talking, and the knife, I was safe. With my other hand, I reached into my back pocket, pressing the button ten times, as fast as I possibly could. This would call 911 and hopefully the dispatcher would send police right to my location.

"Why?" Rhianna repeated. "Oh, come on, Reina. You of all people know how it feels to be disrespected by men."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh dear, sweet child, Harold never loved me. And I never loved him. When I was just a girl, my mother was dying. I wasn't exactly a good girl, in fact, my friends and I were about to get busted for breaking and entering on a private property. The officer was set on putting us all in prison, this wasn't the first thing we'd done, when Harold, the son of one of my mother's friends, came to our rescue. In exchange, he was going to take one of us girls as his very own. He chose me, of course. I wasn't about to go to prison with my precious mother about to die, if I could help it. That would have broken her heart, and mine, so I agreed.

"We were married just a few days later. At first, it was alright, but he quickly became very abusive towards me. Hitting me, chaining me outside without food or water for days at a time, and even denying me the right to use the bathroom, forcing me to hold my pee for as long as he wanted me to.

"The abuse went on for years until finally, he allowed me to get a job. I had proven to him that I could be trusted to not escape while out of his line of sight. I rose up the ranks as fast as possible before becoming a manager. It helped a lot to be out of this house and away from him. I felt like I was finally free to be myself for the very first time."

"So why did you kill him?" I asked.

"One night, I visited you at your club, Reina. I saw how happy and how free you looked going about your life. And those girls dancing. No scars, bumps or bruises. All perfect skin and all that. I wanted to be just like them, but of course, I couldn't. When I came home after that night, Harold hurt me like he never had before. I was broken, I had to go to the hospital and he was angry about it. Hurting me more and more.

"I tried to get out of the marriage, but he wouldn't let me. He threatened the life of the attorney I hired, shredding the papers and setting them up in flames claiming that I was his property and that property doesn't roam free on its own.

"When I met you, Reina, I knew you were different. You had all the freedom in the world, and yet, you spent all your time flitting around listening to everyone else, not making any choices for yourself. Always relying on others. It disgusted me. I tried to let you break free from all of that, but you wouldn't listen, so I decided to take your freedom from you.

"All that pent up anger led me to murder Harold one night when he was sleeping. I don't know where he is now so don't ask, I hired some man to drive him away in a truck. Hurting other people, it felt so good. So I did it more, I didn't kill anyone else, no, just severely hurt them. It felt like nothing I had ever felt before.

"When you called up saying that you were out of money, I made up my mind. I was going to destroy you. I still will. I'm going to take the last thing you have left because girls who don't take advantage of their freedom don't deserve to have it in the first place."

For every step forward Rhianna took, I took one backwards, keeping the knife out in case she got closer to me. If Rhianna had already killed one person, it wouldn't be so hard for her to kill another.

Suddenly, there was a heavy pattering of footsteps and the bedroom door slammed to the floor. "This is the police. Hands up."

"Reina," Rob was arguing, "if she didn't actually touch you, then that isn't sexual assault. Can't you just drop it and be done with it all?"

"No, Rob," I said firmly. "It was. She touched me without permission. It doesn't matter where she touched, it's not ok."

"Ooh oooh I'm sexually assaulting Reina," he joked, annoyed and poking me in the side repeatedly.

"Enough," I demanded, getting to my feet. "If you can't support me, then I'm done. We're over."

"Reina, be reasonable."

"No, Rob, you be reasonable. You haven't listened to me at all during this relationship. Instead, you've just been piling your feelings and opinions on me without a single thought to how I might feel about it. And now, you won't even believe your own girlfriend was sexually assaulted. Am I not pretty for you or something?" I asked. I got to my feet decisively. "And for the record," I said, on my way out the door, "I hate your stupid rom coms." The door slammed behind me. One down, two to go. I was closing this chapter of my life, and starting anew.

On the way home, I called my work. "Hello," I said, ready to get straight to the point. "Hi, I'm Reina and I need to tell you that as of today, I'm leaving. I know usually we're supposed to give more notice than this, but I'm on my way out of town as we speak. Please tell Julie I wish her the best of luck." Before they could respond, I hung up the phone. I had just gotten paid anyways, so what did I have to worry about.

There was only one more thing to do.

Nicole,

I wrote, deciding that a letter would be best as she never listened to me anyways.

Thank you for saving me way back then and giving me a place to stay. It's time to move on now, I can't be codependent anymore. We rely on each other too much that it's unhealthy. I know you're probably mad, but we need to spread our wings and be independent from each other. Good luck to you. I'm leaving you the apartment and all the shared furniture. I'll be starting in a new place. Don't come looking for me. When I'm ready, I'll find you.

Sincerely,

Reina

With a flourish of the pen I finished signing the letter and placed it very gently under Nicole's pillow. My bag was already packed, so with one last look around the house, I was ready to go. A wave of emotions crashed over me, overwhelming as I remembered all the times we had shared here, good and bad. But it was time to go now. Those memories would remain in my heart forever, but I would have to make room for new ones. It was time.

I walked down the front stairs of the apartment and into the road, taking in my new life one step at a time.