Tracie Peterson by Entangled

“I used to be best friends with Danielle. That’s his daughter.”
    “Yes, I know her. Please go on.”
    Teri paused long enough to rearrange the now sleeping baby. “I used to spend a lot of time at the Kernses’ house. Both of my parents are dead, so being with a family where everyone was related and lived all under the same roof held a lot of appeal. I didn’t have many friends.” Teri’s voice dropped off and she seemed to consider Jamie for a moment.
    “I’m sure you felt very lonely,” Cara offered.
    Teri nodded. “Danielle helped me to feel good about myself. She taught me how to use makeup and know what to wear to make myself look good. I used to borrow her clothes because we were about the same size, only I was shorter. Sometimes she’d even give me her clothes when she was through with them.”
    Cara looked at Teri’s now slightly overweight form. She could imagine a slender and well-cared-for girl. “I had a good friend like that when I was younger,” Cara said, thinking of Melissa.
    “Danielle even helped me graduate from high school and get into college,” Teri offered.
    Cara was shocked to find that Teri was old enough for college. She looked to be no more than fifteen or sixteen. “How old are you, Teri?”
    “I’m eighteen. I’ll be nineteen in August.”
    “And how old is Jamie?”
    “Three months.”
    Teri seemed at a loss for words past this, and Cara desperately wanted to know more. She had to know the truth of the matter. “What happened between you and Mr. Kerns?”
    Teri’s face contorted in rage. “He raped me, that’s what happened. Oh, he says it was all my fault for hanging out at their pool in my bikini, but it didn’t just happen once. It happened a bunch of times, and each time he threatened to make me miserable if I told anyone.”
    Cara felt sick inside. “How old were you when . . . the first time?”
    “It was a week before my sixteenth birthday. I remember because he kept saying I looked so much older than sixteen.”
    Cara couldn’t imagine any truth in his assessment. The girl sitting before her barely looked old enough to drive, much less be a mother. Dear God, she prayed, how can I help?
    “Where was Danielle or her mother and brother?”
    Teri shrugged. “Gary was already off to college and Debra was busy with one thing or another. She wasn’t usually home in the afternoon, and that’s when we went swimming.”
    “But surely Danielle would have had to know what was going on.”
    “She was usually changing her clothes or taking a shower. There was always some reason for why she was going to be away for more than just a couple of minutes. I think Bobusually planned it that way. Once he even locked her in her room and joked with her afterward that she’d accidently jammed the lock herself.”
    Cara shook her head. The whole thing was unreal. To imagine this young woman the victim of an animal like Robert Kerns left Cara angry, sick, and determined to help. Grimacing, Cara wasn’t aware of the effect of her silence on Teri.
    “I didn’t want to hurt Danielle,” Teri said, her voice growing ragged with emotion. Her eyes were spilling tears. “I was afraid she’d blame me for what had happened.”
    “But it wasn’t your fault, Teri.”
    “He said it was.”
    “What he said isn’t important. Tell me what happened. Tell me everything.”
    The young woman appraised Cara for a moment, as if deciding whether or not she could trust her with the information. “The last time he . . . well, you know . . . the last time, I told him I wasn’t going to let him do that to me again. I told him I was pregnant. I think it surprised him, but he didn’t care.”
    “What did he say?”
    Teri threw Cara a cynical look. “He asked me whose baby it was. I told him it was his and that I’d never been with anybody else.”
    “Then what happened?” Cara worked hard to keep her voice from even hinting at accusation.
    “He said it wasn’t a big deal.