Caroline and Mark had met in high school and had gone together from Grade 10 onward. It seemed obvious that they would get married one day and have a family. They seemed so well suited to each other, as, they were a very loving couple. Mark would do anything for Caroline and she, in turn, loved Mark very much.
So, when graduation day arrived a few years later, they were both full of optimism for the future. Caroline was planning to go to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and Mark had decided to stay here in town and attend the University of Toronto. Caroline wanted to be a teacher more than anything and Mark was aiming to be a civil engineer. They were attractive, bright and full of promise. Once they had both finished university, that’s when they would decide to make a full commitment to each other.
Caroline would commute to Toronto every other weekend to see Mark and, on alternate weekends, he would commute to Hamilton to see Caroline. She didn’t mind commuting, as, it gave her time to reflect on her life and gave her a chance to miss Mark during the week between visits. He, on the other hand, did not like commuting very much, as, he was already traveling a fair distance daily, just to go to school and then to his part-time job as a bartender. He wanted her to move back to Toronto, but she really liked Hamilton. She had no desire to attend U of T, like Mark. McMaster was a very beautiful campus and it was a lot nicer living on campus there than it would have been living at home in Toronto when she didn’t really want to live with her family full-time.
Mark, for his part, was patient for a while, but because he wanted Caroline very much, he resolved over time to get her to change her mind. The fact that she didn’t want to move back to Toronto just now to be with him disturbed him greatly. He felt that if she really loved him as she had said she did, she should acquiesce to his request so that they could be happy together. He felt that her goal as a teacher was less important than his own goal as an engineer. After all, engineers make a whole lot more money than teachers ever would and he could make enough money for both of them to live on. There were more teachers than engineers in the world anyway, so what chance did she realistically have of getting a decent job nearby? Somehow, he couldn’t stand the idea of having her live away from him for very much longer. He resolved to do something about the situation.
The next weekend that Caroline was in Toronto, Mark knew what he had to do. He took her out to a very posh restaurant at the lakefront – the Harbour Castle Westin’s Lighthouse (revolving) restaurant. This restaurant was very expensive, but Mark wanted to set the stage properly for what he was about to suggest to Caroline. It was a lovely place to spend an evening for dinner, as, it sat on the edge of Lake Ontario and they could see for dozens of miles over the water, even as far as Niagara Falls on a clear night. He was intent on creating a very romantic ambience for her.
Dinner started out perfectly with wine, bread and salad and progressed to exotic filet mignon and baked potato, followed finally by a luscious dessert. When Mark felt the mood was right, he popped the question. Not the question that you would have thought though. He said to her, “Caroline, come back to Toronto and move in with me. I need to have you with me.”
But she was resistant. She replied, “I want to get married first, Mark, and I’m willing to wait for the right time for that to happen. Besides, school’s very important to me and I want to graduate, which will only happen in two more years.” In their heated discussion, she put forth her argument that it would only be two more years of being apart and then they would both be finished school for good. At that time, she would be more than willing to move in with him wherever they wanted to live.
Mark was starting to get desperate. He needed to have Caroline by his side, where he could control her movements and keep her all to himself. School, from his perspective, was becoming secondary to his need to have Caroline. Of course, his own schooling was going to progress as originally planned. He just did not want Caroline to continue her own schooling in Hamilton any longer. According to his plan, she could take her schooling anywhere else, if at all. She could even abandon the whole idea if she wanted.
After dinner, they retired for the night to a room that they had reserved in the hotel and spent the next few hours making passionate love there. She was pretty tipsy with the wine she’d been drinking and he was also fairly intoxicated, but feeling frustrated at her refusal to cave in to his wishes. But, he was determined to get what he wanted from her eventually – total capitulation. When they left the hotel the next morning, Caroline headed for the bus depot. She said she needed to study for an upcoming exam and he realized that there was nothing more that he could do right now. So, he reluctantly watched her bus leave for Hamilton. His plan to keep her at his side was not working out so well at the moment.
About two to three months later, they had been continually commuting back and forth to see each other, when Caroline called Mark up at home one night. She said that she had something to tell him and he instantly dreaded what she might say to him. He thought she must have met some other guy and was going to dump him for the other guy. He didn’t have enough faith in himself anymore to feel that she still loved him and only him. They made arrangements to meet at an anonymous bar in downtown Toronto. Mark arrived early so that he could have a strong drink or two before he saw her and had to face the bad news. That’s when she had dropped her bombshell – she was almost 2 months pregnant! That’s when he expressed his ardent wish to have her stay with him.
The discussion did not stop there, however. She was more determined than ever to finish school in Hamilton, and to do that, she had to have an abortion. But, Mark wouldn’t hear of it. He wanted them to get married right away. He assured her that she could finish school after the baby was born, but he wanted her and the baby, both. There was no way he was going to allow her to have an abortion, if he had any say in it. Finally, she succumbed to his wishes and agreed to marry him, only on the condition that she was allowed to finish school somewhere after the pregnancy was over. He, desperate to settle the matter once and for all, agreed. Later, she would see things his way and change her mind, he thought. Finally, he had her right where he wanted her.
They were married the following weekend in Niagara Falls, Ontario, by a Justice of the Peace and stayed at a lovely little motel overlooking the falls. Their honeymoon was spent at the falls for the weekend and then they returned to Toronto to start their lives together. Caroline had left her education studies in Hamilton temporarily, but resolved to return there as soon as she could. She knew that Mark loved her enough not to stand in the way of her goal to become a teacher. After all, it was a well known fact that every modern woman these days should work on her career and not depend on a man, even her loving husband, to support her through life. Having a child was a significant factor in the equation, but it did not have to become a major impediment to her future progress. Being pregnant, in her mind, was merely a temporary setback. She would somehow cope with having a baby, in her own way. She knew Mark would be as loving a husband and father as he could be.
Time passed and Mark graduated as an engineer. Caroline had yet to graduate, however. At home, things started happening little by little. In fact, it was go gradual that Caroline hardly noticed the changes. At first, Mark was very attentive and loving towards his new little family, but then she eventually noticed subtle changes in him. He would go for a drink after work once a week or so with his co-workers – nothing to be concerned about. Going out for a drink once in a while was certainly not a bad thing, she thought. But then, he started staying out later and later. One drink turned into two, three, four, and so on. Still, she didn’t read anything into it.
Until one day, Mark came home at midnight, woke Caroline out of a deep sleep, and demanded angrily, “Wake up and make me my dinner right now – I’m hungry!” This time, he was out-and-out drunk and was definitely in the mood for some kind of argument with her.
She was still groggy from sleep as she asked him, “Don’t you think midnight is a little too late to be cooking food?” And, besides, she was too tired from looking after the baby all day by herself to be able to get up or do anything except sleep.
Mark became enraged at her seemingly uncaring attitude. With a vicious yank, he pulled her lovely long hair and yelled at her to get up. She screamed and he slapped her hard across the face. Now, she was wide-awake and suddenly terrified of her husband. She had never seen him like this before. It was like a demon had possessed him. He was not going to rest (or, God forbid, pass out) until she cooked him dinner. So, she went into the kitchen and started looking through the cupboards for food. She racked her brain trying to think of how she could stop him from beating her and demanding the impossible from her.
She cooked him his dinner in silence. He ate it in silence and finally did pass out on the living room couch. The next day, when he had sobered up somewhat, he realized, with horror, what he had done to her and tearfully begged her to forgive him. Because he assured her that it was an isolated incident, which would not happen again (she felt sure about that!), she forgave him. She was not sure what was behind the incident other than that he’d gotten drunk and she was too frightened to think about the alternative if she didn’t forgive him this time.
However, the next week, it happened again. This time, he came home reeking of liquor and demanded that she give him sex. She refused because it was obvious that he was not her loving husband who was asking, but some stranger who needed to abuse her for the sake of his pleasure. He lost his temper and threw her onto the bed, tore off her clothes and proceeded to rape her viciously. She screamed loudly and the baby woke up and also started crying loudly, in distress. He then punched Caroline full in the face and gave her a black eye and a bloody nose. She continued screaming while he raped her, getting more and more violent. She was horrified at this monstrous demonstration of animalistic behaviour on the part of her husband, but she could not stop him.
The next day, when he woke up from his drunken stupor, he saw the serious damage he had caused her and again begged her for forgiveness. But, this time, she was not about to forgive him. She told him to move out and leave for good. After a fervent discussion, he very reluctantly packed up his bags and left sullenly. He yelled at her that this would not be the end of it. She, for her part, was both relieved to see him go and yet frightened of him, for she knew he could come back. She was too afraid to call the police and lay charges yet, but she was determined not to forgive him. At the moment, she did not know what else to do except throw him out of the apartment.
Finally, after months of confrontations with Mark and attempted interventions by the police, she decided that the best course of action, besides having him charged, was to leave town, change her and the baby’s identities and disappear. It was almost like being in a witness protection program of her own making, but she did not know what else she could do to protect herself and the baby from unwanted harassment and bodily harm. Charging him was essential, as far as the police were concerned, but would that be enough to keep him away from her for good? Yes, but only if he was tried and convicted and sent to prison for a good long time. However, she did not think that would happen and even if it did, she thought that he might still find her anyway and perhaps kill her. That possibility was too terrifying to ignore.
Caroline and Cathy (a.k.a. Jessica and Janet) had to move and are now living in a small city (name is withheld). They had had to change their identities to avoid detection. He would have been able to track them down without any problem, otherwise. They had to keep to themselves as much as possible in this new place. The police, of course, were aware of their past circumstances and had promised to protect them as much as possible. Somehow, Caroline (now Jessica) had found the courage to testify against Mark, however, she was deathly afraid of him, especially after the trial was over. As a result of his conviction, Mark was now serving three years in prison for spousal assault. But, after his release, only then would she know when he would track them down and take his final deadly revenge out on her.
