"Marilyn?" Sammi knocked on the door of Marilyn's room. "Can you please come out? I want to talk to you. Andy is gone. Please?"

The door was pushed open slightly and Sammi walked in. She went over and sat next to Marilyn on the bed.

"Alright, so I wanted to know. How did you and Chris meet? " Sammi tried to sound positive about Chris because she knew how much Marilyn liked Chris.

Marilyn started to smile as she began to remember the memory. "Well, I was out at this bar one night just to get out and clear my head of everything and some drunk guy started hitting on me. At first, it was harmless but then he started to get physical with me. Chris came to my rescue. We started talking more and more and we went on a few dates before we decided to make things official."

"That sounds really great, Marilyn, but I'm just worried that Chris might not be a good guy."

"He is, Sammi. Don't worry about me. I'm fine, really."

Sammi rubbed Marilyn's arm. "Alright, well, I've got to head to bed now. I'll see you in the morning, dear." She gave Marilyn a sympathetic smile and continued out the door.

Marilyn put her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes. She tossed and turned almost all night because of one memory that kept resurfacing, no matter how many times she tried to push it to the back of her mind.

"You look great tonight, babe." Chris put his arm around Marilyn as they walked along the boulevard. The sweet spring air enveloped them as they made their way to nowhere in particular.

"Do you want to come back to my house?" Chris asked. "We don't have to stay long if you need to get back home. I just figured we could hang there for an hour or so."

"Sure, that sounds fun." Marilyn replied and tightened her grip on his waist.

When they arrived at the house, Marilyn felt awkward. She always felt awkward in other people's homes.

"I'm going to get a drink from the kitchen. Want anything?"

"Oh, no thanks."

Chris left Marilyn in the living room, alone. She walked along the back wall that had a long wood table, covered with picture frames. She carefully looked at each face smiling back at her from the frame. Then, she came to a beautifully crafted golden frame with glass roses surrounding it. Marilyn began to reach out her hand but realized she probably shouldn't touch it.Before retracting her hand, she heard Chris shouting.

"What are you doing?! Don't touch that!"

And that was the first time Chris hit her.