Abigail gasped as she covered her mouth.
“Holy shit,” Anna stated.
“I second that,” Stacy added.
“That must have been terrible, Lena. I had to run from two mob guys with connections everywhere. They wanted to turn me into a prostitute to pay my dad’s debt, and my dad gave me to them freely,” Anna said as the tears reached her eyes.
“Oh God, that must have been terrible,” Lena told Anna then reached across the table to hold Anna’s hand.
Abigail watched as Anna smiled.
“It scared the hell out of me. I had nowhere to go but my best friend Stacy’s place here in Pearl.”
“How the hell did you survive on your own, Lena?” Stacy asked.
Lena let go of Anna’s hand.
“I’ve been surviving on my own for years. Even when I lived in the apartment in Detroit with my mom, I was the one taking care of everything. She was drunk all the time and bringing in men. I had to get out of there before one of her boyfriends raped me.”
“Oh good God no. Did they try that, Lena?” Abigail asked, horrified.
“Sure did. It was after the third time when one of them actually broke down the door and attempted to rape me. He hit me with his belt, and I fought him off and screamed. My mother came in and he told her that I was showing off my large breasts to him and asking for sex. She believed him and that was it. I packed my stuff, the money I made from babysitting, and left.”
“Oh that is terrible, Lena. I can understand how you must have felt. My dad was taking all the money I was making working double shifts in a restaurant and drinking and gambling it away,” Anna told Lena.
“That’s why the mobsters went after you?” Lena asked, and Anna nodded.
“Well, Stacy had some psycho CEO of the company she worked for stalking her,” Anna added, and Stacy chuckled.
“I guess we have all had our share of creepy men coming after us,” Stacy said, then laughed.
“Hey, I know we just kind of met and all but an idea just came to mind about a business for you, Anna,” Lena began to say.
“What are you thinking?” Anna asked, sounding intrigued.
“What if you opened a large bed-and-breakfast and women’s shelter? Something hidden somewhere on all the acres of land on the Triple C? Someplace where women who are on the run from abuse or neglect can come to seek safety and shelter? The bed-and-breakfast can have multiple cotta
ges like the ones on the estate here and women can work for lodging and food.”
“How would we provide safety and shelter without advertising and risking detection?” Anna asked.
“You would be surprised about how word on the streets can travel. There’s a special bond with most women when it comes to experiencing abuse. Look how easily you both got me to talk a little bit about some of my experiences living on the streets for the past four years.”
“Four years?” Abigail asked in shock, and Lena nodded her head.
Abigail was sitting right next to her as she leaned over and hugged Lena.
Stacy and Anna chuckled.
“You may just have a really great idea, Lena,” Anna said.
Abigail released Lena and felt her entire heart ache for the young woman. She wondered what else she had experienced on the streets that she hadn’t shared.
“You know, you both are involved with men in law enforcement. They could maybe provide some sort of security for the place and also maybe there could be a pretest-type thing to ensure that the women coming into Pearl looking for the shelter are legit. It would have to be something that wouldn’t necessarily scare them but make them see initially how safe and secure the shelter is. The bed-and-breakfast cottages could provide the income needed to support the women working there,” Lena told them.
“I like it. I think this is a serious possibility,” Stacy exclaimed.
“We would have to keep some sort of records on file so we could keep track of the women we helped and also receive government funding,” Anna added.