A sharp sound woke Pam Jarvis from a deep sleep. Her room was dark except that the open balcony doors allowed in the reflection of the moon off the tranquil Pacific and the shadows cast by palms swaying in the trade winds. She was trying to bring herself back to the conscious world when she heard it again, and now it sounded like a scream. She had been exhausted after a day of offshore fishing with her mother aboard her fathers' yacht. Her father was away on business as he was much of the time. That suited Pam Jarvis just fine. Pam was a beautiful sixteen year old girl who loved her mother dearly but cared little for her cold harsh father.
     Another scream and this time a chill shot through her body when she realized it was her mother. She reached for the lamp on her bedside table, missed and knocked it to the floor. Ignoring the lamp she jumped from her bed and bounded down the circular stairway to the marble foyer below. She stopped in the foyer when she heard her father in the library cursing. Her mother was sobbing hysterically. Then there was a crash and her mother screamed again. Pam ran to two large walnut sliding doors that closed off the library from the foyer and slid them open. Her mother saw Pam and tried to use her hands to hide her bloody face.
     "Mama" Pam screamed as she ran into the room. Her father turned to Pam, grabbed her arm, slung her back into the foyer and slammed the doors together.
     Pam had smelled alcohol on his breath and knew he became brutal when he was in an alcoholic rage. The young girl stood in the foyer, frightened and shaking when her mother screamed again and again until her screams became muffled. Pam was terrified of her father but that fear was nullified by the fear of what he was doing to her mother.
     Grabbing the door handles she slid them open and now saw her father with his hands around her mother's throat. There was a ladder-back chair at a small desk in the room. The frightened girl picked up the chair, turned to her father and brought it down across his back. He turned; looked at her and slammed his left arm into her side. The powerful blow knocked her down and across the polished hardwood floor. She crashed into a built-in bookcase where she laid Stunned for several seconds before she was able to grab the shelves and pull herself up.
     Now Pam saw that her mother's face was blue and she had stopped resisting her father. He still had his hands around her neck when Pam raced across the floor and jumped on his back scratching at his face and eyes. Jarvis then released his wife and let her now dead body crumple to the floor. Throwing Pam to the floor he tore off her gown, unfastened his belt and shoved down his trousers and underwear. Then Bernard Jarvis, international industrialist, billionaire, confidant to presidents, preformed the most heinous and despicable act known to man-before he raced from the house.
     Pam was hysterical and she felt like her arms and legs were paralyzed. Clawing at the floor she tried to get to her mother but her efforts seemed to be in slow motion. Finally she reached her mothers side and wrapped her arms around her lifeless body. Now in shock, the screaming and loss of oxygen took their toll and she fainted.
     When she came to she was being held in the arms of their housekeeper, Cora Kenna, who was crying softly as she rocked Pam in her arms. Cora had wrapped a robe around Pam. Her long golden light brown hair was matted with her mothers' blood.
     There were men in the room that she didn't recognize, men who looked stern and unfriendly. Men whom Cora seemed to be afraid of, men like her father. One of the men came to Cora and said something in her ear as he pointed upstairs. Cora then helped Pam up and to her upstairs bedroom. She locked the bedroom door, took Pam to the bathroom and ran her shower. Cora helped her into the shower and then she very gently helped her wash her private area. Pam noticed blood on the white wash cloth-she did hurt there. Cora was being extremely gentle with her as she finished her bath by shampooing her hair.
     Pam felt like she was floating, everything seemed surreal; even Cora's quiet voice seemed far away. Cora put her to bed then sat in a chair beside the bed and held Pam's hand until she drifted off to sleep; it was something Cora would do every night for many months to come.

PART 1
A NEW LIFE

Chapter 1
2008 - Northumberland County Virginia

     Pam Jarvis sat on the patio of her cottage suite at the Great River Resort near the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Jill, her sixteen year old daughter was sitting on a small stool in front of her as Pam brushed Jill's waist length golden hair. Pam was now a strikingly beautiful thirty three year old woman and Jill shared her mothers' and her grandmothers' beauty. Unfortunately Jill had been conceived from the rape seventeen years earlier and was mentally challenged with the ability of someone half her age.
     The soft swish of the brush through Jill's hair was a salve to Pam's tortured mind. The fact that Jill was so like her grandmother in looks and manner was both a blessing and a curse to Pam. With Jill she would always not only have a daughter but also a part of her mother. However, there were times when she looked at Jill and saw those hands around her mother's throat. The image was seared into her mind, her father's hands, her mother's blue face and her eyes bulging with fear. That image had come again as Jill sat on the patio reading a child's story book. She knew that for some reason the brushing her daughter's soft hair helped sooth the anguish of this vision so she had Jill bring the brush. The demons were too many and too deeply ingrained to go away. Suicide was the answer, she thought of it often but it was not an option, Jill needed her.
     Jill turned to look at her mother. "Mama are we ever going home to Hawaii?"
     "Yes baby, just as soon as our business here is complete."
     "How long will Mama?"
     "I don't know baby, soon I hope!"
     There were times when Pam thought she was going insane. She seemed to have no control over her mind. Now she thought about her father, the person, even now after his death she still hated with a blind passion.
     Ruth Carter, wife of resort CEO Ted Carter was walking to the main hotel offices when she saw Pam on the patio of her cottage suite. Both Ruth and Ted had gotten to know Pam well in the nine months she had been at the resort. Bernie Jarvis had been killed nine months before in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Raymond Horton. Pam and Jill, being Jarvis' only heirs were staying at the resort, along with Jill's nurse Anna, while the estate and ownership of his twenty one major corporations was being worked out by a group of corporate lawyers.
     "Hi Pam, how are you doing today sweetie?"
     Pam smiled, but it was a sad smile.
     "About the same Ruth, it's peaceful here, not like the hustle and bustle of Honolulu, and that helps. But now it's the nightmares, I wake up screaming and it just scares the hell out of Jill and Anna."
     Jill had gotten off the stool and was watching a motor yacht slide under Tippers Bridge on its way to the resort marina. She turned and threw her arms around Ruth.
     "Aunt Ruth would you and Uncle Ted take Mommy and me for a ride on Uncle Ted's new boat? I've never been on a boat in my whole life, please Aunt Ruth."
     "Jill baby you shouldn't ask Aunt Ruth that, it's not polite"
     Ruth held up her hand to silence Pam.
     "Sweetie, you've never been on a boat?"
     Jill shook her head flinging her long blond hair around her body.
     "Well we'll put an end to that about five this afternoon. Uncle Ted is taking two men to Lawton's boat yard. We'll all go and Uncle Ted can take us for a ride down the river while they talk boat building."
     "Ruth, please no, that's interfering with your business or Ted's business."
     "Oh stop Pam; Ted is just doing it as a little added service to a well healed guest. It's the Reverend Luther Laveau and his son Matt. The Reverend will be arriving shortly and Matt has been here for a couple of days talking with Lawton about a new boat."
     "Luther Laveau," said Pam "the television preacher from Texas?"
     "That's him, we've never met him but Ted says his son Matt is really a nice fellow who wants to sell his dad on having Lawton build them a 65' boat. Of course Ted thinks Lawton walks on water so he wants to help the sale along if he can. Believe me you won't be interfering in any way."
     Jill was pulling on Pam's arm. "Please, please mama, please".
     "Ruth if you are sure then OK but if Ted has any problem with it let me know, I promise there'll be no hard feelings."
     Jill threw her arms around Ruth and kissed her on the cheek.
     "I've got to get over to Ted's office so we'll see you both on the dock at five."
     Pam watched her new friend walk off and thought back to a night just after she and Jill and Anna arrived at the resort. It was a horrible night of fear and terror that would forever bond her to Ted and Ruth and they to her.