Charlene and Joe lived in a large house on a hill in the suburbs of San Diego. The house was located on a hill which, on a clear day, allowed you to see all the way out to the ocean. There were four bedrooms upstairs, including the master bedroom, the nursery, the bedroom that their girls slept in, and Joe's office, which was located right next to the laundry room. There was a guest bedroom and bath downstairs which now belonged to Maggie, located next to the kitchen and living areas.
Because Charlene and Maggie were so far apart in age, they didn't have much time to spend together before Charlene left home at the age of fifteen. Charlene was no stranger to the sort of person her mother had come to be. Her last day at home, she and Joan had a very loud and violent fight. She couldn't remember what started it, but she remembered that it came to blows with Joan nursing a split lip, and Charlene having to be revived with smelling salts. It wasn't something she liked to think about but it did help her to empathize with Maggie's desire to get away. She didn't pretend to know the extent of the abuse that Maggie had suffered at the hands of her mother, but she was determined to make sure that Maggie never had to return to that house again.
Joe assured Charlene that there was nothing to worry about in the way of her mother's retribution against Maggie because she was over the age of seventeen and could be considered emancipated now that she had successfully graduated from high school. In the event that her mother and Barty decided to make issue of Maggie's change in residence, he was confident that he could handle it with little or no further incident to Maggie.
Maggie's move into her sister's house was almost exactly one year to the day after her encounter with Damian Lucelli. As she lay in her new bed, inside completely new surroundings, she wondered how things came to be as they are. Contemplating the events of the last year, she also knew that this burden was one she had to carry alone.
Who was there to share this with? She asked herself silently. Who would really believe the incidents that have taken place, and worse, how would she get anyone to believe that she was not a willing participant? No, she thought, these things that plagued her would be a cross that she would have to bear alone. Keith being the heaviest of all.
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