Chapter 1

The small Toyota wound in and out of traffic as tears clouded the vision of its driver. Kerri Akers felt nothing but hopelessness as she replayed in her mind the conversation, only minutes ago, with the school psychologist.

"Kyle is a young man filled with rage. Unfortunately, Mrs. Akers, most of that rage seems to be directed at you."

"I've tried everything I know Dr. Sizemore. He'll hardly say anything to me anymore and when he does, it's an insult. "

The psychologist sighed. "We've discussed the sources for his aggression. The focal point is of course the incident in the park, but it goes back much further than that. Your ex-husband's abusing you for one."

Tears began glistening at the corners of her eyes.

"But why would he blame me? It was his Father who came home drunk and beat me. Most of the time so he could then take me any way he wanted, even when I pleaded for him to stop."

"Sexually you mean?"

"Yes. I told him we would make love whenever he wanted, but he seemed to get more satisfaction from beating me into submission and raping me. He'd call me a... a whore. He was always accusing me of infidelity. I never even so much as looked at another man, but he was insanely jealous, especially when he was drunk"

"And Kyle was a witness to this?"

"Yes, on several occasions. I begged Alan not to take me there in front of our son, but he seemed to enjoy showing Kyle who was boss and what a man he was to rape me right there with Kyle watching. He enjoyed showing off his male prowess."

Sizemore swiveled in his chair behind the large oak desk.

"Did you resist? Did Kyle see you fighting back?"

"I tried, but look at me Doctor. Alan was a large man, just as Kyle is. Kyle is taller than his father, but Alan was heavier. The first few times I fought, but it just enraged him and the beatings were more severe. I soon learned that if I let him punch me around a bit and rape me and get it over with, he would then leave me alone."

The psychologist looked at the woman across the desk. Diminutive was one way to describe Kerri Akers. Others might be polite and describe her as petite. In truth she was one of the smallest adult women the psychologist had ever encountered. She was attractive, he thought, a lovely face with large dark brown eyes, brunette hair styled short and perky and a trim curvaceous body which, coupled with her small stature, belied her thirty-one years and gave her the look of a well developed adolescent. He had had to remind himself more than once that he was talking to a fully grown, adult woman.

Kerri Akers stood only four feet, seven inches tall weighing a mere eighty-seven pounds. Her entire family was small statured and so she had accepted her small size from early childhood. Her husband, however, had been just the opposite, a brute in size as well as disposition. Kyle had obviously inherited his father's body style and seemingly a great deal of his disposition as well.

"I understand," he said, "but Kyle, seeing you beaten and raped without offering resistance, may have come to the conclusion that not only did you accept it, but that you may have even wanted it that way."

Her mouth flew open.

"Wanted it? My God, he almost killed me on a couple of occasions. I had to be hospitalized with a broken wrist and a ruptured spleen!"

"Oh, don't misunderstand Mrs. Akers, I can certainly feel the pain in your voice. I simply meant that from what Kyle was able to observe, coupled with the fact that you did not discuss it with him could lead him to believe..."

Her eyes cast downward in dejection. Her voice faltered.

"I couldn't... I just couldn't face him after he saw what Allen did to me, watched Allen beat me senseless, strip me naked and abuse and degrade me in every way possible."