During last week’s book launch celebration, Sheyla Camancho from Hope’s Door New Beginning Center joined me on stage to add her knowledge to my passion for preventing domestic abuse. She shared a jarring statistic – 74 percent of people in America personally know someone who’s a domestic abuse victim. That’s roughly 242,180,000 people. If you’re into numbers like Gillian, the main character in Becker Circle, that’s more than 9.5 times the population of Texas. Wow.
The good news is we always have a way out. In Becker Circle, Gillian orchestrated a scheme to graduate Harvard a semester early and move out of the apartment she shared with her abusive boyfriend while he was away for the holidays. She didn’t care where she ended up as long as she had a job waiting for her, and it was far away from Boston. She brought with her an old car, enough money for the apartment deposit, and a fierce will to be strong, independent, and never let anyone control her again. Help from her best friend, quiet moments connecting with her deceased mom, and her own inner strength and determination helped Gillian successfully escape to her new beginning.
Fresh starts almost always come with doubts like Gillian experienced a week into hers, but those doubts are rarely worse than what already happened. Gillian created a set of rules to hep her stay on track and not repeat the same mistakes. Here’s a short excerpt from Becker Circle chapter one that reveals the first rule.
What am I doing? Am I invisible? Everyone’s with someone like I was. Taking the CPA job in Dallas seemed like such a great idea. It’s where no one knows me. Away from Connor. Before he had a chance to break me. Rule one of my new life—forget about what already happened. Period.
Like Gillian, we’re never alone. There’s always help from friends, family and co-workers, local police, and organizations like Hope’s Door New Beginning Center.
Everyone deserves to be treated with respect!
