There they go - right out into harm's way
by Elizabeth Payne

This is a true story and it happened right before the Nicole Brown - Simpson murder. It was in my naive days before I realized just how few rights women have.

My daughter had just gotten out of a very bad marriage. Her husband beat her and went to prison for the attempted murder of one of his friends.

She met a guy she thought was wonderful. He wined her, dined her and made her feel special. She thought she needed this, her self-esteem was very low.

She and her three children moved in with him. After about six months she became moody and withdrawn. I could see the symptoms of abuse starting all over again.

One night I got a call from one of my sons. My daughter had called him and said that her boyfriend had left for a few minutes. She said he was drunk and had held a gun to her head for most of the night. My son, his friend and I went to get her. Her boyfriend wasn't back. He had left the gun there. I wrapped it in a towel and put it in the trunk of my car.

We took my daughter and kids to a shelter. This wasn't a protected shelter but it's where she wanted to go. I went to the police station and told one of the officers what happened. He told me to return the gun to my daughter's boyfriend or I would be in possession of stolen property. He said I could throw it in the river and claim ignorance. In the back of my mind I wondered: would my daughter's boyfriend come to my house and hurt one of my other kids looking for his gun?

The next day my daughter called and said she was back with her boyfriend. He had found her at the shelter. She wanted the gun. She said if I didn't bring it back he was coming after me and anyone he had to hurt. I begged her to get out of there, she refused. She said if I didn't give the gun back she and here boyfriend were coming after it. I took the gun back, handed it to her and walked away.

The very next day the Nicole Brown - Simpson murders were screaming from the front pages of the newspapers. For awhile the police watched how they handled domestic violence cases. About a month later my daughter's boyfriend was beating her and someone called the police. They took him to jail and she went into hiding. He left town.

After one more relationship like this, my daughter has finally discovered she can make it on her own. She has a good job and is building her self-esteem by leaps and bounds. She is a beautiful girl and gets lots of attention from men but I hope that she has learned she must love herself before she can truly love anyone else.

The thing that scares me is that the guy who held a gun to her head has found her. He called her last week and he's back in town. He wants to see her.