The office was cold and empty. Silent. I didn’t bother to open Dag’s door. I couldn’t bear to look into his office without him there. First, I�...d check email. Come to think of it, there was paper mail lying on the floor inside the door. I needed to check that. I wondered if there was a protocol I should follow about opening company mail. No one had actually told me I was fired, so I figured the best thing to do was carry on business as usual.That meant throwing away the junk mail and opening the. Now he too was dead. Shot himself as the cops busted into the abandoned house. Chad was killed too. He grabbed Thomas gun and was shot down by the police. So his parents had to face the deaths of both children as well. But seeing their daughter raped and mutilated and murdered filled them with such hatred. They led all of the parents in filing charges on the remaining three boys. Joey was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He hung himself to years later, after many beatings. Stephie was equally confident. Neither of us had a second exam that day, so we headed back to the apartment for lunch.Once we finished lunch, we planned the rest of our week. I had one exam on Tuesday, two on Wednesday and one on Friday. Stephie had two on Wednesday, one on Thursday and one on Friday. She’d stay home while I took my exam on Tuesday and I’d work in the computer lab while she took her exam on Thursday. We curled up on the couch to study together, though we didn’t have any more. "Being raped destroys far more women than you will ever know. My parents wouldn't let that happen to me. My parents -- especially my mother -- nurtured me, trusted me, believed in me, flooded me with all the love I could handle, gave me all the space and time I needed to recover."And I did recover. By the time summer was over, I was ready to go back to school, and I did. Some rape victims become militant, hate-filled shrews. I didn't. But in the deepest part of me, I knew I was empty, bereft. I.