That was more than 10 years ago. I found her battered, bruised and crying, sitting on a park bench. It took me a little while to make her understand t...at I only wanted to help her. I finally convinced her to let me buy her something to eat. When she told me what had happened I was furious, not to mention heartbroken. Her mother was a heroin addict and her stepfather began raping her nearly every night once her mother passed out from the drugs. Her stepfather continually threatened her to not. She must have assumed I was weeping from thehumiliations of the day. She moved back from the edge of the bedand languidly turned onto her side again, staring down at me,completely unaware of the tumult inside my heart. I'm not surewhat she saw, but I just knew it disgusted her. But she simplyreached up and turned off the lamp. "You can tell me aboutyourself and then get dressed and go home or you can lie there onthe floor naked until you do. I've got all night."For a while, there was nothing. As she became more relaxed Toni sat up and took off her top so Xavier could do her shoulders better, it wasn’t the first time he’d seen her naked and she wasn’t ashamed of her figure, plus she got a kick out of teasing him. She loved the way his eyes devoured her whenever he looked at her. She also knew he was too much of a gentleman to ever make a move on her unless she flat out begged him too, which she had come close to doing on more than one occasion. Maybe today would be the day? Toni. "That's not why I came in here, though." Oh." Hope's told you about Tommy, I know."Marcus nodded, unsure of what to say."He's... By many definitions he's a burden more than a son, a chore more than a reward. People who don't live with us, who don't know him like we do, look at him and see a trapped, haunted soul out of touch with his body and his world. You probably appreciate that in a different way to me, but you know what I mean." I... it's not..." Marcus started to talk, but Mr Nakata.