Rose lived in a suburban city in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta...After 20 years in the healthcare industry, she was making good money and living the "good life", but she was still unhappy!...She owned a beautiful home in an affluent subdivision, where most of her neighbors were doctors and lawyers...Recently self-retired, Rose now owned several medical billing companies and coding certification training facilities throughout the metro Atlanta area...Because she had a stellar reputation in the medical industry, starting her own business at this point of her life was the perfect career path...She knew a lot of people and could now put her M.B.A. and practice management background to good use...Only now she could reap all the benefits instead of making the physicians rich!...Never getting over the trauma of her past, she found solace in her work...Unfortunately her happiness was short-lived when she ran into the doctor she used to work with...After all these years, he had still been working in healthcare and they were attending the same medical convention...The encounter hit Rose like a ton of bricks and brought back emotions of fear and anger she thought had put to rest...
Twenty Years Earlier...
While Rose was completing the requirements for her Bachelors degree in Healthcare Adminstration, a college friend told her about a doctors office that was possibly hiring and would accept her as an intern...It was a huge general surgery practice with several locations...She made an appointment for an interview and met with the HR manager first...After the interview, she was invited to meet with one of the partners...He was a surgeon...The epitome of tall, dark and handsome...And according to the nurses, he always smelled good...He was also rich, single and used to getting what he wanted...The women in the office constantly drooled over him...As soon as he entered the room, Rose was immediately attracted to him...His quiet arrogance was a turn on...He had performed surgery that morning and saw a lot of patients that day so she noticed he seemed a little distracted...However, he had a lot of interesting questions...He was impressed by her answers and gave his feedback to the HR manager...Her three month internship was accepted and she was told to report to their downtown office the following Monday...She was to assist the managers with their daily administrative duties...She was also responsible for getting the coffee each morning for all of the doctors...
Over the next several weeks, she showed up each work day, doing as she was told...Like a sponge, she caught on quickly and didn't waste any time proving her value to the management...She had even caught the attention of the handsome doctor, the one who interviewed her...Each morning when she brought him his coffee, black with two sugars, she would greet him with a smile as she placed his cup on his credenza in his office...Usually he was too preoccupied to notice her...but one day he stopped what he was working on, turned around in his plush leather office chair and asked Rose a question, "Do you think that I'm arrogant?"...Intimidated by his bluntness, she paused then replied, No, sir...I think you're a great doctor!"..."But that's not what I asked!...I want you to be honest!", he rebutted...She took a deep breath and gave it some thought, "Well, I think arrogance is somewhat necessary in your line of work...You have to be really confident to go cutting up on people, right?"...He looked up at her, amazed by her response and said, "Why, I think that is one of the best answers I've heard all day!"...Finally he felt someone had stood up to him enough to be honest...The following week he asked Rose out to lunch...He claimed they were going to discuss her future with the company...However, this wasn't something that was normally done outside of the workplace...but of course, he was one of the owners so he pretty much did what he wanted...Feeling obligated, Rose accepted the invitation...He arranged a car service for the following day...After waiting all afternoon with anticipation, she finally received an inter-office call from him around 3:30pm...The doctor was running behind from a difficult surgery that morning...But the two were planning to go on a late lunch...Well, she grabbed her purse then took the elevator to meet him in the lobby...Upon entering the Towncar, she noticed there were glasses and a few bottles of wine...I thought this was a business lunch, she said to herself...Noticing that she was a little nervous, he poured her a glass of wine and said, "Here take this and relax!...We both had a long day...Go on, we deserve it!...Lets toast to hard work!"... After she finished her drink, he poured her a second one...By this time, she was feeling pretty buzzed...She did something she normally wouldn't do and that's drinking on an empty stomach...She was ready to go to eat as he had promised...But unbeknownst to her, he had other plans...What happened next would cast a lasting black cloud...
The doctor said, "I need to get out of these scrubs...I'm going to have the driver to stop by my place so that I can change clothes....And while we're there, I can fix you a sandwich...I make a mean B.L.T.!"...Rose was too hungry to turn away food...In her mind, if she could get some food in her stomach...then perhaps she could sober up a bit... She nodded OK and followed him into his townhouse, which was only 5 minutes from their office downtown...When he returned from his bedroom, he entered the kitchen where Rose was sitting...He put his hands on her back, rubbing his hand back and forth in a sexual way...She felt uncomfortable but he stopped and got out the ingredients to make her sandwich...As she finished her food, he offered her another glass of wine but she refused...At this point she couldn't help but think about her escape...She wondered, where is the car service?...Are they still waiting outside?...She soon realized that he had sent the driver away...He claimed that he asked the chauffeur to return later, but this only heightened her fear!...She didn't know that she would soon become his victim...
While she sat in the chair, he grabbed her from behind...What ever he put in her drink paralyzed her...Rose had no control over her movements...She could see him on top of her but she was totally powerless...Over the next few hours, he repeatedly raped and sodomized her...When he finished, he put her in his BMW and drove her home...Helping her to her front door, he pulled out her house keys from her purse and let her in...She wobbled over to her couch where she stayed until the next morning...She was glad that it was Saturday and she didn't have to face him again in the office...She decided that day that she would not report or ever speak of the incident again...That doing so would ruin her reputation at the start of her career...She also knew that no one would believe her...She knew he would somehow blame her and tell people that it was consensual...Although still distraught, she returned to the office on Monday...She only had a few days left to go, but she was happy to learn that the doctor had already signed off on her internship paperwork and she didn't have to finish out the rest of the week...That was his way of making sure she went away quietly...She cleared her desk and practically ran to her car, checking to make sure he didn't follow her...
The Black Cloud...
After the traumatic experience, Rose spiraled into a deep depression...Despite her efforts to move on, she had given up hope that her life would be different...She kept playing the sexual assault in her head over and over again, blaming herself for what happened...She couldn't believe that someone she respected could be cruel enough to violate her like that...She felt she had no one to confide in and just wanted the pain to go away...She had some prescription pain pills in her medicine cabinet...She stood in the bathroom, counting off fifteen pills....swallowing them one by one with a glass of water...She knew she was in trouble and had reached the point of no return....In a moment of regret, she picked up the phone and called her friend and told her what she had done...Her friend called 9-1-1 and they admitted her to the hospital, where she had to have her stomach pumped...Besides being raped, this was one of the most traumatic experiences of her life!...She gagged and vomited as the ER staff attempted to put a thick plastic tube down her throat, all the way into her stomach...They then poured a black charcoal solution down the tube...At this point, she wondered why no one was trying to console her...If only they knew what she had gone through, she thought...The only person that was nice to her was the orderly who had to keep changing out her bedpan, as the charcoal ripped through her bowels and came out the same way it went in...After she was stabilized, she was transferred to the hospital's psychiatric unit...While she did admit to being raped, she did not reveal the perpetrator...When the doctors felt she was no longer a threat to herself, she was released to follow up with outpatient care...
Rose continued her treatment, undergoing years of counseling for PTSD...She had accepted her fate, but she never forgave him for what he had done to her...But now after all these years, she would have to face him again...But this time the ball was in her court...She knew that forgiveness was the only thing that had been holding her back from being all that God had called her to be...Her business, her personal life...were all being affected by what she had gone through...It wasn't until this chance encounter that her life would forever be changed...She would finally get the opportunity to release what had been eating away at her soul...He had aged a lot in 20 years, but she could never forget those eyes...When they crossed paths, he pierced his eyes at her, not knowing what to expect...She quietly starred backed at him then softly said, "You know what you did to me, but I forgive you!"...Shocked by her statement, he stood there, holding his pamphlets in one hand...reaching out his hand with the other...He then said, "I am so sorry...I don't know why I did that to you, but I am truly sorry!"...Something came over Rose that day, as she was no longer afraid...For the first time in years she felt a calmness of peace come over her...It was a peace that surpassed her understanding but she knew it was God...She no longer felt the dark cloud that never seemed to go away despite her success...Rose went on to get more business contracts and running several successful companies...A few years later, she got news the doctor had retired but later died in his sleep of a heart attack...While she felt bad for his family, all was good with her soul...She only prays he made peace with God!
Check Out My Profile For More Short Stories...
WOW.. Nicely written. Story well told..
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jenean! I appreciate your feedback & support! Glad you enjoyed it!
DeleteVery engaging article. As much as I want to believe it's fictional, you brought it to life beautifully! Outstanding from beginning to end! KHS Representing...
ReplyDelete