Come and Get Me

Book excerpt: After two years in prison Ben Rice is ready to re-unite with his wife Kate. Their divorce means nothing. He owns her, and always will. Kate's marriage to Ben buried her for years. One especially brutal night finally cracked the layers of shame and hopelessness. For her own life and that of their small daughter, Kate's testimony to years of abuse put Ben in prison. Kate rebuilt her life and her dignity. Life has become normal, and she believes she is free of Ben at last. Then she learns Ben is out and Emma is gone. Kate must play this new game by Ben's rules. He plays a game of come and get me, dangling his daughter as the prize Kate must win. That is when Ben makes one final and inexplicable demand. Blindly Kate must make a choice that could end in horror, or that will renew her own will to survive. Maryellen Hess grew up in the rural south and graduated from the University of North Carolina with a B.A. in journalism. She later completed her master's degree in public administration. Maryellen still serves as Executive Director of a social service agency helping people with histories of severe emotional, physical or sexual abuse. While the characters in "Come and Get Me" are fictional the story's heroine, Kate, brings life to the very real psychological descent that binds victims to their abusers. The author suffered painful emotional upheaval in her own childhood by her mother's episodes of bipolar disorder and eventual suicide. The book is drawn as well from stories of people traumatized by many acts of violence against them. Kate is the voice of women driven nearly to the breaking point. Maryellen enjoys traveling, reading, crosswords and Sudoku puzzles. She lives in Canton Ohio with her husband and their blended family of five children.