Erik was right.

Other than cause me misery, there was nothing that David could legally do to take away the house that Eunice had passed on to me. If anything, it had given me something to use against him.

The next day, Erik took me to the office of his college friend, Doug Chambers. Doug and Erik had both started out taking their general education courses at a local junior college before transferring to their respective universities. They became good friends, a relationship that they maintained as Doug pursued political science and Erik went into kinesiology. Their friendship continued through their years in grad school, Doug majoring in law and Erik, in medicine. These days, Doug was a partner at an Marina del Rey law office that specialized in corporate law. Erik was one of his clients.

It was a small world, I thought, as I walked into the expensively decorated office, with its large floral display in the lobby and leather sofas and chairs. It made my family lawyer's office simply pale by comparison, and while I couldn't fault Erik for his pick of friends, I couldn't help but feel envy at the camaraderie between both men. Though I hadn't met Doug in person till that morning, I remembered seeing his face on the photographs that hung on Erik's clinic office.

Erik was there to sign documents finalizing Serena's removal from his clinic's board of directors. Not wishing to learn more than I already knew about Serena's involvement in his clinic - and her subsequent removal - I busied myself in the far corner of Doug's office to peruse an Architectural Digest magazine.

But the beautiful interiors on the page before me couldn't stop my thoughts from returning to the fact that I was sitting inside a legal office, one that could possibly help me with something I'd been mulling since David broke into my house. Erik was right about David having primed me like some violin, ready to play at the snap of his fingers. All he had to do was say, "jump" and in response, I'd ask, "how high?"

It took them only about fifteen minutes to finalize the documents and as Erik and Doug said their good-byes, discussing a time to get together some time during the week, I realized that it was now or never. There was no point in waiting any longer. I cleared my throat.

"I know we have to leave, Erik, but I have a question for Doug," I said as both men turned to look at me.

"Fire away, Sam," Erik said. "That's what Doug is here for."

This time I turned to face Doug, my throat tightening. I wiled myself not to let my voice crack, or my courage to waver. "I know you handle corporate law, but is there anyone you can refer me to if I needed to file trespassing charges and -" I paused, glancing at Erik. I wished he would step out of the office now that all the documents he had come in to sign had already been signed and notarized. I didn't want him to hear what I was about to say

"And what?" Doug asked.

I heaved a sigh. What was the point of hiding something that everyone else already knew, I thought. Even my framer knew what David had been doing to me.

"Domestic abuse charges," I stammered, my face heating up. "It's been almost two years but...if there's someone you can refer me to -"

"Our office can help you with that," Doug said, his expression kind. "We can set an appointment for you for another day, unless, of course, you have some time now. I had set aside the whole morning for Erik but it seems that we got done sooner than I anticipated."

"Now would be fine, if it's possible," I said, knowing that if I set up an appointment for another day, there was a chance I'd change my mind, like I always did.

"Take all the time you need, Sam," Erik said before turning to Doug. "Is there a conference room available for me to make a few calls?"

Doug excused himself to direct Erik into a conference room at the end of the hallway before returning into the office, though this time, he was accompanied by another attorney who specialized in family law. She was a tall woman with cropped auburn hair and large blue eyes.

"Will this take long?" I asked.

"As long as it takes," the woman who introduced herself as Alison Campbell-Arias said as she shook my hand. "I specialize in family law and domestic violence cases."

Hearing her say the words made my heart skip a beat, the fear slowly building. I felt like I was betraying the father of my child but at the same time, I knew that something had to be done or David would never stop. I would always be on the defensive, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I was so tired of that.

It was a big step to take, and I remembered how my voice trembled as I answered one question after another, the feeling of shame burning through me as I relived the times of David's abuse. But the shame of having endured the abuse from David faded with each passing minute, the relief of finally being able to share the secrets I'd kept for so long replacing the humiliation of allowing such abuse to happen.

Two hours later, after copies of police and medical reports were requested and some received, while some needed to be picked up in person by a legal representative, it was over. There were many forms to sign and I signed them all, if only to prove to David that this time, I finally meant business. What he had done, breaking into my home to steal my house documents and my pastel drawings of Michael, had set in motion something that I should have done a long time ago, when he first stole my paintings.

If I was going to do things right, charging him with trespassing and burglary, I might as well do everything right.

I had allowed David to hold the reins of my life for so long, buying into the myth that I was worthless without him, that I could never be accepted by anyone else if it weren't for him. He'd held my juvie record hostage for so long that I'd forgotten how tedious and costly it would be for anyone to have it reopened - and how it was close to impossible to have it even stand up in court. Besides, what would be unsealed - underage drinking and in the case of Bob whatshisname's Mustang, defacing property - would have no bearing on the present.

But David knew how important it was for me to keep up appearances. He knew how hard I'd tried to keep my past hidden from everyone, which gave him reason to use it against me. Yet even if he managed to dig everything up that represented who I was, what would it matter now? What would it matter to Michael other than I was a good mother to him, someone who did make mistakes when she was younger, but had since changed? Would I rather have Michael see me getting abused by his own father? It shouldn't be that way, I thought. It didn't have to be that way.

After believing someone else's interpretation of my life to fit his agenda, it helped when others, like Erik, Anna, Olivia and the in-laws, and even Josh, put up the mirror for me to see the truth about myself. Though they left me with hardly a minute to mope and sink back into the negativity I knew so well, they all gave me much time to realize that I was someone worth knowing - someone worth fighting for.

As soon as the last initial and the final line was signed, Doug shut the folder, and dropped it on top of the stack of other folders we'd just gone through in the past two hours. After shaking hands with Doug and Alison, I stepped out of the office to see Erik sitting on the leather sofa reading the day's newspaper. He folded the newspaper, set it aside and got up. It wasn't till he held my hand that I realized that I was trembling, the realization of what I had just done suddenly hitting me. I suddenly felt exhausted - even lightheaded - as if I'd just gone through round after round of some no-holds barred fighting.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Never felt better," I lied.

Though I walked out of the posh law office with my head held high, I broke down inside the car. For almost fifteen minutes, Erik and I simply sat there with the engine running, the A/C unit blowing, as the tears wouldn't stop flowing. He didn't say anything. He simply held me and let me cry, which made me cry even more.

When my tears finally did cease, and I used up all the tissues in his car blowing my runny nose, Erik drove the car to Playa del Rey beach, parking the car right across from the sand.

"If we return home with you looking like that, Olivia and your mom will surely gang up on me and demand what I did to make you cry," he said, giving me his best puppy dog face as he turned off the engine.

I laughed through the tears. "No, they won't."

"I know they won't. But at least it made you smile," Erik grinned. "C'mon, after all those hours inside a lawyer's office, no matter how comfortable those leather chairs were, I think you and I need some fresh air."

We could have walked on the sand but we elected to stay on the bike path instead. Erik brought his arm around me, keeping me close as we took our time, keeping to the right till we finally ended up walking on the sand to avoid the cyclists and the rollerbladers. Half an hour later, realizing none of us had sunscreen and the with the sun's rays beating down on us, we made our way back towards the direction of the car.

"Why didn't you want to stay with me in there?" I asked. "Does it bother you knowing now that I allowed David to abuse me?"

Erik stopped walking and looked at me, his blue eyes light against the backdrop of the ocean behind him. "I don't need to hear something I already know, Sam. And as much I wanted to take him aside and beat the crap out of him after I realized he'd hit you that first night I met him at your house, there are things I can't do even if I wanted to. I also helped operate on your hand, remember? Samuelson had me read the medical records as part of knowing what type of injury we were dealing with when we opened your hand up to reattach the tendons and blood vessels. I can tell you in medical terms what happened, but I know I don't have to. You were there."

"All this - you filing charges against David, has to be your choice, not mine." he continued. "As much as I love you and would love nothing more but plan your whole life for you, I can't do that. And I won't."

"What if David comes to the house? What if he-"

"If he values his time with his son the way he swears he does, he won't even dare come close to the house, not until he talks to his lawyer," Erik said slowly. "If the judge finds him guilty of domestic abuse, and I honestly can't see how any judge won't, what with all the police and medical reports already in the system, he has to complete weeks - no, months - of anger management classes before he can see you alone - not that he has any reason to. I can't guarantee it will keep him away from Michael though, but I promise you, I'm going to do what I can to make sure he doesn't hurt you anymore, or steal anything of yours, even your own paintings."

When I didn't say anything, Erik brought his arms around me and held me in a long embrace. "You did the right thing to file charges against him, Sam, and you should be proud of yourself for doing it," he said softly.

"I have Michael this weekend," I said, exhaling. "It would have been Rosie's fortieth birthday party and so I had requested this weekend to have Michael. Sometimes I feel that she's watching out for me still, and this weekend just made it all so real that maybe she really is. I mean, who would have thought I'd actually do it and file charges against David, of all people?"

"I did," Erik said as I pulled away from his embrace to look at him. "You're a strong woman, Sam, and because of that, David tried to put you down, and keep you down. But that's history now, and hopefully you can move on from here."

His words made me almost cry again but this time I steeled myself from being more emotional than I already was. But I began blabbering anyway. "I don't know what got over me back there in the parking garage. I don't know why I had to cry like that."

"You've been holding so much inside for so long, Sam," Erik said, smiling reassuringly. "Some people say it's the release of emotions that often get trapped in your muscles - like muscle memory. They say the muscles remember the reasons even when we convince our minds we don't."

I chuckled drily. "Well, I guess it's time for my muscles to remember something else then. Happy ones this time."

"You deserve no less, Sam," Erik said, pulling me towards the car. "Come on, let's go home before Olivia launches a search party for us."

The drive home gave me enough time to freshen up the best I could, though how I looked didn't matter as much as how I felt. I felt much lighter, as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders, secrets I did not need to keep hidden because of shame now dissipating away.

It was after three in the afternoon when we arrived and Erik disappeared into his office to speak with Josh, who'd called him just as we were parking the car.

I found Anna and Michael in the studio. Michael was napping, hogging the center of the futon while Anna was relegated to the side, reading a book.

"I filed charges against David today," I said as Anna's eyes grew wide in surprise. "I just never realized how emotionally draining it was doing it. Or how satisfying it feels once it's done. I mean, I can't really let him get away with it now, can I? I just can't believe I waited this long to do it."

Relief flooded Anna's face. "Oh, honey, you can't imagine how proud I am of you!" She held my hands for a moment before hugging me briefly, pulling away to peer at me. "No looking back, you hear? No regrets. No changing your mind from here on just because he's your kid's father."

I nodded. "I have to keep telling myself that, but I think I'll do okay. I'm tired of having to watch my back all the time, not knowing when he's going to say something meant to put me down-"

"Those days are over, Sam," Anna said. "It's going to be tough to stick to your guns, no matter what he says or does. But men like David are cowards and bullies. They'll keep going at you because they know you'll give in. But the moment you stand up and show them that you're made of sterner stuff - and most of all, that you're not alone like they expect you to be because they've successfully isolated you from the people who love you - they'll back down."

Anna must have been reading self-help books again, but at that moment, there was no point in chiding her. Whether she gleaned her wisdom from those books or from her past, she had a point. I sat down on the futon and stroked Michael's hair as he slept. He had acquired some color since we moved in with Erik, and there was no denying how much happier he was. He had more people to interact with and was actually beginning to say more words than he used to. Maybe it was the way they talked to him that was different from the way I did, I thought, though it really didn't matter. What mattered was that he was happier - and that he truly enjoyed living here.

Erik had been right to move us in with him. He'd opened so much of his life for me that it was difficult to believe that it was all really happening. I lay down on the bed next to Michael, while Anna lay on the other side.

"He's happy," I said, almost to myself.

"You're happy, too," Anna said. "Don't forget that."

I yawned. "You're so right, mom," I said before drifting off to sleep. "I really am."