Domestic Abuse Video - My motivation for writing The Price of Love.


Book Excerpts

The Price of Love: Chpt. 1 Excerpt

It became clear he simply wasn’t interested in being a father to me. I don’t think fathers truly understand how much damage they do in a child’s life by not being there. Not having your father leaves a void that nothing else can fill. Growing up, we had been so close and spent so much time together, and then nothing…  not even a phone call or a card on my birthday.

Sometimes I think about all the things we missed out on doing together.

I think that little girls learn about relationships from how their fathers treat their mothers—and how their fathers treat them. When a man takes care of his responsibilities to love and nurture his little girl, she’s likely to attract someone who loves and nurtures her in a relationship.

But if she never had a father, then she spends her entire adult life seeking a father figure—when what she really needs is a man who loves and cherishes her. Fathers build self-esteem in little girls and let them know what is (or is not) acceptable behavior from a man. Good fathers give their little girls a sense of safety and protection. Good fathers protect their little girls from harm and let them know what harm looks like—so they can recognize it from a distance. Not having that constant influence around can be devastating.

The Price of Love: Chpt. 3 Excerpt

Whitney relived the entire experience in her mind and then shared it with the two women: “Kevin’s court date was coming up in a couple of months. In addition to the break up of our relationship by both of our parents, my parents had it in for me. I had all phone privileges taken away. When they left home, they would take the phones with them to make sure I didn’t contact Kevin. I could only go to school and to my part-time job; no more extracurricular activities. My parents had lost so much trust in me that I could no longer sleep with my bedroom door closed. But to me, my parents’ punishment was a piece of cake compared to what I had to go through with Kevin.

“Every day leading up to the court date he pressured me to convince my parents to drop the charges against him. He began making me skip lunch and meet him in the vocational building so he could interrogate me. Kevin constantly told me the situation was all my fault, and that it was my obligation to get him off the hook. I believed him. I would go home and try talking to my mom about dropping the charges, but she wouldn’t budge. Every time I came back and told him the charges weren’t getting dropped he would beat me up in school and then force me to have sex.

“The more Kevin and I fought, the more withdrawn I became. I still loved him with all my heart, but he only seemed interested in getting himself out of trouble. By now, he was forcing me to secretly have sex with him at school every day. I was now having sex with Kevin out of obligation—not because I loved him. I was too scared to tell anyone what was going on, and I was too afraid to confront him for fear that he was going to hit me again. I felt my loyalty was to Kevin instead of myself.

“Stress and anxiety ruled my life. I was dealing with tension at home between my parents, and tension at school with Kevin. Every relationship in my life was strained.

“I had tried and failed to get the charges dropped up until the night before his court date. Kevin finally decided to take matters into his own hands and showed up at my house to speak to my parents himself. As we sat on the couch, Kevin did what he did best—and talked his way out of trouble. He apologized, begged and...

The Price of Love: Chpt. 6 Excerpt

December 4, 1998 will forever remain etched into my mind. Kevin continued his routine of calling and harassing me, but not as much that particular night. He had called me and stated he had gotten off work and was heading home. I was getting off shortly after that call.

My shift was almost over so I decided to take off my pantyhose because they had been itching and irritating me all night. It was late and cold outside. Kell and two other female co-workers walked out of the building with me. Because of the protective order, I was able to park right outside the building, so I offered to drive the three of them to their cars at the top of the hill.

We all got in and drove across the parking lot. When I went over the first speed bump, I noticed that my trunk light came on. That struck me as odd, because I hadn’t been in my trunk all day. Kell said, “I hope that crazy ex-husband of yours hasn’t tampered with your car and planted a bomb in it.” We all laughed because they knew that lately Kevin had been acting crazier than usual.

When we went over the second speed bump, the light came on again, and we agreed to check it out once we got to their parked cars. One of the women with us got out along with Kell and tried to open the trunk. I pulled the trunk release lever, but nothing happened. When they pulled on the trunk again, Kevin jumped out and everybody started running and screaming. I jumped out of the car and started running to get away.

I kicked off my high-heeled shoes, but the pavement was cold and it cut into my bare feet. So, I just ran around the car trying to keep away from Kevin. One of the supervisors from work came running over because he saw Kevin jump out of the trunk. There was mass confusion. Kevin started pulling at his pants as if he had a gun, and I was afraid that he was going to hurt my co-workers, my friends and me. He demanded that I go with him, so I agreed.

“Whitney, don’t go with him,” they begged me. “You don’t know what he’s gonna do to you. Please don’t go anywhere.”

I was practically begging Kevin, “Please just leave my friends alone. They don’t have anything to do with this. I’ll go with you, but please don’t hurt anyone else. Just leave them out of this.” He agreed, and I got in the car.

Kevin took off driving and was speeding out of the parking lot. My supervisor tried to jump in the car, and Kevin almost hit and killed him with his reckless driving. I screamed for him to slow down and tried to grab the steering wheel.

He just ignored my words and then dug his thumb into my eye to punish me. The car swerved across two lanes of traffic and I literally feared for my life. In the back of my mind I thought, “Tonight is the night that I’m going to die. One way or the other, my life is going to end.”