I was wrong when I said that once you go bad, you can never go back. There’s nothing in life you can’t fight through and come back from.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because if it was positive, I . . .” I shake my head. “It’s crazy, but I wanted it to be a surprise. I found myself Googling cute ways to tell you.” He flashes me a smile. “Don’t smile like that.”
“Baby, don’t you know what this means?”
“I’m crazy,” I say, grinning.
“Good thing for you, I’ve got a soft spot for crazy,” he says, pulling me down into his lap. “You’re open to the idea of us having more kids,” Stone says.
“I didn’t decide that.”
“Maybe not with your head,” he says, smiling.
With a huge grin on my face, I say, “But my heart made the decision, just the same.”
A LETTER TO MY READERS
Rape. Just typing that word makes my gut tie up in knots. And that’s part of the problem. Because it’s so uncomfortable, we don’t want to talk about it. So it gets buried at the bottom of the newsfeed or forgotten altogether, like the backlog of untested rape kits.
Last March, I released Quiet Angel in which the heroine is a survivor of childhood sexual assault. A few weeks later, my husband became gravely ill, and we spent the rest of the year (5 long hospital stays and 4 long surgeries) fighting to regain his health. As I sat in the hospital chair next to his bed night after night, I got messages from women about how my book touched them. Some shared their reasons, and others didn’t.
I came to learn that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. How could I not know that? I’d just released a book on the very topic. Yet I didn’t see one post about it on any of my social media accounts.
Early this year, I began writing Layers of Her with the intent to spread awareness and donate all of April’s profits to charity. I was nervous when I started, and I still am. I mean, how much will the profits be? Will readers assume I’m a survivor or I know one? Will I do the topic justice? Why am I doing this? It’s a whole lot easier to stay silent. But that’s the whole problem, isn’t it?
I work in a field, in the genre of fiction, that is mostly comprised of women, where sexual assault is one of the most common tropes. And with each passing page, we pull for our broken heroes and heroines to heal, find love, forge a new path. That’s all we want for them. We need to do the same for the real life heroes and heroines, those brave souls who fight the real fight every single day. So join me this April in making some noise to raise awareness, not only for the survivors but for those who love them.
Prescott
P.S. This project wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without the help of my amazing editor, Nikki Rushbrook; my incredible cover artist, Perfect Pear Creative; and the fabulous Neda Amini from Ardent Prose. You wonderful women helped me keep going when I didn’t think it possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PRESCOTT LANE is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, and graduated from Centenary College in 1997 with a degree in sociology. She went on to Tulane University to receive her MSW in 1998, after which she worked with developmentally delayed and disabled children. She currently lives in New Orleans with her husband, two children, and two dogs. She is the Amazon best-selling author of Stripped Raw. She is also the author of First Position, Perfectly Broken, Quiet Angel, and Wrapped in Lace.
Contact her at any of the following:
www.authorprescottlane.com
facebook.com/PrescottLane1
twitter.com/prescottlane1
instagram.com/prescottlane1
pinterest.com/PrescottLane1
Layers of Her Page 16
