Prologue

     Elaine looked woefully down at the piece of paper sitting in front of her on the sturdy oak desk. The pain and hurt could be seen clearly in her soft deep blue eyes as they filled with tears that spilled forth as her shaking hands scribbled out the needed information on the simple white pieces of paper. She had promised herself that she would hold herself together through this last meeting and she reminded herself of that promise as she hurriedly brushed the tears from streaming down her face and sat the plain black pen to rest beside the papers she had finally finished filling out. Scooping the papers together she handed them back to the lady sitting across from her and used the chair to steady herself as she slowly stood, feeling as though her whole body was shaking like a rattle being shaken furiously to soothe a baby's yelling. Elaine shook hands with the lady and hurried as best she could out to her car and struggled to unlock the door, wondering why she had bothered to lock it in the first place.
     Crawling into the seat and shutting the door she did not even bother to start the tanned and rusted little Ford that she had spent the last three months trying to get. Instead she dropped her forehead onto the steering wheel and let the tears fall. Not even bothering to pull her honey colored hair out of the way she sat in her seat and cried, the sobs tearing through her as her body made attempts to drain itself of the hurt and pain that seemed as though would never go away. The only thought that seemed to stay in her head for longer than a fleeting second or two was that Alex, her Alex, was gone from her life forever and there was absolutely no way in this great wide world that she would ever be the same woman again. Addiction had torn through her life, wreaking havoc and destruction before finally taking everything from her that she once held dear to her heart. Addiction had shown her its deepest, darkest side and ruined her faith in humanity before finally taking her Alex from her.
     Elaine started her car with no thought as to what direction she was actually going to take. Pulling out of the parking lot and turning left she headed out on the long stretch of highway and just drove. Her mind wholly and completely consumed with thoughts of the past. Searching for the answers that would offer any modicum of explanation as to how she ended up where she was presently. Too scared to lend any thought to the future she immersed herself in the past and thought back to the unseasonable warm day in April three years ago.