With less than a year left until my 18th birthday, I had been busily planning my escape with Billy. With great enthusiasm, whenever he called, we talked about getting married, the things we would do together, and how he would take his month's leave in August to help me make all the arrangements for my departure. I started looking into colleges in the Washington area, pestered my school guidance counselor into helping me find scholarships and continued to save my money for the big move.
   At the height of this, all of my hopes and plans were crashed in the space of a single phone call.
   "Hey sweetie," I excitedly said into the phone, "how have things been?"
   "Lisa, you should probably sit down." Came the troubling response.
  &n...

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