Yet Alone

By Gary T Brideau

This is the story of Diane Petting's struggle to maintain an everyday life even though partially disabled. Her fiancé says he loves her but shows all the signs that there is another side to his life that he's not telling her. Then, a detective is hired because her boyfriend Joe is accused of killing someone. Then, some dark, sinister characters start chasing her, trying to kill her over some mysterious box that she knows nothing of.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798369419434

Gary T Brideau

I was born in a small house in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1947 and moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut as a small boy. I met Lauren, the love of my life in1985 and were married years later and moved to Bristol, Connecticut. One night, I had a vivid dream that caught my attention, that spurred me to write it down, and sent it to my sister T. Jene Brideau, for an interpretation who also is a writer. She wrote and told me that the story was good. I took her encouragement and my imagination went to work. That’s when I discovered my God-given talent to write great space adventures stories. From then on, I have written over fifty stories of which only seven of them have been published with great reviews.

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Copyright © 2024 by Gary T Brideau.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/11/2024

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Contents

Character outline

Chapter 1 From bad to worse

Chapter 2 A new love

Chapter 3 More trouble

Chapter 4 A Change

Chapter 5 Diane takes a stand

Chapter 6 The passed revealed

Chapter 7 A close call

Chapter 8 Trustworthy

Chapter 9 Joe’s downfall

Chapter 10 Diane takes charge

Chapter 11 At odds

Chapter 12 Joe comes clean

Chapter 13 Coming clean

Chapter 14 Time to move

Chapter 15 A new life

Epilogue

Character outline

Diane Petting:

Diane is a thin single woman, five foot six, with short dark brown hair done up in a Pixie. She is 36 years old and lives alone in a small apartment with her cat, Thunder. She works at a coffee shop and earns enough to pay her bills with a few dollars left over to enjoy a cup of coffee with friends. Diane is polite but not afraid to stand up for herself.

Joe Collins:

Joe is six feet tall with short black hair. Joe lives across the street from Diane and is engaged to marry her. He lives in an apartment building on East Hazel Street in Los Angeles, California, and is Diane’s coffee buddy.

Callie Swanson:

AKA Mouthy lives in Spokane, Washington, and is a successful writer. She is 30 years old and is 5’ 5" tall with short wavy black hair and is outspoken on women’s rights. He is a writer and is wealthy but doesn’t flaunt it.

Mosey Fukumoto: a five foot, five inches tall oriental woman, carries a knife, and Mosey is a master in the martial arts. Mosey is close friends with Callie and lives in Wickenburg, Arizona, with her husband, Inspector Duncan.

Martha Grungy Dirtbottom:

Martha is five foot two, in her mid-twenties, with shoulder-length dark, brown wavy hair. She is a Christian and is best buds with Callie and Mosey.

Molana Wright:

Molana is five feet six inches tall and is 26 years old. She is quiet and shy and allows Butch, her boyfriend, to abuse her. She works at the Puerto Nuevo Coffee Shop in Los Angeles, California.

Jene Birdson: She is six feet tall with dark brown hair and is thirty years old. Jene has plenty of money and lives in the country. She met Diane one day struggling with her groceries and the two of them became best friends. Diane enjoys Jene’s hot tub about once a month or when she needs downtime.

Butch:

Butch is a tall, muscular man in his mid-twenties dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans and doesn’t think twice about pushing people around.

Sally Aulsbury:

Sally was a little bit of a thing, a murder victim, and was Joe’s girlfriend.

Rosella Puckett:

Rosella lives in Rhode Island and is a struggling writer. She is 33 years old and is 5’3" tall, petite, with brown hair done up in a Pixie. She keeps to herself and only enters a conversation when she has something to say. She likes soft, easy to listen to music.

Bob Drinkwater:

Bob is a tall man with black curly hair and a beard clad in old jeans and a blue plaid shirt. He is always giving trouble to Diane because he thinks he knows everything and women have no place in the woods.

Alias Olson: is six feet tall with long, silky brown hair and a fair complexion. Wears perfume, which gives off a gentle scent of Alias. She loves long flowery, pale-colored dresses. Her bright blue eyes sparkle when she speaks.

Sarah: She was born in Connecticut and moved to Pennsylvania. She is six feet tall, with dark brown, wavy hair and brown eyes. She is an excellent cook and keeps their home immaculate, but she can feel right at home when the two of them are camping in a forest.

Cotton Candy: she is five foot nine with shoulder-length dark brown wavy hair, clad in jeans and a red blouse. Cotton candy is Diane’s long-time virtual reality friend. Together, they visited more worlds and virtual realities and chAlged hundreds of weirdos.

Al Stevens: He is five feet ten with short light brown hair and dated Diane for eight months before he cheated on her. Al says he is a Christian, but some of the things he did made Diane wonder about his walk with Christ.

Chapter 1

FROM BAD TO WORSE

Diane Petting is a thin single woman, five foot six, with short dark brown hair in a pixie. She is 26 years old and lives in an apartment building on East Hazel Street in Los Angeles, California. She works at Puerto Nuevo Coffee Shop, not too far away, and her meager income is just enough to pay the bills with a few dollars left to eat out. She attended the local College for a degree in either political science or journalism while working in the Coffee Shop. After an exhausting day of activity, Diane returned home and played the violin, trying not to think about being raped by her father almost every night. But when her mother Fran caught her husband molesting Diane, she kicked her out of the house because of some lamebrain excuse.

At the age of eighteen, with no place to go, Diane called her friend Jane and her husband Pete and asked if she could live with them.

As the weeks passed, Diane met and fell madly in love with Al. One day, he stopped by where she worked to take her out for dinner. After, Al took Diane to his home and asked, Would you wanna kiss on my bed?

Sure, replied Diane, thinking they were only going to kiss, and followed him to his bedroom. But when she saw him taking off his clothes, she asked, What are you doing,

Al calmly stated, Oh, didn›t I tell you we have to get naked in order for us to kiss.

Ah no, I don›t do that with a guy.

Okay, then you can walk the twenty miles back to your place.

Diane stared at a nude Al for the first time and thought, "I better do what he says because I don›t want to deal with his fierce temper,"

An embarrassed Diane slowly undressed in front of a boy for the first time and sat on the bed, trying to convince herself that all they were going to do was kiss. But when they engaged in making out on his bed, Diane stated, I don’t think we should be doing this because it is wrong, and tried to stop him.

Diane then moaned," Oh God no, Al, please don›t do this to me."

But Al didn’t care what Diane said, he wanted what he wanted and forced himself on her.

From that time on, when Al wanted sex, Diane moaned softly, Oh God, no, not again, and referred to it as her time of torment.

As the months went by, Al bought Diane an engagement ring. The soon-to-be bride was elated with the news and celebrated with her friends. With her plans to be a professional violinist one day, her marriage to Al, and a decent job. Nothing could go wrong in her life.

Diane took the civil service exam, scored one hundred, and became a 911 operator. In the evenings, Diane did her homework for the College she attended, then got out her sheet music and played her violin, dreaming of the day she would play professionally.

Several weeks later, Diane introduced Al to her best friend Alias, who was a ballerina, and the two seemed to hit it off right from the start.

Diane woke early Easter morning, walked to the fireplace in her flannel pink nightgown, closed her eyes, inhaled the fragrance from the two dozen roses sitting on the mantle, and dreamed about the day she would be Mrs. Al Alves. She then read the beautiful card attached to the roses and sighed as she gazed at the one-carat diamond engagement ring on her finger. Excited about the roses Al gave her, she threw on her ragged jeans and T-shirt and ran up the street to her good friend’s home.

Alias Alson is a six-foot-tall woman with long, silky brown hair and a fair complexion. Wearing a pretty gingham dress and perfume that gave off the gentle scent of lilies. She opened the door with a smile and said, Di, you’re just the person I want to see.

Oh? You have good news?

I sure do; you have got to see what my boyfriend gave me for Easter. and showed Diane the two dozen roses and the card.

Tears filled Diane›s eyes, and her heart sank when she saw that Alen had given her friend roses and the same card. She stared at Alias and screamed, How could you do this to me? Alen was mine. Diane ran home, fell on her bed, and cried for the rest of the day.

That evening, a brokenhearted and distraught Diane picked up a steak knife, ready to kill herself because she thought there was nothing else to live for without the love of her life. She thought, Better not, then faced the forward challenge.

Late the next day, Diane put her violin to her chin and tried to play, hoping one day she would play for a famous orchestra instead of the local band. She thought, I can see the day when I am part of the first string on the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra; yes, that›s it!

Suddenly, vivid images of her Father molesting her flashed in her mind. She dropped her violin and put her hands to her head, trying to deal with the almost unbearable shame.

She then heard, Hey, Di! You home!

Hey Sarah, I›m in the living room. She picked up her violin and played a song from Bach.

Sarah stared at Diane and inquired, You alright Kiddo?

Ashamed to tell her friend that she was dealing with her Father›s sexual abuse, she put on a smile and said, Yeah, sure, why do you ask?

You look like the last rose of summer that›s just been through a storm,

Come on, Sarah, I don›t look that bad.

I’m fine, honest.

Out with it, Di, stated Sarah.

As Diane was putting away her violin, she stated, I got some roses from Al and a very romantic card and rushed to tell Alias how much Al loved me. But on her mantel over the fireplace was a bouquet of roses and a romantic card like the one Al gave me.

A distraught Sarah stated, I told you to drop that tyrant when you started dating him. But did you listen to me? No, you let him rape you on a weekly basis.

Dad always told me that when things don›t go your way, suck it up, grin and bear it. So, that›s what I›ve been doing because I couldn›t stop him.

In other words, you were afraid of Al and became his doormat,

Not anymore. I ended the relationship because he cheated on me.

Diane put her hand on her head, rubbed her forehead, and then went to the bathroom for an aspirin to take away her headache.

Sarah put her hand on Diane›s right shoulder, saying, Your coordination is off, your vision is blurred, and you›re having headaches. When are you going to go to the doctor for a checkup?

It›s something I have to live with, that›s all. You up for coffee at the Puerto Nuevo Coffee Shop,

At the Café, Sarah took a swallow of her coffee and asked, Hey Di, do you remember when you gave your life to Christ,

I›ll never forget it because Christ changed my life. That Saturday night, I went to the local bar and drank myself into a stupor. You called me Sunday morning when I was suffering from a wicked hangover and bugged me to go to church with you, so I did, and after the service, I went forward and gave my life to Christ and stopped drinking and partying on Saturday nights.

Sarah asked, You still have that headache.

It›s more like a migraine.

Maybe you should start taking Excedrin,

Yeah, thanks, I›ll start taking them this evening,

The next evening, Diane put on her Oculus Quest 2 visor and entered the Horizon world›s Plaza in the virtual reality world. A woman, whose avatar was named Cotton Candy, approached her and said, I haven’t seen you around lately.

I haven›t been feeling good,

Have you been to the doctor?

No, I have these migraine headaches that don›t seem to go away.

Those headaches could be the sign of something serious. So, promise me first thing tomorrow, you›ll make an appointment with the doctor and find out what›s wrong with you.

Okay, I promise I will call the doctor.

While you›re here, you wanna check out a few worlds I’ve discovered.

Sure, open a portal, and I’ll follow you.

After the doctor did some tests, He showed Diane an MRI of her brainstem and said, "You have an Astrocytoma brain tumor on your brain stem, and I have to put you