"Lisa, Lisa, where are you?" They heard Margreet call out.

"Here, behind the house!" she called back, to which she got the fright of her life a moment later. Margreet was not alone when she came along the corner, Henk was with her. She didn't have to wonder what he had come to do, because he immediately shouted to her, "Lisa, I want you to pack your things and come back with me right away. You belong to me! You are mine! Come on hurry up!"

He was clearly not sober, she could smell that from afar. And he was visibly furious, looked like he was about to freak out.

"You're wrong Henk," she replied bravely, "I'm not your possession, and I don't belong to you, so I'm not going with you. I want you to turn right around and get out of my life immediately."

Henk took a few steps toward her, but was stopped by Sjaak and Anton.

"Lisa is clear Henk, get out of here and never come back here!" Sjaak snarled at him.

Henk tried to wrestle himself loose, but couldn't resist the strong hands of both his opponents. He growled and snarled, unintelligible words.

Anton looked at Sjaak: "We'll walk with him for a while, in case he doesn't quite remember the way back!"

"Good idea, this guy could use some help," Sjaak said, and to Lisa, "I'll be right back."

Lisa and Margreet looked at the three men, Henk at first cursing and still struggling with the two men who held him tightly by his arms. But they also saw, that a moment later he gave up, walked the last part meekly along, with drooping shoulders and drooping head. Like a beaten man...

Lisa shook her head: "Sometimes I am afraid of him, sometimes I am angry with him. But now I actually feel more sorry for him. He's terribly broken, doesn't understand anything about life because of it. I didn't know his parents, they had already died, but I do know that they were not easy for him. A lot of alcohol abuse and violence... Isn't it all double? With my mind I can reason how he became like this, that's clear. But my feelings are going from back and forth."

They had their arms wrapped around each other's waists. Margreet pulled her tighter against her for a moment: "Makes sense, you certainly haven't had a pleasant relationship with him. Actually you didn’t have a relationship with him at all. But I have to say about just now, when you answered him, I was stunned. So briefly but firmly when you reprimanded him, great! There was no pin to get in between, no doubt about it: you don't want him anymore, and that’s it!"

Lisa smiled at her, "I felt very calm and brave at that moment too, but now... now I'm shaking!"

"Yes, I feel it," Margreet replied, laughing, "a reaction to his way of doing things, I guess. Well, it's time for lunch, shall we go via Huib's barn to the guest house?"

"Huib's barn? Your barn too now, right?" Lisa asked with a mischievous grin.

Margreet chuckled, "Yes, that’s right, but it's Huib's workplace, that's why I call it his barn."

Still embraced, they walked over to it to call Huib that it was lunch time. He just came outwards, "Aha, here comes my escort," he said grinning. "Fancy lunch too?"

"Definitely," they said at the same time and shot into laughter.

Halfway along the route, Anton and Sjaak approached them.

"Is it lunch time already?" Sjaak asked.

"Yeah yeah, the time has flown by," Lisa replied. "Did it end well?"

"Yeah, like a drunk turd behind the wheel..."

"What are you talking about?" asked Huib in surprise.

Sjaak and Lisa looked at each other for a moment, whereupon Lisa answered: "We'll tell that at the table, so Annerieke can hear it right away."

.

After Lisa, supplemented by Sjaak, had told everything, and Margreet had praised her once more for her firm reaction, they discussed what they should do about it, whether they should inform the police again.

Huib thought it was a good idea, especially because Henk had drunk quite a bit. It would be no fun if he decided to pay them a visit every time when he was drunk and ruin the atmosphere. Not to mention worse!

Lisa agreed with him, "I actually just thought we were well rid of him now, but I know I thought so too when he went home last week and I stayed here. Not even a week ago...look, there he was again! I really have no idea if he will come to the realization that we really don't want to see him anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if the alcohol erased that fact from his memory... I'll call the police right away!"

Lisa got a colleague of Martin's on the phone. She told briefly what had happened, adding that she had already told Martin more about the situation on Monday.

Martin's colleague told her that Martin was on surveillance. He would call him to suggest to stop by Bloemenhof. Lisa stayed on the phone for a while at his request and heard him conferring with Martin.

"Martin can be with you in a few minutes," he reported a moment later. Lisa thanked him and ended the call.

"Martin is coming here right away, he's on surveillance. Shall we just wait for him here?"

As they waited, Lisa pondered what she wanted to say. Did she want to share with the others and with Martin about her real past? Would she dare to? How would they react? Would they view her differently afterwards, as a slut, a whore? Somewhere, very deep inside, she knew, that she could trust the people around her. She decided to take the plunge, so that they would know what she had been going through and could assist her if she needed to.

.

When Martin and his colleague George came in, Annerieke had made a full pot of coffee. She set a tray of empty mugs on the table and went down the line asking if they wanted coffee.

Then Martin took the floor, turning to Lisa, "Margreet and you told me a few things on Monday about what had happened, with Henk, your ex-husband. Yes, I know the divorce may not be finalized yet, but to you he is no more than your ex-husband, right?" And as Lisa nodded: "Good, then that's clear. By the way, I already shared your report with George while driving, so he knows what was going on. And now about today, tell me, what happened? By the way, do you mind if I record your story? Then I can listen better, I'll put it in the computer later."

Lisa was fine with it, and nodded to Margreet, "You start, you were alone with Henk when he came, right?"

"Yes, that's right, I was here when he came tearing up. He stopped abruptly, as if stepping on an emergency brake, got out and came towards me. I could tell from the way he was walking that he was not sober, but decided not to say anything. I could only hope that he would not hurt me. He didn't, he only ordered me in a gruff tone of voice to tell him where Lisa was. I said, that I wasn't sure, but that I wanted to walk with him to look for her. I hoped that on the way I would meet someone from here to signal to go with me, but that did not happen. At Sjaak and Lisa's house I called out her name. She answered from the other side of the house, and there I discovered to my relief that Sjaak and Anton were there too."

Martin interrupted her briefly, "Sjaak, that's you huh, but who is Anton?"

"That's one of our guests, someone who stays here regularly with his wife, they have become friends of ours."

"I'll get him," Sjaak offered and walked out of the kitchen.

Martin stopped the recording for a moment to wait for Anton. When Anton and Joke had joined them, he started the recording again and encouraged Lisa to continue.

"Henk commanded me to pack my things and go with him. He said I belonged to him, that I was his. It was very strange, I felt calm and brave. I said, he was wrong, that I was not his possession nor did I belong to him and so I was not going with him. I also said that I wanted him to disappear immediately and stay out of my life, something like that."

"And did he go right away?"

"No, it doesn't work that way with Henk, he's the boss, he was my boss..." She searched for words for a moment, looking around nervously at the others. "I've only told this to Sjaak, but with a few words now I want to share it with all of you too, so you're informed. Henk was my husband, we were married, yes, but he felt more like my boss. He made me ready for prostitution step by step. When he felt I was ready, he bought all kinds of sexy clothes for me. He invited men into our home to be entertained by me. And of course, they had to pay fat for that. So in that sense I understand that he saw me as his possession, that was what was behind his words. And now, yes, he is missing a significant income. He was catching hundreds of euros a week for my services, he will miss that now. So he doesn't want me back as his wife because he would love me, he misses me as his source of income and also for his own entertainment. Maybe I should have told this on Monday, but I couldn't at the time, I wasn't ready. A few days later I told Sjaak everything. And now I felt I had to tell it to you too, in short. The police need to know, because I would hate for him to snare another woman in his nets."

She was panting from the effort it took her, from all the emotions that came up while talking. Sjaak stood up, went behind her and put his arms around her. "Brave Liesel of mine," he whispered in her ear.

Lisa looked at him in surprise: "That's special, you're saying almost the same thing Henk said, but..." She turned to the people around her, "Sjaak said 'Brave Liesel of mine'... those words 'of mine'... they seem to mean the same thing as being someone's possession, as Henk saw me. But your tone, Sjaak, and your attitude are so different, your heart is totally different, I feel those words of yours... here, inside, they touch me deeply, but not negatively, only positively. I want very much to be yours, because I know that has nothing to do with possession!"

Everyone shot up in laughter at Lisa's beaming face. "Okay, that was just a side note." she continued, shooting into laughter herself. "Henk wanted to come at me, to force me, I guess, but he didn't get a chance. Sjaak and Anton both grabbed him by the arm, Sjaak told him that I had been clear and that he should never come back here. And then they took Henk to his car. Margreet and I looked after them. I told Margreet that I had so many different feelings about Henk: fear and anger, but now also pity. That man doesn't know at all how beautiful life could be. His parents were violent alcoholics and both died young in a car accident. They regularly drove under the influence of alcohol, that was the case at the time, the police told him afterwards. So that's how Henk grew up, he had a bad start. I would like to see him heal from all that shit and have a good life. But I don't want to be involved in that in any way for now."

Martin shook his head, "No, of course not, we all understand that, I think. You have found love here, Lisa, real love, and that makes you think of Henk in a very good way, even wish him well, and at the same time want to protect yourself and other women. We don't get to experience something like that very often, do we George?"

George, who had only listened so far, shook his head. "For me, this is the first time. And I can't say anything else but that I'm happy for you, that you've come out of that situation and are now receiving so much love from Sjaak and the people here around you. The atmosphere here is incredible, yes, really very special. You will be fine! And about Henk... what do you think, Martin, what is better for Lisa and better for Henk, a report or an indictment?"

"I choose indictment right now," Lisa responded immediately. "And if it's still possible, and if Margreet agrees, I want to change that report from Monday to indictment as well. It's too important, to protect other women..."

She looked around the circle, everyone nodded, most of them with tears in their eyes.

Martin looked at Anton and Sjaak, "Do you have anything to add?"

Both men shook their heads and Sjaak responded, "No, Lisa put it very well, the only thing I can say is that when we took him away, Henk protested at first, but soon gave in. Once in his car he drove off relatively calmly. I hope for his sake that he got home safely."

When Martin stopped the recording and announced that he would give a call if he wanted to come by for the signing, everyone stood up. The family surrounded Lisa, hugged her, encouraged her and congratulated her on her brave behavior.

Martin and George were watching, moved. Finally, Martin made the decision to follow their example. He stepped up to Lisa, grabbed her by her shoulders, "Monday you already touched me, today even more so. You are a very special woman, remember that well!"

George shook her hand, "You have shown us that our work really matters, I am grateful to serve you!"

"Wow," Lisa whispered, "wow..."

Martin chuckled, "Indeed, you are entirely too wow! But we are going on, we have to continue our surveillance! See you later!"

The others stayed for a while, sharing their emotions with Lisa about what she had told about her past.

Annerieke concluded, summing up the feelings of the entire family, "I am awesomely happy that you are gone from that horrible situation, and I am even more happy that you are with us now, connected to us, and yes, okay, of course most of all to Sjaak. For me, as the mother hen of this family, it feels like a special addition to our family. When it turned out that Margreet was moving on with Huib, I asked her if I didn't have to see her as my daughter-in-law, but as my daughter. Officially you, Lisa, would never become my daughter-in-law, but still I want to ask you, and also Sjaak, if you want to be my daughter and my son. Nothing official, but yet..."

Lisa spontaneously put her arms around Annerieke: "I want nothing more than to be your daughter and to see you as my mother!" And Sjaak put his long arms around them together: "And I... I actually felt like your son for a long time, despite the fact that the difference in years is not correct, and despite the fact that you are my employer, yet it felt like that for a longer time, especially the last few days, since I had the courage to come here daily. So now let's make it official in an unofficial way, we are your daughter and son!"

Everyone laughed and shared in the joy of being one together, experiencing belonging to each other, heart to heart.

To chapter 109. Back to the past

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