Northern_Lights_2021

35 When Jett realized what he had done, he became hysterical. He hugged Victoria’s lifeless body to him while he sobbed. He sat there for an hour and then decided he had to do something. He made two plans in his head. The first one was to shoot himself so that he could be with Victoria and not have to deal with the consequences of his impulsive actions. The second was to pack some essentials, ditch the gun in the river a few miles away, and leave town. He was just about to make his decision when someone walked by. The passing figure saw Victoria dead on the sidewalk, a dark figure hovering over her, and the gun in the figure’s hand. Jett’s first instinct was to pull the gun on the passerby, but he decided that he was the one that deserved to be shot, not an innocent stranger. He put the gun to his own head, took one last look at Victoria’s body, closed his eyes, took a long deep breath, and pulled the trigger. And just like that . . . Victoria’s life was over too soon and even sooner forgotten. Alex saw the tragic story told on the news the next day and knew what he had to do. He went straight to the police department and told Victoria’s story to anyone that would listen. He made sure to give every detail. He went to the station every day until the case was closed. The police closed the case, called it a murder-suicide, and didn’t look for the victims’ families. They assumed they were newlyweds and didn’t look any deeper. Alex couldn’t accept this. He started searching for Victoria’s family and within a few days he had found them since he had all her information. He spent days agonizing over how he would tell her family and what he might leave out. Nine days after the case was closed, Alex decided to take a trip to Ember Lake, Minnesota, and explain the tragedy to Victoria’s family. When he arrived in the small town, he went to the café on Main Street and asked for directions to the Alberts’ residence. He went to the house and knocked on the door. A man opened the door and said gruffly, “We aren’t buying.” Alex started stuttering and asked the man, “Is this the Alberts’ residence?” The man said, “Yes, who’s asking?” Alex replied, “My name is Alex Pendleton and I met your daughter in California. Would I be able to come in?” Victoria’s dad had a look on his face that Alex couldn’t gauge. He said, “I’m Jake, Victoria’s father. Whatever you need to say, you can do so out here.” Alex had planned out what he was going to say on his trip, but he didn’t prepare for how difficult it was going to be. He told her father that Victoria had been working for him for two months and how something didn’t seem right. He explained that she was being abused by her boyfriend and that on July 21, Jett killed her and took his own life. Jake stumbled backward and exclaimed “No! You must have it wrong! My daughter is not dead!” Jett tried to calm him down, but Jake told him to leave and said, “If you don’t leave now, I will call the cops!” Alex left; he had done what he had gone there to do. He got in his car and headed back to California. Alex never heard from Victoria’s family or more about the case. He tried to move on, but it was harder than he thought. He decided that he wanted to do something to raise awareness of domestic violence. He started going around to local businesses and taught them some of the signs of domestic violence while sharing Victoria’s story. Alex wanted to do more, so he researched domestic violence and wrote a book. He used Victoria’s story to give examples of the warning signs. On the first anniversary of Victoria’s death, Alex was given the opportunity to speak to the local high school. After his speech, he started getting phone calls from high schools around California, and then from around the nation. He spoke in forty-six of the fifty states and at no fewer than six schools in each state. He used the proceeds from his book to pay for the first few trips, but then he was approached by a nonprofit organization that offered to sponsor him. Since he was traveling eight months out of the year, he decided to sell the dry-cleaning business. He thought that raising awareness about domestic violence was more important. Alex never forgot Victoria, especially because he told her story every time he spoke to schools and communities, but it hurt a little less as time went on. He eventually started his own business with domestic violence hotlines all over the nation, with the sole purpose of giving resources to those in need. As the years went on, the number of success stories about families saved from domestic violence grew to over one million. Alex didn’t care about the publicity that he was getting for starting this movement; he only cared that he was saving people before the situations were too far gone.