The more Adam learned about Tracie’s life, the more he knew he had to save her. Tracie had been born into success and wealth. Her father, Thomas Jordan, was a prominent physician in town. Her mother stayed at home with Tracie and her five sisters. Until Tracie was ten years old, she led a fairy tale life. But it all changed quickly. Tracie’s mother was diagnosed with colon cancer two days before Tracie’s tenth birthday. Within three months she was dead, and six young girls were without a mother. And that was only the tip of the iceberg.
About six months after the death of Tracie’s mother, Tracie’s father remarried. The woman had little interest in helping raise six girls. Instead, her focus was Dr. Jordan’s money. On his honeymoon with his new wife, Dr. Jordan suffered a heart attack and died. The Jordan girls were left with the Step-Monster as their guardian and mother figure. The girls had to raise themselves.
With no real guidance, the girls all made mistakes that could have easily been avoided with the help of involved parents. Tracie felt so alone at times that she had once attempted suicide. After that episode, she dropped out of college and moved to New York to become a nanny. A few years later, she moved back to Minneapolis and had a series of jobs as a waitress and hostess. When she finally met Tony, he seemed to be the answer to her problems. He had a college degree and was on the management track at a decent-sized corporation in town.
Tracie wanted so much to be in love and be loved that she overlooked the warning signs. Tony was often moody, and he cheated on her two days after their engagement party. Three weeks before their wedding, Tony had a fit of rage in which he threw several plates at Tracie because she did not have dinner waiting for him when he returned home from work. Tony begged for forgiveness, and Tracie, who so desperately wanted to be in a family of her own, took him back. Only a month after the wedding, Tracie discovered that she was pregnant. She thought the arrival of a baby would actually make Tony a more compassionate and loving person. But Tracie’s pregnancy made the relationship worse — not better. In Tracie’s eighth month, Tony beat her for not doing a good enough job of cleaning the house and for asking him to hire some cleaning help. She showed up bruised and crying at a friend’s house wearing only a nightgown and a thin jacket in the middle of January.
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