The Rise & Fall of Jenny Sky

Jenny leaves a broken home, then is forever determined no one else need go through the same.

Jennifer Scyler smiled at her reflection in the brass nameplate on his office door: Paul Wainsfeld, Director. She knew why she'd been called to her supervisor's office. She was sure he'd say the promotion was hers. For the past year, she'd been on the fast track for agency advancement. When the previous Assistant Director suddenly retired for reasons Jennifer knew better than most, Paul had told in every way but words that the position would surely be hers. Although government regulations required a fair and impartial selection process, she was the perfect pick.

And now the waiting was over.

Boyfriends always told her she was too pretty to be an ordinary bureaucrat, but Jennifer knew her job at Child Protective Services was anything but ordinary. It was never necessary to explain much to them, however, since boyfriends lasted just long enough to provide for her temporary needs, especially as it related to her job.

Perfect posture and sable skin were two of the reasons she landed the job straight out of college five years ago. Mental toughness and the county's quota system hadn't hurt, either. Santa Barbara County had been short on minorities when she interviewed, but Jennifer had never considered race a handicap. Quite the opposite, and that was just fine. She knew what she wanted and went after it with a sense of purpose bordering on obsession.

Jennifer Scyler had developed a specialty, something she did better that anyone else.

Her particular talent, for which she'd prepared through years of tedious study, was the extraction of children-at-risk from troubled environments. Put simpler, she separated kids from abusive parents. Jennifer's performance reviews, without exception, rated her as an outstanding employee and a caring individual.

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When she had been thirteen, her mother died during delivery of Jennifer's stillborn sister. That left her the lone female in a household that included two older brothers and chronically unemployed father. Her home life was a Cinderella story, with males replacing the other cottage characters. But Jenny didn't believe in magic. Fairy godmothers didn't exist, and no handsome prince would rescue her in the final reel.

She'd have to save herself.

As the situation worsened and the invisible chains tightened, Jenny lay in bed, contemplating the odds and planning her escape.

It had taken three years.

Though never physically threatened, she became away of its lurking potential. At twenty, Jackie was her oldest brother. As she fixed breakfast one morning dressed in her usual cotton nightgown, Jenny turned from the stove to catch his intent stare When his eyes lifted to meet hers, he licked his lips and smiled crookedly.

Quickly looking away, Jenny turned back to the skilled where eggs sputtered and popped. With every movement of her body, she felt his eyes on her. Flustered, not knowing what to do or say, she'd slid the under-cooked eggs from the spatula to the plate, set them in front of Jackie, and fled the room. Upstairs, she stared into the dresser mirror as she brushed her hair with trembling fingers and made her decision.

Tonight.