Constance Grote

In the Shadow of the Past Constance Grote

Candace Martin learns to hate at an early age after a scarring childhood at the hands of an abusive neighboring farmer. She struggles with an obsessive need for revenge that nearly destroys her life. The violent loss of her innocence causes her teenage years to be tormented by vivid nightmares. The shameful abuse she suffers prevents emotional or physical intimacy with her high school sweetheart and contributes to marital problems later in life. An accident leaves the farmer, Charlie McClellan, paralyzed. In an ironic twist of fate, Candace becomes his caretaker. Agonizing conflicts consume Candace as she derives a pleasure in creating sexual fantasies for Charlie as he sits helplessly imprisoned in a wheelchair. After Charlie's death, Candace marries Jake, her father's hired hand. She nearly has a nervous breakdown when he discovers compromising photos of her that the farmer had taken years ago. Jake convinces Candace that his love for her is not diminished. He patiently guides her through their marriage, counseling at the hands of a female psychiatrist and eventual rehabilitation. Candace defeats the dark secrets of the past through additional counseling with a respectable physician and subsequently establishes a safe house for abused teenagers.