Abuse Is Not To Be Taken Lightly

Katie Liner (Kellie Martin) is an 18 year old girl who just got out of high school, but when she begins dating handsome 22 year old, housing developer, Jimmy Pettit (Ivan Sergei) and eventually marries him, she feels loved and protected. But as soon as they have their first child, Jimmy's sweet behavior turns into a controlling, possessive nature behind his charming exterior which Katie tries to dismiss and when bringing their first born son home from the hospital, he expects her to handle the baby and the luggage and hits her when she asks for his help and feels left out whenever she spends more time with their son than him and it's getting worse now that they're about to have their second child. Physical violence is commonly introduced. Everyone including her family and neighbor, Herbert Evans (Ted Hayden) suspect that things are not as rosy as they seem, but only Katie's mother, Ellen Liner (Linda Kelsey) and Katie's older sister, Sharon Liner (Kristin Dattilo-Hayward) try to persuade her to end the marriage. Trapped in the feelings of isolation and blaming herself for his inexcusable actions for 2 years, Katie lives in fear. Katie, encouraged by her mother and older sister, decides to tell Jimmy that it's over. A truly unnerving moment in the house when she tries to break it off, when he threatens to kill her. She then turns the tables and kills him in self defense. She is then arrested by her police detective father, Jack Liner (Kevin Dobson) who she has been trying to hide the secret from until her attorney, Paul Chambers (Tom Amandes) informs him of Jimmy's abusive tendencies. Katie goes to a psychological evaluation and then on trial and is found not guilty and then afterwads and before Jimmy's parents apologized to Katie for her pain and the final scene where Katie laid flowers over Jimmy's tombstone and promises her children that she would make tomorrow better for both of them (her 2 year old son and her infant son or daughter), they should have had the judge admonish all others involved for not speaking up --When Katie said that she knows that one day, someday, he would have hit her too many times and he would have killed her in the end, this is what can happen to you or any of your family members, neighbors, friends, relatives or loved ones if you don't speak up.