Linda Peterson was the heiress of the Peterson Family. His father and his brothers were bankers. She was single. Her parents were pushing her into blind dates. She was 26 years old. Whenever she met a man, she didn't tell her parents because they would meddle in her relationship if not push her to marry. Her best friends were Susanne Carrington and Clarice Ford.
Clarice got engaged to Nathaniel Rockefeller Vanderbilt. She was thrilled for her friend. Clarice was obsessed with the stories of old rich families. Clarice had met Nathaniel when she was a little girl and came across him occasionally in the Hamptons. Unfortunately, when she started college, she had no time to visit the Hamptons as often as before, and when she visited the place she never came face to face with him.
Clarice asked Linda to be her Bride's Maid. Clarice and Nathaniel invited her for dinner. Nathaniel would introduce his best friend, Mark Hamilton to her. Mark would be Nathaniel's Best Man. The couple wanted them to meet so they could organize the bachelor party. They didn't want two separate parties but one for both.
Mark was single, too. He was 34. He went to school with Nathaniel. His family was wealthy. They were involved in International Commerce. He was tall, he was 1,89mt. He was good-looking and elegant. He had short black hair and almond brow eyes with long curled eyelashes. He had a slim but muscular body.
Linda was tall, she was 1,70mt. She had long wavy light brown hair, big green eyes, full lips, and a slender body.
The moment they met it was obvious for Clarice and Nathaniel that they would end up together. They had good chemistry from the start.
Clarice and Nathaniel told their friends the kind of party they wanted. They wanted to have the party in a private place. They could use any of Nathaniel's properties. They preferred to avoid paparazzi. The party must be simple, nothing too fancy. They knew their friends didn't have much time to prepare for the party but that wasn't what they had asked for something simple. They both like simplicity. The list of guests wasn't big. They decided to spend quality time with their closest friends. This party was for family and friends, not for business associates. Those would be invited to the engagement party and the wedding celebration. This party would be private. As soon as Linda and Mark chose the place, Nathaniel would contact them with the house buttler so they could coordinate the party. Nathaniel gave them a corporation card to pay for the catering service and whatever they needed for the party.
As the wedding would be held in two weeks they had to work hard to have the party ready so they met almost every day and if they didn’t meet they talked on the phone after some days they started dating. Linda thought Mark was very thoughtful and meticulous but after the wedding party, she realized that behavior was more like an obsession. Linda wanted to quit their relationship but Mark didn't want to let her go.
The wedding took part place at the Rockefeller mansion. When Linda was asked to dance by a single man, Mark showed his worst side: jealousy. His behavior became erratic and obsessive about Linda’s whereabouts and who she met. She tried to break up with him without hurting him. But Mark didn't understand why Linda didn’t want to be with him anymore. If Linda thought dating Mark was a nightmare, not dating him was even worse. That was when the real nightmare started. He constantly sent her messages, tracked her phone to find her location, and sent her flowers -not a bouquet, when he sent flowers he sent thousands of flowers to her office and her house. He sent sweet, chocolates, singing messengers embarrassing her at her office by singing romantic messages to her in front of her colleagues. Mark once sent a clown with thousands of balloons shaped like hearts to her office.
Linda’s boss was Clarise's father, Henry Ford, who called her to his office to tell her this situation couldn’t go on. This was a workplace, her boyfriend had to behave and stop sending gifts and distracting the working atmosphere in the office. Linda didn’t know what to do so she told Mr. Ford what her real situation with Mark was. She told him that she tried to avoid him but it was impossible whenever she got home he was standing at her door waiting for her. It was impossible to get rid of this obsessive guy. Henry understood what Linda was going through. He told her he would help her, Jenny, Clarice's step-sister was dating one of Nathaniel's best friends, Adam Hawthorne. He suggested they should talk to him and ask him for help. Neither Henry nor Linda wanted to call Nathaniel or Clarice because they were enjoying their honeymoon and they didn’t want to spoil their fun. Henry decided to ask Jenny to bring Adam to the office so they could discuss this problem.
Jenny brought Adam into the office and Linda explained what was happening to her. Henry supported her and explained what a nightmare the office had become because of Mark's obsession and the extravagant gifts he sent to the office. Adam said he knew Mark and he would talk to him. Adam told them that Mark was very fragile, mentally speaking, because he was abandoned by his former fiancée some days before their wedding and now he was hurt and feared being abandoned again but he promised he would do his best effort just to persuade him to stop harassing Linda,
Linda expressed her gratitude in advance and begged him to please help her because this situation was unbearable. She couldn’t function, she couldn’t go anywhere without meeting him. It was obvious he was tracking her phone because if she went to the gym she met him there when she went out of the gym. If she met some friends and went to the cinema or a restaurant she stumbled upon him and she couldn't stand this situation anymore. He was getting on her nerves. In the beginning, she thought he was thoughtful. She thought that he was trying to show how much he loved her but this strong attachment to her was not healthy.
Adam met Mark and tried to persuade him but it was to no avail Mark refused to leave Linda. After Adam talked to Mark the latter became a little bit aggressive. His phone calls were filled with threats, he wanted Linda back, and he wanted her by his side 24 hours a day which was ridiculous. They had known each other only for a month and after experiencing his weird behavior it was obvious to Linda that dating him had been a mistake and it was impossible for her to go back with him.
It was then that Henry Ford suggested Linda to have a restraining order against Mark. He even offered one of the lawyers from his corporation to get this order. She got the restraining order but Mark still insisted on sending gifts, letters, and phone messages to her not only every day but several times a day which was the worst kind of harassment she had ever experienced.
One weekend Linda decided to go to the Hamptons to visit her parents in order to avoid Mark because it was obvious the restraining order wasn't working to keep him away from her. To her astonishment when she entered her parents' house at the Hamptons, Mark was in the living room sitting there drinking coffee with her parents. Apparently, he knew she would go there so he went in advance taking gifts for her parents. He introduced himself as Linda's boyfriend and they found him charming; the same way she had found him charming the first time she met him. When Linda saw him at her parents' house she was completely shocked. She couldn't believe this guy was there and she didn't know how to tell her parents that the man was dangerous, that he was harassing her, that she needed to get away from him, and that they needed to help her by staying away from him. It was important not to give him hope, not to give him the chance to make friends with them. But he was there so she couldn't tell her parents what was going on. When her mother said she would fix dinner she offered to help. In the kitchen, she told her mother what was going on with Mark and that he was extremely dangerous, she had a restraining order issued against him but it was to no avail because he didn’t respect it. Her mother got on her side but convinced Linda to let him have dinner with them and then to gently excuse herself and to say goodbye to him. After he left, they would call the police. Linda's mother wanted to avoid him getting aggressive at their home.
Linda developed some kind of panic attack she didn’t want to go out, she wanted to stay at home where she felt safe because she didn’t want to encounter this guy anywhere she went, and she knew that whenever she stepped out of her house she could meet him anywhere she went and he would try to make it look like an accidental encounter but it was all planned because he always had flowers or chocolates or something to give to her. She still received letters every day apologizing, telling her that he would change and that he would do whatever was needed for her to go back with him. At this point, it was obvious he was not going to stop easily. She had no choice but to file a complaint at the police station and Mark was detained. He had to pay a fine to be released, the judge told him to stop this harassment. The judge let him go instead of sending him to jail but ordered him to go into therapy. He was in a kind of under parole if you want to call it some way because if he didn't attend therapy he could be arrested and taken to jail but this obsessive maniac behavior had to stop.
By this time Nathaniel and Clarice returned from their honeymoon and Adam told them about what happened to Linda and Mark. They were very concerned about their friends. Of course, Clarice was worried about Linda. She was one of her best friends and didn't want her to get hurt. Nathaniel was very close to Mark, knew what he had undergone after the break up with his fiancée, and wanted to help him. He called him into his office to talk. Nathaniel and Adam conversed with him and tried to persuade him that this kind of behavior could end badly. He offered to find the best therapist because he really cared about their friendship. Mark was devastated he knew his obsession was a bad thing but he couldn't help it. He realized he was sick and needed help. Nathaniel contacted the best clinic in Sacramento. Mark cried a lot because he was really in love with Linda, he thought Linda was a wonderful woman, he didn’t want to lose her. Nathaniel told him that maybe in time Linda could forgive him but he needed to be well because that kind of behavior only scared women away. Nobody would fall for him if he behaved that way. Nathaniel would take him to this clinic and accompany him. Nathaniel got one of his lawyers to talk to the judge and asked for permission to let Mark go to this famous clinic so he could have proper therapy but not in New York City, he was going to go to Sacramento California.
The judge allowed him to go to this clinic in Sacramento but he wanted to have the staff in Sacramento contact him so he knew that he was really attending therapy and he was taking his order seriously.
Mark was placed under Nathaniel's care. Mark was now under his custody and Nathaniel was responsible for Mark’s therapy. Nathaniel didn’t hesitate in accepting this role because Mark was an old good friend of his, he cared about him
After Mark was taken to Sacramento in Nathaniel's private jet, Linda could finally go back to work. Henry Ford had allowed her to be absent and do Home Office work because he knew how altered her nerves were because of Mark's harassment. Now that Mark was gone, she could go out of her house but still, she needed to attend some serious therapy to gain back her confidence. This was a very traumatic experience for her.
New York City comprises 5 boroughs sitting where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean. At its core is Manhattan, a densely populated borough that’s among the world’s major commercial, financial, and cultural centers. Its iconic sites include skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building and sprawling Central Park. Broadway theater is staged in neon-lit Times Square. ― (from Google) Leia mais sobre New York City.
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