Monique, the daugh­ter of San Diego Charger’s foot­ball great Earl Fai­son and a con­vert to Judaism at a very young age, mar­ried her high school sweet­heart soon after she dis­cov­ered she was preg­nant with his child. Her rela­tion­ship with Chris was shaky from the start, but turned tumul­tuous as he became abu­sive. When she could no longer put up with the abuse, she left him with their chil­dren. That was when the stalk­ing and gen­uine threats began. Noth­ing stopped him — not pro­tec­tion, injunc­tions, police warn­ings, or even arrests. One fate­ful Mon­day morn­ing, Chris kid­napped Monique in front of her chil­dren and drove off on a night­mar­ish car ride that involved car crash­es and rape. He mer­ci­less­ly beat her on the head with a shov­el and aban­doned her bru­tal­ized body in the woods in the rain. He left pre­sum­ing she was dead…but was she? Only Monique’s desire to get back to her chil­dren and her sup­port­ive Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty helped her survive.