Getting there hadn't been easy, but at long last, she'd made it. Maria Marchiano was in college. As the fourth of five children in a blue collar Chicago family, she'd had to finance her education herself. But money hadn't been Maria's biggest obstacle. Her outstanding grades and SAT scores won her a full scholarship to the prestigious New Whitegroves College. She had the discipline and skills needed to succeed, but lacked self-confidence and was encumbered by fear. For years, Maria bore the brunt of her mother's volatile anger while her alcoholic father had done nothing. Escaping her mother's dominance was the hardest task Maria had ever faced. Now at Whitegroves, her days of fear and pain were finally behind her…she thought. Then she met Ted Rice….