Auna Raunea was just two years old when her father threatened to stuff her in a potato sack and throw it in the river. It was only the beginning of what would be a twenty-one year journey through hell-at the hands of a man she should have been able to trust implicitly. The Innocent and the Merciless is the true story of how a little girl lost not only her purity, but also her childhood, to a father intent on sexually abusing and emotionally torturing his own blood. Forced to sleep on a bare mattress or worse yet, a cold floor, little Auna never had anyone to talk to, to love her, or to listen to her cries for help-except her beloved dog Murphy. Made to endure years of abuse by not only her father, but also his best friend, Auna narrates a heartbreaking story of how she somehow managed to survive through death threats, brutal rapes, and verbal humiliations to emerge from the darkness to reach peace and healing. Auna Raunea's innocence may be gone forever, but her hope still lives on. Her courageous story will encourage victims of any kind of abuse to never give up-no matter what.