it is absolutely horrible and women shouldn't be put in this position in the first place, but since we (sadly) seem to have no control over men to stop them raping, we need to take control of the legal system and the social consciousness and push ourself to not stay quiet and suffer in silence. Melinda's story is terrible, fiction or not, but in RL, so many men who go unreported go on to rape again and again. Precedent is important.