Colleen Sherman—Oskar Latu

Colleen Sherman and Oskar Latu’s relationship turns an affair into captivity: when Colleen tries to leave him and return to her fiancé, Oskar has her abducted and holds her for two years. His lavish provision of food, clothes, jewelry, and a comfortable suite disguises neither her inability to leave nor the threats he uses to keep her useful. The relationship is defined by that divide between Oskar’s preferred account of himself as a benefactor and Colleen’s experience of coercion.

The affair and its intended future

Oskar first sought Colleen for her athletic expertise. As head of the Serenidad Volleyball Federation, he wanted the finest coach for his daughter, Pua. He considered two elite players, Willa Ashford and Colleen, invited both to the island, and pursued Colleen when she was the one who came. Their affair became passionate and intense. Oskar proposed marriage, imagining Colleen not only as his wife but as Pua’s mother and teacher.

Colleen’s involvement began while she was engaged to Corey Baxter, but the engagement was already troubled. She later explained that she was unsure she wanted to marry Corey and that Oskar had charmed her; she acknowledged the affair as a mistake rather than using the difficulties in her engagement to excuse it. When she decided to end the affair, she intended to tell Corey the truth during a sailing trip and accepted that he might break off their relationship. Oskar, however, would not accept her decision or let her return to her fiancé.

Abduction and captivity

The sailing trip became the means by which Oskar separated Colleen from Corey. A man hidden in the storage compartment of Colleen’s boat emerged and struck Corey on the head. Believing Corey might be dead, Colleen tried to reach him, but another boat pulled alongside and its occupants abducted her. Oskar had a private plane waiting to smuggle her out of the country; she was taken to his residence in Serenidad and kept there.

Colleen’s account establishes that the abduction was not a single act followed by a change of heart. She tried to break off the relationship, but Oskar refused to let her go. He retained control over where she lived and what contact she could have with the outside world. Her captivity lasted two years. The personal history of the affair thus becomes the cover for a sustained exercise of power: Oskar treats Colleen’s refusal not as the end of a relationship, but as an obstacle he is entitled to overcome.

Coerced service to Pua

Oskar’s hold over Colleen also served his plans for Pua’s volleyball career. For two years, Colleen watched Pua practice and secretly instructed the coach Oskar had hired to pass along her advice. Pua did not know that Colleen was the source of the expert guidance. Oskar threatened to hurt Colleen’s loved ones if she refused to help, and the threats revealed that Corey had survived the blow on the boat. Colleen’s coaching therefore continued not by consent, but under pressure directed at people she cared about.

The arrangement fulfilled the role Oskar had originally wanted Colleen to occupy—teaching Pua the sport—while stripping away the relationship he had hoped to build with her. He could secure Colleen’s expertise, but not her agreement to be his wife or Pua’s mother. Even after the romantic pursuit had ended, he kept her because her labor remained valuable to his daughter’s Olympic ambition. For Colleen, the enforced coaching was both a continuing consequence of the abduction and a way Oskar made her participate in the future he was trying to arrange for Pua.

Luxury, control, and the relationship’s meaning

Oskar furnishes Colleen’s suite with expensive linens, furniture, and electronics; he provides gourmet meals, fashionable clothing, and jewelry. She has a computer, though no internet, and writes a novel to pass the time. These comforts are real, but they do not make her free to leave or contact the world. Colleen describes the experience as horrible and recognizes the central contradiction: expensive possessions cannot compensate for having her freedom taken away. Her novel is an activity she can pursue within confinement, not evidence that the confinement is voluntary.

Oskar’s own perspective sharpens the contrast. He reasons that Colleen lives in luxury and has been treated like a queen, yet also knows that he cannot release her without risking arrest for holding her captive. He considers keeping her in his basement indefinitely and worries about what to do with her once Pua has reached her goal. The relationship’s imbalance is therefore not simply a misunderstanding between former lovers: Oskar understands that Colleen is a captive, but treats her material comfort as if it could excuse that fact. His offer of a desirable life cannot substitute for her consent or restore the choice he removed.

The affair ends, but Oskar’s claim on Colleen does not. He preserves the appearance of provision while imposing isolation, threats, and forced work, and he makes his daughter’s ambitions dependent on Colleen’s continued captivity. Their relationship consequently marks a decisive transformation of intimacy into possession: Colleen’s attempt to leave exposes the coercion beneath Oskar’s courtship, while her endurance and clear account of what was taken from her refuse his version of captivity as generosity.