'One night, while the kids were sleeping in their bed, he knocked me out on the kitchen floor.' This is what it's like to be trapped in an abusive relationship.
The emotional abuse began very early on in our relationship. I remember a couple of months of living together during a row, he shouted at me "who could love you? Even your own mother didn’t love you"; he knew about my loveless childhood and used it against me to weaken my resolve.
I had left my first husband, a good man, a great dad. I had broken up our family and left our family home, out of guilt I handed my kids over for half the week. They had been through enough, we all had and I couldn’t - I wouldn’t - cause any more pain. I knew that I had to take whatever was coming for me, to protect the kids, and so I hid the abuse from all but my closest friend, not even letting anyone from my family in on our little secret - they liked him, they didn’t know him.
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