in our relationship.
When I confronted
him about what I
found, it marked our
worst fight yet. Tyler
was in an angry rage at
being caught out and
I found myself hiding
under the covers of
our bed, willing myself
to sink into the mat-
tress and disappear
completely. As I was
hiding, I heard him
come beside the bed
and felt his fist meet
my thigh. As soon
as he left the room, I
took my phone and
locked myself in the
bathroom, covering
my mouth with
my hands, trying
to quite my sobs.
Minutes past be-
fore I heard Tyler
came to the bath-
room door, violent-
ly shaking the door-
knob before banging
on the door trying to
get in. I kept hidden,
holding my phone in
my hand desperately
wanting to call for
help. I thought to call
my family, my old best
friend, even the police
- but I didn’t. Looking
back now, I wished I
had of called someone
- anyone.
A
fter that fight
I had shut off
emotionally and had
almost accepted that
I would be trapped
in this endless cycle
of abuse. The days
after these fights – a
house of silence, cold
and empty glances,
stretched on for what
felt like weeks. I fell
into a deeper de-
pression and became
suicidal. I wanted
nothing more than
to be free from the
relationship and my
circumstance, yet I
thought of
my
fam-
ily and how
distraught they would
be. My family and the
hope that maybe one-
day things would be
better gave me more
reason to stay.
W
ithin only
months of that
argument, Tyler, to
my surprise, broke
up with me. Part of
me felt anger towards
him for leaving me
when I had wanted to
leave many times but
couldn’t. However, that
anger quickly left me
when during our last
discussion he threw
things at me, leaving
a bruise upon my
thigh and slamming
the door in rage as
he left. When he was
gone I felt a mixture
of sadness, shock and
relief. Months
after the
break-
up he
explained to me
that he broke up with
me to “set me free
from my t