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Our paths are different paths, and my choice is to healthfully and lovingly avoid where they may cross. Whatever your war is or will be, there will be my peace. 

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He only told me after hitting me or when he was drunk. Only when he thought he could lose me. Only when he wouldn’t remember.

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The story will not be ending anytime soon, and I feel like I’m stuck in the tumultuous second act of the novel of my life whose momentum has gotten out of the author’s control.

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I had a life before you. I didn’t want a life after you.

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I wouldn’t use the word love, because I didn’t love you. I was stuck in a cycle of emotional abuse, which you tried to make me think, was love.

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Research shows that victims of violence on average experience seven incidents before permanently leaving their partner.

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I know only a vague concept of the past hurts you have experienced and the wounds that never fully healed because of it, but I was not the one who actually hurt you.

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I confused abuse for love when I looked for the damaged parts inside him and tried to love them.

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I lacked the self-worth I needed to walk away. I lacked the confidence to know that I deserved better. I let embarrassment and self-doubt get the best of me.

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It starts out like a dream.