Why I didn't tell you he was hitting me

[kdmorris]

3. My family didn't want me to marry him

I think that living with the shame that they were right helped me to put up walls. I doubt that anyone, to this day, knows how bad it was, but they did see the bruises and the chipped teeth and the broken nose.

I got in a car accident about 10 months after I left. I had an incredibly swollen black left eye from impact with the steering wheel.

One of my friends saw me and her first question was "Oh, wow, are you back with him?". I was confused at first and then I realized why she asked... because I had a massive black eye.

It made me think... and most of my friends didn't come out looking too good. I gave my family more of a pass because they did try to stop me from marrying him, but not very hard. And they were quite religious... didn't believe in divorce, so when I did finally leave him, my father wasn't pleased at first, until I told him more about the drug abuse and how he was starting to abuse my then 4 year old daughter. So, he accepted it, but he still never liked it.