Soon after I got married I began getting abused. It started with emotional abuse. I was put down so much that I didn’t even feel human. My identity as a woman was stolen from me by my now x-husband. My paycheck went to his bank account, when I was allowed to work, and I was even forbidden from driving a car. He cheated on me at every drop of a hat, and because of that I got an STD, which gave me precancerous cells. He sodomized me on many occasions, so bad that I got hemorrhoids and had to have a colonoscopy, and later a hemoroidectomy. I wasn’t even allowed to vote. The violence got progressively worse, and soon after I found out I was pregnant with my first-born son he became physically abusive. He kicked me in my stomach more times then I remember and forced me to have a threesome with him and another woman. He would not buy food, unless I did. He treated her like a queen and soon I was made to sleep on a cot, get up at 5:00am, clean the house, cook food, and pretty much anything else he could do to dehumanize me, and if I refused…I would suffer. At that time I didn’t realize there were places I could go to get help for this, and I was afraid I could not raise a child alone due to my lack of education, support, and I had no self-esteem. So I stayed.
Two months after my oldest son was born my x-husband beat me horribly. I was thrown down a hall, through a closed door, where he rammed my head on a linoleum floor until I bled, strangled me and punched me. The dog had peed in the house so he shoved my face in dog urine laughing while he did this. He probably would have killed me at that time had my neighbors not heard and called the police. When the police came he threatened to kill my son, holding a knife to my two-month-old son’s throat, if I told the police what had happened. I, however, had had enough. He was arrested and kept away for just 72 hours! Yet I had learned my options and left him to begin a new life. Soon after I was able to get a job. I also got victims compensation, which made it possible to get an apartment, a car, and furniture for my home. Yet he continued to harass me by coming to my apartment and even pulled a gun on me. I also later found out that there was sugar and bb’s in my car’s gas tank.
After six months I gave him another chance because he told me he had been in anger management and that he would never hurt me again. I believed him. I moved to Tennessee where I knew no one and lived with him in a small country town with very little resources. It took him two weeks to begin again. He threw me so hard I had a bruise the size of a softball on my shoulder. A week after that incident he strangled me so badly I had hemorrhages in my eyes and I was seeing white light. I was pretty much dead already. During the time that I lived there he threatened to kill me many times and told me that no one would find the body. A week later I snuck out at 1:00am and ran away back home to my parents. He followed me that day but soon went home when he realized I would not go back with him.
When I returned home I began the process of starting my life over yet again. Two weeks after I got home, however, I realized that I was pregnant. I didn’t even think I could be, he had forced me one night but I thought I had thrown him off before he could finish. I was wrong. I planned on an abortion, but I didn’t have the heart to do it. So I made the choice of being a single mom of two children.
On April 7th of 2006 I had a court appointment for my divorce, and Micheal was to take my son for Easter vacation.Because I was pregnant they could not finalize my divorce. When he found out I was pregnant he was furious. After the court hearing he called me at my parents’ house, and stated he was outside, He could not take my son with him to Tennessee; he had changed his mind and was dropping him back off with me. I went outside to see my son sitting in a carseat in the middle of the lawn. He said he wanted to be there for his children and wanted me to go back with him to Tennessee. I told him no; I had given him way too many chances and we just weren’t compatable.I asked him to leave my parents house or I would be forced to call the police. He knew I only liked meeting him at public places. When I said this he flipped out at which point he tackled me ripped out clumps of my hair, strangling, and beating me, yet again while pregnant. He had his hand over my mouth and I couldn’t breathe. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t get in the car in 5 seconds. Our son was in his car seat during this whole incident and was screaming while Michael beat me. My son still won’t talk and is very afraid of men. He is glued to my side. He kidnapped me, drove across the city to the airport, and practically dragged me through the airport beaten and bruised. He held onto my son and used him as bait to keep me with him. Thankfully my father, realizing something was wrong, called the police and Michael was captured at the airpor
