He Was Abusive. So Why Did She Stay?

Photo by Alex Ivashenko on Unsplash

My husband’s abuse wasn’t always so obvious.

Before the physical violence and the wanton death threats, before the temper tantrums that involved breaking or throwing things, before the hole he punched in the wall or the menacing texts or emails, or any of those often public displays of domestic violence, he was regularly abusing me in other, less visible ways. And yet, I stayed.