The end began right there.

When she left work early to try and mend things.

Her life revolved around him rather quickly.

No friends.

No family.

Nothing within the span of 3 months.

And for another 3 months, it still was just that.

Nothing.

Except it was everything,

All at once.

That’s what it felt like anyway.

Buzzes from texts nonstop, whether she was with a patient or so tired her eyes burned at the screen.

And if she didn’t answer for more than 30 seconds, then came the phone calls, and the pinging.

Later that night, she met him at his moms house. The only family she felt she had.

He talked in those loops,

You know,

The kind that drunk people have.

Except he was always like that, especially when he was stressed.

She talked to his mom first, she said he just needed to go home and sleep.

But she knew that this wouldn’t end, not if she just babied him like his own mother did.

She entered slowly, like a zookeeper into a beasts cage.

“Hey honey.”

His eyes darted to her.

And the patter in her chest grew.

He continued in that loop.

How he’s the worst,

Yet deserved better.

“Let’s go home”

The loops continued.

Until they turned into yelling in her face.

His sisters face.

His moms face.

She finally had enough, she got in his face to keep him away from his mother, just feet away from the stairs headed down.

She was slammed against the concrete garage floor.

Red and blue lights sat in the driveway, and a pound at the door in that very garage.

She took her chance, headed home. Figured this would all blow over.

His mom brought him back to that townhouse not too much after she just got there.

The yelling continued.

A cut cord from a mixer he wrapped around his neck as a threat.

She was stuck.

Between being the loving wife she had been,

Or the girl she was always meant to be.

It felt like a knife, right against her throat, and his hand was on the other side of the blade.

She was so used to saying,

“I trust you”.

But she didn’t, not anymore.

Not after the abuse became physical.

That was the last night she’d see him as a husband.

The police took him.

She thought to the hospital for another psychiatric evaluation,

But he went to jail.

She slept alone that night,

And every night after without him.

Suddenly it was the best sleep she ever got.