Season for Sharing: How grants help Arizona domestic-violence victims
She still has red spots on her shins where he kicked her with steel-toed boots. Scars where she was blown from close range with a pressure washer. An air pocket left in her brain from the physical trauma of being abused for 13 years.
The abuse began two years into their relationship. It came first in the form of mental abuse, even before they were married. Then he began beating her.
He would do it in front of her young daughters.
Sometimes, he would take her to a hotel, beat her and leave her there.
“He’d say I could come home again when I learned to go by his rules,” she said. “I could see my daughters again when I went by his rules.”