"My mother had always said I had such a sassy mouth that someday somebody was bound to knock my front teeth down my throat. So when he'd slap me, I thought I was getting my comeuppance. I had everything: a beautiful BMW in the garage, fur coats, my groceries delivered to me from fancy stores. When I told my mother what was happening, she didn't want to hear about the abuse, because he was supporting her, too. It got progressively worse and worse. He would lock me in the house, where I couldn't get out and he'd take the telephones away. And he told me, "If you try to go out that window I will kill you and I will kill your child." I stayed because I believed him.

My son says he doesn't remember much of it, but I feel it had a big influence on him. For a while he displayed a lot of hostility towards me, sometimes in a passive way and sometimes more aggressively. Even though he knows better, I think he's subconsciously angry with me for walking away from the financial security and forcing him to spend the second half of his childhood being so poor, with me working two jobs to support us. "

She knew her decision to leave would mean financial hardship.