Thief

The boyfriend I had before Mike was awful! Fucking awful! It took me a while to catch on to what was happening and after I realized, I realized I had to get out.

October, he convinced me to quit my job. I was miserable at Sonic so he took that and convinced me to quit. He would take care of us. This is the only time I have ever not worked and relied on a man. Huge mistake! The month after I quit my car got repoed. He told me he paid it and didn’t. Then we got evicted from our home. He stole that money too and convinced me that they were selling the home and that’s why we had to move. He hid the first notice so I wouldn’t see so at this point we have 24 hours to leave. He swears we’re buying a house. Again I don’t know yet that he’s full of shit. We go through all the steps of buying the house. Literally even do the paperwork. Go to the viewings. Everything. What’s the most crazy about this whole situation is he went to work every day… but come to find out he never worked. I don’t know what the hell he did at the hospital for 8-10 hours at a time but he went there.

This is literally right before Christmas. I have no where to go or any money to get there so I continue on with his bullshit. He takes us on a Christmas vacation. A road trip. But the whole time were hoping from hotel to hotel, getting stuck at gas stations from having no gas and having to wait for his family and friends to send him money. We’re in Washington DC and he hits me for the first time. Well, I guess hit wouldn’t be the right word cause he grabbed me by my hair and rams my head into the door. He was good at abusing where it couldn’t be seen. I knew I had to get out but had no idea how to. To everyone else in the world, we were having the time of our lives on our road trip. For me it was miserable and abusive. But me and the girls got to see things together we probably wouldn’t never seen without it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I get a call from my dad and learn that he has stolen my dads card information and booked Airbnb’s with it. So now I’m fighting with my parents and don’t know what the hell to do. He’s talking about pressing charges and the Airbnb account was in my name. I just knew I was going to end up in jail then where would my kids go? Back to their father?! Not an option. We continue on the trip, we come home and I try to stick with it longer again not knowing where I would go if I did leave. I left once and went to moms but she was in a weird situation at the time so I ended up going back.

One night at one of the hotels, we stayed in so many I lost count, I decided it was time to get out. I had enough. The kids were in the pool for pool movie night and I got in the shower. I screamed for hours in that shower. I’ve told this story before but imma tell it again. I cried and screamed until the hotel water got cold. You know that like never happens. He tried to come comfort me and I screamed more at him. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was done.

I started a fight so I could go for a walk. I filed for food stamps that day. It hurt my pride so much to put homeless on that paper but I knew I had to do what I had to do to get out. As soon as I got approved I called my sister and asked her for help. She sent me $100 and I packed my things and left. I filled my gas tank and fed the kids some fast food and I drove to Panama City to my best friends house. She opened her house for me and the kiddos and I could never repay that favor. We stayed with her for a couple months while I got on my feet. She kept the twins for me so I could work, we saved up some money and we were able to move out.

The weird thing is I don’t really regret this. I regret staying as long as I did but I was so miserable at Sonic. Without this I probably would still be working there miserable because I was too scared to quit on my own. But it did put “actions speak pounder than words” into perspective. If I’d watched the actions instead of listening to his lies I would’ve realized what was going on. The complaints at the restaurants, I though he was just an asshole and in reality he was getting free food. The complaints at the hotel. Same thing. Would complain to get a free night. He complained so much Marriott told him if he had so many problems then stay somewhere else. Had I paid attention to his actions (waiting til I walk to the bathroom or outside with the kids to pay bills at the restaurants) I would’ve realized what was going on and probably could’ve prevented most of the bad. Buttt we live and we learn. And God did I learn.