Battered to Loved

It's been a few years since I left Michael. Well, not really left ran from Michael. Taking my two babies with him. It's actually been three years since I left. I managed to escape at 19, but I still have the nightmares. I have been in therapy for about 2 years now and diagnosed with PTSD. It came from Michael and Talia. Talia is my step mother. My father when I was five had passed away unexpectedly and I had endured years of abuse from Talia. Mad my father never gave her any children and I was apparently the reason she couldn't be with anyone else. I am not sure about my biological mother my dad passed before i could get any questions answered and Talia claimed she never knew. But when I was sixteen Talia had told me she sold me to a man and I needed to get my stuff packed. I packed in fear of her. A few hours later Michael had showed up. He was 22 years old when I first met him. He was a very handsome man. Blonde hair, blue eyes olive skin complexation and built like a god. Talia had signed the paperwork for me to get married to Michael less the three months later. Even when I tried to tell her of the abuse that I endured from him. But when would she care? She more or less did it to me too. Over the next two years I had given birth to two babies. My oldest being a boy and named Pheonix, he is now six years old. Green eyes, red hair porcelain skin tone. And my youngest child being a little girl her name is Legacy, blue eyes and blonde hair, olive skin complexation. she is now four years old. When I left at 19 it was more so due to the fact that I had started taking more beatings after I had found Michael abusing Pheonix. My heart shattered when i found out because all I asked was that he didn't hit the kids the way he did me. But the final straw was when Michael had hit me while feeding legacy. I had cradled her body to ensure she wouldn't be hit by him. He was mad that something at the office didn't go well at his big meeting and he decided he would take his anger out on me. I had already been doing odd jobs while he was working, taking the kids with me so I had some money saved. I had even bought a car prior without him knowing, it was used but no payments. There was no paper trail so he wouldn't know anyways. Just three months after I turned 19 I had packed what few items I knew we would need got them in the car and the kids in their car seats before taking off. I did all of this while he was at work. I didn't look back, I left California and went to the east coast. Hardly stopping until I had got to a friend of mine from high school in Missouri. Victoria was now a big time domestic abuse lawyer and when I had told her about what was going on without Michael knowing she was the one who helped me set a plan in place to leave. Once I got to her she helped me divorce Michael, get full custody of my kids and a restraining order. It had taken almost a year to get that done, but when it was I had thanked her and moved on to Maine. In that year though I had stayed Victoria and worked saving every penny I could. Once I had got to Maine I was able to rent a small apartment, rent paid in full for a year. I had also found a job at a local small diner. The kids and I didn't have much when we got to Maine but we made do while I worked and slowly got the kids everything they needed. Pheonix had started Kindergarten when we first moved and he loved it. The school knew what we had went through and made sure that Pheonix's' identity was well concealed when it came to any anything that would be public. No pictures and only naming him as P.J short for Pheonix Johnson. I ended up finding a therapist and working through a lot of my issues from my abuse over the years. While I had still struggled to managed some of my diagnosis's they were seemingly to be more tolerable thanks to therapy. While I had more good days than bad the bad days seemed extremely tough when they did happen. Pheonix, Legacy and I seem to be doing really amazing now. Legacy is about to start pre-school, Pheonix is about to be in first grade and I made management for Mas' Grill. I still am a waitress, but I now have more job duties while making a little bit more money. But I have this gut wrenching feeling that something is about to happen. Not sure if it is a good thing or not. But I made it this far, I'm sure that whatever is in store for my kids and I wont be as bad as it use to be. Now since I have given you a little background without going into to much detail to trigger myself, my story begins in Bar Harbor, Maine where we live now. Free and much happier. I haven't spoke to Talia since she sold me to Michael and Michael since court two years ago. He did have to be escorted out of the court room because he was really upset when he lost. He thought he was going to win and get us back there with him. But when he lost he almost started a riot in the court room yelling at me that it wasn't the last of him and he'd get the kids and I back. While Victoria and a bailiff had escorted me out to my car Michael was being escorted to jail because he didn't know how to shut his mouth and was found in contempt. Victoria and I still keep in contact and she has actually came to visit the kids and I here in Maine. It's been nice, very nice to be on my own and be my own free person. Victoria says no one has heard from Michael since he got out of jail. Pheonix doesn't miss his dad and Legacy doesn't remember him. So, things are still looking up for us, even though I have the gut wrenching feeling. But I am not going to let it stop me or us from our happiness.