I Prayed for a Miracle—Now I Lock My Door at Night

and I flinched so hard I nearly fell.

Tyler laughed.

“Look at you,” he said, delighted. “You jump like a rabbit.”

He turned away, bored, like he’d gotten what he wanted—a reminder of my fear.

I stood there, shaking, and understood something else with terrible clarity:

Even when Tyler isn’t hitting me, he is still hurting me.

Because control doesn’t always continue reading …