My Story – Mia

4 years ago I met the person who would change my life forever. We met on Facebook and everything was perfect. We were together only a short time before I found out I was pregnant. This would be my second child. My oldest was 5. He also had a son the same age. We started immediately planning things. I was living with my grandparents at the time. So we started talking about getting a place together. During my pregnancy the mental abuse started. We moved out when our baby was about 3 months old. As soon as we got into our apartment, the hell began. He had at this point isolated me from family. Breaking bonds and destroying my relationship with them. He started the physical abuse just weeks after moving in. He would tell me he would kill my children if I told anyone what was happening. He started abusing my oldest son physically as well. Anytime I stepped in he would beat the shit out of me. He had me so mentally confused I didn’t know how to get out. He would do terrible things to me and my children. He would mentally abuse our baby and beat my oldest and me. I always told my son we would be safe one day again. I was so terrified of him that I couldn’t find the courage to speak up. I had no doubt in my mind that he would go through with killing us. Finally in the summer of 2021, his dad and sister moved in with us temporarily. His dad started to notice the abuse and my ex trusted his dad too much. Which ultimately saved our lives. His dad did the only thing he knew to do and that was call cps. My children were taken from me on September 23rd, 2021. At this point I was threatened not to speak up. I was so terrified for my life that I stayed quiet. A couple weeks went by and my cousin called me. She asked me not to say anything but to listen. She basically told me I wasn’t alone and my family was there to help. At that point it’s like the mental hold he had on me broke. I was able to contact my grandmother and the detective. I them made a safe plan to get out. Unfortunately, I did not make it to that day before he beat the shit put me with an Xbox controller to the head and throwing things at me. I was able to escape that night. He has 10 charges against him for child abuse, malicious wounding, and kidnapping. He took a plea deal of 15 years for what he did to my son. I pressed charges too but he got a slap on the wrist. But I’m okay with that. What he did to my son is unacceptable and heartbreaking. We are free, healing, and back together now.