Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 61286 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61286 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 306(@200wpm)___ 245(@250wpm)___ 204(@300wpm)
Her eyes flashed with resentment and contempt over the other man’s deceit. “I can look back with a clear mind and admit that I was hurting from our breakup, that I was incredibly vulnerable and so it was easy for me to get caught up in Jack’s charming persona. I didn’t see his attentiveness as obsessive and controlling at the time because he’d couch his actions as being romantic. And our courtship was a whirlwind. Within six months we were engaged, by a year we were married . . . and that’s when he started showing his true character.”
Tripp hands balled into fists on his thighs. He found listening to her story difficult because of his rage toward Jack that was already simmering beneath the surface. The man was clearly a master of manipulation, and Tripp could easily understand how a woman as sweet and guileless as Skye had been back then would have taken Jack at face value.
Now that he’d managed to get Skye to open up to him, it was as though she couldn’t stop the outpouring of pain, as if sharing all the heartbreak and disillusionment of her marriage was like a cathartic release for her. She continued talking while he listened, painting a horrific picture of what her life had been like as Jack’s wife. Certainly not the kind of fairytale she’d no doubt envisioned.
He learned how Jack had systematically isolated her from friends and family and how she’d made excuses for his behavior, while also pretending to those same people that she was happy in the marriage when she’d been completely miserable. How he’d stripped her of her self-worth and confidence, destroyed her resistance and morale, and how nothing she did was ever good enough for him.
In a pained voice, she told Tripp how she’d lived in a fog of uncertainty and self-doubt, and how he’d undermined her emotions as a way to invalidate her reality of a situation and question her own sanity. He constantly criticized her, accused her of being too sensitive, and made her feel insignificant. And when she tried to confront him on an issue, he’d twist things around and left her feeling as though she was the one at fault.
His heart nearly broke when she revealed that her life for two years consisted of living with anxiety and frequent panic attacks.
Everything she told Tripp pointed to classic signs of being gaslit, of Jack eroding her self-esteem to gain power and control over her. Skye was a smart woman, but she was also very trusting, and Jack had violated that gift in a way that was extreme and inexcusable.
Skye paused for a moment, staring off in the distance, her expression still lost in the past before she shifted her gaze back to Tripp and continued. “The second year into our marriage, Jack thought we were trying for a baby—at his insistence, not mine. As much as I wanted one, I knew I couldn’t bring a child into our toxic relationship so I hid my birth control and kept taking it. Of course he blamed me for not being able to get pregnant and made me feel inadequate as a woman. At that point, I knew I had to get out of the marriage, but I was scared and didn’t know how to leave him because he’d threatened me with bodily harm if I tried.”
She shuddered at the horrible recollection, and it was all that Tripp could do to sit across from her and suppress his rage. “What made you finally leave him?” he asked, keeping his tone as neutral as possible.
As soon as she absently lifted her hand and touched her fingers to her cheek, Tripp’s entire body tensed because he knew what had happened before she even spoke, that her ex had crossed the ultimate, unforgiveable, and reprehensible line. Still, Tripp braced himself for the details.
“I discovered he was having an affair,” she said, her voice hoarse. “I had undeniable proof, so I confronted him, and he didn’t like the fact that I wouldn’t back down. I didn’t cower from his intimidating tactics. I told him I wanted a divorce, and that’s when he shoved me against the wall and punched me in the face. It was the first time he’d ever hit me. The first time anyone had ever hit me.” She pulled in a deep breath. “I’d stayed with him through everything else but I knew that hit wouldn’t be the last. So, the next day, while he was out of the house, I packed up my things, called my brother, Spencer, to come and get me, and left for good.”
She’d lifted her chin, showing him that while her ex had tried to break her, he hadn’t succeeded. Her spirit might have been temporarily damaged, but she was no longer broken. She’d survived the abuse and persevered, even if the asshole had left her beautiful heart battered and bruised in the process.