Even then, you stayed.

This is a cautionary tale for the girls with big hearts who love too much.

When you first met him, he said all the right things at the right time.

He held your hand when you were scared, he listened to you when you were feeling down.

He was there for you, understood you, and accepted you as you were—flaws and all.

You thought it was real love. This was it.

The first time he flipped on you and started screaming at you for no valid reason, you forgave him.

He is intense and emotional, you thought, and that’s part of the reason why you love him.

One day, you were walking to have breakfast and he got into a physical fight with someone riding his bike “at the wrong place”—so he said.

You sat at the restaurant bar while police interrogated you, shaking and crying. You never had to deal with the police before. You didn’t like violence.

When he came back, he screamed at you for being emotional and asked you to leave if you were gonna be that way.

But you stayed.

Later on, you found out he cheated.

You tried to leave him, but he manipulated you into staying. Perhaps this was another gateway you didn’t walk through, that you should have. Perhaps the responsibility is here.

But you stayed.

Things got worse and worse. You were screamed at, called names, insulted on a weekly basis.

And you still stayed.

Your friends got threatened over the most random things.

You stayed. Why?

He physically taunted you and locked you in a room while he broke your things and punched himself in the face. Aggression is a sickness.

Even then you stayed.

He never meant to do those things to you, you thought.

But his trauma, his habitual patterns, were too strong.

That’s how life had molded him.

A beautiful yet scary ball of unresolved emotions.

Toxicity in a relationship is a two-way street.

You accepted the manipulation, the lies, the abuse.

Why? Was it hope in his goodness? Attachment to that love?

So, even if you want to save him, brave girl, even if you want that with every fibre of your being—you can’t.

This is a cautionary tale for the girls with big hearts who love too much.

Save yourself first.

~
Relephant: