Well I guess it all began when I met him. His name was Geoff. We met at a mutual friends house in Edmonds WA. I was young, is was 22 with 2 kids, by two different fathers. A boy, Jordan and a little girl who was almost 2, Madison.

Geoff came from an affluent family, I came from a strict Christian upbringing, my dad was the Pastor of our church. I was the preachers daughter. Geoff would take me our to nice restaurants that I had never been to before, he would say it was OK to bring my kids if I couldn’t find a babysitter. He wanted me to move in with him right away, but he lived with his mom. The house was big enough for us all, so I said ok. Only then did I learn what a huge mistake I had made. A life changing mistake.  As soon as I moved in, with my kids, he started trying to change my parenting. Where I would hold my daughter when she cried, he would tell me I needed to let her cry it out. When it was just my kids and I , if they came into my room to crawl into my bed with me in the middle of the night, I would allow them, but he put an end to that. It broke my heart to hear my kids cry for me, but he convinced me, that it was good for them. He bought them things, and me lots of things, my kids seemed happy during the day when we would go on day trips or shopping, so I put it out of my mind. But I was noticing how he was very controlling. I wanted to get a job, he said it wasn’t necessary, if my family called and I made plans to see them, he would always say he always had plans for us that day so I would have to cancel them. Then…….we moved out from his mom’s house. He had is own business….a landscaping business, I soon learned that he had tax problems, and asked if we could put the business in my name, he said it was no big deal, we would just get a better loan, better insurance rates…etc.  I was all for it. Ha! Soon, he was not coming home at night, when he did come home, I would ask him where he was, saying I was worried sick, calling his family, the hospitals….etc. he was high. He was furious for me asking. He told me it was none of my business. Soon this became so regular. That I didn’t care where he was, he wasn’t giving me money for the food and bills that he said was my job to take care of, I had to go to food banks….but I didn’t have a car because he would take it, and when he did bring it home it was always on e. I would find hotel room keys in his wallet. He would always tell me how stupid I was. “SONYA YOUR SO FUCKING STUPID” while he would smirk and shake his head. One time I was trying to get my purse away from him because he knew I got child support that day, he hit me so hard in my head that I was unconscious.  I woke to my kids crying, and my purse gone. I knew I had to get out. I had absolutely no money. He took it all. I had two precious babies who needed me to get back up. My landlord knew of my financial struggle with Geoff. He offered me a job in Alaska.  He said, it will help you get away, you won’t have to pay for a thing. So we did it.