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“The episode with the bo promotion at work He became so a lot of important people He…he was on cloud nine,” Ethan ot better for htto divorce Patricia all along but that now he needed to wait until the press died down He said he’d come out too…that he’d proudly tell the world about us He becaain and ere really happy for a few months But when the attention started to wear off…”

“The abuse started again,” Ronan said softly when Ethan seemed reluctant to continue

Ethan nodded “It orse than ever,” he whispered “He began controlling everything in my life He tracked my phone, my car He took over my finances and monitored my email If I went so tohe didn’t authorize, he wanted to knohat it was If someone from work called me, he wanted to knohy My work schedule was always unpredictable, but he accusedabout the extra hours I’d work He was sure I was cheating on him,” Ethan whispered

“But I wasn’t…even if I’d had the chance, I wouldn’t have I…I wouldn’t do that,” he said as he looked at me and then Ronan

“I tried to leave hio I think people at work started to figure things out I couldn’t always hide the bruises I started calling in sick when the beatings becao if I kept doing it, I knew I needed to do so Work was all I had left…I couldn’t…I couldn’t lose that too”

Ethan paused for a erator that was part of a built-in bar along the far wall He returned with a bottle of water and set it in front of Ethan along with a box of tissues

“Thank you,” Ethan whispered His fingers were shaking as he tried to open the bottle of water It took hied it He wiped carefully at his face with a tissue before he continued

“I started planning ive me a certain amount of money each week to live on He’d forced me to add him to my accounts so he’d be able to see if I took anyat places where I’d be less likely to get receipts…like farht as much of my food there as I could and then kept the leftover money Eric believed et receipts for the things I’d bought and he wasn’t around often enough to see that I wasn’t buying as e and opened a safe deposit box at a bank a few miles from my work I only ever took the bus to that bank and I left my phone at hen I would make my weekly runs so Eric never found out about it I…I started hiding proof there too”

“Proof?” Ronan asked

A quick nod fro Eric when I kneas in trouble for soital recorders at work that we used to use for transcription before the electronic charting system was implemented I…I took one and I set it up in my room…I taped it to the back ofover Most of our fights ended up inhis eyes

I stiffened at that because I knehat he meant The idea that he’d been repeatedly sexually assaulted broke open soed to stifle ame with curiosity so I forcedto school my reaction

“I’d use the cos to CDs…I didn’t store them electronically because I was afraid Eric would somehow be able to find any kind of cloud account I put the CDs in my safe deposit box I put medical proof in there too”

“What kind of proof?” I asked, though I already knew

I could see the shame creep into Ethan’s eyes and I hated that he couldn’t look at me as he spoke