I guess I just need to talk this out. But anyway. I come from a very religious and conservative family and I had a difficult time with them. Anyway, when I was 16 I met this guy who seemed very nice, kind, and smart. He seemed perfect. He was smart and went to a top private school he was president of multiple clubs, he had a nice body, blonde hair, and blue eyes enjoyed dressing is nice menswear, and was very rich. We started talking daily and he said he liked me and we started dating. However a bit into our relationship I noticed some things that upset me. He heavily wanted to control my life and dismissed my passions. However, I grew up learning that a woman is meant to listen to and respect a man so I thought I was just being overly sensitive. I sucked it up and got used to it. Eventually, I get completely fed up with my family and it becomes physically unsafe for me to live there. So he offers for me to live with him. We start living together.

We graduate high school go to the same university and continue to live together. I broke my leg and at the time he was my main caregiver through this hard time but no one was taking my need for his assistance seriously as he was just my boyfriend. He eventually asks me to marry him and as the woman, it is my job to respect his wishes we were already living together and "doing it" so this seemed natural, this also meant that people may respect my need for him to medically take care of me more. So we got married only 2 months after I turned 18.

Things continue and there are many issues. He starts to demand sex and talks about how much I don't love him if I say no for hours until I gave up and said yes. Or he would just do it anyway. He wanted me to do the vast majority of all housework. I did everything other than him cooking like 2 nights a week. Even though we were both full-time students and I was taking more classes than him. He tried to dictate my school work and how many classes I took and even wanted me to go below the amount I need for my 20k scholarship (he had no intention of paying for the lost scholarship).

He would get angry about the fact he was paying for nearly everything (he was a multi-millionaire and I would have been homeless without him), so I work a job, he gets angry at me for working because I don't give enough time to him, etc. I eventually get an amazing full-time summer job that pays very well and intend on taking 2 very easy classes on top of it (these classes were about 4 hrs a week of work) he says if I talk these classes he will kick me out. He also says that I should stop doing school the fall after that summer too. I think he was worried because I was graduating a year early due to financial issues and he was not.

Anyway later on he has a mental health crisis and completely takes it out on me. It gets to the point where I am afraid for my physical safety (which I believe I had good reason for as you will soon hear). So I leave and stay at a friend's and then a hotel for a few days. 3 days after I leave the cat I adopted who is still living with him (as I couldn't take her to the friends or hotel) starts experiencing terrible unprecedented neurological issues. This was a completely healthy cat I took care of all her vet work she had absolutely nothing wrong with her at all at the vet visit we went to just a month earlier. She then passes away two days later (5 days after I left). And yes I do believe he had something to do with her passing. Therefore I am very glad I got out of that house when I did if he did something like that.

Anyway, he gets over his mental health crisis and provides no apology for how he treated me through it. He get angry at me for asking for an apology and I decide I cannot do this anymore and got divorced 1 month after I turn 20. No, I did not take any of his money I let him keep everything I just wanted to get away and not interact with him again.

It's a few months later and things are hard. Very few people knew we were married and therefore can't provide support because to them it's just a break up not a divorce. I don't know how to even talk about this to others because I don't think many people my age can even understand what this is like. It is a very hard and isolating experience but I am working on moving forward.

Here is the positive note. Despite everything, I am graduating college this May at 20 years old from one of the universities in the world with an engineering degree and the highest honors. I will then be starting my Ph.D. (fully funded) at the best university in the world for what I am studying. I have and will continue to persist despite everything but that does not mean this experience has hurt me a lot.