It wouldn’t have taken long. She was intelligent and adaptive, responsive to feedback. All her ex would’ve had to do was present her with plausible reasoning for each change. There was a certain talent in making every argument sound like a reasonable idea.
“It happened a little at a time, and then suddenly I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself anymore.” She huffed out a laugh devoid of anything close to happiness. “I was texting him for permission to spend money on anything over five dollars. I was taking pictures of anything I intended to buy for myself and showing it to him for his approval before I bought it. My clothing style had changed, even my reading choices. All because I wanted to please him, wanted him to like every aspect of what I was for him. I was doing the work of his administrative assistant because I could do it faster and better than she could. It didn’t matter that I was overqualified and not paid at all. I was helping my fiancée. It didn’t even occur to me to make it a matter of pride.”
Of course not. She was a generous soul. It’d shone in the way she’d immediately jumped into helping Boom. There’d been no expectation there. Not from Elisa’s side. “The first time I questioned him, he just went silent.” There was a tremor in her voice. “He stared at me a long time, and just when I was about to apologize, he exploded right in my face. He screamed at me.”
Souze shifted his position, getting closer to her, if that was possible, and curving his body around her. The dog was reacting to her distress and protecting her from the remembered onslaught.
“After that, anything could set him off. It was like his tolerance had gone to nothing and everything I did was an unthinkable insult to him. He wouldn’t stop shouting, screaming, throwing things until the room around us was wrecked.” Elisa started rocking slightly back and forth in an unconscious effort to comfort herself, too.
Explained her flinching at sudden movement and abrupt noises.
“It was escalating.” All at once she stilled and looked down at Souze. Gently, she fondled the tips of the GSD’s ears. Her voice had gone utterly calm. “He was going to hit me eventually. Almost did, once or twice. And I realized I needed to leave or I’d never get my life back.”
Thank god she’d left before the man had actually laid hands on her. No one should have to live in a violent environment, but the emotional and mental damage could’ve gone from bad to exponentially worse. Souze sat up, snuffling his hair, and Elisa sat quietly petting him for a long minute or two. Rojas ached to hold her, comfort her.
“When I went to the police to report my concerns, they treated me like someone’s prize show dog loose from the kennel. I wasn’t a person. They wouldn’t even look me in the eye.” The bitterness was back in her voice, plus some heat.
Her anger was a relief to hear. Anything was better than the flat, monotone calm she’d spoken with before.
“It took forever to actually get any advice on how to get away on my own.” She adjusted her sitting position until her legs were crossed in front of her. Leaning forward, she touched her forehead with Souze’s. “It’s out there for women who need it, but the first thing it warns you about is the need to hide the fact you’re looking for it from the person you’re trying to leave. Joseph is really good at what he does. As a project manager, I figured I had decent tech savvy, but what he could do made me realize just how much I didn’t know about computers and the Internet.”
Rojas nodded even if she couldn’t see him. There could’ve been keystroke trackers on the personal computers she was using before she left. Her ex could’ve been monitoring what websites she was visiting, her phone conversations, maybe even intercepting the streaming video from calls made on Internet-based calling software.
“I did my best. Only looked through pamphlets and written materials at the doctor’s office. I memorized as much as I could and didn’t take anything home.” She left off petting Souze for a moment as she looked up at the sky. “I tried to be sure not to leave any clues on anything he might’ve touched. I just couldn’t be sure how far he’d gone to keep track of me, but I didn’t want to wait until he’d done something I couldn’t undo.”
Souze apparently decided she’d had enough of a break and gently tapped her leg with a paw a few times. She huffed out a laugh and started to pet him again. “So I waited until he had an important set of business meetings, a new project launching. The special project, the one even the government couldn’t know about because he had other backers paying for it. Crunch time. Couldn’t be a business trip because he’d have just taken me with him. And I went on one of my normal approved outings to run some errands, then visit my mother.”