Heheld
a blade
tomy
throatand
I thought
ThisisitREAL LIFE
I knewI needed
togetout,but
I wassoscaredTemperamental,
hesmashed
hisownphoneHING
him insecure. And by now,
I was much too scared to
challenge him.
Once, I disappeared to my
friend Stacey’s house, but he
sent me 86 text messages.
In the end, I agreed to
video myself in her home
to prove where I was.
‘Anything for a quiet life,’
I sighed.
But I knew by then that
I needed to get Ian out
of my life.
Yet he’d stopped me
contacting most of my
friends and family.
I felt so trapped, alone.
I knew I had to escape, but I
didn’t know how.
A couple of days later,
we were out with one of
Ian’s friends.
For once, I’d had a nice-
enough morning, chatting
away with Ian and his friend,and enjoying being
out of the flat.
But on the walk home, Ian’s
face was like thunder.
‘You’re sleeping with him,
aren’t you?’ he snapped.
‘What are you talking
about?’ I replied.
‘I saw you flirting with
him,’ Ian blasted as we
walked into my flat.
‘Of course I wasn’t,’ I said.
But after that, Ian was
in a foul mood.
I’d was supposed to be
going to a BBQ at Stacey’s
the next day – but given
Ian’s anger, I decided to
text her to say I wouldn’t
make it.
It wasn’t worth the aggro.
Only, minutes later,
Stacey called
me from
her
boyfriend’s
phone.
She must
have sensed
something
was up.
But before Icould answer, Ian snatched my
mobile out of my hand.
‘Who is this?’ he snarled,
seeing the man’s name.
Without giving me a chance
to answer, Ian threw my phone
to the floor.
He punched
the living-room
door – hard.
Then, he grabbed
the TV, throwing it
off the stand and
onto the floor.
Watching it
smash into pieces,
I screamed, running
into the bedroom.
To my surprise,
Ian didn’t immediately
follow me.
But then I heard him
rifling through the drawers
in the kitchen.
What is he doing?
Seconds later, he burst
into the bedroom looking like
a wild-eyed mad man.
He had a massive kitchen
knife in his hand.
I screamed in terror ashe dived on top of me and
pinned me to the bed. He held
the blade to my throat and I
thought my heart was going
to pound right out of my chest.
This is it,
I thought. I’m going to die.
Ian was totally
out of control.
‘Get him round
here and I will stab
you first and make
him watch, then I
will stab him
through the neck,’
he raged. ‘You’re
swallowing soil,
I’ll slit your throat
and stab you up.’
I couldn’t breathe.
I desperately wanted to open
the bedroom window, scream
for help.
But I didn’t dare. I was
convinced that if I didn’t sit
quietly for the next few hours,
hewouldkillme...THE TRUTH ABOUT IAN