“Just the three of us.” For as long as I can remember that was our motto. My mom divorced my brother’s father shortly after I turned five and from then on, we took care of each other. My mom worked all the time to support us and I helped raise my little brother. I grew up fast but I would not have had it another way because it was just the three of us. That is until she married Terry. From that moment on, things started to change; it would never be just the three of us again.

My mom met Terry at the Legion where she played bingo every Thursday and Sunday with her mother. They dated for a while and he moved in with us shortly after they announced their engagement. My brother and I had no problem with it because he was one of the nicest guys we knew. He was not like her other boyfriends: he did not consider us baggage and actually seemed like he wanted to spend time with us. He made my mom happy and he was a nice guy. Who were we to complain?

Terry was so great to my entire family. After he moved in he took over all the bills and he helped with everything. He was great to my brother and me. He took us places we had never been before, he bought us things, and it seemed like he wanted to do anything he could to make us happy. It was like this the whole time they dated, were engaged, and for a while after the wedding. Things did not start to change until about two months after the wedding. It was not one dramatic change but several slow changes.

I did not think anything about them. He would insist that he knew exactly were I was every single minute if the day. Okay, no big deal he was just trying to be a good parent. Then he insisted that I could not go to my best friend’s house until HE met her parents. Now I should tell you that I have known her since we were in the third grade and out mothers were good friends. This was just the start of things. After he met her parents, he insisted that she was a bad influence. He said that she was on drugs, skipped school, and was a slut who was no good. I was no longer allowed to spend any time with her. I begged and pleaded with my mother to talk some sense in to him. This was my best friend. I have known her forever, I practically grew up at her house, and my mom knew that none of what he said was true. She said that she would talk to him, but nothing she said would help. He told her that I had been fooling her all these years and if she wanted me to succeed in life that she needed to monitor my friends more closely. From then on, I was a prisoner in my own house.

Things only got worse when I started seeing a guy from high school, Brian. Terry hated Brian even though he had never met him. He refused to let me see him and said if I did try to see Brian he would make my life a living hell. After I turned 18, there was nothing he could do so I started seeing Brian more and more. Terry was furious, was determined to stop it, and was wiling to go to drastic measures to do so. Those drastic measures became clear one night in early December.

I had gone out with Brian and Nick, one of our good friends, and was at Brian’s house when he called me. He was furious and demanded that I get home now. I did not want to make him any madder so I had Brian drive me home. On the way home, I made some random comment about how I hoped Terry was not waiting outside for us. He was. More importantly, he had a bat.

That night was the beginning of the end. He was arrested and I moved out. I still talk to my mom but it is not the same and I do not think it ever will be. I have only been back a few times since that night, once to get clothing and another to get stuff for college. I have given up on trying to be decent to Terry and just put up with him because he is still married to my mother and I do not want to do anything else that could damage our relationship. I am moving forward now and putting the past behind me. I am not looking back.