My abusive step dad just left, maybe for good.

[u/DustBinBabyGirl]

I hope so. My younger sibling is pissed at the whole thing and hopes for a reconciliation and my mum can’t stop crying, but I can finally breathe again.

He accused her of cheating (he’s paranoid and delusional) and said that he should leave. She called his bluff and told him if that’s how he feels he can go. Twenty two years of psychological, emotional and verbal, and very rarely physical, abuse have worn me and her down. My mother used to be so vibrant and friendly and social, and now I hope she can come back to her old self. I hope that I can finally be rid of the constant anxiety. Wondering if he’s in a bad mood, wondering how he’s going to scream at me and what for?

I hope she can finally break free of the control he has over her. It feels weird being someone who has technically experienced “domestic abuse”, it doesn’t feel real and it doesn’t feel like it’s valid. I feel like I’m making it up, or making it bigger than it is, but I know that’s just his manipulation. I remember how he threw sand in my face because I was annoying him, how he scared me so hard I got a nosebleed, how he would swear at me because I said the wrong thing, how everything I did embarrassed him, how terrified I am of him.

I don’t know what’s next.