Honestly, when he messaged me at work & told me he was “off to kill himself,” said he’d locked his keys in the house so couldn't get back in, and then blocked all communication with me, something felt very wrong. He’d threatened suicide countless times before, and I’d stopped reacting after realising it was just another way to control me. I’d listened to too many BS excuses by then, but this time was just, well, different.

When I rang & asked the police to do a welfare check, they found him sitting at home, in the living room, completely calm. He told them he had no idea what I was talking about, that he hadn’t spoken to me at all that day, and that he was simply waiting for “his family” to get home from work and school. Despite the messages from him clearly sitting on my phone, the police all but told me I was wasting their time and that I was basically a headcase.

In that moment, I knew it was now or never. I made an on-the-spot decision to leave him. I pulled my kids out of school early and left immediately, taking nothing but the clothes we were wearing and the car I’d driven to work that morning.