Three days after our wedding, my husband Ryan hit me because I refused to carry a dinner plate to his twenty-four-year-old sister, Chloe, while she sat watching television. I had prepared the meal after a full day at work, yet he stood in my kitchen with one hand still raised and told me, “Look what you made me do.” When I said he had chosen to hit me, he ordered me to clean the broken plate, prepare another serving, and stop embarrassing him. The townhouse belonged to me, but he spoke as though I were a servant in my own home. When I said I was calling the police, Chloe grabbed my phone, secretly placed the emergency call, and told me to lock myself upstairs. Ryan seized her wrist and blocked the hallway until officers began pounding on the front door. Then Chloe revealed that Ryan had done the same thing to his former fiancée, Melissa, even though he had told me she died in a car accident. A security camera above the kitchen doorway had recorded the assault, his demands, and his attempt to stop me from calling for help. Police arrested him, and after he was released on bond, threatening messages began arriving from unknown numbers. One included a photograph of our marriage certificate and the words, “You belong to me now. Fix this.” The next morning, Melissa warned me to check every account connected to my house before Ryan took everything.
