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You can hear the tension in Sarah’s voice before the first promise breaks. We open with care—clear content warnings, boundaries—then step into the hardest rooms of her life: three relationships that sold safety and delivered control. Each man arrives with a storyline of protection, family, or stability. Each one, in time, uses that storyline to manage her money, movements, and mind. We trace how love bombing recycles after breakups, how “screening” and “systems” can mask coercion, and how a dog’s collar on a kitchen table becomes the spark for a terrifying eruption of violence.

We also rewind to where the pattern takes root. Sarah is hungry, isolated, and young; survival means unlocked car doors, weekend begging scripts, and arrests that deepen a trauma bond with Boyfriend B. Affection is followed by paranoia, possessiveness, and neglect that stains the house and her memory. Later, Boyfriend C offers the feeling of being chosen—until a laugh triggers an assault in a hotel room. That barefoot run into the night marks a boundary: she will no longer accept harm disguised as love. It’s not a tidy victory, but it’s a turning point.

Beyond partners, we confront the power of institutions. An ex-husband in uniform stretches time as a weapon, exploiting stigma around sex work to strip her of credibility in court. Police call it “civil,” leaving her parked and powerless; a judge eventually recognizes the pattern, awarding a partial, imperfect balance. Through it all, Sarah keeps working, saving, and asking for help even when it costs her dignity—because survival is logistics as much as courage.

This chapter closes with a chill: the worst man is still ahead, and he’s the reason she still looks over her shoulder. Yet there’s community now—listeners who can witness, share, donate, and call to leave words she can carry. If the story moved you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs the pattern map, and leave a review so more people can find it. Your voice helps make safety possible.

🚨🚨Help Sarah get to safety:🚨🚨

✨👉 CookinCleaninMama’s Linktree 👈✨

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 OR text begin to 88788

Give me a call! 1-844-TELLDTS

Come join our community of survivors who are looking to meet someone just like you! See the behind the scenes work that goes into the sisterhood non-profit business, discuss DTS episodes, and of course find your survivor sister.

🔗 Follow Along:

• TikTok: @thedvsurvivor
• Instagram: @thedvsurvivorsisterhood
• Join the Sisterhood! The Survivor Sisterhood

Ready to share your story? Send me an email with the main talking points of your experience and I'll reach out to book an interview.

dismissedtruestories@thesurvivorsisterhood.com

Give DTS a 5 star rating! It helps this podcast reach other victims and survivors who NEED these stories! Help us find each other, help us heal, and help us find safety. Love you, mean it.

All sound and music courtesy of Epidemic Sound

Send us a text

The house was empty, the texts unanswered, and the silence said everything. After exposing a devastating betrayal—her husband’s affair with her mother—Sarah tried to rebuild the “right” way: a prepaid year of rent, a steady job, a car, and a simple plan to co‑parent. What followed maps the hidden terrain many survivors know too well: when direct control ends, post‑separation abuse slips into new uniforms—rumors, court filings, custody leverage, and a “civil matter” that keeps you paying to be heard.

We walk through the playbook. A smear from someone tied to law enforcement turns gossip into “fact.” A protection order becomes a wall between a mother and her children. Each court date bleeds savings. Each knock on a family door goes ignored. Then a single workplace policy violation triggers job loss; the title loan eats the car after a breakdown; rent runs out. Hunger narrows choices until the only option left is the one most people don’t want to understand: survival sex framed as a last, painful way to afford a lawyer and claw back access to her kids. It’s not glamour. It’s the economics of trauma meeting the bureaucracy of custody.

We also name the psychology underneath. When lies come from the people who raised and married you, red flags blur; danger can feel like care. Sarah’s clarity grows as she traces gaslighting, coercive control, and the difference between discipline and abuse. Along the way, we offer language for what’s happening—post‑separation abuse, systems abuse, reputational harm—so listeners can spot it in their lives and communities. And we point to concrete supports: hotlines, documentation, trauma‑informed strategy, and a verified GoFundMe to help Sarah secure safety as her former abuser nears release.

If this story moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it, leave us a review to boost survivor voices, and call 1-844-TELL-DTS to leave your thoughts. Your share might be the lifeline another listener is waiting for.

🚨🚨Help Sarah get to safety:🚨🚨

✨👉 CookinCleaninMama’s Linktree 👈✨

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 OR text begin to 88788

Give me a call! 1-844-TELLDTS

Come join our community of survivors who are looking to meet someone just like you! See the behind the scenes work that goes into the sisterhood non-profit business, discuss DTS episodes, and of course find your survivor sister.

🔗 Follow Along:

• TikTok: @thedvsurvivor
• Instagram: @thedvsurvivorsisterhood
• Join the Sisterhood! The Survivor Sisterhood

Ready to share your story? Send me an email with the main talking points of your experience and I'll reach out to book an interview.

dismissedtruestories@thesurvivorsisterhood.com

Give DTS a 5 star rating! It helps this podcast reach other victims and survivors who NEED these stories! Help us find each other, help us heal, and help us find safety. Love you, mean it.

All sound and music courtesy of Epidemic Sound

Send us a text

A uniform, a cigarette break, and a teenager who just wanted to feel seen—what starts as attention quickly reveals the blueprint of grooming and coercive control. We follow Sarah as a 16-year-old pulled into an adult’s orbit, pressured into marriage through a pregnancy ultimatum, and cut off from school, work, and friends. The twist that lands like a gut punch: the person who should have protected her becomes part of the harm, pushing “practical” choices that deepen dependency and, later, crossing a boundary that shatters trust at its core.

Across the conversation, we map the mechanics of abuse in plain language: how image and authority hide predatory behavior, why gaslighting targets your sense of reality, and how economic abuse traps survivors even when the truth is in their hands. Sarah’s story makes visible the quiet tactics—smear narratives, isolation, financial leverage—that turn a normal request for a break into “proof” of unfitness. When emails expose an affair denied to her face, the denial continues, under the guise of “counseling for the kids.” We talk frankly about why leaving isn’t simple when you have no GED, no savings, and a baby in your arms, and we point to what real support should look like: safe housing, childcare, documentation, and people who believe you before the receipts show up.

You’ll leave with a clearer lens for red flags—age secrecy, ultimatums, control of money and movement, triangulation inside a family—and a renewed respect for survivor instincts. If this story hits close to home, know you’re not alone and that help exists. Share this episode with someone who needs a reality check about coercive control, and if you have thoughts or a story to add, call 1-844-TELL-DTS. Subscribe, leave a review, and help us reach more listeners who might still be searching for the words to name what they’re living.

🚨🚨Help Sarah get to safety:🚨🚨

✨👉 CookinCleaninMama’s Linktree 👈✨

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233 OR text begin to 88788

Give me a call! 1-844-TELLDTS

Come join our community of survivors who are looking to meet someone just like you! See the behind the scenes work that goes into the sisterhood non-profit business, discuss DTS episodes, and of course find your survivor sister.

🔗 Follow Along:

• TikTok: @thedvsurvivor
• Instagram: @thedvsurvivorsisterhood
• Join the Sisterhood! The Survivor Sisterhood

Ready to share your story? Send me an email with the main talking points of your experience and I'll reach out to book an interview.

dismissedtruestories@thesurvivorsisterhood.com

Give DTS a 5 star rating! It helps this podcast reach other victims and survivors who NEED these stories! Help us find each other, help us heal, and help us find safety. Love you, mean it.

All sound and music courtesy of Epidemic Sound