18.
“I had been dating my boyfriend at the time for two years. He kept talking to me about marriage and family and how ‘when we get married’ – you know, this and that. It was my 21st birthday, and he told me he was going to get me something. We were looking for rental apartments to move into Together. He asked me to take his coat out of his car. When I returned, I handed him the coat. He threw it back to me and said, “I think there’s something in the pocket?” Then he asked me to take it out. It was a small box, I opened it, and it was a cute promise ring. I got excited and said, “What does this mean?” He said: You know what that means. I was so excited that I didn’t realize I’d never been asked. He just assumed he didn’t have to ask me because it was a ring.
“That was later I found out that his controlling parents said they would disown him if we moved and got a place together before we got married. I was so stupid, young and ignorant. I never wished I had not married him, but only because I would not have had two beautiful daughters without him. We ended up eloping because we were moving into that apartment soon. I wish I could run sometimes instead of wasting 10 years of my life on someone who wanted me to be his wife, mother of his children, maid, cook, secretary, maid – all because he didn’t have a backbone and let us. Being bullied into getting married before we live together. It would have saved me thousands from the divorce that was a nightmare, the trauma my daughters and I dealt with after I left him, and the abuse I suffered at the hands of his “perfect” parents. Vomit!”
—bethanjauron1