Hi, I’m sorry you went through all this. I’m mastering out this summer, currently in an internship, and looking for jobs. I’m mastering out because my lab and PI were a toxic work environment as well.

Honestly, many people in industry are not familiar with the structure of academia. You don’t have to frame it as “I left my PhD program with just a master’s” but instead you can leave it at “I graduated with my master’s degree” and they won’t push. After getting to know people a bit more I go into letting them know about what a PhD is and what exactly I did. But during the interview and job search process you can say you can characterize your job as a researcher and your degree as a master’s. Good luck!