[Serious]Men of Reddit who have had an abusive wife or girlfriend, what did you do to get out of it?

We had been dating for a year and I didn't want her moving yet solely because she hadn't held onto a job for longer than three months her whole life. So I told her that. She seemed fine but then started manipulating me. She hated her parents (I'll get to why later) because they were "abusive" towards her. I eventually decided to let her just move in because she's always seemed miserable when she's around their house. She found a job, lost it in three months (shocker), then proceeded to play Rift non-stop while not looking for a job and not doing a damn thing around the house.

Here's her schedule: wake up (well after I go to work), play Rift all day and eat, then go to sleep well after I went to sleep. If I asked her to stop playing Rift, she was either "busy" or would blow up on me about how I don't pay enough attention to her even though I constantly asked her out to do stuff I knew we both like. If I asked her to make something like a grilled cheese or something similarly simple and quick so I can just eat it when I get home, she would make it when she last ate (typically 3-4 hours before I get home) and leave it. If I brought it up, I'm an ungrateful piece of shit. If I pushed her to find a job and stop buying shit on my credit card, I'm being a dictator. I don't remember any of the shit she would say, which is why it sounds less severe than it was, as it was years upon years ago.

It eventually escalated to physical abuse one time. I told her she needs to find a job within the next three months and that if she doesn't find one that she is to leave. If she loses it, she was to leave. I couldn't afford to support her and me anymore even working 60 hours per week to do it. Starts claiming I'm just like her "piece of shit parents", I don't appreciate her, I don't love her, blah, blah, blah. I told her to cut that shit out because her manipulative guilt-trip BS won't work anymore. Told her everything she's doing that's made me feel like she doesn't view me as her boyfriend but rather as a welfare check with legs. She then says she just wants someone to take care of her so she can relax. When I told her that she needs to find someone else because I don't want a 27 year-old daughter, I want an equal. That's when she hits me and starts trying to beat me down with the closest thing she could grab (don't remember what it was, I think it was an iron skillet; all I knew was it hurt and that I'm lucky I didn't have any fractures). Then she left for a few hours. When she came back, she noticed none of her crap was in my house anymore. Told her it was all at her father's and that if she doesn't get off my property that I'd give her far worse than what she gave me. I didn't tell her I reported her to the police.

Though, her life's taken a massive turn for the worst. She ran after she saw the cops; went all the way across the country after manipulating some guy she met on Rift by telling him I became abusive. She cheated on him with his 14 year-old brother and got thrown in prison for it. While she was in Louisiana (before being thrown in prison), she charged $5,000 on my credit card as well. So when she got out and moved back into her father's, the cops met her there and arrested her. So on top of domestic violence and running from the police, she had two counts of felony fraud and is a registered sex offender. The one emotion she has never been capable of faking is remorse and she was arrested for what she did to me a good five years after the fact. I convinced the DA to let her remain "free" if she showed genuine remorse and not only admits to what she did but acknowledge it was wrong without being prompted. She did and even volunteered for community service, which was surprising. A lot of people think she was just saving her ass but anyone who knew her was genuinely surprised, her family included.

The reason was simply because prison and her being free (ie, stuck living with her father because literally nobody else will let her move in with them) would be the same and that the only difference is that she'll be able to interact with her only remaining two friends. Her father and I have always gotten along and he's sided with me every step of the way, even saying that she deserves to be in prison for what she pulled when I dropped her shit off at his house. He's a retired corrections officer who was employed by the prison since his early 20's and he didn't really treat her all that well. They talked when she was in prison and, apparently, she unloaded on him saying she was in therapy and began realizing that the reason she is how she is was due to how she always felt he was her corrections officer and never her father, which I could definitely see in how he treated her before all of this. Supposedly, they have a real father/daughter relationship now and she's actually become productive in and out of the house. I don't want her in my life ever again but I am glad she is finally an adult despite how unfortunate that it took all this to get her to stop acting like an abusive and self-entitled 13 year-old.

/r/AskReddit Thread