Sarah never thought she would become that woman, the one who flinches when a hand is raised, who walks on eggshells in her own home, who wears long sleeves in the heat of to hide bruises or the one who covers her face with layers of make-up to hide a black eye or swollen lip.

She had grown up hearing stories of battered women and wondered why they didn’t just leave. It seemed so simple. Until it happened to her.

Sarah met Daniel in her early 20s. He was charming, ambitious and attentive- everything she thought she wanted in a partner. When he asked her to move in after only six months, she was flattered. “It felt like love,” she recalls.