As Jacquelyn Ann sat alone in the airport, she ignored his desperate pleas to bring her back to the hell her life had become. Every part of her felt wracked with anguish, after months of intense drug use and violent, soul-destroying domestic abuse.
When he first entered her life three years earlier, Jacquelyn was a divorcee in her late forties, with an established teaching career. At first, he seemed perfect. Captivating and intriguing, he had her under his spell from the moment she met him. He quickly formed friendships with her three adult sons and young daughter, fitting perfectly into their lives. But while Jacquelyn was certain she had finally found her soul mate, the one she would spend the rest of her life with, he was busy planning his next move.
What followed were patterns of cruel emotional abuse and violent physical punishment that left her terrified and broken. Her friends and family had never understood why she had stayed with him for so long. How could they? She didn't understand it herself. They had no idea of her promise to keep his secrets. Or how that promise created a malignant trauma bond to him, which led to her own destructive drug addiction. She lost herself in a world of darkness she could never have envisioned, culminating in one last night of terror.
Now, as Jacquelyn sat alone in the airport, she wondered how she would ever come back from the chaos she had been a part of. How would she ever repair the broken relationships with her family, her friends and her children? And how would she ever get any semblance of her life back again, to find the compassionate ambitious teacher she once was, beneath the bruised and broken addict she had become?
An inspiring memoir of courage, strength and survival, 'From the Other Side' takes the reader into the frightening world of drug addiction, coercive control and domestic violence. Jacquelyn's story shows that even an educated woman with life experience can fall prey to drug addiction and the insidious effects of a psychopath.
A captivating must-read for anyone who has ever lost hope - either for themselves or for a treasured loved one.
