“But ignorance manufactures denial. So though my eyes were sometimes black or swollen, my lips puffy or busted, though I often intentionally wore clothes that would hide the black and blue bruises scattered all over my body, or grit my teeth through the pain in an effort to walk so I could look as if nothing were wrong – when in fact my entire body was sore – I believed that as long as he didn’t break any bones, it wasn’t really violence.”
