title: Gia
author: Fields, M.J.
description: He was handsome and from a good southern family.I was beautiful and didn't know my real family.He was strong and self-confident.I was broken and never knew confidence.He was everything to a girl who had nothing.I was everything to a man who needed nothing.He told me I would be his queenThen, three years later, he stripped me of my crown.Six months into our marriage, I fell down the stairs and broke my arm.At the hospital, I found out I was pregnant.One year later, I ran into a door and hid my black eye behind designer sunglasses and a fake smile.A year after that, pregnant with our second child, we went to meet some of his old college friends in New York City. I took too long to get ready. He told them I had the stomach bug.Nine years ago, I was an eighteen-year-old girl, married to her high school sweetheart turned tormentor.That fateful night in New York City, a cycle was broken. Now, I am empowered ...Today, my name isGia...but only for six weeks out of the year.