Child Abuse Story From Lexi

by Lexi
(USA)

The Secret I Wouldn't Tell: 
It all started one morning when I was seven. My sister and I were getting ready to go to school. My stepfather, known to me as Dad, and I had gotten in a minor fight about wearing gloves to school. When I didn't give him the answer he wanted he picked me up off the stairs and pushed me into the corner of the wall. After that nothing really happened besides yelling a lot at me and my sister. My grandmother had later told me even before then she had always notice my stepfather "nagging" telling me all the things I did wrong but nothing I did right.

Nothing happened for a few months. Then we got in a fight again about having enough time before school to get something. Once again he didn't like the answer I gave him so he picked me off the stairs and instead of pushing threw me into the corner of the wall. From that point on my sister and I were terrified of my stepfather. He would yell all the time, calling us idiots and pieces of shit. Being seven and eight we weren't old enough to completely understand what was going on. When we tried to tell my mom, she pushed us away and said we were "over exaggerating." That was always her excuse. So not thinking it was that bad we didn't do anything. The words and the yelling kept coming but the hitting and pushing stopped for some time.

Then one summer day, I was about 12, I accidentally broke a part of the tent my sister and I would sleep in with our friends. My dad freaked out and dragged me inside put me across he knee and spanked me 4 very hard times. My sister seeing the whole thing sat there terrified as he threw me off his knee onto the floor. We then called my grandmother and she came to get us. Every time we would tell her about something like this she would say she was going to call Social Services, but every time it happened again and again and nothing changed. Little things like being grabbed by the arms leaving bruises, or getting a book thrown at me and my sister. It happened at least once or twice a month. My mom stopped being home as much and spent more time at "work" which gave my stepfather more time to push us around.

Then one summer Social Services showed up at my house and asked for my parents. Since I was home alone they decided to come back later. My mom told me and my sister if we told the truth to them we would end up in foster care and never see our family again. So when the lady came back we told her nothing had happened and lied. And since my dad was a doctor she just dismissed the case. I wanted so badly for her to see through me and tell that I was lying but I was too scared. All of my friends or most of them know what my stepdad does. None of them don't get why I just don't tell. The thing is, I don't want to break apart my family...I've talked to my sister many times. She wants people to think we have a perfect family and I will do anything to make her happy and my mom.

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