Another second chance
I found happiness after living through hell – then that was snatched away, too Jessica Criswell, 32
He had dragged me along the driveway by my hair
Heart thumping, I read the message again.
I can find you a safe place to live.
I couldn’t believe it but my old school friend Justin Mullins had just sent me a lifeline...
It was March 2010, and Justin had contacted me out the blue on Facebook.
And when I’d confided that my husband Tom was violent, he’d offered to help me escape with our son Aeiden, then 5 months.
The thought terrified me.
I’d met Tom in December 2008 when he’d been doing construction work at the care home where I worked.
Tall and handsome, he’d been a real gent. At first...
Within four months, I’d fallen pregnant.
Only, Tom’s temper soon started to show.
Our arguments got more heated, until one day, when
I was seven months pregnant, he’d hit me for the first time. He’d promised to change, for the sake of our baby. But after Aeiden was born in October 2009, Tom’s violent outbursts only got worse.
Whenever he got mad, he’d choke me, throw me on the floor gasping for breath.
During one row, he’d punched me in the face, dragged me along the driveway by my hair.
‘You tell anyone and I’ll kill you and your family,’ he had seethed.
I lived in fear. Only, now Justin had offered me a way out.
So while Tom was at work, I packed our things and fled.
Tom bombarded me with texts, e-mails and phone calls.
You better come back, he threatened.
Instead, I found my feet in my new life.
And soon, I started falling in love with Justin.
My real-life white knight. For the first time in years, I felt safe.
Determined to move on, I agreed Tom could see Aeiden once a week.
At 5pm on 27 May 2010, I arrived at a nearby petrol station where I’d arranged to hand Aeiden to Tom’s mum, so I didn’t have to see him.
Only, as I got out the car, Tom himself pulled up.
‘Why have you been ignoring my calls?’ he boomed, running towards me.
Before I knew what was happening, he grabbed me around the neck.
‘Stop!’ I wheezed.
But he squeezed tighter and I heard Aeiden, then 7 months, crying in the back of the car.
My legs shook as Tom smashed my head against the car door.
‘Please, no!’ I screamed. But he punched me in the face.
My vision went blurry. I coughed up blood. But Tom kicked me in the face repeatedly.
I cried out in agony as he pulled my head down and smashed it against the concrete.
‘You’re going to kill her!’ I heard someone shout.
Finally, Tom let go, jumped
in his car and sped off.
There was blood everywhere, my right eye was swollen shut and my face felt numb. I passed out – and when I came to, I was being put into a helicopter.
I was airlifted to Bayfront Hospital, Tampa, where doctors discovered my right eye was split wide open.
Tom had hit me so hard, he’d blinded me.
My left eye socket was fractured, my nose was detached from my skull and I had teeth missing. But I was alive. ‘I’m so sorry I wasn’t there,’ wept Justin, sitting by my bedside.
But it wasn’t his fault. Tom was a monster.
While Justin looked after Aeiden, I had emergency surgery on my eye and nose.
Two days later, Tom turned himself in.
In February 2011, Tom Kovach, 31, was jailed for 15 years for second-degree attempted murder.
It was a huge relief, and my divorce from Tom was soon finalised.
But, disfigured, blind in one eye, I jumped at the slightest noise.
If it wasn’t for Aeiden and Justin, I wouldn’t have recovered.
After living through hell, it was time for happiness.
In June 2011 I married Justin on Treasure Island Beach, here in Florida.
Aeiden started calling him Daddy – and for two years, I finally knew the meaning of true love.
Then in March 2013, me and Justin were riding his motorbike along a busy bridge in Tampa.
Suddenly, Justin slumped forward.
‘Justin!’ I screamed, desperately hitting him to wake him up.
But the bike veered off the road.
Justin fell off, into traffic and got hit by two trucks.
I fell the opposite direction and came within feet of being run over.
How the car stopped in time I’ll never know. Paramedics told me Justin’s heart had stopped because of an unknown infection called histoplasmosis, caused by breathing in spores of a fungus.
He’d been dead before he hit the road.
I was devastated. While my body had escaped with cuts and grazes, my heart had never known pain like it .
I’d cheated death twice, but I didn’t feel lucky. Just numb.
For months, I spent hours just sitting by Justin’s grave.
‘When is Daddy coming home?’ Aeiden asked.
‘He’s not, son,’ I wept.
How can I go on without him? But I carried on for Aeiden. In September 2013, I was so lonely, I joined a dating site.
But my heart wasn’t in it...and I was just about to give up when I got a message from Jeramy Criswell, 32.
We agreed to meet – and from that first date, he was so positive.
It rubbed off on me.
I told him about Tom, about Justin, and my broken heart.
And with Jeramy, it began to heal. We fell in love.
He took Aeiden to visit Justin’s graveside and was there for us.
In July 2014, our son Peyton was born, and in June 2016, Jeramy and
I married.
That same year, I had a prosthetic eye put in, which gave me more confidence.
And last year, I opened a charity shop to raise money for domesticviolence survivors.
Aeiden, 10, still thinks of Justin as his dad.
But he once asked about Tom, now 38. So I told him the truth.
‘He attacked me and now he’s in jail,’ I said.
He took it well. He’s been through so much...we both have.
I know it made me the strong woman I am today, and I’m thankful for all
I have now.
I’ll never forget Justin.
How he saved me and loved me.
But I’m forever grateful for my second second chance.
My heart had never known pain like it. How can I go on?