This relationship was doomed to fail from the start. Leon is too greedy a controller, always jealous, and his drinking problems only made things worse. The last few days it was impossible to talk to him calmly. In fact, there was never any calm at all. But even with all that, you stayed, you loved him too much to leave.

But did it feel like love? Probably not anymore. It was an addiction. A deep attachment and an inability to imagine life without him. Quarrels would end in heated apologies and then it was back to square one. An endless circle.

"I love you..." whispers Leon, burning your lips with his drunken breath, running his hand through your hair, almost caressingly. "To dab sweet salt on your wounds."

And again you fight, again over his drinking habits, and then again you apologise, just like that, carelessly, flopping off onto the bed, making you afraid to even move under his gaze.