I kept all of our secrets, avoiding people and situations where I might have to explain his behavior; I just didn’t realize I had done it. I had completely isolated myself and allowed him to create my reality. The embarrassment and shame were too much, but somehow, those feelings went away easily if I didn’t acknowledge them out loud. They could be washed away as if he didn’t really mean it that way or that I was reading too much into things, as he often told me. I Am Jess is my story about falling in love with a man I thought loved me, only to find out I’d been emotionally manipulated for years. It’s about realizing afterward that I’d been completely isolated from the truth, not knowing what it meant to be loved. Once the fog began to clear, I found happiness in myself and had a life I was proud to call my own.