Because he loved her

It was the middle of the summer in Chicago. I had just gotten home from a day at the beach with a couple of my friends. I hadn't been in the house for five minutes before my cell phone rang.
"Hello?" I answered, still jolly from my previous activities.
"He did it again, Ky!" the voice on the other end of the telephone shivered in fear. It was my best friend, Terra Smith*.
"Okay, I'm on my way." I jumped in my car and rushed to the house my friend shared with her boyfriend. When I got there the front door was unlocked so I burst into the house and called for my friend.
"TERRA!" I screamed. I jogged to the back of the house where the bathroom was located. Terra was sitting on the edge of tub with her head tilted back pressing a blood- soaked face towel against her nose.
"Oh my God Terra! Let me see," tears welled up in my eyes. This wasn't the first time that Terra's boyfriend had hit her. She'd endured black eyes, broken bones and fat lips as a result of his unmanageable temper. I'd asked her time and time again why she stayed with someone like that? Her only response was that he said that he loved her and she knew that one day he would change. I think we both knew better.
Terra's left eye was swollen shut. I could see red marks around her neck where he'd, obviously, choked her.
"What happened this time, Terra?" I asked as I nursed Terra's wounds.
She opened her mouth but didn't speak. I gently grabbed her wrist and led her into the living room. We sat on the couch and she laid her head in my lap. I gently rubbed her head to let her know that I was there for her. A couple of minutes of silence passed before she spoke, "I told him about the baby."
Even though this was the first time I was hearing about her pregnancy, I let her finish the story.
"He told me the he wasn't ready for no kids and that I better get an abortion."
I could feel the warm liquid from Terra's eyes drip onto my bare legs. I wiped my own tears and continued to caress Terra's hair.
"You know I can't do that, Ky."
"I know, baby."
Terra went on to explain that Mike*, her boyfriend, then choked her until she fell out and waited for her wake up so that he could beat her again.
"He kicked and punched me," more tears, "I think he was trying to kill the baby."
I struggled hard to fight back tears, I was trying to be strong for Terra, but I hated to see her like this.
"Terra, I'm going to go grab you some clothes and then I'mma take you to the hospital," I wiped away some tears, "but after that we're going back to my house. You're gonna come stay with us for a little while. You can't keep living like this."
Much to my surprise, Terra agreed to come with me. She stayed with me for four months but eventually Mike's pleading calls and empty promises to be a better man and take care of her and the baby, persuaded Terra back home. Things were going great for her at first but Mike went back to his old ways in Terra's eighth month. He beat her so bad that he killed the baby but she was so far along that she still had to give birth. The doctors were going to endure Terra's labor the next evening. She was instructed to go home and get some things and come back to check in to the hospital. Terra never got the chance to give birth to her dead son. On February, 6, 2005 Terra died by the hands of her boyfriend. Mike had choked the mother of his child to death. I miss Terra so much and I wish that there was something I could've done to help her. Sometimes I feel like I didn't do enough but at the end of the day you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved.
I tell this story to let young women know that love is pain but not abuse. If you are being abused you need to leave before it's too late. Don't let Terra's story go unheard. If a man hits you and promises to change but he doesn't then he won't and he doesn't love you. I need women to know that they are better and deserve better than that.

* Names have been changed for protection