Shamelessly ripped from the Randa's recent story:

“Listen, baby girl,” she said, “love isn’t logical. It’s not supposed to be. It’s deep and mysterious and full of confusion and contradictions. People click, or they don’t, but whatever happens when you fall in love is too powerful to ignore. Just because it’s not ‘smart’ to love someone doesn’t mean you can just stop. That’s why so many girls end up stuck in abusive relationships. It’s not that they want to get hurt. They just can’t leave. Because when you fall in love, logic takes a vacation and doesn’t bother coming back.”

I gave her a long look, and after a minute, she nodded. “Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt – along with the bruises, broken bones, and whatever else he did to me before I ran. Even when I was gone, I kept thinking about him, wondering if he was okay. Wondering if maybe since he drove me away, he’d learned his lesson. Part of me wanted to leave the shelter and go back, see if he’d changed. But then one of the other women did just that, and spent three weeks in intensive care before she died.”

Also, it's that it has been so long, they have forgotten what real life was like and how to function normally. It leaves much more than physical damage.

Faraway