This is one woman's story of turning victimhood into survival and what happens when the fairy tale marriage turns out to be a cautionary narrative. Told in first person, "phoenix rising" encapsulates the horror of a husband and father's need to control and abuse those he claims to love and their perseverance to love themselves enough to fight for freedom. In the pursuit of justice, mother and young daughter then enter a different fight for their lives. One with the legal system and its endless bait and switch for protection and a safe new life