“He brings out the worst in me.” as a couple they reveal their darkest sides

Intensive. This is how Xavier, a 44-year-old bar manager, describes his love story with Charlotte, a temporary agency manager who is five years younger than him. Fiery declarations, bouquets of roses, surprise weekends in Amsterdam, London, Marrakesh, but also arguments, insults and blows. Xavier and Charlotte are two people who have been affected by life. Injuries that brought them together, but also tore them apart. “Xavier has always been a fiery person, but with Charlotte he lost control,” assures Penelope*, a forty-year-old childhood friend. It was she who, after two years of being a helpless witness to what she describes as a “descent into hell,” realized that everyone was fighting the same demons. “Penelope is one of the rare ones who knows everything about me, especially the rape…” Xavier modestly confides. He found some signs in Charlotte and thanks to him I understood. Like Javier, Charlotte was indeed sexually assaulted…