It didn't take physical violence for Nikki's relationship to become controlling and abusive.
And when she ended it after years of turmoil, she joined countless victim-survivors in knowing the threat was not over.
"The abuse doesn't end at separation, it just changes form," Nikki, who asked to use a pseudonym, told AAP.
In fact, the number of domestic and family violence incidents across Victoria involving former partners has surpassed current partners for the past four years.
The figures were uncovered as part of investigative podcast There's No Place Like Home: After she leaves, which details underestimated risks of abuse post-separation.
In the 12 months to October 2024, 28,701 family violence incidents involving a current partner were reported to Victoria Police compared to 34,380 involving a former partner.
Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway, who leads Victoria Police's family violence responses, said the end of a relationship often marks a new stage of abuse.
"The ability of people once the relationship is over, to actually continue to have quite pervasive contact with the person, whether it's through looking at them through Facebook or tracking them through surveillance, we do know that technology-facilitated abuse is on the rise," she told the podcast.
For Nikki, discovering her partner had created fake profiles purporting to be her on adult websites was the final straw.
"Up until that moment, I really held hope. They keep you in this cycle of, you know, altering between being abusive and then being the person they met when you first met them," she said.
"When I saw that crime, I was like, 'oh my God, I've got to find a way out', but it took me a bit over two years to eventually get away.
"Abuse doesn't end at separation but the way they can abuse obviously has to alter, because you're not physically in their presence."
In 2024, 101 women were allegedly murdered by a man in Australia, according to Australian Femicide Watch.
The spike in deaths resulted in the federal government funding a $1 billion program to provide payments to people fleeing domestic violence.
