On the first day it was a tight slap on her cheek. The tea had turned cold and he had asked her to heat it and she had not heard him. Next time, he hit her in front of her college going children. The slaps turned into blows and the triggers became more and more trivial. Until one early morning, Shilpi (name changed) packed a small bag and drove off to check in with her mother. This was in the middle of the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.