One thing I noticed and was highly irritated by when I was with him was his need to pretty much piss all over what he perceived to be his territory. "My house", "my dogs" "my car", "my this", "my that". It was subtle but it was really telling. Never an "our" in anything. Always "my". We were together almost 7 years.

Since it was "his" house, I never offered to help out with any home improvement projects; either financially or physically. Since those were "his" dogs, he got to take them to the vet when they were in need of care and pay for all of it. He would whine about it, but I would remind him that they are "his" dogs after all so they are 100% his responsibility.

He never seemed to mind helping himself to any and everything that was mine I noticed. He guarded all that he had with his life and would never share any of it while at the same time seizing other people's things as if it was his birth right. He would throw a snit every time I used his car to go somewhere, but thought it totally okay to walk around with the spare key to my car on his key ring. Which I took back after yet another tantrum when I used his car. Trying to pack my stuff to move the hell out of there was real fun. He kept going into anxiety mode whenever I'd clear my things out of a room and box them up. He could NOT BELIEVE I was taking my things - like I was supposed to leave everything of mine for his future use.

I was patient with him, but I was not a fool and he knew I had his number for a few years before the end. I never divulged my income to him, never entered into any joint financial dealings with him; he knew nothing about my assets or net worth. It was none of "his" business, as far as I was concerned. He asked many times about it and I wouldn't have that discussion with him, so then he just got pissed off and accused me of being secretive. Yes, I WAS secretive - because he is untrustworthy and since we weren't married, he was not entitled to know anything about my financial life. The only reason he ever wanted to know about it was to "keep score" - so he could use it as a benchmark to gauge whether or not he was superior to me in that regard too. I also knew a lot of his financial life; but he knew nothing about mine and that bugged the hell out of him.

He made the comment to me one time that "information is power". I never forgot it and never gave him another piece of it after that statement. I felt like I had just been through 7 years of psychological warfare when I left. I'm still exhausted.