Coping with Divorce or Separation

a lawyer called my husband's past behavior as being financially abusive. He has been very controlling with money to a point when I wanted to check and see if the accountant had filed taxes (because I believed that my husband had not given the accountant the papers), my husband said I could call her but if I did then I would not get a new (used) car I had been looking at. I never did get it anyway.

He also came in one day and said he needed to save up to pay off his IRS debt and so he was cutting my money that he was giving me by two thirds. Meanwhile, he was not cutting his own money by any amount. This is while we were still together and I was paying every single bill and keeping our family going. I had to basically throw a tantrum saying our family could not live on that (he tried to blame me and said it should come out of the expense money because it was my idea he pay his taxes) and telling him someone around him must understand what a strain this would put on our family and I would go to his dad and all of his friends and see if they could talk sense into him.

When I left he would not even give me half the money in alimony each month and I did not have the $7500 to give to a lawyer for a retainer.

He has been financially and mentally abusive to me.