My wife's first marriage was ended because her husband was abusive. She admitted to me that when we first started dating and started to get serious she would do things just to see what my reaction would be. We would argue but she found out that I would never lay a hand on her. It took a pretty good while before she felt that she would be safe with me. We have been married for 34 years now.
My grand-daughter would bring some of her boyfriends over to our house and when I found the time to be along with him I would tell him that we helped with raising her and that she was my world. I told him if he ever laid a hand on her that I would hunt him down and that I was at the age that spending the rest of my life in prison would not bother me.
For some reason she never dated the same guy for long. She just got married to a guy last year and I have only met him in family gatherings.
I am waiting for the time we can have our man to man talk.