Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.

(NewsNation) — Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, the ex-partner of  Sean “Diddy” Combs, told jurors on Wednesday that she hid the extent of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Combs from relatives and friends.

Ventura testified that Combs abused her early in the couple’s relationship and told jurors that Combs “knocked me around and was just hitting me” in a 2007 incident. However, later, she went home in 2011 with bruises from an altercation she had with Combs.

She told her mother that it was the first time Combs had hit her.

“I couldn’t hurt her like that,” Ventura testified. “And it was terrifying. It’s not normal, constantly being bruised up by the person you love — who says they love you.”

During Cassie’s testimony on Tuesday, jurors were shown photos of bruises on Ventura’s lower back, shoulder and thigh that she said she sustained in the 2011 incident.

Jurors were also shown photos of Ventura wearing a long gold dress at Combs’ home and then another image that showed her wearing the same dress at a red carpet event in 2016, not long after she says Combs attacked her in a hotel hallway.

Ventura said she snuck into a popcorn closet at the movie theater to switch dresses so the bruises on her leg wouldn’t be visible.

She testified about having bruises on her body that were not completely concealed by makeup and said that makeup only covered bruising on her face. She said that she also hid bruising on her shin, legs and on the inside of her thigh.

Tamara Holder, a women’s rights and sexual abuse attorney, spoke to NewsNation about Ventura’s testimony.

“Cassie’s testimony is chilling and graphic. The prosecution brings the ‘I love you’ texts out to get in front of them; the defense will try to use these texts to say it was consensual and she was into all of it. She helps the jury understand coercive control. The idea that you love someone who abuses you, and how you can’t escape the imbalance of the power dynamic,” Holder told NewsNation.

Holder continued, “This is the prosecution’s opportunity to paint Diddy as the worst monster ever before the defense gets to cross-examine her. They’re going to have to be careful as she is pregnant, credible and a victim of domestic abuse. It could backfire.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report