Violence strikes.(EDITOR'S NOTE)

His fist struck her head before she knew what was happening. The blow knocked her against the kitchen wall with such force that blood streamed from the side of her face and she was temporarily blind in one eye. The assailant, her husband, kicked her as she lay bleeding, before exiting their home. The next day, she called the law firm where she is a partner and took a leave of absence. She sat curled in bed for a week while her bruises subsided. The incident was never reported to police.

Nearly one-third of women in the United States will report being physically or sexually abused by a spouse or boyfriend at some point during their lives. That story, told in composite, occurs with alarming frequency to professional women, and men, throughout South Florida, local experts say. Many of the victims fear the stigma of being labeled "battered" and choose to keep things under wraps. Many more endure in silence because of a misconception that abuse and violence are things suffered only by the poor and not the affluent.

"When you get into the higher socio-economic levels you see a higher level of abuse--It's not just 'I'm going to kill you,'" says Jacqueline M. Valdespino, a family and matrimonial law attorney in Miami. "A lot of times the [attackers] are smarter about leaving no trace and so sometimes it's harder to prove."

Valdespino recounted a recent case of a wealthy professional whose husband beat and verbally abused her in addition to stalking her and tapping her phones and email accounts. Valdespino says the question most often posed is if "executive women are considered to be smarter and financially independent ... why don't they get up and go?"

In short, many women feel trapped by their privilege or success. Susan Weitzman, a Chicago-based psychotherapist and author of "Not to People Like Us: Hidden Abuse in Upscale ...