WHEN A TEENAGER BREAKS UP WITH HER ABUSIVE BOYFRIEND, HE SNAPS AND ATTACKS HER - SHE REVEALS HER EMOTIONAL STORY OF SURVIVAL IN 48 HOURS: "LIVE TO TELL: SOPHIA'S SECRET," SATURDAY, NOV. 19

Sophia Putney-Wilcox was 17 when she had had enough of the mental and physical abuse she'd suffered at the hands of then-boyfriend Adam Shigwadja. The decision to end their relationship would change her life forever, she says in 48 HOURS: "Live to Tell: Sophia's Secret" to be broadcast Saturday, Nov. 19 (9:00 PM ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Anchored by Tracy Smith, "Live to Tell: Sophia's Secret" is the inspiring story of a young woman's fight to escape a cycle of abuse, her will to live after being hurt in an attack and her work afterward to expose the growing dangers of dating and breakup violence.

Putney-Wilcox was a 14-year-old high-school freshman when she first met Shigwadja, a 16-year-old sophomore. Their relationship started off as what appeared to be a typical teenage romance, but quickly evolved into something much darker. Shigwadja, she says, often threatened to hurt himself or her family as a way to control her and at one point was arrested for attacking her with a knife.

She eventually broke up with Shigwadja, but days later he broke into her bedroom, held her at knifepoint and then he set her room on fire. "I've seen him get mad, I've seen him do horrible things to me before, but that night, there was just something different," Putney-Wilcox says. "He just had this crazy look in his eyes, like something had snapped. And I asked him, I said, 'Adam, are you going to kill me?' And he said 'yes.'"

"My friends knew something was wrong," Putney-Wilcox says, "but I never told anyone about the abuse. Everyone else loved him. Everyone else thought he was hilarious."

In a gripping first-person account, Putney-Wilcox relives their early relationship, the night she thought she would die, the heroic efforts of her brother to save her, and her life today.

"I kept saying to my mom, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, she was like, 'Sophie, it's okay," Putney-Wilcox recalls.

"Live to Tell" is a short-run series from the producers of 48 HOURS delivering first-hand accounts of extraordinary people who refuse to give up when facing death. 48 HOURS: "Live to Tell: Sophia's Secret" is produced by Josh Gelman, Jonathan Leach and Chuck Stevenson. Doreen Schechter and Gary Winter are the producer-editors. Joan Adelman is the editor. Richard Fetzer is the associate producer. Judy Tygard is the series creator and senior producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

48 HOURS: "Live to Tell: Sophia's Secret" is the first broadcast in a Saturday night double feature. The second, to be broadcast at 10:00 PM, is 48 HOURS: "Hunted," Maureen Maher's look inside the search for a serial rapist before he strikes again.

Chat with members of the 48 HOURS team during the broadcast on Twitter and Facebook. Follow 48 HOURS on Instagram.