Don't consider yourself a fool...consider yourself lucky! If you had good reason for that restraining order and he had the ability to talk you out of it, what was going to happen the next time a threatening situation arose? I'm doing a lot of assuming here but don't you think you are better off without him?
I never called the police on my abusive 2nd ex...I always figured it wasn't THAT bad (I didn't know he was abusing my kids too when I was at work or school). I threatened to leave if he didn't get help, many times. What finally put me over the edge though was his cheating. That was when I knew he was never going to change. Then the kids opened up, there was no turning back no matter how much he begged after that.
Go to counseling. If you are ever put in an abusive situation again, don't exaggerate it or lie that it didn't happen...it hurts all domestic violence victims credibility.
I saw this all the time in court and the worst case I saw was when the woman went back, her abuser broke both her arms and her collar bone. She went back to him after that too.