The Perfect Double Cross

Truth is everyone is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for — Bob Marley

Photo by Daniele La Rosa Messina on Unsplash

It was quite late in the evening when Facebook Messenger ‘pinged’ on my laptop.

Having a mature family, I checked this to see if it was anything urgent. No, it was my spiteful ex-fiance asking how I was.

Have you ever noticed that when someone destroy’s your life, they keep coming back just to see how you’re doing?

“How are you, hope you’re well?” He asked.

I replied: “No I’m not well at all, you’ll be pleased to know.”

And then, I thought, oh to Hell with it, I’m finally going to open your eyes! I told him a story from my childhood.

“When I was 7 years old, my sister Jane said to me “you’re going to end up with nobody, no friends and no husband.” I didn’t think she was serious, but she was.

My sister Jane tells everyone that I’m a liar, then tells them some horrible stories about me that are untrue, and finishes it off with “if you ask her, she’ll deny it, because she’s a liar!”

Recently she told my younger sister Dianne, that her husband, Robert, had been diagnosed with Dementia, when my sister Dianne spoke to our nephew, Matthew he said “It’s not my father, it’s my father-in-law. Mum lies about everything!”

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

I forgave him for so many spiteful comments he made to me. I just couldn’t believe that he didn’t not realise he was being ‘played’ by my sister Jane.

He was running his own business, but rarely made any money. Instead of being grateful, he used to say he would ‘kill me’. At that time, the police wouldn’t intervene in domestic arguments — they do now because so many women have been killed by their partners, or ex-partners.

He used to say it in a mock ‘Russian’ accent, but I did wonder why he said it at all.

Every morning when I was in the shower, I was screaming to God ‘please help me get out of this relationship’.

I think I felt trapped because so many of my relationships had ended. But, I worked so hard to try to save them; but didn’t know at the time, how I was being betrayed.

It was like a game to her, and I lost my home three times. Every time I lost my home, I lost more than half of my possessions, and a lot of money!

Photo by Michal Balog on Unsplash

Once, she said to me “everything that happens on television in Soap Opera’s happens in our family.” It took me a while to realise that she was TOTALLY MAD AND LIVED OUT THE SOAP OPERA’S TO MAKE HER LIFE MORE INTERESTING.

Anyway, I digress. One day I was standing at the top of the stairs and my ex-fiance came up behind me and put his hands around my throat. It really scared me: I could hardly breathe. I realised at that moment he really meant it when he said he wanted to kill me. Luckily, my right arm was free and I brought my fist up as quickly as I could and punched him in the jaw. It hurt my hand, so I know it must have hurt him.

But I tell you what — he never did it again!

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

We did split up, and he tried to get his revenge over, and over again.

When I moved from my next house to my ‘forever home’ he followed the removal van. (I think my sister must have told him my moving date).

To start with, people in the village were very chilly towards me, but as they got to know me, the relationships thawed. I volunteered in the village, and stories about how I’d helped people in the past were being repeated.

My ex-fiance would visit from time to time to sneer at me. “How’s your love life?” He’d ask, knowing full well that he’d told a pack of lies about me, hoping to destroy any chance of me ever having a loving relationship. He assumed that nobody would have the courage to tell me what he was saying about me behind my back, but they did, and I was able to enlighten them.

I haven’t been in a relationship for over 20 years. So I told him, that when my neighbours suggest I try online dating, I’ve told them there was no point, because either he, or my sister Jane would destroy it.

Now, he has a guilty conscience because he’s bad-mouthed me for years. All my neighbours know it’s untrue, and that he’s a spiteful, vindictive loser. It’s not my reputation in the gutter, it’s his.

Strangely enough, I haven’t seen him driving around the village for a very long time.

Thank you for reading, I just had to tell someone!