Editor’s note: Lovefraud received the following story from a reader who we’ll call “Jenna.” At the end, she posts a document written by her sociopathic ex about the price of his soul, which provides a unnerving glimpse into how he truly thinks. Names have been changed.
I have spent the last 18 years dealing with a classic sociopath, a man who lies beyond my wildest imagination. I have come to believe that he isn’t just evil that is too easy an explanation. Evil people can’t help themselves; they can be “born bad.” No, this man chooses to be sadistic and mentally cruel. He can be “nice” when he wants to. He has a now four-year-old granddaughter who adores him and thinks her “Papa” hung the moon. If she ever sees on her own what he is, he will be her first broken heart.
He calculates his moves and sets up his victims over a long period of time — feeding off one woman after another, using the exact same pattern, until they no longer are sating his appetite for whatever it is he hungers for money, respect, ego gratification. I have never met anyone like this before. He enjoys what seems to have been his life’s work. He often said he “didn’t like women or children.” I should have listened.
I met him through work in April 1992. I was 44 years old, attractive and I thought relatively intelligent. My boss knew him from a previous job, considered him an associate, and brought him in to do some computer consulting. Looking back, my first impression was that he was focusing on me, trying to impress me. I should have heeded my bells and listened to my first impressions. He was knowledgeable about everything, charming, and I realize now he talked only about himself, his business plans, his big ideas. Going for lunches developed into a relationship. He was never pushy or all over me just the opposite.
Moves in
He moved in with me on January 2, 1993 after I had broken off with him because I thought he was playing me. I went away that Christmas alone, and when I came home, he was ensconced in my home, with the fireplace burning, two dozen long-stemmed red roses, a bottle of wine and a six-page handwritten letter about what a fool he had been and how much he “loved” me. The fool was me; I let him stay.
I had been on my own for a long time so I tried to establish some beginning boundaries. The first year we were together, he had to pay half the rent and half the living expenses, but slowly that morphed into us having joint accounts, and making decisions as a couple.
Within two months, he would fall asleep on the couch watching TV. I worked, he didn’t. He was trying to build a consulting business, but I think he did nothing most days. I’d come home and he’d be busy doing dishes that he had obviously just started, so it would look like he was busy.
No sex
Within six months, he withdrew sex. “I don’t know why” was his stock answer to every attempt to work through this. I thought maybe he had problems so I backed off and learned to live without a normal and healthy love life. It was step one in completely undermining my own self confidence, self image and willingness to walk away. I was mature, had not been committed enough to really work at previous relationships, so my mindset was, “I love this man and I am going to work at this.”
In 1994 he got a job that lasted four months. He talked me into starting my own business and I did freelance accounting. When he was fired from his job I was never able to find out why, but they let him go on a Tuesday and paid him only to the end of that day, which had to mean just cause. Knowing what I know now, no doubt he was inappropriate with female staff or maybe even male staff, because now I wonder about everything. Nothing was as it seemed.
August 1996 and he has just started his second job lasted six months, during which, I find out, he has been having an affair with the receptionist. He moved out March 1997 and came back begging me to give him another chance in May, saying he was nothing without me; he might as well go live on “skid row” because he would never be able to get off the couch again if I wouldn’t take him back. We had a business to consider he reminded me. He made love to me four times during the “take me back” stage. Soon as he was safely back, sex stopped, but he did come to bed at night. In later years, he would sleep in the living room, on the couch every night, in his clothes and only came downstairs to get a change of underwear, knowing that hurt me and was the exact opposite of what I wanted.
In business together
Over the years this scenario was repeated. In 17 years he held down four jobs, all of which lasted max six months. He talked me into going into business with him and we are 50% shareholders in a small home-based business that supported us from 1999 onward. I am seriously living to regret this, as I divorce and try to extricate myself from him. He talked on the phone a lot, and I did all the heavy lifting.
I had my life savings, which wasn’t much, but it bought us the home I live in now. We moved here in 1999. Yet another “job” he had, this time contracted through our company. He lasted five months in what was supposed to be a five-year contract.
I have to say that the privacy act and employer’s unwillingness to share information is a tremendous handicap to women in my position. Even as 50% owner of the company, no one is willing to tell the truth. If any one of the people who saw through him, anywhere along the line, had had the courage to tell me what my husband was up to, it would have opened my eyes. I was getting his side of the story only, and his best skill is, he is a honed and practiced liar. No matter how suspicious or concerned or questioning I might be, he could talk himself out of it, so I’d wind up giving him the “benefit of the doubt.”
Job in Florida
On April 21, 2009 my husband (he wanted to get married in 2003) left “on business” to take a consulting job in Florida. When he left, I prayed that this would be make it or break it. My health and spirit were so broken that his decision to take this job was almost a relief.
A month after he was gone I began to feel better physically, but such was my commitment to my marriage that I actually said out loud, what worried me was he would want to come back, and I wouldn’t want him to. I would feel obligated to take him back, even though I knew I was living in a toxic relationship. A counselor said to me afterwards that if you have a kind heart, cut people some slack and believe in God, and in doing unto others, you are custom made for this type of predator. They count on it! Your decency and your ability to love and forgive are the very tools they use against you.
First month, he web-cammed daily while I helped him get set up, furnish his apartment and paid his bills. He phoned me 10 times a day on his way down to Florida, saying how much he missed me already.
Cheating
The lies kept up until June 27, 2009 when he avoided an opportunity to web-cam home to see our 3-year old Granddaughter who was visiting. Everything began to add up. I spent all day July 1, 2009 trying to figure out how to hire a private detective in Florida. Turns out he had put himself on a dating site within three weeks of arriving there, and he had “grown an inch” from the time he left here. By August he was on Craig’s list as well and had grown yet another inch!
I had to take control of our business servers and over the course of the next few months I received emails from two women, who came after the one the private investigator filmed him with. His story to them he had been a widower for 40 years, had raised his two girls alone, his wife had been tragically killed in a car accident, t-boned when his youngest was just 2 months old. He had sacrificed himself to raise his daughters. Turned out I wasn’t the dead wife he was speaking of he was actually referring to his first wife, who is alive and well and who is still married to the man who really helped her raise the children.
Second woman who contacted me, did so because she had been told I was his “cousin” and I “worked for him” and she wanted to know if I was going to be helping her learn how to work for him. Both the women who contacted me were kind enough to send me the “ads” they answered, and photos of themselves and one even send me photos of them together, which I could have lived without.
My honesty saved the two women who connected with me, but every woman who crosses his path is at risk. I have come to see that he is like a reverse serial rapist. It is all about power and control, and once he assesses what you want and need most from him, in my case, warmth, love and affection, he withholds that from you. He apparently was quite lustful with the women he met on line and I wonder now, who was he cheating on me with during the 10 years we’ve been in this town? A man doesn’t go from being celibate for 17 years to suddenly being active. I now consider it a gift that he didn’t touch me at least I know my health isn’t at risk.
The document
Interestingly enough, in the “document” you read below, the woman referred to as “Marsha” is in fact his first wife (you know, the one who wasn’t killed in a car accident). The second woman he mentions, is the woman he cheated on “Marsha” with and left Marsha for. It would seem that none of us who came after mattered at all.
I found this document while searching his computer using the word “university” because he claimed to have a Bachelor of Commerce degree and I wanted to share that with my lawyer. This document, written by him on Oct. 1, 2005 at 7:30 pm, popped up. His oldest daughter’s birthday. The night after my 58th birthday. Two years and one month to the day after our marriage, and two months before he would “set me up” by putting me as sole director of our company, which as it turns out, has backfired on him, but it was part of a long-term plan he had and was slowly working on, a trap that would be used when he was ready to spring it.
I can tell you that when I opened this document, it embarrassed me to read it. I never knew this man at all. I have no doubt that I was in my office working, or making dinner, or cleaning up after dinner, while he sat in his office writing this. I can tell you that knowing what I know now, he doesn’t have “a soul to sell.”
I’m weeks away from my divorce being final. He has fought me every step of the way, threatening me, filing lawsuits against the company, using the business and my fear of losing my home and what little security I have left. He has harassed both me and my lawyers, gone out of his way to increase my legal fees, hoping to break me. He represents himself, and at every turn is foxier and more cunning than one could ever believe. Normal does not apply. I wonder what the women before me went through and know in my heart, they went through exactly what I am going through. I can’t wait to get rid of his last name legally.
He threw away his life and I need to be punished for that. I wasn’t supposed to find out. I was supposed to continue in the role I had played, the easily conned wife who kept knocking herself out trying to make her marriage work, while he kept his options open and explored for greener fields.
PS: Job in Florida lasted four months, then they let him go. I have no doubt he is trolling for his next food source as I write.
The Price of My Soul
- To return to Easter, 1956 when my parents moved.
- To have all of the knowledge that I have now and have had in the past.
- To be popular with both boys and girls. At school, in clubs and all other parts of my life.
- To excel in sports without injury, particular in hockey, track, football and baseball. To be good enough in football, baseball and track to attract quality athletic scholarships.
- To excel in school without undue effort. To receive the highest marks in every subject, to effortlessly complete all homework and assignments. To receive the highest possible marks on all tests and examinations. To be the valedictorian in both High School, University. To be first in my class in Graduate School.
- To have the inherent ability to make the right and correct choices regarding education, finance, investments and career.
- To be attractive, fit and athletic for my entire life. To live well in to my 90s and to be happy, contented and satisfied with my life. To die with no regrets.
- To never smoke or partake of non-prescription drugs. To always drink alcohol responsibly and never get drunk or impaired.
- To never have an illness and to be immune from all disease.
- To be hardworking, focused and disciplined. To be courteous to everyone. To be calm, soft-spoken and fair. To have, and experience, no prejudice.
- To be unusually attractive to all women, of legal age, regardless of age, race, color, marital status or religious beliefs. To have the inherent ability to communicate my interest to a particular woman and to have her feel a tingle in her loins and know that, by overtly contacting me, she will experience the most satisfying sexual encounter that is it possible to have.
- To have the inherent ability to bring women to the deepest orgasm possible at my whim and thought. To do so, if I wish, just by touch, by stroking, or by any other means that I wish. To have women become addicted to sexual relations with me. To be completely uninhibited in sex and to have each of my partners wish to be willing to try anything. To be able to bring my partners to orgasm orally, anally, vaginally and any other way I choose. To have them long for each way. To be able to bring women to multiple orgasms, including ejaculation, and to be able to experience multiple ejaculations, myself, within minutes of each other. To never lose this ability until my death.
- To never, either myself or a chosen sexual partner, experience a jealous husband, fiancé, lover or friend. To never end a sexual relationship in any way other than as enduring friends.
- To have women become so addicted to my sexual prowess and their satisfaction that they will do anything that I wish to continue the relationship. To have them recommend me to their women friends and to have those friends join us in the relationship.
- To have this attraction begin from the moment of puberty and, until I am of legal age, to have these relationships with women older than myself.
- To have these women pay me for my company until I have graduated from school and have become a wealthy person. It would be my expectation that, beginning at 13 years of age, I would earn $100 per week from each of my lovers and that I would have five lovers. I would expect my income to increase with each year until legal age.
- To have the inherent ability to save my money and to invest in the most profitable manner. To always know the correct time to buy stocks, bonds or other investments and to always know when to sell at the maximum profit. To never make a losing investment.
- To always know the correct time to create a new company or service and to always know the correct time to sell the investment. To never lose money in this manner. To always have prior knowledge of startup companies and to know which ones will succeed and which ones will fail. To always know the optimum time to cash in the investment.
- To be financially well of by the age of 18. To be a millionaire by the age of 20. To be a multi-millionaire by the age of 25. To be a billionaire by the age of 30 and to be the richest man in the world by the age of 40. To remain so until my death.
- To be asked to mingle in the highest levels of society all over the world. To be politically astute and to have political influence worldwide.
- To never marry and to never have children. To die, peacefully and happy, having left a legacy of both deeds and money that will be invested for good. To have planned those investments so that they will never stop working for good.
- To have several loving relationships during my lifetime. To love deeply and be loved deeply. One of those relationships is to be with Marsha Jackson and the other with Susan Morris. Both are to be deeply satisfying for everyone involved but are not to be monogamous on my part. As in other relationships, they will be so satisfied that they will want to share me with their female family members and friends.
- To be an outstandingly accomplished dancer. To be able to bring a women to climax just by whispering in her ear while dancing. To be able to engage in a conversation, with a woman, about absolutely anything. To have her feel no offense at the most intimate of conversations and comments. To be able to bring her to climax during those conversations.
- To be appreciative and knowledgeable of the arts. To be an engaging and interesting speaker. To have an inherent ability to lead people in the direction I choose for them to go. To always do so for good, never evil.
- To be truly satisfied and happy in everything that I do. Especially in each and every sexual relationship that I have. To be able to give the deepest possible pleasure to my partner and, in turn, to receive the same.
Dear DW,
Well, excuissseeee ME! LOL I just happen to think you are making some big steps in the right direction, so you quit putting down my friend Dancing WARRIOR or I will get the cyber skillet out and “boink you a good’un up side da haid” 🙂 LOL
Look at what you HAVE ACCOMPLISHED and how far you have come, not how high the mountain in front of you is! (((Hugs))))
Uh…..you forgot LF on that team!
🙂
Warrior:
Just to give you a bit of insight….spath sent my attorney financial cluster fuc&^ ONE HOUR before court!
So…..if you get it the night before….GREAT!!!
I remember insisting my attorney fax it to me as I left for court and i would wait for it. I glanced over it on the drive over the mountain….it total disbelief! He claimed -0- income!!! And crap about me…..
I felt humored by this actually….thinking…..OKAY…I see this direcetion….and it was downhill for spath from there.
Actually….his defiance is GOOD for you! A court is to decide the end of the business relationship….and without all the facts…and him not cooperating….the magestrate will NOT be happy!
Breakdown, meldown, crackdown or NOT!
Judges need info to do their work.
Our judge decided, and warned spath….since he wasn’t going to be honest in his court documents she was going to impute income….$80.00 and hour as he bragged about in his deposition and since he claimed to be in high demand…she’d assume he worked 80hours a week!
I would highly recommend you request from your attorney that HIS attorney file the delay documents with the court. NOT your attorney…..2 reasons….
a. you don’t have to pay your attorney to file the docs…(why should you?)
b. His attorney will have to take responsibilty for the delay…(it’s on him)
It sounds like your in for several delays on the horizon….HIS attorney will not tolerate for long a client who won’t allow her to do her job.
We must cooperate with discovery process…..or it looks bad on the attorney professionally if she doesn’t have some sort of control over her client.
My spath was fired by 2 attornies….same reason.
The clkuster fark he submitted was random receipts, 1/2 showing on the photocopy, upside down and every which way….with no explanation…..of what it was….
1 page of bank statement from a joint account….none of his personal. NO credit card statements and no other expenses. No pay stubs, no business records, no nothing…..
We requested numerous times an explanation and complete records……never received.
Funny thing was…..that was the point I started messing with him….I already had access to his online cc statements and bank statements….he didn’t know this….so my attorney was ‘fully’ advised of his spending…..and deposits etc….
we disn’t disclose this info….but she used this info to bait him in the deposition.
If you can depose him….that memorializes testimony….and you can ask ALL of the questions you desire…..ALL questions.
His attorney can state a reason for disputing the question….but the deposee must answer all questions.
If you use a depostion in trial, this is when an attorney can dispute certain questions being admitted……but the judge already reads the depo….so they see the answers already.
I’ll tell ya….it was the BEST $500. I’ve ever spent!!!!!
I had her ask questions that may arise down the line in re; to IRS issues…..and protectinv me for my future….along with messing with his mind during the depo with questions I prepared.
Questions in regards to the recon I had done…..things he NEVER in a million years thought i’d know. Questions to plant doubt in all his friends….like who’s the one ratting him out to me….etc…..
It was actually HILARIOUS….but served a purpose!
Don’t worry aobout HIM……..you need to concentrate on YOU….and YOUR mission….it is WAR…..don’t hand him any medical kits for his ‘wounds’.
It is a long journey….one that right now, may seem unending…..there will be another ‘wave’ of emotions after the divorce is final….and then another one….but with each ‘wave’ that hits….you learn how to swim better or hold your breath and be tossled emotionally. When the wave let’s you up to the surface…..you get a jist that you CAN survive……and you will!!!!
Your in control…..your doing great……
And….btw…..allow yourself to be indulged by a man!
You deserve it…..yeah, it’s weird….really weird……but you’ll come to understand more about yourself as you enjoy others company.
Your team is behind ya girl!!!!
ErinB- Darn it, my atty already filed the request to continue pretrial himself.
I don’t really know what to ask him in a deposition.
He did give the major docs:
1 pay stub,
last tax return (all prior were joint and I got’em);
current job retirement savings and rolled over prior job’s retirement;
messy expense account reimbursements.
The only question is how much does he have in retirment accts, and does the figure he reports match the deductions listed on w-2’s, and are there any scenarios when he would NOT have to report retirement accounts after his bank got taken over by another. I could request those acct statements to SEE what happened to the money after he changed jobs.
We weren’t frugal, and I can imagine that all the money earned was spent. Except his maximum deductions for retirement accts.
Didn’t know to tell my lawyer to have HIS atty. file a continuance. Makes me mad.
I’ll keep that in mind in future. Thanks Erin.
OxDrover–
Maybe I deserve that skillet of yourn!
I am tired! I don’t see that I’ve accomplished stuff. All I know is I’m scared all the time. And wish I had a partner to lean on, to rub my back, to make me tea, to talk to. It’s hard going it alone.
Dancing Warrior,
Where is the report on his assets from a private investigator?
Why don’t you know the answers to the questions before you decide?
Where are his retirement accounts? If he had the deductions made, they went somewhere does it show on the pay stub? Can your attorney supoena the Payroll clerk at his work or something to get the answer about where the funds went? He would have had statements come to the house, where did they come from?
Also, since he is a spath, we can be sure that dirt can be found. A PI who is good at probing social networking sites and doing that kind of research will probably find all the misconduct you need. And maybe even that he was coming on to others at the nudie camps you went to. We know they do it. We just don’t know all that yours did. It is not a fundamental question, its an issue of detail….
Ask every detail question you can.
Tell your attorney to make mincemeat out of his claiming you were sleeping with someone else. YOu are the VICTIM here. He can use that you are VERY, Very afraid of this man.
Do you have a PTSD diagnosis? Can you get a doctor to verify physical symptoms caused by distress from this relationship? There are a bunch!
If you have to prove he is the bad guy, I’d do it by proving his manipulation is affective and that he does misconduct and ask every little detail question you can until he has another meltdown- in front of a judge. You know he can’t control it………
Dear WArrior ((((((Hugs))))) I know it is difficult to go it alone, and I think we all wish we had a partner to hold us and pet us and tell us “there there sweet baby, it is going to be okay.” Gosh, I really really wish I had that too. We all should have had that as babies and young toddlers and many of us never did. Maybe it is why we still wish we had that,, but we have got to be our OWN COMFORT now. Our own protectors! We can’t break down because we don’t have another someone there to take that role. We must GRASP that protective role for ourselves now and TAKE CARE OF “little dancing” and “little oxy” and pull up our big girl panties and get into our WArrior mode and Drover mode and start being like EB and kicking arse and taking names!
We can do it. (((Hugs)))
Warrior:
I found this article you may find of use:
The website has some great articles….about money, kids, getting out….etc….check it out.
Stop the Suffering of Divorce
Posted to Resource Articles by Cathy Meyer on Thu, 08/19/2010 – 3:24pm
Our reaction to stressful events such as divorce can become so habitual that they occur without our awareness. We become so accustomed to reacting to stress in a certain way that it is second nature to us.
We aren’t aware that we are reacting in a way that is harmful to us until we are plagued with physical or emotional problems that we can no longer ignore.
The way we react to stress depends on the way we think about a stressful event when it happens. Have you ever known anyone who seems to sail straight through the problems in their lives? There are people in the world who can deal smoothly with issues that might cripple others emotionally. I’m sure you’ve met such people and have even been envious of their ability to “take it on the chin.”
The one thing that enables these people to deal so well with a stressful event is the way they think about the event or issue. They aren’t in the habit of jumping to the worst conclusion. They are not habitual, negative thinkers who are prisoners of their own “I can’t handle this” attitude.
It wasn’t until I went through my divorce that I became aware of just how much damage being addicted to negative thinking can do. I literally became physically and emotionally exhausted from worry exhaustion that occurred because I had no idea how to be mindful of what I was thinking and how my negative thinking was affecting me physically and emotionally.
Most people use the term “mindfulness” to express the need to stay tuned into what is going on in your life. I use the term to express the importance of staying tuned to what is going on in your head. Be mindful of those thoughts rattling around in your brain because it is those thoughts that will determine how well you navigate stressful events and issues as they come up.
You’ve heard the expression, “pain is inevitable, suffering is not.” You may wonder, “if I’m in pain, then how do I stop the suffering I’m experiencing”?
You stop the suffering by…
â– Living one day at a time.
â– Paying attention to the way you are thinking about your situation.
â– Replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts.
â– Becoming “the little engine that could.”
Get through today. Don’t expend energy on tomorrow. Use the energy you have to be mindful of your thought processes and attentive to living today and squeezing all the joy out of it that you can.
If you find your mind wondering to self-defeating thoughts of not being able to tackle whatever is causing you stress, replace those thoughts with positive, self-affirming thoughts. Old habits die-hard but, with effort, you will find that you can replace the habit of negative thinking with the habit of positive thinking.
Someone who exercises their ability to think positively anticipates happiness, joy, good health and a successful outcome to every situation they are in. You can become that “someone.”
http://firstwivesworld.com/resources/resource-articles/stop-suffering-divorce
Hi Silver,
About a doctor and physical symptoms–I can’t go back to the time we WERE together, and I’m afraid there is no relationship now after 2 yrs of separation. I used to have muscle knots, shoulder pain, but that has gone. I doubt a dr. would say relationship caused muscle tension–in the past as I don’t have it now. I had a lymph node removed from my neck–I thought since lymph system is the immune system, that was a symptom, a warning signal from my body, and also on the neck, from which my voice, the truth comes. However, I doubt the surgeon would say the x sumbitch caused the enlarged node–3 yrs ago.
Hey Oxy,
Yep, I am the crying li’l dancing wanting mommy to kiss the booboo. Still bogeymen in the dark, and monsters under the bed, but don’t have any choice but put on big girl breeches. 🙂
Erin,
Thanks for the article. Saw the Eat, Pray, Love movie–dontcha hate Hollywood heartache–get paid in advance by a publisher to travel to Italy, India, and Bali to write a book while you search for yourself and find healing, devotion, and deep lasting love. I wish I had such problems! Anywhoo–relates to your article’s mindfulness of this moment right now, the rest unfolds by itself…later.
Well, I went and sat to meditate today. It was like trying to breathe and find tranquility during LABOR with contractions getting faster and stronger. Ah, you should’ve seen my “meditation”–first breathing…then memory of my ugly royal blue wedding dress and magic marker colored blue shoes…then the rage at my father…which led to a very unpleasant angry face and tears turn into raging primal scream…envisioning that my dead father could hear my pain…the feelings I never could or did express…wooo it was not pretty. It was loud and angry.
There was mindfulness for me. Thanks, great article.
Thank you all for the notes.
Dear Dancing,
“Meditation?” I can relate to the kind of meditation session you had today, mind jumping around like a hyperactive kid on a trampoline!
But, whatever…..day by day!@....... Inch by Inch!! You will get there and turn back and yell at me and EB “Come on you guys, get a move on, I’m tired of dragging your fat butts, now quit whining and come on!” That’s the wonderful thing about a support group is that when one is tired the others can cover for them.
A burden shared is halved, a joy shared is doubled! TOWANDA!!!!!
I am not sure which thread to post this in but I want to know what others have done.
I have always been able to philosophize my abuse b/c I am by nature quite optimistic. Took me years to recover my optimist self after leaving my s-path ( I had lost myself for a while) but there is one thing I can’t seem to move past… I’m resigned to what he did to me, but I am 10 different feelings at the same time about what he did to mindf&@.......k my daughter, and yes, my guilt is wrapped up in it as well. She was four when we started dating, never knew her birth father but my s-path made himself seem so wondrful to her (totally lovebombed her). There is nothing like the love of a child and he was jealous of our relationship. After our marriage, he quickly formed an alliance with my daughter against me, much worse in her teen years. She hated me so much for how unfair I was to him. To her he was simply wonderful…. except when he wasn’t (had some spells of being a total a$$h@.......!#). And when he threw me away, he discarded her as well. So unwanted by the first father, discarded by the one who did know her.
So while you reconcile your own feelings against his abuse and come to a place of peace, what do you do with the feelings of what he did to your vulnerable, beautiful, trusting, only child?
I am stuck in my negative emotions. The heartbreak is unbearable.
After making my daughter his personal best buddy, then utterly shredding her self worth, and then the final discard… and mind you, I brought this a$$H@.......!# into her vulnerable life….. How do I translate my daughter’s pain into something self affirming?
Dear KD,
“How do you translate daughter’s pain into something self affirming?”
The same way we move on past everything else they did to us.
First, I think you must FORGIVE yourself about “bringing him into your daughter’s life” Yep, you did that, but you did not intentionally do it to hurt her. What if you had bought a carton of the tainted eggs they are recalling now and fixed your daughter a fried egg that made her sick? Would you hang on to the gjuilt forever and a day? Of course not!
I don’t know how old your daughter is now, or what her reaction to him now is, but I would TEACH her about psychopaths. It may be the cheapest lesson and the greatest lesson she will ever get, knowing what a psychopath is.
He “love bombed” her then did the divide and conqueor ploy between you and her for no other purpose but to hurt you and hurt her. ((((Hugs))))) Work it out with your daughter and let it be a good learning moment for you both. Oxy