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.
EB,
Attorney answered me today he’ll file to compel him and send me a copy tomorrow, and he’ll reschedule the pretrial and tell me to when. I’ll just let that sit at this point. I’m too slow for these “chess moves.”
Hopefully the stall tactics, multiple requests, two delays STILL will speak for themselves and have an impact at the pretrial in the future.
Incidentally I found a voice message today of about a minute or so of someone just breathing. Interesting timing. . . I doubt anyone calls a wrong number, misses the message, and waits for an answer without a ring signal, whilst breathing audibly.
Thank you ErinB.
EB & DW, I have tapped in to this thread because of all the legal eagle talk that is right up my alley. I just got his response to my filing for divorce. He admitted (to be crass) to withholding sex but denied all of the other more COVERT “crazy-making” behaviors that only I was witness to. EB–How do I PROVE it? It’s my word against his. It’s craziness. He also wants primary custody. He hasn’t even got a suitable place for our daughter to sleep! WTF! If he goes into the court room with that info, please tell me the judge will laugh him out of there. HELP!
Dear FEARLESS,
First DO NOT PANIC
Don’t count on the judge. Get as much documentary evidence as possible, get witnesses if there are any.
Communicate ONLY THROUGH LAWYERS.
Depending on the age of your child, be careful what you say to her.
DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT.
Blow off the small stuff, go for the bigger stuff.
Enroll in a “positive parenting” class and anything else that will make you look good.
Go to counseling, and take your child or get them their own counselor.
Consult with the school counselor, tell counselor that you are concerned about your child going through a “divorce’ (keep details private) and ask if the school will help you monitor how she is doing, etc.
BE PROACTIVE in everything you can think of. Join, PTA, a church of some kind if you have a faith and aren’t in one, (don’t fake it but just do things that SHOW you are a good parent)
Do not date or drink in public or anything else that can be skewed to show that you are a bad parent or bad person.
Keep receipts for everything you buy for the child or do for the child.
Hang tough!@....... (((Hugs))))
Warrior:
Good.
Gain speed, and learn the chess game….you might be surprised…you may be real ‘good’ at it….give yourself a chance.
It will not look GOOD to a judge he hasn’t complied.
NOW……get your interrogitories going…….just don’t sit around for another few months and play wait.
Schedule a deposition to keep him on his toes…….
Don’t let your attorney just keep delaying with no action from your attorney…..if the motion ot compel doesn’t work…KEEP DIGGING.
By the time you get tot he next hearing…..DON”T RESCHEDULE! Tell your attorney you want HEAT on his attoreny! PERIOD!
Don’t worry…..keep your head up and your MOUTH OPEN!
Fearless:
Key…DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT.
Learn your state divorce and custody laws and work within the requirements.
Are you in a fault state?
Did you really expect him to answer like….yeah, I was a douche, withheld sex, money and love…….was abusive, financially irresponsible and unemployed?
NO…..he’s got to have a defense.
He just let you know.
Don’t let it get to yu THIS EARLY…..trust me…..take NOTHING personal! NOTHING.
It’s only a response…..and he upped the ante….with sole custody request.
That’s just the dressing on the salad…..to make you worry.
He can’t provide a stable home for child…..just document this. Document past behaviors, how much time he spends with chilc….what they do….medical provisions, educational provisions…..
Bet he doesn’t even know who the childs DR. is!
So…..educate on the laws, don’t take anything personally and NEVER think you got anything in the bag!
Work your own case………too much ‘evidence’ is NEVER a bad thing….
And follow everything OXy suggested above! Good advice.
ErinB,
More legal news. My atty. sent me piecemeal pay statements today, and a forward of email to other atty not to send in dribs’n’drabs. Then he says he WAS going to compel, BUT with her assurances he’ll wait and won’t do it. I got so mad!
I emailed him tonight I want him to file motion to compel RIGHT AWAY regardless of assurances he gets. I asked him two weeks ago, to compel him, didn’t know the legal term “motion to compel”, and asked him again, and he said he’d do it “tomorrow” then he doesn’t. Also he moved pretrial to 10/27. I suppose there is time in that window of time to order a deposition, a week in advance?
I want to call atty tomorrow but don’t want to waste time and money to just yell at him for not following up on our agreement. I want to tell him I’m losing confidence about our communication if I count on him to do something and he doesn’t.
Thank you for the encouragement. I am losing speed.
BUT. . .husband sent me an email he sent to his atty, with no note to me except subject line I sent this to my atty.
Complaining what more are they asking for when I gave them all? Why can’t I have a desk and my personal things when they are just sitting there? Is this a perverse chess game they are playing? I am barred from my home, daughter, and dog, I feel I’m losing.
And I did get upset to receive that. I can’t help but fel shook up by his selfishness, and feeling law doesn’t apply to him. . . Also why he’s sending it to me. Someone left a message on machine just breathing for a minute or two. I think it’s him….no one ever leaves such dumb messages. Creeps me out.
What do you think of all this EB?
WOnder if Matt is around on the legal front with thee motions and delays? Matt? Yoo hoo ya around?
DW
Warrior:
See the gift in his email. He gave you information on his emotional state. You need to find empowerment in this!
Good……he feels he’s LOSING…..
Don’t take it personally…..HE created this!
NOW……Build on that feeling and bury his ass!
You gotta set off all the cannons when he’s weak and wants rest. No rest for the wicked…..if he rests….he’ll be hitting hard your way!
You have a list of items your requireing…..he’s playing victim….’what, I don’t know what she want’s’ …..he’s a whiney little biatch!
It’s all listed…..PRIVIDE IT HOMEY!
All his whining and yack……laugh it off….he’s giving you power.
GET IT…..NONE of them think the law ever applies to them! Don’t expect it!
The breathing……ah….whatever…..no harm,no foul. Let that go…..
He’s giving you insight into his thoughts ….LISTEN….the perverse chess game…….PROJECTION MUCH?!?
Tell your attorney if ALL documents aren’t provided IN FULL by MONDAY at noon…HE MUST FILE THAT MOTION MONDAY at 1pm. PERIOD!!!
No assurances no more games…..PERIOD!
Their call.
Tell attorney this in an email….you have more confidence and it’s documented.
Be direct and straight to the point with attorney. PERIOD!
BE ADAMANT!
Deposition can be scheduled…at spaths convenience.
Write out YOUR questions. Remember it’s testimony under oath!
Spath just informed you in that cc’d email…..it’s hot…..so…girlfriend TURN UP THE HEAT MORE!!
ErinB,
Motion FILED!
I emailed atty late last night and said “file right away regardless”.
He just emailed me a copy of it. He filed it today. It says plain and simple it’s been over 30 days he hasn’t produced doc’s, and it asks for filing fee to be paid back.
Good. No discussion with my atty. I told him, he did it. Now it’s all on the table and legally sanctioned.
You know, my heart beats fast when I do this–antagonize him so to speak, or really, stand firm for MY rights against his b.s.
Don’t know the new timeframe he has to come up with the info. Fin. Planner wants it by 17th. Shall I call my atty by the 10th to see if deposition is needed if I don’t get anything still? The timing is so tight.
Whew, I am actually scared to turn up the heat.
I always feel BAD. I cannot turn off feeling sorry–how dumb am I? I get angry for five minutes, but then I feel sorry.
Anger is our friend during these times…..muster it up gf!
If your not the ‘type’ to be angry….this will help you down the road….NOT NOW!
Remember something….like the affair acusations…..or running through the daisy’s naked……picture ‘what’ he meant and get angry. And hold onto that when you are dealing with him on the legal front.
It’s either YOU or him! Make it YOU……or you’ll find anger for years to come! Think of losing your pension or your home…..does THAT make you angry enough to fight the bastard?
Your only protecting yourself….it’s time to STOP the donkeys from walking on YOU!
You know you can do this…..you got a fire under your attorney’s ass to file that motion.
NOW….you know how to opperate! If needed pull out your big guns.
Sit down with yourself and have a chat…..if you lost everything…..would you have regrets on not wearing your big girl panties?
If that answer is yes….then keep your big girl panties on and don’t take em off until your in the ‘clear’.
It’s either YOU or HIM……YOUR CHOICE!
Find your adamant girl!
Good going on the motion……start writing out depo questions.
If you have any questions on where money goes that should be your questions……
His psending, his assets……all of it….it’s all business.
Thsnks, EB. Pity party is over!