I fell in love at 21 with the most handsome man I’d ever seen. I couldn’t believe that he wanted to go out with me. He dumped me and I believed it was because I wasn’t pretty enough, wasn’t thin enough. Fast forward over 25 years, a marriage and 2 children and our paths crossed again. I found him on social media after years of trying!! A true love story eh?? Or so I thought!! To cut a long story short he love-bombed me with flowery words of love and devotion to the point of me thinking I couldnt live or breathe without him! I gave up my life and my 2 daughters aged 16 and 18 to move 350 miles and be with him. I moved into a pretty grim home, I worked, he didn’t due to health condition, I took care of the home, bought furniture, decorated to turn it round and make our home something to be proud of. He had a daughter who didn’t like me and made no attempt to hide it despite her only visiting 3 nights per month. I tried to show her love, bought her things, made small gestures but nothing was good enough. Then lockdown happened! A truly horrific time for everyone but no uncomfortable presence once a fortnight! The down side of this was I didn’t see my own family for 9 months. As he was ‘shielding’ it was just us and all was good. But then we became more detached even though we were in the same home. The once hourly messages of love didn’t even become a ‘how are you? ‘ all day. It slowly dawned on me that it was a load of lies! The promise of marriage (I even had my dress picked out!) was never gonna happen. I caught him out on lies but no it was always me getting things wrong, my fault. I used to sit with my head down apologising for the sake of it. He knew I had no confidence and was grateful that someone as good looking as him would lower himself to be with me yet here I was totally financially responsible for us, working, doing everything else and getting nothing in return but unhappiness!! His shielding was about to end and I made myself I’ll thinking of the unhappiness that was to come with his daughter. He wouldn’t listen, she was the princess me the adult! Deal with it! He eventually forced me into an ultimatum and he chose to defend his princess. I picked my car and left. That was 10 weeks ago and it still breaks my heart to think I meant nothing to him. I gave up everything, am trying to build bridges with my daughters and he sits there surrounded by £4000 worth of stuff in his home not to mention the £3000 in cash I gave him when he was ‘short’. Yet I was the one in the wrong????? I thought I was too clever to be manipulated. A master manipulator is a master for a reason. They are damn good. Stay strong xx