Conned

[koan]

I recently mentioned a friend of mine who pretended to be happily married then was exposed to be having an affair when her husband found out and showed up at work to literally strangle the other man to death.

Her affair wasn't just a matter of fickleness. As details came out, she'd tried to end the relationship a number of time only to have him coerce her into staying under the premise of change that never happened. Her affair was a way to make sure it was truly over for good. Once that was accomplished, she found out that her husband had not actually had a job in a very long time. He had stolen her identity, remortgaged her house, taken out multiple credit cards in her name without her consent and racked up hundreds of thousands of debt, destroying her credit and locking her out of her own house.

Turns out he's done this to a few other women before her. He told her when they met that the house he lived in was his and that he had married and divorced his ex-wife in a matter of months. In reality she had gone to Africa because she was afraid of him and he had taken possession of her home. Other ex-wives just surfaced this week.

She is currently living with a friend outside of town and luckily managed to keep possession of her car while she consults lawyers about how to salvage her life.

She's a very smart, beautiful woman. She's older than I am and it will be some time before she's free to try and restart her life.

[flopstock]

Where did you mention her previously?

This reading doesn't leave me feeling much sympathy for her.

[koan]

It's not really meant to be a sympathy plea. I'd mentioned her when discussing how some "perfectly happy" people turn out to be perfectly miserable under the facade.

I'm mentioning the con because it's a good reminder to people that they don't always know someone. We added to our list of requirements now that we have visited them at work. lol