Exposing Her Lies
In late May 2016, I asked my crush (Kate) of three years out on a coffee date. Three dates later, we made things official. For the next seven months, our relationship felt too good to be true. We clicked on so many interests, so we hardly ever disagreed on anything.
We were very open with each other, which lead to an incredible bedroom life. We both had good jobs, so we had money to spoil one-another, and our families were both enthusiastic about our relationship.
In January 2017, I was accepted into my country’s Armed Forces Reserve program as a Combat Engineer. I underwent basic training from February to late April, and it was up-until-then the hardest thing I had ever done.
There were several times I thought I wouldn’t graduate, and the only thing that kept me going was Kate’s words of encouragement over texts and calls. She was there when I received my BTC Certificate, and never let me forget how proud she was of me.
As part of my job in the Reserves, I would have to go away in the summer for advanced training between early June to late August. Kate fully supported me going 400 km away to the training centre and spending almost our entire summer break on work to further my career.
This is where it all started to go wrong. The summer was brutal on me; I was a social outcast from every clique that formed on our course, and was the butt of several jokes. My self-esteem plummeted through the floor, but Kate’s belief in me was what made me prevail.
I passed as 5th best on course, and I owed it all to her. Except…things between us started to sour after returning home. According to her, I wasn’t as spontaneous and outgoing as before I went away.
I was dismissive, took small jabs and jokes as personal insults, and would rather stay in and watch movies, instead of going out. Unbeknownst to both of us, I had developed some nasty social anxiety due to the events of the summer, and it started affecting our relationship.
Nearing our two-year anniversary in 2018, we got into a heated argument over a small misunderstanding, and subsequently broke up. I was incredibly distraught before she texted me three days later and said she wanted to try and fix things.
I didn’t see her for three weeks, but we kept in touch every day, slowly mending things. When we officially got back together, nothing felt the same. Every time I talked with her, it was if I was walking on eggshells, and it only worsened my anxiety, which in turn hurt our already damaged relationship.
Then things finally came to a head at the end of July. While in school, Kate had met a dude named John. She saw in John what she used to see in me, and they quickly became very close friends.
He consoled her through our breakup and every little time I messed up afterwards. For the record, I knew of John, but never thought Kate would ever do anything with him. One night after work, we had planned for me to stay the night at Kate’s place. I arrived to see the two of them chilling on the living room couch.
Kate said that John had dropped by for a spontaneous visit, and he was just leaving. After John left, she became cold and distant. I slowly accepted that our relationship was gone, and asked her how things were between us. She echoed my thoughts, and we agreed to break up the next day.
She said I could stay the night one last time, seeing how it was late and she was still worried about me. From there on until she fell asleep, Kate became uncharacteristically glued to and protective of her phone.
In the past, she wouldn’t care if I had glanced over to catch her and her friends texting about whatever, but now she did her best to hide the screen from me. I asked her about it, and she said it was private stuff, which only raised more questions. After she fell asleep, curiosity got the better of me.
I unlocked her phone, and my heart dropped. I found hundreds of messages between her and John. Messages about how she was now single, how exciting it was that they could now be a couple in public, and laughing at me about every little thing I did. I quietly sobbed as I read through each hurtful text.
My crying wasn’t as quiet as I thought. Kate stirred, and once she realized what I was doing, she threw a fit. I couldn’t find the anger or words to fight her, so I just grabbed my stuff and left, with Kate shouting and yelling at me the whole time.
It was late in the morning when I got home; I just broke down and ugly cried all night. I called in sick from work the next day, and spent it sulking in my bed. The day after, I got several angry texts from Kate’s friends and family.
In a bid to save her image and denounce anything I might say about her, she told anyone she knew that I had forced myself upon her that night in one last attempt to “get some” before we broke up, and left after the deed was done.
Though what I had done was “scarring,” she refused to press charges because she “didn’t want to make a circus of her life in court” and was “the bigger person by doing so.”
I spent the next few months in fear that her allegations would have me discharged from the Army and my image forever tarnished, but nothing ever happened.
Five months afterwards, Kate DM’ed me. After pleasantries, she basically apologized for the whole thing, and actually admitted to faking it, though she would never publicly admit it to save her own reputation. This angered me, but I kept cool.
I just screenshot the texts and continued talking with her. Over the next three months, she entered into a cycle of events as follows: Complain about a current life situation, usually about John screwing up in their relationship in one way or another, and asking for advice.
Lamenting our relationship, how I never screwed up like John did, how she wished we could go back to the way things were, blah blah blah. Ignoring me because John finally pulled his head out of his butt, did some huge romantic gesture, and saved their relationship.
Going on a smear campaign on social media about our relationship, employing her friends for help, knowing in full that I would see it all, and trying to bait me into an argument.
It would work, she would try to turn the argument around and paint me as the bad guy, and then block me for about a month, before repeating the cycle. This happened 3 times like clock work, and always left me burnt out and broken, but a part of me wanted it to happen.
Each time it did, I took screenshots of everything she said. I had a full SD card of everything I compiled, before I finally decided it was time.
Making several picture copies of the worst of the worst text messages I caught, I bought several manila envelopes and mailed them to everyone I thought would matter to Kate.
Her parents, grandparents, extended family she was super close with, best friends, work boss, co-workers, teachers; whoever I could find a mailing address for. I made sure that anyone getting the envelope would know that the texts were between me and Kate, and sent them off.
Within three weeks, I got results. Some of the people who messaged me to shame and insult me before now apologized for their words.
My favorite was from her own parents, who went on to say that they were deeply sorry about their daughter’s behavior, how they raised her to be better than how she acted, and to please not pursue any court actions.
The thought had crossed my mind, but I didn’t have the money nor the mental fortitude to fight a battle. I told them I’d think about it, and that they’d be the first to know besides Kate if I did. Kate sent me some texts as well, with things like “how could you betray my trust like that” or “you ruined my life.”
I didn’t reply, I just read every angry text that flew in with a satisfied grin and then blocked her when they stopped.
I never fully found out how badly her life was affected by my revenge, but I do know that she dropped out of school and no longer has a job. I hope John was worth it.