It all started innocently enough for her, flirting on the Internet. She had had a brutal abuse marriage. Her ex-husband tried for total control of her, but she was a fighter. The computer and the Internet were an escape from Podunk and a way to meet people. They had had two girls together and she knew she had to do something before his influence killed the spirit of the youngest one like he had already done with the oldest. She had flirted with other men and even thought she could love some a couple, but they tried to play games with her mind and she saw through them and moved on. She was a spunky South Carolina gal who just wouldn’t give up on life or love.
She had died several times when she had her first series of heart attacks, but each time she fought back believing that she would find her soul mate. Her ex-husband was still around and constantly causing trouble and all she wanted to do was find a good man, love him and move. Then Will came into her life, he was funny and charming and she was swept off her feet. She had met other men from on-line for coffee and dinner, but Will was different. Jan had at last found her soul mate. He came to her charming both her and her daughter, talking of plans for the future together and making plans for Christmas.
When he departed for home, She was desolate, but eagerly awaited his return. Then the calls slowed down. Then they stopped. She called him. He said he couldn’t that she had too much “baggage”. This from the man she loved? She was inconsolable, but eventually they began talking again and her heart was soon soaring again. She could wait. She could wait for her soul mate.
Some months past and she began to suspect there was something else. Well Jan was an inquisitive sort and she started digging and checking times and dates. Going into various on line chat rooms under aliases and checking on her “soul mate”. She discovered that after he saw her, he had flown three days later to another woman’s bed. And had bragged about who his next conquest would be. He made his next conquest, along with a bonus prize, someone he had been cultivating on the phone for sometime but really didn’t think he had a chance with. But he found out she was vulnerable like the others to his smooth lies and mind manipulation. He would prove to the world just how big a man he was.
Jan couldn’t take it. The medications keeping her well, she quit taking and she passed away. The death certificate said natural causes, but really it was from a broken heart, she couldn’t bear the thought of being without him. Betrayed not only by him, but women she called friends. Jan could understand the women; they were seduced with his excitement and charm, his bravado. A false bravado it now appeared, a modern day Lothario.
Jan’s funeral was a perfect place for Will to strut his stuff, to put on false airs of grief and solicit sympathy. He deserved an Oscar for his performance. Professing his undying love for Jan, while plotting to bed down her friends and acquaintances. He had notched his bedposts with women from up and down the west coast across the heartland to the east coast. He would show all that he could that he was in control. That he was a real man.
Is there a happy ending to this story? Sure for him, but he had destroyed marriages, long time relationships and would continue to do so. He had taken vulnerable women, seduced them with lies and half-truths, charm and excitement. He had shown them a world they were eager to join. Then he stripped them of their pride, their sense of self-worth and destroyed them. Destroying their families and loved ones at the same time. He left his mark on all of them. After all he was a man, a real man…. at least until the final Judgment Day!
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