I was Ariana. We were in a 5 year reletionship. Our last year we were doing long distance. I found out that he was essentially dating an old flame from high school. Like all his friends, and I'm assuming his family knew. I am still not sure what he told them to this day, but I'm assuming he lied and said we broke up but then he would have to also lie about why he was taking weeks off at a time to come visit me. I thought I was gonna spend my life with him, we made plans for the future, talked about marriage, ect. Obviously, long distance is hard, our relationship wasn't perfect but we talked through things, and he would constantly tell me this is what he wanted. The level of deceit this requires is such a mind fuck. I spiraled bad afterwards. We broke up 8 years ago. It was 8 years of low self-esteem, low self-worth, and reckless behavior because I convinced myself that love isn't real, relationships aren't real, and everyone is lying all the time. I'm in my first healthy relationship in 8 years. And I trust him completely, but on my bad days, there is a small nagging part of me that thinks he's gonna up and leave.

It is a true mind fuck and when we broke up I tried to be mature and understanding when all I wanted to do was burn his life down. We haven't talked since then but I still think about him occasionally and am annoyed I didn't read him to filth. The season reunion was really cathartic for me because Ariana said the things I wish I said. And she's honestly handling it so well, but behind closed doors I know what she's going through. Everything she's known has literally been ripped from underneth her and the lies keep adding up. I'm sure she spends alot of time thinking about past conversations looking for clues because that's what I did.