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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Learning to finally let go

12 replies

Lacey2019 · 22/06/2020 10:22

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well, I know how hard recent times have been.

I was with my ex for 5 years, the final year was very hard. We had lived together for 3 and a half years, owned a home and were engaged. We broke up at the end of last August, but I didn't move out until the end of October.

I can't help but since then, he's just played me along and I do not know how to learn to let go full, whilst I can't get any answers (which I know I am not entitled to!).

In December we spoke after new year, as I told him I was thinking of him on his granddads anniversary. He text back later that evening, I apologised and said I knew it was just after new year and he said he had been away with a group and to not apologise. He said he’d been going on dates but realised it was just a band aid and he wasn’t ready. In Feb he again stated he hadn’t been dating in months. Mid march we spoke after my mum had asked him for some tax letters on my behalf. He told my mum it was a shame that I did not reach out or have the ability to and that after so long it would have been the first main part of good contact and he was so sad with how things had turned out as he didn’t think they should or would have and he hoped to bump into me. I rang him to say I wasn’t being offensive going through my mum, but I felt it was the best way.
He then told me he was dating someone and was happy. He wasn’t looking for her, but she ‘fell on his lap’ and they started talking on a night out and it was going well, she was his source of happiness. That noone had met her, but would if it was right and he wasn’t sure whether it would go anywhere. He then asked if it was ok to message me on my birthday. The last time we spoke was in April when I rang to check that he was ok with everything going on, he told me he appreciated it and that we should meet up soon. He asked me to leave things on a nice note as we argued sometimes and that I should leave a nice door open for communication in the future for him to reach out and add him on social media for him to accept when he felt it was right. Since then I have learnt he has lost a big, high flying job.
I knew in my heart he wasn’t interested, but 5 years I couldn’t just turn off. However, I now feel like an absolute idiot. He has been with someone since last November, 4 weeks after I moved out and was on general dates 2 weeks after I left. He met a girl on a stag do. They went on holiday abroad over new year despite what he told me. He has been with her the whole time and now ghosted me since I text him to ask why I could get no honesty. He is now looking to move from London to Dubai to live there, where she is for work.
I just don’t know why I wasn’t worth the truth, why he lied, why he was so bothered about me being nice or leaving a door open and sadly he won’t give me the answers so I’m hoping someone can help me to make sense of it all as I am mentally struggling.

OP posts:
SapatSea · 22/06/2020 10:51

He was "leaving a door open" so that he might have a way back if he ever wanted to pursue it and because he wanted to act like a "good guy" in others eyes.

Lacey2019 · 22/06/2020 11:05

Thank you. He has always said he would never get back together. I just can't make sense of why he cared so much that I didn't talk to him, or whenever I have asked about this person he will just ignore/ghost.

I am so upset that after 5 years, he is moving country for a girl after 6 months :(

OP posts:
SerendipityIfOnly · 22/06/2020 11:27

I'm so sorry Lacey , I have had something similar happen to me years ago (Only difference was that my bf didn't tell me we split up just moved me from gf to friend status while going out with someone else.... And the someone else was married as well!) It took me six months to unravel it all and the lies.... I kept uncovering more and more lies.

I asked him why he couldn't be honest as well. He said he was a coward and he wasn't brave enough to tell me. But that wasn't true, he lied to keep me on the back burner in case everything went badly with his new (married) gf. He kept me so he would have someone to talk to when he was lonely or to prop up his ego when it was flagging. He only ever thought about himself.

You dodged a bullet , I know it doesn't feel like it yet , but it will . I'm sorry .

SerendipityIfOnly · 22/06/2020 11:29

Just because he said you would never get back together doesn't mean he wasn't using you . That made him feel better maybe while he was with someone else. He lied about being in a relationship for a reason . He's not for you .

Happynow001 · 22/06/2020 11:47

I'm sorry OP but he did it just because he could. He did it to keep Plan B in play in case he needed it/you for whatever reason.

He was not kind to you I'm afraid. If he was he would have made it plain that the relationship was completely at an end and there was no hope of that changing. If he'd done that gently you might still have been hurt but not as bewildered as you sound now.

Don't let him pull your heartstrings any more dear @Lacey2019 - he's not worth your sadness any more.

Certainly don't "leave a nice door open for communication in the future for him to reach out and add him on social media for him to accept ". Block him out of your life and look forward to your future. There is nothing else good for you here. 🌹

Lacey2019 · 22/06/2020 13:47

Thank you everyone. It just breaks my heart after 5 years that he’s ready to move country after 6 months of knowing someone. I just don’t know why I was never enough, as I wanted to move with him to Dubai and he never would.

Why I need to be nice and just leave it there and add him on social media, after he removed me and pictures of us last year, after he’d met this person :(

OP posts:
SerendipityIfOnly · 22/06/2020 14:00

Lacey , you were enough, you were always enough. Nobody can tell you why this man has treated you like this ,call they can say is that it wasn't kind . As a PP also said he hasn't been kind to you.

I think we live through things to teach us what we need and you sound like you really , really need a partner who is kind to you. When you are ready to start seeing somebody new make sure that is top of your list , I have a kind husband how , it makes all the difference .

Lacey2019 · 22/06/2020 14:28

Thank you, that’s really lovely to read. When I was with him, he was wonderful. But things just drifted and we made a decision together. I just hate that it’s all been put on me such as telling my mum I should be able to contact him rather than her, that it shouldn’t be like this and on the phone to me just lying again and again. I’m not sure if it’s because he didn’t want to hurt me, as he’s said that’s a reason why there’s no pictures of what they’ve done

OP posts:
SerendipityIfOnly · 22/06/2020 18:07

I was heartbroken when it happened to me, inconsolable , even close to suicidal at times. I worry when I think back just how dependent I was on him and that relationship. That it ended with lies was just ... Really , really hard. I felt like I was walking around with my skin inside out. So sensitive to every thought about him and his new girlfriend. It's a hard place to be, I'm thinking of that now and I'm sorry you feel like that.

But you will get through this and you will be stronger and better for it. You need to learn to be enough for yourself , take some time now and work on you, focus on you. It won't always be this painful , I promise . And there will come a day when you wake up and it won't be until mid afternoon that you even think of him, and then the first day you don't think of him at all.

Be kind to yourself.

SissyLongStockings · 22/06/2020 19:27

No contact what so ever. No checking fb whatsapp last seen nothing. Cut all ties completley. Grieve, heal snd rebuild. Its the only way. He didnt deserve you.

Lacey2019 · 22/06/2020 23:31

Thank you everyone x
It’s been such a horrible time and how he just hasn’t been honest with me

OP posts:
Lacey2019 · 24/06/2020 09:57

I just wanted to say thank you. It’s been so hard but all I do is torture myself about why I wasn’t enough

OP posts:
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