response to imadeitoutalive

Submitted by Francesca (United Kingdom), Jun 19, 2016 at 01:03

My heart feels for you. Your experience has been horrendous. I fell in love with an Egyptian guy. I thought he was perfect for me. Kind, sweet, gentle, charming, funny. I helped him improve his English and he helped me with my Arabic. We spoke on the phone every day sometimes 3 times a day. I met him in June last year.

have been to see him a few times and was due to see him again in August. We agreed to take a business together in Egypt. He is a masseur and I am a holistic therapist. I have a couple if businesses in England. I thought we were close and talked about everything. He was my soul mate for 8 months. We were due to take the Spa business in March. I gave him the £5k of my contribution and he was getting help from his uncle for the rest. His uncle is already a business man so I believed his story.

After the Russian bomb Egypt's economy suffered badly. We agreed it was not a good time to take the Spa because there are very few people travelling to Egypt. I told him to keep the money and we can use it another time. I honestly believed we were going to have a life together...until he returned to his town in April with my money. He didn't contact me for 1 month. I called him and he didn't answer my calls.

I later found out from his friends that he had bought gold with my money and got himself engaged to an Egyptian girl that his mother chose for him. I fell to the floor in shock. I was sick and totally broken hearted. I couldn't believe he would do this to me. I cried everyday. I couldn't get out of bed and I lost a lot of weight.

When he returned to Hurghada he made contact with me again and told me he had been in prison because he owed money to the owner of his parents house. He told me all my money was gone and he needed more. I asked him about his engagement which was posted on fb. He denied it.

We stayed in contact for a but longer. He asked me to help him find work in England. He is with his family now for Ramadan but when he returns he is talking about coming to England. I have been very cautious and distant with him. He is angry and tells me I have changed and that my head is not good and that I need to relax. I have seen the mask come off and I am thankful to his friend for tell me about the Engagement.

At this point I have lost about £7k in total but it could have been a lot worse. I really loved him and would have done anything for him. I have had a lucky escape. I might have been in a similar situation to yourself a few months down the line. You are very brave and my empathy is with you. How are you coping emotionally after all this? Take care

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