by Suzi George

Created on: April 04, 2009

Betrayal comes in many forms with the most common being a cheating partner. In my experience, betrayal came from an unexpected and hurtful situation. My mother passed away when I was nine and I was sent to live with my father and step-mother. Needless to say, my new mother didn't care too much for me and it was apparent by the way she treated me. My own mother was sick and never showed any type of affection nor did I have a relationship with her so I was desperate to find this mother/daughter relationship that all my friends were so lucky to have. Just when I had given up, a woman came into my life and started to fulfill that emptiness, or so I thought.

I began to babysit for her when I was fourteen. She had three wonderful daughters and they instantly took a liking to me. I became their surrogate big sister. I spent more and more time at her house to the point of going over on Fridays and staying until Sunday evening. In effect, I became the family's live-in sitter. I didn't mind, I looked forward to it. Looking back, there were so many warning signs but because I was so empty, I chose to ignore them or I was so innocent, I never saw them in the first place.

Eventually, this woman told me to call her mom and made me feel a part of the family. I followed her to the town she moved to in order to attend school and help with her children. Again, I never saw anything to suggest she was just using me. Soon after moving to the new city, I met my future husband. He is a wonderful, sweet, kind and gentle man but he didn't like her from his first meeting with her. My husband has this ability, a sixth sense if you will, to feel if someone is dishonest or deceitful and he tried to tell me this about her but I didn't listen. She would love me just enough, or pretend to, to keep me on a leash. I had no friends, that wasn't allowed but I was happy, so I thought.

The more people tried to tell me that she was just using me, she didn't really care and that one day she would stab me in the back, the closer I became to her. She listened to me, treated me as part of her family and made me feel useful and needed. These are all things I lacked in my life.

Many years and five children down the road, I had an epiphany. By now, this woman was virtually running my life, including my job and home. She put a large trailer on a lot next to hers in order to keep me close and I worked for her as well. On one late evening, I noticed my dark barking. It was late, about ten p.m. so I peered out

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