Lucy | Betrayal Weekly

I don't know this person. What I had in my mind is not true. He's not the person I thought he was. I have no idea what he was capable of doing.

I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything really quick. Before we get into the episode, I have a small favor to ask you. If you're enjoying listening to Betrayal, please take a second to hit the follow button on your podcast app, and please rate and review. We read all the comments and your voices help our show improve and evolve. I really mean it

Puerto Rico is an amazing place. People are super friendly. It's like everybody's family and you feel absolutely welcomed.

Lucy grew up with three brothers and they were really close.

I really tried to be up to their standards in terms of sports. So I had to run and play basketball and baseball and things like that.

Lucy is tall and strikingly beautiful. When she was fifteen years old, she started modeling.

Runways, commercials, TV. But you know, I always kept this part of my life as secondary thing.

School was her top priority.

I always had very high standards, and I accomplished them. I graduated almost four point average in high school.

She excelled in college as well. After graduating, she built a successful career in the media industry. Her twenties and thirties were full of adventure.

I met a lot of very interesting people. I used to travel a lot. I've been lucky one of the lucky ones.

In her mid thirties, Lucy was in a long term relationship. She and her boyfriend had been dating for eight years. One night, Lucy was out at a party when a friend of hers came over and told her that a guy at the party kept asking about her. His name was Ellie.

I was going out with somebody else, so it was not my raider to look at other people, but evidently he asked about me, and he told my friend, I'm going to end up with this girl.

Ellie was bold to be announcing his crush on her. After all, Lucy was dating someone and Ellie was too.

He was the boyfriend of my girlfriend, and I always thought they were going to get married.

But she kept seeing Ellie around and over time he became a friendly face in the crowd. She always had fun talking to him. She learned that he had moved to.

Puerto Rico for work Puerto Rico s Mole. So we would see each other like in a restaurant or in a party, but nothing so intimate.

Eventually, Lucy and her long term boyfriend broke up, and at the age of thirty five, she was single again for the first time in nearly a decade. One night, she went out to dinner with some friends at a Mediterranean restaurant.

And when I got in, the first person I see is Ellie and he stopped me and he said hi.

He asked about her boyfriend, and she told him that they had just broken up.

And I asked him, and how's your girlfriend? And he told me that they broke up and I said, oh my god, I can't believe this. We have to cry in each other's shoulder, and he said yes, and he asked me for my phone number.

After that night, Ellie called Lucy. Talking to him was fun and refreshing. He started calling her more often, and soon he couldn't hide his feelings for her anymore, and he asked her on a date.

And since it was recent that I have split with my boyfriend of eight years, I told him listen, I'm not ready now, it's too soon.

After her breakup, she was focused on herself, so they stayed front But over time, Lucy's feelings for Ellie grew.

He was so smart as that really attracted me to him a lot. I could listen to him talk for hours and that was fascinated.

And Ellie kept pursuing her, asking her out to dinner.

He would call me and call me and call me.

Eventually she agreed and they went out on their first date.

I couldn't believe how amazing this guy was. I really liked him, and it was like I started looking at him in another way.

Ellie was romantic. He pulled out all the stops to show Lucy how much he liked her. And it didn't hurt that he made a lot of money. He had a lucrative job in the oil and gas industry and could afford to spoil Lucy.

He would send me flowers constantly. He would call me all the time. He would pick me up and he would be dressed super nice and smell super good.

She was having so much fun.

He would take me to this wonderful restaurant and I would go to the hotel and I would have flowers waiting for me and a bottle of champagne.

They made their relationship official.

At the beginning, I just let everything flow and you know, enjoy myself. But then I realized I admire him so much. This man is so smart, so well versed. He was fascinating. He spoke four languages, he was well read. He was really a very special guy for me.

The feeling was mutual. Ellie admired Liusey's intelligence ambition and told her all the time how beautiful she was.

He would call all his friends to tell him, no, I'm with this girl, and I love her. He was really, really in love.

They made a great pair. Over time, their relationship became more serious. They were both hoping to start a family soon, and they talked about their future together often. Then, when winter came around, they'd been dating for a year, Ellie took a trip to New York for work and invited Lucy to come.

We went out to dinner to this beautiful restaurant and he said, Okay, let's just go around the carriage in Central Park.

So they booked a carriage tour and rode through Central Park together.

It was beautiful. It was a beautiful night.

Lucy looked out at the city lights, taking it all in. When she turned back to Ellie, he was down on one.

Knee asking me to marry him. Oh my god, it was so perfect. It was really charming and so unexpected and really magical.

Back in Puerto Rico, Lucy and Ellie moved in together and seven months later they got married.

In this beautiful hotel in Puerto Rico. We really had a good time.

After two years of marriage, they were ready to have kids.

I got pregnant when I was thirty nine. It was so wanted and it turned out a beautiful experience.

Lucy decided to put her career on hold and spend as much time as possible with her son.

I never imagined I was going to be a housewife, and I loved it. At that stage in my life, I have already traveled I have partied, I have had fun. You know, I was ready.

Ellie worked hard to provide for their family.

He worked for a oil company and the company was in Puerto Rico. He didn't like to live in Puerto Rico. He never got too used to our culture. We are a little relaxed. He's a little more a type. He really wanted to move to the state. That's where he felt comfortable.

As time went on, Ellie started having more and more success at work.

He started buying properties with business partners, and he also had a gas company, so he started being very successful.

They were happy, but Ellie dreamed of moving somewhere new. When their first child was a year old, the timing was finally right. Ellie could work remotely, and Lucy was up for the adventure, so they moved their life from Puerto Rico to the continental United States. Lucy didn't know what to expect. When they got there, she found herself immersed in a whole new world.

He was a kind of high class community, which I didn't know when I bought the house. How prestigious was the place I was living.

They moved to a gated waterfront community. We're not naming this community. For Lucy's privacy. But it was an exclusive island where every street was lined with beautiful mansions. Many of the estates had their own pool or yacht. Suddenly they had attained another level of wealth and luxury, and Lucy wouldn't have to work again.

We had a huge house, beautiful house.

After a few years in the States, they welcomed their second child, a daughter.

And it was a wonderful pregnancy at forty three years old. Remember, I grew up with boys only, so having a girl was fantastic. Ellie was still administrating the old company in Puerto Rico, but he was investing in real estate, and he kept on doing very well. With time, he did better and better and better.

Within their marriage, Lucy and Ellie each had their own domain. Ellie handled work and money, and handled their kids, the house, and their family's needs. They gave each other full rein to handle their side of things, and their system was a well oiled machine.

He would work, I would do the rest everything else. Regarding my children. Regarding the house, he just said how much and he would pay for it.

They gave each other a lot of space and trusted each other deeply.

I was so respectful of his space and his things. I really never knew how much money he had. I never knew all his businesses, just in general, but not details.

Lucy didn't need to know the details to see the big picture. They were very lucky. They'd been happily married for twenty years and their kids were teenagers now. They traveled together often and gave their kids everything they could dream of.

Our lifestyle was so wonderful when I was thinking, I have so much more than what I need. We traveled a lot. We ended up buying a beach house. We decided for many years to spend Christmas in Paris with the kids. We were happy, you know, we were happy. There was no reason for me to think that things were going to end up the way they did.

Lucy and her husband, Ellie, built an impressive life together. They lived in a beautiful house, had two kids, and traveled often. They had everything they needed and more.

I was so wonderful, and every time we traveled we had fun. We would laugh and it was good. We were happy, you know, we were happy.

For twenty years. Their marriage was a dream. But when Ellie turned sixty, Lucy started noticing some changes in him. He grew emotionally distant.

It was more touchy, freely than he was. He started not having any intimacy with me. I was always very much into looking good. I tried to keep being attractive to him, but there was no reaction from him.

And on top of that, he started dressing differently.

My husband was a very, very classy man. He would always be very well dressed, but very appropriate for his age. When he turned sixty, I started noticing that he started dressing like a young guy. He would wear like skinny jeans, and he started wearing bracelets. And I was like, what the hell, what's wrong with you? Do you look like an old man in teenager's clothes? And I asked him, are you seeing somebody else? Because this is too strange, and he was saying, no, you're crazy.

She took his word for it. Their mutual trust was an essential part of their relationship.

I had no reasons to doubt. I respected him so much. I never went through his phone, I never went through his wallet.

She talked it all up to a midlife crisis, but over time Ellie went from being distant to being cruel. One day, Lucy and Ellie got into an argument.

And he said, you know something. You are not necessary, you are convenient. I went to the room and I started crying and didn't say anything. And he realized what stupid thing he said, and he started sending me flowers and saying how important I am.

But Lucy couldn't get his words out of her head. Every year Lucy and her friends went on a girl's trip.

We would go to Europe or New York or different places just for a week or something like that. We went to Spain and then we ended up in Turkey.

While on her girl's trip. She called Ellie to check in, but when he picked up the phone, he was crying.

And I said, what happened. He used to have a Bentley and he said, I went to the mall to have the business launch and when I came back to pick up my car, it was scratched from head to toe. And I said what.

Lucy was confused, why would that happen? And why was he in tears over this?

Especially the mall that he went. It was a very high end more that had cameras and had security all over. Said how could this happen? He said no, but don't worry. I'm going to send it to be fixed.

Lucy wasn't ready to just accept this and move on. It was too strange. King someone's car was personal.

Who did this? Who could have done this? And he said, I don't know, this is just vandalism.

Even though he'd been so emotional on the phone, Ellie insisted that this wasn't targeted at them specifically. Lucy wasn't convinced, but she tried to enjoy the rest of her trip with her friends.

When I came back from my trip, I noticed he was very nervous. And the first night I received a call at three o'clock in the.

Morning, Lucy woke up in the darkness to her phone ringing. When she picked up, there was silence.

And they hung up.

Lucy looked at Ellie sitting in bed next to.

Her, and he was very nervous, and it was like, what's going on? And he said, no, no, that must be a wrong number.

Her normally calm and collected husband of twenty years seemed a little rattled. The following day, one of their close friends came over for dinner. They shared a nice meal, good conversation, and everything felt normal. But then, just when their friend was about to head home, Ellie stopped him.

He tells him, please don't leave. She's going to need you, and he tells me sit down.

Confused, Lucy sat down and her friend sat next to her. They both looked at Ellie, waiting for an explanation. He stood nervously in front of.

Them, and he said, I have been kidnapped, and it is what by who? What happened?

All of a sudden, their living room became Ellie's confessional.

I have been dating women from sugar daddy dot com. I have dated a few women. I would see them at lunchtime two days a week, But for the last six months I have been closer to these Russian women. Anna, and she's married. She has a three year old baby. Her husband knows that she's an escort. He manages her.

Elie would meet Anna in different places, sometimes in hotel rooms, sometimes at one of his rental properties. But one day things took a turn.

Anna told Ellie to meet her in an apartment that Ellie owned. When Ellie goes to the apartment, he thought he was going to be in the rendezvous with Anna. When he goes there, who's in the apartment Anna's husband.

Ellie told Lucy how shocked he was in that moment, but he said there was no time for him to react. Once Ellie was inside, Anna's husband closed the door and took out a steel pipe, threatening to hurt Ellie.

He wanted Ellie to see that he was serious. He told Elie, take off your clothes, so he got naked. He sat him in the sofa, and he started breaking things in the apartment.

Anna and her husband had been struggling financially, and they knew how wealthy Ellie was, so they devised a plan to extore him. They planted cameras in the hotel rooms and rental properties where Ellie and Anna met, and they filmed them having sex to use as blackmail.

Anna's husband would put the camera in front of the bed and tell her this is where the camera is, this is where you have to concentrate, and then he would record everything.

Now, Anna and her husband were threatening to release these tapes. If Ellie did not comply with their demands.

You have to give me one million dollars cash, and you have to put under my wife's name two apartments in a specific building. And if he didn't, I'm going to tell your wife and everybody, I'm going to ruin your reputation, and for Ellie, his reputation was everything.

If his reputation wasn't enough, Anna and her husband had more collateral.

Anna's husband showed Ellie pictures of my children, pictures of my house, pictures of me, pictures of the cars, pictures of the school my children went. They knew everything. They implied there were going to be consequences. Something's gonna happen to your family.

Anna's husband held Ellie in the apartment for a few hours to make it clear he was serious. Finally he left and Ellie was free to go. Ellie explained all of this in one go to Lucy.

I didn't know how to react. This was like from a movie, but it was happening. That day, my life collapsed.

Lucy's husband, Ellie sat her down and told her he needed to confess something. She never could have predicted what came out of his mouth next.

That day, my life collapsed.

She thought her husband of twenty years was an honest and loyal man. She saw no indications otherwise until Ellie was forced to tell her the truth. For years, he'd been meeting women from a sugar Daddy website. For the

He was such a shock. My world crashed, and I didn't know who to call. I didn't know who to talk to. I didn't know what to do.

Her immediate reaction was to make sure the kids were safe.

There was a clear sign that we're watching us. We don't know with whom we're cheelling because we don't know the associates they have.

Ellie came clean about the time someone keyed his Bentley. It wasn't a random act of vandalism, and he'd known it.

Have Wedaly That was Anna's husband and his friends.

That call she'd gotten in the middle of the night had also been from Anna's husband. They had all sorts of information on Lucy and her family, their phone numbers, license plates, their address. Anna and her husband had also sent someone to take photos of Lucy's kids and her It was terrifying. Anna and her husband were three steps ahead, and Lucy was scared of what they might do next. She had to think fast and went into solution mode all the while, while Ellie seemed to shrink.

He was super scared. He has always been a coward.

Lucy wanted protection right away, so she hired a private security detail.

I had an armed guard for twenty four hours in the front of my house, and this is very unusual where I live. Just imagine the shock of my children.

What Anna and her husband were doing was a crime. It was extortion. Despite how angry Lucy was, she worked with Elli as a team. She told Ellie he needed to go to the police and report the crime.

And he contacted the FBI, so the FBI took the case.

The FBI needed proof of the extortion, so they planned to record a phone call with Ellie. Anna and her husband.

And the FBI told them, make him believe that you're going to comply with what they want. We're going to record this and then we're going to arrest them.

The call went off without a hit. Anna's husband gave the FBI exactly what they needed.

He said, you know, I'm going to give you a break. Just give me the million dollars and you don't have to give me the two apartments because I want the money right now. So they have that on tape. So they sent SWAT to their apartment and they got them, both of them and their computers. They had all the evidence.

Authorities were able to charge Anna and her husband with a federal crime.

They charged him with extortionire most of them went to jail.

Since her husband's confession, Lucy had been in fight or flight, terrified for her children's safety. Finally it seemed like the threat was neutralized. She thought that once Anna and her husband were in jail, Ellie would apologize for what he'd done and make amends with the family. But Ellie shut down.

I really tried, and he's like talking to a wall. He would never ever explain himself, talk about feelings, talk about anything. Zero. He never asked about me how I felt. He never said I'm sorry. He portrayed himself as the victim. He told me, I am the victim of extortion. I'm the victim. He thought I was going to just ignore the situation and keep on being married like nothing happened.

But the fact that he didn't seem to care about what he'd put the family through was what alarmed Lucy the most.

How can you live with yourself knowing that you crushed the people that love you the most and portray yourself as a victim after you have caused so much damage.

As the shock of it all wore off, a new feeling emerged in its place, betrayal. Who was this man a life with? Was anything he told her true?

I started questioning many many things. I felt like live the lie and I don't know who his true self was when this happened. I think that was the most difficult thing to deal with, the betrayal of knowing that I don't know this person, that what I had in my mind is not true. He's not the person I thought he was. Absolutely he's not.

Ellie had been meeting women from sugar daddy dot Com. For years. After every meetup, he returned to their home, sit down at dinner with their kids, and lie about where he'd been.

It's not like I'm talking about five years, twenty one years of being fooled. He lived a facade.

Lucy realized that Anna and her husband weren't the only threat to her safety. Also, Ellie, I have.

No idea what he was capable of doing. The betrayals too much, too deep. It was hell. I went through the motions of living. That's it. I could hardly survive. I was just an entity walking around.

She emotionally disconnected from Ellie for weeks. He tried to win her back with grand gestures, the kind he'd made at the beginning of their relationship.

He promised me, I'll buy you an apartment in Madri Let's move, let's do. He promised me the world.

But all the money in the world wouldn't fix it. Lucy couldn't be bought. It was too late. There was no coming back from this.

I kicked him out of the house. For him was a shock that I left him. He never thought I was going to leave.

Then Lucy filed for divorce. When Ellie saw that she was serious about leaving, it was like a switch flipped. She saw it in his eyes and heard it in his voice.

He thought, I'm going to destroy this woman because she left me and losing her when I'm going to destroy her in the process.

After she filed for divorce, Ellie became vicious.

He started being super mean to me, and he would blame me on everything. He declared war.

The man who promised her the world just a few weeks earlier, began berating and insulting Lucy every chance he got.

He told her, I don't even love you. If you were the last woman that insisted in the world, I wouldn't even get close to you. That's how much I dislike you.

Lucy thought his cruel remarks were as low as he would go, but he was about to take his retaliation a step further. One day, they got into an argument on Lucy's front lawn. Ellie was escalating, becoming increasingly agitated and getting in her personal space.

And he started talking to me with his finger in my face, and I pushed him because he was on my face. He said, you want to play with me, You're going to see what suffering is. He called nine one one, and nine one one came. They arrest me for domestic violets.

Lucy remembers this moment vividly. Ellie watched, unfazed as she was being handcuffed.

They took me to jail. I was in jail for three days, two nights. In jail.

It was unbelievable, surrounded by strangers. She was too anxious to eat or even use the bathroom. She waited there until a friend was able to bail her out. Lucy has since gotten the domestic violence charge expunged.

Narcissus. I think that they enjoy making you suffer because he makes them feel better. It makes them feel superior, It makes him feel in control.

It was easy for him to pose as the victim and paint her as the villain, and he made it clear he was willing to do it again. A few months later, it was time for Anna and her husband sentencing hearing. Lucy wanted to attend the hearing. She wrote a victim impact statement.

I prepared a statement explaining everything that has happened and how he had affected my children.

But Ellie told her she wasn't allowed to go to the hearing If she showed up there, he said he'd have her arrested again.

And since I was in jail not too long before, I just believed him because he was so convincing.

Ellie was doing whatever he could to control the situation and keep Lucy in the dark. Not only did he intimidate Lucy out of attending the hearing, Ellie didn't attend either. He never went to present his testimony. He was the only witness.

He's a coward. He didn't want anything on record because when you go to a court, everything's transcribed, so John, she never knew exactly what happened. They just said in general, but nothing like the tragedy and all day implications, the threatening, the impact on me and my kids. Did Judge never heard it. He didn't advocate for his family for us. His reputation was more important. He didn't want anybody to hear what he did.

He couldn't face the shame of it because Ellie wasn't there. The judge was very lenient with the sentencing. Anna's husband was sentenced to fifteen months in jail, and Anna was only given five as for Lucy, she endured a much longer sentence. Trying to put the pieces of her life back together after Ellie's betrayal.

I was a mess. I barely could move for a year and a half. I was in bed, crying, crying, crying. I would cry for days. I don't even remember many days. This guy destroyed my life so much a way that he destroyed my soul.

During their marriage, she and Ellie had cultivated a community of close friends. After his betrayal, she needed someone to turn to, but she'd stop getting replies or calls back from friends. Then she found out that Ellie had been telling everyone a very different story about their divorce, one where Lucy was to blame.

I would receive calls from friends that would say, how could you be uns faithful to you your husband like that? I say, what what are you talking about? He started saying that I wasn't faithful to him with a Russian guy just changed the story, making me the one that did everything he did. It was crazy.

It was the definition of projection. But she couldn't stop the rumors. Many of their friends took Ellie's side, and she has a theory about.

Why unfortunately money talks. People respect people with money, even if they are the devil in disguise. People want to be close to success, to successful people, not two people that are destroyed or a mess. I was a mess. I took a few pills because I want to numb myself, not because I want to die. I wanted to numb myself, but maybe I took too many. I ended up in the hospital in emergency and they transferred me to a psychiatric hospital.

The doctors asked Lucy what was going on at home?

When I told the psychiatric is my story, and she thought I was making it up. She told me, your delusional, what a story.

Lucy stayed in the psychiatric hospital for a few days. Eli brought their kids to visit her.

He looked very calm and collected. He told my nineteen year old son, listen, I think you should live alone because your mother is not well, so you shouldn't be with her. And he gave him an apartment that was devastating. He took advantage of my vulnerability that he would talk about me like I was the crazy one. He keeps the financial control of everybody.

It took five months for their divorce to be finalized.

It cost him a fortune. It cost me my sanity.

Looking back now, Lucy sees how wealth enabled Ellie.

The more money you get, the more powerful you feel. He felt superior to everybody, and he's above everybody. He thought he was untouchable.

It's been almost ten years since she discovered Ellie's betrayal. Not a day goes by that she doesn't think about it.

I'm not sure if I forgive him, but if I don't, it's okay, because you don't have to forgive everybody, especially somebody that has been so purposely mean to you and your children. You know he doesn't deserve forgiveness.

The person she has forgiven is herself. She knows now that none of this was her fault. It took her a while to trust again, but when she did, it was worth it. A few years ago, Wow, she met someone new.

He made me be living life again. We got married in twenty twenty three. We're happily married, and he's an amazing man and he brings me joy every day.

She's rebuilt a life that feels authentically hers.

I just dedicate myself to what makes me happy. My two dogs are my life. My husband is my life, my children. I live a very quiet life. I love to read, I love to watch my Netflix. I just accept things for the way they are. I don't sweat little things. Finally, I'm at peace.

We end every weekly episode with the same question, why do you want to share your story?

What happened to me was minimized by many people around me and the hurt. But I think that my story was so extraordinary that it has to be heard. And you know something, in a way, I won validation because I have been strong. I went through hell for years, not months, years, and I discovered that I'm stronger than I think.

On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.

I remember everything that man for so long had so much control over me. I cannot just stand by and do nothing. You will not get away with this.

If you'd like to share your story on Betrayal, please email Betrayal Pod at gmail dot com. That is is Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. Please note that we are not a mental health organization. If you are in crisis or currently experiencing domestic violence, we encourage you to seek local help or dial nine one one. Please contact organizations that offer immediate support. In our show notes, we've included