Was the way you originally set this up motivated by the desire for revenge (whether to get back at her, or expose her to the world), or to protect yourself?
Well taking things to court was done to protect myself. This girl would just pop up out of the blue to continue arguing about a relationship that literally didn't matter anymore. It really messed with me and I wanted it to stop. It was like having a clingy girlfriend, but she didn't do girlfriend things - she followed me around every once in a while and called me names. Like, when was it going to end? Are we going to be 30 and fighting about a relationship we had when we were 17? Cause we were halfway there.
I pushed certain buttons in the court documents because I was afraid her folks would support her and help spin a story to paint me as the bad guy -
which is a real risk given how women receive preferential treatment in the court system. So I intentionally mentioned stuff that would cause fights in her household to lessen the chances of them helping her out. Not that I lied about anything, I just included some really private stuff that was both integral to the situation AND bound to cause problems.
But I guess now it's finally hitting me what all that warranted:
- her parents hate her
- her sister hates her
- she lost her job
- she ran away to the other side of the world
- she's now homeless in a foreign country
Meanwhile I sit here with basically no repercussions, and I feel like I almost deserve a bit of punishment for it.