Hidden to Protect His Real Life

I wasn’t his girlfriend. I was his secret. We met through friends, so I assumed he was safe. Everyone knew him.

Everyone liked him. He never posted me, but he said he hated social media.

I believed him because everything else felt real. He slept over. He met my friends.

He talked about the future like it was obvious. One night, I tagged him in

a photo anyway. Within minutes, I got a message from a woman I didn’t know.

She asked how I knew her boyfriend. Turns out they lived together. Four years.

Same apartment he told me he “used to have.” When I confronted him,

he didn’t apologize. He asked why I’d tag him without asking. That’s when I understood.