Not a Fairytale PART 6 - FINAL

PART 6 - The Fallout

Immediately, Georgina received an abusive response from Barry (standard reaction from him whenever questioned). Understandably, Alexandra had been in utter shock after receiving that message and had asked Barry to explain himself. Barry explained that both Samara and Georgina were vindictive, spiteful and manipulative ex-girlfriends who were  all trying to hurt him. To Georgina; Barry was furious that she had upset his 'friend', and reiterated to Georgina that he and Alexandra were just 'friends'. Alexandra, two days later, posted a photo on Instagram of 24 red roses with some unambiguous hashtags, including #longdistance.

Georgina told Barry that it was over for good and that surely he was exhausted from all the lying. She offered him the chance to own up and admit to what he had been doing.

He continued to deny everything.

She told Barry that she knew he was cheating and had proof. He responded with more emotional blackmail; that she was giving up on them, not him.

Nate (who was still offering Georgina and Samara support and friendship) then gave Georgina a fun cryptic clue to contact Samara for some answers.

So she did.

Samara agreed to meet Georgina in order to warn her about what Barry was like in case they ever got back together. At this point, Samara was still under the impression that Georgina and Barry had been broken up for the past two years.

Both women were terribly nervous about coming face to face with each other, yet the need to connect and investigate years of secrets drove them past their trepidation. As they began to discuss their concerns, Georgina and Samara began to fully realised the kinds of lies Barry had been weaving over the years and the extent of his betrayal. Although each woman had grappled with her own suspicions, neither could have dreamed the true scope of their situation. Sitting there that night, facing the woman they had each feared to meet, at last they understood the terrible truth.

Both agreed that they should try and warn Alexandra, who was still completely unaware of the full extent of Barry's duplicitous lifestyle. 

Before they contacted Alexandra again, both Samara and Georgina took their revenge that night. They decided to take a photo together giving Barry The Birdie. However, before they sent the photo to him, they both (separately) sent him a private message, telling him they had 'changed their minds' and that they were both going to buy a plane ticket to travel overseas to live with him. After receiving a somewhat panicked reply, they followed up by sending the photo of themselves along with a message that his game was up and they now knew all his secrets.

His response to Georgina illustrates his intellect; "ha ha".

His response to Samara illustrates his callousness - he told them that he was 'done' with them months  ago and that he had found Alexandra because both Georgina and Samara were horrible, vindictive, and negative (LOL). Barry was apparently the victim. As one final and intense act of cruelty, Barry had proved to both women just how disposable they were to him.

After receiving some messages from Samara along with screenshots of messages as proof, Alexandra was horrified. She and Barry had been together for 8 months and while there had been those few odd incidents, nothing had made her consider that Barry was cheating on her. As far as she knew, she was about to move to begin a new life with the man she was going to marry.

Barry found out that Georgina and Samara had made contact with Alexandra, and suddenly began to funnel all his energy into trying to convince Alexandra that Georgina and Samara were liars; manipulating, conniving women who wanted to ruin their relationship; they just couldn't let go of him. UNFORTUNATELY for Barry, both Samara and Georgina had an extensive collection of photos, screenshots and messages from Barry from the last two years and the three women spent days sharing and scrutinising the unbelievable mass of deceit they had been subjected to.

Remember "Georgina's' couch from the beginning of the story? The same couch that gave up the big secret in Alexandra's photo? It belonged to Samara the whole time.

Conveniently, ever-faithful Nate soon joined forces with Barry, hounding Alexandra about how much Barry loved her; she was 'different to any other relationship he'd ever had'. Georgina and Samara realised at that point that Nate was in fact enabling Barry, and inexplicably and joyfully toying with them all as well. And so Alexandra was confronted with the most horrible evidence of cheating by a man who she thought was her future, while both Barry and Nate bombarded her with calculating messages pressuring her to ignore them.

Incredibly, Georgina, Samara and Alexandra all spent a night at Georgina's family's house pouring over Barry's shameless cunning they had all been exploited by. However, refusing to be victims they instead made the decision to stand together to support and protect each other from further harm from Barry. The amount of trauma each woman had been left with took an intensive amount of time to work through, but disposing of the rest of Barry's collective junk that he had left at each of their houses went some way towards healing some of the pain. Witnessing the devastating impact of Barry's behaviour on these women was sickening and not something that anyone would ever wish to see again.

Things got even more ugly there for a while. I know - but how is that even possible, you ask?

Some unpleasant and futile interaction was attempted with Barry's family. Georgina's mother tried to engage Barry's mother in a conversation to express her disappointment over Barry's deplorable treatment of her daughter. Barry's family, however, defended both his actions and their own. Perhaps the embarrassment of their involvement was too much for them and indignation was the only path they could find.

Or, perhaps the apple indeed doesn't fall far from the tree.

And that should have been the end of it. The chance for all three women to walk away and move on with their lives. However, Barry's sense of self-worth is disproportionately large compared to his actual worth. He somehow, bafflingly, believed that he still had a chance with Alexandra (I know, right?!?). Perhaps his self-inflicted isolation overseas made his delusions more potent? Who knows. All I do know is that they probably can't expect him to make any kind of rational connections. Most mentally competent people would consider the fact that all three women now have matching tattoos to celebrate their newfound sisterhood, survival and freedom... they would probably consider that to be fairly decisive. But no. If anything, Barry's overabundance of self-confidence has completely overridden his capacity to recognise the reality right in front of him.

And so he continues to hound Alexandra with the mistaken delusion that he has an opportunity. At one point he even accused her friendship with Samara and Georgina as "treating him like shit" and "how could she"?

It would be laughable if it weren't actually true.

Yet the three women are braving the harassment and stalker-ish behaviour with courage, continuing to move forward. What fills everyone with awe is that in a situation that most of us could barely fathom, all three women had the most extraordinary response. They reached out towards each other with compassion and open minds to support each other through their individual pain, humiliation and confusion.

As they say time will heal, although not all wounds are physical and the ones we can't see are often the most difficult to recover from. When you consider this psychological, emotional abuse has been going on for 8 months, 2 and 12 years (essentially during Georgina's formative teen and adult years) there is a lot of searching that needs to be done to establish what was him, and who they are. Georgina, Samara and Alexandra will need the support and care from those around them to also recover from their experiences. What they all have found, though, coming through this together, is that they have a ready-made support group unlike any other; a group who understands almost EXACTLY what the others have experienced. They know the intimate details of each others pain and suffering.

But, while they were victimised by a brutal and callous person, all have refused to be victims. They are survivors. Each of them now, are enjoying life to the fullest. These women are strong and resilient, they are intelligent and charismatic. They will succeed and thrive, and one day this will all be but a distasteful experience from a long long time ago; nothing but a bad memory abandoned in the depths of history.

As a broader issue, this story illustrates just how subtle, intricate, pervasive and devastating emotional abuse can be. While Georgina, Samara and Alexandra's response to their situation was exceptional, the issue of domestic violence and emotional abuse is a far too prevalent and toxic element in today's society. Being such an intimate and shame-filled experience, it is rarely shared openly. This also hides the fact that the victims are left to deal with a legacy of fear and lingering doubt, while also protecting the abuser with a code of silence. Our society expects victims to politely take their trauma and deal with it behind closed doors lest it make the rest of us feel uncomfortable. By opening up and exposing their experiences, Georgina, Samara and Alexandra are providing us with a perspective as to what emotional abuse is; how this type of abuse is so surreptitious; why the victims don't see it; and why they don't leave their situation. The scars of emotional abuse are difficult to see for all involved.

Most importantly, this story portrays what happens when women stand together in solitude, and fortify their values and beliefs, and say "we deserve better".

Because sometimes a happily-ever-after doesn't come from kissing a toad, or being saved from a tower guarded by an evil witch. These three women rescued themselves from the prodigal toad, and made their own happily-ever-after; a sisterhood unlike any other, entrenched with their own enduring power, resilience and freedom.

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*All names and details have been changed to protect each person's identity.