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The Aftermath of Finding Out My “Friend” Was a Child Sex Offender

The sudden death of our relationship after the truth came to light

MaryClare StFrancis
6 min readNov 8, 2024
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

“God fucking damn it, Bob!” I shouted, crying. I hit my hands against the steering wheel. Thankfully, I was parked. “Why?” I sobbed. The person on the phone treated me gently, and let me express my grief, knowing it wasn’t personal. “How fucking dare he!” I cried out. “He was my friend. I loved him.”

“I’m so sorry, but I’m glad you have the information so that you can do what you need to do,” she said to me.
“Fuck him!” I said. “Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him.” She let me cry a few more minutes before she hung up.

I had spent months feeling guilty over becoming suspicious that a dear friend might be expressing a pattern of behavior that was very wrong, but normal for him, and while I didn’t want to know, I knew I needed to take action.

He had lied to me about everything. The man I had been friends with wasn’t real. He was a construct that Bob had perfected over…

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MaryClare StFrancis
MaryClare StFrancis

Written by MaryClare StFrancis

I write memoir, nonfiction essays, and poetry

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