Heart of Deception: Cara Moore's True Story of an On-Line Dating Scam

By Julie Caton

Using an on-line dating site, an army major romances Cara, a middle-aged divorcee, and they fall in love. But after eight blissful weeks, Cara discovers that Michael is not the man he claims to be. With the help of the law, will she be able to catch him at his own game?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483517179

Book preview

June 14, 2013 6:43 p.m.

Desire for love flickered in my heart on that June night before my ex-husband remarried. I had wanted to love and be loved all my life and this weakness had propelled me into marriage decades ago. My ex surprised me by pulling into my driveway. He thrust a garment bag, crispy with age, toward me.

Do what you want with it – burn it, wear it. I don’t care. His mouth was rigid and his eyes distant. I found it in our closet.

Then he hefted his large frame into the pickup truck and backed out the way he came.

The bag held my ivory satin wedding dress. I stood in the driveway dumbfounded, clad only in shorts and a tee-shirt, and shivered from anger. Hundreds of hat pins may just as well have been thrown at me. I felt prickles of pain from grief and confusion. Hadn’t I gotten over the emotions of our failed marriage?

I hastened toward the bathroom clutching the garment bag, not caring that the plastic dragged against the driveway’s black asphalt. The veil, that symbol of virtue, lay in a heap at the bottom of the bag. I pulled the dress over my head, looked at myself in the mirror: an older, single woman, salt and pepper hair in a ponytail, frizzy tendrils escaping the hair band, eyes red-rimmed.

I stared, and wondered: What had happened in the last several decades to bring me to this point? Why had my ex and I committed ourselves in marriage when young, and then broken apart years later? What factors had caused the small fissure to widen over the decades until there was this great divide? Why does water run along a riverbed one season and then change its course over years? Natural shifts in the environment? The winds of storms? Erosion? Divine intervention?

My perception is that his abusive behaviors escalated over the years. He had told people I was having a mid-life crisis. The day he displayed such a fit of irrational rage that I feared for my life, God whispered to me, It is time to go. So with the help of family and friends, I left my husband and started a new life.

Trying on the wedding gown that evening threw me into the middle of a self-pity party, without the confetti, balloons and champagne. There were no guests. I was lonely and could not hold my grief at bay. I sat down hard on the toilet seat and threw my hands over my face, not caring if salty tears left stains on the dying dress. I cried for all the good things we once had.

Finally I rose up, slipped the dress over my head, and let it fall. After washing my tear-stained face, I stepped into my shorts, pulled the Peace Takes Courage tee back on. And I resumed my life.

But not before I threw the dress into the garbage.

June 14, 2013 11:45 p.m.

During the last three years since my divorce, I had gone out to dinner several times with male friends, chatted online with a few other men, and even had one on-line dating season. But none of these relationships clicked. I was searching for God’s Intended Man for Me, a male with certain traits – tall, dark, and handsome, a man of faith who was active, youthful and intelligent. Of course he would be honest and trustworthy, kind and respectful. That night I decided to try on-line dating again. But this time I changed my search parameters. I deleted all variables that had to do with location, appearance, and education and typed in one special word: Jesus. Seventy photos scrolled across my screen. What a harvest, I thought! Photos flashed by me: a man with a shiny baldhead; another with horn-rimmed glasses; one scowling; another squinting; one sitting with young children; another leaning against his yacht.

But one face stopped me so abruptly if I had been on the highway the car behind would have slammed into me. Michael12345 was his username. Intelligent hazel eyes stared out at me. His almost baldhead had a close cut of graying hair framing his oval dome. His lips relaxed into a soft smile, and his arms rested on his blue-jeaned thighs. He held a book and looked right at the camera. He appeared to be a healthy, intelligent, slightly built male. I found him enormously attractive. I felt wide-awake, even though it was past midnight, and read his profile.

*Michael was a widower.

– Great, I said, no past problems from his former marriage.

*He did not have children.

– Even better, no entanglements with manipulative or resentful kids.

*He was a major in the army.

– Oh, a career man who was educated.

*He lived in Buffalo.

– Marvelous, only one hour from my home; no fussing around with a long-distance relationship.

*He loved outdoor activities, like swimming and canoeing.

– I could hardly wait. Where would we go first?

*And he loved to read.

– What books might we share?

*And he wanted to watch movies.

– Oh, for cuddling on the couch and watching my favorite movie with a hunk who was an intelligent conversationalist.

*And the crowning joy? He declared he was a spirit-filled Christian. He wanted to find someone to be his best friend who also loved Jesus.

The man of my dreams!

So, I clicked on Michael’s