12 People Who Mastered the Art of Keeping Their True Motives Hidden

People aren’t always what they seem. Some hide their true intentions behind a smile, a kind word, or an everyday gesture. These 12 stories showcase individuals who mastered the art of keeping their real motives hidden, proving that appearances can be deceiving, and that human behavior is far more complex than it looks.

• Last week, my MIL insisted on watching our baby every day while I worked from home. She said she “missed having little ones around,” and I thought she just wanted to help and was just enjoying her free time. I said, “Thank you for your devoted care,” and she smiled.
  One night, I saw my husband transfer money to her account. I asked why. I lost it when he said, “You told me to.” Apparently, she’d been telling him I’d agreed to pay her for babysitting so she could “quit her stressful job.”
  I checked her texts: she’d guilt-tripped him for weeks, calling me “ungrateful” behind my back. When I confronted her, she cried and said I was ruining the family.

• When my friend Samantha invited me to a study group at Boston College, it seemed normal. I started liking one of the guys there, Ethan, 27. Weeks later, he stopped texting me, claiming I had “spoken badly about him.”
  Only after confronting Samantha did I find out she’d told him I was “too clingy” and “not serious about friendship,” all because she wanted to flirt with him herself.

• When my new roommate moved in, she said she’d had a rough breakup and just wanted peace. She was polite, quiet, and always offered to pay extra for bills. But slowly, she started taking over the space: rearranging furniture, inviting her friends over, and hinting that I should “spend more time out.”
  When I told her I wasn’t comfortable, she said she thought I’d “prefer space, too.” A month later, she told our landlord I was planning to move out, so she could take the whole apartment for herself.

• My best friend lost her job, so I let her move in “temporarily.” She cooked, cleaned, even watched my dog. I called her a blessing. But after two months, I started noticing things.
  My boyfriend started growing distant, my texts were being read when I wasn’t home. Later, I found out she’d been telling him I “talked badly about him” and “planned to end things.” He broke up with me, and two weeks later, she moved into his apartment.
• After our mom passed, my sister offered to handle the inheritance paperwork because I was too emotional. I trusted her.
  Two months later, I found out she’d made sure most of the money went into an account under her name “for safekeeping.” When I confronted her, she said, “You’d just waste it anyway, I’m saving it for your future.”
• My fiancé kept saying he wanted us to be fully transparent before marriage. He asked for my passwords “for trust.”
  One day, I caught him reading my group chat with my therapist. When I confronted him, he said he “just wanted to understand my trauma.” But later, during an argument, he used my therapy notes against me: word for word.

• After my apartment in Austin burned down last winter, my friend Laura, 28, was the first to “comfort” me. She insisted on helping me find temporary housing and posted about it on social media.
  Weeks later, I discovered she had been presenting herself as the hero to our mutual friends, exaggerating my vulnerability to gain attention. What felt like genuine support was actually a self-serving performance.

• My mom used to call me her “greatest gift.” But when I got engaged, she cried nonstop. She said she was “losing her baby.”
  Later, my fiancé told me she’d asked him for 10,000 to “help with the wedding,” claiming it was a surprise for me. The money disappeared, and she suddenly booked a two-week cruise. When I confronted her, she said, “You’ll understand when you’re a parent.”
• Years after our breakup, my ex reached out, claiming he wanted closure and to remain friends. I trusted him and shared personal updates. Weeks later, mutual friends revealed he had been subtly leaking my stories to others, painting me in a negative light while positioning himself as “the mature one.” I realized his closure wasn’t for me.

• My fiancé kept insisting he wanted to plan our engagement secretly. I was thrilled. When the proposal finally happened, it was everything I’d dreamed of.
  But every guest he invited had been subtly manipulated to guilt me into thanking him endlessly and praising his generosity. Later, my sister told me he had coached each friend on what to say, making it less about me and more about him being seen as perfect.
• At my job, a coworker always flattered our manager and offered to “help” with reports. When I discovered a small mistake I had made, she quietly exaggerated it, framing me as incompetent.
  The manager promoted her instead of me, praising her “initiative and leadership,” while I was left stunned. She had been carefully orchestrating her rise by making me look bad without anyone realizing it.
• My husband, Jason, 35, started saying I was “forgetful” or “overreacting” when small household issues came up in our apartment in Brooklyn. One day, he admitted he had mishandled some bills, but framed it as if I was responsible.
  When I confronted him, he acted confused, claiming he only wanted me to “learn better budgeting.” I realized he had been gaslighting me for months to avoid accountability.

You’ve got to see these 10+ powerful photos from the past that speak louder than words. Each image tells a story, capturing moments full of emotion, history, and meaning that stay with you long after you look at them.