12 People Who Were Masters at Hiding Their True Intentions

Sometimes, people aren’t who they seem to be. They smile, help out, or quietly stay in the background—while secretly working toward something else. In this collection, you’ll read a few real-life stories about individuals who kept their true goals hidden until the very end. These short stories show how quietly clever, strategic, or surprising someone can be when they don’t reveal everything right away.

• When I divorced my husband of 12 years, I was so depressed. My friend Ava took me in. She saved my life.
  8 years later, I ran into my ex. The first thing he asked: “Are you still friends with Ava?” I nodded. He smirked.
  He said, “So you still don’t know that she’s the one who ruined our marriage?” I froze when he revealed that the woman he’d had a brief affair with—the one that led to our divorce—was Ava.
  It turns out Ava had felt so guilty for destroying my marriage that she tried to make it up to me. She wanted to do something good, so she made sure I was okay and asked me to move into her house.
  My whole reality crumbled. Never in a million years would I have suspected that, behind my back, she was with my husband—while pretending to be the perfect friend. Now, I’ve lost my trust in everyone.

• After I divorced my ex-wife, I found out that she had given away two children when she was younger. I also discovered that her tubes had been tied the entire time we were married. We even met with a fertility doctor because she kept saying she was “messed up on the inside.” © civ187 / Reddit

• My husband and his friend came up with a plan to catch his friend’s wife cheating. My husband had a relationship with his friend’s wife, and his friend “caught” them. She got pregnant and, during the divorce, found out the baby was my husband’s. I found this out after seven years and three kids. © dvs_me / Reddit

• I had two people who I thought were really good friends. One day, I was hanging out with one of them, and we were about to go out, so she was fixing her makeup. Being too busy to text our other friend about our plans, she asked me to do it.
  While texting, I accidentally scrolled up into their previous messages and saw them talking absolute trash about me. They were making fun of things I had said, sharing my pictures and mocking them, and just all sorts of mean-spirited stuff. I never brought it up.
  Thankfully, we later had a falling out, and I don’t associate with them anymore. © margaret0619 / Reddit

• In the first four months of our relationship, I was at his house. He went to the bathroom and left his laptop open, so I looked at it and saw he had daily messages with a woman. That woman was his best friend’s girlfriend. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I had a close friend I vented to about everything—work, relationships, family. He always listened, never judged. But then people I barely knew started repeating details from my life.
  Turns out, he was sharing my stories to build connections with others. It made him look wise and thoughtful. He never used names, but the stories were clearly mine.
  When I confronted him, he acted like it wasn’t a big deal. It felt like he was using my life as his personal PR. After that, I stopped telling him anything personal.

• When my husband passed away in a workplace accident, he was in another state. When I got his belongings, there were answering machine messages from a woman thanking him for being so amazing—and for dinner, etc.
  Then, on his computer, there were emails and text messages from several women. I was pregnant and already dealing with his death.
  Then, suddenly, I had this anger at him that I could obviously do nothing with. Everyone told me, “You can’t be mad at a dead person.” But it was confusing. © missymaypen / Reddit

• I discovered that my now ex-wife purposefully tried to get herself pregnant with our daughter before we were married because she knew her mom couldn’t pay for her health insurance anymore, and she didn’t want to work. However, she knew that having a baby could qualify her for the state’s healthcare system. © Schikadance / Reddit

• I had a coworker who always offered to help me with projects. She’d bring me coffee, offer to take on extra tasks, even complimented my work to our manager. I thought she was just incredibly kind and supportive. Then I got passed over for a promotion I’d been working toward for a year.
  I later found out she had been documenting my mistakes and quietly taking credit for joint tasks. Turns out, all that help was just part of a strategy. She wanted the promotion and played the long game perfectly. She got the job, and I learned to pay closer attention.

• After an eight-year friendship, I discovered that this person was only friends with me because she had few friends and wanted access to my work connections. © cawfytawk / Reddit

• When my ex and I lived together, I found a box with a single set of dishes under his side of the bed. When I asked him about it, he said he was keeping them just in case he decided to break up with me so that he could leave at the drop of a hat at any given moment.
  I remember the conversation—he seemed so nonchalant about it all. Turned out to be a total sociopath. © room_temp_butter / Reddit

• Our neighbor always brought cookies, checked our mail, and even mowed part of our lawn. We thought he was just a nice older man with extra time. But then he started suggesting how we should park, handle trash, even when to turn off lights. It slowly felt like we were being managed.
  Later, we found out he was running for the HOA board. He admitted he wanted to “make the neighborhood more presentable.” All that kindness was just groundwork. Not creepy—just calculated.
  He got elected, and we realized it had been the plan all along.

Sometimes, real life can be creepier than a thriller and more suspenseful than a novel. Here are 13 true stories so unsettling, they could easily make front-page news.