This was NOT on my 2025 bingo card!

Flying Dress Aruba
Dec 30, 2025
6 min read

An honest end-of-year reflection

I almost didn’t write this.

Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because staying silent felt safer. Silence felt like protection. Silence felt like survival.

But silence also lets other people rewrite your story, and I’m done with that.

This year has been, without question, the hardest year of my life. And trust me when I say... The last FIVE years have already been f***ing HARD. But this one, the "Year of the Snake" really proved to be the cherry on the cake! Professionally. Personally. Emotionally. Financially. Spiritually. Every version of “hard” you can imagine.

There were highs, yes, but very few. What there was plenty of were losses, betrayals, fear, exhaustion, and moments where I genuinely did not know how I was going to make it through the next day.

And yet, I did.

This is the year I fought for my life, my company, my independence, and my son’s future.

What You Didn’t See Behind the Scenes

Earlier this year, my business partner informed me that he wanted to leave the company.

We had a very in-depth conversation about this back in February and how exactly this exit plan would be executed. We agreed on a transition period. We agreed to train a new photographer. We agreed to see a lawyer together to do things properly and legally. I even agreed to his request, in good faith, that he could keep the company Jeep, worth approximately $45,000 USD.

Everything was discussed. Everything was clear.

Or so I thought.

When I later scheduled an appointment with a lawyer for us, the tone changed instantly. Conversations were suddenly “forgotten.” Agreements were denied. Reality was rewritten.

What followed was not a disagreement or a misunderstanding.

It was deliberate, calculated destruction.

And it completely knocked the wind out of my sail.

The Things I Stayed Quiet About

From that moment on, he:

Claimed the company was his own
Attempted to shut the business down
Stole my clients and redirect them to himself
Publicly spread false statements and defamed me
Removed me as a director from the booking system
Stopped my salary
Blocked my company bank card resulting in the bank account getting frozen
Redirected client payments to his own personal bank account
Cut off my only source of income

This left me unable to pay my mortgage with the bank threatening legal action to repossess my home.

I could not even afford formula for my child.

I stood in front of him, begging and pleading with him to sort this out like adults. I asked him why he was doing this, what had I done to make him go to these extreme measures to destroy me and the business and how am I going to do get money to buy food for my child and his response was to shrug his shoulders and with a smirk on his face say, "Not my problem".

I sold my furniture to pay the staff so the business could continue to operate.

He contacted clients and instructed them to cancel with me and book with him instead, even giving them my personal email address and contact details, resulting in me having to refund them.

He set up a rival flying dress company, in direct breach of our contract.

He publicly instructed all his followers to report my social media accounts for Flying Dress Aruba as spam/fake accounts to get them to shut me down.

He spread false rumours saying that I stole his intellectual property, claiming all the IP belonged to him, despite it being clearly stated in the contract that all IP belongs to the company... which he chose to leave.

He made multiple attempts to hack in to my personal social media accounts.

He hired a lawyer in Aruba and attempted to force me to hand over the company I founded and built, a company I invited him into because I needed a local partner to co-sign.

He strategically chose the same lawyer as my abusive ex and shared deeply personal information I had confided in him over the last five years. That information was then passed back to my abuser and attempted to be used against me.

He contacted my team and told them they were forbidden from speaking to me as I had no authority within the company.

He told anyone that would listen that he was the sole owner of the company, erasing me from the Flying Dress Aruba origin story that I myself had created and written.

He stole all the camera equipment, the dresses, the company phone and refused to return them. It took almost 6 months of back and forth BS to finally gain access to the dresses and company phone and when he did eventually return them, the dresses were in such bad condition they could not be used and he had deleted everything from the phone and cloud, wiping it clean, essentially giving me back useless items. The $10K+ camera equipment is still in his possession.

He held client images hostage and denied me access to galleries.

And in one of the cruelest acts of all, he deleted all my personal photos of myself and my son, including all my maternity and pregnancy photos, out of pure spite, which he admits to me in an email.

This was not accidental. This was not emotional. This was intentional.

I have evidence. Voice notes. Emails. Time stamps. Screenshots. Login activity. Bank statements. Witnesses.

I know the truth.

And one day, so will everyone else.

Honestly, this list is only half of it. Every day was a battle. I was waking up each morning to yet another act of destruction or devastation caused by him. It felt like I was playing "whack-a-mole" and just trying to do some sort of "damage control" to make sure my company could continue to run and operate "as normal".

The Cost of Survival

At the same time all of this was happening, I was already drowning.

I have been in an ongoing legal battle with my abusive ex for the last five years.

I was navigating severe postpartum depression.

I was having intrusive thoughts that weighed heavy on my heart.

I was in a constant state of fight, flight and freeze mode all at once.

I was discovering who my true allies were.

I was learning how to be a mother for the first time, alone, with no support network.

There were days I genuinely did not know how I would survive.

And yet, I still showed up.

I showed up for my clients. I showed up for my team. I showed up for my son.

I ran photoshoots with my baby strapped to my chest in a papoose.

I smiled when I wanted to collapse.

I delivered five-star experiences while my personal world was burning.

Because the show must go on, even when the lead actress is barely holding it together.

Rebuilding From the Ashes

This year, I rebuilt my company from scratch.

New systems. New team. New trust.

The people who stood by me during this storm are still here. They saw the truth. They saw the evidence. They saw my determination and dedication. And they stayed.

That loyalty will never be forgotten.

I am still recovering. I am still struggling. I am still fighting.

But I am here.

And the company is here.

Stronger. Better. Wiser.

Why I’m Sharing This Now

I am not sharing this for sympathy.

I am sharing it because this behaviour is unacceptable.

Because coercive control, financial abuse, sabotage, and reputation destruction do not always happen in romantic relationships. Sometimes they happen in business.

Because silence protects the wrong people.

Because I refuse to let this pain be for nothing.

He may walk away looking unscathed. He may continue telling a version of the story where he is the victim and I am the villain.

But the truth does not disappear just because someone lies loudly.

Karma is patient. Truth always surfaces.