For The Daily Southerner
TARBORO —
"I feel like maybe my story can help someone else," said Jasmine Philips.
Philips is a Tarboro resident who recently wrote a book about a traumatic experience that has her wanting to make sure it doesn't happen to others.
"Career oriented women are often prey," she said. "Just because they look good on the outside doesn't mean they're good on the inside."
"I Was A Victim of a Sexual Predator ... Were You?" tells Philips story of a toxic relationship filled with deceit, manipulation and her money and how she was able to walk away from the situation with her sanity and her dignity.
"The sexual predator is that handsome, charming and well-spoken man who targets beautiful women like yourself who look like you have money," she said. "He will approach you out of nowhere, pay you compliments and even give you his number and ask you to call him.
"He is calculating and manipulative," continued Philips. "I know his mode of operation because it happened to me. He stalked me in the local mall, then made his move."
Philips' story began in Golden East Crossing mall where she was approached by an attractive man who impressed her with his tactics to get her to notice him.
Little did she know that five years of abuse, subjugation and thousands of lost dollars would follow.
"He took what I said and turned it around to be what I wanted him to be," she said. "This is a story of how easily you can be manipulated and your reality skewed. My reality was to make him happy and I could never do that."
The relationship came to an abrupt end after she was raped on a casual visit.
"That was it for me," she said.
Unable to expose her story, Philips went to her computer to chronicle her five-year ordeal.
"Tell your girlfriends, your sisters, your daughters, your nieces and even your mothers about the book or just get them a copy," she said. "It is true and it is scary."
"I Was A Victim of a Sexual Predator ... Were You?" can be ordered online at www.xlibris.com, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or jasminephilips.com.
Depending on the format, the book is $9.99 as an ebook, $15.99 paperback and $24.99 hardback.
