I Found Out My Best Friend of Almost 10 Years Was an Actor Hired by My Family

Lawson Spolansky is a digital content creator who shares his videos on TikTok. He recently shared his truth on the platform. He revealed that his best friend of ten years was actually an actor hired by his family.

Betrayal from family or friends is painful. It’s a big shock because the people you trust have disappointed you. When someone close to you breaks your trust, it hurts a lot. It’s not about them doing something wrong; it’s about feeling like the bond you shared is broken. It makes you wonder who you can rely on and how to fix the damage.

Lawson must have felt that way as his video caption stated, “im finally ready to share with u this horrific story. [sic]” He started by saying he would tell how he found out that his relationship that lasted for a decade was a lie.

His story goes back to July 2012. That year, he was having social and behavioral issues. Lawson was five and didn’t want to go to school. He remembered that the school sent him home early one day because he threw pencils at his teacher.

Lawson’s aunt visited him at home and told him he had to become a better man. Three days later, while at the playground, he summoned the courage to do the monkey bars and fell. He hurt his knees and was crying. Although he was out with his nanny, she was in the restroom when the incident occurred.

While he lay there screaming, a little blonde boy, Dexter, walked up to Lawson and mocked him. The boy’s mother came over, and Lawson said he could have sworn she carried the whole hospital in her purse. The woman fixed his injury before his nanny was out of the restroom.

After the woman fixed his wounds, Dexter took Lawson to his side of the park. He showed Lawson his castle made out of sticks. Lawson recalled the castle having good architectural detailing.

By September, when school resumed, Lawson met Dexter in his school. Dexter was in his class, and they sat next to each other. They soon developed a more robust and solid friendship, even visiting each other’s homes.

This relationship also helped Lawson improve, and he did much better at school. Six years later, in March 2018, Dexter told Lawson he had birthday money amounting to $16,000. He wanted to take Lawson to Paris, Spain, and round the trip with a visit to Universal Studios in California.

Dexter even told him to make a packing list, which Lawson did. The next day, Lawson went to school with his packing list written on paper. When they met, Dexter said they would have to postpone the trip. He said he felt sick and might have pneumonia.

Lawson was shocked. Dexter also made various excuses about why they could no longer go on the trip. Lawson went home and shared his disappointment with his dad. His father told him things like that happen in life.

The day after this incident, Lawson’s father showed him a picture on Instagram. In the photo, Dexter and his mother posed in Hollywood with Lawson’s aunt. Lawson could not understand why his aunt was in the picture with them.

His dad tried to make excuses saying it might have been some miscommunication. Lawson knew something wasn’t right. He called Dexter to find out what was going on. Dexter said the same thing as his dad. He said there must have been miscommunication.

After the phone call, Lawson’s dad told him it may have been cheaper for the aunt to use the ticket. The ticket that was supposed to have been for Lawson. The reason was that his aunt was buying a house in California. Lawson called his aunt, and she confirmed she was buying a house.

He discovered their trip to Hollywood was to scout for Dexter’s big role. Even though Lawson never met Dexter’s mother, she was aunt’s best friend. To make matters worse, he started seeing a therapist.

The therapist turned out to be the sister of Dexter’s manager. Dexter also made him break up with his boyfriend as he had accused the boyfriend of cheating on Lawson. When Lawson later investigated the matter, he discovered it was a lie.

In another video, Lawson broke down when things started going bad. He recalled that on May 15, 2016, he, his aunt, Dexter, and Dexter’s “mother,” went to the quarry in West Falls for a camping trip. This was Lawson’s first camping trip.

He recalled that they took an RV with them. The two ladies opted to sleep in the RV while the boys slept in the tents. Dexter told him he knew how to build a tent. However, Dexter failed to assemble one, and Lawson’s aunt rescued them.

After building the tent, the ladies left the campsite to get firewood at the local office. Dexter pulled Lawson into the tent as they left, and started interrogating him. Some of the questions included asking Lawson if he had anxiety and high-stress levels.

Lawson, nine, did not internalize those questions and answered honestly about having anxiety. Thirty minutes later, while Dexter was reading a book, Lawson asked him to send him the photo of the selfie they had taken earlier.

Dexter then sent him a video of their conversation in the tent. Lawson confronted Dexter, who said he had accidentally pressed the record button. He made it seem like it was nothing. When the ladies returned, nothing else happened throughout the night.

The next day, he noticed Dexter was gone, and when he stepped out of the tent, he saw his therapist. Lawson was shocked, but the therapist said she was in the area. Lawson said he talked to his therapist about the recording incident, and she said:

“Don’t fixate on anyone else’s mistake. You shouldn’t worry about it. It’s not that big of a deal. Everybody makes these mistakes.”

Lawson accepted what she had to say and moved on. After the therapist left, their camping trip ended. Lawson found this weird as they had only spent a night. Lawson said he later discovered that Dexter had recorded their conversations from 2016 and upward.

On August 6, 2016, two days after Lawson’s birthday, as they were celebrating, his aunt took him into a room to tell him the gifts she had bought for him. She bought him a beautiful Gucci handbag and promised him a six-day trip to Four Seasons in Sicily. Lawson was excited.

Less than 48 hours later, his aunt canceled the trip, saying something had come up at work. Lawson went to Dexter’s to confide in him, and Dexter told him things like that always happened and he should not fixate on it. Shortly after, he started having heavy nose bleeds, and Dexter’s mother asked him to shower.

She gave him a change of clothes, and he thanked them before leaving. They told him not to bother as he would always be like family. However, Lawson forgot his Gucci handbag at Dexter’s and started calling for it to be returned to him.

Dexter did not answer, and when Lawson went there the next day, the door was locked, and no one answered his calls. When Lawson called his aunt, she reprimanded him and asked him to take better care of his belongings before ending the call.

Later, Lawson’s dad saw on Instagram that his aunt still made the Sicily trip and stayed at the Four Seasons. Worse still, she had gone with Dexter, and he had Lawson’s Gucci handbag. Lawson later discovered that it was easier for his aunt to bribe Dexter with the Sicily trip and the bag than to pay him money.

It wasn’t the first time he had lost his expensive things to Dexter. His parents always told him to look after his belongings whenever he lost things. His therapist also said the same thing and even said he had an executive function issue.

By September 2016, even though they were still in the same class, Dexter always had to leave after recess. Lawson later learned that Dexter was diagnosed with diabetes, which made him miss school.

Unknowingly, Dexter was attending another school and spending time with his friends. Lawson was the only one kept in the dark as his school knew about this arrangement. In November 2016, Lawson’s headroom teacher had to leave because her mother had cancer.

When a new teacher came, she was nice to Lawson. On her second day, she met Lawson and asked, “Are you feeling alright? Are you emotionally dysregulated?” Lawson had a great day that day and did not understand why his teacher asked that question.

Lawson, his aunt, Dexter, and the new teacher had a group therapy session two days later. In that session, it seemed they were all focused on him. He later learned that this teacher was Dexter’s sister and knew everything that had been going on.

They had a family vacation to celebrate his father’s birthday three weeks later. Lawson asked his father if Dexter could join them. His father agreed, and Lawson said the trip was amazing. Two days after the trip, Dexter’s barely-spoken about dad reportedly died.

Dexter had to travel to Wisconsin for three weeks. Lawson wanted to give him space, so they had little communication. To make his story believable, Dexter sent pictures of a graveyard and a cemetery to Lawson.

Later, Lawson learned Dexter’s dad did not die. One day, while texting with Dexter, Lawson’s father came into his room and asked him to help set the table. Lawson told his father he couldn’t, as he was trying to support Dexter, whose father just died. Lawson’s father said:

“That’s impossible. I had a meeting with him today at 11:30 a.m.”

Lawson was shocked. But his fashion designer father assured him that Dexter’s music producer father was with him that day. They worked together for the commercial they were shooting. After he explained everything to his father, his father blamed it on miscommunication.

At the dinner table, Lawson did not respond to anyone. When his dad asked if he was okay and why he was silent, Lawson said his best friend had lied to him. At the time, Dexter had gone to Hollywood to figure out a studio situation with a network.

After dinner, while at school the next day, he saw Dexter in class. Lawson did not say a word to him, but Dexter gave him the “worst dirtiest look” in his life. When Lawson paid no attention to him, Dexter started acting up. He said something under his breath, and their new teacher asked him if he was okay.

Dexter aggressively said he was okay and caught the class’s attention. Then Dexter stormed out of the classroom, and a couple of hours later, at lunch, he sat at Lawson’s table. Dexter wanted to explain everything to Lawson.

He told Lawson that he had a backwater swim meet and did not want to tell Lawson. Lawson said that had nothing to do with the lie he told. For the next three weeks, they had no communication or interaction. Then Lawson’s mother asked him about his friendship with Dexter.

Lawson told his mum, “Well, mum, sometimes friends do bad things,” and then left for the restroom. Unfortunately, he left his unlocked iPad in the room, and his mother used it to text Dexter. She told Dexter she wanted to make up and Dexter set a meeting for the next day at the park.

Since Lawson did not know what had transpired, his mother asked him to go with her to the park. She had promised to buy him ice cream and he was excited. At the park, Lawson saw Dexter and Dexter’s mother. He turned to his mom to ask what was happening, and she said it would be good for their friendship.

When Dexter got to Lawson, Lawson slapped Dexter and ran away. Lawson’s mother chased after him, and he hid. Lawson left the park and headed out to the Bronx. He got there around 6 p.m. and stopped by a deli. He met a man and confided in him. The man told him people who keep secrets are unhappy.

He followed the man to his apartment to spend the night. The following morning, two police officers were standing over him. A woman who had worked for his dad had spoken with his host, and his host had mentioned his situation.

When the police officers took him back to Manhattan, he met his family crying. Lawson was sent to the emergency room and various therapeutic programs. In March 2018, he was allowed to have a home visit. He and Dexter discussed what happened four months later, and Dexter apologized.

In August 2021, Lawson’s then-boyfriend worked as a pool boy for Dexter’s mother. While at work, he overheard Dexter and his mother talking. Lawson’s then-boyfriend overheard that Dexter was hired to be Lawson’s friend. Lawson’s aunt had hired him!

Even the woman, who he thought was Dexter’s mother, was Dexter’s manager pretending to be his mother. When Lawson called his aunt, she confirmed everything. Lawson was heartbroken and called Dexter, who also confirmed the story.

After Lawson discovered the truth about their friendship, he and Dexter met one last time. In August 2021, Lawson met Dexter and asked him about his diabetes, and Dexter denied having that. He then asked if Dexter ever cared about him, and Dexter replied:

“I cared that fact you believed me.”

Lawson ran away from Dexter. Two days later, Lawson called his aunt and asked if she cared about him. She said she was offended he asked her that. Then she told Lawson she was about to marry Dexter’s “mother.” When everything unfolded, Lawson said his aunt was manipulative.

Lawson said he felt like he never went anywhere and was left broken. He was also dealing with severe trust issues. Lawson thought he had a real friend, but finding out the friend was paid for hurts.

Lawson said he does not think he would be able to forgive his aunt because her actions were awful. Her actions made him realize he had never experienced true friendship and did not know what to do.

People were furious at his therapist in the comments section. One wrote, “I hope you reported the therapist for ethics violations. I’m sorry you went through this.” Another agreed, “the therapist also being in on it….? this has to be illegal, whether she’s a real therapist or an actress pretending…??? i am so, so sorry for you.”

Some others commented, “Have you looked into legal action against your therapist? If she’s actually licensed and doing this she should have her license taken away,” “Isn’t the therapist some how violating hippa???,” “🙇🏽‍♀️ The therapist gaslighting u is insane,” and more.

He also revealed that his parents were aware of Dexter being hired. They had hoped the relationship would help Lawson socially. However, they did not know about most of the little details that happened.

Lawson noted that the decade he thought he had a real friendship turned into something else. He described it as “a disaster, a fraud, a scheme, and everything I would not wish on a single person.” He shared his story because he wanted people to see it as a cautionary tale.

He wants them to ask questions and never let anything happen. Lawson wants people to investigate and see the truth behind things. Since August 2021, he has not spoken to his aunt and Dexter. In December 2022, he found closure while hiking in Morocco with his family.

TikTokkers have wished Lawson better days ahead, writing, “I hope your future is a million times better than your childhood. I think it will be,” “Your life isn’t ruined.. your life is what YOU make of it,” “You will meet your people. You seem like a nice kid. & as Taylor Swift says Shake it off,” and more.

Lawson is facing his fears and working through the situation. It may take time, but he is sure to heal. Have you ever had similar experiences? Do you know anyone who has? If you enjoyed this, share it on Facebook to help others stay aware!

In another story, a woman had a falling out with her best friend of eight years. She was excited about a long-anticipated visit from her virtual best friend. She did everything to prepare a comfortable space. Sadly, a trip that would have strengthened their bond ended their friendship.