In 2009, Ann Loraine Marshall wrote a blueprint for her ideal man. Phillip didn’t just meet it—he performed it perfectly. The Dream I Was Sold is a chillingly honest account of how a vision of Spanish sunshine and soul mates became a decade-long trap of coercive control, and how one woman fought to reclaim her voice

In the wake of a sudden, shattering grief in 2006, Loraine Marshall was a woman in motion, carrying an unprocessed loss that left her defences quietly dismantled. By 2009, she was ready for a new chapter. She wrote a list: a kind man, a strong man, a soul mate. When Phillip appeared, he seemed to be the answer to every prayer, mirroring every quality she had committed to paper

But the dream was a calculated performance.
This memoir traces the invisible threads of coercive control and future faking as they were woven into the fabric of an eleven-year relationship. From the early “love bombing” and the introduction to a BDSM world built on a foundation of lies, to the relocation to a beautiful Spanish villa with grapefruit trees and a blue gate, Loraine reveals how her professional independence and financial autonomy were systematically dismantled.
While the public saw a successful couple enjoying a Mediterranean retirement, the private reality was one of triangulation, financial dependency, and emotional abuse. Behind closed doors, there was a “Wednesday Girl” hidden for nearly a decade, outbursts of rage, and the chilling admission from the man himself: “I’ve made you dependent on me”

The Dream I Was Sold is more than a memoir; it is a documented roadmap of narcissistic abuse. Drawing on verbatim transcriptions of texts, emails, and diary entries, Marshall provides the language to name the tactics that target intelligent, capable women. It is a story of survival, the power of intuition, and the ultimate refusal to be silenced.