Love and deception: Leduc author pens account of romance fraud

Dumont spent half a year in Mexico on a healing journey—writing Dialysis of the Soul: A Love Story, A Psychopath, and a Woman’s Truth—started as a memoir of idyllic love, ending up a cautionary tale

We independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work. From an online pairing to a sudden parting, Catrina Dumont’s love affair with the man she calls “Danny” in her memoir is interwoven with the deceptions she learned about almost too late.

Theirs was a whirlwind courtship in the summer of 2024—a sublime, fairy-tale soulmate connection. He was charismatic, attentive, and kind. It was mystical, a rare connection—a match of kindred souls, a heart match.

She thought. “We moved in very quickly, because we knew we were both in love, and we thought, we’re both at that age where it’s ‘why wait?’ and we didn’t want to do a long-distance relationship,” she said.

The stars of compatibility seemed to have aligned for the Leduc resident, an independent businesswoman with two grown sons from a previous marriage of 27 years. He was divorced after a long marriage, as well—or so she thought. The year that followed was something of a roller coaster.

Her loving, devoted, terminally ill darling urgently needed a kidney so they could enjoy many years together. Tests revealed a miraculous connection of another sort—she was a tissue match to be a living kidney donor. Surely, beyond coincidence, a magical, fated connection.

“For us to be a match was just a miracle to us,” she recalled. “I knew I was donating a kidney, and I was documenting everything, because I wanted to write about our love story, because it was so incredible.” What was hers, was his.

They scoured the calendar for the earliest possible surgical date, and made plans to wed. And he was very grateful that she loved him enough to give him a kidney. There were signs of strange inconsistency, but with the rose-coloured glasses of love, Dumont dismissed them as medication-related.

“His true behaviour started coming out, and that’s when I started noticing the gaslighting behaviour,” she recalled. She’d read enough to know that failing kidneys could affect cognitive function, so she gave him the benefit of some very big doubts. In love, exhausted and stressed to the max, with Danny 18 hours a day, waiting to hear if he’d be the same man she loved, or if he’d die.

Danny came out of the coma. But puzzle pieces were clicking into place. In July, 2025, Catrina Dumont got a call from a stranger—a friend of a mutual friend.

“I’m going to give you some information about this individual. You can do what you choose or not,” the woman told her. Dumont listened, thunderstruck to an account of the wake of havoc Danny left behind.

Many troubled relationships, marriages, fiancées, and infidelities. A web of financial predation on innocent women. Illicit drugs and steroid abuse.

Harrowing domestic violence. Multiple double-lives. “And then, of course, the fear set in.

This man was in my house. I couldn’t wait to get him out of my home,” she said. “It was huge for me, but I was willing to stand in my power and speak my truth.”

He left. She changed the locks. Looking back, Dumont believes other than the love she felt for Danny, none of the romance was real.

“If I wouldn’t have gotten that call, who knows how long this game would have went on for? The universe just intervened at the right time,” Dumont said. She spent half a year in Mexico on a healing journey—writing Dialysis of the Soul: A Love Story, A Psychopath, and a Woman’s Truth—started as a memoir of idyllic love, ending up a cautionary tale.

She offers some dating advice to others vulnerable to predation. Due diligence before true love. Don’t assume they’re who they say they are.

Watch for red flags. Listen to your gut. “That feeling’s there for a reason,” she said.

Dumont’s dating someone else she met online—more carefully. “As funny as this sounds, I do believe our person is out there,” she said. “You can either curl up in the corner, or you can turn pain into power and create the destiny that you deserve and you want.

“What got me place that I am today is self-love ... you can choose to self-destruct and hold a grudge, or you can choose to love yourself and move on.” You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber.

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