I had an on/off again relationship with a guy from about two years ago up until April of this year. To be fully transparent, we had a weird relationship; he is 10 years older than me and I was 19 when we started talking. We never had sex because I’m waiting for marriage and location etc. Weird, I know. However, I did send him explicit pictures/videos of myself.

I found out throughout that entire time he had been talking to and bragging about cheating on girls whenever we were “on”. One of his friends filled me in, which confirmed all my suspicions and broke my heart. He lied the entire time - either to me, his friends, or the other girls idk, but he lied.

Now, the irony of it all doesn’t escape me. I made a stupid, stupid decision by engaging with him and sending him explicit images. That was my choice. I am 100% responsible for my own actions.

Anyway, I ended things back in April. My mom had/has a health scare, and she also hates him. She threatened violence against him. So, I told him we needed to stop talking because I’m too stressed about family to continue this, and that it wouldn’t work anyway because my mom absolutely does not approve. I also told him how anxious and miserable I’d been and that I felt guilty about how cold I’d been. I left out all mentions about the other girls (he’s not aware that I know). He said he understood and would leave me alone, which he had until today.

He texted me just now and my anxiety spiked into the stratosphere. Just a simple “I miss you”. The guy I’m with now knows that I was talking to someone before, and he also knows that I had sent my ex pictures of myself, although we only spoke about it once because my current bf does not want to know about the details.

My ex has tried to contact me on other social media as well. I am petrified he will post my pictures somewhere and somehow my current partner will find out, even though my ex promised not to do so. I have no control over the situation so I’m freaking out.

My question (if you’ve read this far): how should I respond? Should I just ignore him? Should I tell him I never want to speak again (politely)? I don’t want to hurt him but we had a really toxic relationship and I have a viscerally awful reaction toward anything having to do with him. Please help because I don’t know what to do.