Dear Miss Emily:

I am 17 year old girl and I am currently dating a  39 year old man. I've tried to end the relationship, but every time I do that, he tells that I am a beauty he can't afford to loose. I don't love him, and he tells me everyday that he loves me. He has a child, and a girlfriend but he doesn't want to let me go. I selp (?) with him thinking that he will leave me, but he keeps coming back and he treats me with respect and gives me everything that I want. He even told me I am his princess and, now, he treats me like a queen. What should I do to make him leave me? Please help.

----------------------------Miss Emily's advice---------------------

He's not going to leave you until he's ready. He gives you what you want in terms of attention and material things, because that's his way of getting what he wants. How you get him to leave you alone is to tell him it's over. Do not answer his calls, do not text him, nor e-mail him, and be firm about it. You may only be seventeen, but you are not stupid, and you know that giving in to him only perpetuates the problem. I can see you don't live in the United States, but, here, this man could be charged with statutory rape and spend time in prison. He has tremendous power over you, and you can't deny you feel horribly trapped, or you wouldn't have written to me. What he is doing to you is wrong, and his feelings for you have nothing to do with love -- but it has everything to do with his selfish needs. You deserve better than flowery words from a man old enough to be your father, and it's time to put a stop to this relationship. If he persists, once you do everything to cut him out of your life completely, that is harassment and, then, it becomes a police matter.