Some disclaimers before I start - 1. I’ve never posted to Reddit for something like this before, so please be nice with your advice, I’m a very emotional person 🥹 2. There’s probably gonna be some triggers in this post for some people as the situation involves an abusive ex to the friend and mention of kidnapping so I just want to put that out there before I continue. TLDR at the bottom.

2 pieces of Recent backstory - In November of 2022 I (23f) co-signed for a car for a lifelong (15ish years) friend (24f, we’ll call her C) that I trusted immensely. Within a month of doing that she seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, to the point where her family filed a missing persons report. The police ended up finding her and she apparently told them that she willingly left her family as they “are really mean and weren’t letting me live my life” or something to that effect. Mind you, this is not her typical behavior and her most recent ex at the time was very verbally and physically abusive. My then bf (now fiancé) and I tried to do everything we could to get her out of that relationship but she kept going back to him for over a year. When she disappeared and after the interaction with the police, I figured her ex was involved in some way, assumed she willingly went with him. C had the vehicle I co-signed for, but didn’t make payments, the down payment bounced, and she/they were taking toll roads that were pay by plate which, bc they couldn’t reach her, ended up coming to my house, in my name because I was on the registration. So I had to pay $500 for those tolls to keep my license in tact. The car got repossessed I wanna say in March or April of this year which sucks for my credit score obviously but I live with my mom and don’t pay rent or anything so credit isn’t that big of a deal at the moment.

A little farther back, in September of 2021, I took in her senior dog when her family moved bc they couldn’t take him with them to the new place for various reasons. his name is Muff, he’s a great dog, 14-15y/o medium sized mixed breed, and I love him dearly.

Fast forward to today - I had to take Muff to the vet due to a really bad cough. Turns out he has a tumor in his lung, which sucks. There’s not much we can do other than keep him comfortable on meds until he gets worse. I extended an offer to C’s siblings to come say their goodbyes as they had had this dog his whole life (12-13 years at the time I got him) and I messaged her just to give her an update, not expecting an answer bc I haven’t talked to her since she first disappeared despite me sending her numerous messages that showed they were opened. She messaged me back a couple hours later and asked if she could see him. She briefly explained that in the time she was gone, she had been kidnapped with no access to a phone or anything which is why she ghosted/didn’t talk to anyone. We messaged back and forth for about an hour or two and decided we were going to set a day for us to meet in a public park so she can see her dog and we can have a more in depth conversation.

I guess my question/what I need advice on is should I trust this situation? Should I tell my fiancé about the plan to meet up before I go, even though I know he’s going to try to stop me going, or should I wait until after I see C the first time? I obviously don’t want to lie to my fiancé but he is very angry over the whole situation surrounding C bc he still blames her for hurting me the way she did. But I miss my best friend so much… someone help or tell me if I need to post this in a different subreddit 🥺🥺

TLDR; friend basically stole a car I co-signed/co-owned with her, ghosted everybody, came back into my life today claiming she was kidnapped by an abusive ex and wants to meet up and talk so she can see her sick dog. How do I handle this situation without hurting myself all over again?