<human>: I've been through an abusive relationship, and have been single for nearly 8 years. I had a 2 short term "relationships", the last one was 5 years ago. I felt pressured because of my family (and basically, society's) expectations, because where I live, women around my age are either in a long term relationship or married already. My best friends that I met in college are both married & have a little family of their own. My close friends at work who are around my age are all in a relationship or have kids. 

In the last company I worked for, I told the truth and kept getting the usual questions like why are you still single, what's wrong with you, don't you want to be with a man, etc .. So when I transferred to my current company, I told this lie. I didn't expect to make a connection with anyone at all, so I thought what would I lose? I feel terrible for lying to the new friends I made at work, but back when I started & decided to lie about this, I thought I will only have a short stint at this company and that I'd soon work abroad. I was wrong though, I grew to love my job and the people I work with. Trying to keep up this lie is getting harder. 

Would they hate me too much if I tell them the truth? It would lower their opinion of me, I don't doubt that, but I'm tired of lying. :(
Any advise/insights would be appreciated.

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: I [28f] told everyone at work that I had a boyfriend because I was ashamed of not having one, and the guilt of deceiving people who've grown close to me has been eating me up