[monicazmf]

You cannot control what comes your way (and in all honesty, being a freelancer myself, I totally feel where you're coming from with this bad experience), but you can surely learn to maximise your reaction to it. I lost any rights I had for a startup I built, managed and worked my a## for, for the past 3 years, so I know what loss is. But regardless of the situation, you have to remember that moving on is the key and the only way to do that is to let go of what you cannot change. The simplest way to understand "why?" is to think of it like this: if you keep wasting time and consuming your energy with negative thoughts, instead of focusing on what is good and productive for your own sake, just to try and shake the ground of the guy's feet, all you'll end up doing is giving him an extra hand in stopping you from your tracks. Don't let him do that, own your thoughts and actions and direct them towards the only thing that really matters: your own progress and evolution. And don't worry about it: there is a universal balance in place, and it has nothing to do with religion or faith, just with the logical assumption that, if you're a person that screws people to get what they want, eventually, you'll meet someone smarter than you to screw you for their own good. Knowing that should help you focus and leave the screwing part for someone out there, whose role in paying this guy back, hasn't yet been consumed. Yours has. Keep walking!