Reddit Stories - BETRAYAL in the SHADOWS_ Defying TRADITION to Unveil a Mother's Dark Warning_

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayal #shadows #defyingtradition #mother #darkwarningSummary:In this gripping tale, a courageous individual uncovers a mother's ominous secret warning hidden in the shadows, defying long-held traditions. The shocking revelation of betrayal sets off a series of events that challenge beliefs and relationships.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, betrayal, shadows, defyingtradition, mother, darkwarning, familydrama, mystery, uncoveringsecrets, courage, ominouswarning, shockingrevelation, challengingbeliefs, relationships, suspensefulplot, unexpectedtwistsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Requested my uncle to escort me during the procession instead of my stepfather, but my mother warned that she might not attend the wedding. The day of the wedding dawned and you won't believe what happened next. So I, 26F, am getting married to my boyfriend, 28M, of three years and a couple of weeks. We have been engaged for the past seven months and last week, I asked my uncle to walk me down the aisle. My uncle, 55M, is my dad's older brother and he has pretty much been the only father figure I have had in my life because my biological father passed away when I was just four years old and I barely have any memories of him. My mother, 48F, was a working woman and is a real estate agent. Her work required her to be out for really long hours.

So I would end up spending a lot of time with my uncle and his family and I honestly think that my uncle, aunt, and my cousins are pretty much my own family. I also love my mother, don't get me wrong, and I value and cherish her for everything that she has done for me my entire life because I know it couldn't have been easy to raise me without her husband by her side, but I also really love my uncle and his family. So when I asked him to walk me down the aisle, he agreed in a heartbeat and we were really happy, but when I told my mom about it, she was not very pleased with my decision. She told me that I should have at least consulted with her once before making such a huge decision because she had hinted to my stepdad that I would have had been in my stepdad that I would have. ask him and he might feel hurt. For the record, my stepdad has only been in my life for the last couple of years and while we get along fine, he and I are not particularly close. So I don't even know why my mother would hint to him that I would ask him to walk me down the aisle. I don't really think of him as a father figure and to me, he's just my mother's husband and nothing else.

I might have even considered if he had made any attempt to be more involved in my life, but that has never happened. So I don't see any reason for me to feel bad for not asking him. him. He and my mom started dating eight years ago and have been married for five. So I was not exactly a kid when I first met him and unlike my uncle, he has never really played an active role as a parent in my life. I explained all of this to my mother, but she was not happy and she insisted that I asked my stepdad and replace my uncle because she thought that my uncle would be more understanding, but she had already implied certain things to my stepdad and she didn't want him to feel left out. I don't know how it's my responsibility to make him feel included,

but I stood my ground and I told my mother that this was not happening. I thought that my uncle deserved to walk me down the aisle and it was my wedding. So it was ultimately my decision. This happened three days ago and while we were on the phone, she just hung up without bothering to argue with me anymore. When I said that it was my decision and she couldn't change my mind, I thought that it would be the end of the argument. But later that, day, she paid me a visit and started off on the same topic that she wanted me to replace my uncle and my stepdad to walk me down the aisle because it would really make him feel good and eventually, we would be able to build a better relationship. It was pretty exhausting because

I was already really swamped with work and wedding prep, and this was the last thing that I needed on my plate so I was getting too agitated by speaking to her and our voices rose, and the argument started getting heated. She was extremely stubborn and I was not going to back down either, so we were just talking in circles and at one point, she thought it would be a good idea to threaten me by saying that she would not attend the wedding if I did not ask my stepdad to walk me down the aisle and make my uncle step down. I got really pissed off because this was my own mother and here she was, trying to threaten me by saying she wouldn't even attend my wedding, one of the most important days of my life, over something like this. It was very obvious to me that my stepdad's

feelings were more important to her than my own. And so, in the heat of the moment, I told her that she was free not to attend my wedding and told her that since she had made up her mind, I guess she was also fine with not meeting a really special guest that I had invited just for her sake. I had been planning to surprise her with this on the day of my wedding by introducing her to this woman, but now, I'm not sure if that will be necessary because of her behavior. So, the guest that I'm talking about is pretty much a legend in the real estate arena. She runs one of the biggest real estate firms in the city,

and my mother has always looked up to her and had been looking for an opportunity to work with her since she was planning on starting a business of her own now. She just so happened to be a really close friend of my mother-in-law since they know each other from college, and when I found out about that connection, I instantly requested my mother-in-law to invite her because I knew that it would make my mother really happy to meet her.

And I wanted to surprise her on the day of my wedding by introducing her to this guest. However, when she told me that she would not attend my wedding if I did not ask my stepdad to walk me down the aisle, I had a bit of an outburst, and I guess it was all the stress that was just getting to me. So I just told her that there was no need for her to be present at the wedding anymore. As soon as I told her, she made a complete 180 and started telling me that now, I was being really unfair because she had only said that she would not attend my wedding to get me to ask my stepdad. But she hadn't even known that there would be such a

special guest present at the wedding. If she had, she wouldn't be pressuring me. to do anything, but I told her that now, she had said whatever it is that she had to say, and I already knew that to her. My stepdad's feelings were more important than what I wanted for my wedding and I was really pissed off at the time so I couldn't bring myself to care about how she was feeling about all of this. I asked her to leave since I was already really busy with work and preparing for the wedding and I couldn't deal with this as well. I told her that at the moment, she had really pissed me off, and I had no intention of hearing her out because my blood was spoiling because of the way she was acting and I just wanted her to clear out so I could think about what I wanted to do.

Then I stood up and even she did, but she started bargaining with me and said that she took back everything that she had said, but she just wanted to be present at the wedding now. However, I was in a really bad mood after the fight that we had had, so I just kept pushing for her to leave, and when she tried to just stand there and argue, I started yelling at her and said that I just wanted her to leave because I was really stressed out and I couldn't deal with this right now. I told her that I really couldn't care less about whether she wanted to attend or not. She had put me in a really difficult position and had been very selfish so now she had no right to make any demands from me.

I told her that I would think about it and talk to her later, but at that moment, I had nothing to say to her, and if she tried to argue even more, it would just make the situation worse for her because I was getting really pissed off by her behavior. She left after a while but she was looking very unhappy that I had forced her to go without fully committing that I would be open to having her at the wedding. Then, I was finally able to calm down and after talking to my fiancé on the phone since he was away on a business trip for a week, I decided that I would think about whether to have her at my wedding after this later because that day itself, I was still feeling pretty annoyed with her. The next day, when I woke up,

I was about to head out to work, and I had thought that I would just contact my mother a couple of days later and try to sort things out, but she just couldn't give me my space to cool down. She turned up at my place in the morning, right as I was about to leave for work and she knew my timings, but she still turned up and started talking to me about whether she would still be invited to the wedding or not. Instead of apologizing, she started trying to justify herself. She told me that my stepdad had apparently been feeling very left out during the wedding prep and to cheer him up. She had told him that I might ask him to walk me down the aisle, so he has nothing to worry about and he's just as much a part of the family as anyone else.

She also told me that he had always been quite insecure about his place in my life and of my uncle in general since he seemed to be the man of the family because of how I treated him and he always felt threatened by him. So that's why she had implied that I might ask him to walk me on my wedding day. Honestly, I can understand the impulse to tell your partner some white lies to make them feel better about certain things, but I don't know why she had to do it at my expense even though she knew that I had no intention of ever doing what she had hinted. and she was fully aware of the fact that my stepdad and I were never close so she was pretty much setting him up for failure by raising his expectations to an unrealistic degree. On top of that, instead of just apologizing and getting it over with, she kept trying to tell me

that she had been insistent on this the other day just because she did not want her husband to feel bad, and after I got married, I would understand why she was acting that way. But her behavior was no reason for me to cut her out of the wedding list altogether because at the end of the day, no matter how much we fought, she was still my mother, and she deserves to be there at my wedding. I tried to tell her that I would discuss this with her after I came back home from work, but she told me that I had to commit to her that I would include her and not cut her out of the wedding guest list. I tried to say yes, just to shake her off so I could leave for work without getting late. But then, she started off yet again about how she wanted me to at least talk to my stepdad

and explain to him why I had chosen my uncle because she didn't want to become the bad guy in the situation because of my decision to ask my uncle to walk me down the aisle. That's when I finally lost it because not only was she delaying me for work, but she was also wasting my time with her stupid questions. I had already told her that she was welcome to attend my wedding just to get her off my back, but now, she was demanding way too much by saying that I should talk to my stepdad. I had made no promises to him, why should I be the one to talk to him and break this news to him? In fact, I don't even think that I need to tell him about the wedding at all.

It's not like I'm discussing what I'm planning to do on my wedding day with all the guests, am I? So why should I extend a special courtesy to him? To me, he's just like any other guest. So while we were standing in the doorway, I told my mother to leave me alone because I had finally had enough of her, I said that she was wasting my time and I couldn't understand that she was really desperate to make sure that my stepdad felt validated. But it was not my responsibility to validate his feelings, it was hers and I don't care how

she did it, but she was in no position to make any demands from me. She started off on motherhood, saying that she had raised me on her own and that this was the least I could do for her. Then I decided to call her out on it and reminded her that she had never done it all on her at all. She wouldn't have been able to get to this place in her career had it not been for all the help that she had received from my grandparents, my uncle, and his family so this BS. that she had raised me all by herself was not something I was willing to buy. She then started calling me ungrateful and I finally told her that now, I had made up my mind and I was sure that I did not want her at my wedding and then,

I shook her off, headed to my car, and drove away as quickly as I could. It took a long time to cool down, but even after that, she did not leave me alone and kept trying to call me while I was on my way to work so as soon as I pulled up at my workplace, I blocked her and tried to focus on the day ahead. But even that was pretty pointless because when I came back home, I realized that she was still there, waiting on the doorstep of my house.

As soon as she saw me, she ran up to me and said that she knew I couldn't possibly have been serious about not having her at my wedding, but by then, I had had it, and I told her that I was definitely serious and judging by the way she was acting. It was unlikely that I would change my mind before the wedding.

I told her that she was acting unhinged and she needed to get out of my yard. Unfortunately, my fiancé was also away at the time, so I couldn't even count on him to rescue me from the situation, and she just stood there, trying to reason with me, but I kept telling her to leave me alone and eventually. I just burst out and I told her that I would call the cops on her if she didn't, and I even had my phone out, so she knew I was serious.

That was when she started crying and said that I was being really heartless, and she couldn't believe that I was treating her this way, in spite of everything that she had done for me. I told her that I didn't want things to turn out like this, but she has been forcing my hand for the last couple of days and now, I really don't have any other option. She has been getting on my very last nerve and I needed her to leave me alone,

so after crying, she finally left and it has been a couple of days since then, but now, I feel kind of bad. I have discussed all of this with my fiancé and he thinks that I did what was necessary, but even then, I feel bad about it and neither of us has any clue how to deal with the situation because the guilt is absolutely overwhelming. He came back last night and we were finally able to sit down together and talk about what I have been going through. It's obvious that I'm very stressed because of the wedding prep and I've also

been taking up a lot of extra load at work, so that might have made me extra emotional and it's the same with him as well. But at the same time, the way that my mother had been acting was quite unreasonable, so we really don't know if what I did was the right thing or not or if it was just something that was stress-induced, and if I needed to apologize to my mom for behaving this way or not. We just genuinely have no idea what to do, so we are here to ask for your help to sort out this situation. Ida for telling my mother that she is no longer invited to my wedding because she insisted I asked my stepdad to walk me down the aisle instead of my uncle. Update 1, Hello, so I have a lot to share in this update.

First, I'm going to start by thanking everybody who commented on my original post and let me know that even though the way my mother was behaving was unacceptable, I myself also constantly said that I'm extremely stressed about work in the wedding and that was not normal either. So for the past week and a half, my fiancé and I have been doing a lot of introspecting and we think that we need to scale our wedding way down. Of course, I'm not talking about anything that we have already paid for but mostly about the guest list. The number of people that we were planning on inviting had almost reached 200 and both of us were really stressed about it because there were a lot of people that people have to accommodate and think about their lifestyle choices beforehand and it

would also be very expensive. So after a lot of discussion, we decided to cut down our guest list to only the people that we absolutely wanted at our wedding so we could enjoy the day and have more time to spend with our loved ones. There was really no need for us to have more than 100 people at our wedding. It just didn't even make sense because a lot of these people hadn't even spoken to us in many years and neither had we had any contact with them apart from a couple of messages exchanged on social media. That doesn't really warrant an invitation to the wedding and I think we kind of went overboard with the guest list while we were planning it out, but no worries. We have gotten that under control now. Later this week, we will finally be sending out the invitations, and now that only

the people that I really want at the wedding are going to be invited, I'm feeling a lot less distressed and better about things in general. As for work, I decided to take some time off because I had bidden off more than I could chew and I talked to my employers about it, and they were quite happy that I had chosen to offload some of my work. They thought that I was doing a lot all at once and I really didn't need to put myself through so much because they also had other competent employees and I didn't need to take it all on my own. So, I'm doing a lot better now and I plan on having a stress-free wedding. I'm really glad that I chose to talk about it on this thread because both my fiancé and I are quite typos so we can get really uptight without even realizing it. But this thread and the

people who commented on my post made me rethink everything and I'm doing better now. And as for a few guests who will definitely not make the cut to the final guest list, it's going to have to be my mother and my stepdad. My mother, well, because you guys have already read the original post, and a big reason why I even came to the conclusion that I needed to cut some people out of the list that I was planning was because of the way she was behaving and how she was imposing her unrealistic expectations on me. And my stepdad by extension because I just don't feel like having him at the wedding and without my mother being there, I don't think he has any reason to be there either. We haven't spoken to each other since I made her cry the other day and it's been

nice. I was getting really sick of her, to be honest. I also spoke to my uncle about her behavior, and he said that he wouldn't have had a problem with me replacing him with my stepdad. If my mother insisted upon it, he would have felt really bad, but he wouldn't have made an issue out of it if my stepdad really wanted it. I explained to him that it was not about what he wanted. It was my wedding, so it was about what I wanted, as it should be. And I wanted my uncle to walk me down the aisle, so my mother should have respected that instead of making it such a big deal and blowing it all out of proportion, so much so that now we are not even speaking to each other, with just a couple of weeks to go before my wedding. There are eight weeks to go, to be precise,

and I do feel bad that things had to go wrong like this, but it's not like I can help it, so I'm just coming to terms with all of this and making my peace with it. For the record, I have not blocked my mother anywhere. I mean, I had, but then I unblocked her that very night itself. So if she wanted to apologize to me, then she could have reached out to me and apologized to me. My anger has also calmed down considerably. She has had enough time to think things over and reconsider her stance on this entire situation, but nothing like that has happened and I'm beginning to give up hope that maybe we will be able to reconcile before the wedding. I don't know what to say, but I really did want her to be there for me on my wedding day because

in spite of everything, she still is my mother and so far, we have always had a good relationship. I don't know why she's screwing it up at this point, but I'm really disappointed in how things have turned out. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that we will be able to make things up to each other in the next few weeks before the wedding and hopefully, it will all work out. Even if it doesn't, I'm still getting married to the love of my life, so I know that it'll be update too. I finally sent out the invitations a few days ago, and just as I had said, my mother and my stepdad did not receive one and they were furious. I guess they had been asking around whether the other people in our family received their invitations to the wedding or not,

and when they found out that most of the people that I wanted at my wedding had received it, they lost it. I can at least understand an excuse that my stepdad was shocked that he had not been invited because even though we were not that close, he was still family and moreover, he was not aware of anything that my mother had done, but I can't understand my mother's reaction. I don't understand why she was so taken aback because, for the last two weeks almost, we haven't even spoken to each other. The last time saw her, we had not ended that meeting on a good note, and I had also informed her well in advance that I wouldn't be inviting her to the wedding because of the way that she was acting. So I don't understand why she felt the need to turn up at my place in the morning with my stepdad and try to get answers out of me. This time as well, she showed up right around the time that I was about to leave for work, probably on the same.

purpose because she wanted to piss me off even more. Thankfully, I had a day off today so I had all the time in the world to deal with this nonsense. Also, my fiancé was here, unlike the last time that this same thing happened. So when they turned up, we invited them in, and even though they had started yelling at us already, we decided to deal with this in a dignified and civil manner because I didn't want to start screaming at them as well and turn this into a shouting match. It just wouldn't make sense and so, I let them get it all.

all out of the system before I started speaking. Once my mother and stepdad were done expressing their disappointment, rather loudly, I must say. I first addressed my stepdad and I told him that there were several reasons for which the two of them had not been invited to the wedding that I was sure he didn't know because my mother wanted to look like the good guy here and that's why she had made it seem like it was all my fault without saying what she had done. One look at his face told me that my mother had indeed not said anything about what she had done to create the situation. So I informed him about how she had been so insistent that I should replace my uncle with him to walk me down the aisle and then, I had explained to him exactly why I did

not want to do that. He had never put in much of an effort to build a strong relationship with me and even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered because my uncle has been there for me since I was a child, so that's really different. And I hope that my mother would understand that at some point, but she never did and didn't respect what I had said. So I had already told her, I did not want her at my wedding and it was about time that he knew about it as well. From then on, he was quiet because he did not know about this side of things. Then, I turned to my mother and started speaking to her, and told her that she had already known about my decision earlier, so there was really no need for her to create such a fuss

about it right now. She hadn't bothered to fix the situation by apologizing to me, even though I had not blocked her specifically because I was expecting her to reach out to me at least just so she could tell me that she could understand where I was coming from and that she wouldn't pressure me to do anything that I didn't want to do anymore. However, that message never came, and now, she will not be attending my wedding either. I thought I was being fair enough, but even then, she kept screaming at me and kept saying that I was an ungrateful child and that she deserved better to make me feel guilty, but I just felt irritated. After one point, I guess it was obvious that my fiancé

and I were not interested in speaking to her, so my stepdad grabbed my mother by the and told her that we were not even worth their time. Then, they left and after they were gone, I finally blocked both of them. To be honest, I'm just relieved that this is over now. I hope that they leave me alone after this. Update 3. I got married two days ago and it went just like I had expected like I had been planning for months and I think it was a great idea for us to cut short the wedding guest list because we were actually able to speak to everyone who was present and give them time. It wasn't too overcrowded, and everything was a lot of was really pleasant and dreamy. I ended up missing my mother a little, in spite of myself,

but my uncle and my fiancé were right there to comfort me and tell me that they would be there for me always. So that made me feel a bit better about the situation and event. Eventually, I forgot about it by the time I got onto the dance floor. In short, we had a fantastic time and I don't really regret anything. Now, my husband and I are going to be leaving for our honeymoon in a couple of days and it's going to be absolutely perfect. I know it.