Reddit Stories - Betrayal Revealed Family Secrets Unveiled in Sleepless Nights ( Over 3 Hour Compilation ) - Episode 105

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayal #familysecrets #sleeplessnights #compilation #episode105In Episode 105, "Betrayal Revealed: Family Secrets Unveiled in Sleepless Nights," listeners are taken on a gripping journey through emotional revelations and hidden truths. The three-hour compilation explores the impact of betrayal on family dynamics, leaving viewers questioning trust and the weight of undisclosed secrets.redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, betrayal, familysecrets, sleeplessnights, compilation, episode105, emotionaljourney, hiddentruths, trustissues, familydynamics, storytelling, podcast, revelations, secrets, drama, relationships, personalnarrativesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6816713/support.This episode includes AI-generated content.

Relax and enjoy the following compilation of stories. I hope you enjoy this story. I ended my relationship with my wealthy partner due to his unjust premarital agreement that left me with nothing. I was surprised when his family extended an offer of properties and funds that he had declined to share. I'm a 34-year-old woman, moving on. Up with my boyfriend, 34M, because of a pre-up I'd been with my boyfriend for about two years. Everything is going well and we love each other. We've been discussing marriage, and he mentioned he would not marry me without a pre-nup.

We discussed this in detail, and I did not like what he proposed. His family owns a lot of property, land, and has lots of savings. After marriage, he was wants me to move into one of the houses his parents own. I told him I am uncomfortable building the life and a family in a house I have no ownership in, and he didn't understand. I told him I'd prefer to rent a place together, or we can't. can live temporarily in one of his parents' houses and look at property together, but he refused. He said he liked the houses his parents and he already owned. He said he would not buy other

property, he said he would not sell any of his property to buy one with me. He told me if I wanted to own property, I could save up money by living in one of these properties and invest in one myself. Problem is, he would be entitled to half if we divorced since my purchase would happen after marriage. He told me I could pay his parents' rent if I feel like I don't belong on the property. He told me I could buy half of the house we live in from his parents. Problem is, I don't like the houses that him or his parents own. They also have a lot of stuff, and I feel like there's no space for me. I want to look at houses, I want to pick the place I live in, and I want to do it with my partner. I've made this clear to him over and over, but he won't budge.

He earns more than me, and he has more assets than me for sure. He made it clear he was afraid I was a gold digger, and he wants to protect himself and his family's assets from me, which I can understand. This whole thing has made me feel very weird. This topic has come up before, and it has always made me feel very small. It makes me feel like all he cares about are his assets. It makes me feel like he wants me as long as I fit into the life he already built, and doesn't care to build one with me.

It makes me feel like a gold digger. He has enough money to retire right now and live comfortably. I don't. He basically told me that whatever money he earns now, he can spend, so he won't be investing in too much anymore. He expects our earnings and our savings after marriage to be split, which I feel off about. I'm sure this is normal for some people.

I'm sure other people would be happy to be with someone, who is well off. I am not. I want someone beside me building a life with me, not someone who has built a life with his parents and wants me as long as I behave and fits into his life, which is how he's been making me feel. So I'm leaving him. I welcome opinions but yeah, it's been too long that this has made me feel off about our relationship. I'm protecting my peace and leaving him with all his houses and money. Commentsoup adds context to the pre-nup talk during their relationship. No. He mentioned pre-nup very early, and I would keep asking him about the details, but he would keep it very vague, and assure me we would work it out when the time came. I never asked him about

his assets, and I never actually knew how much assets his family had. The only things I knew were from some of his one-off comments about certain assets, if he mentioned this tenant or that tenant, or this thing they have to repair, etc., etc. I had also initiated these conversations. He mentioned wanting to live with me and work towards marriage. I figured then that time had come. This is when I sat him down and asked him what he expected from me, what he wanted, and to clarify the conditions of any prenups he wanted to propose. He still tried to dodge my inquiry.

It took so long for me to pull this information out of him. I guess I did wait two years, but marriage talk seemed like the right time to push him to discuss it. Update, so many things have happened. This is a bit of a rant, and I know I'm missing parts, but I'll try to cover the important bits. Before I start, here's some important context. I have a stable and rewarding career, and though I don't earn as much as him, I am very happy with what I can afford. My parents have always taught me that women should be independent, and I've taken that to heart. I live below my means, which has allowed me to put aside money for savings and investments.

A lot of comments have mentioned that I should take the free rent, and that it would somehow set me forward in life, but for me, giving up my sense of autonomy and control over my home, my safe space, is not worth the potential savings. I lived with my parents and saved aggressively until I was 30, so I am lucky enough to be in a position where I can comfortably afford rent or a mortgage by myself. Plus, he expected the living situation to be permanent. I would not move into a house owned by someone else just to save on rent. Would it be nice to save 2KA month?

Sure. But most people pay rent, and I am not an exception. If I really wanted that, I could move back in with my parents. But again, autonomy is very important to me. Also, if he's this stubborn now, I don't see how this situation could be improved later after I already moved in. I could also counter the pre-nup and make it so all my accumulated assets stay mine, or put in a clause that I'll be compensated for any children we have, or put that I'd get alimony or at least have a roof over my head in case we divorce. But for me, that feels overly transactional. It also gives me the vibes that I'm going to be living with a roommate who I sleep with and might have babies with, not a partner.

I prefer to feel like we're in it together. He can keep what was his, but I want to build up. up what is ours. Also, if everything is completely split, it'll open up a new can of worms. How will our expenses be split if I'm working and he's just chilling? What happens when we have children? He has money saved for them, but will I get a say in how we spend that money? I know these can be worked out. But this is not the type of marriage I want. I can't predict everything that will happen, and I don't think I can capture it in a contract. And it's already been so heartbreaking for me, I don't want to go through more. Anyways, yada, yada, yada, I'll just say that it felt like I was being stripped of my autonomy,

stonewalled, and treated like a hostel. Okay, on to updates. So, I told him I needed to end this relationship. I appreciated and truly enjoyed my time with him, but our financial values and the preferred married lifestyle just don't match. It was a quick and easy conversation TBH. I expected the breakup to be a bit of a process, not a one and done thing, since our lives overlap a lot. I'm also in contact with a lot of his family, so OFC, during this whole time, a lot of them got involved.

But blah, blah. Not super relevant to updates. Talk with his parents. Okay. I love his parents. I had a great relationship with them. I would go over to their house, we would have a food, chat, watch TV, sometimes I would go to the parties they host without my ex if he was busy. A few days after my talk with my ex, I went over to say goodbye. I didn't know if the pre-nup was family-enforced or not, so I kept it very general and mainly focused on how the situation made me feel and what I was looking for in a relationship. His parents were shocked Pikachu face when I told them why I was leaving. I'm going to bullet point the rest, his parents really want grandbabies. However, X's younger brother still do not want kids. They were so happy when I came

into their lives and she found out I wanted kids, his parents had created their wealth together, with his dad being the major breadwinner for most of the relationship. His mom was shocked at what he was offering me, saying these aren't the values he was raised with. She had been effectively retired since almost 15 years ago, and she said ex's dad never made her feel uncomfortable because of the difference in earning potential. They told me that they built their assets for themselves and their children. They said that includes whoever their children decided to share their lives with, they have many properties.

However, they also have enough investments that they can live off of those. They told me their plan was to sign over a house of our choosing as a wedding gift, or sell a house and give us cash so we could buy a house we both wanted. As they got older, they planned to evenly divide their properties, between my ex and his brother, since they wouldn't want to manage the properties anymore, and live off investments. Ex's mom said she would have made sure my name was on my ex's portion, especially since we were wanting kids.

They mentioned investments will go directly into funds for grandkids after their passing. Maybe this is what my ex was referring to when he said his children would be set. Bit morbid though, Exa's mom told me that the mother of her grandbabies would be taken care of, and she wanted us to be on equal footing while raising a family. TbH, this conversation was kind of like a weight off my chest. I always loved his family and never felt excluded, but the pre-nup talks left me confused and hurt. What they said fit with what I knew from my ex and them before. It'd be lying if I said I didn't start imagining this life I talked to my ex again. I'll bullet point this too. Basically, he told me, his dad had joked before about how he hoped him and his brother would

not find gold diggers, and that's where that comment came from. He felt responsibility to protect his parents' assets. Since he didn't feel entitled to them, so by extension, I wasn't entitled either. In his culture, sons carry on the family line, so he felt he had to keep his assets in the family line, which I'm not part of, but any sons we had would be, most of the assets he's worried about are under his parents' name, and he had never asked for their opinion on what to do. He just did what he thought he should be, he also said he isn't that well off. And that his assets shouldn't come between us? This is still confusing to me. Isn't this whole thing because he was well off, and wanted to hold on to what he had and not create a shared lifestyle?

I think maybe he meant he didn't own much, and most things actually were under his parents' name. He felt he was punching above his weight with me, and was scared I would leave him, he was afraid I was with him because of his finances, since that was the only thing he had more of, whereas he said I am intelligent, hardworking, beautiful. Blah, blah, he was scared about moving forward with the relationship, but instead of communicating, he became defensive. To me, it seems like he said and did things because of the relationship. he was feeling deeply insecure. He had made a couple passing comments before about me being

more beautiful than him, or how I'm more hardworking, etc., etc. But I had always taken them as compliments, not self-deprecating comments towards himself. He's such a caring, funny, and intelligent person, just in a different way than me. Also, I know he's not as confident as he comes across, but I had no idea that his insecurities ran this deep. He also apologized over. He also apologized over. and over about how he didn't mean to make me feel like an outsider to him and his parents, and insisted that he wanted to share a life with me. He said his insecurities and fear got the best of him, and he didn't handle it well. He had taken advantage of my patience and lashed out because he felt inadequate and scared. It broke my heart because I think all this could have

been avoided. We've been through this song and dance before many times, where he would feel some sort of way, then act out as he's processing it. Until now, I always stay through it and we move on. But it's never gone on for so long. But I guess the issues we've faced before were smaller compared to mapping out our whole lives. I've pushed him to seek individual counseling and we've attended couples counseling together, but I can't force him to sit and identify his emotions or employ the tools we were taught. The pre-nup conversation happened over a long period of time.

He had so many chances to pump the brakes and reflect on what he was saying. and simply just Tilda listened to me. But he didn't. He then sat in front me saying that everything he said before was not what he meant. He said he would be happy to take care of me in our future kids. We could buy a house together or rent if I wanted to, because now he wasn't scared about creating a life together. Completely opposite to everything he had been saying.

But how unsettling is it that he seemed so completely comfortable and confident in the hurtful words he previously said, and was okay with placing me in a very unequal position in the relationship. Despite me continuously trying to articulate what I wanted and how he was making me feel, he didn't even consider my side over months. I know I have a good deal with what his parents are offering, and I know him and I get along super well. But I'm not marrying his parents.

I can't have his mom with us during every argument or life decision we take. Thinking back, I can count on one hand where we've run into, issues, and he was able to address it without acting up. He's such a nice guy, but I can't be his garbage bin every time he needs to sort out his feelings. It's already worn me down. He's a grown man, he's intelligent and intuitive, he's had two years to learn how to communicate with me, and he's not. I honestly can't tell if what he said to me is genuine, or coming from his parents, or coming from a fear of losing me. I could give him the benefit of the doubt again, and move forward with the relationship, as I've done in the past, but I'm tired.

I think this is a fixable problem, but I also have not seen any improvement since we started dating. If anything, this prolonged experience has made me feel it's gotten worse. I will not make the mistake of investing in a man because of what he could be, instead of who he is. If the last few months are a testament to how he handles stressful situations, I can only take things as they are and assume they won't change. This whole thing has left me sour. I don't need too much, but I do expect to be treated with love and support, even during times of disagreement. I cannot just forget the feelings and words I've felt and heard over the last couple of months. I can't just unhear and unknow that he is afraid I'm a gold digger. That was just one of many

comments that really hurt me. I think life will have a lot more ups and downs, and I cannot imagine. what kind of difficulties will face if this is how we communicate, even after identifying it and working on it in therapy. For these reasons, I'm still choosing to walk away. Very diff from leaving because of pre-nup, but it is leaving nonetheless. And T.B.H., this hurts more. I know it will hurt for a while, but I pray I'll be avoiding heartache and complications in the future. Who knows? If it was meant to be, maybe we'll find our way back. For now, I've told him and his family I need space and time. I know that it seems like I'm giving up a lot, but OFC there are things I can't put in a post.

Dash, I actually wrote the above quite early. But I didn't post because it didn't feel like it was over. But now after this time, I know it is. It's been tough and it's only been a couple months, but I'm sure I made the right call. It's tough watching everyone coupled up and having children, but it is what it is. I'm proud of myself for leaving, and I'm slowly healing, thank you everyone for your comments and DMs, sorry I couldn't get back to everyone. But I appreciate you all.

Now on to the next story. Story 2. Secret DNA test revealed the baby wasn't mine. So when I confronted my wife, she admitted to cheating in a way I never expected. Hello all. I am 38 and my wife F-26. I'd been married to my wife for three years and together for five. Our son just turned two in early June, and to put it bluntly, he looks biracial. His skin is darker than I thought it would have been.

He has curly hair when we most certainly don't, and his features just don't look like the standard white people which we are. He's a beautiful boy, he just doesn't look 100% white. I asked my wife a few days after his birthday if she thought our son looked white. She said yes and asked if I'm accusing her of something. I said no because I genuinely wasn't, I just was wondering. I know genetics can be weird sometimes. We fought and I apologized, but I wasn't able to shake the feeling so I did the shitty thing

and got a test done behind my wife's back. The results came in a few days ago and I'm not my son's dad. I feel conflicted about my son. I love him, but knowing that he isn't mine is leaving a sour taste. in my mouth. Our son definitely prefers me and he's my world, but he's just not biologically mine. I don't know what to make of my feelings. I'm a mix of emotions about my wife. I don't know how to talk to her. I'm angry, confused and feeling very, very betrayed. I'm heartbroken too. I still love her. She's working at the moment and I don't want to disturb her at her office,

but I feel like I'm going to explode. This is all very difficult for me to process and I can't. I can't think of when my wife cheated. We always hit each other's locations for safety purposes and I can't think of any suspicious friends that she has or had. We go on regular dates and our bedroom isn't dead. We were also trying for a baby around that time so I don't know when she cheated on me or why.

Ever since we married she's been over the moon constantly showing off her ring and talking about me. She's like a teenager in love. How do I tell her that I know? Or get that ball rolling? I don't know what I want to do yet as stupid as that sounds. I've been stewing on it for a few days, but I still love her so much. Maybe someone can knock some sense into me?

I need help. Edit, I'm becoming overwhelmed with the comments. I'm sorry. I wanted to reply to a few, but I can't. I just wanted to say thank you for commenting and that I also hope our baby was just swapped as terrible as that sounds. Our baby didn't look by racial at birth. As he got older, he started developing features that didn't look entirely like ours.

If our sun's skin didn't darken over time, I don't think I ever would have questioned anything. The other features can be explained as a fun little surprise or a few generation hops maybe. I know that genetics can be weird. Update. I don't know if anyone will see this as the subreddit I posted to doesn't allow updates after 48 hours, but, hello if you do. Getting the bad news out the way first, my son isn't mine. I feel devastated and will be divorcing my wife. My wife and I had talked about our son a few days after my post and my wife cracked under the pressure. She admitted to cheating on me without me even mentioning the test I had gotten done.

All I asked was if she really thought out sun looked white. I mean it when I say that if his skin never got darker I wouldn't have known. She cried a lot and begged for forgiveness and told me that we can all still be a happy family, but my image of her shattered right then and there. I'm going through heartbreak, so forgive any mistakes. I'm currently living with my parents. I asked her when she even found the time to cheat on me, and she told me that she would leave her phone in a location and use another.

She told me that cheating was a mistake and an accident, but how was it a mistake if you had it so planned out? We were trying for a baby around then, and she told me that she couldn't handle the pressure of it all and just wanted to escape. She didn't escape very well as she still got pregnant and acted like we were perfect. Thank you again to everyone.

My wife will now be known as my ex-wife. I apologize to anyone who would hope and thought it was a baby switched at-birth situation. I'm somewhat happy it wasn't because that would be terrible, but extremely disappointed because that means he really isn't mine. There won't be any more DNA tests because she admitted to everything and showed me some text messages. There won't be any more updates from me either because I just want to move on with my life. I'll get everything sorted and figure out the whole custody thing.

Thanks again, everyone. Goodbye. I hope you enjoy this story. Assisted my sibling's spouse during their separation for an extended period by lending an ear to their concerns, but she attempted to make a move on me. Upon my refusal, she alleged that I was harassing her. A family dinner while my wife believed her and left me. I need to tell you what happened because I'm still trying to process how everything went so wrong so fast and how my own wife turned against me when I did nothing but try to help me. her sister through a difficult time. My wife Dana has this younger sister named Jessica who's always

been a bit dramatic but I never really minded her because she kept to herself mostly and we only saw her at family gatherings where she would drink too much wine and complain about whatever guy she was dating at the time. Jessica got married about four years ago to this guy Mark who seemed decent enough. He had a good job working at some insurance company and treated her well from what I could see, but Jessica always found something to nitpick about him and Dana would just roll her eyes and say that's how Jessica is with everything. Jessica would complain that Mark worked too much or that he didn't take her out to fancy restaurants often enough or that he spent too much time watching sports on weekends and Dana would listen patiently and then tell me later that

Jessica had unrealistic expectations about what marriage was supposed to be like. I never got involved in these conversations because I figured it was sister stuff and none of my business, but I could tell that Dana was getting tired of always being Jessica's emotional support system for every little problem in her relationship. About eight months ago, Jessica called Dana crying at like 11 o'clock at night because Mark had asked for a divorce and she was completely blindsided by it, even though Dana and I both knew their marriage had been rocky for a while. Because Jessica would constantly post these passive aggressive things on social media about how hard it is to be married to someone who doesn't

appreciate you and Dana would show me these posts. and we both just shake our heads. Jessica's Facebook was always full of these cryptic posts about being taken for granted and how some people don't know what they have until it's gone, and Dana would get embarrassed because everyone in their family could see that Jessica was obviously talking about Mark. When Jessica called that night she was hysterical and kept saying she had nowhere to go because Mark wanted to keep the house and she couldn't afford to live on her own since

she only worked part-time that barely paid anything. Jessica had always been bad with money and had gotten used to Mark paying for most of their expenses, so the idea of supporting herself financially was terrifying to her and she kept crying about how she was going to end up homeless and living in her car. Dana immediately offered to let Jessica stay with us for a few weeks until she could figure things out and I agreed because I figured Jessica just needed some family support during this tough time and it would probably only be temporary anyway. Dana has always been close with her family and I knew it.

it would mean a lot to her to help her sister out, so I told Dana that Jessica could stay in our guest room as long as she needed to get back on her feet. I thought maybe having some time away from Mark would help Jessica get some perspective on what had gone wrong in her marriage and maybe they could work things out, but Dana said that from what Jessica was telling her the divorce was definitely happening and Mark had already talked to a lawyer. Jessica moved in the next weekend with just a few suitcases and a bunch of crying about how Mark had changed the locks and wouldn't let her get the rest of her stuff, which seemed pretty

extreme to me but I didn't want to get involved in their drama so I just helped carry her bags upstairs and told her to make herself at home. Dana took the whole week off work to help Jessica find an apartment and a lawyer and basically hold her hand through everything while Jessica just sat on our couch watching TV and crying into boxes of tissues. I kept working my normal schedule because someone had to keep earning money and I figured Dana was better at handling the emotional stuff anyway, plus Jessica seemed to want to talk to Dana about all the personal details of her marriage problems. The first few weeks weren't too bad because Dana was handling most of the emotional support

stuff and I would just nod along when Jessica would vent about Mark during dinner, but then Dana had to go back to work because she had already used up most of her vacation time and her boss was getting annoyed about her being out so much. Dana works and she's always been really dedicated to her job, so taking a whole week off to deal with family drama was already pushing it and she couldn't afford to take any more time off without risking getting fired. I work from home so I'm usually around during the day, and Jessica started coming to me more often when she was upset about something because Dana wasn't available to talk during work hours. Jessica would knock on my office door and ask if I had a few minutes to talk because she was having a panic attack or because her lawyer had. called with bad news about the divorce proceedings, and I felt bad for her because she was clearly going through a rough time and I could see that talking to someone helped calm her down.

I would take breaks from work to sit with her in the living room while she explained whatever new crisis had come up, like how Mark's lawyer was trying to claim that Jessica wasn't entitled to half of their savings because she hadn't contributed much financially to the marriage. Or how Mark was being difficult about letting her get her personal belongings from the house. Jessica would always thank me for being such a good listener and say that I was the only person who really understood what she was going through, which I thought was just her being grateful for the support during a difficult period in her life. This went on for about six weeks and I started to notice that Jessica was coming to me instead of calling Dana at work when she needed to talk, and she would always wait until Dana left for the office before she would come find me. I didn't think much of it at first because I figured she just didn't want to bother Dana at work and knew I was available,

plus Jessica seemed to be getting more comfortable around the house and treating it more like her temporary home rather than just a place she was crashing. Jessica started doing things like cooking dinner for all of us and doing laundry and cleaning the house, which was actually helpful because Dana and I both work full time and don't always have energy for household chores. Jessica would have dinner ready when Dana got home from work and would always make sure. to ask me what I wanted to eat or if I had any food preferences, and she would buy groceries and cook these meals like she was trying to prove that she could be useful around the house. But then Jessica started staying up late to wait for me when I would get home from going out with friends or running errands.

And she would be sitting in the living room in her pajamas when I walked in and would immediately start talking about how lonely she felt and how she couldn't sleep because she kept thinking about everything that had gone wrong with her marriage. I would usually just listen for a while and then suggest that she might feel better if she tried to get some rest, but Jessica would keep talking and following me around the house even when I was clearly trying to end the conversation and go to bed. Jessica would follow me into the kitchen when I went to get a glass of water or would come upstairs and knock on the bathroom door when I was getting ready for bed, and she would keep talking through the door about how she appreciated having someone to talk to and how much better she felt after our conversations. I started to feel like Jessica was becoming too dependent on me for emotional support and that maybe she should be talking to a therapist or joining some kind of divorce support group instead of relying on me so much. One night about two months after she moved in, I came home from

having drinks with some co-workers and Jessica was waiting for me in the kitchen wearing this silk nightgown that was way too revealing for someone staying in their brother-in-law's house. She had opened a bottle of wine and poured two glasses and when I walked and she handed me and started talking about how grateful she was for everything I had done for her and how I was such a better man than Mark or any of the other guys she had dated. I took the wine because I didn't want to be rude but I kept the conversation focused on practical stuff like how her apartment search was going and whether she had heard back from any of the job she had applied for. Jessica had been looking at apartments for weeks but kept finding excuses not to put in applications,

like the rent was too expensive or the neighborhood wasn't safe or the apartment was too small, and I was starting to wonder if she was really serious about moving out or if she was getting too comfortable living with us. Jessica kept steering the conversation back to more personal topics and kept touching my arm when she would laugh at something I said, which made me uncomfortable because it felt like she was being flirty rather than just friendly. She would lean in close when she was talking and would find excuses to brush against me when she was reaching for things, and she kept complimenting me on how understanding I was and how much she enjoyed our talks together. After about 20 minutes of this I told Jessica that I was tired and needed to get some sleep, and I started to walk toward the stairs, but she grabbed my hand and said she needed to tell me

something important. She looked at me with these big sad eyes and said that spending time with me had made her realize what she had been missing in her marriage and that she had developed feelings for me that went beyond just being grateful for my help. I immediately pulled my hand away and told her that she was just confused because she was going through a divorce and that she didn't really have feelings for me, she was just looking for someone to make her feel better about everything that was happening with Mark. Jessica got upset and said that I was wrong and that she had been thinking about this for

weeks and that she could tell I felt something too based on how much time we spent talking together and how I was always so patient and kind with her. I told her very clearly that I was married to her sister and that nothing was ever going to happen between us and that she needed to stop thinking about me that way because it was completely inappropriate. Jessica started crying and saying that Dana didn't appreciate me the way she did and that Dana was always working late and didn't pay enough attention to me, which made me angry because Jessica had no right to comment on my marriage or suggest that there was anything wrong with it. I went upstairs without saying anything else and went straight to bed,

but I couldn't sleep because I was worried about how this was going to affect things with Dana and whether I should tell her what had happened right away or wait and see if Jessica would drop it and act normal again. I decided to wait and see what happened the next day because I hoped that Jessica would realize she had made a mistake and we could just pretend the whole conversation never happened and maybe she would be embarrassed enough about it that she would finally start looking for her own place more seriously. But when Dana left for work the next morning, Jessica came to my office and started apologizing for what she had said the night before, but then she said that she still meant every word of it and that she couldn't help how she felt about me. She said that she had

been thinking about it all night and that she believed I had feelings for her too, but I was just being loyal to Dana and that if I would just give her a chance she could make me happier than Dana ever could. I told Jessica that she was completely wrong and that I loved my wife and had no romantic feelings for her whatsoever, and that if she couldn't respect my marriage then she needed to find somewhere else to stay. Jessica got defensive and said that I was the one who had been leading her on by spending so much time talking to her and being so understanding about her problems, that I couldn't blame her for misreading the signals I had been sending. I told her that I had been trying to help her as family and that there were never any signals

of any kind, and that she needed to stop this whole thing immediately before it caused serious problems. Jessica started crying again and said that she was sorry and that she would try to control her feelings, but then she asked if we could still talk when she was upset because talking to me was the only thing that made her feel better about the divorce. I said that I thought it would be better if she talked to Dana or maybe found a therapist to help her work through her emotions about the divorce, and Jessica got angry and said that I was abandoning her when she needed me most and that she thought I cared about her more than that. I told her that I did care about her as Dana's sister, but that she was asking for something I couldn't give her,

and then I went back to my office and closed the door and tried to focus on work even though I was completely rattled by the whole conversation. For the next few days Jessica barely spoke to me and would leave the room whenever I came in, which was actually a relief because I hoped it meant she was getting over whatever she thought she felt. She would still talk to Dana normally and would still do things around the house like cooking and cleaning, but whenever I was around she would act cold and distant and would avoid making eye contact with me. Dana asked me if something was wrong because Jessica seemed upset about something and was acting weird around me, and I almost told her what had happened, but I decided to wait a little longer to see if the

situation would resolve itself without having to involve Dana. I was hoping that Jessica would realize how inappropriate her behavior had been and would either apologize and go back to normal or would find her own place and move out, but instead she seemed to be getting more resentful and angry with me for rejecting her. She would make these passive aggressive comments during dinner about how some people lead others on and then act like the victim when things get complicated, and she would sigh dramatically whenever I came into a room like my presence was ruining her day. That was a mistake because the following weekend we went to Dana's parents' house for her

dad's birthday dinner and Jessica was acting strange the whole time, being overly affectionate with Dana and making these comments about how lucky Dana was to have such a supportive husband and how some men just can't be trusted no matter how nice they seem. I thought she was just being passive aggressive because I had rejected her, but Dana's mom picked up on the weird vibe and asked Jessica if everything was okay. Dana's parents live in this house where they've hosted family dinners for years and everyone was there including Dana's brother Tom and his girlfriend and Dana's aunt and uncle, so there were probably 10 or 12 people sitting around the dining room table when Jessica decided to drop

her bomb. We had just finished eating the main course and Dana's dad was opening a bottle of wine to celebrate his birthday when Dana's mom noticed that Jessica seemed upset and distracted. Jessica started crying and said that she had something she needed to tell the family. but that it was really hard to talk about, and everyone gathered around her thinking she was going to share some update about her divorce proceedings

or maybe announced that she had found an apartment or a new job. Instead, Jessica looked right at me and said that I had been making inappropriate advances toward her while she was staying at our house and that she had been trying to handle it quietly but that it was making her uncomfortable and she didn't know what to do. I was so shocked that I couldn't even speak for a few seconds,

and then I said that Jessica was lying and that she was the one who had made advances toward me, but Jessica immediately started crying harder and said that I was trying to turn it around on her and that she never would have said anything if I hadn't been so persistent about it. Dana's whole family was staring at me like I was some kind of predator, and Dana looked completely devastated and confused

like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Jessica went on to say that I had been complimenting her appearance and asking personal questions about her marriage and touching her in ways that made her uncomfortable. and that she had tried to ignore it at first because she was grateful for the place to stay, but that it had been getting worse and she was afraid to be alone in the house with me. She said that I had told her that Dana didn't understand me and that I was attracted to her and that I had tried to kiss her the night before, which was a complete fabrication,

but everyone was hanging on every word, she said. I tried to explain exactly what had happened and how Jessica had been the one who came on to me, but Jessica kept interrupting and saying that I was lying and that she had been afraid to say anything because she knew no one would believe her. Dana's dad stood up and told me that I needed to leave immediately and that I wasn't welcome in their house anymore, and Dana's mom was hugging Jessica and telling her how brave she was for speaking up and how sorry she was that Jessica had to go through something like that.

Dana's brother Tom was glaring at me like he wanted to punch me and kept asking how I could do something like that to someone who was going through a divorce and staying in my house. The whole room turned against me in a matter of minutes and no one wanted to hear my side of the story because Jessica was crying and seemed so upset and traumatized. Dana was just sitting there looking back and forth between me and Jessica like she didn't know what to believe, and when I tried to talk to her she told me not to say anything else and that we would discuss it at home. I couldn't believe that my own wife wasn't immediately defending me against these

obviously false accusations, but I could see that everyone had already made up their minds about what they thought had happened and nothing I said was going to change their opinion. The drive home was completely silent and when we got to the house, Dana went straight upstairs to our bedroom and locked the door, and I spent the night on the couch trying to figure out how everything had gone so wrong so fast. I couldn't understand how Jessica could be so cruel and manipulative as to destroy my marriage and my relationship with Dana's family just because I had rejected her advances. The next morning Dana came down and said that she had been thinking about it all night and that she remembered how much time I had been spending talking to Jessica

and how Jessica had seemed uncomfortable around me recently. She said that looking back on it she could see signs that something inappropriate had been happening, like how Jessica would always wait for me to come home and how she would find excuses to be around me when Dana wasn't there. I tried to explain again that Jessica had been coming to me for emotional support and that I had been trying to help her through her divorce, but Dana said that maybe I had misunderstood Jessica's vulnerability and taken advantage of the situation without realizing it. I got angry and told Dana that I knew exactly what had happened and that Jessica was lying to cover up the fact that she had made a pass at me and I had rejected her, and that Jessica

was probably hoping that if she broke up our marriage, then maybe I would be available for her after all. Dana said that she wanted to believe me but that Jessica seemed genuinely upset and scared, and that she couldn't understand why Jessica would make up something like that if it wasn't true. She said that Jessica had given her specific details about things I had supposedly said and done, and that Jessica's story was consistent and believable while my explanation seemed defensive and self-serving. She said that maybe I had been sending mixed signals without meaning too, and that Jessica had interpreted my kindness as romantic interest, and that when I tried to clarify things it had come across as rejection and Jessica felt like she needed to protect herself by telling the family

what was happening. Dana kept trying to find reasonable explanations for how things could have gotten so confused, but every explanation she came up with made me look like either a predator or an idiot who couldn't control himself around his sister-in-law. I couldn't believe that Dana was trying to find ways to excuse Jessica's behavior and make me the bad guy when I had done nothing wrong except try to help her sister through a difficult time. I told Dana that I had been completely appropriate in all my interactions with Jessica and that Jessica knew exactly what she was doing when she accused me of something I didn't do, and that Dana was choosing to believe a liar over her own husband.

Dana said that she needed some space to think about everything and that maybe I should stay somewhere else for a few days while she tried to sort through her feelings about the situation. I asked her if she seriously believed that I would cheat on her with her own sister, and Dana said that she didn't know what to believe anymore, but that Jessica's story seemed consistent. I packed a bag and went to stay at my brother's house, and for the next week I kept calling Dana trying to convince her that Jessica was lying but Dana would barely talk to me and kept saying that she needed more time to process everything.

Meanwhile Jessica moved out of our house and went to stay with Dana's parents, and Dana's whole family was treating me like I was some kind of sex offender who had prayed on Jessica during her vulnerable time. I felt like I was living in some kind of alternate reality whereup was down and black was white, and no matter how many times I explained what really happened no one wanted to listen to my side of the story. My own friend started treating me differently because word had gotten around about what Jessica was claiming, and I could tell that people were talking about me behind my back and wondering if the accusations were true. After two weeks of this I convinced Dana to meet me

so we could talk face to face, and I thought that if I could just get her to really listen to me without any distractions than I could make her understand that Jessica was manipulating the whole situation. But when I started to explain everything again, Dana interrupted me and said that she had talked to Jessica several more times and that Jessica had given her even more details about things I had supposedly said and done. Dana said that Jessica told her I had been complimenting her appearance and asking personal questions about her marriage and her sex life, and that I had touched her shoulder and her hand in ways that made her uncomfortable. She said that Jessica had told her about specific conversations where I had supposedly said that Dana didn't appreciate

me and that I was attracted to Jessica and thought about her in romantic ways, which were all complete lies but Dana seemed to believe every word of it. I told Dana that Jessica was making all of that up and that the only time I had ever touched Jessica was when she grabbed my hand at night in the kitchen, but Dana said that Jessica seemed too upset and traumatized to be lying about something so serious. She said that Jessica had been having nightmares and panic attacks since she moved out and that she was seeing a therapist to deal with the trauma of what I had supposedly put her through. I asked Dana how she could take Jessica's word over mine when Jessica had a history of being

dramatic and dishonest about things, and I reminded Dana about all the times Jessica had lied to their parents about where she was going or what she was doing when they were growing up. Dana got defensive and said that this was completely different and that Jessica wouldn't lie about something that could destroy our marriage unless it was true, and that I was being unfair by bringing up things from when Jessica was a teenager. I realized that Dana had already made up her mind and that nothing I said was going to change her opinion, and I got angry and told her that she was choosing to believe a manipulative liar over her own husband who had never given her any reason to doubt his faithfulness.

Dana started crying and said that she wanted to believe me but that Jessica's version of events made more sense to her than mine did. The whole conversation was completely insane and I realized that Dana was never going to believe me no matter what I said or how much evidence I provided, so I told her that I was done trying to convince her and that she could choose between her lying sister and her innocent husband. Dana said that she had already made her choice and that she thought we should get a divorce because she couldn't trust me anymore and didn't think our marriage could survive this kind of betrayal. I moved out permanently the next week and Dana filed for divorce.

a month later, and now I'm living in a one-bedroom apartment trying to rebuild my life while Jessica gets to play the victim and Dana gets to feel like she made the right choice by standing up for her poor innocent sister. The divorce process has been a nightmare because Dana's lawyer is trying to use Jessica's accusations to argue that I have a pattern of inappropriate behavior and that Dana should get most of our assets as compensation for the emotional trauma I supposedly caused. Dana's friends and family all think I'm some kind of predator now and I've lost most of my social circle because people don't want to associate with someone who supposedly harassed his sister-in-law. I've had to find new places to shop and eat

because I keep running into people who know about the accusations and who look at me like I'm some kind of monster. The worst part is that I genuinely cared about Jessica and wanted to help her get through her divorce and she repaid that kindness by destroying my marriage and my reputation. I keep thinking about how different things would be if I had just told Jessica to talk to Dana instead of listening to her problems myself, but I never imagined that someone would be cruel enough to turn an act of family support into a weapon against me. Now I'm starting over at 35 years old and trying to figure out how to trust people again when someone I thought of as family was willing to lie about me to get what she wanted.

I know that I did nothing wrong and I know that Jessica is a liar and a manipulator, but none of that matters because everyone who matters believes her story instead of mine and I'm the one who has to live with the consequences of her lies. I've thought about trying to prove that Jessica was lying but I don't know how you prove a conversation we had when it was just the two of us. And even if I could somehow demonstrate that Jessica made the whole thing up I don't think Dana would take me back at this point because she's convinced herself that she made the right decision and admitting she was wrong would mean accepting that she destroyed our marriage over lies.

I hope you enjoy this story. Former partner transformed into a companion and began connecting with my child after my spouse passed away. I lost my composure when he referred to my child as his little one, and now he has arrived and revealed something. His feelings. I, F-34, had been with my husband for over 12 years. We had our child when I was 31, and my husband 33. Sadly, recently, 1.5 years ago, when my baby was around two years, my husband, the love of my life, died in a tragic accident, careless driver hit his car on a foggy, slippery road, he died instantly in a crash.

His death left me in shambles, only thing that kept me at least sane was our daughter. I couldn't believe that I lost him. He was my rock, my light, and I loved him dearly. In a way I still cannot believe that he's gone. That's where my ex comes in. In about year after my husband's accident, he reached out to me to talk, to vet maybe. We separated long time ago,

couple of years before I've met my husband. We didn't exactly stay friends but were on good terms, and spoke occasionally high, How are you kind of talk? So he reached out and offered to help as a friend. It was unexpected but I accepted because I really needed a friend and frankly I don't have a lot of close friends besides him. He occasionally came over to our place, brought some gifts to my daughter and we talked over

tea or a beer. It wasn't intimate. He had several casual relationships over the years, and I clearly told him that I'm not ready for any relationships after my husband, still not ready, I guess. So he came over once or twice a month, he was very sweet with my daughter, so I didn't see anything wrong with them bonding. But then my baby started. calling my ex-papa. It annoyed me very much, but I didn't say anything, because she's a toddler how is she supposed to now any better? I tried gently explaining to her that my ex isn't Papa, but I doubt she understood. So I just started sending her to my or my husband's mom when my ex came over. In truth I know our baby won't remember her father, photos is all she'll have of him. And I don't

want another man to take his place in her eyes. So everything was normal again. I noticed that my ex was visibly upset when I told him that my daughter isn't home. But I didn't think much of it. And last time is where I snapped. That's where I might be the awe, because I ended up screaming at my ex and probably should have handled it better. So when he was at our house and we played some video games and had couple of beers, my mother brought my daughter home early, she was very grumpy and wanted to go home.

He stood up and told my daughter, here's my baby, I missed you. and reached to hug her. That's where I snapped at him. I told him angrily that he is in fact not her father, and that she is my and my husband's baby and will never be his baby no matter how much he wants it. And if he wants to have a child, he still have plenty of chances with his girlfriend.

He told me I was a real odd for saying such cruel things and left. My mother told me that I was kind of an asshole too and I acted like a child. So am I? Comments, commenter, gna. I think you took some unresolved trauma out on him. And also that him calling your kid his baby was pretty clueless since he presumably will not be her father.

He's more of an uncle, if we want to use family terms at all. I think you should apologize even though he was also wrong, assuming you want to be friends and have him in your kid's life. Hopefully he will understand that it is a sore subject for you right now and parts of it will obviously be a sore subject forever. Ah, thank you. I think you're right. I still take everything concerning my husband to heart and my ex's words hit very close to home.

I don't think I was wrong in what I said to him, but I was wrong in the way I said it. After thinking about it for some time, I think I do want him in my and my daughter's life. He is a very good friend and very supportive, especially in my time of need, so I shouldn't have lashed out at him. I think I'll try calling him to apologize and communicate my issues clearly. Maybe he didn't even mean anything by his words and just loves my baby and expressed it a bit clumsily. But I admit his words really triggered me in the moment. Commenter, nah. You are still heavily grieving the loss of your husband.

You should, in my opinion, apologize to him and explain your thoughts. He can accept the apology or not. If you are not currently in therapy, you should really consider it. I have a friend whose son's dad passed away when he was three. Same thing. Only pictures and basically no memories. Ah, thank you for you advice. I believe you're right, I should apologize and explain my feelings to him clearly. I didn't express my concerns earlier and then exploded unnecessarily. I should set some clear boundaries with him, explain that I'm still hurting and don't want him to call my daughter his baby in any

way. If he's okay with it, that'll be great. If not, then I won't have a choice than to stop speaking to him for my own sake. I am currently in therapy, it is helpful, but it's a long process. And sincerely sorry for your friend and her son. Commenter, since you have a baby, you will need to enact clear boundaries with him. It's possible that given you two's romantic history, he doesn't realize he's crossing lines. But once you let these boundaries be known, it's up to him to follow them and you to enforce them. Don't let him bully you. You're the mob. You're the mob, and dad to your baby. Ah, you are right. My first priority is my baby's well-being. And although some of my relatives say child needs a father figure, I think that's a load of BS. If I meet a nice man,

at least as great as my husband, then maybe. But it should be on my terms and not forced on to both on me and my baby. Commenter, if he only came back into your life because of the baby, I think there is something going on here. There are tons of bad people out there who insinuate themselves into single mom's lives to get access to the kids. Protect your daughter. You don't need your ex. You dumped him for a reason already. Ah, I'm not really sure if he has some ulterior motive about my baby.

Maybe he's too projecting some unresolved issues, maybe not. He's generally a good person and a good friend. But you're right. He was a terrible boyfriend. We were very young and our relationship was clearly toxic, but we've later talked and decided that we're much better friends than lovers. But it is clear to me now after posting and thinking about the matter that, firstly, should apologize for yelling,

secondly, set some clear boundaries about him and my baby. If he won't accept that, that's his right, but we won't speak anymore. Then commenter, NTA. And this seems to be some ploy on his part to get back with you and has extended to creating a relationship with your daughter. Op, I don't think he wants to get back with me, though I'm not completely sure. We did break up for a reason. We were young and stupid and our relationship was completely toxic.

He is a good friend, though. Sometime after the breakup, which was surprisingly calm, we talked and decided to stay in touch. We weren't close friends, but we were friendly. He was very supportive after my husband's death and helped me a lot. I won't deny there's a bit of nostalgia about the times we were together, but it's more of a running joke now. We can say, do you remember when we were together so and so happened and we laugh? I in fact do not want him as a partner, he is terrible boyfriend and judging by his demeanor

with his numerous girlfriends, that didn't change. He initially didn't express any interest in having children, but maybe he's projecting some of his own issues onto my daughter. this whole situation is bizarre to me. I don't understand why you'd allow your ex this much access to your kid. I understand needing the support, but the situation is suspicious, NTA. In general, NTA. Op, thank you for your input.

You are right, I believe I was wrong for introducing them at all. I was a wreck and needed support, yes, but my priority should be my child. First year after my husband died, a lot of people came up. over to offer condolences and some help, my and my husband's family. My daughter was always by my side. She once called my husband's brother Papa, but they look so much alike, that it is understandable. And I kind of miss the fact that my ex's visits and gifts can be a problem. I was too late to understand that I need to set clear boundaries and it is inappropriate for them to bond if I do not want any relationship besides friendship with my ex. On the term, Papa,

Thank you for your input. I didn't mention it in my post, but we are European and term Papa is actually more common here. Maybe it wasn't even his intention and he did it subconsciously. I was in the wrong to scream and yell, but we definitely need to set some clear boundaries that this friendship is going to last. Update, first, I wanted to say thank you for everyone who offered condolences, advice and criticisms. I appreciate it very much. I think a little context and explanation is due. My husband and I had a really tight friend group.

We usually hung out at our place because we have sort of a playroom, with PS5, good PC, VR, board games and table. We are big fans of gaming in many ways. Sadly, our friends moved to different countries over the years one by one, and after my husband died I was left with only one friend from the group nearby. But she's a young mother too and we can't hang out like before. We still speak, but it's not been the same. So I wanted some familiarity when my ex appeared.

I was vulnerable and allowed things to escalate too much. I desperately wanted to have a friend who shares similar interests with me and my husband. So I was blind to some red flags and my own wrong choices. Also, I never left my ex alone with my daughter for more than couple of minutes. I was wrong to introduce them in the first place. Now to the update itself, yesterday evening my ex came by unannounced and uninvited. I was a little worried, but, thankfully my husband's brother and his wife was at our house with their kids on a play date.

So I asked them to watch over the kids for some time and went to talk with my ex outside. He was drunk. A lot. He started talking and he said a lot. In a nutshell he said that he will always care about me, that he suppressed some feelings for all this 15 years and he just realized that he was a fool to let me go. I admit, I do care about him too, but not even remotely in a way I care about my husband. So I was a fool to hope we can be friends and have civil relationship without any implications.

Our talk started getting heated and we argued, a lot of accusations were thrown. My bill came out of the house and brought our big overprotective dog with him. So I quickly apologized to my ex for leading him on and told him to move on. and asked him to leave and never return. I was a bit worried that things can get violent, but he left without any protest. He later posted long and vague post about being hurt and that love is shit,

and he is better off alone, and tagged me and several of his other exes. Not sure how his GF may react to that, but it doesn't really matter anymore. I blocked him everywhere and hope he won't appear in our lives anymore. Also, I will update my security system as soon as possible just in case. Now on to the next story.

Story 2. Son bullied a girl with cancer, so I sold all his electronics and clothes. Then he came out as gay and said he was being bullied too. Now he's sorry, got a job, and wants to make things right. I am 38 and I have a 15-year-old son who is going to be a sophomore after this school year is over. I gave birth to my son when I was 23 years of age. Unfortunately my son's dad left when he was five and never came back. I have not heard from his dad in years.

Recently my son has been getting trouble. Quite frankly, I am at my wits end. I'm at a loss. My son made new friends that have been nothing but trouble. My son and his friends have shoplifted from stores, skipped school, and has been a smart ass. May 9th, my son bullied a girl who lost her hair. She is going through chemo. The girl was sitting in her seat and my son decided to rip her scarf off.

Him and his friends said very mean things to her. The poor girl was already getting bullied and my son exacerbated it. She was humiliated. I was called to the school. They brought my son and the girl to the office. I arrived there shortly after they called me. The teacher and principal explained the situation. The mother of the girl he bullied.

was at the school as well. I asked the mother for her number. I gave her my number. I told her that if she needed anything to not hesitate to ask. My son was given two days of ISS for bullying. My son and I got home and I was furious. I lost my mind. I went into his room and took every electronic. I took his PS5, his MacBook, his iPhone 13. I took his name brand shoes, his name brand jackets, his Hollister jeans and his Nike shirts. I grounded him indefinitely. Three days later I sold his electronics at a very marked-down price. I got I bought my son Walmart clothes and goodwill shoes. He will not bully someone and get away with it. I gave the money to the mother so she could buy her daughter a wig. The only thing my son has in his room is his bed,

drawers, mirror, and his shelf of books. I even confiscated his art supplies. My family on my mother's side are not talking to me because of this. I know that it's been two weeks. I just feel like there was a possibility that I was too harsh. Edit, he is not allowed to leave the house at all. He's also not allowed to hang out with his friends. Comments, External underscore Expert underscore 269, you fucking hero. How else would he learn? He was cruel and hopefully this is a defining moment where he can become a kind, compassionate person. Looks like the relatives on your mother's side should go meet the mother and child with cancer to understand the gravity of the situation.

I don't think they understand how horrible this really was. Great job parenting. Oop, I just hope he learns from this. I have tried talking to him many times about this and it doesn't work. External underscore Expert underscore 269. Have you thought of therapy sessions? I was a total jerk as a teen. I'm not now.

But damn I wish I could go back and slap myself. You've had the conversations you needed to take action. Perhaps therapy at this point is essential. Oop, definitely. He's going to therapy for sure. Byrony 88, NTA, you did exactly what you were supposed to do. You are parenting him. Good job.

You need to lay it out plainly to him exactly what he did. so he can see the full extent of his own assholery. Ask him how it is at all funny to humiliate a girl fighting for her life. Tell him that she lost her hair literally trying to stay alive and cure the disease trying to kill her, and ask him how he found that funny. Tell him it was a cowardly thing to do. Picking on a girl whom is far braver than he is. Making herself sick to survive, that you are disappointed and disgusted because you raised him better,

and he needs to do better. He needs to understand so he can learn and grow from this. Oop, I told him that it's not her fault she lost her hair. I explained to him that hair is very important to a girl and that it was hard for her to lose it. I explained that she already feels awful about her looks and he made it worse. External underscore Expert underscore 269. Sounds like you are doing everything right. Teenagers are just freaking hard.

And how disappointing with family members thinking that this is excessive. acceptable behavior. Don't pay attention to them. Sarah Love Lifeoop, I'm not. External underscore Expert underscore 269, you are too hard on yourself. You can raise someone perfectly, but they have their own free will and outside influence. You are not letting his behavior slide. You are being supportive of a family in need. And you enrolling him into therapy because you know he's better than this. I don't see where you could be dropping the ball. Kids in life are just hard sometimes skeptical. Timely Lyme 1359, not wrong.

As a former teacher I wish more parents would react like this when confronted with their child's bullying behavior. Too many parents make excuses for it and enable it. Your son after round and found out that actions have consequences. Sarah Love Life Oop, I'm not going to allow him to be a bully. I was bullied as a kid and I won't allow it in my home. External underscore Expert underscore 2069, there needs to be more moms like you. Update 1, I had a long talk with my son earlier and I think I know why he's acting the way he is.

Recently I grounded my 15-year-old son and took everything away after he bullied a girl with cancer for being bald. I gave him back his art supplies to give him an outlet. I am giving him a chance to redeem himself and to earn back electronics, etc. I will be purchasing him new electronics to replace the ones I sold once he shows a change in behavior. We had a conversation earlier. My son told me that he's gay and he was getting bullied. He wanted to fit in with his new friends because he felt like he had no other friends. My son told me how alone he is feeling. This made me feel awful for being hard on him. He will be starting therapy soon. Can someone with an LGBTQIA plus child,

give me advice on how to navigate through this? Comments, Snutku, I'm not a parent of a gay child, but here's my advice. I think you are handling this well. You are right to slowly give his electronics and privileges back. There still has to be consequences for bullying. If it was me in your shoes, I would seek out a counselor for the two of you that can guide you into this and can also recommend individual therapy for each of you. McMurmel, I think you have handled this right.

I do want to ask if you are sure your son did not make this up to get himself out of trouble. You say in your other post besides your son other boys had been bullying this girl. Check back with the school and the girl's mother that they have put a stop to this. Cancer is hard on adults let's alone a kid. It is tough for a girl or woman to lose her hair. Update 2, I gave my son back his art supplies to give him an healthy outlet. He got a part-time job as a bagger for groceries and I will be taking him to and from work. He starts his new job next week. I also talk to the girl's mom and she's

doing better. My son recently came out also. He has been getting bullied for being gay and wanted to fit it with his new friends. His new friends were bullies and troublemakers. My son talked to me and he genuinely feels awful about what happened. My son wants to make things right with her. He was sweet and offered to shave his head for her. I guess I after me cracking down on him, he did a 180 with his behavior. I am proud of him. He still hasn't gained my full trust for him to have electronics back. When he shows me that I can fully trust him again I'll buy him a new phone and computer. Comments, Ami Laura, High School is so damn rough. I am glad OOP is giving him the opportunity to earn back his electronics

and not just giving them back to him. Is being gay in high school hard? Absolutely, but it's doesn't give anyone the right to take it out on someone else. I was stoked when OOP gave the money to the girl so she could buy a Wigga Plus parenting right there. Okay, tap 3378, high school seems so much worse now because of the internet. Even when all we had was AIM, kids used to still torture the shit out of each other. I can't imagine now. Greaserpup, when I was in HS, I graduated in 2022, I was part of my school's equivalent to a GSA, we called it something different, though. At one point it was discovered that someone had created an Instagram account called F-slur S of My High School, that featured pictures of students, some of whom were members of our GSA

that weren't out to their families for a myriad of reasons, posted without their consent. School administration got the account shut down somehow, but we never found out who was behind it. There were other similar accounts too, which I only found out after the fact. Marginalized students at my HS were lucky that our admin actually gave a fuck, because many school admins don't the Internet has made it easier than ever to bully people without attaching your name or face to it. It's honestly scary, when you don't know who's behind it, there's not nearly as much that you can do. Renoa Rita, I teach HS and taught middle school.

When a kid hits middle school parents lose a lot of control and kids, kids start getting more influenced by their friends. But unfortunately, sometimes the friends aren't the best and hive mind dumb-ass boys behavior fester in a certain dynamic. Often when you get these boys alone, they're perfectly okay. But somehow they all bring out the worst in each other. Fortunately, in the big picture, good parenting can save a kid, but it will be really tough, especially if your kid is rebellious. Corb, but somehow they all bring out the worst in each other. My friend noticed this with her kid. The more boys you added to the group, the lower the collective IQ got.

It quickly went from respectable kids to I'm Johnny Knoxville, welcome to Jackass. I hope you enjoy this story. Partner caused all her companions to prevent me on social platforms and claimed both her guardians had passed away several months prior to our marriage. During my trip to her city, I encountered her mother, living there fine. So my me fiancé, GF, age 32 doesn't want me, age 28M, to talk to her best friends at all before marriage. We have been dating since the last 2.5 years and those 2.5 years has been mostly public. Public in the sense that both me and her like to post pictures or reels of ourselves from

vacations or times together and we were very clear that we were in a relationship on Instagram. However, she doesn't have a lot many real-life followers from office or personal life on her Instagram. She has around seven or eight really good friends who she meets on a regular basis and one cousin. We are both matured adults and decided to get married in the coming year in 24 November or December since we started dating. So I thought it would be better if I introduced her to my family too last month, so I took her consent and decided to meet with my family at a good restaurant in the city. My family got to know her and they liked her and decided to fix the date for our wedding. But my G.F. said it would be too early for her to get married this year. So we eventually

decided to fix the marriage date for February 2025, six months from now. Usually in my city, it's a requirement to book the marriage halls early enough so that you get a proper hall. So I took her consent and discussed with my family and booked a hall for marriage. Few days later she also went and booked a hall for her side of the party. It is normal to have parties from both bride and groom's side in our culture. Basically so far I have made her meet my family and one female friend of mine who lives in a different town with her BF and both of the meetings were proper well-planned meetings. She also met maybe another friend of mine accidentally in the mall. I however have never met her friends in that manner, only once or twice I met some friends by

accident as I was driving my GF somewhere and two to three of her friends also hopped in and we just spoke a few words as we traveled in the car. But her friends were aware that we were dating of course. Now a strange incident happened last week which left me really confused. It was a text from a friend of hers on Instagram. Before this I had never spoken to this friend of hers except for only once, a year back, when my GF wasn't talking to me as we had a fight and so I texted this friend of hers and asked her politely to talk to my GF once as she is a good friend, she said, okay, I will surely talk. And also I texted her friend only because I felt my GF back than was going through a lot of things and probably she would need a friend to discuss properly

as she had a huge financial loan, etc., and even had a fight with me and her family for some reasons. Shortly afterwards I got a call from my G.F. regarding me Demang her friend on Instagram and she asked me very angrily to never talk to her again. To which I was surprised but I complied as our relationship wasn't so stable back then and I gave her space to settle. And after a while that day, I got a message from her friends saying, hey, sorry I can't help you in this, and she blocked me on Instagram. I was okay and didn't react back, et cetera, so this was last year's incident. Now this same friend texted me suddenly last week as she was not able to reach my GF over call and she was tensed as what was going on. I politely replied back saying, hey, she's all right,

probably busy with office work I will inform my GF that you are trying to reach her. I called my GF and said her friend called to which she was like, oh Lord, what, why does she have to text you? Please block her on Instagram. I found it very weird to block that friend and immature at the same time. So I told her I won't, so my GF told me that if I want then her friend will. Few moments later I saw I was again blocked on Insta by her friend. Actually this time around it made me a little angry and I ended up texting her on her other Insta handle and told her, hey, how are you doing? I didn't like what you just did and this is not a very respectable way to talk to someone. I also wrote if your husband has some self-respect,

he should also not text my girlfriend when you guys are having issues. Then she replied saying, Hey, my husband. Me and her were in her life much before you came to her life. After which I politely explained that I didn't mean to break their friendship and only wanted to make their bond better and just felt disrespected for being blocked twice when I wanted to just talk to them once or get to know slash meet them. So she didn't reply to this and informed my G.A. and my girlfriend again came out angrily and was very angry with me as I referred her friend's husband. I felt that was the only logical way to express myself. I was serious about her and made her meet my family and friends.

She had no family members her parents also passed away and cousins live in other countries or far away now, but her friends would be the ones who would be present at our wedding from her side. So I expected her to take me a little more seriously and maybe not ask her friends to block me at least on Instagram. She often visits this female friend's house and sometimes they have sleepovers and sometimes even parties with this friend and her husband in their house, birthday parties, or some other reason. I never got to properly go out or meet any of her friends in an official go-out slash me kind of sense. I expressed her couple of times that your friend brings her husband and baby along in group meetings sometimes, so maybe I can also go along

and meet them once. But she is strictly against this and this is blocking incident recently is seriously bothering me. My GF says my ex-boyfriends had bothered my friends earlier as well and I don't want these things to happen again. But this probably would have made sense to till maybe like a year back, but now we are going to get married in six months. Even now she's hesitant and says she will introduce me to them only after marriage. And also when she gets married these friends will probably have to help her make her side of the arrangement slash duties as she has no one else. So I needed to talk to them as well for our upcoming wedding preparations. I haven't spoken to my GF since last two days because of this and she also is saying she is unsure of the marriage

now after I express this desire to meet her friends and she says that I will be controlling in nature and the future. I feel she will text me or call me back soon. Am I asking for the right thing by asking her to introduce me to her friends, what should I do? So few days back I 28M posted about how my girlfriend 32F asked one of her best friends to block me on Instagram. It's not been long since the blocking incident, but today I just got surprised to learn that my GF's mother, who she always has been referring as dead, is not really dead. So few weeks back the girl, her best friend, who is already married with one kid just texted

me to know the whereabouts of my GF as she was not able to reach her. My GF on knowing that instantly asked me to block her and I refused, but she then made that best friend block me and the rest of the story is already there in the previous post. Since then I was not able to trust her. My GF has always been telling me that there is no one in her family. She said she was a single child and both her parents have passed away. She used to go to her countryside home every three to four months to visit her aunt, who she said was the only person living there but it always seemed a little off.

And every time she used to go there she used to stay for at least two to three days. There were other things which seemed off too like whenever she used to get a phone call, her contact name used to show as dad home and a lady used to speak from the other end who she always used to refer as her aunt. My GF has already met my parents and we were supposed to get married in the coming February. My parents were hesitant about our marriage because they also didn't like this secrecy and the fact that my GF asked her best friend to block me. I just thought it to be generational differences and was trying to make my parents understand that

maybe it's not that big a thing. But still my parents didn't like this relationship and one day last week, they just went near and asked a colleague of hers if she knew about her parents. But that colleague didn't know a lot about her family. I know this was not a right thing to do by my parents but probably they could look at the suspicious things from an outsider's perspective and they just wanted to keep me safe. I tried to make them understand later that it's wrong. to take these things in the professional space. They agreed not to ask there again, but also urged me to do proper research before taking a step towards marriage. So, I also tried to ponder upon my parents' POV and the whole situation from an outsider's perspective and it was

all making me grow impatient. My GF just wouldn't let me talk to any of her friends or relatives or follow them on social media. And the reason she used to give for not introducing to her family was that her family would never approve of her marriage as intercast slash intercommunity marriages are still not quite accepted in some parts of India. But she always used to say how open-minded her parents were and that her whole upbringing was very modern, etc., and used to cuss my family for being suspicious and backward, etc., and she also used to say if her parents were alive today, they would have definitely come for the marriage.

My parents liked my GF initially when they met her first time and were very happy about the marriage. My father even offered to sponsor the marriage expenses for her side as she wasn't doing great financially. But they got suspicious when she even made her best friend block me. So all these combined, made me very suspicious and I decided to visit her countryside village house today just to check. I went there acting I was looking for someone else and when I knocked the door, her mother came out. I know it was her mother because my GF showed photos of her mother to me earlier. It was truly like encountering a ghost. She looked like a fit and fine woman with a smile on her face and just looking like my GF.

My GF and I are not talking properly since the day my parents went to her office. She called my parents crazy and what not for doing such a thing and was angry and said people of my community are clever slash cunning and crazy and do suspicious spying on people but never accepted that she said such a big lie to our family. and while I admitted to her that it was wrong to ask at her office. But it's not right for her as well to talk like that about my family when she was acting all suspicious asking friends and family to block me and faking her mother's death.

I haven't spoken to my GF about this and I'd quote, should I make out of this really? This was a very huge lie and I don't see a valid reason for this either. Her father, as I confirmed from locals nearby, had actually passed away and her mother was living there with her aunt who was living in a different house just on the adjacent block. I just want to know if there could be any valid reason or judgment that can be applied to this scenario because I can't think of any. Her mother looked fit and fine to me. Probably around 50 to 60 years of age. Update 2. So it's

been a month roughly I posted my question about the weird behavior of my fiancé and her lying about her mother being dead. Today I thought of posting a small update regarding the entire situation because a lot of you have been asking me for this. After discovering that her mother was still alive, I was shocked for a few days. But gradually, I started to feel better, although I was still eager to understand if I had done anything wrong, especially because I had seen both the good and bad sides of her. Now that some time has passed and I can think more clearly, though I do miss her at times, I reflect on what I know about her. She is someone who is naturally very compassionate and has shown great kindness towards animals, adopting or helping several street

animals during the three years we were together. I've seen her experience happiness, sadness, and vulnerability. I've seen her good sides, but she has also been very harsh in her feelings towards my community, language, my parents, and even me. She clearly did things that were wrong, like discouraging interaction with her friends and lying about her mother being dead, among other things. Also she lied to me another time in the past, which I consider the second biggest lie after the story about her mother's death. This happened one night when she arrived in my city a day earlier than planned from her village home. I found out because I had been calling her repeatedly. She said she wanted to surprise me, but we didn't end up meeting that day because she asked me not to come over, claiming she was tired and feeling unwell.

Later that night, I called her multiple times, but she didn't pick up. The next morning, I went to her flat and discovered she wasn't there. A few hours later, she called me from a friend's phone and explained that she had gone to her friend's house because her friend's boyfriend had come to stay, and the watchman wouldn't allow another guy in the flat. So, they pretended to be family relatives to cover it up. I forgave her for lying that time and chose to trust her again. In hindsight, it was another significant lie, the second biggest lie during our entire relationship,

the fake mother's death still being the first. About seven or eight days ago, I noticed her repeatedly posting WhatsApp updates about how she was treated badly by me, how she was subjected to loneliness, and how I broke up with her. During that time, I attended a party with some guys and girls, and I saw her posting stories that directly defamed me,

even though we had already broken up and I had every right to socialize with whomever I wanted. That day, I messaged her after seeing her status updates, partly because I was angry about what she had posted and partly because I wanted to know the real reason behind her lie about her mother's death. She responded with a lengthy message, but to summarize, she listed the following reasons. One. She said she lied about her mother being dead because her mother never got her due respect in the past relationship. Her ex probably never let her stay at her mother's village house for more than two days. Two, her ex-BF was roaming around in the

city with other girls and probably even cheated on her while her mother was in the hospital. Three, she thought her mother would get proper respect if she lied about her mother being dead like her expired father who was treated respectfully after his death according to her. None of the reasons she gave seemed serious enough for me to believe. I pointed out that about 90% of her reasons were related to her ex-boyfriend and asked her why she had to lie about her mother, especially since I had always been supportive regarding her family issues. I told her that her explanations didn't make any sense to me at all. She later told me I was wrong to say she has narcissistic personality disorder. I told that to her once earlier because she never

feels sorry and does gaslighting to errors, etc., and I read online that this could be symptoms of NPD and asked her to get expert help on this. She said she had concerned. She said she had consulted a psychologist who diagnosed her with C-P-T-SD, which can cause narcissistic traits at times. Even so, I don't see how that justifies creating such a complex story about her mother to deceive both me and my parents, even going as far as to give a specific date for her mother's death anniversary. She was also upset with my parents because they found the whole situation suspicious and started asking questions. Although I feel bad and believe she may be dealing with some behavioral disorders, I also suspect there is a deeper, more complex secret, whether it's hers or

her families, that has led to all these stories. In my last conversation with her, I made it clear that, regardless of what she says, we are not in a position to restore the marriage. I don't want to hurt her by doubting her, nor do I want to hurt myself. Trust is something that cannot be rebuilt after everything that's happened, so I asked her to just tell me the truth. However, nothing substantial came from her that I could consider. Next story, spent everything I had on her engagement ring, but she said it was too small and not special enough. Months later I found out she was having an affair with her co-worker. Before I, 28M, proposed I spent lots of time looking online and in stores for the nicest ring I could afford and I ended up with a one-carat-osher solitaire.

My girlfriend, 29F, doesn't like the ring and wants a different one. All of the ones she has shown me are bigger and more expensive than I can afford. She said she'll accept my proposal if I give her a different ring and it can be a do-over because she said she was also a little disappointed I proposed at home and didn't do anything special. Truthfully, I'm kind of hurt she cares so much about having a bigger and expensive ring. I want her to be happy and have a ring she likes, but she is so fixated on how small my original one was and I really don't feel great about it. Honestly, my heart broke when she said no. Edit, as I said, said in my poster complaint about the ring is that the diamond is too small. For the proposal

I recreated the exact meal she cooked for me on our second date and proposed on our balcony with candles around us and her favorite scent. I hope this answers the questions. Update 1. I told my girlfriend if she prefers a different style of ring than the one I got her, I could get her a different ring because I obviously want her to love a ring she would wear every day. I would either keep the original ring as my engagement ring because she made it clear she isn't getting me one herself, or I could return it and put the money towards her new ring. The ring I had bought, a one-carat usher solitaire, was the biggest one I could afford. Her complaint was that it was so small and the other rings she showed me as examples of what

she wanted were more expensive than I can afford. I admit it led to a few arguments because everything was above the amount I told her I can afford. She suggested I get a temporary side job to save more money. I've said it would take me a couple of years to save for what she wants, but she says if I love her I'll find a way. I'm not opposed to another ring, but we are on opposite sides regarding the budget. The proposal, me recreating the meal she cooked for me not long after we started dating and having candles she likes on the balcony, was also not what she wanted. She wants a public proposal and I misunderstood when she said she wanted something special. She didn't say public and I didn't infer it.

Now we are both aware of what she wants at least. I just want to thank everybody for the support and nice thoughts. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep the original ring and wear it as my engagement ring yet, or return it because it will barely make a dent in the amount my girlfriend wants for her ring. I don't even know how, or if, I'm going to save for another ring. Truthfully, this whole thing has put a damper on the idea of being engaged for the time being. Thanks again, everyone. Update 2, August 21st, 2024. Backstory is that when I, 30F, decided to propose to my girlfriend I bought her the nicest ring I could afford. It was a one-carat usher cut solitaire.

When I proposed I recreated the meal we had on our second date, and proposed on our balcony with some candles around us. My girlfriend responded by saying she would only marry me if bought her a different ring. All the examples she showed me were much bigger and more expensive than I could afford. She had told me she'd accept my proposal if I give her a different ring and my proposal would be a do-over because she said she was also disappointed I proposed at home. She didn't like the proposal or the ring. The update is that I was trying to communicate with her and find a solution because of how much I love her. She was the one I wanted to spend my life with. We did have some arguments and she suggested a get-I-second job to afford a better ring. She said I misunderstood when she said I

wanted a special proposal because what I did wasn't special. I had decided to keep the ring to be my ring because I was unable to return it and would have lost money if I sold it. I was trying to find a solution and my girlfriend was making suggestions. I thought we would work it out but about six months after my last post my girlfriend left me for a colleague. She said the affair started after I proposed. Last I heard they were still together and either were traveling over in the United States. When my girlfriend left me, she took most of our things. I had to start my life over pretty much. It was difficult. My family stopped talking to me when I started dating women. They don't support same-sex relationships. I did receive a lot of support in both of my posts, but there was lots of negativity

as well. The majority of the messages I got were negative too. Many people miss that I am a woman even though I said it in my posts. I received many comments and messages about how men don't understand how important the ring and the proposal are to women. Even those who did not mistake me for a man said that my proposal was low effort and the ring was terrible. My proposal was called out for being terrible and most of the messages I got mirrored the comments I got about putting in more effort or being a better partner. There were some insults too and a lot of them said they felt sorry for my girlfriend. I gave learn from this experience.

I'm not in a relationship now, but if I ever do find someone I'll make an effort to be a better partner. I did want to post one more update to thank the people who posted nice things, and to say I learned from this experience and have taken to heart all the comments and messages about being a better partner. Sibling came to live with me and became domineering, when I mentioned my desire to I reside elsewhere, they struck me in the face and I fled from my home. Apartment

Our parents split when I was around ten and my brother was six. The divorce was ugly, lots of screaming matches, dad staying out all night, mom crying herself to sleep. You know, the usual traumatic childhood stuff. Our dad wasn't physically abusive or anything, just emotionally checked out and probably cheating, though my mom never had concrete proof. After the divorce, Dad moved to a different city about two hours away and started a new life. He'd have us over some weekends at first, but those visits gradually became less frequent until they were just a couple times a year on holidays.

My mom worked two jobs to support us, so my brother and I spent a lot of time alone together. I basically became a second parent to him, I'd make sure he did his homework, cooked simple meals when mom worked late and generally look out for him. We developed this really tight bond that most siblings don't have. I was always protective of him, and he looked up to me as both a sister and kind of a parent figure. Our mom was physically there more than our dad, but she was often exhausted or stressed about money, so emotionally we relied on each other a lot. After high school, I went to college in a different state, about four hours from our hometown. I got a partial scholarship, and it was a much better school than anything near home. My brother was pretty upset about me leaving.

I felt bad about it, but also thought he was being kind of unreasonable. I mean, I wasn't going to stay in our shitty hometown just because he didn't want to be alone. Our mom was still there, and he had friends and stuff. I promised I'd call and visit whenever I could. The first year I was gone, I'd come home about once a month, usually for a weekend. My brother and I would text almost daily, and we'd have long full. phone calls at least once a week. During my sophomore year, the visits became less frequent, maybe once every two months. I was making friends, getting involved in campus activities,

and honestly, the drive was exhausting. My brother seemed to understand, or at least he didn't complain too much. By junior year, I was only coming home for major holidays and maybe a week or two during summer break. I had internships and summer classes, so I couldn't spend the whole summer at home like I used to. Fast forward a couple years, and my brother graduated high school. He decided not to go to college right away and asked if he could come live with me instead. I figured it made sense. Our hometown is tiny and boring, population like 12,000, one movie theater that still shows films months after they're released, three chain restaurants, you get the picture, and the city I moved to has way more opportunities. I had settled in pretty well.

had a decent group of friends, knew my way around, and had established a routine. Since I was living in a studio apartment at the time, I told him we'd need to find a bigger place when my lease was up in three months. Eventually we found a decent two-bedroom apartment that we could afford and moved and together just before my fall semester started. Things got weird almost immediately, though I didn't recognize the red flags at first. For one thing, he seemed really interested in my social life, always asking who I was hanging out with, where I was going, when I'd be home. I initially thought it was just him trying to make friends through me since he was new to the city.

I invited him to hang out with my friends a few times, but he always seemed uncomfortable and would barely talk, then would complain later that they were fake or annoying or whatever. One day, he found out I had been casually dating some guys and completely lost his shit. He acted all hurt that I hadn't told him about it, saying we were drifting a-up. part so much that I wouldn't even tell him about my dating life. Then he asked me not to bring any guys over to our apartment. When I asked why, he just said it made him uncomfortable. I told him I could respect that while I was just casually dating, but if I got into a relationship I would definitely want to bring my boyfriend over. He just said, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Whatever that means. I tried to explain to him that this was a pretty unreasonable request. Like, were both adults paying rent for this place? Why shouldn't I be able to have guests over? He kept insisting it was different because they were guys I was dating, not just friends. When I pressed him for an actual reason, he'd get all vague and say stuff like I just don't like the idea of it or I shouldn't have to explain why it makes me uncomfortable. I eventually dropped it since I wasn't seriously dating anyone at the time anyway. For a while, things were okay. He got a job at a coffee shop near our apartment, made a few work friends, and seemed to be

adjusting to city life. We'd have dinner together most nights and watch movies or play video games. It felt almost like when we were kids, and I started thinking maybe I had overreacted about the whole dating thing. Then about four months after he moved in, I started dating this guy from one of my classes. His name was Jake, and he was actually a pretty decent guy. We hit it off right away. and after a few weeks of dating, I wanted to bring him over to my place.

I hadn't told Jake why we always hung out at his place instead of mine, and thankfully he never asked, but I decided it was time to talk to my brother about it. We got into this massive screaming match where my brother basically said college guys only want sex and I should be focusing on school. I couldn't believe this was happening. I reminded him I'm a fucking adult and can make my own decisions. I pointed out that I had maintained a 3.8 GPA while still having a social life, so clearly I was capable of balancing things. He countered by saying he pays half the rent and should have a say

in what happens in his home. He also made some snide comments about how Jake was probably sleeping with other girls and that I was being naive. The fight got so heated that at one point I thought he might actually break something. He was pacing around, clenching and unclenching his fists, his face all red. I'd never seen him that angry before. It scared me a little, but I stood my ground. We eventually compromised that Jake could come over but couldn't stay overnight. I told him this would work for now, but we'd need to revisit it later. Again with the we'll cross that bridge when we come to it bullshit. Things were tense for a few days after that. We barely spoke to each other, just passing in the hallway with brief nods.

Eventually, we sort of fell back into our routine, but there was definitely an undercurrent of tension. I did bring Jake over a few times, and my brother was coldly polite to him, nothing more. He'd usually make some excuse to go to his room or leave the apartment entirely when Jake was there. After having this same stupid argument like three times over the next couple months, because God forbid Jake stay past 11 p.m. or put his arm around me while we were watching TV, I told my brother that if he couldn't stop being weird about this.

I wasn't going to renew our lease when it came up in four months. He apologized a bunch but kept insisting he was right. He said he would let me make my own mistakes. Like he has any authority over me. The boyfriend and I broke up a few weeks later for completely unrelated reasons. Jake got an internship opportunity in another state and we decided long distance wasn't worth it since we'd only been dating for a few months. My brother took full advantage of this to tell me that he was right all along and I

should have listened to him. He acted like the breakup was somehow proof that Jake had been using me or something, even though it was a mutual, amicable split. I called my mom and told her how weird my brother was being about my dating life. She said he was probably trying to take our dad's place since our father hasn't really been around much since the divorce. Even if that's true, it doesn't make his behavior any less fucked up. Mom suggested I be patient with him and said he'd grow out of it. She's always making excuses for him though, so I wasn't surprised. There was this period where nothing much happened for a while.

My brother seemed to chill out a bit, maybe because I wasn't dating anyone. We fell into a comfortable routine. He'd work mornings at the coffee shop, out of classes, then we'd both be home in the evenings. Sometimes we'd cook together, other times we'd do our own thing. It almost felt normal. Then I went to a friend's wedding out of town for a weekend. The wedding was okay, nothing special. The bride's cousin got super drunk and fell into the cake, which was kind of the highlight of the night.

Anyway, when I got back, a bunch of my stuff was missing, my favorite perfume, an expensive one my friend got me for my birthday, some clothes, including a sweater I really liked, an expensive lotion from this fancy brand. I asked my brother about it, and he claimed he'd had some friends over and they must have taken it. He said he'd deal with it and get my stuff back. I was pretty pissed that he'd let people into my room while I was gone. He apologized and promised it wouldn't happen again. He did eventually return everything after about a week, but something felt off. He didn't seem upset at all that his friends supposedly stole from me.

and when I asked which friends did it, he got all vague and changed the subject. I'm still not convinced it was actually his friends. I started locking my bedroom door when I left the apartment after that. About a month ago, or maybe a little longer, I don't remember exactly, he told me he had a girlfriend and wanted me to meet her. I briefly considered being a dick about it like he had been with my ex, but decided to be the mature one and said that would be great. He made a big deal out of it, planned a dinner, cooked this elaborate meal with multiple courses, asked me to dress up. I was honestly relieved he had someone else to focus on besides me. When she showed up though.

Holy shit. It was like looking in a fucking mirror. I could tell she was just as freaked out as I was by how much we looked alike. We both have platinum blonde hair, fair skin, green eyes, and similar body types. We're also about the same height. During dinner, we found out we had even more in common. She goes to a different college nearby but has the same major as me. We like the same music and even have similar mannerisms, which is just weird.

She even had the same favorite book as me, some obscure novel I didn't think many people had read. The whole thing was unsettling. My brother seemed completely oblivious to the similarities, or at least pretended to be. He kept talking about how unique and special she was, while I sat there trying not to show how creeped out I felt. She seemed nice enough, but I could tell she was uncomfortable too. She kept giving me these looks like, are you seeing this? Whenever my brother wasn't paying attention. After she left, I asked my brother if he noticed how much she and I look alike.

He rolled his eyes and told me I was being weird. Whatever. He brings her over all the other. time now, and they make out on the couch in the living room. When I asked if they could take it to his bedroom, he accused me of being jealous that he wasn't making out with me. What the actual fuck? His girlfriend looked super confused when he said that, and honestly, so was I. It's starting to seem like he's trying to make me jealous by parading her around. I caught his girlfriend staring at me a few times when she was over, like she was trying to figure something out.

Once when my brother went to the bathroom, she whispered, has he always been this? Intense? I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded. She looked like she wanted to say more, but then my brother came back. I wouldn't think much of it if he hadn't been acting so strange since we moved and together. I can't tell if I'm imagining things or not. I don't want to think my little brother has some weird crush on me, especially since we live together. But I also don't know how to talk to him about it without him dismissing me as

crazy or jealous or whatever. I started spending more time away from the apartment. I'd study at the library instead of at home, crash at friends' places whenever I could make up an excuse, and generally tried to avoid being alone with my brother. He noticed, of course, and would text me constantly asking where I was, when I'd be home, etc. If I didn't respond right away, he'd call repeatedly until I answered. One night I was out with some friends and my phone died. When I got home around midnight, my brother was sitting in the dark living room waiting for me. He started yelling about how worried he'd been, how I was being irresponsible and inconsiderate. I tried to explain about my phone, but he wouldn't listen. He grabbed my arm so hard at left

bruises and said, You think you can just do whatever you want. You think you don't have to answer to anyone. I yanked my arm away and locked myself in my room for the rest of the night. The next day he acted like nothing had happened. He made breakfast and was all cheerful like it was just another day. I was still shaken up and tried to talk to him about how grabbing me like that wasn't okay, but he dismissed it. I barely touched you, he said. Stop exaggerating. After that incident, I started making plans to move out. I reconnected. I reconnected. with a girl from one of my classes who had mentioned meeting a roommate. We got along pretty well, and she seemed normal.

We started looking at places together discreetly. I didn't want my brother to know I was planning to leave until I had everything lined up. So yesterday I finally decided to tell him I wasn't going to renew our lease. I figured I'd tell him while his girlfriend was over, thinking he might not freak out with her there. Just in case, I packed a bag with valuables and a little. essentials if I needed to leave quickly. I made sure my phone was fully charged and set it to record audio in my pocket. They were watching movies in the living room. When he went to the kitchen for snacks, I approached him and said we needed to talk. He seemed annoyed but agreed. I told him I felt

like we weren't compatible as roommates and I wouldn't be renewing the lease next month. When he asked why, I said I felt like he didn't respect me as a roommate, and I wanted to live somewhere where I could make my own decisions about who comes over. I also mentioned that I wanted a roommate who would care if their friends stole from me. He started getting louder and angrier, so his girlfriend came in to check on us. He told her everything was fine and that she should probably go. I panicked and tried to play it cool, saying, no, don't let me ruin your evening. Please stay.

I'm about to leave. He kept telling her to go, and I was literally begging her to stay. I must have looked terrified because she kept glancing between us like she was trying to figure out what was really going on. He noticed I was scared and started laughing at me. He asked if I was afraid of him and said I was being ridiculous. He asked his girlfriend if she thought there was any reason for me to be afraid of him. She looked worried and told him he was being weird. Then he explained that I had just told him I was bailing on him as a roommate and that I was being a horrible cunt about things that weren't a big deal.

He asked his girlfriend to leave again, and this time she did, though she looked reluctant. She squeezed my hand quickly before she left, which I took as a sign of support. Once she was gone, he went completely off the rails. He told me I was just pissed that he wouldn't let me be a huge slut like I wanted to be. He said that someday I would meet the perfect guy, but he wouldn't want to date me because I would have had sex with so many guys and nobody worthwhile wants to marry a skank. He said he was trying to help me avoid that situation. I was so shocked I could barely speak.

I've had exactly three sexual partners in my entire life, all within committed relationships. I'm hardly what anyone would call promiscuous. And even if I were, it's none of his fucking business. I told him I was leaving and that we could talk again when he was ready to talk without saying horrible things to me, but that I would be giving our landlord notice on Monday. I went to my room, got my emergency bag, which I had packed earlier just in case, and locked my door behind me. I waited about ten minutes, hoping he would calm down or leave. When I thought the coast was clear, I headed for the front door.

As I was almost there, he appeared behind me and said my name. I turned around quickly, and he punched me right in the face. I didn't see it coming at all. I collapsed on the floor, and without saying anything else, he stepped over me and left. Didn't even slam the door, just walked out calmly like he hadn't just assaulted me. I sat there for a while in complete shock. My brother had never hit me before. We'd had plenty of arguments growing up, but it had never turned physical.

Even when we were kids wrestling and roughhousing, he'd always been careful not to actually hurt me. This was completely out of nowhere. I iced my eye for a while, it's now swollen and purple, before grabbing my bag and getting out of there. I was afraid he'd come back, and I didn't want to be there when he did. I called my mom while walking to my car so if he approached me, she would hear what happened. She kept saying I was exaggerating until I sent her a picture of my face. Then she started crying and apologized for not believing me. I told her it was okay but made it clear I didn't want to be forced to spend time with him at family gatherings ever again.

I've been staying with my new roommate since then. She's been really great about the whole thing, offered me her couch indefinitely, helped me get some basic toiletries since most of my stuff is still at the apartment, and hasn't pressed me for details I'm not ready to share. My brother has sent me several texts that I haven't responded to, here are a few, where did you go? I came home and now you're gone. We have to finish talking about this. Are you fucking kidding me? Tell me where you are or that you're alive. I'm scared that I haven't heard from you.

You know how worried I am when you fall off the face of the earth like this. You're being such a child right now. I don't know what you said to mom but you've really upset her. I hope you're happy. I'll be home all day Monday if you want to come over and meet. with the landlord to give notice. That's fine. Where am I going to live?

His girlfriend even texted me once saying how worried he is about me. Yeah, right. I don't know if he put her up to it or if she genuinely believes he's concerned. I kind of want to tell her what happened, but I'm also afraid of getting her involved in this mess. I'm really nervous about tomorrow. I haven't told him whether I'll meet him with the landlord. My new roommate said she'll come with me, and suggested I not wear any makeup so he can see what he did to my face. I don't know what to do.

Edit, after reading your comments, I've decided to go to the police station with my roommate to file a report in a few days. I'm also trying to contact his girlfriend to let her know what happened. I haven't contacted my brother at all. I'm thinking about calling my dad too. He isn't very involved in my life, but since he's not very involved in my life, but since I'm my mom hasn't been helpful, I'd like to have some family on my side. Update, can't believe how supportive everyone has been. You guys were right, I needed to report this. Last night my roommate and I went to the police station and filed a report. I told them everything weird that's

happened with my brother this past year. I mentioned that his girlfriend witnessed our argument and showed them my text conversation with my mom. I also played them the audio recording I had made during our confrontation. They took pictures of my face, which looks worse now than in the photo I sent my mom. It's turned this nasty yellowish purple color and the swelling has spread. I was nervous and overwhelmed, so I didn't ask many questions. It was my first time ever filing a police report, and the whole process was intimidating. They gave me a copy of the report and said a detective would call me today.

I don't know if they're going to arrest him or what. I feel stupid for not asking such a basic question, but they didn't volunteer that information either. They did offer to escort me to the apartment to get my belongings if needed, which I might take them up on later this week once I figure out where I'm going to store everything. His girlfriend called while I was at the police station. I texted her afterward and we spoke on the phone. I told her what happened after she left, and she kept apologizing.

I assured her it wasn't her fault and asked if he had ever done any of that. similar to her. She said no, and I hope she was being honest. I didn't mention going to the police, just said I wanted her to know for her own safety. She thanked me and apologized more. She didn't say what she plans to do, but I told her I check in to make sure she's okay. She did tell me something interesting, though. Apparently when they first started dating, my brother showed her pictures of me and talked about me constantly. She said it made her uncomfortable. how much he seemed to idolize me, but she thought it was just because we were close siblings. She also confirmed what I suspected, that she had noticed the physical similarities between us and found it weird.

She said once when they were shopping, he picked out clothes for her that she later saw were identical to items I owned. Creepy. This morning, I called my dad. We haven't talked since Father's Day. He's remarried with younger kids and typically ignores us. in favor of his new family. I wasn't expecting much sympathy, but he surprised me. He said based on my brother's childhood behavior, apparently he had violent tendencies at school around the time of the divorce, which no one ever told me about. The whole thing didn't shock him. Dad said there had been incidents where my brother had hurt other kids and even killed a neighbor's cat once, but mom had always covered for him and minimized the behavior. Dad admitted he should have fought harder for cusses. or at least stayed more involved in our lives, and I could tell he felt guilty.

Dad's pretty well off and offered to get me a lawyer. He advised meeting with one regardless to get professional advice on next steps. I accepted his offer and am meeting with a lawyer tomorrow after work. My brother can't afford a lawyer and my mom can't help him financially, so this gives me an advantage. Dad also offered to help me financially if I need to break the lease and find a new place immediately. I'm considering it. Thank you all for pushing me to go to the police.

I still haven't contacted my brother and won't until after meeting with a lawyer. My mom has texted asking why I haven't been in touch with my brother. I haven't responded to those either. She also called a few times, but I'll let it go to voicemail. In her messages, she keeps saying things like he's your brother and family is family and you two need to work this out. It's like she's completely ignoring the fact that he punched me in the face. Not sure what's next, but I'll update if anything significant happens. Right now I'm just trying to process everything and figure out what a normal brother-sister

relationship is supposed to look like, because apparently I have no idea. I want to thank everyone again for your support and advice. Before posting here, I was questioning whether I was overreacting. Now I see that if anything, I wasn't reacting strongly enough. I hope you enjoy this story. Close friend's future husband confessed his feelings for me, claiming he had harbored them for a couple of years, all while preparing to tie the knot with her. Upon my refusal, he began behaving strangely towards my recent relationship. Boyfriend.

So, my best friend and I have known each other forever, and I love her with all my heart. We're extremely open and honest with each other, about as close as two people can be without being romantically involved, though it's a running joke that we're wives. Because of this, and because of her meticulous nature, we've previously run over random scenarios and what we'd like the other person to do in said scenario. Things like if a guy asked one of us out via duck the other one, if we both got feelings for the same person, even things like if the other one died. one of these was the dreaded if I had a boyfriend and he had feelings for you scenario. The potential for this to happen has come up a few times in conversation over the years in varying

degrees of seriousness. And while we agreed that it'd be awful and sucky, we didn't agree on what we would want to know in the situation. I would always, under any circumstances, want to know, and she wouldn't. She has been adamant about this every time it comes up, and no matter what question I hit her with or alteration to the scenario she always made it 100% clear that she would never want to know. About three years back, she starts dating guy. He's been around, he's kind of one of those extended members of our group, so we both know him and I never thought much about him other than that he seems cool, nice, etc. Because of his proximity to her, he joins the rest of our friend's group and he hits it off with all of us. The boys love him,

the gals are happy for best friend because he's genuinely perfect for her. And most importantly, she is over the moon. All she's ever wanted is to be in love. It's a dream of hers, he treats her, and other people in general, with the utmost respect. Him and I get along well. We don't hang out the two of us, but we'll chat a bit, very basic stuff about music, our jobs, etc., and hang out the three of us. He had this small talk with some of our other friends too, and I always thought it was great

because he was taking an interest in her life and the people around her. I've always been a bit of the odd one out in my group of friends. I was put up a few years in school, and because of that all my friends are just a little older than me and I've been the baby of the friends group my whole life. Most of us went from high school to the same university. I've also always had a general disinterest in dating. I've had interest from guys, but I'm a bit of a daydreamer, obsessed with my chosen field, and my future plans do not involve children and perhaps not even marriage.

The idea of love always appealed to me, but I've just always been happy within myself and never in any kind of rush. Because of this, there was a running joke in our friends group about me dying alone surrounded by nothing but dogs, etc. Harmless fun, and Guy joins in on these jokes as well over time. I noticed as he became closer to the group, he always seemed very interested in my love life, and encouraged me to pursue my dreams and take my time. Best friend always did the same.

I never thought much of it. Until, about four months ago, I met a guy, 25M, who completely sweeps me off my feet. We'll call him Max, because that's his name. Totally unexpected, just swooped in and we've had a very charming, fairy tale-like romance. Because of my inexperience in relationships, I've spent a lot of time talking to best friend about all the feelings I've been having, etc. She's happy for me, gives me advice, Yada, Guy is in the same room when this is happening a lot of the time, so sometimes gives us input. Everything is perfect and awesome. But then Guy starts acting weird. We'd be having drinks as a group

and I'd be telling a story involving Max and he'd suddenly get really weird. He'd be warning me, telling me completely normal stuff Max does is red flaggish. Max spontaneously showed up to take me out on a date stargazing late at night. I love surprises, and I study slash work in astronomy, and Guy is going on about how dangerous it was for me to go alone, blah, blah. Guy has always been friendly, supportive, nice too, and about everyone. So much so that best friend starts to doubt Max and his intentions purely because Guy is a great judge of character,

while all my other friends think Max sound great and laugh Guy off as bizarre. During this time, Guy reveals to me he's going to ask best friend to marry him. Hooray. Totally awesome. Have to keep it a secret for now, but I'm really pumped for them. He told me so he could get advice on the ring, and how she'd like to be proposed too. All good. It finally reached the tipping point when Max met my friends, and they all really liked him.

Everyone seems to be getting along and Max and Guy are chatting to a side. Suddenly, Guy just puts his glass down hard on the table and storms out of the bar. Best friend is all what? And goes after him, and I go over to Max to see what's up. Max looks super shocked. He tells me Guy was doing a bit of the Big Brother routine which he did get from a few of the guys in the group. Max said for most of the others it was playful banner type stuff, but Guy was a lot of more serious. The point where he got up and stormed out was because Max had been talking about

how serious he was about me, though, no one had to worry, he would never dream of hurting me, etc. Later on, Max suggested maybe Guy was jealous or something, but I was pretty disbelieving of that. I cannot stress enough that Guy has never done or said anything that ever seemed like he had feelings for me. He's treated me the same as anyone else in our friends group, the only difference being he's gotten to know me more because I spend a lot of time at best friend and his place. Deciding I had enough, I messaged Guy. First, I asked him if he was okay, then I went on to say that I hoped everything was cool between us all.

The following conversation reads, him, it's not cool. I don't trust that guy. Me, do you mind if I ask why not in specifics? No one else got bad vibes. Underscore and underscore even invited him to the beach. tomorrow. Him, he looks at you funny, I can't explain it properly. You've known me a while, you know I have your best interests at heart, trust me on this. Me, I understand that you can't help it if you get bad vibes, but no one else does. I'm sorry but I'd need more than trust me to go on.

Regardless, while I appreciate your concern I'm capable of making my own mistakes, and I do not think this is one. It'd really mean a lot to me if you could try and get along with him to make it easier to fit in. I plan on keeping him around for a while, and best friend wants to do double dates and stuff so you're going to run into him eventually. Him, one. Double dates sounds lame. Two. Even if they yet didn't, I don't want him to come. Me, one. Take that up with your lady, two. Do you really not like him that much? Him, okay, he seems all right but kind of weird. How can a theater kid be so alpha. It's more that I'm jealous. Me, I resent the notion that theater guys can't be manly, but also, if the group is really tight, but everyone really likes you, you've been one of us

for years now. Max got a lot of attention tonight, B.C., he's the new guy. I'm sorry if you felt excluded, but I promise it's really not like that. He didn't reply for a while, and then sent this, him, not of that. I've been thinking very carefully about how to phrase this message. I've been I don't want you to think I don't love best friend, because I do very much. But I am also in love with you, and have been for about two years. When I realized I thought about breaking up with best friend, but you were always so in your own world I thought I'd never have a shot anyway, especially if I was your BFF sex. I pushed it down with with it. It was hard, it sucked.

I got over it, kind of. I thought that if I couldn't be with you then at least I could have happiness with best friend and be near you. Then, you met Max, and watching you start to fall in love with him is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. I know this is cliche and dramatic, I know it's fucked and I should just not say any of it, but I literally feel sick when you talk about him. I cannot tell you how much I wanted to hit the guy last night, and then how bad I felt about it when I realized he was actually a decent guy. I think the only thing worse than you being with another guy is you being with another guy I actually like. Sorry for offloading onto you. I know it's unfair to do this now. I do love best friend. You know I do. I want to marry her. I would rather you didn't tell her, but what happens next is up to you, I guess.

Me, if this is a joke it's not funny, can you please tell me the truth? Him, sorry, but that is the truth. What are you going to do? I haven't sent him anything back after that. He sent a few more messages asking what I was going to do, I replied to say I was thinking. Small edit, since posting this he sent quite a few more messages asking what I was going to do. I told him I still hadn't decided overall, but also made it clear I don't reciprocate his feelings. I am gutted, and how I feel is nothing compared to how best friend would feel if she knew.

I want to tell her so badly. I know if I was in her shoes, I would want to know. The last thing I'd want to do is marry a guy who wasn't honest with me about something, but it was the beginning of this year that we last joked about this exact scenario and she was still adamant she wouldn't want to know. I know it's not my fault, but I still feel terrible. I'm questioning if I ever did anything to bring this on from Guy, and if I can even go on acting like he never said anything. His feels are not reciprocated at all, never have been. Max was with me when I got the message and has been very supportive.

If a little miff towards Guy for obvious reasons. Send help. Best friend meets Guy a three years ago. He integrates into our friend's group, gets along with everyone, is just generally a cool guy. Life goes on, they move and together. I'm thrilled for her, he's all she's ever wanted. I meet what seems like my dream guy. Everyone is happy for me, except Guy who seems super standoffish and weird about it.

I don't think much of it. Guy wants to marry best friend and tells me about it to get advice. Awesome. Eventually it snowballs after Max and Guy meet for the first time to Guy telling me in love with me, but still wants to marry best friend and just be in love with me from the shadows. His feelings for me are not reciprocated in the slightest. I need to talk about this, Reddit. Should I tell her?

Should I just keep it to myself? I'm furious with Guy, I feel terrible, I feel awful for best friend. I don't know if I can look her in the eye as she marries this person. I don't know if I can let her marry someone him without her knowing all the facts. I'm overwhelmed, please, just give me some advice. Update, sorry, this will probably get long. It does, so, there were lots of conflicting opinions on what to do, and a lot of you had really good reasons behind those, however, there were consensus which seemed to be

that one. This sucks and there's no ideal solution, and two. Everyone seemed on board with the letter idea which was suggested by a few people. The gist of it was that I should write a letter and put the screen caps, etc. I took into it and then offer the information to her again. That way, she would have some more agency to choose whether or not she wanted to know. I have to say, letting her know there was something to know kind of felt like I was forcing her to choose to open it, but, well, here's what happened. I made the envelope and went to her place while Guy was working just to hang out, pretty usual stuff. Reddit, I'm not a terrible actress, but this woman knows me so well. She opened the door to let me in and immediately asked what was wrong,

and to my everlasting shame I immediately burst into tears. Super pathetic of me, and not ideal. Ugh. After I'd composed myself I started saying what had been practicing in my head. Pretty much, that there was something we talked about a lot in our scenarios that had happened, and she had always said she wouldn't want to know, but I wanted to give her the option. I gave her the letter. Then without even opening it, she also started to cry. Which made me start up again, which was kind of okay because the ridiculousness of us both

just standing in her living room sobbing all over each other made us laugh a little bit. A lot of people had guessed she had noticed or had some kind of idea of Guy's feelings, and they were absolutely right. But it's weirder than even that. I genuinely can't believe I'm explaining this, it's just, weird. I don't know. Best friend had thought Guy had a harmless little crush on me. The kind people and relationships just get sometimes.

But when he didn't talk to her about it, she started to feel uncomfortable, and she did something she shouldn't have, but you know how it goes. She snooped. She snooped on his laptop months ago, and found a file with my initials on it buried amongst a bunch of other stuff. She went and got his laptop and gave it to me to read while she read my letter. Inside it were stories he had written, like fanfiction, about the three of us living like a kind of poly-relationship lifestyle where we were his wives. Some of it was sexual stuff which, you know, I think I could understand it better if it had just been sexual fantasies. but there were also really long documents about our lives together.

And it goes deep too, there was a whole plot line about him trying to convince me to have kids, love them, but I'm child-free and everyone around me knows it. There were loads of stories, all different lengths, I didn't read all of it. Just kind of like Skim read them with my mouth hanging open. It's so hard to explain, it was really bizarre to read about myself like that. There were newer documents Best Friend hadn't read, too. Best friend goes on to tell me that she hadn't minded because she was in all the stories as well, so she's reassured and is love for her, but obviously me being part of their life in that way

isn't her ideal and she was disturbed by the way he'd spoken to me in the messages from the other day and the ones he sent since. I asked her loads of questions, including if she felt safe, and she said she does. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to leave him. She also apologized for not telling me, and while it doesn't seem, it well with me that she didn't, because of what happened after this, I've basically forgiven her slash put any talk of that on hold. She doesn't need that now, and I've been so relieved she wasn't mad at me for bursting her bubble and concerned for her, that it seems very secondary.

Of all the things I expected to happen during my visit, it was none of that. So then the conversation switched to me being worried about her safety because while he doesn't seem dangerous this is very obsessive, and he's clearly been upset by his fantasy becoming further from reality with Max in the picture, and now this. I'm a little anxious about Max's safety, too. I can't tell if I'm being reasonable or paranoid. She assured me tenfold that she feels completely safe, he's never done anything other than this that's red flagish,

but that she still wants to leave, and she's very cautious by nature so she's taking some precautions. She got up and went to pack her bags and started giving me typical air, business-like instructions on the things she wanted me to grab from around the house. She filled up her suitcases, and I filled up a box of her personal stuff. Then, she wrote a note for Guy explaining that she didn't think they should be together anymore, and she would only talk with him about it over messages or in person a few days from now,

in a public place, she assured me. So, this is when I did something I maybe shouldn't have, I don't know. I carry a pen drive on my keychain. I told her that I wanted to take copies of the stories because if anything happens, even if she doesn't think it will, it's important that there's something we can use to prove as obsessive behavior. She said fine, so I now have a pen drive full of fanfiction and playlists. About myself, my best friend and her ex. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not tempted to read them. Shear morbid curiosity. But I've resisted so far. We went my place first while we

thought of what to do next, and her emotions were understandably all over the place. Later I got a call from Max and filled him and he said to come stay with him since Guy doesn't know where he lives. Best friend preferred to stay at a nearby hotel, which we used my car to pay for, and after I hovered over her anxiously as she settled and she eventually said she wanted to be alone, which isn't unusual for her when she's upset. I've been to visit her and she's been sending me messages the whole time, so I'm feeling pretty confident about where her head's at, sad, but coping well considering, but still just

general worriedness. I'm staying with Max until things settle down. I've gotten, and am still getting, messages from Guy. I have been since about 5 p.m. that night, and it's been two nights since then. They're very I just want to talk messages. Not aggressive or anything like that, I was going to block him on everything but best friend asked me not to because she's worried about his mental state. I'm staying at Max's just in case. Guy is trying to talk to me and to her. but the only responses he's gotten are to read the note she left him again. Lastly, thank you so much to the people who commented, especially the ones who wrote a lot and gave me such good advice

and just sent general good feelings my way. Or PM'd me. You guys were amazing. I'm super grateful for all the comments. Next story, met my wife at my cousin's bachelor party where she was working as STR POR. We fell in love, had two kids, and kept her past secret from our religious family. Eight years ago, my cousin Joe was getting married. He invited me to his bachelor party. It was me and a bunch of his weird friends I was uncomfortable around.

I spent the whole night nursing a beer waiting for it to end. Towards the end of the night, his best man, whose name I can't even remember, had two strippers come. I hated the idea, so I continued to nurse the beer while the girls entertained them. A week later, while I was at the gym, A pretty girl I couldn't quite place comes up to me and starts making small talk. I ask how I know her and she says she was the entertainment at a party I was at. I was surprised by how different she looked compared to that night. Long story short, I end up asking her out. Her fake name is going to be Audrey.

It turns out Audrey's only been stripping for a few months. I believed her but their friends have confirmed it and she ends up quitting a few weeks after we start dating. I was clearly uncomfortable with it, and she didn't really like it. She's never been ashamed about it. But we haven't told anyone in our family about it and Joe kept his mouth shut because I asked him to. She's still friends with some girls who still strip, and I think that some of my friends put two and two together but haven't been rude or anything. Just made the usual I'm jealous jokes. Anyways, we've had two great kids, a son, five, and a daughter, three, and we're thinking,

about having one or two more. Joe's always been super quiet around Audrey, probably because of how they met, until recently, after his divorce. He started complimenting my wife's physical appearance, like every time he sees her. I've told him to lay off, but he hasn't so far. One incident in particular where he said something about kids not ruining her figure really pissed me off. I bowed up on him and he apologized saying he was drunk, we were at a family barbecue.

I calmed down and realized I wasn't going to beat his ass in front of my whole extended family and my kids. I told him not to talk my wife again. This has really come to a head where he sent my wife a love letter asking her to leave me and start a life with him. She sent a reply email just saying no, thank you. What do I do here? I love my family, I love my extended family, and I want her to be comfortable around them. And she can't be with Joe there.

Audrey doesn't want me to tell my family he's making her uncomfortable, because she's afraid Joe will let out or the fact that she used to be a stripper. I told her I'd be okay with it, but she's pretty adamant on not wanting them to know. Another thing, Joe hasn't done anything that would require legal action. He'd been acting like a teenager with a crush, and my wife admitted that she doesn't feel like she's in any kind of danger. I told her that we need to watch him carefully, but I don't know if there is much we can do on this front. My wife has just been terrified he's going to tell my family, I've been there for her

the best I can. She's afraid that one day our kids could find out if the whole family learns. I would love advice on this whole horrible situation. Comment where OP has replied, Montiran 87T.D. Do you think your family will be terribly upset if they find out your wife used to do some stripping to pay her way through college? I'd say pull a David Letterman and beat your cousin to the punch. You just have to convince your wife of that, maybe start with one or two you definitely trust and go from there? Oh, Opa, my family is really religious. They've always been the hate the sin love the sinner kind of people, so I feel like they be kind, they're pretty accepting. I've talked to my wife about letting people know, she's dead set against it. Update, yesterday,

my wife and I decided to show my parents Joe's email love letter. We learned a lot of things. One, Joe has apparently seduced another one our cousin's wife, as well as his uncle's wife, Joe's uncle is only five years older than him. Both times he sent a love letter, and both times ignored them afterwards. I don't know why, but both of those couples are still together. All of them are religious, so maybe it has something to do with not wanting to get divorced. Two, the reason Joe got a divorce was because he would not stop cheating on his wife. 3. Joe came to his parents and the older family members who I will refer to as the old guard, facetiously, and asked for help after being caught with the cousin's wife, saying he was sorry and that he had a

problem. They decided to forgive him, but put rules in place. Four, my parents knew about Audrey. Joe had told his mom told my mom, her sister. My mom told my dad. Audrey started crying at four, but my parents gave her a hug and told her they didn't care. It was great, and after some tears we went back to our house. A babysitter was watching the kids. My parents told me the old guard was going to talk to Joe. Apparently Joe told everyone there about Audrey, by trying to say that her being around set him back.

Everyone didn't know, except for my parents and Joe's parents. He claimed that she made the first move. He also said that he slept with her on Tuesday while I, I was at work. That was completely false, because I had started working from home a month ago. I was at home all day with my wife, just to be clear, there's no way she has been having an affair with him. I think the longest we've been apart this month has been an hour when she gets groceries. And he claimed Tuesday was the first time. The fallout has been horrible. Apparently I was already the black sheep, not the fucking sexual deviant. Because my family doesn't go to church.

We've received various messages denouncing us, the worst being from the parents of Lisa. Lisa is like a sister to me, her parents moved in with mine and we lived together. Lisa turned 17 recently, and her parents aren't allowing her to be at our house anymore. She used to come over all the time. My wife is crushed, I've been holding her as much as I can, and I know our kids are making her feel better, but she told me that her worst nightmare came true. She still thinks going to my parents was the right idea, though. My parents are still supporting us.

The younger group who aren't living with their parents won't cut us out. I've pretty much written off the rest of the family. I'll try to have my parents explain that she had nothing to do with Joe, but if they don't listen, they don't listen. Lisa also doesn't believe it, but besides a text saying that she doesn't want to stop being around us, we haven't heard from her. I hope you enjoy this story. requested my folks to assist my spouse for a period of four weeks during her pregnancy, but they assigned her all the household chores despite medical advice to avoid excessive strain. So I banned them for meeting my twins after they refused to apologize.

My parents and I have always had a moderately close relationship and up until a few months ago, we got along well enough. We stopped speaking after a particular incident, when they really treated my wife very disrespectfully and insensitively. She was about five months along at the time, and she has not had an easy pregnancy. We knew that she was carrying twins by the second trimester and she had extreme levels of morning sickness, to the point where she found it difficult to even get herself to stand up straight after being sick. She also had varicose veins, she was fatigued and exhausted all the time, and it was just a very difficult time for her. And then, I was offered a short-term position as a project manager and it was a huge deal because they were offered.

me a lot of money for just one month. My wife knew it was a big deal for me, so she pushed me to take it up, even though I was quite skeptical about leaving her alone back home. I did ask her parents to come over and stay with her for a couple of days while I would be gone, just so that I would know that she would be taken care of, but unfortunately, that did not work out because her parents had their own business to take care of, and they couldn't find anybody else to cover for them. So eventually, I ended up asking my own parents to move into my house for just one month and look after my wife because I just did not want her to be alone, for my own peace of mind. And they agreed quite happily, they had always had a good relationship with her, so I didn't

think that anything could go wrong, but it did. For the first two weeks while I was away, my wife sounded pretty normal, but then I started realizing that she sounded really tired all the time, and she would also be pretty snappy with me. I didn't understand what was happening. I even asked her if she wanted me to come back earlier after two weeks had elapsed, but she insisted that I stayed because this was important for me. I just chalked up the difference in her behavior to hormones and tried not to think much about it. And then, after one month, I finally came back and a couple of days later, my parents moved out. During that time, I could tell that things had not exactly gone down with my wife and parents because the energy was very weird and things were

quite tense. And finally, after they had left, my wife and I had a discussion about what had happened and she finally told me that she didn't want me to worry about her while I was away, and she wanted me to be able to focus on my work, which is why she hadn't told me anything about what was happening with her while I was gone. But now that I was here, she wanted me to know that my parents had been absolutely horrible with her. Apparently, even though she had constantly said that she couldn't bring herself to work all the time, they didn't seem to care about her and made her work like a housemaid, and instead of helping her out, which is what I had asked them to stay with her for, they had instead made her work double of what she would have to do

if she had been on her own. She ended up doing all the chores, because my parents complained that they were too old to be doing all this, which is really not true, they do all the chores by themselves at home, because they don't like spending money on help. So it's not like they're not used to it, and they knew that my wife was having trouble dealing with the pregnancy and stuff, so this is the least that they could have done for her instead of making her work even harder. And as if that was not bad enough, they would go out of their way to create tasks for her and tell her that staying active was the only way for her to have a healthy pregnancy and birth because otherwise, if she started getting lazy, things would get even worse for her.

And she didn't want to waste her time and energy arguing with them, so she eventually ended up doing whatever they asked her to, and every day, she was just exhausted, and she just wanted them to leave. But she didn't want to be rude, so she put up with them until I came back, but now, she wanted some space away from them. I was obviously very upset when I heard this, and I immediately confronted my parents about it, and they did not deny it. They said that my wife was just being paranoid and hysterical, and that there was nothing wrong with her, even though the doctors had said that she shouldn't over-exert herself, and I wanted them to trust me on that, but they said that they had also seen a lot of pregnancies in their day, and they didn't believe in any of this Nambi-pambi nonsense. They told me that we were being too soft, and instead of trying to understand where I was coming from, they told me that I should be thanking them for doing me and my wife a favor by not letting her lie around all day. That was too much for me to handle, so we got into a pretty bad fight, and after that, we didn't speak to each other at all. They were not even there for the birth of my twins, and I was absolutely unbothered because the way they had treated my wife was not acceptable to me at all. And unless they apologized to both of us, I didn't want anything to do with them.

So keeping that in mind, recently, when they showed up at my house to try and see the kids, I told them that they were not welcome here until they apologized to us. us. And even then, they kicked up a fuss in front of my house, saying that we couldn't treat them like this and as grandparents, they had every right to see their grandchildren. But even then, I stood my ground, and I didn't let them in and eventually, my dad told me that this was a huge overreaction and said that I was being disrespectful. He said that I was going to regret this in the future, and I don't know, I'm feeling kind of bad about it right now. Do you guys think I went overboard. Ida for refusing to let my parents see my babies because of how they treated my wife while she was pregnant. Update 1. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for all the comments that we

received, it really means a lot to us. I spoke to my wife about how I was feeling, I told her that I was feeling kind of weird and guilty and she told me that if I really wanted to, then I could definitely go ahead and invite my parents over and try to smooth things over with them. But she would prefer to out of it for now, because she doesn't feel like she's ready to talk to them at the moment, especially considering the fact that even after I had confronted them, they never bother to reach out and apologize. But I told her that if she was not ready, then I would not contact them either. Because right now, nobody else is my priority apart from her and the babies. And if my parents feel hurt right now, they can deal with it on their own, I really can't do anything about it.

It's true what she said, they had enough time to reach out and apologize to both of us, but they chose not to do that. So now, they cannot be so entitled and pretend like we are the bad guys just because we don't want to let them back into our lives, when they're not even sorry for how they behaved. And most importantly, this is my life, my family, and I get to choose who gets to be a part of this. I'm not going to let their guilt trip talk me into letting them back into our lives, especially when they disappointed me so much the last time.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, there are a few things that I wanted to address that people had been commenting about. So a couple of people found it pretty entitled of me to have asked my parents to stay with my wife for one month and to watch over her while she was pregnant while not offering anything in return, and you guys certainly did not mince your words about it either. So let me just say that, first of all, it was not a compulsion. They could have definitely said no, I had just asked very much. I had just asked very much. casually if they would like to do that for me as a favor, and I made it very clear that it would be a favor to me. I couldn't offer them anything, because we have been saving money for the

past couple of months for the babies, and they are my parents, so I didn't think that I would need to pay them. But even if they had asked for it, I don't think I would have said no. In fact, even if they had declined, I wouldn't have left my wife back home alone while she was pregnant and struggling to do things on her own. And I'm just putting it out there, I know a lot of people even commented that my wife was overreacting and that my parents were right and I should actually have been grateful to them. But I think the doctors and my wife and I know what we're doing. She had been advised medically, not to exert herself too much, and that's what we were trying to ensure. So even if my parents declined to stay with her, I would have shelled out some money

and we would have made it work and we would have just hired somebody, like a housekeeper or a maid or a nurse to be there with her and help her with all the chores and stuff. But I don't know. decided to count on my parents because they said yes, and I knew that they got along well with my wife, so I didn't see any of this coming. They knew all about her struggles, the advice her doctor had given her, and I had even told them how I wanted them to help her out myself, but they ignored all of that and chose to do whatever they wanted. It's very disrespectful and was totally unnecessary. If they planned on doing that in the first place, then they should have just declined instead of putting my wife through all of that.

Just because my wife's situation was different from whatever limited knowledge they had about pregnant women, they decided that they knew better and overruled everything that I had told them and ignored everything that my wife complained about. And she was in a pretty bad state for that one month, and even for a couple of weeks after that, she was so exhausted that she could hardly get herself to do anything. So it's not like we didn't face the consequences of what they put her through, and never did they apologize for it even once. So if anybody still thinks that I'm entitled just because I asked them to help me out,

then I have nothing to say. Because I know for a fact that even if they had declined, I wouldn't have minded. But their decision to ignore everything that we had said and do things their own way, no matter how inconvenient and troublesome for everyone else, and then never apologizing and pretending like they had been in the right all along, I think that's true entitlement. But whatever, it doesn't matter. anymore, I've already made up my mind that I'm not going to be reaching back out to them to

repair our relationship for now at least. I'm busy with my wife and the babies, our family, and for now, everything else can wait. Update 2, hey, everybody. It's been two months since my babies were born in about a month since I last spoke to my parents. After I told them that I did not want to talk to them at the door and I told them to go away, they did not try to reach out to me again until yesterday. In the beginning, I did feel a bit odd about it. But honestly, I didn't have much time to worry about them. I was swamped with work, household chores, taking care of the babies, and everything else. So I really had a lot on my plate, and I had completely forgotten about the whole situation with my parents. It was good for a while, but then, yesterday, they called me up

again, and when I didn't pick up the first few times since I was napping, they decided to tell me that they had something important to discuss with me and that I needed to call them back as soon as possible. So as soon as I woke up, I checked my phone and then I called them back after thinking about it for a while, because I thought that maybe they were sick or something and I didn't want to risk anything. I'm not on good terms with them at the moment, but they are still my parents and I'm their only child, so because of that, I called them up. And then, as soon as they picked up, they started telling me that it had been a month since they had last tried to get in touch with me, but after that, I had not even bothered to try and reach out to them once. They told me that it was very disappointing that I was treating them like this, even though they hadn't even done anything that bad.

My mom told me that I was being very egoistic and he didn't expect this sort of behavior out of me, and she said that my father had been very upset for the past few weeks. They kept expecting me to call but I never did, and all of a sudden, she started blaming my wife for it. She told me that she was pretty sure that it was my wife who was trying to push them away, because even while they were staying with her and trying to do what was best for her, they kept getting this feeling that she did not appreciate them being around. She said that she resented the way that we were treating them right now, and that we need to be more respectful of them, and even now, it's not that late and we can fix things by arranging to meet and talk things out.

And the crazy thing is, I might have agreed. I actually might have said yes, to sort things out with them if they had taken a different approach to the situation. But then, once again, they had tried to paint themselves to be the victims in the situation, when that was clearly not the case. Even now, they were bent on the fact that we should have reached out to them and apologized to them. And that's what really put me off, I couldn't believe. that they were still harping on about that. So while we were on the call, I told them that I had no intention of sorting things out with them because clearly, they were living in delusion even now.

I told them that the way they had treated my wife while she was pregnant was very disrespectful, and if they couldn't bring themselves to apologize for that, then I'm afraid nothing can be done about the situation we are in right now. I asked them if they would be willing to apologize to my wife, and they very bluntly said no. They were about to explain that. themselves as well, but I told them that since they hadn't said no, just as I had expected, it was all settled, and I didn't need to hear anything else. While they were trying to speak, I cut them off and hung up, and then I told my wife about the phone call. She seemed to be a little sad, and she told me that it was very upsetting that even now, they were acting like this,

like whatever they had done was all justified somehow. And she told me that the actual thing that was making her sad was that she actually got along well with them before any of this happened. So it's not like she would not be open to reconciling with them, and I was right, if they had just said they were sorry, we would have made an effort to repair our relationship. But the way they were being stubborn, so as to dodge the consequences of their own actions, that was what was really annoying. And we decided that now, unless they apologize, we are not even going to be interacting with them. No phone calls, no men. messages, nothing at all. I think that's the best way to deal with the situation right now,

because otherwise, they're just not going to get it. I don't think they even get it right now, the seriousness of what had happened. If they want to have a relationship with us and the babies, they're going to have to apologize, there's no two ways about it. Update 3. So hey, everyone. It's been two weeks since my last update and after that phone call, my parents tried to contact me via text and email a couple of times, but I just muted them. If it was not an apology that they were offering, then I was not interested. I did read their messages and emails periodically every couple of days for the first week, but then, when I realized they were only trying to cover it up for themselves and were just trying to justify everything, I stopped going through

their messages altogether. Because it was just very disappointing to see this kind of behavior coming from my parents, especially when we had had a normal relationship for so long. And so far, they had always texted me, but they had avoided interacting with my wife altogether. In a way, it was good, because I didn't want them speaking to her. Especially because I knew how they felt about her right now, so I thought it would be better if they didn't interact with her at all. But then, a couple of days ago, they decided to reach out to her with a really insulting message. They sent her a text a couple of days ago, at around nine in the morning, which is a crazy timing to send disrespectful texts like the one they sent.

Basically, they told her what they had said to me on the phone call, that they blamed her for the way I was behaving right now, as if I were a child who had no free will. They told her that it was very nasty of her to be manipulating me into believing that they had been horrible to her, when in fact, they had been trying to help her. And in the end, they said that they wanted her to apologize, and they wanted her to tell me the truth, that they had actually been trying to help her, and she, being lazy, did not appreciate that and did not even try to understand that they were being helpful, so she purposefully misinterpreted their actions and painted them to be the villains, and now, she is continuing to manipulate me and alienate me from them. It was very insulting, because it just implied that she was finding it hard to do things around the house because she was lazy, and that was not true at all. I think I've mentioned it about a 100 times by now, but she had literally been told by the doctors not to exert herself too much, or it could lead to even more exhaustion and fatigue. That is literally the only reason why I'd ask them to stay with her, and I can't believe that they are still trying to defend themselves and have even gone to the extent of involving her and making her look like the manipulative one. I also really don't understand why they keep acting as if I did not have any say in this. I'm not a child, I can make my own decisions and it's not like my wife keeps me under her thumb.

We are both adults, we are respectful of each other's opinions. That's how things work between normal people, so I don't know why they are blaming her for my actions now. Because ultimately, these are my choices, since I have decided that I don't want to talk to them right now. She, in the beginning itself, had told me that I was free to speak to my parents and was even willing to let the kids interact, with them, she just said that she didn't want to talk to them herself. But I was the one who had chosen to put up a united front, because if my wife was not talking to my parents, I did not want to get into it either. So they could not be farther from the truth when they accuse her of trying to manipulate me and trying to keep me away from them or whatever it is that they are accusing

her of. They have no idea what's going on and it's really despicable that they're trying to put the whole thing on my wife. She was pretty upset by their message in the morning, and after I spoke to her, I decided to call my parents up and confront them about it. I was not hoping for any sort of apology from them, but I had stopped, hoping for quite some time now. Surprisingly though, this time it was they who were trying to ignore me, probably because they had realized that I was not going to be happy about this, and this was going to make the situation even worse for them. But I didn't give up, I wanted them to acknowledge what they had done, so I called them a bunch of times and finally, after almost 10 minutes, they answered the phone call.

My dad picked up, and he immediately told me that if I was calling to talk about that message that they had sent to my wife, then it was pointless because they were not willing to discuss that. At the end of the day, they knew that what they had said was right, and if I was going to get defensive about it, it was just going to prove them right. That she actually was manipulating me and trying to get me to go against them. I knew that they thought that they had got me cornered at that point of time, but honestly, I really didn't care about their opinions.

I told them that they could not be further from the truth, and I explained the situation to them about how she had been fine with me interacting with them, but it had been my choice, not to do so. So the fact that they were trying to blame her, not only was it misogynist, it was also really stupid of them because now, they look like fools and given how disrespectful they had been towards her, they dug the whole deeper for themselves since now, I'm going to cut them out of my life altogether. Before this, we had been willing to accept their apology and try to repair our relationship if they had tried to reach out to us and apologize, but now, that's not happening at all. Once again, on the phone, they tried to argue with me, but I hung up before that.

Now this happened a couple of days ago, and after that, until today, we didn't speak at all. They couldn't because I blocked them afterwards. And so did my wife, and we were happy. But then, this morning, my parents turned up at our door. And once again, they chose around 8 a.m. to show up. Now this is around the time that I leave for work, and even though my wife is working from home right now, it's not like she's sitting at home and doing nothing. Both of us are busy for the rest of the day, so we like to make the most of this time period

before work and we really don't like any interruptions during this time. So when they showed up, we were determined not to go to the door at all, and we just pretended that we were already not at home. We figured that eventually, they would tie her out and leave. But then, the more we ignored them, the louder they got. And after a while, the baby started, stirring and fussing and crying. So that's when I finally decided to go to the door, open it and talk to them, and I was very annoyed by that time already, so when I opened the door, I told them straight up that I did not want to talk to them, and if they behaved like this then they were just going to be ruining their own chances of reconciling with us. But to my surprise, they told me that they were not even

here to reconcile, they were just here to inform me that they had also decided that they were going to cut us off. My mom told me that they had thought about it, and they had decided that the way I was behaving was not acceptable. So until I decided to change my mind, they had to change my mind, they had decided that they were going to leave everything to my cousins. They said that they were very unfortunate because they had never had any other kids. They always figured that as long as they had me, they were in need to worry about things like this. But now, since I had started obeying my wife more, it was clear that they were not a priority for me. I was pretty irritated, so I told them that they were right about that. They were not a priority for me right now. It was my

family, my wife and kids, that were top priority for me at the moment, and if they couldn't respect and understand that, maybe it was better that we cut each other off. They flared up at that statement, and they told me that they had already spoken to a lawyer, and they had started the procedure of changing their will, and they were just here to tell me that. I just shrugged and said nothing, because I don't even know what exactly they were expecting me to say. When they realized that they were not going to get a reaction out of me, the thing that they had come all the way here for, they stormed off, muttering under their breath, and I knew that

they were cursing me and my wife, but I didn't care. I was just glad that they left, without creating more of a fuss, and then I got back to my wife and my kids. It was not very pleasant, and I have already made up my mind that the next time that they show up like this and harass us, I'm just going to call the cops. Because I don't have to deal with this, things are getting pretty out of hand and I guess they just can't accept the fact that I'm not going to apologize for something as basic as standing up for my wife. If they are expecting, that, then they are going to be disappointed. And I really don't care about their money, they can give it away to whoever they want to. The only reason I'm working hard is so that I

don't have to rely on anyone else, so I don't understand why they think this was going to affect me. But whatever, I really just hope that they get the hint and stay away from us now. Update 4, Hey, so it's been three months since my last update and so far, my parents have not contacted me. Today, coincidentally, we happened to be in the local grocery store at the same time, and we ran into each other, and it was pretty awkward. We were fine with just ignoring them and walking past, but they made a whole show of turning their faces away, refusing to even look at us, and pretending as if we were contaminated somehow. I knew that the desired effect was to disturb us, but we just found it very funny. It's sad that they are being so immature about the whole thing, because they are ultimately. missing out on time with their grandkids and their only son, but this is their choice.

And I can't help it, so I'm not going to bother myself about it either. They've made their choice, they can live with it now. I hope you enjoy this story. Spoke up to my mother for making light of my previous toxic relationship during her address at my wedding, so I exposed how she tolerates my stepfather's infidelity repeatedly. Now she's demanding an apology. I, 33F, recent got married to my boyfriend of three years, let's call him Leo. He is, 28M, and we met three years ago, at a co-worker's wedding. Leo had asked me out and it did not take me a second to say yes, because he was everything that I had been looking for. He was really cute and from our minimal interaction, I had already judged that he was quite funny and smart. We were also in the same

line of work so I knew that we would have a lot to talk about, so I said yes to that date. We started living together after a year of being in a relationship, and when he proposed to me, I said yes, a couple of months ago. I really love him and I don't think I have ever met a man like him in my entire life. He is the smartest, funniest, and most charming person I have ever met. I think I am at my happiest when I am with him and I just really love him and I know that he loves me too, and he would never do anything to hurt me. And believe me, I have been hurt a lot in my past relationship. I was with another guy, let's call him Nick, for almost seven years before I met Leo. Nick and I went to high school together and we were really good friends back then. I think I would

say that he was actually my best friend before we started dating. I knew him really well and he knew everything about me as well so when he asked me out in our senior year, I said yes because I really liked him but I was not sure if he had feelings for me and so I did not want to risk our friendship by asking him out first. But it all worked out for me back then because, as it turns out, he had also liked me for a really long time, but I didn't ask me out for the same reason. We started going out together when we were 18 and stayed together for seven years

until we were 25. We broke up because things got way too sick for me and I could not stay with him after I found out that he had been cheating on me for almost a year. Things had been pretty bad before that and the cheating was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. I was obviously devastated after our breakup because I had honestly believed that I was going to be married to Nick and we would have a family of our own one day. I had dreams of having a life with that guy but everything went to the gutters when I realized that I

had been living a lie and he was definitely not the man for me, regardless of how long we had been together. Nick and I had decided to apply and then go to the same college by choice because we wanted to stay together and our parents were also on board with it because they knew that we wanted nothing but each other. We had been friends since middle school so our families knew that we were serious about each other and allowed us to make our decisions without any interference. My father had passed away when I was in middle school, so the only family that I had was my mother and she really was not the best person to be in charge because she was so busy with her own life that she could hardly be bothered about me. She just usually let me do whatever I wanted

and I was okay with it. I had my own space and complete freedom and nobody to tell me what to do. It was probably not good, but I turned out just fine, so whatever. Anyway, I didn't really have a close relationship with my mother so I was allowed to do whatever I wanted and Nick was very open and transparent with his family, so he was also not worried about what they had to say. We had made up our minds that we were going to live together after we had graduated from college and our parents were okay with it. Both of us got jobs as soon as we graduated and we rented an apartment midway from both our workplaces. Everything was really nice for the first couple of months and it felt like we were living our dream life. He was really thoughtful and considerate,

and I was also trying to be the kind of person that I thought he wanted. But then, with time, things started changing between us. I don't know what it was, maybe it was just real life hitting us hard, but I was sure that something was off. He started snapping at me for the smallest of things, and I felt like he was constantly looking for a way to insult me or he would always apologize later, but never change his behavior. And it was always weird, minor, and petty stuff that he would get mad about. Like one time, he got mad at me for not putting enough salt in his food, and he refused to even have dinner that day, and it made me feel so bad about myself. Because I was doing everything that I could to do all the work around the

house and still not compromise on my quality of work in the office. And it was just a lot of pressure for me to take. Before that, he had always tried to help me out with the housework and made sure that it did not fall on me alone. But slowly, he had started putting it all on me and I ended up having to do all the work around the house because he would always say that he was too tired. We worked the same number of hours and we would come back home at the same time but still, I would have to be the one to do all the work. I would do all the cooking and cleaning, and he would still pick on me and make me feel bad about myself,

even though he knew that I was doing my absolute best to keep him happy. So things had changed considerably just a couple of months into our relationship while we were living together, but I still did not leave because I really loved him and I wanted to make things work. So every time that he would apologize, would try to talk to him and sort things out and he would promise me that he would change, but a couple of weeks later, he would repeat the same things again. After one point, I got tired of the cycle that we were stuck in,

so I stopped saying anything at all and just ignored him whenever he had one of his outbursts. It was difficult for me, and I would cry almost every day, but I did not want to leave because I was in love with him. And he kept apologizing to me every single time that he messed up and I would not have the courage to leave because I did not know how to live without him. So I just kept forgiving him and giving him multiple chances to change, but he never did. In fact, his behavior started getting even worse with time, and his apologies kept getting more and more elaborate.

So it was even more difficult for me to leave, and I was in a very bad position at the time. I know that a lot of you might be judging me and thinking that I was a coward and that I should have just left if things were so bad, but I think anybody who has been in a relationship like that would know that it's really not that easy. It's very easy to just say that I would have left, but trust me, when you are in that sort of situation, you don't know what to do. You lose all sense of yourself and who you are and you keep going back to the same person again and again because they keep attacking your self-esteem, and that's what he was doing to me. He broke me down to a level where I actually started believing

that I was not even worthy of love, and he was doing me a favor by being with me, instead of the other way around. Things were really bad because he would just keep breaking me down and then building me up, and I kept going back to him because I did not know that I deserved better. He had even alienated me from all of my friends, so I did not have anybody to talk to at that point in time, and I was completely on my own. I would just go to work, try my best to focus, and then come back home.

The only person I would see was him, because any time that I wanted to hang out with any of my friends, he would just start sulking and talk about how even he had given up on time with his friends so many times, just to be with me. And then, I would feel guilty for leaving him at home alone, and I would end up canceling. This had happened so many times that my friends did not even bother to ask me to come out with them anymore. And I would feel weird asking them to take me with them, so we started distancing ourselves from each other. I don't blame them, we were all really young and I don't think they understood what was going on more than I did. But yes, I even stayed with him throughout

all of that. He was just so incredibly toxic, but I did not leave because I was determined to make it work and I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with that guy. So I was willing to do whatever it took to stay with him. I had changed everything about myself. If he said that he did not like something, I stopped doing it almost immediately. I had lost my individuality when I was with that guy. I was doing all the work at home, because he was too tired, or maybe just too lazy, to do it. I had stopped hanging out with my friends because he did not like it when I would go out with him. I had stopped talking to all the guys that I used to be friends with because he did not approve of me speaking to any other men. He would actually even get mad at me whenever I would exchange emails that were related to work with my male co-workers

and would demand that I adopt a more formal tone with him, so they did not read too much into it. He was so insecure and jealous of everyone in my life that if I started listing people right now, I might not even be able to finish this post. And I did everything that he asked me to because I wanted to be with him. Nobody knew that I was going through this because when we were out there, I would always put on a happy face and try to show people that I was overjoyed to be with him. In front of the world, we were the perfect couple and everybody wanted us to stay together forever. And why wouldn't they?

to them, we probably seemed like an ideal match. The two of us had been together for so long, that people probably could not even imagine one without the other. This went on for tears before I finally found out what he had been up to behind my back. A couple of days after my 25th birthday, I had decided to take a day off from work, because I was feeling kind of under the weather. And I had a really bad headache that day, I remember that, so I had been looking for the medicine box that we usually keep in a cabinet under the sink. And by looking for that, I grabbed something that felt like a phone. Now, I had put it around in that medicine box several times before that day and had never found a phone so I knew that

something was fishy. When I took that phone out, I realized that it was password protected, and I had never seen that phone before. Nick had a rule that phones or other devices were not allowed to have passwords in our home because if it required a password, it meant that we were hiding something in neither he nor I had any sort of protection on our phone so this was kind of weird. I had a gut feeling telling me that something was off, so I immediately called a friend of mine, and I told him that I needed him to come over right that moment. Thankfully, he did come over that day, and I told him to somehow get that phone unlocked for me. It took him some time, but eventually, he did manage to get into it, and the only apps that

were there on the phone were Snapchat and Instagram. And when I went to the contacts, there was only one saved contact. The phone number has been saved as the name of a pizza place, but I was 100% sure that it was definitely not a pizza place because that would be way too convenient. I opened Snapchat and unfortunately, there was nothing on there, but when I opened Instagram, I realized that it was logged into an account that I did not know. And there was only one follower on that account, and that happened to be one of Nick's co-workers. It did not take me much time to put two and two together, and I realized what was going on. But still, I had to go through the chats, and on doing so, I realized that he had been cheating on me for more than a year. It broke my heart, but it also

gave me a sense of relief because now, I finally had an excuse to let myself out of this relationship without feeling like I was giving up on something great just because of a few minor inconveniences. I was obviously really heartbroken because on my 25th birthday, he had bought me a promise ring and it was really expensive, so I thought that maybe he was actually serious about me and we were definitely going to get married in a couple of years. But after reading the conversation that he had with his co-worker, on the very same night that we celebrated my birthday, and he gave me the ring, I just gave up any hope that I had of us ever ending up together. Because he had told her that he would have much rather spent the evening with her instead of me, and he had to give me the ring so that I

would not suspect anything. Reading through those chats broke my heart, and I immediately decided that I was going to leave, because I could tolerate all the toxicity, but I could not tolerate this. The least that I could have expected from him was that he would at least be loyal to me, after everything that I had done for him, and had put myself through for him. But if he could not even do that for him, I had no reason to remain in that relationship anymore. I had been thinking about leaving for quite some time anyway, because of everything that had been going on. And when I read those chats, I decided that I was done with this. After my friend left, I ended up crying for about half an hour, but then I pulled myself together.

Then I started packing my things, and within two hours, I was at my mom's house. I did not have anywhere else to go because I had stopped speaking to most of my friends because of him. and I was not close enough to my coworkers to go to them and expect them to take me in. So, even though I did not share a very good relationship with my mother, I went to her. And she was nice enough, I explained the entire situation to her through tears. She hugged me and consoled me and told me that I could stay with her until I found an apartment of my own. So we stayed together for a couple of weeks while I looked for something. And she actually took pretty good care of me.

It was a very difficult period of time for me because I was going through a terrible breakup. Nick would try to reach out to me almost every day, and I would have to ignore him, only I know how difficult it was for me to do that. I kept feeling like I wanted to go back to him. But then I would remind myself of everything that he had said to the other girl and I would stop myself from sabotaging my life once again. That time around, I was truly and fully done with him. even though I had not entirely moved on, in my head, I had decided that I was not going to go back ever again. The only time I did go back to the apartment was to grab a few of the things that I had left behind when I had moved out the first time. And I had run into him when I had come around,

he had tried to talk to me, but I had told him that I did not have anything to say to him anymore and that we were done. That was all the closure that I needed and my decision was final. It was weird to try and get back to my previous life, but I knew that I had to do this. I started going out with my friends again, talking to all the people that he had told me not to, and just trying to get my life back on track once again. I moved into my new apartment just a month after my breakup, and my mother had been nice up until then, but after I moved out of her house, we stopped speaking once again and started growing apart once more. I tried to keep in touch, but for her, I think it was more of an out-of-sight.

out-of-mind kind of situation. But I was trying to be okay with it because I was relearning how to live life on my own once more since now I did not have the safety net called Nick anymore. I had cut ties with everybody who had anything to do with him, including his parents. And I just never heard from him again. It took me a few years, but by the time I met Leo, I had mostly moved on from Nick. I had healed and I had changed into a better person, so I think I was ready for Leo at the time. Leo knows about all of this, and he is literally the complete opposite of Nick. He is kind and caring, and even when he is mad at me, he makes it a point never to raise his

voice at me, or to exchange harsh words with me. Because he knows that that's exactly what Nick used to do and he does not want to be that guy. He also always just lets me hang out with whoever I want to, instead of getting jealous and insecure, any time that I want to go out. It's just a huge upgrade and I love him so much. But now, coming to my mother, I had this feeling that she did not like Leo as much as I did. When we first started going out together, she kept bugging me about the age, cap, and kept asking me if I was sure about him. Honestly, age has not been an issue in our relationship because it has just never come up. I think he is old and mature enough and it's not like he is in his early 20s.

even when we met, he was 25, which is not too young for me. I don't understand why she wanted to make a big deal out of it, but I could tell that she was not comfortable with me dating a guy younger than me. She kept trying to tell me that I had to think things through because she did not want our relationship to end up in a place where he kept relying on me for everything because I was older and more established in my career. I did not say it to her face, but I did not think I wanted to take relationship advice, or even career advice, from a woman who was dating a serial cheater, and had quit everything to be with

her husband. So about that, when I was in my third year of college, my mother married my stepdad. It had been almost eight years since my father's demise at that point, so it was fine. She had been dating him for about two years when they got married. My mother used to go to high school with this guy and she had known him for a really long time. He had actually helped her through her grieving process and had been a really good friend to her. So I did not think there was anything wrong with them dating, but after they got married, I heard from a couple of my relatives

that my mother had kicked him out of the house because he had been cheating. This news had come to me just six months into their marriage, so I knew that the affair had to be going on from before the wedding. I thought that my mother was going to leave because even though we don't have a good relationship, I know that she is a really headstrong and ambitious woman and she was not going to put up with this.

However, to my surprise, she was just like me. She went back to him, and within days, I started hearing from people that everything was fine again. I was dealing with a lot of stuff of my own at the time, so I did not really get a proper chance to speak to my mother about it. But I did ask her, a couple of times, if everything was right between her and my stepdad. And every time, she would just tell me that it was fine, and it was just a little snag that they had hid in their marriage, but they were trying to work things out. I kept hearing from relatives and family friends about fights that they would have,

and how my mother would call them up crying after every fight because he was constantly flirting with other women, right in front of her occasionally, and how terrible he made her feel. And they would come to tell me all of this, but I could not help her because I was just going through so much of my own at the time. It was a pattern, she would feel bad about the way

that he would behave with other women, and she would start crying and call up other people, They would tell me about it, but I would not be able to do anything, and then she would just go back to him and forgive him for everything. At this point, everybody had just accepted it, but this is how it was. Even my mother did not make an issue out of my stepdad's behavior anymore, and just let him do whatever he wanted. So any time there was a family event,

he would be flirting with whoever he wanted to and she did not say anything about it. She just grabbed a glass of wine and ignored him the entire time. It was sad, but everybody knew how their marriage was. Anyway, at my wedding, my mother decided to give a toast and I let her because she was the only surviving parent that I had. It seemed necessary. And during her toast, she cracked a couple of jokes about my past relationship with Nick. I don't know why she did that or why she thought it would be funny. But it was actually really mortifying and I was not comfortable with it.

She did not even think it was necessary to run the speech by me first when she was saying stuff about such sensitive matters. And there were people there who did not even know about any of this, like some people from Leo's family. She said things like, I hope this marriage turns out better than the one that you had planned with Nick. And that she hopes that this time, she won't have to deal with me running to her after we break up because she's too old to take care of me like a child now. By the end of her little speech, I was so upset that I said something that I probably should not have. I told her that everybody knows about the way that my stepdad treats her, how he flirts around with every woman who breathes, and how he has been cheating on her ever since they were married, and how she just allows him to get away with it because she is so scared of being alone and is

desperate to be loved by somebody. So instead of commenting on my relationships, she should probably just focus on her own marriage. that really shut her up and in order to diffuse the situation, Leo called everybody to the dance floor, and it was kind of awkward for a while, but people tried to move on from that. Except for my mother, she and my stepdad left the venue immediately, and we did not hear from them until a couple of days ago. She told me that she had been really insulted by what I had said and that it was completely uncalled for. And now, she wants me to publicly apologize to her for what I said, and take it back because she does not approve of my behavior. I could tell that she was

upset, but I did not think that I said anything out of line. Whatever I said was in response to what she said. And when I told her that, she started crying and said that I was her only daughter and that she had expected me to be a little more understanding of her and her humor. She said that she had just been joking, but I had really hit a nerve with what I said. I asked her why she had such a problem with it because everybody in the family already knew about her relationship with my stepdad. But then she told me that that was not really the problem. It was the fact that I had made jokes about this in front of people who did not know. Like Leo and his family, we also had a couple of family, friends, and a few of my father's old business associates, and even a couple of her

friends in attendance, who did not know about this. So now, her secret was out, and she knew that she was going to be judged by everybody. Then, she reminded me of the time that I had just broken up with Nick and I had come to her, and how she had taken care of me, and been there for me. But instead of doing the same thing for her, I had said such insensitive things. And now I feel really bad about it, even though Leo thinks that I don't need to apologize to her. But I just feel really guilty about what I said. So I'd offer telling my mother to focus on her own marriage after she made jokes about my previous toxic relationship at my wedding? Update 1, Hello, Leo and I have decided that there is going to be no apology. After reading the comments, I realized that I was being stupid and

sensitive again. Obviously, I don't owe an apology to the woman who never bothered to build a relationship with me and then thought that she could attend my wedding and start making jokes about my previous toxic relationship. That was crazy. She knew that I did not like talking about Nick, or anything to do with him, and yet, she had brought him up on the most important day of my life, my wedding day. This was a fresh start for me, and she had an opportunity to be a good mother to me. Maybe she had been there for me when I broke up with Nick, but I think that's pretty much the bare minimum that she could have done for me. I don't owe her any apology and I think I'm going to block her so that she does not reach out to me anymore. Thank you so much for the advice, guys.

and also for all the good wishes. Leo and I are really happy and thankful from the bottom of our hearts for all the support that you guys have shown us. Update 2, I have cut my mother out of my life. I have blocked her on every social media platform, and her phone number as well. It was difficult because, after my father, she was the only parent that I had. So even though we were not close, I did have an emotional bond with her. but that's gone now because evidently, I am not a priority for her, and I'm fine with it.

I do have people in my life who will treat me better than her, Leo, and his family definitely do. And that is enough for me. I do not need to go back to the people who have mistreated me in the past, just because I'm used to it. I'm not going down that road again. Update 3. Hi, guys. So it has been six months since I got married and I just thought I would update you guys.

and how everything has been going. Leo and I are super happy. We just came back from a long honeymoon. We were not able to go immediately after our wedding because we had a lot of work to catch up on. But we finally went on our honeymoon a couple of weeks ago and it was super relaxing and fun. I have also not been in touch with my mother for these past six months

and she has been going around telling everybody how much she has done for me and how ungrateful I am. But it does not matter to me because, everybody in the family knows that what I said at the wedding that day was all true. And I would not even have said any of that had she not been joking about my trauma. So it was just for that as simple as that. But anyway, I don't want to spoil the vibe right now by talking about my mother. The bottom line is that Leo and I are happy just like I had believed that we would be.

And I am actually pretty grateful for the way that things turned out for me. My mother can go take a hike. I hope you enjoy this story. Employed a personal investigator to investigate my sister following my nephew's expulsion from school and disclosure that his mother was always absent. It transpired that the rationale was far worse. I'm in a very confusing situation right now, so please bear with me if I end up being a little all over the place, I really can't help it. So, this is mostly about me, 38F, and my sister. Jennifer, my sister, is four years younger than me, and we have always had a good relationship.

Growing up, we were pretty close. But then, life happened and we still stayed in touch, but after she started dating her boyfriend in college, and got married to him at 22, I started seeing less of her. I was obviously very happy for her and I was even more thrilled when I found out that she was having a baby. Eight years back, she gave birth to my nephew, Anthony, and everyone just loves him to bits, me included. Personally, I never got married or had kids because it was just not my cup of tea, but for Anthony, I would do whatever it took to ensure that he had a good life. So when, two years back, Jennifer's husband passed away in a car crash,

everyone stood by her side, and I decided that I was going to take care of the finances for her. She had quit her job after Anthony was born, so all she had were some savings that she and Anthony had put aside, whatever he had left behind, and of course, the survivor's benefits. But given the lifestyle that they had had so far, they definitely needed the extra help and so, I decided that I was going to write her a big fat paycheck every month, just until she got a job.

It has been two years now, and she does have a job, but I'm still writing her those checks because she told me that the only work that she could find was in sales, and since it's mostly commission, it will be difficult to maintain the lifestyle that she and her son are used to just on that. So until she finds something more sustainable, she wants me to keep helping out, and I really don't have an issue with that. After all, they are my family and if it's for Anthony, I don't really mind.

So naturally, I had been sending paychecks to her every month as usual and part of that was also supposed to be used to clear the tuition cost. I believe that it would be disrespectful to his father's memory to change schools, so I insisted that he continued to go to public school, and since I was paying for it, I didn't see anything wrong with it. Recently, though, I found out from Anthony that he had been kicked out of school and hadn't been going for the past couple of weeks because apparently, Jennifer had missed out on paying his tuition for the past couple of months, and she had been issued several warnings and reminders, but hadn't paid heed to any. Which is why the school authorities had to take that

measure. I found out about it purely by accident when I was babysitting Anthony about a month ago. At the time, I hadn't been seeing much of him because every time I tried to visit Jennifer, she would delay it or postpone it somehow. She always seemed to be either too busy at work or seeing other friends. She always had some excuse ready, but then, one day, she herself asked me to come over and babysit Anthony because her usual babysitter hadn't shown up since she was sick and she couldn't cancel her plans for the evening. When I asked her about her plans, she didn't tell me anything.

She just said that it was important because it had something to do with a client at work, and then she left as soon as I showed up at her doorstep. Her behavior had been totally bizarre recently, especially in the few months, leading up to that incident. We would try and make it a point to meet each other every now and then, but since the beginning of this year, she had started behaving very strangely, and now, we would only meet for dinner at our parents' place, but never otherwise. Even when we would meet each other, she would constantly act very jittery and weird, and try to get back home as quickly as she could. So naturally, that had cut into the time that I spent with Anthony and we were not seeing much of each other.

I knew that he was not happy about it because he had already lost his father, he didn't want to lose his relationship with me as well and would often text me from his mother's phone. And last month, when I showed up at his house to babysit him, he waited for his mother to leave, and then, he started telling me everything that was going on. When he mentioned that just earlier that week, he had been kicked out of school for the non-payment of tuition costs and that his mother had given him strict instructions. Not to talk about it to anybody, I started to realize that something very fishy was going on. Anthony also told me a lot of other things, like his mother would hardly ever be at home, and for the past couple of months,

he had probably spent more time with his babysitter than with anybody else. Things had come to a point where she even had a backup babysitter and she would alternate between the two, in case one was not available. But the one thing that she wouldn't do was cancel her plans and more often than not, Anthony wouldn't even see her for more than a day because she would come back after his bedtime, and she would leave before he woke up the next day. I was shocked that all this was happening and the more that Anthony talked about his mother, the more I realized that something was very off about the whole situation. The reason I hadn't found out about any of this was because every time Anthony would meet me, Jennifer would be right there with him, and his mom had

told him not to speak to me about any of this. She had actually even intimidated him, and he had been scared to talk to me about any of this before. But then, he got kicked out of school, and he felt like he had to talk to me about it because he was very upset about it, since he didn't want to let go of his friends and his teachers. He told me that he didn't even get the chance to say goodbye, because one day, while he was preparing to go to school, his mother told him that there was no need to do so anymore because he had been kicked out, and he was switching to public school. First off, it was strange enough that she had decided to tell her eight-year-old son

that he had been kicked out of school because she hadn't cleared his tuition payments. And that, along with the rest of the things that Anthony had told me, led me to believe that there was something wrong with Jennifer. Of course, on top of that, there was also the fact that I had been writing her pretty significant paychecks for almost two years now and she was also making good money on her own. So it didn't make sense for her not to pay her son's tuition for private school for so long that he ended up getting kicked out. I was very uncomfortable and annoyed after I got to know all this from Anthony and of course, I promised him that I was going to fix everything because I could see that he was really unhappy

that day itself. I couldn't exactly do anything, and neither did I speak to Jennifer about whatever Anthony had told me when she came back home because. Given the situation, I realized that it would be probably for the best if I dealt with it on my own without her knowledge. Since she had given Anthony strict instructions not to speak to me about any of this, I didn't want the poor kid to get into trouble and that would inevitably happen if I confronted her about what I had heard. Instead, and you can judge me if you want, but I think it was necessary for me to do that, I decided to speak to a private detective and find out about all her comings and goings. Like I had said, I had found her entire behavior very fishy and after speaking

to Anthony, I was sure that she was up to no good. All that I needed was something to prove it. And within a couple of days, I found out exactly what was going on. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of thing that you want to find out about your sister, especially when your sister happens to have an eight-year-old son. By speaking to the detective, we had figured out that she was definitely not going to her workplace anymore and had presumably quit her job. Instead, she would spend all her mornings at some motel and would come out in the evening. After that, she would go home for a couple of hours, usually just two or three hours, and then she would leave again, so she could go to a club at night. The strange thing was, she wouldn't drink or anything at the club and I can vouch for that

because even when she came back home the night I had been babysitting, it was very obvious that she was still sober and was completely in her senses. It was all just really bizarre and it took us a couple of more days to figure out who she was meeting. As it turns out, the same guy would leave the motel and the club exactly, exactly half an hour after she would leave and it took the detective a while to pick up on that pattern. But when he did, he clicked some photos of him, got his name from the motel folk somehow, and we ran a background check. And unfortunately, as it turns out, that guy is a drug dealer. A hardcore one at that, because from what I know, he has already been arrested twice before in the span of the past five years and is currently

out on bail. There were some minor news clippings of him online so it wasn't hard to find out about him. Of course, that means that he's not exactly a desirable person to be around and it freaked me out that she had been hanging out with him so much, to the point where she was spending her entire day with him almost. I was also pretty sure that she was spending all the money on him, which is why she was running short and couldn't cover Anthony's tuition for the past few months. As soon as I found out about all of this, I decided that I was going to report her to CPS because even though she would come back home sober, there was no telling if that would still be the case in the next couple of months. And I didn't want to take that risk, especially for Anthony's sake,

so I did what I had to but things have taken a turn for the worse with my family after I reported. her. Because CPS believed that it would be better for Anthony to be placed in my custody, not as an emergency measure obviously but after around two weeks of me reporting her. Those two weeks after I reported her to CPS, I was not allowed to see Anthony at all because she obviously did not want me visiting but then eventually, after preliminary investigations, it was decided that Anthony had better stay with me for a while. And Jennifer can have supervised visits but as of now, she is being investigated. Even though the custody arrangement is temporary, and Jennifer still has a chance to regain custody

if she just adjust her lifestyle accordingly and, of course, stops hanging out with criminals. For some reason, my parents are blaming me for all of this. A couple of weeks ago, they literally called me up and started yelling at me, calling me heartless and saying that I was a pathetic human being for what I had done. They even went to the extent of calling me selfish and told me that I was not the only person who was worried about Anthony, but I was the only person doing such extreme things, like hiring private detectives and reporting people to CPS, even when Jennifer hadn't even done anything that bad. I disagreed with them there, I told them that what Jennifer had had clearly been bad enough for

CPS to consider removing Anthony from her custody and I was not going to be made to feel guilty about reporting her. Besides, she had not only neglected him emotionally, she had also been financially irresponsible and Anthony himself had complained about everything to me. so that obviously meant that he was not happy with this situation. And then, my parents started playing the victim card on Jennifer's behalf and started to talk about how she had been suffering mentally ever since she lost her husband and the least I could have done for her was cut her some slack because it hasn't been a long time since she lost the love of her life, and of course.

She's bound to make a few bad decisions but that doesn't make her a bad mother. They told me that I should have spoken to her before reporting her, at the very least. and I should have personally tried to get her to stop if I felt that she was doing something wrong but instead went straight to the authorities and tattled about her. They believed that what I had done was pathetic and were constantly making me out to be the villain, and I felt terrible about it. I blocked them later on but a couple of days ago, they sent me an email from a new address, telling me that Jennifer was having a really difficult time coping with everything emotionally and

mentally and had been having frequent breakdowns because of me. She hasn't spoken to me, nor has she shown up to see Anthony either, so I didn't know how she was doing. But after that email from my parents, I feel really guilty. If I'm being honest, the only reason I hadn't spoken to her and tried to deal with the situation by myself before reporting her to CPS was because I thought that if I tried to talk to her, she would just get mad at me and forbid me from seeing Anthony and that would make the situation even worse. And I didn't want to do that because I'm a generally non-confrontational person. But now, I think that it was not the right thing to do and I should have spoken to her before reporting her. I feel terrible about everything but at the same time, I know that Anthony is happy, at the very

least. I've also spoken to his school authorities and managed to get them to agree to enroll him again after explaining the situation to them. He seems much happier right now and even though he does ask about Jennifer, he doesn't seem to miss her much. So I'm literally in two minds right now about whether I did the right time. thing or not. Ida for reporting my sister to CPS before speaking to her about her behavior? Update 1. Hi, thank you so much for the words of encouragement, everyone. I really needed that

because I was seriously beginning to doubt myself. I didn't think that I was doing the right thing and I felt terrible about what my sister was going through. But honestly, going through the comments, I realized that this is what was necessary and I don't need to feel bad for doing what I had to do. Besides, if I had actually spoken to her before reporting her, there was a chance that she might have gotten off Scott-free and even managed to brainwash Anthony against me or something. The odds were not in my favor because, of course, Anthony does not stay with me. So I don't need to regret what I did. And besides, if she has stayed sober throughout the relationship that she has had with this other guy, then she doesn't really need to worry because if she behaves

well, she's going to get custody of Anthony eventually again. The one thing that is going to remain a fact, though, is that she did end up neglecting Anthony and that was the only reason all of this had to happen. So my parents can come up with any excuse that they want for her. It's not going to change the facts. I haven't responded to the email that they sent me, that triggered me to post here in the first place, and I don't think that I have to either. They want to defend Jennifer, they are free to do that. But I'm also free to agree to because honestly, I'm sick of being made out to be the villain just because I did what was right. And being in a bad mental state can be an explanation. It cannot be used as an excuse for what she

has been up to. My brother-in-law was a good man and I understand why she misses him because obviously, it's probably not easy for her to deal with the fact that she's lost the love of her life. But again, she cannot compromise her son's lifestyle because of this. At least not on my watch. And I'm going to make sure that she does not get custody of Anthony back again until she can completely cut herself out of this weird new world that she has been caught up in. As her sister, I feel bad for her, but as somebody who cares about Anthony, I could not have continued to let this happen. And if my parents don't understand that, then that's on them and not on me.

Anyway, keeping that aside, I have kept in touch with the caseworker and the officer in charge and they have kept me in the loop about the entire situation. After finding out everything that I have, I think I'm even more glad that I made the decision that I did. Because apparently, even though she herself had been sober all along, she had been in the company of people who would definitely not be sober under any circumstances. The club that she frequently visited, I already knew that it was kind of a shady place from its appearance, but I had no idea most of the shady activities in this town take place there and the group of people that she and her boyfriend used to hang out with frequently at that club

were all into powdering their nose if you know what I mean. And that's not all. There was also the intravenous stuff and I don't want to get into the details, but you get the picture. She herself might have been clean, but that's not ideal company for anyone, let alone my sister who's the mom of an eight-year-old. So naturally, she's going to have to extricate herself completely from that world. But so far, she has shown no interest in doing that.

She has consistently been visiting her boyfriend who has been placed in judicial custody and is awaiting trial because, unsurprisingly, he had been caught in possession just a few days after I reported Jennifer to CPS during a raid at his house. It's shocking that she has kept in touch with him, but hasn't bothered to show up at my house to meet her own son. I can't even recognize this person anymore and it's crazy that my parents are actually going out of their way to defend her, knowing what she's up to. On top of that, by keeping in touch with this guy, she's reducing her own chances of getting custody of Anthony back again because it just goes to show that she values her boyfriend more than her own son. That's not a good look for anybody in the position that she is in right now and I don't understand how she is ready to sacrifice everything just for this one guy. Needless to say, I've been pretty frustrated and confused for the past couple of weeks and it's not getting any better.

But talking about it here helps because I can't exactly talk about this to anybody else at the moment. It feels too personal and I just can't bring myself to discuss it with my friends. So thanks for hearing me out, you guys. Update 2. So it's one week to go before our first permanent custody hearing and finally, Jennifer decided that she was going to visit Anthony. Honestly, at this point, it doesn't seem like it's going to help because almost a month ago, Anthony had been removed from her custody, and since then, she had spent most of her time visiting her boyfriend in prison but couldn't find time to spare for her own son. By now, even I had given

up any expectations that I had had from her in the beginning, that she might turn out to be a good person eventually but it's very obvious that Jennifer whom I used to know and love is far gone. Anyway, she showed up yesterday in the evening and since it was supposed to be a supervised visit, I was there. Just for good measure, I decided to ask our C.P. caseworker to be present there as well so she could be there to watch Jennifer interact with Anthony or whatever because if it came down to it, I did not want it to be just my testimony against her in court. Another reason that I wanted a third person there was because I believed that if it was just me and then, she would definitely find a way to start fighting with me and I did not want that to be

happening in front of Anthony. I will also be aware of the fact that in front of the CPS caseworker, Jennifer would have the common sense not to pick a fight with me. So when she finally showed up, seemed a little taken aback to see the caseworker present there as well but didn't say anything about it. Anthony was obviously thrilled to see his mother after so long and they had a lot to talk about, and it was actually kind of heartwarming to see them together. But then, I remembered that she hadn't been here to see him for almost a month because she was too busy with her boyfriend, and that made me upset once again. It sucked that she was choosing her boyfriend over her own son, but I couldn't do anything about it. Anyway, she was here for about two hours.

and throughout, she just ignored my existence as well as the caseworkers and just played with Anthony. Even when she was leaving, she didn't even look at us and I'm glad that she didn't because I wouldn't have known what to say to her if she did. I don't even think we have anything left to say to each other anymore, but I'm glad that she did get some time with Anthony before the trial begins and everything gets even uglier. Update 3, hey, everyone. I haven't been able to post lately because I've been very busy with work and the trial and stuff. My last update was about two months back and we are still attending hearings and stuff since my sister is desperate to keep Anthony with her but most people don't think that it's a

very good idea. And given how complex the case is right now, even the court is taking its own sweet time to come to a conclusion. But hopefully, in the next few weeks, we'll be able to figure out a solution that works for everyone. So far, Jennifer and her lawyer have done everything in their power to prove that she's not a bad parent, and the CPS caseworker and officer, and even I have done everything in our power to prove that she might not be a bad parent in the most real sense of that word, but she's definitely

not a competent parent right now. In my opinion, honestly, being a bad or good parent doesn't really matter right now because what Anthony needs is a competent parent. He does not need somebody who is absent from his life for the most part like she had been for the past few months. and he definitely doesn't need somebody who has been so financially irresponsible that she has blown all her savings, all her money on her boyfriend, and didn't even think about her son before doing any of that. She's been buying him expensive gifts, she's been paying for everything that he wants, and has even been covering his rent, groceries, and stuff. That, plus her own lifestyle, you do the math. It's not surprising that she didn't have enough money left to cover

her son's tuition costs anymore, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't think it was a priority for her either. Apart from that, we don't exactly have any proof that she had been involved in the same kind of activities that her boyfriend and his group of friends have been accused of if you know what I mean. But on the contrary, we don't have any proof that she hadn't been involved in those things either. So that's kind of a great area right now and since it's been a while that she has visited that club, it's pointless to have any blood tests conducted because she's obviously going to be clean. Thankfully, though, the motel staff have confirmed that they were regulars at that place for quite a few months and every time that they would leave, they would leave

several empty packs of cigarettes and at least two to three empty bottles of wine behind. And from the brands, it was obvious that these things were not your typical easy to get stuff. They were expensive and good. That's definitely not a good sign, especially when your son's tuition payments haven't been cleared. In spite of all of this, she has been doing her best to get custody and dragging everything out. But she hasn't stopped seeing her boyfriend, who is also under trial right now. It's just sad because she's screwing everything up for herself and the most that she can do right now is delay the inevitable, but she can't avoid it. Personally, I just want this to end because it's turned into a bit of a nightmare since Jennifer and I had a really good relationship before all of this started and I can't stand to see her do this to herself.

I don't take any joy in watching her downfall or whatever. I just want this to be wrapped up quickly so I can try and give Anthony a normal life somehow because that's what this has been since the beginning. So that's all that I'm hoping for right now. Update 4. Hi. So a couple of days ago, we finally had our last hearing and in spite of all her attempts, Anthony was placed in my permanent custody and she totally lost it as soon as that verdict was announced.

She started screaming at me publicly, accusing me of stealing her son from her on purpose just because I couldn't have kids of my own and I didn't have a family or a husband. It was quite embarrassing, partly because that's not even true. I'm obviously capable of having kids. I just chose not to because marriage and kids were not my cup of tea. Like I said in the beginning, it was even more embarrassing because this was happening in court and she literally had to be dragged out after the verdict because she wouldn't stop screaming at. me. I don't understand why she was so upset with me, especially considering the fact that she had brought this on to herself. Besides, she will still continue to have supervised visitation rights, just like before. Now it's on her that she didn't utilize them before and she did not change her

way, even after she was told repeatedly that the court was not going to look kindly upon the fact that she was still seeing her boyfriend. Her boyfriend who has been convicted on all the charges against him just a week ago, by the way, this is his third offense, so it's obvious that she should have stopped seeing him a long time ago and should have fixed her behavior, but she didn't. So I really don't understand how I am the one to blame for any of this. But anyway, I know that she just wanted a scapegoat so she could continue to run away from her problems and pretend that she was totally innocent and I was the villain. So be it, I don't really care anymore.

All I know for a fact is that Anthony is going to be well taken care of now. And I really hope that someday, in the future, she realizes her mistakes and tries to fix her behavior because I wouldn't want her to lose her only son or for Anthony to lose his mother. I do want them to have a relationship, but for now, I think it's best that they stay apart. Anyway, he seems pretty happy with me, so I'm going to try to keep that up. I'm probably not going to be posting here as often anymore because I'm going to try and strike the right balance between raising Anthony and the life that I've been used to so far. It's going to be different, but again, I have to do what I have to do.

I love the kid, and I hope I can do right by him. I hope you enjoy this story. Ended my marriage due to my husband's infidelity. Following this, his mother attempted to deceive me, but her scheme failed when I warned her that I would reveal their deceitful family operation exploiting former partners. I am a 26-year-old woman. I am a 26-year-old woman. recently got divorced from my husband Caleb, 28M, who I'd been married to for a year. The divorce came through a couple of weeks ago and just last week, I found out that my ex-mother in-law Fiona, 54F, was suing me for defaming her son. I had literally no clue what that was for at the time, but then her lawyer told us that this was for the emotional damage that I'd

caused to her son by telling everyone about his affair because now nobody wanted to speak to him and that was taking a toll on him. I wouldn't have taken it seriously at all, but her attorney was one of the most renowned ones and he just so happened to be her brother-in-law. That's the reason why I even entertained that lawsuit because otherwise, I knew for a fact that they didn't have a strong case against me.

Had her attorney been someone else, to who she was not personally related, they probably wouldn't have even bothered to prepare and file a lawsuit against me because it would have been pointless. First of all, their grounds were baseless, because it can't be called defamation if it's true and secondly, I'd only told a couple of our close friends about his infidelity who were now not speaking to him. So it wasn't as though

I'd publicly defamed him like Fiona was making it out to be. And most importantly, even if they did have their reasons, I really don't think they'd be able to prove that in court so a $50,000 lawsuit was a stretch just to get me worried. I wasn't too anxious about it though because once I had my lawyer look through it, I knew that their grounds were almost laughable. On top of that, I also had a lot of things that I could use against my ex-husband that if I posted, could land him in a lot more trouble than just emotional damage. So the day after I was served with the suit, I called Fiona and at first, she was very curt with me. She said that pleading with her or begging wouldn't work anymore and I should have thought about what I was doing to her son before I talked crap about him

to our friends, but I stopped her before she could make an even bigger fool out of herself. I told her that that's not what I was calling about and said that if she didn't stop the legal proceedings, I'd expose both her and her son on social media and then things would turn very ugly for them once people knew what kind of a fraudulent, scammer family they came from. I was referring to Caleb's arrest at his past job, where he was fired for embezzlement. Only I and his family knew the truth about why he was let go from that job, but his family didn't know that I was aware of the truth. He'd told everyone that he quit because he didn't see a future there but actually, he'd been

caught trying to embezzle the company's money and it wasn't some insignificant amount either. It was almost $25,000. The only reason he didn't lose his reputation and the company didn't go public was because his uncle, the attorney I was talking about, had fought for him tooth and nail and prevented the case from going to court. He'd paid the settlement amount from his own pocket to prevent his nephew from ending up behind bars, where he belonged. His uncle was the reason the news of his fraud was quashed before it got out of control and that's why he even has a job now. Caleb's been working at one of his uncle's friends'

firms for the past couple of years so that someone can keep an eye on him but he can also have a respectable position, so everything worked out well for him in the end. All thanks to his uncle. But I know about all of this because when the embezzlement incident had taken place, he and I had been living together and despite his family telling him not to talk about this, he had told me and I'd even consoled him like a fool. I was too much in love with him to see him for the slimy dishabag that we were so I kept my mouth shut about it as well and even used to reassure him that everything would be fine when he'd be crying to me about how tough life had become for him, how he regretted getting greedy and things like that. I was his shoulder to cry on at his lowest

and then he cheated on me after five years of being together with his high school ex, but that's all water under the bridge for me now. I've moved on and the reason I'm here is not for him but because of his mother. I'm sure the fraudulent genes were something Caleb had inherited from his mother because she was also quite the con woman herself. I knew about this from one of Caleb's sister's exes. Caleb has two siblings, an older brother Kyle, and a younger sister, Aria. All three of them have an age gap of two years. Arias college boyfriend, Marcus, is a co-work of mine and a really good friend too. When I told him about my relationship with Caleb at first, he'd been really happy for me, but then a few months later, when I showed him a photo of me

with Caleb's family at Thanksgiving, he seemed a little shocked. That's when he warned me about Fiona and her tendency to go after her kid's exes just to rip them off of a ton of money because she thinks they're all naive and stupid and she can get away with it. After Aria and Marcus had broken up, she'd called him and screamed at him for breaking area's heart, so bad that she'd apparently ended up in the hospital after binge drinking and she demanded that he paid the bill for it. Marcus was not some wealthy guy, he was just a college student, but he still sent her all the money he could manage at the time because he felt guilty about whatever was happening to Aria. Two days later, though, he saw her back on campus and she was

doing just fine. He did try to question Fiona about the truthfulness of what she'd claimed, but she lashed out and sent him photos of Aria in a hospital bed. He felt guilty for questioning her so he didn't push it but months later, he realized that those photos were not from the same time as their breakup because at the time, Arria had a couple of pink streaks in her hair but in the hospital photos, she had no streaks at all. But by the time he realized it, it had been months since their breakup and he didn't want to drag it all back up and stir the pot so he just let it go. He was the first to warn me about Fiona, but I didn't listen because to me, Caleb was the perfect guy and I was going to get married to him

come what may. Then there was another instance at Kyle's birthday dinner party where I was sitting with Caleb's family and his brother, Kyle, told us all that his ex had wished him a happy birthday, at which everyone had laughed really loudly. Then Caleb said something like a joke about her having to pay for her sins in the past, and then his mother said literally, and they all laughed again. It felt like an inside joke that I wasn't an on. I didn't understand what was so funny so I'd asked about it on the way home and Caleb had said that it was just an inside joke so I didn't need to worry about it. Now I know that they must have pulled some similar crap with his ex as well so this was their family's pattern to harass and rip off their exes with Fiona's help after each

and every breakup to take advantage of their naivete. It was only after our divorce that I realized what all this was really about and that I should have listened to Marcus and taken those jokes a lot more seriously than I did back then. But anyway, this was what I meant when I told Fiona that if she didn't take back the lawsuit then I'd be exposing her and her son online and that wouldn't be pretty. It wasn't because I was afraid of having to go against them, but I just really didn't want the hassle of going through the trouble of negotiations again, so soon after my divorce had been finalized. I was exhausted and it was mostly because of Caleb and his family since they'd been absolutely horrible to me throughout the divorce and didn't leave any opportunity

to make cryptic posts to insult me, which I never said a word about because it wasn't worth it, but even that could be considered defamation if it really came down to it. So on the phone call, I told Fiona that if she didn't take back that lawsuit, then I'd tell the world about her and her family's cons. She got all huffy and nervous and then disconnected the call after calling me some names, but a few days later, she did take back the lawsuit. I thought that that would be the end and I wouldn't have to hear from her or her son again afterward, but yesterday, Caleb showed up at my door and was furious with how I'd treated his mother.

He told me that me threatening him was a disgusting move and that it just showed that he'd been right to dump me for a better woman. I was already pissed off, so I told him to shove off and slam the door in his face, but he continued to scream at me loudly from right outside the door. I would have called the cops on him, but I thought it was going to backfire because he was actually accusing me of blackmailing his mother. He said that if I was so sure of myself and knew that I had no fault in this, then I should have gone ahead with the lawsuit and duped it out legally. But instead, I called her and threatened to expose them all, which is the phrase I'd used,

and he told me that it sounded a lot like blackmail and that if that's what I was intending to do, then I should probably just give up on the idea that I'm better than them somehow because I'm not. He said this to taunt me and then said some more things about how his mother had always looked out for her kids unlike my parents so I wasn't used to this. He was referring to my strained relationship with my own parents since we're not very close after a couple of bad fights and that was a low blow so I told him to go away. Then he went off topic and started yelling at me about how I'd taken everything away from him, referring to the house, which I got to keep in the divorce, and also the car. I tuned out at that point because these things I'd already heard over

a thousand times over the course of the divorce, but the thing he said about blackmail kind of stayed with me even after he left. I guess I hadn't thought of it that way, but when he put it like that, I suppose that's what it really was. I don't know now what I'm supposed to do because I was just trying to protect myself and it seems like it's backfired. I don't understand how to go about this. I'd have for telling my ex-mother-in-law that if she didn't take back her defamation suit, then I'd expose her and her family's cons to everyone online. Update 1. Hello, you guys.

Thanks for all the help and advice. It means a lot to me that so many of you commented on my post and stuff. I'm very grateful that a lot of you supported me. I mean, I guess what I did technically falls under the general category of blackmailish behavior, but it's not like I'm in the wrong anyhow. The only reason she even took back the suit was because she knew she'd get screwed over if she went ahead with it. I can sue her. I can get Marcus to sue her and talk to all the other exes about this, but I don't want to. It would be the right thing to do and a lot of you have suggested

that I do exactly this, talk to all the other exes and then together file a petition against Fiona and her kids, but that's a lot of work to put in for something I just want to forget and move on from. I don't know if it makes me a bad person or whatever, but I'm not a vigilante and neither am I interested in being one at the moment. Maybe sometime in the future if they try to mess with me again, then I might go ahead and do it but not right now. I'm just recovering from a very hectic, tense and stressful phase of my life right now and what I need is to relax and unwind. I don't want to get caught up in Caleb and Fiona's drama all over again, so I hope you guys understand where I'm coming from. I haven't heard back from Caleb yet, even though it's been

three days since his last visit where he threw his temper tantrum right outside my door. So it's either that he's forgotten or chosen to let this thing go or maybe he's planning something. I think the first is very unlikely because he and his family are clearly suckers for any sort of drama and will do everything in their power to create some even if it's themselves that they're making a total and complete fool out of. I already saw that petty side of theirs during the divorce so I'm expecting something bigger and better this time since I've picked a fight with the biggest goon of the lot, my mother-in-law. She's not going to let this go and I know it.

I've really insulted her by threatening her and now that their teeny tiny egos are hurt, they'll do everything in their power to hurt me or humiliate me. I've kept my lawyer on hold in case things get out of hand, even though I'm planning to avoid suing them as far as I can because I don't have that sort of time and energy and frankly, I don't want to spend a ton of money again on this. I'm just praying for the best right now because there's nothing else I can do. Update 2.

Okay, so I was right about them having something worse for me in mind than just letting me off the hook with a phone call or some half-hearted lawsuit that they'll know they're going to lose. They decided to drag my parents into this and it was a disgustingly low move since I've already mentioned that my relationship with my parents is not the best. I've mentioned in my original post that Caleb was already picking on me about it and trying to make me feel bad about it the last time we interacted and this time, they doubled down on it. It's sickening and I still can't believe they did so. For context, my parents and I have never been on the best terms anyway. Right from when I was a kid, I knew that they weren't exactly ready to have me and were mostly taking care of myself. I wasn't neglected, but it wasn't as if my parents were constantly hovering around me to check how I was doing. They did the bare minimum and

called it a day and I suppose they thought it was okay since they were young when they had me. Then as I grew up, the less they spoke to me. All my bills would be paid, I'd have nice clothes and was well fed, but I didn't really have a relationship with my parents. They were just there, they were alive and they were there, so I didn't feel too bad leaving for college, and neither did we have some tearful, emotional goodbye. I think all of us were kind of relieved that we wouldn't have to live under the same roof and make each other awkward and uncomfortable while crossing paths or sitting in the same room without talking. So that's how it was. During college, I barely spoke to my parents because I was busy with my new life and new friends.

They didn't check on me either, so we just stopped calling. I didn't even go back for the holidays since I didn't think they'd appreciate or even want me there and from whatever I saw on social media, I didn't think they missed me at all. They'd post photos of them traveling, hanging out with their friends, attending parties and stuff and they seemed happy. I was a little upset that they didn't seem like they cared at all and wouldn't call me, but that just made me get mad because if they weren't going to call me, then I wasn't going to be the weaker one and call them. It was a weird, bad, and unhealthy space for all of us, I guess, because when I finally contacted them a couple of weeks before graduation to invite them to the ceremony, they were very cold. They weren't cold

usually before, but on that call in particular, they sounded mad so I couldn't help but asked them why. That's when they told me that they actually were upset that throughout my years at college, I'd barely bothered to put in any effort to keep in touch with them. Now that pissed me off because I could say the same about them as well. So that's what led to a lot of fighting and they didn't even attend my graduation ceremony because of it. But afterward, they did reach out to me and I turned them down. This went on for a couple of years until a while ago, before my wedding, I told them about it because I wanted to let the past be in the past and start afresh. Things haven't been great but we're going to family counseling and trying to be better. We still end up fighting

a lot like crazy sometimes but we're putting in a conscious effort to work on our relationships. And Caleb and his family just made a total mockery out of it all. They called my parents up three days ago, in the middle of the night, and then put them on blast about my pathetic behavior and how badly I'd been raised apparently. They even insinuated that I might have pushed Caleb to cheat because of how screwed up my own relationships had been all my life. It was just a total and complete crap fest and by the end of it, my parents were in shock. They'd never been dragged into any of this drama so this was a first, but they had the good sense to call me as soon as they recovered from the shock and filled me in on what happened. I hadn't told them anything about

Fiona's lawsuit and stuff after the divorce, but on the call, I kind of broke down and ended up telling them everything. Surprisingly, they were really there for me and were very supportive of me. In fact, my parents seemed furious that I'd been treated this way and were very protective of me, which felt new since I'd always felt like I never even needed them to protect me. So this was a nice change of pace for me where I could actually rely on my parents. I told them that I didn't want to take legal action, but they convinced me to go after them and said that if I felt mentally tired, then they'd be there for me to talk to and do their best to make it easy on me, but if I let this slide then they'd just keep up and continue to harass me for as long as they could. So I had to

set an example and make sure they don't have the opportunity to do this again. I'm already in talks with my lawyer and we're going to sue them for harassment, I think. Update 3. hey, guys. So I'm sorry I'm so late with this update, but with all the hassle of the lawsuit and stuff I'd forgotten to post here. And I'd also forgotten the password to this account since I'd created it as a throwaway one. I had posted an update separately, but now that I've finally managed to remember the details and log back in, I'll post one here too. I went ahead with the lawsuit like my parents told me to even though I'd said I didn't want to take any legal action because it would be too much and about two weeks ago, we finally settled out of court. They're the ones who had

to pay me $10,000 for all the emotional distress they'd caused me and even my parents. This is not where their troubles end, though. Because once I'd told my parents everything and they'd supported me, I'd also told them about the scam Fiona had tried to pull by involving her lawyer-brother-in-law and sending me some bogus lawsuit just to force me to entertain it and then give them. them a ton of money for nothing. I told them about the past instances of my husband's dishonesty at work and Fiona's tendency to try and rip off her kids' exes as payback. It was pretty messed up and my parents told me that since I was going after them anyway, I should probably tell Marcus about it too, and see what he wants to do about it. I did do that and even though he didn't go after them

legally because it had been such a long time, he made a post about it on social media and it blew up because apparently they'd been running this scam for ages and it had happened to all of their exes. Fiona had been involved in ripping off all, and I mean every single one of her kid's exes, regardless of what financial background they came from or what their age was. This family didn't even spare their high school exes which was ridiculous to even think of and it was always the same tactics, emotional manipulation, lies, and then guilt-tripping. Sometimes it was a small amount but sometimes, like with Marcus, it was a small amount. a substantial amount with the hospital bills that he'd been forced to cough up. It was crazy how

long this had been going on and even crazier that all of us had tried to keep this quiet because that family had made us think we were somehow the bad guys here. But long story short, they're getting a lot of hate on social media and it got to the point where they pretty much had to deactivate all their accounts because they couldn't defend themselves from all the trolling. It wasn't just the exes, but their exes' friends and stuff also who'd joined in and were actually demanding the money back from them. It's become a whole thing now and I love how nasty everyone's being to them because this is just like giving them a taste of their own medicine. I suppose when Fiona and Caleb tried to mess with me, they really overplayed their hand and now

they're regretting everything because not only did they have to pay me back but now it seems that they might have to return all the money they'd scam people out of. No wonder their family was so well off. I'm sure they've been just as dishonest in their jobs as well, just like Caleb had been. There's not a decent bone in their body and this is just proof of it, but at least I'm not part of that family anymore. I've managed to get a restraining order against them too, so I'm not worried about them bothering me after this either. And I'm glad that this gave my parents and me an excuse to kind of get back on better terms because ever since that phone call they made to harass my mom and dad, we've all been a real unit and have dealt with this like a real family would and I'm so

proud of us for doing so. Life's good right now.