Reddit Stories - BETRAYED at the Dinner Table_ The Sibling's SINISTER ULTIMATUM_

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayal #familydrama #siblings #ultimatum #dinnertable  Summary: A tale of betrayal unfolds at the dinner table when a sibling delivers a sinister ultimatum, leading to family drama and difficult decisions.  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, betrayal, familydrama, siblings, ultimatum, dinnertable, drama, relationships, conflict, guilt, confrontation, decisionmaking, secrets, storytelling, advice, communityBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Sibling asked us to join for a meal, but upon our arrival, instructed me to have spoused apart, arguing that they do not fit into our family dynamic due to their status. A dirty illiterate cleaner. So earlier this week, my husband and I attended Thanksgiving dinner at my brother's place, but unfortunately, things did not exactly pan out as planned. My brother, let's call him Brandon, is two years older than me, and growing up, we were very close. In fact, we still got along pretty well until recently, about four years ago, when I, 28F, started dating my husband Nick, 30M.

Brandon does not like me, he does not approve of our relationship and never has. It's not a question of whether Nick is a good guy or not, he undoubtedly is, and everyone who knows him will agree with that statement. We are good together and we make each other really happy but none of that matters to Brandon. all he cares about is the fact that Nick doesn't come from the same kind of family that we do. Nick was raised by a single mother after his dad walked out on his mom after she found out that she was pregnant and his mom had pretty much nobody to help her out, since her family did not approve of her carrying her to pregnancy without a father. In spite of all of that, she was determined to give birth to make and give him a good life and she worked incredibly hard to make sure that she

was able to do all of that. So he's not rich, but honestly, I think that the way he and his have led their lives is a lot more admirable than anything my brother and I have ever achieved. My parents are both lawyers and we have had a relatively cushioned and comfortable life. But Brandon thinks that because of his past and the kind of background that he comes from, Nick is somehow inferior to us, even though I think that he's much superior. Because in spite of having practically no support apart from his mom, he still managed to make it through college and is now living a pretty good life while also supporting his mom who is now retired. I don't understand what isn't respectable about any of this and I've always hated the fact

that Brandon has treated Nick so weirdly all the time, pretty much ever since I introduced him to my family. My parents never seemed to have a problem with him, but my brother went out of his way to make him feel small with stray remarks and stuff. I even fought with him on several occasions because of this and a lot of times, I have even stopped talking to him for weeks, but then he has always apologized and promised that he's not going to repeat this kind of behavior. And I've always forgiven him, but inevitably it has happened again and again. He was not happy when we got engaged last year and he was definitely not happy when we got married six months ago, but I really thought that he was going to come around eventually.

He didn't and after what happened on Thanksgiving this year, I'm kind of glad that I'm never going to have to speak to him again because I don't think I can forgive and look past something like this. So usually, my parents host Thanksgiving at their house, but this year, my brother decided he was going to do it at his place. Brandon is a pretty good cook, and his wife is pregnant, so he said that he wanted the honor of hosting everyone. He invited both Nick and me and specifically asked for Nick to be there, and we took it as a sign that maybe he was trying to finally give Nick a chance. So we accepted the invitation and showed up, having no idea about what was in store. Because, of course, as soon as we arrived, Brandon greeted us at the door and he told me that I was welcome to come in, but he told me that Nick would have to go back home, unfortunately.

Obviously we were baffled, and then Brandon went on to explain that at the very last minute, he and his wife had decided that they were not going to invite his family, but also hers. His in-laws were already invited, but they decided to invite her extended family as well since she was pregnant and she wanted to see them. They live in the suburbs, so they don't usually visit and they were making a whole thing out of this Thanksgiving dinner. The only problem was that his in-laws, with the exception of his wife's parents, were all kind of snobbish. My sister-in-law herself was just as much of a snob and an elitist as my brother was,

so she looked down on Nick as well. Her parents were pleasant enough, so I didn't know where she got it from until I met the rest of her family at Brandon's wedding. All of them happened to be extremely lucky since they've had the good fortune of being born into a rich business family and so, they take great pride in that. Quite happily, Brandon told me and Nick at the door that he would like for Nick to go back home because it would be really embarrassing for him to introduce his brother-in-law to the rest of his wife's family since that would inevitably lead to questions about him. So just to avoid further humiliation, he told Nick to go home. I was obviously furious, and I started yelling at my brother without caring who was going to hear us. I know that he was doing

this on purpose, just because he wanted to insult Nick and I was not going to stand for it. because even if he had made last-minute invitations to the rest of his wife's family, which I highly doubt he had, he could have just told me and Nick that he didn't want us there, but he had made us drive all the way to his place just so that he could turn Nick away at the door. I told him that it was a very calculated move that he had made to insult my husband and I told him he had no class. I knew that was exactly where it would hurt him, so that was what I said. And I was right because when I called him classless, he flared up almost instantly and told me that he did not want me attending the Thanksgiving dinner either and he wanted me to leave with my

Dirty, illiterate cleaner husband. So, brief context for that comment. Nick did have to take up a janitor job at a local store when he was in college along with a couple of more part-time jobs so he could start saving up money to pay back the student loan that he had taken out. No shame in that, and calling Nick Dirty and illiterate was literally nothing but a bunch of lies. He's just as educated as any of us. The only difference is that he went to a moderately good college and did not have enough money to afford the kind of colleges that my brother and I went to. Again, that's also nothing to feel shameful about but for some reason, Brandon made it a point to bring it up, and after he said that to Nick, there was no going back. I started cursing at him nonstop and Nick actually had to intervene because Brandon told me that I had picked up his language and I was about to get physical if I'm being very honest. I was not ashamed of Nick, I was just upset that Brandon even had the audacity to say things like

that right in front of me. Anyway, by then, the commotion had gotten a bit loud and I guess my parents heard so they came out and once they figured out that we were fighting, they requested Nick to take me home and promised me that they would handle everything later. At that point, I was a little disappointed that they were not yelling at Brandon almost immediately, because by then, they should have known that he must have said something disgusting about Nick and that's why I was acting like that. But I guess they had guests over so they did not want to drag things out and embarrass themselves

in front of them, which is why I had to go home. Once I got home, Nick calmed me down and I ended up ranting to him for about an hour or so before I finally let it go and blocked Brandon everywhere. I was still fuming, but I knew that there was no point in it. I could not change my brother or his mindset and I was sick of trying to do so. So it would have been better for me to just let him go and never speak to him again. and I was kind of disappointed with my parents as well for not dealing with the situation on the spot. But I'm really glad that I did not block them because the next morning, they called me and

told me that we needed to come over to my dad's office because I needed to sign some paperwork, which made me curious so I agreed to it. I wasn't sure about the paperwork because when I asked them about it on the phone, they didn't elaborate. But I believe that even if I didn't deal with the paperwork, at least I would be able to speak to my parents and sort things out regarding Brandon. However, when I actually got to my dad's office, my mom was also present there and they looked pretty serious. They did not even explain anything to me or Nick at first. They just told me to go through the paperwork and if I found it agreeable, they wanted me to sign it then and there. So I did go through it and basically, it was paperwork to start the process of transferring ownership

of my parents' law firm to me. I was shocked because, for a really long time, I knew that my brother was set to inherit the firm after my parents retired. So just to be doubly sure, I asked my dad if he actually intended on leaving the firm to me and not Brandon and he told me that he was sure about it because after what had happened last night, he had no intention of leaving anything to Brandon. And to make it up to me and Nick, my parents wanted to leave their law firm to me. This was a huge deal because while I had also gotten to law school and had a degree, I was not a practicing lawyer and hadn't been for the past three years. After one year, I was one year, I got bored and I decided to start my own business. I run a bakery now, which is

quite different from running a law firm. Nick is in a management position at his company, but he's not a lawyer. Brandon, on the other hand, had been working for years under my father, and I knew that he expected to be inheriting the law firm after my parents retired. So this was going to come as a huge shock to him. And I asked my parents if they were about this, but they told me that they were because apparently after all the guests had left, my parents had confronted them about the commotion that had taken place with me, Nick and Brandon. He and his wife were very casual about the entire thing. They did not bother to hide any of the awful things that Brandon and his wife had said about Nick right to my face. And they actually

seemed to believe that there was nothing wrong with what they had done. So my parents were naturally very upset and they had asked Brandon and his wife to call us and apologize to us, but they had refused. This is why now they had decided to take this step because they wanted nothing to do with Brandon anymore. And that obviously meant that they were not going to be leaving the firm to him, but they were nearing the age of retirement. They did need somebody to take over eventually. So they had decided that I would take over because even though it was not a practicing lawyer, I was still their daughter. And at least this way, the company would still stay in the family. They told me that after the incident from last night, they had come in to work extra early,

drawn up these papers in two hours. They already had a template because they had drawn up separate papers for my brother first. And after I went through it, I spoke to Nick in private. And then we decided to sign off on the paperwork so we could start the process of transferring ownership of the firm to me. My parents wanted to celebrate the process, but I wasn't feeling comfortable about it because I knew that even though I did want to get back at Brandon for what he had said about Nick, I was not sure if this was the right way to go through with it. Because I wasn't even interested

in being an attorney, that's why I quit practicing after a year. He, on the other hand, really loved his job. And I knew that he had been looking forward to leading the firm for a really long time, so stealing that opportunity from him seemed kind of unethical. But then, I thought about it, and I realized that I was not stealing anything from him because my parents had offered to me on a silver platter and I was just accepting it. Still, in the back of my head, I felt very uneasy about what had just happened so I did not feel like it and I just went back home. After that, Nick and I didn't exactly talk about it, but then, yesterday, my parents told me that they wanted me to come to work because obviously I would have to rejoin. Then, yesterday,

Brandon and I finally came face to face when I walked into the workplace and my parents announced, in front of everyone, that I was going to be taking over everything in a couple of months after my parents retired. Everyone just looked confused because obviously, people expected Brandon to be taking over and my brother didn't exactly say anything, but I could see that he was not happy about it. I guess he didn't want to make a public scene, so he didn't say anything at that moment but later on in the day, crap hit the ceiling. In the evening, after I had come back home, Brandon called me from a burner phone and told me that he knew I was doing this on purpose, but he had had enough of this and he wanted me to stop our parents from leaving the firm to me. The way he was speaking

to me, his tone was very entitled and bossy, and I did not like that. So I told him that I was not going to do anything like that because ultimately, our parents had asked me to take over and if they found me fit to do it, I didn't see why I would have to decline. Besides, he had brought this on to himself by being horrible to me and Nick, to be more specific. So I did not have to feel bad for him and I told him that I was going to take over the firm and he was going to have to work under me, and if he couldn't stand that, then he should just quit while he was ahead. At that point, he started screaming at me and he told me that whatever I was doing was extremely

unethical, and he was going to make sure that he sued me and our parents. He said that I had no right to be destroying his future just because he had insulted my husband, especially considering the fact that whatever he had said about Nick was not even false. That made me upset and all of a sudden, I was screaming at him and things just turned into a shouting match. We were cursing at each other, saying horrible things to one another and it was all just really bad. In the end, before he hung up, he just told me that what I was doing to him was way more disgusting and pathetic than what he had done and he couldn't believe that I was being so unethical and selfish. He told me that he was going to resign from his job if that's what I wanted but he was also going to make sure that he sued us for being unfair to him and while I don't think that he has a legal leg to stand on, I also don't think that what I'm doing is right.

I have spoken to Nick about it over and over again and he has told me that I have nothing to worry about. And even my parents have reassured me that I'm not doing anything wrong but still, I can't bring myself to feel like what I'm doing is okay because even when he was yelling at me on the phone. I could tell that Brandon was just devastated by everything. I'm just at a loss of words right now and I feel like I really need some help. So I DA for agreeing to take over my parents' law firm which my brother was supposed to inherit after they retired? Update 1. So, the comments have given me a lot to think about. First and foremost, I feel like I need to be clear about one thing. I do not enjoy being a lawyer. I never enjoyed

it. I just did it because that's what my parents wanted and I was not particularly ambitious about anything else. Back then, I did have a knack for baking and stuff but never thought about taking it up as a career. Now, of course, I feel differently about the whole thing and I really love what I do. I also know for a fact that if I do take over the company, I'm going to have to give up my business because there just won't be enough time for me to do everything and I'm not sure if I want to do that. And when it really comes down to it, I guess that's what I had been feeling uneasy about, the fact that I was going to have to give up everything that I had built from scratch in the past couple of years. I'll have to agree that my bakery business is nowhere as successful.

as my parents' law firm, but this is what brings me happiness and the thought of giving it all up just to get back at my brother, it seems very petty, now that I think about it. I have spoken to Nick about it and I have told him how I feel, and he told me that if I don't want to take over the law firm and go back to working there, then I don't have to. I can just speak to my parents and I can put an end to the process, but at the same time, I really don't want Brandon to get away with everything that he has done and end up inheriting the law firm anyway. The one thing that my parents have been very clear, about, it's that they want the firm to stay within the family. It's kind of nepotistic, but that's what they want and I can't deny them that. So if it's not me, it's going to be

Brandon and that's not something that I'm fine with. But I don't know how to communicate this with my parents, so I haven't told them anything about what I've been feeling. Besides, it also seems very petty, equally as petty as taking over the company, even though I don't want to, just so that he doesn't get to inherit it if not more. But Nick has told me that whatever I'm feeling is completely normal because the situation between Brandon and me has deteriorated to a point of no return. It might have improved if he had apologized to me at any point, but he hasn't, and I know that even if he does apologize, it's going to be meaningless because he doesn't mean it. So that's that, and I'm really confused about how to put this through to my

parents as of now. Update 2, so I finally did it, I ripped off the band-aid and I finally made the decision to talk to my parents about what I had been feeling. It's been eight days since Thanksgiving and a significant amount of time has passed, I think. Before the process went any further, I knew that I had to gather up my courage, and I had to speak to my parents and tell them that I did not want to take over the company. It was going to come to them, especially as I had just signed off on the paperwork a week ago, but I had to do it. So I invited them over for dinner last night and I finally told them everything, with Nick

by my side. Initially, they had reacted, exactly the way that I expected. them to, they were very upset about it and they told me that if I wasn't sure about it. Then I shouldn't have signed the paperwork in the first place and I had to sit through lecture about indecisiveness, but it was well deserved so I didn't say anything. Later on, though, they seemed to understand the dilemma that I was going through and they told me that if I wanted to take over the company, but not partake in any of the legal operations, I could still do that.

However, I just didn't want to be a part of any of that in any capacity, because, in all honesty, I just found the kind of stuff very boring. I tried to be transparent with my parents, so while they did not seem happy about my decision, they told me that it was fine. Then came the more difficult part, because I also had to tell them exactly why I had accepted the position in the first place, and I had to tell them that I did not want Brandon to inherit the firm.

That came as a bit of a shock to them, because I'm usually not a petty or vindictive person, but honestly, I couldn't stand Brandon anymore and his behavior has been getting on my nerves for a really long time. The Thanksgiving incident was just the last nail in the coffin, and I made it very clear to my parents that I would be very upset if Brandon, in spite of everything, ended up taking over the company eventually anyway. Of course, my parents heard me out and told me that they could understand how I was feeling

and they agreed with me as well. It would look very weak for them to ask Brandon to take over the company, especially after what happened recently, and they had announced that I was going to be taking over in front of everyone in the office. They did not want their employees to mistrust them or something, so there were a lot of problems to deal with already, but the biggest one was that my parents wanted the company to stay in the family. And the only way to make sure that would be to ask Brandon to take over instead of me,

but there were a lot of problems with that as well. For example, after the Thanksgiving incident, Brandon had chosen to ignore our parents for almost three days, because of which work had suffered. He hadn't shown up back then, because of a personal fight that he had had with our parents the previous night, and that was very unprofessional of him. And of course, when he finally did show up, my parents announced that I was going to take over the company, and after that, he stopped showing up at work once again, but hasn't even resigned.

So their relationship with Brandon is pretty strained at the moment and they don't know, even if they do, ask him to take over once again, whether he's going to agree to it or not. So that's one problem and of course, on top of that, it's going to make them look really weak and indecisive. Apart from Brandon, they can't even think about anybody else they would be willing to leave the firm to. I tried them to get to think about serious employees who would love the firm and be as sincere with their work as my parents had been and they had a couple of names, but I could tell that in their hearts. They were not ready to accept that somebody from outside the family was going to take over the firm that they had built. I knew for a fact that I couldn't just force them into doing something

like this within one meeting, and I would have to convince them over the span of a couple of weeks, at the very least. So I dropped the topic eventually, but I'm pretty sure that at the end of the day, they're going to have to pick somebody from outside of the family because I'm not interested in Brandon is not going to be coming back. That's for sure. I obviously feel terrible that I have put my parents in such a difficult position and I feel like I shouldn't have agreed to sign off on the paperwork in the first place without thinking it through. I made a very hasty decision and now, we are all paying for it. But then, I'm happy that at least Brandon will not be getting away with all the horrible things that he had said about Nick, not just on Thanksgiving, but for so

many years. It's about time that somebody held him accountable for his behavior and I'm glad that I get to do it. I know for a fact that he had really loved and valued his job but now he's going to be losing it, just because of his own arrogance. Even now, he hasn't apologized to me or Nick, and at this point, I honestly don't even want it. Update 3, so it's been two weeks since my last update and thankfully, my parents have finally named a different successor. He's a very diligent employee, he has been working with them for years, and granted, he's not family, but he's almost as good as family. It took me a really long time to convince my parents that it would be a good idea to name somebody who was not family in my place because ultimately,

there was really no guarantee that the firm would always stay within the family. Because what if their grandkids did not want to become lawyers? Then, inevitably, the company would be passed down to somebody outside of the family. And then, they wouldn't even know how to control the situation, so at least now, this would be their own choice. Because I am not interested, Brandon does not deserve it and so, it would be fair to let somebody who was actually interested and had worked hard enough to take over eventually. It took them a while to wrap their heads around that idea, but finally, they did agree and they have spoken to them, so they're going to start the paperwork on that soon and scrap everything

that had to do with me. Brandon, on the other hand, emailed our parents' resignation a couple of days ago and said that he was going to be starting his own law firm. He bragged about how he was getting his in-laws to fund his ambitious project because he had promised us that we were going to regret the way we had treated him. Well, shiver me timbers, I just really don't care what he does anymore. Whatever relationship we had as siblings has been severed now, and I don't think that I have any interest in repairing it. Nick and I are happy together and my parents are also content with the situation, so there is

nothing else that matters to me. Of course, at some points of time, I do feel bad about the fact that Brandon and I used to be so close as kids but now, we don't even want to see each other. I really can't help feeling that way occasionally but then, I remember the way he treated Nick and how much he has changed from the little guy who used to be my best friend in the whole world. There was a point of time when it was just the two of us against the world but now, he's not the same person that he used to be and neither am I. Nick is my priority, and if anybody insults or humiliates him, I don't want anything to do

with that person. And that goes for everyone, including my own family. So yes, I do feel bad about the way things have turned out, but I don't feel bad about anything that I have done. People can call me petty, people can call me vengeful, but at the end of the day, I know that I'm just trying to be a good partner.