Reddit Stories - BETRAYED BENEATH the Shadows_ My VANISHING Family and the $90,000 Debt_

Episode Date: October 11, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #betrayal #debtstruggle #familysecrets #mysteriousdisappearanceSummary:A gripping tale unfolds in "Betrayed Beneath the Shadows: My Vanishing Family and the $90,000 Debt." Secrets, betrayal, and a vanishing act reveal a family torn apart by financial deception. Can the truth be unraveled before it's too late?Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familydrama, betrayal, debtstruggle, familysecrets, mysteriousdisappearanceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. I lent my folks $90,000 to settle their tangled obligations, and then they vanished. Eventually, I discovered that my spouse was covertly assisting them in concealing the funds from me. As a 42-year-old man, I have been with my wife for 14 years. We dated for three years before we got married, so if I count that, it's 17. So almost two decades and yet, she screwed me over in spite of all the time that we have have spent together. All of this started because of my parents, who scanned me out of my life's savings of almost $90,000. I have a chain of restaurants that I run along with a couple of my

buddies from business school. It's a moderately successful business and we make decent money, but I have been saving up to start something of my own on the side and expand. However, last month my parents, 64M and 63F, told me that they were in financial trouble and they needed my help to bail them out because otherwise, there was a chance that they might lose their home and all their property. They told me that apparently they had borrowed money before I was born from a distant relative of my father's, his uncle probably. My father had just started working when they found out that my mother was pregnant with me and she had to quit her job because she couldn't handle both at the same time. My dad wasn't bringing home enough money and they were struggling with the bills, so they had borrowed

money for my dad's uncle and had promised to return it in a couple of years. But instead of returning it, they continued to borrow money for the first couple of years until my dad had a substantial income of his own. By that time, I was already in middle school and they had a considerable amount of debt. So they begged his uncle to give them time, at least until I graduated from college and then, they would slowly start paying him back. But years passed and they didn't return the money. My parents thought that they were free of the debt when this uncle passed away a couple of years ago but then, his son inherited everything and now, he's been hounding them to return what they owe or he'll get the law involved. Everything was off the books and so my parents

hadn't been taking him seriously because he would never be able to prove that they had actually borrowed any money with the intention to return it. But a few months ago the guy gave them a final warning and told them that they had to cough up the money or he would file a lawsuit against them and it would be easy for him because he is quite well connected. That's when my parents finally started taking him seriously and tried to return the money that they owed his father. My parents told me that they had given him all that they had saved but now they need me to help them out with the $90,000 that they didn't have on them and then they would be debt-free. They said that they had already blown through their retirement funds and couldn't afford to lose

their house and other properties as well, so they were counting on me. And I, like a total fool, decided to give them the money and help them because I didn't want them to suffer. Before that, I did tell them to give me an opportunity to talk to the guy so I could buy us more time, but they said that he didn't want to risk it because he already had a short fuse and I just had to trust them on this. It was really risky, but I trusted my parents and I gave them the money. And this transaction was also off the books, which was my biggest mistake. A week after I sent them the money, I realized that I had been blocked everywhere and my parents were nowhere to be found.

Apparently, they had sold their house just a couple of days after they received the money and moved out without telling anyone. Their neighbors were the ones who told me about it and I waited every single day for them to come back, but they didn't. After about two weeks, I came to terms with the fact that my parents had scanned me and I had just lost my life savings. It was a terrible time for me and the only consolation that I had was in the form of my wife, who kept telling me that everything would be fine and that I was still working so I could always earn the money back and start afresh.

But it had taken me almost 15 years to save up $90,000 and I couldn't imagine working for another 15, just to recover what I had lost. I kept trying to work something out with my lawyer, but I didn't even know where my parents were so it was proving to be difficult to come to a solution. I had almost given up, but then I received an email from my parents about two weeks ago. They told me that they were really sorry that they had to scam the money out of me and make up so many lies because it was actually a gambling debt that they were trying to pay off. And they knew that I would flip the lid if I got to know the truth about my dad's gambling, so they had to cook up some story about their struggle from before I was born, which would

make me sympathize with them and make it easier for them to extract the money from me. They were kind of right. I probably wouldn't have given them the money if I had known that my dad had been gambling and that's how he lost their money. But that was still no reason for them to lie to me. Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt.

Sfreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career.

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And scam me. They told me that they had used the money to pay off their debts and they had sold the house so they could move away since they didn't think that I would want to be around them anymore. They claimed that they were really sorry for everything that they had put me through in their email and hoped that I could forgive them someday. The only thing that I felt after reading that email was pure rage and I instantly forwarded it to my lawyer so we could use it against them and sue them. But when I told my wife about it, she told me that she didn't think that it was a good idea to go after them because they had already been through so much. I couldn't understand why she was siding with them because they had literally stolen money from me and here, we had proof of it.

of them admitting to it, which we could now use to get the money back. It would take us a while, sure, but I thought that it would be worth it. After all, I hadn't worked all those years for nothing and the amount that they had scammed me out of was pretty big. So we got into an argument about it and she told me that I was being heartless because these were my parents and they had just made one tiny mistake. She tried to convince me that I was being really selfish and the fact that my parents didn't even feel comfortable telling me the truth or asking me for help and felt the need to resort to scamming me, just so I would bail them out, was a sign that I needed to be a little more compassionate. She tried to explain to me that gambling, just like any other

addiction, was out of one's control and my father had probably just lost control like an addict does. So instead of lashing out at them and trying to put them down, I should be more thoughtful about my actions and try to be a better son to them rather than worrying about my money. When I tried to remind her that they could have just come clean to me in the beginning instead of scamming me, and yet they made the wrong choice again, she told me that that that was on me because I had never made them feel like I was a safe face for them to open up to. And I was so uptight and stringent that even my own parents were afraid of telling me the truth. It was a really frustrating conversation because my wife just kept turning everything around on me and absolved my parents of any blame in the situation and maybe felt like I was the one in the wrong. She was quite manipulative and almost started making me second-guess myself because after we were done arguing, I found myself telling my lawyer to put everything on hold because I wasn't sure anymore if I wanted to go through with the proceedings or not. After my argument with my wife, I began to contemplate and question myself about my relationship with my parents because she had made me feel as though I was the bad guy here even though I was the one who got scammed.

The gaslighting was so expertly done that I had almost started to consider that maybe I was just too. hard on people. It didn't really help that I also had a reputation for being difficult to deal with and kind of being the bad cop at work. So all of that combined had me thinking that maybe I could have been better to my parents and then they would have been honest with me. I almost started to believe that I shouldn't go after them and that the money shouldn't matter to me as much as it does because my wife had told me that it should be more important to me that my parents were safe and sound. And my obsession with savings just made her feel like I was being a little too materialistic and was actively choosing money over my own parents. We didn't speak to each other for the

next couple of days, but I kept thinking about whatever she had said to me in the argument. I had been sleeping on the couch while we were fighting and I kept replaying that argument and going through my parents' email again and trying to clear my head because I was just so confused about what to do next. My lawyer kept telling me that suing them would be the right thing to do and that we had to strike while the iron was hot but I kept putting it off because I didn't want to make the wrong move and end up losing my wife. Because I had already lost my parents, even though they were alive. So that's how I wasted a couple of days. I was almost about to apologize to my wife when I accidentally read a text on her phone for my mother and that changed everything for me. I had taken a day

off from work and was wandering around the house because I was really depressed when I noticed that my wife had left her phone at home before she left for work. Curiosity got the better of me when I saw her screen lighting up with text notifications and in spite of myself, I decided to go snooping through her phone because I wanted to know if she had been talking about me to her friends while we were fighting. It was childish and petty but I'm so glad that I did it because I found out that my wife of almost two decades had been in cahoots with my parents. I knew my wife's phone's password so it wasn't too hard to get into it and then I started reading her texts when she received one for my mother and I just knew that I had to read it. So I started reading those texts between my mother

and my wife. I thought that it was really strange that they were even talking because my wife had no reason to be talking to my mother, especially after the scam that they had pulled. My mother had sent her a text asking if my wife had managed to convince me not to go through with the lawsuit yet, followed by another text which said that if I sued my parents, then the deal was off. That seemed like a fishy thing to say, scroll up and start reading more of the conversation. Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt.

Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreaker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreaker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career.

Spreaker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Spreeker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R dot com. Get some context.

On doing so, I realized that this had been in the works for quite a while and my wife had been speaking to my parents ever since they sent the email. My parents had reached out to her that day to ask about me out of concern, but she had turned the tables on them and told them that she wasn't saying a word. She threatened them and said that she was not above taking this text to the cops and having them trace down where they work so she could find them and my lawyer and I could force them to return the money. It was all great until that point because she was standing up for me, but then my parents offered her half of the money that they had received from the sale of their house and other properties to keep her mouth shut and to convince me not to file a lawsuit against them. So it wasn't like they didn't have money to pay off their gambling debts,

they just didn't want to use their own money which is why they had decided to scam me, which was clearly a very well thought out move. And my wife agreed to the deal and said that she was going to try and convince me to keep my lawyer out of this as long as she got the money. From what I gathered from the texts, she had already received half of the amount for even trying and was supposed to receive the other half in a couple of months, as long as I didn't sue them. I could feel my heart-breaking while I was going through that conversation but I decided to save

the sadness for later because, at that moment, it was more important for me to record this conversation, so I took a bunch of screenshots and emailed them to myself. And I also recorded the screen while scrolling through that conversation and sent that video to myself, just to be on the safe side. I knew that my wife would soon be back home to take her phone, so I hurriedly packed a few things and moved out. I kept driving until I reached a hotel a little out of town and I had kept my phone switched off so she wouldn't be able to contact me during that time. I knew that she would know that I knew the truth as soon as she went through her messages because I hadn't bothered to delete the screenshots that I had sent from her phone to mind. I wanted her to know that I knew the

truth now. Once I was in the hotel, I turned my phone back on and ignored every single text that I had received from my wife and went on to call my lawyer so he could prepare the petition and I sent him all the evidence necessary. Along with my parents, I decided to sue my wife as well and get the money back from her. Because she had taken money from my parents, but that was rightfully mine. I also filed for divorce because there was no way that I could go back from this. She kept texting me about how sorry she was and that she just needed one chance to explain to me that she had done all of this for us and was going to tell me about it eventually when she had all the money. She kept trying to tell me that I was misreading the situation.

and that she was on my side here. And that she was going to use the money for our future, but none of it mattered to me because I couldn't believe that she would manipulate, gaslight, and lie to me for money. We had a nice life and even though my parents had scammed me out of a huge amount of money, we could still afford things that we wanted. So it didn't make any sense for her to go against me just for money. She was just being plain greedy. And that wasn't even the worst part, it was the fact that she had been manipulated.

me into forgiving my parents that stung me the most. If she really had an intention of using that money for our future, then she could have just been honest with me instead of playing mind games. Even if I forgave her, I don't think I would ever be able to trust her again so getting a divorce was the only viable option. So my lawyer and I went ahead with the petitions and my parents and my wife were served a couple of days ago. It was a great hassle for my lawyer to locate my parents and we had to hire a professional, but he did manage to find where they were hiding out and they got served in person, just how I wanted it to be. I didn't hear back from my parents, but my wife has been losing her mind and since I haven't blocked her yet, it's getting a little difficult to deal

with. She sent me a bunch of messages the day that she got served, with both the divorce and the lawsuit, and I could tell that she was really desperate now. She has been begging me to reconsider the divorce and keep saying that she made a mistake and that she wants to make it up to me, but I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like a total jerk because I know that I'm breaking her heart but I don't have any other option right now. And the way that she keeps texting me and begging me to come back is making me feel really bad about everything.

After all, I have spent the last 17 years of my life with this woman. And she kept telling me that she was doing this for us. I'm just really confused. Ida for getting divorced from my wife of 17 years because she was manipulated. me into forgiving my parents. Update 1. It's been three weeks since I filed the petitions and I have blocked my wife because I don't think I have anything left to say to her anymore. She kept trying to talk to me and make me come back for about a week before I finally blocked

her. And part of the reason was that so many people commented here and told me that I needed to make a run for it because my wife was a huge red flag. I feel like the only reason I had even been questioning myself. Hi, I'm Darren Marler, host of the Weird Darkness Podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify.

But the real game changer for me was Spreker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career. Spreaker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Spreker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out spreeker.com. That's S-P-R-E-K-E-R dot com.

was because I loved her and I desperately wanted to hold on to that belief that she would never do something like this to me. But I couldn't ignore the facts anymore. She had betrayed me and she had manipulated me. She probably wouldn't even have ever told me the truth herself and I had to find out by chance. And after a betrayal of this degree, I don't think I could ever bring myself to trust her again. So no matter how much I loved her and I wanted to be with her, I had to let her go for the sake of my own sanity. Blocking her was actually quite a relief for me and I definitely have a much clearer head now. The legal proceedings against my parents and my wife have already started and things are pretty

much going in my favor right now. I know for a fact now that I will be getting my money back so I'm not too worried about the future. My parents are going to pay for all the lies that they made up, my lawyer and I are going to make sure of that. They already looked pretty unhappy on the future. day that we met for her first settlement negotiation, but my goal is to make sure that they look and feel just as unhappy as I had felt when they scanned me. My wife tried to talk to me that day

as well and it was difficult for me, but I dodged her somehow and made my way back to the hotel without having to interact with her. And now I just have to keep doing that until this is all over. It's probably going to be really difficult, but I know that I do not want to speak to my wife under any circumstances. It's mostly because I'm afraid that speaking to her might make me weak again and I can't afford to let that happen. I don't want to go back to her because I know that could be the worst move that I make. And I know very well that she can totally manipulate me into coming back.

She almost did it once and when it comes to her, I have practically no self-control so it's best for me not to take that risk at all. It's already hard enough for me to meet her and fight her legally, I can't do more. So that's the plan right now, just avoid her as much as I can. Update 2 So my wife decided to contact me today in person and showed up at the hotel that I have been living in. When I received the call from the hotel front desk and got to know that my wife was here to see me, I was really confused because I hadn't told anybody where I was apart from my lawyer and a couple of close friends.

Who I trusted and I knew that they wouldn't tell her. When I spoke to her, I found out that for the past couple of days, she had been visiting every hotel in and around town looking for me. And now that she had finally found me, she wasn't going to leave without having a conversation with me. I didn't know what else to do so I invited her up to my room because I didn't want to fight with her in the lobby. Once we were in my room, I waited for her to start talking because I had nothing to say to her. After some awkward silence, she told me that she was here to ask me to stop the divorce proceedings and I just couldn't believe that she was bringing this up again. I really knew it and I told her that it was bad enough that she was here, she shouldn't make

things worse for herself by backing me into a corner. I told her very clearly that I was not going to entertain any discussion about this. But she told me that she would testify against my parents and make everything much easier for me if I just decided to stay with her. It was ridiculous and exasperating because I had to explain to her that that's not how things work. She couldn't just turn on my parents and expect me to take her back. She had really screwed our relationship up and there was just no fixing it anymore, mostly because I didn't want to fix it.

I wanted to leave and I had made it pretty clear to her, but she just couldn't accept it. I tried to tell her that it didn't matter to me what she did anymore because I was fighting to end this marriage, not to make it work. So she started crying and asked me why I was punishing her when she had already learned her lesson. It was just so absurd that I couldn't help but chuckle because she was making it sound like I was a disgruntled school teacher and not her husband who she had betrayed and manipulated. So I told her that I was not punishing her, I was just trying to protect myself and do what was best for me. And right now, staying away from her was the best thing that I could do for myself. but she still continued crying and told me that she was just doing this all for us and she wasn't

ready to throw away over a decade of her life because of a stupid little mistake. I didn't know what to say because I also felt miserable about the divorce but if I couldn't even trust her then what was the point of being with her. And that's what I needed her to understand. So I thought that I would explain it to her gently and have this conversation once and for all, so she would learn to give up and move on. I told her that I couldn't be with her even though I loved her because she had hurt me and broken my trust and that's something you just can't take back, no matter how much you try. So now she could do whatever she wanted to, but it wasn't going to undo the damage.

And I would never be able to forget what she had put me through. So even if we stayed together and cancelled the divorce, it wouldn't make any sense because I would just keep doubting her and questioning her. and that would make both of us miserable, so it wasn't just for me, but it was also in her best interest to go through with the divorce instead of trying to fight it. I thought that I was getting through to her and making progress until she got back on her feet and told me that I was wrong and that she would keep fighting for us to be together. Apparently unlike me, she loved me and wasn't ready to give up on our marriage because of a misunderstanding. And then she walked out and I have been sitting here for the past hour, wondering what... Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast.

I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere, from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreaker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you,

and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career. Spreaker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Spreker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows.

So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R dot com. ...to-do because this is just really frustrating. This could really be a clear-cut divorce and an easy process, but she has just been on making this a lot more difficult than it needs to be. I told my lawyer about it, and I don't think that there's much we can do because if my wife doesn't want to get divorced,

then there's very little we can do to speed up the process. It's really frustrating, but I can't do anything about this. Update 3. Hi, I haven't updated you guys. in a while so I thought I'd just drop in and let you guys know that the legal process is still ongoing. But I'm winning this for sure, my parents are just trying to buy themselves more time. My wife is trying to fight against the divorce still, even though it's been almost two months since the proceedings began. I feel bad for her at this point because she's very obviously in denial of this whole mess. Her family isn't speaking to her either, presumably because they

found out the truth. It must be hard but again, not my fault. Update 4, it's been almost four months since I made my original post here and today, my parents and wife were finally ordered to return all the money to me. I have to hand it to them and their lawyers, they fought pretty hard even though they knew that they were going to be on the losing side of this because the cards were all stacked against them. I wish I could post a picture of them when they realized that they had lost but just know that it was incredibly satisfying. I think I'll be holding on to that feeling for a really long time. As for my wife, we are definitely going to get divorced and at this point, it doesn't really matter if she agrees with it or not. The legal process is just an obligation

but in my head, I'm already separated from her and have nothing to do with her. It's been a great run but unfortunately, it has to come to an end because of her own stupidity and foolishness. Not to mention how selfish and manipulative she was. I have moved from the hotel into an apartment of my own because we don't know who is going to get the house and the divorce. I'm hoping that it's me because I feel like I was wrong so I deserve the house more. We still have to divide all our property and I think it's best for us to just sell everything that we own together and split whatever we get. I think I'm being pretty generous with it, considering the fact that she had tried to screw me out of my share of money by siding with my parents. She isn't trying to

contact me anymore, which is a relief because I think by now she should know that this is not going to work. I have also started thinking about my business plan, which I think I will actively start working on as soon as I'm done with the divorce. Things are finally beginning to look up and I have a lot of work to do ahead of me. I have to rebuild my life and learn how to live on my own. I feel like it's going to be a long journey, but it's going to be worth it.