Reddit Stories - BETRAYED by FAMILY_ Exiled for EXPOSING Fraud, I Fled 2,000 Miles_

Episode Date: September 21, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familybetrayal #fraudexposed #exile #betrayal #fledSummary: A gripping tale of betrayal by family after exposing fraud, leading to exile and a daring escape covering 2,000 miles.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familybetrayal, fraudexposed, exile, betrayal, fledBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Mother evicted me for revealing stepfather's embezzlement, then implored me to salvage her relationship. However, I relocated 2,000 miles to my father's residence instead, and now she is renouncing me. Therefore, I shall initiate. Myself before I start talking about what happened. I'm 17 years old, I celebrated my 17th birthday just a couple of months ago. I graduated from high school just a month ago and have been a straight-a-student all my life. I've been living with my 38-year-old mother for the last year and 10 months.

She's a single mom and the head chef at one of the best Italian restaurants in our city. My parents got divorced when I was 10 years old. My parents co-parented me for several years, but then my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer. My dad ran the trucking business that his parents had started, but he'd let his brother take over once he fell sick. Earlier, I used to alternate between living with my mom and dad every week, but after my dad's diagnosis, I had to move in with my mom full time. I visited my dad often, but I still did miss living with him because I'd say I've always been a lot closer to my dad as compared to my mother. My mom's just always been a little too tightly wound for us to really get along and we

just constantly used to be at odds. First, it was my dad who she'd fight with all the time and then after the divorce, it was me. She had her good moments too, though, so I didn't mind staying with her and after my dad's diagnosis, I had no choice but to stay with her so I made my peace with it. My mother and I, in the recent past, have not been on good terms mostly because of her relationship with her new husband and how he treats me. My mother got married for a second time just eight months ago to Mark. 32M, she'd been dating Mark for a little over one year and I only found out about it when he proposed because she'd kept their relationship well under wraps. It was the significant age gap between the two and my dad had just been diagnosed at the time

which also didn't help so she just kept it a secret. When he proposed, that's finally when she decided to tell us about their relationship, and at that point, I had no other choice but to be okay with it. I never liked or trusted Mark and it was mostly because of his overly sweet behavior. He seemed too fake and insincere even when he was being nice to me. Like the vibes were just always off about him if you catch my drift. Of course, I couldn't tell my mother that because then she'd think I was trying to discourage her from getting married on purpose or some other ridiculous thing. I put up with Mark but I didn't allow him to be my friend and I realized I was right about him just three months after the wedding. He'd moved in with us after the wedding and since he

was a high school football coach, he'd be home a lot earlier than my mother. We'd end up spending a lot of time at home by ourselves before my mother came home and surprisingly, he never tried to even speak to me when we were on our own, but as soon as my mother would be home, he'd turn on the charm and try to act like we were best buddies. Anyone in their right mind would be able to see right through his little act and so was I anyway so one day, I went to the kitchen to grab myself some food and then I heard a creaking sound coming from my mom's bedroom. Now I knew that my mother had a secret locker under her bed that only we knew about and kept the keys on her all the time. She had a spare set of keys as well, but those were usually with me and I hadn't given my

keys to Mark, so I realized that he must have stolen my mom's set. The locker contained all of my mother's wedding jewelry back from when she got married to my dad and a lot of other really expensive jewelry too. She also kept some spare bundles of cash stashed away in the locker for emergencies. She didn't trust bank lockers and preferred to keep these valuables close to herself because she felt it was considerably safer. It was a whole thing. I watched Mark take out an entire bundle of cash and put it in his pocket. I was too shocked to even move and stayed rooted to my spot so when Mark turned around, he spotted me standing right outside the bedroom. He looked irritated for a second and then gave me a big smile, walked towards me,

and then put his arm around my shoulder while walking me to the living room couch. There, he told me that my mother had asked him to bring him some cash for a work emergency, and that's where he was headed with the bundle of cash. He told me that this was perfectly normal and that I didn't need to talk to my mother about this. I was going to tell my mother about it that day as soon as she came back home, but as soon as I started the conversation, she told me she didn't want to hear it. I just sat her down in private and told her that I had something to talk to her about with regards to Mark and as soon as I said that, she shut me down instantly.

She told me that she'd seen this coming and knew this was going to happen at some point or the other. My mom thought that I was going to tell her the same old Mark is not the right guy for you and for some reason. She believed that I was going to try and ask her to patch things up between her and my dad. I don't know why she assumed that because I'd never made it seem like I thought she and my dad were good together or whatever. I was very relieved when they separated because it was better that they get divorced.

than force each other to remain married and traumatize me with their daily fights and arguments. I tried to tell her, but she just wouldn't hear it and yelled at me and said that if I even said a word against Mark, then she'd ground me. That pissed me off so I decided that she could suffer for all I care since she was clearly too taken by Mark's surface-level attractiveness to notice what a loser he was. If she wanted to believe a lie and stay delusional, then I wasn't going to stop her especially after she'd insulted me like that. I didn't bring up the incident with Mark after that and waited for my mother to catch on herself, which she unfortunately never did. Months passed like this and I grew more and more distant from my mother because she was

obsessed with her husband and it was just gross, simply because it was Mark of all people. Then about a week ago, my mother decided to sit me down and talk to me about something very important. It was the weekend and Mark was out with his friends, so it was just my mother and I. My first thought was that there was bad news about my dad but she told me that wasn't it and started to beat around the bush about irrelevant things. I didn't know what she was trying to get at, and so after some time I got fed up with her and told her to cut to the chase already. She blurted out that she actually wanted me to leave the house now because Mark had told her that he didn't feel comfortable around me and said that I made him feel unsafe and unwanted. Now I knew that my mother

was smitten with Mark, but even I couldn't have seen this coming because kicking your own daughter out due to your husband's insecurity over practically nothing made no sense to me. I knew that Mark was afraid of me telling my mother about the locker incident and also just generally scared that someday I'd force my mother to take her rose-colored glasses off and see him for what he truly was. But he didn't have any reason to worry because, after the way my mother had spoken to me when I tried to tell her the truth, she had made sure that I didn't say anything to her at all beyond that point. In any case, I was so bloody done with my mom that I didn't even bother to argue with her and just said, okay, then got up and started packing.

My head was pounding with anger while I was packing and I honestly wanted to wait for Mark to come home so I could punch him in the face but then I found my mother's spare keys to the locker and had a better idea. I snuck into my mom's room while she was watching television in the living room, grabbed her bag, took out the keys, and then took them away. I also left a note in her purse saying that if she wanted to know where her original keys were, she could talk to Mark about it to make sure that he wouldn't get away with this scot-free. After I was done packing my clothes, books, and some other miscellaneous stuff that I'd need, I walked to the living room to say goodbye she seemed surprised because she hadn't actually expected me to pack up and leave that day itself, which is also why she'd been watching television in the living room instead of helping me. In spite of the initial shock, she got over super quickly and hugged me goodbye.

There was not a single tear in her eye and neither did she seem unhappy about the situation. It was painfully evident that none of this seemed problematic to her at all. I left the house and boarded the bus that took me to my dad's house which happened to be far away from my mother's place. It was about 2,000 miles away, in the suburbs, which is part of the reason why I used to live with my mom. My dad was still undergoing treatment and had to be in and out of the hospital frequently. He lived with his brother who took care of him and whenever I'd visit him, which was almost every week, I'd try to keep the conversation light and positive so he wouldn't worry too much about me. I missed him but I also cared about him and his wealth way too much so I had never shared anything

about Mark or my mother with him. Whenever he'd asked me how I was doing at home and how my mother and her new husband were treating me, I'd lie to him and tell him that it was all good. But now I couldn't do that anymore and had to tell him the truth about everything, which I did without any qualms because it was important for him to know this. I told him every single thing that had happened and when I got to talking about the events of that particular day, my dad got so mad that his ears literally went red which was the first time I'd ever seen it happening. I was a little worried that he'd fly off the handle and that wouldn't be good for his health, but he managed to contain himself. Just to pacify him, I also told him how I'd taken the keys and the note that I'd left

which would ensure that my mother found out about Mark's thieving. That seemed to make him feel slightly better and he told me that I was clever for doing that. My dad and my uncle then told me not to worry about anything and said that they were perfectly fine with taking care of me. The one and only reason they'd even agreed to let me move in with my mom full-time was because they'd thought it would be easier and more convenient for me but if this was the case, then they'd happily take me back. I was also much happier with my dad and my uncle so I didn't really mind that my mother had sent me away. On the first day, I didn't hear back from my mother at all and neither did my father but the very next day, my mother sent me a video of Mark sobbing and

apologizing to me for whatever had happened. He was begging me to come back because he'd realized that he'd screwed up by stealing from the woman who'd put her heart and soul into the relationship. My mother texted me saying that this video was supposed to be proof that Mark did feel guilty about whatever he had done and for forcing her to kick him out. My plan had worked in when she'd noticed the missing keys and the note, she'd confronted Mark about it and he'd been left with no choice but to come out with the truth. It was satisfying to see him crying, but when my mother sent me another text saying that she'd only forgive him if I came back, it stopped being fun and just got exasperating. She should have known that there was no way

I was going back to that hell, where I was being treated like I was invisible all the time. I was either invisible or being treated like a burden and neither of those two choices seemed like something anyone would want to pick from. And for my mother to even leave the choice to me was ridiculous because it should have been her choice to end that marriage and apologize to me for what she did. If Mark was the bad guy here, so was she, and probably even worse than Mark because at least he wasn't related to me. She, being my mom, had kicked me out for another man and that was unforgivable. It wasn't just Mark who should have been apologizing but she should also have been regretting what she put me through instead. She was treating this as some sort of sick

game. I didn't understand why she'd left the fate of her marriage up to me to be decided, but since she had left it up to me, I chose to say that I wasn't going to come back and she had to leave Mark. In response to that, she sent me another video of a much calmer but still upset looking Mark saying that he understood where I was coming from but he loved my mom and just needed one last opportunity to prove it to us. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears and was going to start begging me on his knees any moment now and that made me feel bad but I still wasn't convinced so I said that my decision was final. To that, my mother finally replied saying that I was being way too harsh on both of them. Here were two grown adults trying to get me to forgive them and even

putting their happiness and marriage at stake for my sake, but I didn't care about any of that and only wanted to push them even further away. I didn't know what to say to her so I just ignored her text and didn't reply. It's been six days since then and every day. She's been been texting me and trying to get me back in every single day. There's a video message from her and Mark where they apologize to me for treating me badly. She's told me repeatedly in the videos that unless I agree to come back, she'll file for divorce to prove to me that she's serious. Yesterday, she even told me that she'd been speaking to a lawyer and sent me texts to prove that it was true. Mark also looked upset in the video message they sent and begged me to forgive

him because he couldn't afford to lose a woman like my mother. I know that I'm destroying their marriage, but to be honest, I feel like whatever my mother is doing is really sick and I can't bring myself to dignify it with a response of any kind. Not only is she torturing her own husband, but she's also putting me through something very unnecessary because I don't think I'm the one who needs to make a call about what to do in a situation like this. She shouldn't be putting the responsibility of deciding with regards to her marriage on my shoulders in the first place because that makes me look like the reason their marriage had to end was because her daughter wasn't happy about her marriage. So far, I think everyone knows that that's not the case and I'd hate to

feel guilty like that, but she's just putting me on the spot so it's not like I have a way out of this anyway. Mark's not a good guy, but he's still a human being and it's crazy that he's allowing himself to be treated this way at all just because my mother's richer than him. It's dehumanizing and I can't believe he's just letting her do this to him every day. I haven't told my dad about it I don't want him to worry about me and I know that if I tell him, he'll definitely intervene and that'll be another dramatic showdown that I don't want him to take on. I feel terrible, but I don't know what to do here. I'd offer refusing to decide whether my mother should divorce her thieving husband.

Update 1. Hey, guys, so I read the comments on my original post and the general consensus was that I should tell my dad about what I was going through instead of trying to deal with all my problems myself. I guess it's true because I do tend to take it all on myself. instead of speaking up and asking for help when I need help. I feel bad telling my dad because I think it might be bothersome for him since he has so much on his plate already. I mean he's a literal cancer patient, so it's not easy for me to go to him with my problems

the way I used to before his diagnosis. I think if I just tried to talk to him, then maybe I wouldn't have had to go through so much because he wouldn't have allowed it at all. Like this time, I finally told my dad all about my mother and her sick techniques and he called her up and tore into her. She tried to tell my dad that this was none of his business, but he wasn't having it and told her that he'd be filing for full custody and that he'd make sure she doesn't ever get to see me after this. She was protesting against it but both my dad and I knew that she didn't really care about me.

She cared more about what other people would think of her when they found out that she lost custody of her only daughter because she decided to put her husband over her daughter. That's why she was fighting with my dad over me, not because she loved me. If she loved me, she would have been a better mother and that was something she'd never even tried to be. Now it was just too late. After the phone call with my mom, my dad explained to me the same things that people in the comments had told me, that I was his daughter and that I didn't need to think twice before coming to him with a problem because as a father, he could never think of me as a burden.

My well-being was his responsibility and his cancer wasn't going to prevent him from giving me the best life and solving my problems whenever he needed to step. in, and I needed to remember that. I won't lie. I teared up at that point because it just reminded me that even though he was a lot weaker than I remembered, he was still my strong dad underneath. I ended up breaking down because, after a long time, I finally felt like I was safe and loved again. Thanks to my mother and Mark, I'd completely forgotten how that feeling was. But my dad reminded me again that no sickness in the world was going to stop him from protecting me and I'll always be grateful for that. Gosh, it sounds so sappy, but I'm really happy that it's true for me.

Update 2. My dad has filed for full custody of me and my mom isn't going to get any visitation rights either. It doesn't really matter since I'm just one year away from being a legal adult anyway, but my dad said that he just doesn't trust my mother anymore because her head has obviously been turned by Mark's presence in her life. Recently, she texted me to tell me that I disappointed her by dragging my dad into this even though I knew he was sick and called me a selfish and manipulative brat. She also added that she was really happy now that she hadn't actually divorced Mark over what I said. I was accused of trying to drive a wedge between them because that's the kind of petty person I was but I'd failed and she and Mark were now

stronger than ever. She would gladly give up custody of me because I don't deserve to be her daughter anyway. There were a couple of other really mean things she said but I don't care. She can say whatever she wants to, but it won't change the fact that she's the one who failed as a mother and the reason she's getting so defensive now is because she knows it. My maternal grandparents have threatened to cut her off, but she doesn't even care about that. She's that crazy about Mark. I mean, I don't even know what to say about this woman. I've had my differences with my mother growing up, but this is just insane. She's beyond help if you ask me. At least my grandparents have tried to knock some sense into their daughter. but even that's not working and if her own parents can't bring her back to her senses, then we're definitely not going to be able to accomplish that.

My dad's been kind enough to allow her parents to still see me because they've never done anything wrong. I just wish she'd been able to take a leaf out of their book and learn how to have a good relationship with your ex even after divorce because even my grandparents are divorced and despite that, they've done their best to raise my mom to be a strong, successful woman. Now she's almost in her 40s so they can't be held responsible for whatever she's up to now. Unfortunately, my mother failed on all fronts, as a wife, as a mother, and even as a daughter.

Update 3, Hey, Everyone. It was a really bittersweet day today. My mother finally terminated her parents' rights over me and I'm legally free from her now. I decided to accompany my father for the signing and saw her again today, probably for the last time in a while. She didn't acknowledge my existence at all and didn't even look at me. I didn't know how to feel very honestly and I still don't. Like I'm sad but I'm also relieved, I guess. I don't know, I just have mixed feelings about all of this.

Mark wasn't there which was no big surprise because that thief probably didn't have the spine to face me after whatever happened. It was only my mother's actions that really hurt me anyway. He can go to hell because he's very irrelevant in my life. My dad and uncle took me out for dinner to make me feel better today and that's did cheer me up a little. Two days ago, we also learned that my dad is getting better, and slowly but surely, there's definitely a real chance of him beating cancer. So if everyone could just pray for that, that'd be great. I love my dad and at this point, he's my only parent so I can't lose him. I just can't. My uncle's great but he's not my dad and nobody will ever be like him ever. I don't know how

much time I have with him, but I just hope that whatever time we have together is only good times and nothing else. Nevertheless, I hope you guys keep us in your prayers. And thank you to all of you who responded.