Reddit Stories - BETRAYED by FAMILY_ The Costly Price of GENEROSITY_

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familybetrayal #generosity #relationships #trustissues #heartbreakSummary:A story of betrayal within a family due to misplaced generosity. The cost of trust shattered, relationships strained, and the heavy toll of being taken advantage of by loved ones.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familybetrayal, generosity, relationships, trustissues, heartbreak, familydrama, betrayalstory, emotionalpain, trustbroken, familyconflict, kindnessbackfire, loyaltytested, lovebetrayed, forgivenessstruggles, rebuildingtrustBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Purchase lavish holiday presents for my family, but their mean-spirited joke on me and my partner led me to return all the items, including those intended for the children. All right, in recent times years I started making good enough that I bought a house, and I still have plenty after the monthly bills. My family have all been pranksters and at times entitled, My Whole Life. But Christmas Eve they took the cake. I was NC with them for years. But they convinced me to reconnect after I moved closer. For gifts, I got them all good stuff.

Like tablets for the kids with built-in DVD players. Sports memorabilia and camping stuff for my dad, brother, and uncle. Specific antiques, jewelry and appliances for my mom, sis and aunt. I brought my girlfriend with me, as what little family she has are horrid. So she was delighted to spend Christmas Eve with my family. Everything was going smoothly. And I warned my family, no pranks on me or my girlfriend. At all.

They swore none would happen. But they could not resist. We got attacked by silly string from multiple fronts. That stuff reeks and gets everywhere. Somehow we powered through that. But then came the gifts. I wasn't expecting much. but none of them even tried.

I got Dollar Store cooking utensils, a pair of insanely ugly holiday socks that I confirmed were also Dollar Store, and a pink hat. And that was just for my parents. They all kept snickering and recording me as I unwrapped random junk. One being a used mirror to a car I no longer own. And the one gift there to my girlfriend was a bottle of fart spray. I told them I'd had enough, and they'd agreed to know. pranks. Long story short, they weren't just gag gifts. They were the only presents there for us. I had enough and just started gathering up all the presents I'd brought. They all freaked out and

demanded I give them back. I told them all that they didn't change one bit. And they could kiss all of that stuff goodbye. We bagged everything and stormed out. The family keep calling and messaging me that I'm being greedy, I couldn't take a joke, couldn't think of anything to get me, the kids are crying. I don't need to go on. Ida. I've refused to return any of the presents. Comments. Successful underscore Bath, 1200. NTA. It's not like you didn't warn them. Time to go and see with them again. Anything you can't return to the shop it came from to get your money back or that you can't use yourself, give to a charity. and tell them that's what you did. Aru, NTA.

What is wrong with your family? A prank is only funny if appreciated by everyone involved and you warned them that you didn't want to partake in anything like that. Furthermore, how is it funny to get a loved one awful gifts without a genuine present at the end? Your family aren't pulling pranks, they're just being assholes. You did the right thing by taking away their presence and while there's not much hope for the adults involved,

maybe the kids might learn a valuable lesson about fucking around and finding out. Not that they're to blame in all of this, but a point must be made. Update, my girlfriend recently saw my original post and asked that I update here. I previously posted in another subreddit about what my family did to me on Christmas Eve. Back at work, word of what happened with my family spread around the office when it shouldn't have. I talked about it to just one friend at lunch a few days after making my first first. Reddit post, and the office gossip just happened to be hiding nearby listening to every word I said. Within days it was all over the office. And someone in the office was apparently social media

friends with my brother. In short, my family found out about my Reddit post. And they went off about how they thought I was a brat who couldn't take a joke. I told them the 400MTA comments said otherwise. Then they tried to say I didn't tell the truth. I asked them, to read the post over the phone and tell me what and it was a lie. Well, their recollection was suddenly quite bad, because I made it clear every detail was on point. I even still have the messages from them confirming numerous details. They tried gaslighting, but I wasn't having it. I was never going to let them try to rewrite history again. My mother resorted to crocodile tears and guilting. But I called her and my father out as self-serving narcissists who played favorites

and would rather make me the bad guy so they wouldn't have to feel bad about themselves. They didn't deserve to berate me, or cry for sympathy when they were complicit in my misery since childhood. Then I hung up on them. They tried calling back again and again. But I refused to pick up, and I deleted all of their voicemails. But I kept the text just in case I'd need to go to a lawyer. More people in the extended family were made aware after links to my Reddit account got around. Initially some sided with my parents and brother, but quickly switched sides when they saw the writing on the wall. My parents then tried to turn my brother into the new scapegoat for the situation since it couldn't be me. And then it turned into a chicken fight. After about two weeks

my parents showed up at my door to try and get me to talk to them. But I refused. I found out later that other relatives called them 50-plus-year-old children, and they owed me a lifetime of apologies. My brother apparently doubled down that what they did was funny, and refused to admit any wrongdoing. But his wife and even his own kids were furious at him. He was made to delete the videos he recorded of me at Christmas by the rest of the family. And he blamed me for it because I ruined his best prank yet. My sill ended up slapping him and calling him a man-child, then saying she'd never been so humiliated to be his wife.

She was apparently unaware of what my family put me through growing up until the Christmas prank because I'd hardly seen her before cutting contact with my family. Then she gave him an ultimatum. Marriage counseling and a sincere apology to me, or she would leave him. My brother stubbornly refused, and his wife took the kids and left for a few days. He then came to my house while intoxicated and yelling that it was all my fault, and I was a bitch baby who couldn't take a joke. Then he started demanding I talked to his wife and fix things. I had to call our parents to come get him before I had police take him away.

They showed up mortified and screaming at him to shut the hell up. After a few more days my parents begged me to come over and speak to them. Took me a while to agree. And when I did, my brother was there with them looking like a kicked person. puppy. His wife had actually gone to get a consultation from a divorce lawyer. And my brother finally realized this was for real, and unless he acknowledged he was a massive a-hole, his life would be ruined. His wife did come back for the sake of keeping the kids in school. But even after months, my brother is still in the doghouse. My brother and parents

apologized and admitted they never expected me to show up with such nice gifts, and figured I wasn't likely to bring anything since I hadn't seen them in years, and they'd prank me so much that it finally clicked with them why I'd previously gone no contact. And even though I showed up with real gifts, they went ahead with their plan anyway since the prank gifts were already there under the tree, and they somehow thought I'd share in the humor. They thought wrong. I told them they would never be apologizing like this if they weren't being humiliated for their actions. To which they actually agreed and started trashing themselves. Then I asked if the apologies they'd given me before were totally insincere and just a ploy

to lure me back into the family. They couldn't say they were or weren't. I'm not sure even they know any more. So then I had a very frank discussion with them about my childhood and why I might never want to associate with them ever again. They didn't argue with a single point I made. All the mistreatment, all the favoritism, all the scapegoating. Why? Because I was the unwanted child.

I didn't ask to be born. And it sure as hell shouldn't have taken that long just for them to realize what kind of steaming piles of crap they were as people. They just sat there looking at the floor while I ran at them. And my mother was crying and blaming herself and my father. and my father started blaming her and saying it all started with her. My brother for once in his life knew when to shut the hell up and accept fault. And when he finally did speak, he owned up to everything. Since it was too late to return the gifts to the store by the time I'd made my IDA post,

the presents I took back were left in my garage, just sitting in a pile. I ended up donating all of them to a local church for a charity rummage sale. So all of that stuff went to people other than my relatives. I was chastised by many for taking the gifts back from the kids too. But they were sharing in the delight of laughing at me that day. And now they have a lesson in consequences that it was good to have while still young. That said, my mother kind of negated that by going rogue and bought the exact same tablet DVD combo players for the kids that I did.

My father was apparently furious with her at first because she put it all. on their credit card. Each of those tablets was around $150. But the fight about it didn't last long. My brother and Sill have been going to marriage counseling, and it's forced my brother to open his eyes. Our parents raised him to be the way he is. But he also kept it up well into adulthood. I've kept moderate contact with my family for the sake of getting to know my nibblings. And they're actually good kids. They don't. Don't blame me for taking the gifts back anymore, because they understand how angry I was at Christmas. I had my birthday in March at a local pizza parlor, and my family were invited.

It was literally their last chance. And shockingly, they did not blow it. They couldn't figure out what to get me, so they gifted me a large card with $100 cash in it, and a will-do better apology written in the card. They also gave my girlfriend a set of sterling silver earrings. Big apology as a makeup for Christmas since she'd refused to see them in person till then. It hasn't really been long enough since then for me to have any other kinds of details other than things seem to be pleasantly normal now. No more pranks to me.

They've even stopped doing them to each other. The whole situation just ruined what made it funny for them to begin with. Also, for all those who prior comments or DM'd me saying tablet slash DVD player combos don't exist, look them up for crying out loud. They do exist, and kids who have them, love them. The ones my mother got my nibblings have barely left their hands since getting them. Lastly, I did report the office gossip that caused me to get ratted me out to my brother to HR. And that was just one thing in a line of complaints against them.

So they were finally written up, and has been avoiding me as much as possible at work. since then. Now on to the next story. Story 2. Used my late uncle's inheritance money to open my dream restaurant with my girlfriend of six years. But she cheated on me with bartender she hired behind my back. My girlfriend and I had been together for six years. I loved her and I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life, but apparently she had different feelings about that. Neither my girlfriend nor I went to college after high school, so we spent a lot of time trying to work to make ends meet. When we weren't working, we were spending time in town at local bars and restaurants. Our dream was to open a restaurant and bar for ourselves.

We talked about it all the time and we were hoping to get a business plan in order so we could try to get started. After a couple of years of planning and dreaming, we finally had a bit of a breakthrough in it. My uncle passed away and left me a large house. He didn't have any children or many other relatives, but he did know that I was hoping to open my own business. He hoped I could sell the house and invest the money in my bar. Some of my family members advised me against going into business with my girlfriend because we weren't married, but I didn't listen to them. I trusted her and I thought that she and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives. I wanted to marry her, but I wanted to make sure I could give her the perfect wedding that she always dreamed of.

That meant having the business up and running. The only thing that I did to protect myself was make sure she wasn't on as a business partner. She was listed as an employee, so God forbid anything happened. I had an out. The thing is, I didn't tell her that. She was under the impression that we were equal partners in the business and I knew telling her otherwise would hurt her feelings. We started working on everything and within a year we were preparing to open for the first night. My girlfriend was in charge of hiring the staff and I told her to give me the rundown when she was done.

After she came to me with the resumes and information from the people that she hired, I looked over everything. We hired talented cooks, experienced servers, and hosts, and for the most part, the bartenders were skilled. However, there was one that didn't have any bartending experience. His name was Eric and his only work experience was at an office supply store. I questioned her about it, wondering why she would hire them over another applicant who had experience. If she liked him and wanted to give him a job, why wouldn't she hire him as a host or server? Training somebody in either of those roles would be much easier than bartending.

She didn't really have a good reason for hiring Eric. She told me that she had a gut feeling about him after they were talking about drinks. She told me that I just needed to trust her because she already hired him and they couldn't undo it. I had too much other stuff to worry about to focus on why she hired him. A couple of weeks before opening, all of the staff came in to train and sign their contracts. I met Eric for the first time when I introduced myself to him. He was a good-looking guy. With his lack of experience, part of me assumed that that was why my girlfriend hired him. I thought it was pretty annoying. When we got back to our house later that night, I mentioned it and she got angry with me for even suggesting that.

We dropped it so there wasn't an argument and we both went to bed. Over the next couple of weeks, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I had so much to do and there wasn't enough time to do it. I wanted our opening to be completely flawless and it felt like my girlfriend wasn't putting in the effort that I was. Instead of helping me with all of the last-minute things that had come up, she was focusing on training Eric at the bar. At the heart of our business, we were a bar. We needed bartenders who knew what they were doing and weren't relying on a week and a half of training and a cocktail recipe book. I had to go visit a supplier one afternoon and when I got back, my girlfriend was behind the bar with Eric and they were laughing and standing very close to each other.

It almost looked like Eric was groping her when I walked in. I asked what was so funny and when I approached, I could tell that they were a little bit drunk. I had a realization then that my girlfriend didn't have as much stake in the business as I did, so she didn't care as much. I had a conversation with her later that night and I told her that I needed her to step up with work. She tried to tell me that she was working hard training Eric, and then I brought up how uncomfortable I was with their relationship. It looked like it was crossing some lines and I told her that I didn't like it. I already felt like she hired Eric because he was good looking, and seeing them so close together bothered me. She told me that I was controlling when I said that.

I was kind of flabbergasted that she would accuse me of that when any sane person seeing the way they acted together would feel the same. If the shoe was on the other foot and I was acting like that with one of the cute servers she hired, she wouldn't let me hear the end of it. I didn't want to focus on arguing with her so close to the opening because it would only distract me. Opening night came in for the most part, it was a huge success. We advertised the business and a bunch of people came in and it seemed like they enjoyed themselves. The only issue that we had was Eric being horrible at his job. Over the next several weeks, the business was doing very well and I thought that if it kept up the way that it was, we would be seeing profits in no time. With everyone busy at work, my girlfriend and Eric seemed to be spending less time with each other.

I was glad to see that. I was in my office one Friday afternoon and one of the cooks knocked on the door and closed it behind him. I assumed that he was about to quit. Instead, he told me about a rumor that had been going around about my wife and Eric sleeping with each other. I could tell he was nervous about bringing that information to me because his job might have been on the line. but he felt like it was the right thing to do, so he did, which I appreciated. I figured that the rumor might have just been people looking at their relationship and thinking the same things I did, but something told me that maybe there was something more to it.

I hadn't seen them together often since the restaurant opened, but that didn't mean they weren't hiding something. I didn't confront my girlfriend about it right away, instead, I pretended like I didn't know anything about the rumor and I watched her. Now that I wasn't busy with the opening of the restaurant, I had time to pay attention to things like that. Over the week that I started watching her, I noticed that she was absent quite a bit. There would be periods of time when I would be home and she wouldn't be there. She would show up at the bar about an hour after I expected her.

On top of that, she and Eric didn't talk to each other at work. However, I did see them glancing over at each other often. All of that together was enough to make me think that something was going on. We had a no-phone policy on the floor, and I knew that my girlfriend usually left her phone in her bag while she was working at the bar. So, I went into her locker one evening while she was supervising the front of the house. It didn't take me long to find the evidence that I needed to prove that she was having an affair with Eric. I found videos of the two of them together and countless text messages. It seemed like their affair started while she was training him at the bar.

From what I could gather, they had sex in the bar. Because she was my girlfriend, but also technically my employee, I was in a sticky situation. I wanted to break up with her and I wanted to fire her. Eric was as good as done at the business too. But I couldn't behave in any way that would risk me getting in trouble, not with the business so new. From what I saw on the phone, it looked like they were. were fooling around on the property from time to time. I figured the only thing I could do was catch them in the act and I could fire them both then. We had security cameras at the bar,

so I started monitoring them regularly. The first instance I saw of them together, I recorded it on the cameras. They both went into the walk-in freezer and my girlfriend performed oral sex on Eric. That was sufficient evidence for me to fire them. I called them into my office the next day and I showed them the video. They were completely silent while they watched it. When it was done, I told them both that they were fired. Eric nodded his head and apologized for sleeping with my girlfriend and left the office. My girlfriend lingered behind and told me that I wasn't able to fire her because of her position in the business.

I pointed out the truth. I had been advised against working with her as a business partner by my family, and I took that advice. She was an employee of mine and I was firing her. She had no monetary investment in the business, and she was paid biweekly just like every other employee. I also pointed out that if she paid any attention to the business at any point while I was building it from the ground up, she might have noticed that. She told me she was going to have a lawyer evaluate everything, but I didn't care. I just wanted her out of my business. After they were both fired, I thanked the cook who told me about.

their relationship and informed everybody else about the change in management. They asked me about what happened, and I didn't hold back the truth. I told them about finding the footage of my girlfriend and Eric in the walk-in. My girlfriend never ended up getting a lawyer. She probably couldn't afford to get one if she wanted two. After I fired her, she had to practically beg for her old job back and now she's working paycheck to paycheck again. Eric wasn't really interested in her aside from her.

being a quick hookup every now and then. Eric had the audacity to put my name on his resume to give him a reference for another job. They called me and I told them the truth about everything, advising them not to hire him. I always thought he was kind of an idiot, but that was just too much. I'm focusing my attention on the business now. It's been doing very well and there is the demand in my town to open up other places, so I'm trying to look toward the future.