Reddit Stories - BETRAYED by Love_ CONFRONTING the SINISTER Scheme of My In-Laws_

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayal #familydrama #inlaws #confrontation #relationshipsSummary:In this gripping tale, a person confronts a dark scheme orchestrated by their in-laws, revealing betrayal and family drama. The story unfolds as they navigate the sinister intentions lurking beneath the surface.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, betrayal, familydrama, inlaws, confrontation, relationshipsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. The wealthy parents of my spouse despised me and attempted to coerce us into signing an unjust premarital agreement, so we opted to sever ties after our wedding. However, now my offspring has come of age. Against me and is calling me a gold digger. I, 44, female, have been married to my husband for almost 20 years. My husband, Jeremy, and I met each other through friends when we were in college. He was in a different department and was very outgoing and really extroverted, whereas I was kind of shy and quiet, so I was kind of skeptical about dating him when he first asked me out, but he was really consistent. So I ended up agreeing and stayed together for the entirety of our college lives. Everything about our relationship was perfect, apart from the fact that his parents did not like me.

Actually, not liking me is a very tame way to put it, they hate me. He introduced me to his family after we had been together for a year and it took him that long because he had told me that his parents were not the easiest people to deal with and he had to prepare all of us for the first meeting. I had already introduced him to my family after we had been dating for a couple of months because I really liked him and my family also seemed to really get along with him. He was sweet and wonderful to be around and they did not have any complaints about him. However, it was very different for me when I first met his parents. There was no sense of warmth or friendliness when I went to their house for the first time and it was all

very formal. They barely smiled at me and even when they were talking to me, I got the sense that I was being interviewed for a job and they were not really just making conversation with me. I was very nervous and I tried not to talk too much because I did not want them to sense that I was service and make a complete fool out of myself. Jeremy, honestly, just came from a very different kind of family and it was not something that I was used to so I was kind of intimidated. They were rich, no doubt about it, but I guess they were equally closed off and they did not approve of the fact that I was not somebody who belonged to their world. They were very cold towards me the first time that we met and dinner at their place was an

incredibly awkward affair for me. I was not even able to determine if I was able to make a decent first impression on them because they were literally so hard to read and I went home, not having any idea about whether they liked me or not. But I guess I should not have worried because that became very obvious to me in the next couple of years. My family is pretty down to earth. We don't come from a family that belongs to the same social class as my in-laws. My parents run a hair salon together and it might not be the most glamorous job but then, it paid the bills when I was growing up and I am proud of my parents.

They are the reason why my sister and I are educated today and are able to work the kind of jobs that we want to do, so I find it quite inspiring but I think my in-laws would call it embarrassing. My father-in-law is a pretty famous divorce lawyer and I had heard about him a couple of times, even before I met Jeremy, because he was that reputed. He even had a lot of ads all around the city and had a law firm of his own as well. So needless to say, he was pretty rich and had quite a high-end clientele. But instead of being humble about it, he and my mother-in-law were quite snobby and looked down upon me. They obviously never said it to my face before marriage, but I could tell, I'm not a

an idiot. Jeremy and I visited them about once every month, and every time, I would try to win them over and fit in with them. I would turn into a completely different person around them just because I wanted them to like me, but it never worked and I guess they could see right through me. And Jeremy was the one who told me that I did not have to visit them with him or try so hard to get them to like me because it didn't matter to him if they liked me or not. What mattered was that he loved me and his parents' opinions were not going to change that. Knowing that made me ease up a bit and I decided that I was going to maintain my distance from them because they had been nothing but hostile to me every time that I was visiting them with Jeremy and I did not

feel comfortable around them. So that was that. But I feel like my decision to stop putting in an effort to get them to like me made them dislike me even more than they already did and whenever we met after that, they would ignore me very pointedly and it was very hard to miss. They met my parents as well at our graduation ceremony and boy, was that bad. We introduced our families to each of other for the first time that day and they were even more horrible to my parents than they were to me and I felt very insulted. I could even tell that Jeremy was very embarrassed because of the way that his parents were behaving with mine and I knew that later on, he took them aside and really tore into them because the way that things had gone down between our families had been really bad and my

parents were visibly upset. That was the day that I realized, they might have the money but they definitely did not have even an ounce of human decency or courtesy and were definitely not as sophisticated and refined as they pretended to be in front of the world. Before that, I had been intimidated by them, but after that, I even started finding them awful and I didn't want to have anything to do with them. After we graduated, I told Jeremy that I really wanted to be with him but I could not stand his parents, especially after what had happened at the graduation ceremony and the way they had been absolutely nasty to my parents. So he told me that I did not have to worry about that because now, he had talked to his parents

and they had promised him that they would try to be better and accept me and my family. I was skeptical, but I stayed with him because in spite of his parents, I really loved him. And I still do. At 25, Jeremy finally decided to propose to me. We had been living together ever since we graduated from college and he had a decent job, as did I. We were doing well for ourselves and it was the perfect time to get married. So I said yes and there was no looking back. Everybody was happy for us, except for my in-laws, of course. They did not speak to anybody at the engagement party and just stood in a corner with a sour

face, but by then. I was used to them attending family events that I would host but never tried to be a part of and I knew it was all obligatory for them. I was fine with it, though. It did not matter to me what they thought of me anymore because I was engaged to the man that I loved and that was enough. I did not need their stamp of approval. So in the months leading up to the wedding, I didn't think of anybody or anything apart from the

wedding and I was really busy. My parents were paying for the venue and my dress, and I expected my in-laws to cover the rest of the expenses. I did not speak to them about it, obviously, but Jeremy had spoken with him and they had agreed to it earlier. But about a month before the wedding, Jeremy came home, quite pissed off, and told me that we would have to arrange for the rest of the money for the wedding ourselves because he had decided to cut his parents off and did not want to speak to them anymore. And when I asked him why he would do such a thing, he told me that they were trying to get me to sign a pre-up before the wedding which had a lot of clauses that would be very insulting to me. For instance, it did not just a man that I disclose each and every detail about my financial status,

like my property and assets and stuff, but also, they wanted me to disclose everything about my parents and their finances. I thought that was crazy because I was the one getting married, my parents had nothing to do with any of this. And also, the agreement said that in case my in-laws passed away and we were still married, I would not receive anything from the inheritance and I would also not be allowed to contest it. But the cherry on top was that they wanted me to agree that in the event of a divorce, all the joint assets that we had purchased during the course of our marriage would go to Jeremy and I would be left with nothing.

I would also not be entitled to any sort of alimony, maintenance, settlement, or whatever you want to call it if our marriage was terminated, and if we had children together, I would also not receive any amount of child support, even if I had full custody of them. It was a crazy one-sided agreement and nobody in their right mind would ever even consider it. Jeremy told me that his parents were trying to force him to get me to sign it before the wedding, probably in an ill-disguised attempt to get me to leave him. But sadly, he was able to see through them and it didn't work. They had told him that they had just drawn these papers up so they could make sure,

that I was not after his money or his inheritance, and if I was not a gold digger, I would have no issues signing that document. I think they had taken me for a fool because the only person who would not have any issues signing a pre-nup like that would be an idiot, and I was not one. But anyway, after that, we had no contact with his parents and it was great. Our wedding went really well and we were pretty blissful after that. I was quite relieved that his parents were no longer a part of our lives and they did not make any attempts to get back to Jeremy or even try to talk to him anymore after that. I guess their egos were bruised that we had decided to stay with each other

and they did not succeed in breaking us apart. They did not reach out to us after we announced our first pregnancy or even after I gave birth to my daughter. And neither did they reach out during the second. Jeremy and I have two children now and things have been great. Our daughter, Ellie, is 16 and our son, Kyle, is 12. We are a happy family but Ellie has been going through a bit of a teenage angst phase and has been rebelling. Her behavior has actually put a lot of

strain on our relationship because even though I can understand the teenage desire to stray away from your parents and experiment with your life, I still find it very difficult to let go of the control that most parents want. And I'm just really worried about her because she has been struggling at school and I don't see her trying to do anything about it because all she does is gossip from the phone and I hardly ever see her trying to study. I really want her to do well in life, but every time I talk to her, she just blows me off and it inevitably ends in a fight. It's just classic teenage behavior and I know that she's going to come back to me but for now, we are going to be at loggerheads for a while. At least, until she grows up a little bit.

I know she still loves me and obviously, I love her more than anything in the world, but we are just in a really difficult phase right now and I know that we can get through it. Obviously, Jeremy has been really helpful during this time and I think it's mostly him and Kyle, kind of trying to keep the peace in the house. But yes, things have been tense between Ellie and me and I have been trying my best and we do have certain moments of love and affection, like any other parent does with their child. Unfortunately, there has also been a lot of tension between the two of us. We are trying to work through it and navigate these new territories because we are both learning as we go. And speaking of parents, Jeremy also reconnected with them

a couple of months ago, after his father suffered from a massive cardiac arrest. His mother told him that he might have lost his life and that led to his decision to reconcile with his parents because both of them are nearing 70 and he does not want to end things on bad terms with them. I was supportive of that decision because at the end of the day, no matter how they are as people, they are still as parents and I know that he misses them. So I told him that I did not have any issues with him trying to fix his relationship with his parents and maybe, someday, even I would think about it. But for now, I think it was enough that he was trying to rebuild his relationship with them and I did not want to get into it at the moment. I already had a lot on my

plate, with work and my relationship with my daughter, so I was not looking to take on extra responsibility and start trying to build a relationship with my in-laws as well. So we decided that he would try to keep in touch with him and visit him at least twice a month, because he was busy as well, and make sure that they were doing all right. I did not have to be a little. I did not have to be a a part of it and on the days that he would be visiting his parents, I could stay at home and watch the kids. I was okay with it because it was only fair. This has been going on for the past seven months, maybe, and recently, he told me that he wanted to introduce the children to his parents. This was a big move because ever since they were born, they had never even met their grandparents

on their father's side. They had met my parents and had spent a lot of time with them but never my in-laws. They had always been told that their paternal grandparents did not want anything to do with our family and well, it was the truth. They had pushed us to our limits, especially me, and we had only responded to it by cutting them off. I did not see anything wrong with that. So introducing our kids to their grandparents on their father's side was a big deal and it was a very significant move. So obviously Jeremy had to consult me before going through with it. He told me that his parents had been trying to get him to bring the kids over for months and he had been putting it off but now, he thought it was finally time and so he was talking to me about it. I thought about it for a

couple of days and I decided that it was fine by me because if Jeremy thought that it was fine, I trusted his judgment and I was okay with it. So I gave it the green light and last weekend, he was supposed to take both Kyle and Ellie to see their grandparents. They had also been very pumped about it because it was a huge deal. But Kyle caught a really nasty cold a couple of days before he was supposed to go and he was not able to leave the house because I did not want him infecting other people. So it was only Ellie who visited her grandparents, and I am so thankful for it because when she came back, she was completely brainwashed and had been turned against me. She was only supposed to spend a few hours at their place, but when Jeremy came back, he was alone.

He told me that Ellie got along with her grandparents like a house on fire and they had requested that she be allowed to spend the weekend with him because it was the first time that they were meeting and they wanted to catch up on all the time that they had lost. So he just couldn't say no and even Ellie had said that she wanted to stay there because she did not want to leave the massive house that her grandparents lived in. I couldn't blame her either because her grandparents lived like kings and we had a pretty nice but normal lifestyle compared to them. So it was only natural for her to want a taste of that.

I was not exactly happy about it but it had already been done and I did not want to create an issue out of it, so I did not say anything at the time. But after the weekend, when Ellie came back home with Jeremy on Sunday evening, her attitude towards me had done a complete 180 and she was acting like I was her arch enemy or something like that. For the next couple of days, she refused to talk to me normally and would not even look me in the eye when she spoke to me or when I asked her anything. I even tried to talk to her about her behavior and asked her why she was acting like that

and she told me that it was nothing but I knew that it was something. She was ignoring me and acting like I was not even there in the same room whenever she was at home. And I just knew that something had shifted after she came back home from her grandparents' place and I knew that they were responsible for it. I did talk to Jeremy about it and he said that he thought something must have happened at school but even when she would fight with her friends, she would never act that way with me. and I just knew that my in-laws had something to do with it for sure, but I couldn't exactly blame them for it without making sure of it because then I did not want to come off as somebody

was trying to ruin Jeremy's relationship with his parents. However, the evidence of that being true, fell into my lap two days ago. I was in Ellie's room because I wanted to borrow her charger for my phone, but then while looking for it, her journal fell on the floor from under her pillow. And it was not the right thing to do, but I knew that she kept a pretty detailed account of her life, so I decided to take her peek to try and understand why she was acting that way with me. I know it was not right, but I just had to figure it out. So I flipped through the pages and found the most recent entries and started reading through them.

I went to the date when she had been visiting her grandparents and sure enough, there were almost four pages about how her grandparents had been filling her head with all sorts of crap about me. Apparently, they had told her that I was the one who was responsible for the fact that she had not been able to see them for so many years. They told her all sorts of lies and she believed it because we were already having a rough patch, like I told you guys, and they took advantage of it. They knew that we had been having problems because Jeremy had very casually mentioned it to them while he had been visiting them before and they decided that they would use the opportunity to drive a wedge between me and Ellie.

They had been successful in doing so because Ellie now believed that I had been the one to ruin Jeremy's relationship with his parents all those years ago. They had told her that I had forced him to cut them off and that that their only mistake was to suggest that Jeremy and I move closer to them after marriage. I did not like that and I decided that I would take all their money but I would not let my husband see his parents. They actually told her that they had paid for the house that we lived in and had even taken care of all our expenses before we got married. Apparently, I had been living off of their money before I decided to cut ties with them because Jeremy got a great job of his

own and I did not need them anymore. They painted me as the perfect gold digger and they were so convincing with their lies about it that my daughter ended up believing them. I immediately broke down after I read those pages because she had written it in her diary and said that she could no longer look at me like the same person and it was very difficult for her to believe that she was my daughter. I called my husband up and I sent him those pages. I was really heartbroken and upset and I told him that if he ever visited his parents again, I would file for a divorce. And he was just as shocked as I had been and only that I did not need to worry about any of this, he would fix it all for me and then hung up. Since that day, things had been really tense and his parents

have been blaming me for the fact that he has cut them off yet again. Jeremy and I did have a discussion about all of this with Ellie, but she was just outraged that I had gone through her diary and she refuses to talk to me. I have been trying but it's not working and we don't know what to do right now. As if that was not bad enough, I also have my in-laws breathing down my neck, constantly reminding me that I am the bad guy here. They have somehow gotten a hold of my phone number and email address and keep sending me messages from various accounts and numbers, telling me that I am ruining everybody's life. They are calling me egoistic and self-centered and are really cursing me out, which is really bad for me right now because I'm already going

through a lot, I don't need this as well. They think that they did not do anything wrong. They are and are calling me selfish because I was the one who's always forced Jeremy to stop seeing his parents and breaking their family apart. It's been so difficult that I don't even know if I did the right thing by telling Jeremy that I don't want him to see his parents anymore. I'd offer telling my husband that he's not allowed to see his parents anymore because they tried to brainwash my daughter into turning against me. Update 1. So I spoke to Jeremy about what I was going through like most of you suggested, and talking to him helped me a lot. I was avoiding that. because he was already really upset because of his parents and I was trying not to add on to it.

Besides, I was already feeling like I was being a burden on the family and so I did not want to talk to him and make myself feel worse because I was afraid, which is so stupid because I have been married to him for two decades and I should know him better. He's my husband and he's the only person I can truly talk to about these things. So I told him what was bothering me and the only that he did before anything else was just hugged me for five minutes and tell me that everything was going to be fine. I think I must have cried for at least half an hour after that because it was just so sweet and it reminded me exactly why I had married this man. He just always knew exactly what to do to make me feel better and I don't know how I got so lucky. But anyway, we had a

discussion and I told him about the messages that his parents had been sending me and he told me that he would put an end to it. I didn't need to worry about that. And then I told him that I also felt bad that my daughter was not talking to me anymore. That's where we kind of hit a snag because that was a very delicate and sensitive matter and all things said and done. I had actually invaded her privacy and that was not right. But then, what she was doing was also not okay and it was a very difficult situation to navigate. Eventually, we decided that we would talk to her, but Jeremy would do most of the talking because right now, she was more likely to respond to him than to me. So that's the plan right now and I just hope that it works because she has been giving me the cold

shoulder for almost a week now and it's very difficult for me to deal with as a mother. Update 2, hi guys, so Jeremy and I finally had that discussion with Ellie and we have decided that she and I are going to try out therapy and talk to a counselor. Jeremy sort of acted like the mediator while we were talking and that really helped us communicate. She told me that she always feels like I try to control her life and that makes her feel like less of an individual and that's why she always goes out of her way to do exactly the opposite of what I tell her to do, sort of like the whole reverse psychology shindig. Besides, she has enough problems to deal with at school, like drama with her friends and the fact that she has really

bad grades in a couple of subjects, and I'm just adding to it by being overbearing at home. So I tried to understand where she was coming from and also explained to her that I was only looking out for her because I wanted her to succeed in life. And when she did not listen to me, I felt like she had no respect for me and that made me feel awful about myself. I also told her that the fact that her grandparents had been able to make her doubt me so easily was also something that really got to me and I was very disappointed about that. She apologized to me for it and told me that the only reason she even believed him was because subconsciously, maybe she wanted a reason to hurt me because she was angry about everything. And I guess that makes sense, but it's not something

that we can solve on our own. So we have to speak to a professional because as much as I love my husband, he's not qualified for this job as of now. We are actively trying to fix our relationship and I hope that it works out for us. Until then, it's back to Kyle and Jeremy maintaining the peace of the family. But fingers crossed, everything will be all right in no time. Update 3, Hey There, a lot of you have been asking for an update on the situation and well, here it is. So it has been almost four months since my last update and things have been going pretty well. Ellie and I have regular therapy sessions together, every weekend. She and I are trying to work on our relationship and I think we are doing a good job because the fights that we used to have

decreased considerably and now the pressure is off my husband and my son to keep us from exploding all the time. It was not fair to them, but they handled us like champions and I'm so proud of their emotional maturity. We have also decided to spend more time together as a family and are trying to make it a point to have one family get away at least one weekend every month. I think it's good for us to bond because it's really helping all of our mental health as well. And the best part is that Ellie is also doing way better at school now. Her grades have improved considerably and I think it's because I don't nag her anymore all the time and so, she actually puts in an effort on her own, without me having to ask her.

So that's great and I am so proud of her. My son is also doing great and both my kids have given me. me so many reasons to be proud of them. My husband and I are also amazing and in love. Unfortunately for his parents, they were not able to break us up, no matter how hard they tried. The messages stopped a couple of days after I told Jeremy about it because he told them that he would expose them on social media and even press charges against them, if it came down to it, if they did not stop with their messages. And that worked, it got them to stop. And now we are back to not speaking to them ever again. So it's all good right now and I can't complain,

life is great. Thank you so much, all of you, for checking in.