Reddit Stories - BETRAYED_ My UNSETTLING ENCOUNTER with an Unseen Foe in My Own Home_

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayed #unsettlingencounter #unseenfoe #homeintruder #mysterySummary:In this unsettling tale, I recount my chilling encounter with an unseen foe in my own home, leading to feelings of betrayal and fear. The mysterious events that unfolded left me questioning the safety of my own sanctuary.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, betrayed, unsettlingencounter, unseenfoe, homeintruder, mystery, chillingencounter, betrayal, fear, safetyconcerns, mysteriousencounter, spooky, homealone, suspiciousactivity, creepyencounter, personalhorrorBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Discovered my goof covertly seeing my pursuer former partner and my residence while she ignored my child, so I shared evidence with the entire clan they've disconnected her and now she's homeless. Hey guys, so I did something and I need to know if I messed up or not because this has had a very bad impact on my sister-in-law's life and I'm being held responsible for it. So, my sister-in-law, Jennifer, fake name, 22F, has been living with me for the past three weeks and it's been fine. We haven't faced any issues as such. She's a nice girl, I have always liked her,

and we got along well in the past. I am 30 and so is my husband. We met in college and got married seven years ago after dating through college and we got married soon after. We also have a four-year-old son, Terry. My husband has been living away from home for most of the week because of his work, and he only comes back on the weekends. I also have to work through the week, so it's been lucky that Jennifer has moved in with us because we don't have to spend any money on a sitter. Terry doesn't start kindergarten until next year and so far, we have been able to avoid sending him to daycare and babysitters because my parents were always ready to take care of him and my in-laws were too. But we wanted to cut them some slack since they

are also getting old, so we thought having Jennifer with us would be a good idea for everyone. Jennifer could have lived with her parents, but my husband thought it would be a good idea for her to live with us because she would get her own personal space with us since my in-laws were kind of overbearing. She works from home so she can keep an eye on our son and it has been a good arrangement for us so far. She has been living with us because she is just starting out at her job and her salary is kind of on the lower side because she's working in a brand new company and they are starting out as well. So she can't exactly afford rent right now, which is why my husband told her that she could move in with us because it was fine with me as well. And the fact that

she was ready to take care of Terry when she was at home, was just an added bonus. We have known each other for a really long time and I trusted her, so I didn't think there was anything off about this suggestion. She's nice, quiet, and mostly keeps to herself. On the weekends, we would all spend the day together because I had weekends off, and my husband would come back home during that time. But recently, I started noticing that Terry had been acting very weirdly around Jennifer. Before this, he had never had a problem with her, but since last week or around that time, I noticed that whenever I was at home, Terry would stick to me and refused to be left alone in a room with Jennifer. At first, I barely picked up on it, because I just

thought he was being a kid and following me around like most kids do. But then it started getting weird because he was never really clingy and liked to be on his own sometimes. So this was strange behavior, and after a while, I decided that I had to get to the bottom of it because I noticed that he was mostly just following me around. Whenever Jennifer was in the living room and he didn't seem to want to be around her. So a couple of days ago, I sat my son down, and I asked him what was bothering him because I had noticed his behavior around his aunt, and I wanted him to tell me the truth about everything. At first, he was very reluctant to talk to me, but I assured him that Jennifer was not in the house, and she would not do anything to hurt him.

It was the evening, I had just come back home from work, and Jennifer had told me that she was leaving to spend the night at a friend's place because they had a party going on. So it was the perfect time. Once I had made sure that Terry knew for a fact that Jennifer was not at home, he started talking and told me that he didn't like being with her anymore. My first instinct as a mother was to obviously ask him if she had done anything to him and thankfully, he said that she hadn't exactly heard him directly, but he said that he didn't like being locked up in the house all day. I didn't know what that was supposed to mean, so I asked him to

elaborate, and he told me that apparently as soon as I left the house, Jennifer would make sure that she sent him into the nursery and told him to stay there for a couple of hours. He said that he liked exploring the house and the backyard, he didn't like being holed up in one room. But apparently, his aunt had told him that if he tried to escape from the room or if he kicked up a fuss about it then I would come back home from work and scold him. So he had to stay quiet in that room while he got bored out of his head. I thought it was very strange that she was blocking him in his room because while it wasn't dangerous, per se, it was quite weird and I didn't like the sound of it. Terry told me that he hadn't told me about this so far because he thought that I would be mad at him. But now that I was

asking him, he also wanted to let me know that he just really didn't like Jennifer because she would lock him up every day. He said that he wanted to go out in the mornings and that he didn't like being stuck in the room. So I had to do something about it and talk to Jennifer. He made me promise that I would not scold him for this and neither would Jennifer. 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 Spreeker's monetization.

Spreaker offers dynamic ad insert 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. Sprinker 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.com. So I understood that she had done a number on him and he was very scared to come up to me and tell me the truth. This was all very concerning, and I probably should have confronted her about it, but instead,

I decided to find out what she was doing exactly, because if it was something shady, I wanted to have proof of her doing it, and if I confronted her, I probably wouldn't get that. Just to be clear, I didn't have anything against her personally, but if she was doing something shady, then I just wanted to have proof of her so people would believe me. My husband's family is really close and I didn't want to make any accusations baselessly. So that was my thought process, which is why I called a friend of mine that evening and had him install nanny cams in the living room in the kitchen. They were hidden quite well, and so, there was no way people would have known that it was even there if I didn't point it out to them.

Terry was also not aware of the cameras because I was afraid that he might let it slip somehow. So I had to have him distracted while the cameras were installed. But once that was done, I only had to wait until the next day that she would be at home, so I could get to know what exactly she would get up to while I was not at home. She spent that night at her friend's place and then came back the next morning, just as I was about to leave for work. We had a nice, normal interaction before I left and that was it. But I wasn't actually going to work, I was just going to be next door, with my neighbor and watching her on the nanny cams. I had already asked my neighbor about it because I wanted to know if she had seen any suspicious activity in and around my house

or if Jennifer had been having any visitors over and she had said no. She had very graciously allowed me to check out what was going on from her house, so I would be close enough to intervene if things went south. I could see the door of the nursery from the placement of my camera and sure enough, just like Terry had told me, merely minutes after I had left, Jennifer forced him into the room, even though he kept arguing and didn't seem inclined to go into the room at all. The mics were not close enough to pick up what she was saying, but I could hear the faint sound of arguing in their room. After a while, she shut the door and locked him in. I was very surprised that she did that because Terry was a very quiet child and didn't exactly disturb anybody. So, if this was about

her work, she had nothing to worry about because she could very well work while keeping an eye on him, because he just likes to walk around the house or in the garden. Part of me wanted to rush over to my own house and let my son out, but I wanted to get to know more, so I just let things unfold on their own. For a while, I noticed that she was not doing anything, just sitting on the couch and scrolling. That seemed innocent enough, so I couldn't understand why she would lock my son in his room to do that. So I waited for about an hour, and then I noticed that she went to the kitchen. So I switched to the kitchen, cameras, and bingo, there it was. She opened the kitchen door to let a guy in, but he was in a hoodie, so I couldn't understand who it was. It wasn't until they were

in the living room, and the guy had taken his hoodie off, that I realized who it was. It was my ex-boyfriend, Marcus, whom Jennifer knew about, only because he was a crazy stalker, and I had been complaining about him a couple of years ago. For some context, Marcus and I had dated for a few months before I met my husband. He and I were not even serious, we had just gone out on a couple of dates and hooked up once. It was in the first few months of college and soon enough, I realized that we were not meant to be together because he was just very different and too intense for me. So I decided to dump him in two weeks later, I started going out with my husband. I honestly didn't think that he would take it too hard because we hadn't even been

serious. But apparently, he had really liked me, and had even told all his friends about me so everybody started calling me names for going out with somebody else weeks after my breakup with him. I didn't care about it though, because I was with the guy that I really liked and I couldn't give a crap about what other people thought of me. Besides, my husband was the same as me and he also didn't care about what Marcus or his friend said. I had made it very clear to him that he and I were not serious and I had made it very clear to Marcus as well while we were together so I don't understand why he thought that we would

end up together when I had told him that I was not that. Interested. It was just meant to be a short fling and nothing else, but But he went crazy about me. I had to get a restraining order against him a couple of years ago because I was pregnant at the time and he had started following me around. So that was concerning and I didn't want anything bad to happen to me or my child. The only reason we even managed to get the restraining order against him was because he had

exhibited unstable and psychotic behavior before that as well. After our breakup and once we had graduated from college, he kept trying to get back in touch with me and would text me every weekend but I never responded to him. I blocked his account several times, but he would just keep on making new ones. So after a while, I just gave up because it was pointless. And it wasn't as if I actually... 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. Sprinker 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 spreeker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R dot com. ... cared or it was hurting me anyway, so I just started ignoring it instead of blocking it. For the record, my husband had known about it all along and he didn't have a problem with the way that I was dealing with the situation. If things would go too far, he had told me to come to him, and we would go to the cops together. But it never got that far, thankfully. However, around the time of my marriage, just as I had announced my engagement, he started calling me and begging me to take him back and cancel the engagement. I answered the call a couple of times, just to get him off my back, and I even insulted him, hoping that it would hurt his pride,

and then he would stop calling, but he had no pride. He continued to call and only stopped when I got a lawyer involved and I told him that I had filed a restraining order against him. I was bluffing, of course. But that scared him, and he promised me that he would be back, but for the next couple of years, he didn't bother me. Apart from a few texts, saying that he missed me, and he knew that we were going to be together someday, there was nothing too serious. But that changed when I got pregnant. I didn't announce it until I was in my second semester, but when I did announce it on social media, that's when the stalking started. I didn't notice it for the first couple of days, but then I started seeing a white car with tinted windows, following me around

wherever I went. It really started freaking me out after a few days, so I decided to tell my husband about it and reported it to the cops. We found out that it belonged to Marcus and he had been following me around ever since I posted about my pregnancy on social media. When he was brought in, he immediately started begging me on his knees to take him back and said that he didn't even have a problem with the fact that I was carrying somebody else's child. He insisted that I leave my husband and said that I couldn't punish him like this anymore. It was just totally psychotic and I was really scared so that's the day that I decided to press charges against him and filed a restraining order. We got one for two years for those two

years. He didn't bother me so we didn't need to apply for another. I figured that, after one restraining order, he might have gotten his head back on straight and had forgotten about me so I didn't bother with him after that. He also did not text me or bother me during and after that period of time, so I had completely forgotten about him. But when I saw him in my house, chilling with Jennifer and making out with her and stuff, I realized that this was unacceptable. I wasn't jealous, like Jennifer is implying, but I was just angry that it's typical of everything that this guy had put me through, she was still with him and had even invited him into my house. The audacity to do that and to expect that she would get away with it while she had locked my son inside his room was

crazy. But when I saw that, I saved the recording and immediately rushed over to my house. I also entered through the kitchen door because I didn't want to alert them by entering through the living room door, since it would be locked and I would have to use my keys and they could probably use that time to help Marcus escape through the back door. So I came in and I walked into the living room and I confronted them while they were getting cozy with each other on the couch. I started yelling at Jennifer, pretending that Marcus wasn't even there, because I didn't even want to talk to him and asked her what she thought she was doing because I had thought she was responsible enough to make good decisions while she was home with my son. But clearly, that was not the case. She tried to defend herself saying that she was in love with Marcus and so was he and that they had been dating for almost a year now. So I had nothing to worry about, but for me, it was not even about them. I was mad about the fact that she had been lying to me and locking up my son in his room just because she wanted to spend time with her so-called boyfriend, who just happened to be my psychotic ex. It was the fact that she was treating my son

badly and was lying to me that it really pissed me off. And I couldn't tolerate it so I told her that she had to leave that very instant or I would call the police on both of them because I was not trying to let this go. I let Terry out of the room, and in the meantime, Marcus left through the back door after promising me that he was not there to create any trouble for me, but he was just here because he was in love with Jennifer. And Jennifer continued to try and talk me out of kicking her out of the house because right now, she had nowhere else to go. But that was not my problem, she should have thought about it before sneaking in my ex-stalker into my house. I told her that there was no way I was going to let her live with us anymore because she had betrayed my trust in the

worst way possible, and it was irreversible, what she had done. She tried to convince me that Marcus was a different person now. She said that he had gone to therapy for a really long time and was under intensive, psychological pressure back then, which is why he had been acting out and that's why I had to get a restraining order against him. But that, apparently, changed his life and he got on the right track after that. She told me that she had met him at a bar about a year ago, and he was the one who had approached her first because he had recognized her from the wedding photos. 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 Spreeker'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, Sprieker'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-a-k-e-r.com. And he wanted to tell her that he was sorry and since it was not appropriate for him to come and apologize to me, he wanted to have Jennifer convey it to me. And apparently back then, she felt pity for him, so she decided to talk to him and he asked her out on a date at the end of the night. First off, that was incredibly creepy and not romantic in the slightest, like she believed it was because he was around my age and she's a lot younger. She was just 21 at the time and he must have been around 29, so around 30 and if that's not creepy, I don't know what is. And more importantly, since she had known about his past, she had no business bringing him anywhere around me or my family.

I don't understand why she thought it would be appropriate for him to come over, especially when I was the one, doing her a favor by letting her live with me, even though we were not related by blood. It would have been very easy for me to find a sitter and replace her. There was no need for me. to let her live with me, but I liked her and that's why I had trusted her. But she took the trust that I had in her and tossed it right out of the window, so now for her to expect that I would still continue to let her live with me and forgive her for what she did was just unreasonable and ridiculous. Besides, it was not even just the thing about Marcus, it was also about how she had been treating my son.

Locking Terry in his room so she could canoodle with her boyfriend was not something that I appreciated and I was not going to let her off the hook for it. So I told her, very angrily, that she had to leave the house because I was not going to allow her to live with me under any circumstances whatsoever. After a lot of begging and arguing, she finally came to terms with the fact that I had made up my mind and left. The only thing that she had asked of me was that I didn't tell her parents about it because they would be very upset, since this was something very wrong.

I didn't make any promises, I just stood there silently and watched her leave. After that whole episode, I put Terry down for a nap because it had been a very stressful morning but I still had to tell my husband about what had happened. And now here is probably where I might have been the awe. There was no need for me to do it, but I was just so angry that I wanted to get back at her for what she did. I was very frustrated that I trusted this person, and instead of valuing my trust and doing right by me, she decided to hook up under my roof with the one person that I hated the most. and I was just so angry about it that I, instead of sending the footage to my husband,

I decided to send it to the family group. And I know that the consequences of doing that would not be good for her because, as I had mentioned before, my husband's family is very close with each other and they take their relationships quite seriously. Last year itself, my in-laws had cut off one of my husband's aunts because she had been talking crap about my husband, and they were not going to tolerate it. So when I say that they take their relationships very seriously, I mean it. And I knew that when they found out about what Jennifer had been getting up to behind our back,

they would be pissed. But despite knowing that, I went ahead with it. And what happened was something that I had expected. Her parents cut ties with her that day and stopped speaking to her altogether. My husband was also really shocked that this happened and that Jennifer would do something like this. He had almost wanted to press charges against her, but I was the one who asked him to drop it because she was going through enough as it was. After I had sent that video to the group, my in-laws called me to apologize on their daughter's

behalf and informed me that they would not be speaking to her ever again. They were very upset, which I knew what happened. And my husband had a similar reaction. They have all cut her off, to sum it up. And right now, she has pretty much nobody to go live with. I know this because she texted me a few hours ago and told me that I had basically ruined her life by sending that video in the family group. She doesn't really have a lot of friends and once she does, she can't live with them because they also live with roommates. Some of them live with their parents, and she would find it very weird to live with those friends.

She can't live with Marcus either because he lives with his parents as well and they don't know about her yet. And he can't tell them because if they found out that she was related to us, they would lose their heads. and he would lose a home as well. So now, basically, she can either find an apartment, which is going to be bad, because she can barely afford it on the salary that she has or she will have to start looking for a better job, but she can't do that while being homeless.

So it's a conundrum, and I feel really guilty for putting her into that situation. I know that I shouldn't have to, but I just feel bad because she's in trouble right now and it's all because of me. I don't know, I feel like my reaction might have been a bit too extreme and driven by anger instead of just wanting to do the right thing. And it's not like I didn't know that this was going to happen,

I was fully aware of the kind of reaction that my husband's family would have to something like this. And yet, in spite of knowing that, I sent that video to the family group, and I feel very responsible for what is happening to her. I talked to my husband about it and he thinks that I'm overthinking it, this is not really my fault. It's Jennifer's fault. and even if you do, give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that Marcus probably has changed for the better, it still doesn't excuse what she did with Terry. She used to lock him in his room for hours, to the point where he had developed a fear

of being in his room for too long, and we are still trying to deal with it. So she kind of had this coming and it's very pointless to blame myself for it. This is something that she did to herself and yet, I can't shake off the feeling that I am responsible for it. Hi, I'm Darren Marler, host of the Weird Darkness. this 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 spreeker.com. That's S-P-R-E-K-E-R dot com.

And I just feel very bad. especially after the message that she sent me. I can tell that she is desperate right now and it doesn't help the situation or how I feel about it. Ida for getting my sister-in-law in trouble with her family because she was hooking up with my stalker ex. Update 1, hey, thanks for the reassurance, you guys. That really helped me deal with the things that have been going on and helped me process a lot of it. Also, some of you have been asking if I have been thinking about taking my son to therapy and yes, that has been on the table. My husband and I have been throwing around that idea for a while now, pretty much the day that

we found out about his sister. So we might start in a couple of days. Thank you so much for the concern, yet again. Update 2, so my husband, his family and I received an email from Jennifer today almost two weeks after the incident. It was not an apology in the slightest, much to my disappointment. I don't care though, she doesn't need to apologize to me because I know I'm not going to forgive her anyway. But the email was to let us know that she and Marcus were still going strong and that,

in spite of our best efforts, they had not broken up yet. She claimed that apparently, everything that had happened with me had to happen so that Marcus could eventually meet her, and she could understand that I was jealous of her, but I just had to get over it and accept the fact that he had moved on. I don't even understand where that came from because, not once, had I ever mentioned that I wanted the attention that Marcus had been giving me. I hated that attention, and I wanted him to be as far away from me as he could be. So no, I was not jealous in the slightest, and she was sorely mistaken if she thought that I had gone public about her affair with Marcus because I was jealous. My husband also thought it was a ridiculous narcissistic

email and decided that the next time she sent us anything, we were just not going to open it at all. It was not even worth reading. One thing is for sure, though, Reading that email really made me glad that I had sent that photo of us in the family group instead of just to my husband because everybody deserves to know what a horrible person she really was. Update 3. Hi, Everyone. It's been a year since we cut ties with Jennifer, and from what we hear, she and Marcus got married a couple of months ago and have moved to Canada.

She's also pregnant right now, she announced the news about a week ago, and it appears to us that she and Marcus are doing well. Honestly, good for her. The funny thing is that even my husband and I are also expecting a child and I'm in my second trimester already. Not many people know it, but I guess we're going to make that announcement soon enough. As for Terry, he's very excited to be a big brother, and my husband and I are overjoyed about this.

And we are going to make sure that this time we don't screw up by getting a bad babysitter, ha.