Reddit Stories - BETRAYED Trust_ The SECRET INHERITANCE Demand_

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayed #trust #thesecreinheritance #demandSummary: A Reddit user seeks advice on whether they are wrong for feeling betrayed after discovering a secret inheritance that family members demanded to keep hidden.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, betrayed, trust, secret inheritance, demand, family, relationships, advice, inheritance dispute, family secrets, moral dilemma, hidden wealth, honesty, communication, legal advice, emotional conflictBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Dill overheard my confidential conversation regarding our estate plans, and insisted on a share for her children from a prior relationship. She is now using the threat of withholding access to our grandchildren unless we comply with her demands. Give in. Hello, everybody. I am 66F, and I have been married to my husband, 68M, for over 40 years.

We have a 40-year-old son together and he recently got married. to our daughter-in-law, whom we will call Janet. Janet is also in her 40s and she met my son through work a couple of years ago. They had been dating for three years and about six months ago, they finally got married after a year-long engagement. Now, my son has been married before. I even have two grandkids, a 16-year-old grandson and a 14-year-old granddaughter. Unfortunately, my son's ex-wife passed away a few months after my granddaughter was born. She had a lot of health issues anyway, and it had been advised that she not go through with a second pregnancy, but she chose to have my granddaughter anyway and unfortunately, she couldn't survive

for longer because her health was failing. That was a long time ago and we had made our peace with it. But my son didn't date anybody for a really long time after his first wife passed away, and I could understand why. They were really in love, and he was extremely happy with her. to have all that taken away at such a young age, couldn't have been easy for the poor boy. But he was still very good for all of us and his children and made sure that he was there for them at all points of time. Sure, he had helped from us, but he made sure to always show up for his kids and just was an overall great dad. The first time that my husband and I saw him with Janet, we felt like he was finally going to be happy again. There is something about the way he was acting

with her that made us hopeful that he would finally be happy with her and have a complete family again. Of course, we were aware that nobody would ever be able to replace his first wife, but for so long, he had just been content with life. When he introduced us to Janet for the first time, she seemed shy and introverted and didn't talk much. But she seemed like a good woman, and just like my son, she had also been married before and had three kids of her own. She had a 15-year-old twin girl and a 13-year-old But her ex-husband was still very much involved in their kids' lives and they had been co-parenting for almost ten years, since their divorce. Apparently, they got married, really young, but quickly figured out that they were not meant to be with each other and were just not

compatible so they called it quits soon after her youngest son was born. I had met her kids as well and I don't mean to sound rude but her kids were not nearly as well behaved as they should have been. They were all quite unruly and had no manners at all when I met them, and they seemed to not respect anybody at all, not even their mother. Suffice it to say, it was not a nice first meeting, and they did not leave a good impression on us, but they were not my grandkids, so it didn't matter to me how they behaved. I was just glad that my son's kids were not like that. Janet's kids would only spend the weekends at my son's house and I was worried that my grandkids might pick Janet's kids were really disrespectful and disobedient, and there was no

need for them to become like them. It's not like I had anything against her or her kids personally, I just didn't think they were good influences on the family. For instance, her younger son had already started smoking and we had even caught him a couple of times, but she just said that he would grow out of that habit. And her daughters were really mean and were constantly cussing when they spoke, even when it was their mother that they were talking to. It might sound really traditional and kind of old-fashioned, but I don't think it was nice. I had advised Janet several times to talk to her kids about this and reprimand them, but she had a different approach and believe that if she just let them be, they would grow out of these habits,

eventually on their own. Honestly, I didn't see that happening, and I really believe that parents, at some point, have to intervene to make the kids better. But at the end of the day, these were her kids and I couldn't tell her what to do. But I think she didn't like the fact that I was trying to advise her and the kind of soured things between us. So we hadn't been on good terms for a really long time and even at the wedding, she had been cold towards me and my husband's. She had been cold towards me and my husband. My son did pick up on it and asked me about it several times, and I told him why I thought she was being cold towards us, but it was anybody's guess. And apparently, when he had talked to her about it, she had said that she was being perfectly normal with us, and she didn't have anything

against us. Even though her behavior very clearly reflected the exact opposite. But my husband and I are quite old and did not have time for such silly mind games and ego classes. We just wanted to quietly spend time with our loved ones and that was it. We did not want to get involved in whatever drama Janet was building up in her own head, so I told my son not to worry about our relationship and just to focus on his marriage. If Janet didn't like us, we would just stay out of her way. It was very simple for us because we didn't want to complicate things and we decided that whenever we wanted to meet our son or our grandkids, we were just going to call in advance and tell them that we were coming over and in case Janet was at home, we would do our very best to stay out of way

and only speak to her if she wanted to talk to us. Other than that, we would have no extra interactions and we were fine with that. She kept to herself and we kept to ourselves. But then, about two weeks ago, Janet invited us over to their house and said that she wanted to discuss something very important with us. Now this was weird because my son was not at home at the time.

He was away on a business trip and I couldn't imagine Janet having anything to say to us in his absence. Even our grandkids were spending the weekend with their friends, so it was just going to be my husband and I and Janet. She said that this is going to be a private conversation so she would appreciate it if we didn't talk to my son about it. We figured that she was probably building up to a surprise or something, so we went over to her place, not having any idea about what she was going to tell us. Once we were there, we made some small talk and it was relatively pleasant.

However, after we had talked for about 15 minutes, she came to. came straight to the point and stopped beating around the bush. She told us that she had invited us over because she wanted to discuss the inheritance since she had recently heard my son and I discussing it over the phone. And she was right, just a couple of days before he left for the business trip, we were talking on the phone and I had told him that my husband and I wanted to review our will because we wanted to make a couple of changes and add some assets and properties that we wanted to specifically leave to certain people, including my son and my grandkids. So we had been discussing that and he had told me that he was going to put me in touch with

his lawyer to review everything because the lawyer that my husband and I had for the past couple of years had moved away to spend more time with his children and had retired so he wasn't practicing anymore and we needed somebody. I guess that's the conversation that Janet had overheard and invited us over to discuss it. I thought that she was going to tell us that she wanted to be included in the will and I was already mentally prepared to tell her no because I wasn't going to leave anything to her. I was going to leave whatever I wanted to my son, and if you wanted to split it with her, that would be his choice. But it wasn't as though my husband and I were close to Janet, so we didn't see any reason for us to leave anything to her specifically. However, she went a different way

altogether and told us that she had been thinking about it for a while and had come to the conclusion that she just had to tell us what my son allegedly felt about all of this. I had been expecting her to talk about herself, but when she dragged my son into it, I was really put off. I was really put because on the phone call, my son didn't sound like he disagreed with anything and he had already known the content of my bill for a long time. He hadn't mentioned any changes that he wanted to make and neither had he asked me anything about it so I didn't know what Janet was talking about. She went on to tell me that apparently, after that conversation with me, my son had told her that he was not satisfied with the contents of my will. He wanted to talk to me about the inheritance, but he couldn't bring himself to do so without sounding ungrateful. and that's where she came in. He had told her to talk to us about it before he left for the trip

and had come up with a bunch of conditions. Janet went on to tell us that we would not be allowed to see our grandkids anymore unless we changed our will and included her kids as well. She said that she was going to have to take away our rights to see our grandkids if we didn't do as she said and made the necessary changes to include her family in the inheritance as well. She claimed that this is something that my son had told her to ask of us because he wanted everything to be fair, and leaving her kids out of the inheritance would not be fair. My husband and I were obviously baffled when we heard that because none of it made any sense. Firstly, Janet's kids were not even a part of our family, so I couldn't see any reason why they

would be entitled to our money after we were gone. It would have been a different story if Janet or her children had made any effort to get close to us or whatever, but that was not the case here so there was no reason for us to leave anything to them. They had their own grandparents and they could expect them to leave them something but expecting us to do the same was just absurd. And more importantly, I could hardly believe that my son would say something like this, and moreover, get Janet to talk to us about it. He was quite well aware of our strained relationship with Janet, and he had enough sense to not make her talk to us about something like this, something which is so sensitive and personal. Also, our son is quite straightforward

and honest with us, so we couldn't believe that he would get Janet to discuss this with us. I didn't buy that he had even told her to do anything of the sort. But on the off chance that maybe she wasn't lying, I decided not to say anything to her or accuse her of anything at the moment and just agreed with whatever she was saying. My husband and I were equally confused, but he got the hint and played along with me. I just told her that we would think about it and let her know in a couple of days. She had obviously been expecting an answer, then there,

because apparently our right to see our grandkids was at stake and she expected us to get serious. But it was really difficult to do so when she had made it very obvious that there was something fishy going on. We had guessed in a couple of minutes that she was trying to do something here and we were not falling for any of it. So just to pacify her, we agreed with everything that she said and then went back home. As soon as we were at home, my husband and I decided to call our son and talk to him about what just happened because we were really confused and would appreciate some clarity on this.

As soon as I had told him, whatever Janet had told us, he sounded really alarmed and asked us if he had signed any documents or whatever, and we told him that no, we hadn't. Then, he told us that he had said nothing of the sort and he had been afraid that Janet would try to do something like this, because after that conversation that we had on the phone, the other day that Janet had overheard, she had been hounding him to talk to us about the will. She had asked him that day itself if her kids were going to be included, and he had told her that they were not, which turned out to be a mistake. Because of that point forward, she started constantly nagging him to talk to us about it and fix it because she felt, for whatever reason, that her children were also entitled to be part of the inheritance. My husband and I are quite well off, and we have a considerable amount of money and assets that we are hoping to leave behind for our son and his children. But like I said, I don't think there's

any reason that Janet should expect anything for herself or her children. And the audacity to even expect that our son would talk to us about it and turn the tide in her favor was quite frankly, really absurd. On top of that, the fact that she had even attempted to go behind our son's back and talk to us about it and threaten us by saying that she would not allow us to see our grandkids again was simply ridiculous. I don't know why she expected that she could get away with it because we were obviously going to confront our son about it and get to the bottom of this because this was a pretty big deal. and there was no way that she could avoid being caught.

More importantly, she had inadvertently tried to ruin our relationship with our son by lying about him and going behind his back, and that was simply not fine with us. After that phone call with our son, he told us that he was going to tell our grandkids to directly come back to our place without going back home after they were done hanging out with friends and stuff. And he said that we were supposed to let them stay with us until he had sorted all this out. We were fine with that. So, since that day, our grandkids had been living with us, and our son is still trying to

sort things out with Janet, which is not proving to be easy because she is stubborn about the fact that her kids are also entitled to the family inheritance. I still don't understand why she feels that way, but there's not much that I can do to help right now, apart from just taking care of my grandkids and keeping them out of trouble. And from what I have heard so far, things at my son's house are not really going well, because Janet is not being receptive to any of his attempts to talk to her. From what he has told me so far, Janet has set an ultimatum for him and told him that he can either choose between keeping in touch with us or choosing her and his family. Or, he can take the third way out and somehow convince

us to include her kids in the inheritance. What's interesting is that she herself said that she didn't want our son to talk to us anymore because we had insulted her by excluding her kids and treated her like an outsider in the family, but she's ready to take our money from us after we are gone. I guess our pride won't be taking a hit at that point. It's just all messy, and I just don't understand what to do about this. My husband and I really feel responsible because my son's marriage is in shambles right now and even the grandkids don't seem happy about any of this. It's because my son is quite depressed. Every time he has come to visit us since the fight, he has been more and more upset and we feel really bad for him. My husband and I are beginning to feel like

we might be the ones who fall for this because we are the ones who did not include Janet's kids, without thinking about her feelings. Maybe she is actually hurt and not just being greedy, I don't know. But things have gone too far and my husband and I feel very bad about how things have turned out. Especially me, since I feel like this is kind of my responsibility. I'd offer not including my son's wife's kids from her first marriage in our will? Update 1. Hello, everybody. It has been great reading all the comments and I feel a lot better and relieved now, knowing that this was not my fault and Janet should have known better. It's been about two weeks since I made my original post here, and unfortunately, things have not improved between Janet

and my son. She is still putting up a fight against him and forcing him to either choose between us or convince us somehow to include her kids in the will. I think she is. I think she is is being extremely unfair and I desperately want to talk to her and give her a peace of my mind, but my son has forbidden me from speaking to her and I think it's for the better because if I do talk to her, I am pretty sure that I will end up ruining their marriage forever. Because right now, I do not have the highest opinion of Janet. On the contrary, I might even have the lowest because what she is trying to do is disgusting. Because that's what she and her children are to us, for the most part. I just feel bad for my son because I know that he deserves better than this. Now I might

sound like a stereotypical evil mother-in-law, but I know what I'm talking about. In this case, I don't think that I am the bad guy. I know that my son can do better and the only reason he is still with Janet and has not left her yet is because he genuinely loves her. I appreciate that about him, that at least he is loyal to the people that he loves and is giving her a second chance to fix their marriage, but unfortunately, Janet is an idiot and is completely blowing it. She has the chance to make this work, but instead of trying to be a better person for my son, she's just sticking to whatever she says, and making things even worse. I personally don't think that there is any way out of this for them, apart from getting a divorce. But I'm not going to

suggest it. My son has to come to that conclusion on his own. Update 2, hello. So after the last update, A lot of people have accused me of being a nightmare of a mother-in-law. To these people, I just want to ask why. I mean, after the things that I said, I had kind of been expecting it. Because even if you think your son should get a divorce, you should never really say it because then you immediately get branded as a bad mother-in-law who is obsessed with her son. But in my case, I really don't think that's the truth.

I had given Janet and her children a chance to bond with us and build a relationship with us and maybe if they had tried to be nice to us, they would not be in this situation at all today. But they didn't try to get along with us and Janet went out of her way to avoid us. So why on earth would I be interested in building a relationship with a woman like this? I gave her a chance, but she didn't take it.

If anything, that makes her a bad daughter-in-law. And not only is she bad at that, but she's also a terrible wife because she went behind her husband's back and tried to jeopardize his relationship with his parents. If that doesn't ring any warning bells for you guys, I don't even know what to say. All I'm saying is, I don't think it's fair to call me names and accuse me of trying to ruin my son's relationship with his wife. I don't need to try and do anything. I think Janet is doing everything really well on her own. She has zero concern for his

feelings and only cares about getting her kids to be part of the inheritance when we pass on. And I think that's pretty insulting itself as well because my husband and I, with God's grace, are pretty healthy right now, and even so, she seems obsessed with getting our wills changed according to her demands. Anyway, my point is that my son can do better and I am not going to feel sorry for saying it because my husband and I have raised our son with a lot of love and care and it really hurts us to see him get treated this way and constantly feel like crap about it. In the last few weeks, I can't even remember a single time that he came over to visit us and the kids and he was actually happy. He has been really down in the dumps ever since the fight,

but he is still trying to make it work. There is no way I'm the bad guy for saying that he deserves better because he really does. Things are still not going well between them. And the last time that our son came over to visit, three days ago, he finally said that he might start thinking about getting a divorce because he is finding it impossible to continue living with Janet. She is making it impossible for him, I would say. His kids are still living with us and have been going to school from our house, so the commute is a bit longer than usual, but they are okay with it because they know what their father is going through. We are trying our best to keep everyone happy, but it's becoming really difficult

because if our son isn't happy, there's very little we can do to make his kids happy. And we are very close-knit as a family. Say something is affecting one of us. It's eventually going to affect all of us and that's what's happening right now. None of us are finding it easy to be happy or put on a brave face right now because we know that there is a chance that this might end up becoming really ugly in the event of a divorce, but we are trying our best to be brave and strong for our son, including his kids. We know that we are the source of each other's strength and right now. He needs us so we can't fall weak.

But at least he is not going out of his way anymore for Janet and is facing the facts. He told us that Janet has been refusing to even talk to him for the last couple of days, saying that she's not going to say a word to him unless he decides to cut us off or he convinces us to include her children and consider them for the inheritance as well. The latter is obviously not going to happen and even my son knows it. At least not at this point, earlier I might have even considered it, but what she has done is just not okay. We are trying our best to be supportive, but honestly, my husband and I just want our son to file for a divorce already. He doesn't need to put up with all of this because even though he loves Janet, she has made it very clear that she has different priorities. So the fact that he has said the words that he wants to file for divorce and has been thinking about it is a big deal for us because it means that he is finally coming to terms with the fact that this marriage is going to end. Hopefully, this is going to end well, because so far,

we know that Janet is capable of being extremely selfish, and we just hope that she doesn't try to screw our son over. Update 3, Hello, Guys. It's been almost three weeks since my son first first. started fighting with Janet and a couple of days ago, he finally came to us and told us that he was filing for divorce, and he had already spoken to his lawyer about it. He had filed for divorce a couple of days ago and Janet was served today. Our son moved in with us and the kids, and we have all been living together in our house ever since he filed for divorce because the

house that he and Janet used to live in is a joint asset and he doesn't want to stay there, at least not until it is legally his. Honestly, my husband and I are really happy about it because it means that all of us are together under the same roof and as long as we are together, we can get through this. Our son also seems a lot happier now that he is living with us and we actually think that this might be a huge improvement for him. At least, he won't be spiraling into a depression because we will be here to help him out. Janet was awfully furious that our son had even dared to imagine getting divorced and

has been calling him nonstop, trying to get to him, but he has muted all her notifications because he just doesn't want to talk to her, which I think is a good thing. He knows that he is in a very vulnerable state right now and if Janet tries to manipulate him, it will be very easy for her, because he still has feelings for her and she's definitely going to try and take advantage of it. So it's better to just stay out of her way and let her try to talk to him without any response. Eventually, she's just going to give up and we know that this is over. Anyway, she's just trying to revive it because she never thought that he would leave her over this. I guess she was a little too overconfident and hadn't actually thought anything through.

I'm pretty sure that she is used to getting her way, but I'm glad that my son has a spine and stood up for himself. Now, whatever happens, I know that my son is strong enough to get through all of this, and we are going to make it easier for him by being there for him to the best of our capacity. All we wanted for him was to be happy and now, we are going to make sure that it happens. He has gone through enough, and Janet has put him through enough, no more. Right now, it's just us and our grandkids and it's going to be a little difficult to get through the divorce, but I'm hopeful for the future and I don't know, I just feel optimistic about everything right now.