Reddit Stories - Bonded by BETRAYAL_ ACCUSED of Gold Digging by my STEPCHILD_

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #gold-digging #stepchild #familydrama #betrayal #relationshipsSummary: After being accused of gold-digging by their stepchild, a person finds themselves entangled in family drama. The story explores themes of betrayal and strained relationships within blended families.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, gold-digging, stepchild, familydrama, betrayal, relationshipsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. I became frustrated with my stepchild for accusing me of being a fortune hunter for tying the knot with his dad, who was relying on my financial support, and for not addressing his son's behavior. Destroyed my car. For context, my husband Thomas and I have been together for six years, married for two. He also has a 19-year-old son from his previous marriage, but unfortunately, his first wife passed away from an unexpected aneurysm about five years before he met me. His son, Rob, was nine years old at the time and he took it really hard. He was a very troubled kid and as he grew up,

things only got worse. By the time I was introduced to him, he was around 13 or 14, and getting to know him was not a pleasant experience because he made it very clear to me right from the beginning that I would never be able to take the place of his mother, something that I was not even interested in doing, and that he would never accept me as part of the family. I tried to be his friend, but the kid was just determined to make sure that I gave up on the relationship and I left. I had spoken to Thomas about it as well and suggested that he sent Rob to therapy so he could deal with his emotions and he told me that they had tried everything but he just didn't seem to want to get better. After his last wife had passed away, Thomas had not even thought about dating

people for a really long time, but when he had met me, he changed his mind. I was pretty much one of the first women he got serious about after his wife passed away. He had gone out on a couple of dates that year, but none of them got a second date out of him apart from me, and he had told me about it right in the beginning. Thomas has always been very upfront and honest about everything with me, and he had also told me that Rob was not going to be particularly welcoming because he is not over his mother's passing and that's why he wanted to take it slow with me, before he introduced me to the family. So we were actually together for one year before he finally brought me home and even then,

Rob was very unkind to me. For the first few years, all he could do was just throw temper tantrums and be rude to me and while initially, I would try to understand and be kind to him. Eventually, I just started ignoring him because it was not worth my energy to even fight him. I had also told Thomas repeatedly to do something about his son's behavior, and Thomas would occasionally reprimand Rob, but it would be pointless because he would just go back to his usual behavior after that. And I loved Thomas truly and genuinely from the bottom of my heart so I knew that no matter what, I wanted to make it work with him. This is why I

stayed with him for almost six years, in spite of him constantly forgiving his son, but what happened recently was the last straw for me. Three years back, around the time that Thomas had proposed to me and I had said yes, he had also started a new business. Unfortunately, it didn't take off and for the past couple of years, he has been trying to make it work, but it just hasn't been going well for him financially. I let him try his luck with his business for almost three years because it was his passion project, but when it still didn't take off, I tried to tell him that maybe it was time to move on to better things or go back to his job because this was clearly not going well for him. I had started telling him to give up on his business and do something else recently, just a few

months ago, since for the past three years we have been living off of my money for the most part. I've been getting worried because I can't afford to support our family on just my income since that will leave very little for me in the future when I want to retire. So I had been trying to gently nudge Thomas in the right direction, but he was being very stubborn and he kept telling me that he just needed some more time to work on his business model and would keep coming up with excuses not to give up. I really wanted to be understanding, but it was impossible for me to keep supporting him, knowing that this was not working.

So recently, we had been fighting a lot over this. and I guess at some point, his son had overheard what we were talking about, and he came to the conclusion that I was a gold digger for telling Thomas to sell off his business to any interested buyers and go back to his job so we could make more money. I found that very insulting because the one thing that I'm definitely not a gold digger, I've always been independent, and I couldn't stand the insinuation that I had been relying on my husband for money when it had actually been the other way around. I had wanted to correct Rob when he started calling me a gold digger because it had come up a few weeks ago when I had told him to do some chores and he had told me that he was

not going to take orders from a gold digger with no self-respect or dignity, and when I had asked him what he meant by that because I was obviously appalled. He had explained his thought process to me. Before I could correct him, Thomas intervened and broke up the fight and then he put me aside and told me not to tell his son anything because Rob had no idea that we had been living off of my money for so long and he wanted to preserve his image in front of his son because it would be very shameful for him to admit that he was struggling with money. As a father, it would be humiliating for him to show his son how he had fallen and Thomas pretty much begged me not to tell him the truth, so I obliged. But I had to pay the price for it because after that day,

things started getting more difficult for me since now that Rob believed that I was a gold digger, he kept using that against me, and it was very tempting for me to tell him the truth. But I had to think of Thomas and stayed silent for his sake. Rob had come back home for his winter break and I knew that he would be gone in a couple of weeks, so I only had to tolerate him for a few weeks and since I had already put up with him and his terrible behavior for so many years, I didn't think that it would be much difficult. But I guess this time, Rob was planning on going out of his way to make things much more difficult for me and so, a few days ago, he decided to take out my car without my permission and crashed

it right before I was about to head out for a very important meeting that I had been talking about for days. I usually leave for work around nine in the morning, but that day, I had a meeting with a very important client and was planning on leaving much earlier, since I didn't want to be late and I'm really thankful that I planned ahead. I was ready to go out quite early, but Rob had been preparing so much earlier and when I came out to check out my car, I saw that there was a huge dent on the hood and the sides had been scraped like nobody's business. I was obviously devastated, and I was even more upset by the fact that Rob was standing beside the car with the keys in his hand and a proud smile on his face like he thought that he had done something

great. Neither my husband, nor I had left for work at that time, and when I saw him and what he had done to the car, I completely lost my mind and started freaking out at him. I'm usually not a violent person, but that day I just lost control and I ended up slapping Rob in the face, but it's not like I regret it. He tried to shove me, but by then, Tom had come out of the house and had put two and two together, so he had been able to hold Rob back before he could do anything. I was sobbing because obviously I couldn't take that car to the meeting now and I would have to take a cab which wasn't all that bad but my car had been one of the first purchases that I had made with my hard-earned money and it was quite significant

to me. Also, taking a cab to a meeting that was so important for my career with such a high-profile client, it would just look a little odd and I was really upset because of what had just happened like any other person would have been. However, Rob did not seem to be regretting anything and instead, he was actually screaming at me while his father was trying to hold him back and telling me that this ought to show me my place. He believed that I had way too much arrogance for somebody who was relying on my husband to fund my lifestyle and he found it laughable that I had been talking about this important meeting

for days even though I knew that at the end of the day. I was going to be living off of my husband's money and he wanted to make me realize how pretentious and phony I was and that he could see right through me. Then, he started yelling at me saying that this was my lesson for trying to force his father into selling his business just so that I could have more money for myself and then, he kicked my car once again, called me a gold digger and spat on the ground, even though Thomas was trying his best to hold him back. That was when I decided that I could no longer hide the truth from him anymore for Thomas's sake and I told him everything. I tried to really rub it in his face and be as nasty as I could because I felt like

he deserved it and I didn't even care that he was just 19 and that I was a grown woman arguing with him since. At that moment, I just wanted to hurt him. I told him about how his father's business had been failing for the past three years and I had been the one carrying their dead weight, but instead of being grateful to me for it, he had tried to sabotage me. I also told him that I was the one who had been paying his college tuition so far and even though his father had promised me that he would pay me back as soon as he could, it didn't matter because it was me who was doing it right now. So he had no right to speak to me that way, or call me a gold digger because, if anything, they were the ones who needed the gold and not me. I could see on his face that he was shocked

beyond belief and was practically frozen in place and so was Thomas. Then, I wiped my tears and started walking away while booking a cab for myself so I could head to the place of the meeting. I didn't even turn around because I did not want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Thankfully, the meeting went well because I had left quite early and I reached quite early as well. But then, I had had enough time to compose myself and put on a professional face and my decision to travel in a cabin instead of my own car didn't seem much of a big deal, so it was probably just in my head. When I came back home, I saw that my car was still in the same position so I called my friend

who runs a car repair shop and asked her to deal with it. And I don't know why, but just seeing my car in that condition made my heartbreak yet again and I decided not to go inside the house. I got another cab and I went straight to a nearby hotel and I haven't been home since then. The condition of my car made me realize just how disrespected I had been in my own home all because Thomas couldn't stand up to his son and I had had enough. After this, there was no way that I could go back to that house and try to make things right with them because they definitely did not deserve it. That day, I kept waiting for at least Thomas to call me and check up on me after I returned from my meeting and went to the hotel, but even that

did not happen in the next day. When I woke up after a night of crying myself to sleep, I decided that I couldn't live with these people anymore and love was obviously not enough to sustain a relationship. So I decided to call my lawyer and I told him that I wanted to file for a divorce. Then, I called up my brother and I told him that I wanted him to go to my house. pack certain things, and then bring them to me because I just didn't even want to see Thomas or Rob. I explained the situation to him as well and he helped me out by bringing me my things. But I guess when he went home instead of me to collect my stuff, Thomas realized that I was not planning on coming back home anytime soon. And he and his son started bombarding my phone with

calls and texts. I muted all the notifications from them because I didn't want to think about them but didn't block them because I wanted to know what they had to say. And before going to bed, when I finally decided to check the messages that they had been sending me, I realized that it was just them trying to apologize to me and telling me that they were willing to make everything right again. But all I had to do was just come back and speak to them once. I had expected that from Thomas, but the fact that even Rob was apologetic and was trying to tell me that he was ready to apologize and change as a person is what really took me by surprise.

but I wasn't going to be fooled so quickly because it was very evident to me that they were only contacting me since they needed me to be there for them. If Thomas had really been sorry, then he would have contacted me the same day and apologized for everything. He wouldn't have had to wait to realize that I wasn't coming back home to apologize to me. In fact, even when I didn't return that day, he didn't contact me and only when my brother went back to collect my things did he feel the need to reach out to me. So his apologies felt very hollow and meaningless to me and as for Rob, I didn't even need to think twice as to why he was apologizing to me. I had figured out that he needed a way to pay for himself through college

and so far, I had been the one paying his tuition. So he obviously needed my help even now since he still had two years to go before he graduated. And since Thomas couldn't exactly help him out given his financial situation, I'm his only hope, and being the lazy brat that he is, I'm sure it didn't even occur to him that he could have just worked through college like most of us to or taken out a student loan. I was feeling very let down, even though they had apologized because I knew that they did not actually mean that apology and they were just saying it because it was convenient. It took me a really long time to realize it, but I had finally come to the realization that I definitely loved Thomas a lot more than he loved me and a lot more than he deserved. But it was about

time that I prioritized myself and let him go because, for the past six years, all he had done was make false promises and tell me that he was going to make everything right with me and Rob. But he had only enabled him so far because he would only tell Rob to be better, but there were never any real consequences to his actions. And that's why eventually Robb had found the audacity to do something like this and actually expect to get away with it. Anyway, I have spoken to my lawyer about the divorce, and I've also told him that I want to file a lawsuit against them because I want them to pay for the damage that they have caused to me.

So after reading those messages and realizing how fake their apologies were, I decided to write back to Thomas and I told him that I was going ahead with the divorce and there was nothing that he could do to me because I had waited long enough for them to come around. But since it was not going to happen anymore, I was not going to wait around either and allow myself to be disrespected like this over and over again. The next morning, I woke up to another hundred messages from him, begging me not to leave and telling me that he was ready to do whatever it took to make me stay. He had also tried to call me several times throughout the night. But since I was asleep and had muted his notifications, I didn't know. At that moment,

I started to feel really annoyed because in his messages, he was acting like he was genuinely ready to do whatever it took. And I knew that it was just himself. saying these things for the sake of it because he had said these things many times before as well. I had fallen for it earlier, but this time, I decided to tell him that I was going to give him an ultimatum and if he was ready to make things work on my terms, then maybe I would come back. In reality, I did not have any intentions of going back because I had made up my mind after great difficulty and I was not going to go back on my word, but I just wanted to see what he would have to say about this. So I texted him back and I told him that I would be ready to consider

couples counseling and staying with him if he promised me that he would never speak to his son again and would totally cut Rob out of his life. I told him that was the only solution to this, and if he was ready to do that, then we could talk, but otherwise, would be going through with the divorce. So that was my ultimatum and a couple of hours after that, he sent me another message, saying that he didn't know what to say to me because all Rob had was him. But he also loved me and he didn't want to give up on our marriage, so I had put him in a very difficult spot and he needed time to think. He was begging me not to go through with the divorce, but I told him that the fact that he was even considering this meant that neither I nor Rob were that important to him.

And since he couldn't be loyal to either of us, it would be better for me to remove myself from the equation altogether and make things easier for him. Then, I guess he figured out that I actually had no intention of coming back to him in the first place, and he started accusing me of trying to mess with his head and playing mind games. His tone really annoyed me so I decided to take screenshots of that conversation and send it to Rob, and then I turned my phone off because I didn't want to interact with either of them after that. It has been two days since then and Thomas has tried every possible way to get in touch with me because after I sent the screenshots to Rob, he left the house because he felt insulted by the fact that his father was even considering

breaking ties with him to make his marriage work. So Thomas had pretty much been screwed over by both of us and he was blaming me for creating this situation, telling me that I'm the one responsible for his predicament at the moment and has been cursing me out, but I don't feel particularly bad about it. For the past six years, he had been constantly enabling his son and allowing me to get disrespected over and over again, and I thought that this was a very small way for me to get back at him. In comparison to what I have been through, this is pretty much nothing. He has been claiming that he had done his best to strike the right balance between me and Rob and had always tried to keep both of us happy, but that's not true. I was never happy.

Anyway, I don't feel particularly bad about what I did, but my brother thinks that I should have just let it go instead of trying to create a rift between the two of them. He told me that was just not worth it and revenge is not something that he encourages generally, so it's pretty true character for him. I'm just confused about whether I should or shouldn't feel sorry about this and I need people to validate my decision right now because I'm pretty emotionally volatile at the moment. So Ida because I purposefully created drama between my soon-to-be ex-husband and his son who always hated me? Edit, I stayed with him because I loved him, you guys. And when you ask somebody, you allow yourself to get manipulated and it just took me a lot to realize that maybe he didn't

love me as much as I loved him. I think it's pretty common for people to do this when they are trying to take advantage of you and that's exactly what happened to me and I'm not going to be ashamed for it. There's a difference between somebody being a dormant voluntarily and somebody like me, who has been manipulated in the name of love. I was making sacrifices to make my relationship work and it just took me a really long time to realize that I was the only one doing it, which was not fair to me. I can understand that people might feel that I'm a pushover because I stayed with him for so long, but I don't really care. I finally found the spine and the spine and the courage to leave him, even though I still have some love for him in my heart. And for me, I think

that's a big achievement, so I'm definitely not going to allow myself to be shamed. I made a mistake, like a lot of people do, and I think it's completely fine. So thank you to everyone who has been kind to me and to the ones who haven't been so kind. I don't really care. Update 1, hey, thank you so much to everyone who commented and supported me. I'm obviously going through with the divorce and yesterday, Thomas was served with the divorce papers. I don't think he's going to contest it, but I think we might have a snack because I have demanded quite a lot of settlement money since he had been living off of my dime for the past three years. And I would like to be paid back for all of that. But I don't think that right now, given his financial condition,

he would be willing to pay me back. But no worries, we can always make it a long-term payoff situation. Anyway, that's not even a concern right now. We will leave with all of that during our mediation sessions if he tries to come up with his own terms. Some people have been worried that my brother and I had had a fallout over my behavior with him. But honestly, it was not that deep. My brother is a non-confrontational person and he had just told me that he didn't think it was a good idea to interact with them even more and revenge and stuff. But it's not like he had told me to apologize for them or he had tried to cut me off. It had not been that dramatic.

I'm sorry if it came off that way, but it was just a suggestion and we haven't even spoken about it since then because neither does he think it's that important and nor do I. Thomas and Rob have not tried to contact me for the past couple of days, which I am really grateful for because I don't want anything to do with them and I just want some peace and quiet. I have moved out of the hotel that I was staying in and I'm staying with a friend of mine right now. Hopefully, nobody's going to try and find me here. Update 2. Hi, Everyone. So it has been a couple of weeks and Thomas and I are going to attend our first mediation session tomorrow.

Just like I had expected, he doesn't want to pay the amount that I have demanded as a settlement, which is weird because it was literally his son who had damaged my car. So if nothing else, at least he should offer to pay for that and also, I guess he has forgotten the fact that he had promised to pay me back. He hadn't signed a contract or anything, unfortunately. but I have several texts from him just casually conversing and he has mentioned that he is definitely going to pay me back all the tuition that I have paid for as soon as he can afford to do it. So even though I don't have a contract, I guess that's going to do for now.

And for everyone who had been asking me why exactly I had left home, it's a rented house. Even though we had been trying to split our rent for the past couple of years, it was his name on the lease and I didn't think it was worth fighting for. So I left. I've been looking for an apartment near my workplace and as soon as I find one, I'm going to move out of my friend's place and start living on my own again. I can't exactly live with my brother because he has his own family as well and they have tried to tell me that I am welcome at their house, but I don't want anybody to have to give up their room for me. Anyway, that's where it's at right now and hopefully the mediation for the divorce will be over soon and I will be able to move on. I've already started actively trying to move on by throwing myself into my work,

focusing on other things and trying to take my mind off of Thomas. It's not easy, even though I know that he was toxic to me and it's best for me to leave. But part of me is always going to have a soft corner for him and I'm dreading having to see him tomorrow, but I know that this has to be done and who knows, maybe he will mess up and I'll start hating him. Anyway, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for the best. I'm probably going to be very busy for the next couple of months until the divorce is finalized and I don't think I'll have time to keep you guys updated on everything that happens.

So if I post any other updates, it's definitely going to be after the divorce. Wish me luck, you guys. Update 3, hey, everyone. Long time no C, you guys. So just like I had promised you guys, I'm back after my divorce. My last update was probably around seven months ago and my divorce was finalized last week. Since then, life has been pretty much a non-stop party because these past months have been very difficult and draining for me.

But now that it's finally over, I've been hanging out a lot more with my friends and family and I'm planning a trip to Greece with a couple of my high school girlfriends. I've earned this treat for myself and I'm going to try and enjoy my life to the fullest as of now. The process of the divorce was pretty toxic and I don't want to get into it, but at least at the end of it, I got back all the money that I deserved and there's some more in store since he couldn't pay back all of it to me up front. Since then, Thomas has been playing the victim on his social media and most of our common friends have taken his side because they think that I was too hasty in getting a divorce and have been pretending like I never really loved him

in the first place because I found it so easy to leave him. They have also been referring to me as the gold digger and as the most materialistic person they know because I took back the money that I was owed, I guess. I don't know how that makes me the villain, but I'm happy to know that these people have shown their true colors and I know for a fact that they were never my true friends in the first place. I have cut them off and everybody else who was taking his side during the divorce. I don't need this kind of negativity in my life and like I said, I'm going to be living it up to the fullest now. I have my friends and my family and most apparently, I have found myself again and that's all that I need.