Reddit Stories - Cil INCENTIVIZED my 5-YEAR-OLD to stay silent regarding her AGGRESSIVE former partner visiting

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #parenting #familydrama #childpsychology #relationships #boundaries  Summary: A mother faced a dilemma when her aggressive former partner visited. To protect her 5-year-old, she incentivized silence about the visit. This decision sparked discussions on parenting choices, the impact of past relationships, and the importance of child safety, raising questions about the best approach in similar situations.  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, parenting, family, relationships, childdevelopment, safety, boundaries, communication, emotionalintelligence, co-parenting, conflictresolution, childhood, mentalhealth, support, advice, lifeexperiences, personalstoriesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6816713/support.This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode with two stories, first part. I hope you enjoy this story. Sill incendivized my five-year-old to stay silent regarding her aggressive former partner visiting while looking after the children. I contacted the authorities and now my spouse is supporting his sibling. I, a 32-year-old woman, have a five-year-old daughter Emma with my husband, George, 33M. George and I have been married for about eight years now. We met in college through some common friends, dated for a couple of years and then finally got married. We have had a normal relationship and the fights we used to have weren't anything out of the ordinary but this recent one doesn't fall into that category and that's why I'm here for advice because I really don't

know if I was in the wrong here or not. I'm lost in my husband and I haven't spoken for four whole days because of our fight so I need to talk about this urgently. George has a younger sister, Kendra, 30F, who got divorced from her husband of four years a couple of months ago due to a reconcilable differences according to her. Since then, she's been down in the dumps and has been visiting us frequently, but I didn't mind because she and I shared a good relationship. She was happy when she'd be around Emma and my daughter also appreciated spending time and playing with her aunt so I didn't have a problem with her coming over often and of course, neither did George. Then, about a month and a half ago, I received a promotion at work and took up

a new project which meant an increase in my workload. George and I did have a professional babysitter to look after Emma when she came back home from kindergarten until either George or I got back from work. We didn't think it was a good idea for her to be left alone at home for hours, so this was our best way forward until she was old enough to stay home by herself. We could afford it, so we didn't have a problem with this arrangement until I took up the new project and decided to work on Saturdays as well until I was done with my work to ease up the pressure. Unfortunately, my husband also works Saturdays so he couldn't stay back home with Emma either. we'd spoken to our babysitter, but she wasn't willing to work six days a week, regardless of

the raise we offered. So we were in a tight situation but then Kendra offered to look after Emma on the Saturdays and we were grateful to her since she was giving up her day off to take care of her niece and that was a big deal. Plus, we trusted her and she was great with Emma as well. So we went ahead with that arrangement and we were okay with it up until a week ago when my daughter finally told me what her aunt had been up to at our house when we were not at home. Through these past couple of weeks, I'd noticed that the number of toys that Emma had was gradually increasing but we hadn't bought her any new toys recently. I'd never even seen some of the new toys she happened to be playing with and neither did George,

so I asked Kendra about it and she told me that these were her gifts to Emma. I didn't have an issue with it at the time, but I did tell her to not give her gifts so often because we didn't want to spoil her by giving her something new to play with every week and she said that she wouldn't, but it continued. I wanted to confront her about it but didn't because it just sounded too dramatic to throw a fit because she was spoiling my daughter with too many gifts when she was giving up her weekend to look after her so I decided not to say anything. However, last week, I finally found out the reason why exactly Kendra was giving my daughter so many gifts.

They weren't gifts per se but were actually bribes for my daughter to keep her mouth shut about what Kendra was actually using my house for and when Emma finally told me what was going on, I couldn't hold back and decided to report her to the police. Last week, while I was playing with my daughter, I decided to ask her about one of the toys she had, a red-haired doll, for fun. It happened to be one that Kendra had given her and when I asked Emma how she got a hold of this doll,

she told me that Aunt Kendra had gifted her this doll so that she would keep her mouth shut about Mr. Johnny who would come home every weekend. When she said that, I was immediately on high alert because Kendra wasn't supposed to have visitors at our house when she was by herself. Nobody was, especially not when it was just her and Emma because that sounded like a recipe for

disaster. So I pushed my daughter to talk about it but she refused, saying that Kendra had told her that she was not supposed to talk about this with her mommy, referring to me. And if she did tell me, Kendra would stop buying her gifts and wouldn't visit her ever again, which she didn't want, so she refused to tell me anything else. Kendra must have drilled it into her head pretty well because it was almost impossible to get her to talk and only after about half an hour of coaxing and cajoling did Emma finally open up about what was going on and what she'd seen. She told me that the red-haired doll was the first shoe that Kendra had bought for her when she'd witnessed this Johnny guy visiting her. Emma was supposed to be napping at the time

but had been roaming around in the house because she was bored and that's when she noticed Kendra going into our bedroom with Johnny and when Kendra noticed Emma watching, she locked the room and told her that she'd get in trouble if she breathed a word of this to me. So she didn't say anything and Kendra promised to buy her. her toys if she stayed silent, which is what she did. But now that I'd begun to uncover these secrets that she'd been keeping from me, I absolutely had to find out more and pushed my daughter to tell me about this man who'd been visiting. I'd already concluded that Kendra had been having an affair with some guy and had been using our house as their hookup spot. What really took me

by surprise was when Emma told me that she'd seen this man in photos around our house and I was stunned because that meant she was having an affair with someone we knew. I asked her to point out who exactly she'd seen and she led me to a photograph that we'd kept on the mantle of us with both our families on the day of our wedding. She pointed out Jonathan, who happened to be married to one of my cousins, Irene. Irene and Jonathan and Jonathan and Jonathan and Jonathan and Jonathan and and Jonathan and Jonathan and Jonathan's divorce had been high school sweethearts and even had twin toddlers together so for them to part ways due to infidelity was something that none of us could have ever imagined. And neither could we have even imagined Jonathan smashing the windshield of Irene's car with a brick

the day after their divorce was finalized because Irene had walked away with half of his bank balance as her divorce settlement. She hadn't pressed charges because, according to her, she was just too emotionally drained and wanted this to be over but everyone felt that she should have. I personally felt that Jonathan was unhinged and she should have filed for a restraining order against him but ultimately, it was her choice and I couldn't say anything against it. However, now that I knew what I knew about Kendra, I decided that I had to report this because, in my opinion, she'd put my child in the same house as someone like Jonathan who was definitely unhinged and didn't deserve to be around kids.

Least of all my daughter and I might have been acting emotionally but as soon as I put two and two together, I decided to call the police and report Kendra for endangering Emma. I didn't think it was appropriate for her to bring another man home while she was supposed to be watching over my daughter, let alone someone like Jonathan who'd literally done something so crazy just out of anger. The cops did get to her but let her off with a warning and a fine because she claimed that she had no idea what Jonathan had done in the past, which was just not possible because I myself had discussed the situation about Irene and Jonathan with her a couple of times so I knew that she was well aware of who Jonathan was. Last weekend, my husband was out on a

business trip and wasn't at home when I discovered what Kendra had been up to behind our backs and I'd called the cops before it informed him, which is why he came back and got into a really bad fight with me over this. I tried to inform him after I'd called the cops, but he hadn't answered my calls or texts until he came back home. He accused me of being too paranoid and said that Kendra would never have put Emma in harm's way knowingly and refused to believe that Kendra was aware of Jonathan's behavior regarding Irene in the past. According to Kendra, she had indeed been having an affair with him after she met him at our Christmas party last year, but they did come clean to their partner soon enough afterwards and she really had no idea that he'd

smashed Irene's car. She'd been living with her parents after the divorce and couldn't just bring home another man and he was living with a friend of his because they couldn't move in together just yet, which is why they'd been hooking up at our house which is just gross to even think about. She kept denying that she knew about Jonathan's behavior and said that had she known, she never would have brought him home around Emma because she didn't want to make me feel unsafe or betrayed. But I do feel both of those things and I also feel really angry because I specifically remember telling Kendra about what Jonathan had done to Irene's car during their divorce and we'd even discussed how lucky she was that she didn't have a psycho ex-husband who would do such a thing. So I know for a fact that she's been lying about not being familiar with Jonathan's mental instability. I didn't want a man like that in or around my house and I did feel lied to, betrayed, and hurt by what Kendra had done but my husband still thinks that I should have consulted with him at least before I went ahead.

and reported her to the cops. I don't understand where I messed up here because as a mother, I did what I thought was right, but George insists that I could have dealt with this better and that I should have waited for him to come home at least before I did whatever I thought was right. He told me that my paranoia could have led to serious trouble for his sister and that I was being too sensitive because obviously, Jonathan wasn't even that unstable and he just smashed that car in a moment of anger and weakness. I know that's a messed up defense but that's an argument for another day and right now,

I need to pick my battles. I don't think calling the police was the wrong move, but maybe I should have waited for George to come back home before doing anything and then, after speaking to him, we could have gone ahead with whatever we decided was the right thing to do. Now I don't know what that would have been according to him, but I guess I could have discussed this with him before taking things into my own hands because it was his sister after all. And a tiny part of me thinks that maybe I did overreact. Now I don't know if that's because I've been gaslit or whatever, but maybe I took things too far and this could have actually been resolved with a civilized discussion instead. I just honestly don't know if what I did was right or wrong and my husband

isn't speaking to me right now, so I feel even more lost. I just have no idea whether I did the right thing as a mother or whether it was a crazy overreaction. I just have no idea and that's why I'm here right now. I'd offer reporting my sister-in-law to the police for bringing her violent boyfriend home while babysitting my daughter, without talking to my husband about the same. Update 1. So first of all, thanks to everyone who responded. It really did help me get a sense of perspective because I'd literally lost my head worrying about what my husband thought. I think it probably was all the gaslighting, in hindsight, that made me think I must have messed up but I know now that I did the right thing as a mother. And that's what I am, first and foremost.

I'm Emma's mother first and everyone else, literally everyone including comes second. If that offends him then too bad, but I'm not going to act like I'm sorry for not consulting with him about something that concerned my daughter's safety. And to be fair, his sister hadn't consulted with me either before she brought Jonathan home. Not only did she bring that man home several times, she also hooked up with him while leaving Emma on her own and in spite of that, George thinks that Kendra wouldn't put her in harm's way. She literally did exactly that and we were just lucky that nothing happened to Emma while she was on her own. If George fails to realize that then that's on Emma not on me, I did what I thought was right and I'm going to stand by it. I even confronted him

about it a couple of days back after I went through the comments on my original post. And I think what he's mad about is that I dared to question Kendra's integrity or whatever because, to him, she's his little sister who can do no wrong. This is just so ridiculous because she's actually a 30-year-old woman who knew full well what she was up to and lied to us for weeks and even bribed my five-year-old daughter just so she could mess around with her boyfriend. George has been fighting with me over this and I guess this is the hill he's going to choose to die on by the looks of it. Because he's absolutely not ready to accept that maybe Kendra was in the wrong here and insists

that I'm the one who's overreacting because at the end of the day, our daughter's safe. She's safe now but there was a very real chance that if we continue to entrust her with this responsibility, then maybe our daughter would have suffered. I don't know how exactly, but I could tell him about a thousand ways things could have gone south because of Kendra's irresponsible and frankly disgusting behavior, but he's just not ready to even hear anything against his sister. Defending her is more important to him than the safety of his own daughter, so that's where we're in our relationship right now and I just don't know what to do or how to make him see sense. He still refuses to engage in a civil discussion with me until I apologize to Kendra for

reporting her which is never going to happen. She hasn't even apologized to me yet, so it's rich of my husband to expect that I'm going to say that I'm sorry for what I did especially when I'm not, not in the slightest. And then there's the fact that he's also defending what Jonathan did, by repeating over and over again that what he did was something that happens when people are overcome with emotions and it's not fair for me to call him psychotic and unstable based on that one incident. He never said any of this back when I'd originally told him about the incident, but now that it was his sister who was involved here. It was suddenly important for him to defend Jonathan simply because it was convenient for him now. I just can't agree with that ideology at all and it really makes me think that if someday he loses his temper then maybe he'll believe that it's okay to smash things or throw stuff around or maybe even worse. I don't even want to say these things out loud because it's awful enough to imagine

them as it is and I don't want to think about them. But the bottom line is, right now I can't see any way out of this situation because he's not going to stop defending Kendra and I can't trust her ever again. So my only solution is to leave him which is a scary thought, but I know I have to do this for my daughter's sake and also my own. I think I should have left a long time back, as soon as he started defending Kendra but I was foolish enough to believe that he'd change his mind with time. Or that I'd be able to change his mind and make him see sense, to be more precise, but that's not going to happen and I've given up any hope of it. Update 2, it's been a week and a half since I first posted here and today, I finally moved out. George didn't even try to

argue with or get me to stay when I told him last night that I would be leaving today and neither did he ask about Emma, which was very shocking for me. He told me that I was free to go wherever I wanted to because he didn't want to be with someone who didn't respect him and his family, referring to what I'd done with Kendra. So he's still on it and trying to manipulate me into believing that I was somehow in the wrong here which, by now, literally everyone involved knows I wasn't. Even Irene, who knows about what happened after I told her who exactly Jonathan had been cheating with, believes that at this point, they're all just forcing themselves to make me look like the bad guy so that they're not forced to look within themselves and find the filth and

lies they've filled themselves with to avoid any accountability at all. I agree with her wholeheartedly because I really can't imagine any other reason to still continue supporting Kendra even though she literally put Emma, his own daughter, in danger. Like I said earlier, defending his sister and proving that he's right is more important to him than his family. Or maybe he doesn't think of us as his family at all and only cares about Kendra and his parents, who are also on her side, by the way. Because that's actually what it feels like right now since he just let me and Emma go without putting up a fight. Not even for my sake, but at least for Emma's sake, I expected him to at least ask about her but he didn't, which is something I'm still struggling to come to terms with

even though a couple of hours have passed since I left. It just sucks that after eight years, years of marriage and more than a decade of being together, it still hasn't amounted to anything and he's still choosing to treat us like crap and all for Kendra. The same woman who ruined not one but two marriages and if you count mine, then you can actually make it three. It's so, so heartbreaking and what's even more devastating is that I don't even have any answers for Emma right now. She doesn't know why she hasn't seen Aunt Kendra in ages and neither does she know why she's leaving her dad at home and moving to her grandparents' place with me, maybe for good. She keeps asking me and I just don't know what to tell her.

It's devastating but it is what it is and I know this is in her best interest so I'll do it for our sake. Update 3. I finally got in touch with a lawyer this week and filed for divorce with full custody a couple of days back. George was served with the notice today and he texted me to demand visitation rights at the very least and that full custody was an unfair demand. I don't know why he believes that I'm being unfair to him because I think he should have seen this coming, given the fact that he hasn't bothered to reach out to me and check on his own daughter after we left

and it's been about two weeks since we've been living with my parents, so he had plenty of time to contact me for Emma's sake. He chose not to and that's all that I needed to conclude that he doesn't deserve to be a part of Emma's life. It's taken me a while to explain to her that her father and Kendra aren't going to be a part of her life for a while until she grows up and can make her own decisions, and I'm not going to confuse her by reintroducing her to George again. There has to be an end to this, and I'm going to choose to end their relationship here because I don't think he valued us at all, honestly. He screwed up royally, so now he pays the price for that and I think full custody is completely fair. I texted him back saying that he can contest it if he thinks I'm being unfair, but it's ultimately up to the court to decide what's fair and what's

unfair, not him. I thought that was a pretty neutral response, but for what I was a pretty neutral response, whatever reason even that was enough to provoke him into getting all aggressive and he started calling me names and accusing me of trying to alienate his child from him which simply wasn't true. I think anyone with half a brain would be able to tell that he himself was responsible for whatever was going to happen now and there was just no point in blaming me for a situation that he created. It's ridiculous that he even expected me to take his argument seriously and I really had no time to waste arguing with him, so I blocked him. It's been a couple of hours since then and I've also forwarded all the text to my lawyer, just in case she needs them during the

divorce proceedings or the custody battle. I've been trying to balance work in spending time with my daughter after I moved out and have delegated my work to other employees instead of trying to manage everything on my own, which I guess was my biggest flaw. But my daughter is my top priority right now and I don't want to delegate that job to anyone anymore. I've learned my lesson now, LOL. Update 4. Hi, so it's been a few months. Lots of things have happened since my last update, but most importantly, I'm divorced now and a single mother. I've moved into a new apartment of my own and I'm no longer living with my parents and occupying their guest room, but I still drop by from time to time since they live close.

I haven't spoken to George, my ex-husband, since the divorce because things got really nasty during the legal battle. I don't want to get into that because it isn't relevant, but there was a lot of public mudslinging that his family indulged in for the most part. Kind of sad since we were all really close at some point, but I can't say I'm surprised at their behavior. I knew it was going to happen, the change in their behavior and it was only a matter of when. At least my daughter and I are doing better now, so I guess that's something. I'm happy that things are working out now and I'm slowly but surely getting used to being on my own now and coming to terms with my life. It isn't going to be easy hereafter, but I'm so ready for whatever challenges life throws at me now.

That's the end of the first story. Let's begin the second one. I hope you enjoy this story. My sibling covertly connected with my soon-to-be spouse on the evening of our betrothal, yet my relatives sided with her. Half a decade later, she's overwhelmed by financial obligations and is pleading with me for $75,000. So I, 29F, recently got to a call from my mother, who I hadn't spoken to in almost five years, saying that she needed my help because my sister and her husband had just been through a tragedy. For context, the man who is now my sister's husband was actually supposed to be my husband once upon a time. My sister, 27F, I'll call her Melissa, hooked up with my fiancé Lucas, 29M, on the day of my

engagement. Lucas and I had been together since college and he proposed to me after almost five years of being together. He'd thrown a party for us to surprise me on the night of our engagement and I still remember feeling like I was on top of the world until around 10 p.m., when I decided to go out into the backyard for a better reception and caught my sister all over Lucas there. They were making out so passionately that for the first couple of seconds, they didn't even notice me standing there with my mouth wide open. I couldn't believe that he was doing this to me after almost five years of togetherness and on the night of our engagement, no less. When they finally did take note of me, they broke apart instantly but it was too late. I made a run for it,

got into my car, and drove as fast as I could to the nearest hotel that I could find. I was hyperventilating because I was so shocked at what I had witnessed. I was somehow trying to process it and was willing it to be untrue, but then I received a text from Melissa, saying that she was sorry but she was in love with Lucas and apparently, this had been going on for a really long time now. I was in the hotel room when I received that text and I broke down like never before. After Melissa, Lucas texted me pretty much the same thing and said that he had only proposed because he felt that if he committed to me, then he would be able to push Melissa out of his head. Obviously, that hadn't worked and it made him want Melissa even more.

He told me that it wasn't about me, but this was about them and they just knew that they were meant to be. I was just a placeholder and the way for Lucas to finally meet Melissa. I stayed at the hotel for a couple of days and tried to put my act together because I was still feeling crazy and trying to force myself to believe that this was just a cruel prank that life was playing on me. After almost four days, I finally went back home, because I did need to collect my stuff and rejoin work if I didn't want to get fired. When I showed up at home, I realized that my family had been living with Lucas under the same roof, waiting for me to come back. It would almost be touching, had it not been for the circumstances under which I left. Everybody had been trying

to text me and get me to respond relentlessly after I disappeared, but I hadn't replied to a single one of those texts. So needless to say, there was a lot of chaos when I finally came back and everybody made it a point to hug me and tell me how glad they were to see me. Even Melissa had the audacity to come to me and give me a giant hug with tears in her eyes when she saw me. I was too disoriented to even react to that and just stood there like a silent statue while everyone clamored around me. Then finally, once everybody had calmed down, I cleared my throat and told them that I was back only to take my things and move out for good. Lucas had just been standing there without a word up until that point. But when I said that I was going to move out,

he announced that there was no need for me to leave because he'd already packed his stuff and was going to move in with Melissa, since now everything was out in the open anyway. My family, my parents, and my aunt, my dad's younger sister who has lived in the same house ever since her husband passed away, actually had wide smiles on their faces even though there was nothing to smile about, at least not according to me. Melissa was standing beside Lucas in an awkward side hug and looking at me very sadly but still smiling. I couldn't take it anymore and decided to ask my family what the heck were they even smiling about. Because as far as I was concerned, Melissa had just broken up my engagement and stolen my boyfriend of almost five years. There was really nothing

very funny or sweet about this. My mother chose to speak up at that point and told me that they couldn't go back in time and change the past, but they could accept the future. And they knew that the future had Melissa and Lucas together in it. Granted, it was a relationship that had formed out of cheating and they did feel sorry about it, but they also wanted me to understand and accept that this was for the best. Melissa said that she was very sorry for taking my boyfriend away from me, but she couldn't help falling in love with him. She wished that she could have told me earlier and I didn't have to find out this way. But apparently, they were madly in love and wanted to spend their lives with each other. Then the two of them kissed right in front of me and my mother had the audacity to even wipe a tear

from her eye. I snapped and told them that this wasn't supposed to be sentimental or emotional and that what they were doing was disgusting. To my surprise, my family seemed to get annoyed with my behavior and told me that I was being too brady about the situation. Instead of being happy for my sister, I was making this all about myself and they didn't approve of my behavior. I was stunned by their attitude about this and told them all to get the heck out of my house that very moment. I couldn't, for the life of me, understand how they were defending what Melissa and Lucas had done while making me out to be the bad guy and act as though I was overreacting. My father intervened and told me not to act like a child because these things happen and I should

take it in my stride. He wanted me to celebrate that my sister had finally found her soulmate, instead of being jealous of her. They were literally all acting insane and I couldn't deal with it anymore, so I just said screw it, went into my room, packed some of my things, and left yet again without even speaking to them or waiting to hear them out even as they called out my name and told me not to go. I really didn't have anything left to say to them because it was very clear to me that they cared more about Melissa and her happiness than about me, or even about what was right and wrong. They were so caught up in trying to justify what Melissa had done, that they completely forgot that I was also a human being, with real feelings as well. After that day, my family

tried to contact me several times, but I never responded to them because I didn't think that I owed it to them. A couple of weeks later, I even received an invitation to Melissa and Lucas wedding, which I declined, obviously. All the common friends that Lucas and I had also declined the wedding invitation in solidarity with me. And even a couple of relatives who knew the truth refused to interact with my family after they learned how they had treated me in the aftermath of the party. It's been five years and I've pretty much cut them out of my life entirely. They occasionally tried to weasel their way back into my life by wishing me on my birthday or New Year, but I always ignored them. I never even blocked any of them, even though I did.

did remove them from my following and friend lists. But since I have a public account, they could see what I was up to, which is what I wanted. I wanted them to see and I wanted them to know that I was leading a fabulous life and keep burning with jealousy. It was petty but it was the least I could do after how they screwed me over. And up until recently, I barely even had a clue of what they'd been up to in the last couple of years. My mother called me about four days ago from a number that I didn't have saved. When I answered the call and realized that it was my mom on the other end, I immediately tried to hang up,

but she begged me desperately for one chance to talk to me because apparently, they were in dire need of help. And I agreed to talk to her for just a couple of minutes, but only because she sounded so upset and my humanity didn't allow me to turn my back on her at that moment. She told me that Melissa and Lucas had started a business of their own a couple of years ago, but it was failing badly and their investors were all backing out

because they were failing to make any profit at all. So they borrowed more money but even that didn't help their business and now, they were neck-deep in debt and the loaned sharks were all after them. They were being hounded by everyone from their employees to their investors and the people they had borrowed money from. My mother knew that I lived a luxurious lifestyle and could afford to help them out, so she had turned to me as a last resort and was begging me to help them out by loaning them some money so they could pay off their debts.

and it was no small amount either that she was asking me for, it was almost $75,000 that she wanted me to give her so she could help Melissa and Lucas out. I asked her why wasn't Melissa calling me if she needed help and why was she making my mother speak to me on her behalf. So my mother told me that Melissa and Lucas didn't even know that she was coming to me for help as they had given her strict instructions not to approach me. Because I guess we all still remember exactly what happened five years ago. Melissa didn't want me to know any of this and wasn't ready to take help from me, but my mother didn't know anybody else who would have that kind of money and would give it to them at the drop of a hat. A couple of months had already passed and Melissa and

Lucas were struggling to even put food on the table. My parents were helping them all they could and even Lucas family were trying to give them all that they possibly could but it was just not enough. And even they had to be able to support themselves in the future. So it was impossible for them to just give away all the money that they'd saved over the years, especially because most of my family was retired and so were Lucas parents. And that's why my mother, with no other options left, had called me to request me for help. Now, I could afford to help them out. But I really didn't want to. Melissa was right for not contacting me to ask for help. They'd lost the right to make any demands from me the day the day cheated on me. I told my mother that I couldn't help them

and even if I could, I wouldn't. My mother sounded very upset and told me that I was being cruel and that I needed to think about my family. I told her that Melissa and Lucas hadn't thought about me when they had that affair and neither did my family think about me while they were supporting the two of them. So right now there was no need for me to think about them either. I'd worked hard to get to the position where I am today

and I wasn't about to just go and drop 75K on two people who didn't even deserve it. My mother then began to cry on the phone and told me that she had never expected me to grow up to be so selfish and claimed that my sister and her husband would end up in big trouble if I didn't help them out. I said that it was just too bad but I couldn't help them. And then I hung up. Since then, my mother has been sending me several texts every hour, begging me to reconsider and think about my sister for once. She said that this was not the time for petty revenge and that the trouble that Melissa was in was very serious.

So if I didn't help her now, I really would regret it in the future. She's being crazy and I don't understand what to say to her because I don't want to feel like the bad guy here either. I'd offer not helping my sister out financially after she stole my fiancé five years ago. Update 1, so I finally blocked my family. I hadn't done that earlier because A, I wanted them to see what I was up to and feel jealous of me. And B, because I thought that cutting them off entirely could be something that I would regret,

in case something bad were to happen to them but I don't really care now. I should have removed them five years ago. I don't understand why I even kept them around for so long. That is what was petty of me. Refusing to help my sister out now isn't petty. It's just the logical thing to do. They'd already wasted tons and tons of money and I'm sure that even if I give them the money right now, they won't be able to repay it. And $75,000 is a pretty big amount, so I might be well off, but that doesn't mean I can just drop that sort of money and not expect it back.

A, if this was a close friend of mine who I was helping, I still would expect that money back. And here, these are neither people who are close to me nor my loved ones nor can I expect them to pay me back. So there's really no reason for me to help them out. It's as simple as that. I told a couple of my friends about this too, to get their opinion on it, and they agreed that I'd done the right thing by refusing to give them the money. Not even out of a feeling of revenge, but mostly because it was completely impractical and stupid to even expect me to help them when they were the ones who had screwed me over in the past. But anyway, my mother is blocked now and she can't contact me to guilt-trib me anymore

so I have nothing to worry about. Update 2, hi, guys, so something really big happened today. I was at work when I received a call from my neighbor, saying that there was a couple outside of my house who were screaming for me to come out and talk to them. My neighbor told me that they seemed pretty crazy and had been screaming at the door for about an hour, refusing to leave. I asked her for a description of them, but in my heart, I already knew who it was. She told me how they looked and it just confirmed that I was indeed going to run into Melissa and Lucas when I got back home. My neighbor told me that I needed to come back and deal with this because

she didn't think that these two were up to any good. And I agreed when it was Melissa and Lucas that we were talking about, they could never be up to any good. So I thanked her and started driving back home immediately because I couldn't risk them getting into my house at any cost. I got there in about 15 minutes, luckily, and caught them in the act of trying to break into my house by picking the lock on my door. I pulled up in front of my house and asked them what the hell they thought they were doing. And then I tried to call the police immediately but Lucas was as quick as lightning and he rushed over to me and knocked the phone out of my hand. Melissa also walked over to me and told me that they were here just to talk and they didn't want anything from me, not at the moment, at least.

I told them to make it quick and also said that they shouldn't expect me to invite them inside. So whatever they had to talk about had to be discussed out there in the yard. They seemed to be okay with that, which was a relief because I really didn't think that it would be a good idea to invite those two inside close quarters. They already seemed pretty hostile, so I didn't know what to expect since they'd said they didn't want anything from me. Melissa started talking and told me that our mother had told her about that phone call and how I'd ignored the subsequent texts from her and then even blocked them all. She told me that the way I was behaving was very unfair and that it had been five years since then

so I should really be over it by now. Instead, I was resorting to such silly and dramatic acts just to get a little bit of attention from my family. She said that she'd felt very insulted. because of how I'd refuse to help them, and that's what she was here to talk to me about. She said that she'd been able to arrange the money for now, but there was a very strong chance that she might need more in the future. And because she'd sold their house and all their jewelry to get the money this time, she obviously couldn't do that again. And so she had to know that she could fall back on me and rely on me for help when she needed it. I told her that no, she couldn't and she must not count on me at all under any circumstances because I hate her

and her husband with a passion. I was so angry that I also told her that it was taking me a lot of restraint to not hit her at the moment. So it would be in their best interest to just leave. Lucas had the audacity to say that they weren't going anywhere until I signed a document that would confirm that I would give them money in the future whenever they needed it. I mean it wouldn't even be valid if I was forced to sign it under pressure, I'm pretty sure there are laws against it. And also, they must be insane if they actually thought that they could manipulate me into signing something like that. I told both of them to get the hell out and Melissa pushed me, saying that I had to help them because apparently, I owed this to them since they were

family and I couldn't just run away from my responsibilities like this. I was shocked that she'd actually pushed me and I was about to slap her, but I controlled the urge to do that because things would only get worse if I got violent. Instead, I decided to grab my phone which had fallen to the ground when Lucas knocked it out of my hand and made a run for it. I climbed into my car as quickly as I could and then drove off without even bothering to check my rearview mirror. I hadn't bothered to shut off the engine when I had left the car so it was still running and it didn't take me much time to get a head start on them. Obviously, they were not stupid enough to chase after me on foot so they just waited there at my house, which was pretty unfortunate. As soon as I was a safe

distance away from them, I decided to call the police and tell them what was going on. And then I drove back to my house, just in the nick of time because the police had already arrived within 20 minutes. I filled them in on everything and they arrested and took Melissa and Lucas away. I knew that the charges weren't that serious and they would get off pretty easily. But it was still worth it because at least they were taken away and I didn't have to waste any more of my time with them. It's been a couple of hours since then and I haven't heard from anyone in my family. Which is strange, because I'd figured out that by now, at least one of them would have tried to contact me from some other numbers, but they haven't. So I'm guessing that they're either

just over everything and aren't going to try and get under my skin again. Or they're just waiting it out and biding their time so they can contact me later when things are a little less tense. Update 3. Hi. So the last update was about a week ago and I'd honestly started to believe that my family was actually not going to bother me again because I had called the cops on Melissa and Lucas. But I was wrong. Even that didn't stop them from disturbing me yet again in this time, it was my parents who showed up at my house, asking me if they could speak to me for a moment. This happened yesterday and they seemed a lot less cocky and arrogant compared to Melissa and Lucas, so I let them in. My mother started crying pretty much as soon as she entered the house

and told me how sorry she was that she'd ever taken Melissa's side over mine. My father told me that after they learned of Melissa and Lucas being arrested because of their behavior and also that they had physically pushed me, they couldn't bring themselves to look at them the same way and had decided that they were going to cut them off. My mother continued to cry throughout the time that she was here while my father explained that they were apologetic for siding with Melissa in the past when it was actually me who was the victim. While I said that I did appreciate them for finally coming to their senses, but right now it

was too little and too late for things to get better. I was used to living my life on my own terms now and I didn't want to go back to putting my family before myself. So as much as I appreciated their visit and apology to me, I really couldn't promise them that I would work on this relationship because I just didn't feel that there was any point in trying to salvage an already ruined relationship, even if it is with my parents. They protested a little at that point and said that we could fix this if we wanted to. But that was exactly where the problem was, I didn't want to anymore.

I just wanted to be by myself, that's all. And I told them I respected their efforts, but I was done here. They seemed a little disappointed but eventually, they left and asked me if I could at least unblock them so they could keep in touch. I have unblocked my parents which feels weird but yeah, I guess that's it.