Reddit Stories - Confessions of Family Betrayal Unleashed Secrets ( Over 3 Hour Compilation ) - Episode 11

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familybetrayal #confessions #secrets #drama #emotional  Summary: In Episode 11 of "Confessions of Family Betrayal Unleashed Secrets," listeners delve into over three hours of shocking revelations. Family members share their experiences of betrayal, exploring the emotional turmoil and secrets that fracture relationships. This compilation highlights the complexities of familial bonds and the pain of hidden truths.  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, betrayal, familydrama, secretsrevealed, emotionalstories, personalconfessions, relationshipadvice, familyissues, trust, heartbreak, storytelling, podcast, trueconfessions, lifeadvice, humanexperience, conflictresolution, familydynamicsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6816713/support.This episode includes AI-generated content.

Relax and enjoy the following compilation of stories. I hope you enjoy this story. Sibling deceives me into truncating holiday due to fabricated crisis. I exacted my vengeance by allowing his children to demolish the residents. Hello everyone, I never anticipated being in this situation. Posting something like this, but the events of the past few days have been so bizarre that I just had to share. Brace yourselves for a roller coaster of emotion. I, 27F, usually work from home and frequently babysit my brothers, 33M, and sister-in-law's kids.

They have two kids, Noah, 5M, and Susie, 8F. My brother, Mike, has a rather demanding job. He works as a structural mover and has a 40-hour-week desk job. His wife, Sandra, works as a nurse so as you can imagine both of them frequently need someone to babysit. For some backstory, my brother and Sandra got pregnant when I was in college and used to live at my parents' house. They used to live with us and I was forced to kind of turn into a live-in maid. My mom who also had a job at that time would tell me that since I was free after my classes, the least I could do for the family was look after my brother's kids.

My dad didn't like it, but my mom never gave me a choice. I thought I had to look after the kids for only five hours until my parents were back. home but as days passed, my mom would continue to ask me to bathe the kids, feed them, or put them to sleep even when she was back home. I didn't blame her because I understood that she was tired too, but I was practically spending seven to eight hours looking after the kids which was not only for free, but it also took up all my time. These kids were young and were an absolute terror. They were extremely hyperactive throughout the day and would run around throwing toys everywhere.

If they demanded something and I didn't listen to them, they would start smashing things around the house and I would have to clean up after them. My thing is I am not maternal and I was also very, very young. Being the youngest sibling, I had no idea how to take care of children, especially the ones who would run around screaming and throw tantrums if their demands weren't met. Obviously, I would protest several times to my brother, but he would also tell me that I was always at home and I had nothing better to do any. Anyway. This started to affect my studies as I was too tired to complete my assignments after putting the kids to bed to do any work. One evening, I had a very important assignment to submit but Noah and Susie wouldn't leave

me alone. They would mess with my books or laptops if I took my attention away from them. I requested them several times to give me one hour alone tops and I put on their favorite kids show to distract them but Noah started throwing things at my face, like the remote or the pillows on the couch. This would make Susie giggle and in turn entourage Noah to continue with this behavior. I would firmly tell him no, put whatever he threw out of his reach, and try to gently explain that we don't throw things. But Noah continued until he threw his drinking mug on my laptop. This spilled water all over the place and my laptop was rendered

useless. I couldn't believe the extent of the chaos that unfolded in a matter of seconds. Frustration and exhaustion reached their peak, and I found myself on the verge of tears. This wasn't just a mere inconvenience anymore, it was affecting my academic life and my personal belongings. Desperate to salvage my assignment and maintain my sanity, I took a deep breath and gathered them around, trying to be as composed as possible, and explained how important my studies were and the consequences of their actions. Noah remained defiant, continuing to throw things at my face. I felt beyond frustrated and felt a mix of anger and helplessness. I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and told Noah that he was on a timeout. I switched off the TV and asked him to sit in a corner facing the wall.

Noah's eyes widened and he started to cry, but I didn't listen to him and put him on the chair. Gigi seeing this immediately quieted down. When my brother found out about this, he absolutely lost. his mind over me putting his son in time out for misbehaving. He started yelling at me that I am not their parents so I don't have the right to punish his kids. I sternly explained the situation to him, emphasizing the toll it was taking on my academic responsibilities and the irreparable damage done to my laptop. I told him how I needed to get my laptop prepared now because of his kids so he needs to pay for

the damages. My brother started to yell at me that I was being extremely selfish and kids were going to be kids so I should not blame them or him and that I should have known better than to use my laptop in front of them. I told him that I was being forced to look after his kids which was affecting my studies so I had no choice but to complete my assignments while I was babysitting them as no one else was willing to help me out. My brother yelled at me that we were family and this wasn't a big deal as they were my niece and nephews. He continued to berate me that if I punished his kids then they wouldn't like me. I told him that was fine with me as I didn't need them to like me anyway. I needed them to respect me if they were ever to be in my care. This made him angry and he said how I was living at my parents' house for free and other than college.

I had no life anyways so I shouldn't complain about looking after his kids. He also firmly told me that I wasn't allowed to punish them so I retorted to him that I was done with him and his kids. My brother was shocked hearing my response and tried to backtrack, but I told him that if he wanted me to look after his kids from the next day, he would have to either start paying me or look for an alternate arrangement. I continued to tell him that my services would no longer be available to him and that he was free to find someone else since he clearly wanted some push-over doormat for his kids to walk all over and that wasn't going to be me. Later that night, my brother must have told the rest of the family and

and my mom decided to barge into my room demanding that I apologize to my brother and his kids. She insisted that, as a sister, I should be supportive and help my brother without expecting anything in return. However, I wasn't about to back down. I calmly explained that while I loved my brother and his family, my time and efforts were valuable, and I deserved fair compensation for the unexpected babysitting responsibilities. As the tension escalated, my dad intervened, rushing my defense. He reminded my mom that I had a right to be compensated for my time and effort. He pointed out that babysitting wasn't a small favor but a significant commitment that warranted acknowledgement. The argument between my parents continued to escalate, with raised voices echoing

through the house. My sister-in-law finally stepped in. She acknowledged the validity of my point and offered to start paying me the next day and wanted to settle on $50, but I refused saying that this was too cheap for me to look after their kids for 8 to 9 hours every day. My insistence surprised them, and they questioned the amount I was asking for. Undeterred, I demanded $80 per day,

a figure that reflected the time, effort, and stress involved in taking care of the kids. My brother yelled at me that I was being greedy, but I replied that he could try finding someone else then. They begrudgingly agreed. I also demanded that they helped pay for my laptop which their little minion had destroyed and my sister-in-law agreed. Although my mom continued to express her disapproval, the compromise was reached and the following day marked the beginning of a new arrangement. I was compensated for my babysitting duties.

This arrangement continued until I moved out of my parents' house. At first, my brother would continue to insist that I should keep looking at. after the kids, but he quickly realized that it was impossible for me as I stayed at the office for long hours and wasn't back at home until 8 p.m. He had no choice but to find another solution. I was never again troubled for looking after his kids except on rare occasions which I was okay with because, at the end of the day, I did love my nephew and niece. Last year, I started working from home permanently as I got a very nice job and I had the option to switch to work from home. I absolutely love my job as it pays me well and I can afford to live in an affluent neighborhood.

When my brother found out about this, he started to go back to his old ways and would find an excuse every day to leave kids with me. It's important to note that at this point, I wasn't asking him for any money nor did he ever offer me as I thought this was only going to happen for some time. Surprisingly, my brother wasn't thrilled about this and would go to great lengths to avoid confronting me. He resorted to leaving his kids on my doorstep in the morning and would only call me after he had safely retreated into his car, leaving me with no option but to bring the kids inside. In my attempts to reason with someone in the family, I spoke with my sister-in-law multiple times about the situation. However, she insisted that I should be more understanding and help him out since he had been recently promoted in his job, hence he was spread thin. I didn't mind looking after my brother's kids once or twice a week, but taking care of them regularly was affecting my job. I realized he wasn't going to change until I taught him a lesson.

The next time he left his kids on my doorstep and called me to inform him, I lied and claimed that I wasn't at home. I threatened that I would call the police and CPS on him for abandoning his kids on my doorstep. He started yelling at me that I should just come back home wherever I was, but I told him, that if he didn't turn his car back and pick up his kids, he would be answering the police the next time. This made my brother speed back and take his kids. Later, my mom and my sister-in-law called to tell me that my brother had to miss his work as he couldn't find an alternate option, and as a result, his boss shouted at him for missing work. My mom blamed me and told me that I was working from home so if my brother wanted me to help him out then it was my family duty to do so.

I retorted back to her that if she wanted to play this game then she should look after his kids because she was retired now and stayed at home the whole day. This seemed to shut my mom up. My sister-in-law told me that she was ready to start paying me like old times, but I told her that this time she would have to pay $100 instead. We bickered, but ultimately she agreed. Since then, I have continued to look after his kids only after my brother pays me at front. It has been several months now and the children love spending time with me. A few days ago, my brother asked me if I could babysit his kids for the upcoming holidays as he and his wife were planning on going on a trip with their usually, I would agree,

but I already had plans to go to Mexico with my boyfriend and my friends, so I told him that I couldn't do it and he should ask our parents. Hearing this, my brother got upset and told me that I was young, hence I could look after the kids by myself, but our parents are old now and won't be able to keep up with his hyperactive kids. This is essentially true as my mom has arthritis and my dad has a back problem. I told him that he should then try contacting his friends for help. He got upset and started telling me how he and his wife really needed a break and that I could always take a break later.

I told him that this was my first international trip and I was not going to postpone it for his kids. I told him that I wasn't going to cancel my plans as I needed a break from work and he blew up and started yelling about how I should not even be tired because I just sit at home all day and don't have any kids of my own, at which point I just hung up on him after telling him no once again. So, last weekend, I embarked on my trip to Mexico with my boyfriend and my friends. We were having an amazing time and I was letting loose after working hard the entire year. This vacation was well deserved. On my third day, I woke up to eight missed calls for my brother. Getting worried and concerned for him, I called him back immediately. He picked up the call and sounded panicked, claiming that Susie wasn't doing well and was having

trouble breathing. He continued to tell me that she was admitted to the hospital and it was a family emergency. You see, Susie does suffer from asthma so I panicked hearing him and my brain stopped functioning. My boyfriend sat up seeing my reaction. My brother told me that I needed to come back home and be there for Susie. Feeling all stressed and anxious, I tried to get more info about what was going on with Susie. But my brother was dodgy and didn't give me clear details. With my mind all over the place, torn between family and my plans, I hung up.

My boyfriend and friends were supportive, suggesting we should all go back home but I didn't want to ruined their trip. Worried, I rearranged my plans, booked the earliest flight back, and rushed home, expecting the worst. Throughout the flight home, I tried calling my parents but they didn't pick up my calls. It was still early morning for them, so I figured they might be sleeping. I asked my brother to come pick me up from the airport and he immediately agreed. Upon my return, I found my brother waiting at the airport, looking sheepish and nervous. I asked my brother. I asked him to drive me straight to the hospital so I could see Susie for myself and be there for her. He hesitated before finally admitting that there was no emergency.

Instead, he dropped a bombshell that he and his wife were going on their trip with their friends as he had told me before, and he needed me to babysit their kids. I demanded an explanation, my voice edged with frustration and disappointment. He stammered, trying to justify his actions by saying he thought I wouldn't come back if he told me the real reason. His feeble excuse only fuelled my anger. I felt betrayed and used, my concern for Susie turned into resentment for my brother's manipulative tactics. At that moment, I made up my mind. I wasn't going to let this slide. I decided it was time to teach my brother a lesson he would never forget. No more playing games, no more falling for his tricks.

I needed him to understand the gravity of his actions, the emotional toll it took on me, and a strain it put on my life. As we drove to his house, a fire burned within me. When we got there, my sister-in-law was outside with luggage, looking all sheepish. I instantly knew she was part of the plan to trick me into coming back home. She hugged me, apologized, and said there was some money for me on their nightstand. Before I could say much, my brother and his wife took off in a hurry to pick up their friends for their trip. Standing there, trying to cool off, I couldn't believe the nerve they had. I was so angry at their attempt to manipulate me and downplay the whole thing.

Little did my brother know, he was setting himself up for the shock of a lifetime. I was going to take my ultimate revenge and make sure that they would never dare leave me with their children for the rest of their lives. As I stepped inside, I tossed responsibility out the window. When Noah and Susie woke up, I told them that for the next three days, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted in the house. Noah asked with excitement in his eyes, if he could have ice cream in his bed and I told him why not and he was free to eat whatever he wanted in his bed. He rejoiced while Susie asked if she could use her mother's expensive makeup to play dress-up as her mother had asked her to not touch them. I told her that she was free to use whatever she wanted. When my parents called me back, I told them about what had happened.

My parents had no idea about this and were shocked that my brother had gone to such lengths to force me to babysit his kids. I told them that I had a plan to teach my brother a lesson because of this. My mom curiously asked me what it was and I told them of my plans to let the kids do whatever they wanted to do at home. Immediately my mom told me. me that this was a bad idea and I shouldn't do this to my brother. But my dad, who was clearly angry with my brother, encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to teach him a lesson. I assured my

parents that I would allow the kids to do only harmless things but would never put them in any danger whatsoever. As you can imagine, the kids went crazy and the chaos continued throughout the three days. Noah, fueled by excitement, attempted to turn the living room into his personal soccer field. His kicks and throws sent objects flying, and the sound of breaking echoed through the house. Meanwhile, Susie and I tried our hands for the three days, I felt like a child among them and let them do whatever they wanted to do. I watched them with a mix of amusement and satisfaction every time they did something that they would otherwise never be allowed to do. Clearly, they are having the time of their lives while the house, once orderly and clean, is turned upside down.

This was my revenge, and it was sweet. I made sure to capture moments of their masterpieces on camera, knowing that these images would be part of the lasting memory of my brother and sister-in-law. The day my brother and his wife returned, they were completely shocked to see what had happened to the house. Their expressions went from shock to disbelief as they surveyed the aftermath. The once neat and orderly home had transformed into a realm of creative disorder. My brother and his wife went ballistic, shouting at me, and demanding an explanation for the chaos they walked into. Brother, what the hell happened here? Why is everything in shambles?

Me, oh, hey there. Just a little redecorating courtesy of Noah and Susie. Brother, redecorating? Are you out of your mind? We trusted you to take care of them, not turn our home into a disaster zone. Sister-in-law, this is unacceptable. Look at the mess. And what did you let Susie do with my makeup?

Me, oh, Susie wanted to use them. She's got quite the talent with makeup, don't you think? Brother, stop playing games. This is not what we agreed upon. Me, exactly, we didn't agree on anything because you left me standing in your driveway after forcing me to take care of your kids. My brother's face turned several shades of red hearing this, and he began shouting louder. He told me that I was being unbelievable right now and that they trusted me to look after their kids.

I scoffed and told them that trust goes both ways and they had tricked me into cutting my trip short so they could selfishly go on their trip. I firmly told him that the mess the kids had done could be cleaned up and he should take this as a lesson to never mess with me ever again. My sister-in-law demanded that I repay her money back as I had destroyed the house, so I told her that I took care of the kids for three days and her $150 was the least she could give me for the three days I had looked after her kids. I told them that I was not going to let them push me around anymore. My brother started to say something, but I stopped him, you know what. This is the last time you will ever see me.

I am done being manipulated, taken for granted and treated like a doormat. The next time you try to dump your kids on me, I will involve the police and get a restraining order on you. Consider this the end. Their faces froze, registering the gravity of my words. I turned around, gathered my bags, and walked out, leaving behind the house in disarray and a family stunned by the unexpected turn of events. Since then, my brother has been calling me.

Complaining how he and his wife are now stuck cleaning around the house and the leaves I could do was apologize to her for being a brat. He is blaming me for everything and continues to say that he didn't do anything wrong by calling me back for my trip. So Ida for teaching my brother a lesson and giving him an ultimatum? Update 1, my mother reached out to me in just a few hours as I had expected her to do so. She demanded that I call my brother and my sister-in-law and apologize to them for being so harsh. She continued to tell me that she knew that this would happen which is why she had tried to discourage me. She told me the only way I could fix things was if I gave back the $150 along with an apology.

I was floored hearing my mother supporting my brother again when clearly he was at fault. I wanted to cry when she continued to berate me without considering my feelings. I cut the call short and haven't picked up her calls since. I have talked with my boyfriend regarding all this and he believes that I need to take a break from my family. at least for a short while so I can sort out my feelings. I think he is right and I plan on taking a break from everyone. Update 2. Surprise, surprise my sile reached out to me with an apology. A few days after the chaotic incident, my sister-in-law reached out to me with an apology.

In a subdued tone, she admitted her mistakes and expressed genuine remorse. She acknowledged that she shouldn't have let her excitement for the trip cloud her judgment, allowing my brother to manipulate and lie to me. She realized the unfairness of taking me for granted and letting her desires blind her to the consequences. Understanding the gravity of the situation, she offered a sincere apology, recognizing the impact of their actions.

She then started to plead with me not to punish the kids for their mistakes by emphasizing that they love spending time with me and hoped I would reconsider my stance on babysitting them in the future. However, I remained firm in my decision. I assured her that I wouldn't be babysitting the kids again, reiterating my unwavering stance on the matter. Despite her hesitation, I decisively rejected the idea, refusing to be swayed by manipulation or guilt trips. I stood firm on the boundaries I had set.

I told her that while I appreciated her apology I do believe that actions speak louder than words hence she or my brother shouldn't depend on me in the future for any babysitting duties. The call concluded with a mix of emotions, but I was glad that she did apologize to me. Update 3. It's been a month since I shared the story about what went down with my brother. Things have improved a bit since my sister-in-law apologized. My brother kind of said sorry too, but it wasn't really heartfelt. My dad had a serious talk with him and scolded him for messing with me. I haven't responded to his apology yet.

On a brighter note, my boyfriend surprised me with a spontaneous trip to make up for the fact that I had to cut my last trip short. We took a road trip to the countryside, and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. The scenic views and peaceful atmosphere helped me unwind from the chaos of the past month. It felt like a breath of fresh air, a much-needed break from the drama. During the trip, my boyfriend and I explored and enjoyed local cuisine. The laughter and shared moments created new memories, overshadowing the recent family drama. I can't help but feel grateful for the thoughtful gesture. It wasn't just about the trip, it was a symbol of understanding and support.

It made me realize that even amid family issues, there are people in my life who genuinely care about my well-being. I still have my brother's half-hearted apology lingering in the back of my mind, but for now, I am choosing to focus on the positive moments and the kindness that surrounds me. I hope you enjoy this story. Spouses privileged offspring requested half of our residents to relocate following her separation. I declined and evicted her. Presently, she has alienated the entire family against me. Thus, I 44F have been married to my husband.

50M, for about a year now. He has been married before and has a 26-year-old daughter from his previous marriage, Katie. My husband raised Katie on his own because her mother had passed away shortly after her birth due to pre-existing medical conditions that had been exacerbated by the pregnancy. She couldn't make it, unfortunately, and my husband had to do it all on his own. Now you would expect that it would make Katie a little more grateful for what she had, right? Well, that's not how it worked at all with her, and instead, she became a really selfish, brady, monster who nobody liked. My husband tried his best to make her a good person. But unfortunately, Katie had her grandmother in her corner. My mother-in-law, Pamela, also played a huge role

in raising Katie and spoiled her to bits. She was the textbook overbearing and cloying grandmother, who would do anything for her granddaughter, regardless of whether it was good. for her in the long run or not. So I would honestly say that she was the one who was responsible for spoiling her and making her act like a total brat. Katie knows nothing about life and yet, for some reason, she thinks she knows everything. I really tried my best to like Katie, but she was the one who made it almost impossible for me to get along with her. You see, she had made it up in her head that her father deserved better than me. So when he brought me me home to meet them all, she was not impressed and neither was her grandmother. That was almost

three years ago, and since then, nothing has changed. Sure enough, they could never say anything to my face, but I knew they didn't like me. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out because they pretty much gave it all away with their behavior around me. Lucky for me, I don't really care about whether people like me or not. I tried to be nice to her initially, but when I noticed that my efforts were going in vain, I stopped trying to be her friend. I had also tried to be nice to Pamela, but she also made it clear that she was never going to be accepting of me, and in her head, her son would always deserve somebody better. And who knows, maybe my husband can do better. I'm not saying I'm the best, but honestly, even if someone better did come along,

they would probably drive her away with their psychotic and crazy behavior. And even apart from that, I was the one who my husband had decided to be with and we were in love. The bare minimum that they could do was be respectful of that, but even that seems like an impossible task for them. Because about a year ago, when we announced our engagement, Katie and Pamela completely lost their minds and tried their best to break us apart. Of course, they did not succeed, and I highly doubt that they ever will. After we announced our engagement, Katie completely lost it

and showed up at our house one day without notice. My husband and I were both at home that day, and she had a complete breakdown. She screamed at her father and said that he had no right to ruin their family like this by marrying someone like me. When I asked her what she meant by someone like me, she went down to elaborate and said that I was a woman of loose morals and character, and apparently, I was just a gold digger according to her. I don't even know where that was coming from because I was doing just fine financially

before I even met. My husband and money was pretty much the last thing that I would want from a partner. I guess she thought that I was poor only because I didn't exactly have a typically high-paying job. For context, I am a self-employed artist and I work on commission. I am self-taught and I have been working ever since I graduated from college. I'll admit, it was not easy in the beginning, but now I've carved a niche for myself and I'm doing pretty great. I make a decent amount of money every month and I would say that I'm comfortable. And I'm definitely doing well enough not to depend on a man for money. So for her to even imply anything of the sort was disgusting and low

and I made it very clear to my husband that I could not remain in touch with them anymore. My husband also agreed that Katie had taken it way too far that day and disliking me was one thing, but implying that I was a gold digger and that I used to hook up with men so that my lifestyle could be taken care of was a horrible thing to say about me. He decided to cut her off that day and also went low contact with Pamela. I would have demanded that he go no contact with her as well, but unfortunately, Pamela is kind of old, and I couldn't, in good conscience, tell him to cut ties with his elderly mother.

So about a week after our engagement, my husband and I stopped speaking to Katie. He would still continue to visit his mother, but after that point, it was only he who would visit her and I wouldn't see her because I wanted nothing to do with them. They had already made it very obvious to me that they didn't want me around, so I was just doing my part and staying away from them. Neither of them had been invited to the wedding because we were already not on speaking terms with Katie and Pamela had said that she would not want to attend the wedding if her granddaughter wasn't invited.

So that settled things and neither of them attended the wedding. I was okay with it. My husband seemed upset for a little while, but then he seemed to get over it. That was almost a year ago, and about two months. After our wedding, we heard from a couple of people that apparently, Katie had gotten married in secret just a couple of months before we got married. She and her boyfriend from college got hitched in secret and announced it after our wedding. Of course, we had not been invited to the ceremony either and it was just them and a couple

of their close friends who were present there. My husband took it really hard because that was his only daughter who got married without him. She had not even tried to reach out to him and that's what broke his heart. I felt really bad for him as well, because had I been in his place, I probably would have felt the same way. After the news broke, he even reached out to her to congratulate her, but she never responded to that message. He told me that he was happy for her because he knew that the guy that she had married would

keep her happy. We would only get to know about her and what she was up to from other people apparently, they had bought a house together and were quite happy. My husband told me that he would maintain his distance and honestly, if Katie had reached out to us, then I would have been willing to forgive her for everything. But she didn't and it was just about a week ago when I received a call from my mother-in-law and I learned that Katie and her husband were getting a divorce. That was shocking because it had been just a year since their marriage, and apparently,

the divorce had been in the works for the past three months and a little more. Now that the waiting period was over, since we live in Colorado, the divorce had been finalized and unfortunately for Katie, her husband had taken the house. It was fair, honestly, because she was the one who had cheated on him. Apparently, she didn't think that emotional cheating counted as anything, and that had been her entire defense. She had been exchanging messages with a guy from work and had confessed that she had feelings for him, but apparently, she believed that since she had never acted upon it, it shouldn't have been held against her. These are not even my words, this is what she said to us.

It was appalling that at her age, she could be that stupid and ruin her own marriage like that. But there was also the fact that she had nowhere to go since her ex had taken over the house and she had lost a lot of her money in the divorce. She was already a pretty big spendthrift and was not one for saving money. She was very financially irresponsible. So it was no big surprise that getting a divorce and having to handle all her expenses on her own had pretty much driven her to bankruptcy. She told us that she would not be able to afford.

afford rent for a couple of months and she wanted to save up her money before she moved out, so she needed us to help her out and let her live with us. This conversation took place a couple of weeks ago, around the time that Pamela had called to inform me of the divorce, and had asked my husband and I to come over, so we could speak to Katie in person. After the divorce, which she had told nobody about, she had moved out of the house and had been living with Pamela for a couple of days, but the commute from her house to Katie's workplace was becoming increasingly difficult and time-consuming. Our home, however, was a lot closer and that's why Katie wanted to fix her relationship with us and

move in. That day, at Paula's house, Katie told us that she really was sorry about the way that she had behaved. She confessed that she had a bit of an ego problem and you couldn't handle the fact that I was my own person and wasn't bending over backward to cater to her needs like she had been used to all her life. Throughout her childhood, Pamela and my husband, had made sure that her needs were always met, and she never had a lack of anything in her life. They made the impossible possible for her. So she had learned to have really unrealistic and crazy expectations from life in general. And after becoming an adult, she realized that that's not really how the world works. So now, after her divorce, she had come to realize that not everybody

was going to be as forgiving as a family, and she had to make her peace with that. She told us that she was already really depressed because in spite of whatever she did, she really loved her ex and it was really hard to accept the fact that she had lost him because of her own stupidity. She said that she didn't want to lose her family as well and wanted to do right by us, which is why she wanted us to give her one chance to make everything all right again. We didn't know what to say that day because she had put us on the spot, so I told her that I needed some type of thing because of the things that she had said about the way that she had behaved with me, but something that I couldn't just move on so easily from. And even now, she

was only approaching us because she needed something and not because she was actually sorry, even though she insisted that she meant her apology. But anyway, after some argument, we decided that we would take some time to think about it and then let her know. Until then, she could continue to work from home since she had already spoken to her employer about it. My husband and I were really in a dilemma and had no idea what to do. We had decided that we would at least try to build some sort of a normal relationship before we let her move in with us because that would be a huge deal. So we kept in touch for a few weeks before we came to a conclusion, and in those few weeks, Katie was on her best behavior and was trying to impress me and take back everything.

Have to say, for a couple of days, I really thought that she had started to change. She was being really nice to me, and after a couple of weeks had passed, when she asked me again if I was willing to let her move in with us now, I said yes. I had already discussed it with my husband and he was open to the idea anyway. He was just waiting for me to come around. So when I finally did come around, Katie was thrilled and she even called me up to let me know that I would not regret this. And the next day, she showed up with all her bags and stuff. My husband and I had both taken a day off to welcome her and make sure that everything is all right. But before she had even set foot inside the house, she brought out a few documents and said that we needed to sign the paperwork

before she moved in. We were really confused because we didn't think that any legal paperwork was required for an informal arrangement. When we went through the papers, my husband, and I realized that she wanted a 50% claim on our property that we had purchased with our own money. This house that we were living in, my husband and I had bought when we first moved in together and that was almost two years ago. Katie had nothing to do with that and she had absolutely, absolutely no contribution towards it. So I couldn't even imagine why she would think that we would simply agree to this. When I returned those papers to her and asked her what she meant by this, she told me very

casually that she had her lawyer draw up a little something for her because she just wanted to make sure that she couldn't be kicked out of this house like she had been kicked out of her ex-husband's house. I was speechless when she said that and my husband took over the conversation and told her that this wouldn't be necessary because this was not going to be a permanent arrangement anyway, so there was no need for her to involve legal paperwork in this. In fact, she herself claimed that this was not going to be a permanent thing and she just needed a few. She just needed to trust us, but Katie, like the true blue idiot that she is, decided to say the worst thing possible. She told my husband that she trusted him implicitly, but she wasn't very

sure about me and that was really the reason why she had believed that it was necessary for her to get this in writing and she told us very firmly that she wouldn't be setting foot in our house unless we sign the documents. I was stunned, and before my husband could say anything, I decided that I would put an end to this. I told Katie, as sweetly as I could, that since she didn't trust me enough to live with me, she could find someplace else to live. Better yet, she could just go back to Pamela and live with her like she had been all these past few weeks. There was no need for her to stay with us.

She was right about not being able to trust me. After my little speech, I slammed the door shut in her face. I expected my husband to say something about it, but even he didn't seem to care, because he knew that Katie had crossed a line with me and it was simply unacceptable. So we went back into the living room while Katie shouted at us from the outside. and cried about how I was being unfair to her. But I didn't care about any of it because I was seething and it took all that I had to not go out and smack some sense into her. After screaming at us for a little while, she left, and it was just me and my husband again. We didn't expect

anything to happen that day, but we knew that there would be repercussions to this. We had expected Pamela to be really upset about this, and she was, which she let us know the very next day. She called up my husband and screamed at him for about an hour about how the two of us had insulted Katie and said that we needed to apologize to her and take her back. My husband argued with his mother for about an hour before he finally gave up trying and cut the call himself. He told me that he had blocked both of them, so there was no way that they could contact us again. But they found ways. They decided that they were going to make their relatives contact us instead.

Now, my husband is not exactly close with his family because they are really weird and dramatic and he just doesn't mix well with them. But for some reason, all of them believe that it was their place to come talk to him about what had happened with Katie. Everyone's been texting us and saying that I overreacted and that I owe Katie a huge apology. To them, she's just a child who has been a little paranoid and reasonably so since she just got kicked out of her house by her ex-husband and can't bring herself to trust people easily again. Apparently, everyone thinks that we need to be more accommodating of her and her feelings

instead of vilifying her for it. First of all, I don't even know how people are calling her a child because she is literally 26. I don't think that qualifies as a child in any way, shape, or form whatsoever but sure, she is the victim here. And more importantly, I think everyone's conveniently forgetting the fact that she had been kicked out of the house because she had been cheating on her husband. Now I don't know about other people, but to me, that sounds like a pretty fair reason to get kicked out. Things have been really difficult to deal with because everyone is hounding us, me especially.

I'd have for kicking my stepdaughter out because she wanted to have 50% ownership of our house. Update 1. Hi, first of all, thank you so much for commenting on my original post and letting me know how much I am not a TA. I already knew that, but honestly, the way that my husband's family, has been behaving, would put anyone in a tizzy over it. Anyway, now that's clear, my husband and I decided to block everybody who had been texting us. It was a difficult process because there were a lot of people whom we had to remove from our lists and people could refer to it as a mass blocking process.

But yes, to sum it up, we have gotten rid of anyone, and everyone was trying to make us look like the villain just for standing up for ourselves. We can safely assume that Pamela and Katie are probably furious right now, but unfortunately. they have no way of contacting us, so we will never know for sure. After my post here, my husband and I had a serious discussion about this, and he told me that Katie had always been spoiled and entitled, but it had reached a level where even he couldn't handle it anymore, despite being her father. He told me that he felt guilty for treating her like this since she was his only child,

but I reassured him that if he gave into all her demands he would be no better than Pamela. He was actually doing her a favor by trying to mold her into a better person and he should be proud of himself for that. I don't have any kids of my own, but I knew that if I had any, I would love for them to have a father like my husband. That seemed to pacify him a little and now. We are hoping that Katie takes the hint and tries to become a better person. Update two so, Katie decided to pay us a visit today. Thankfully, I was not at home at the time and I only caught them when they were leaving. I had to finish up my work at the studio today, so I was a little late.

When I pulled up, I noticed Katie and Pamela getting into her car and they looked really upset. It was only after they left that I came out of my car and went inside the house. My husband was sitting on the couch and he also looked worked up, and I knew that there had been a fight. He was all red in the face, which only happens when he has been screaming about something. So I knew instantly that his mother and daughter must have said something to set him off. When I asked him what was going on, he told me that they had come to be. visit him under the pretext of fixing things with us. Apparently, they had contacted him from a different number when he was at work and said that they were waiting right outside our house.

So he rushed back home from work to talk to them and he expected them to apologize because that's what they had said they would do on the phone. But when he reached home and once they were inside, Katie started talking about how she was ready to forgive him, even though he hadn't even apologized yet, but she was not okay with me being around anymore. She had said that she had apparently put up with me for long enough, but now, I was overstepping and I had no right to do so because I was not her real mother. So, she expected my husband to talk to me and acknowledge the fact that I had screwed up by insulting her when she came over the other day and apologized to her. When my husband told her that I was perfectly within reason to react the way that I did,

she started to argue with him and said that he was only taking my side because he was too scared to stand up to me. She accused him of being a coward and said that she was ashamed of having a father like him, who couldn't even stand up for his own flesh and blood. So that turned into a full-blown argument. And my husband informed her that she was in the wrong here, so she didn't exactly need anybody to stand up for her. And more importantly, she already had Pamela on her side, and her grandmother was going to support her no matter what she did, and no matter how messed up it all was. So my husband also ended up saying that he was more ashamed than she was, of having a horrible daughter like her. It was really sad because at that point, both Pamela and Katie started crying, and they

insisted that apparently I was responsible for this behavior. They believed that I had turned him against them by poisoning him and making him believe that they were terrible people. They were trying their best to manipulate him with their tears, but it was not working because my husband had already seen these things before he was impervious to them. They continued to cry for a little while, probably hoping that he would interject and say something or maybe apologize to them for hurting their feelings. But my husband didn't say a word and just continued to glare at them while they shed their crocodile tears.

After almost 15 minutes of crying, Katie called my husband heartless and said that she couldn't believe that he was just going to let them cry and not even say anything about it to make them feel better. When my husband said that he knew what they were up to and said that these tactics were not going to work on him, she got even more offended and said that these were not tactics, but she was just genuinely upset that he, as a father, was refusing to take accountability for his behavior and make things right with her again. She blamed him entirely for allowing me to insult her, and she even played her mom card and said that apparently, her mother would be disappointed in the way that he was treating his family now.

That's what set him off on a rampage and he ended up saying everything that he had been bottling up for so many years. He called Katie, the worst person ever, and said that if her mother even had a clue as to what a horrible person she had turned out to be, she probably would have chosen to remain buried underground because nobody would want to have a daughter like her.

I personally thought that was a little harsh, but honestly, the way that the two of them have been pushing my husband and backing him into a corner for the longest time, I'm surprised that he didn't snap earlier. Somebody with my patience probably would have cracked way before he did. I honestly think it's commendable that he was able to avoid this meltdown for so long. But it was long overdue and it finally happened today. Just before I came back home, he had been yelling at Pamela for ruining his daughter,

and he told her that now that she had finally made her into the awful kind of person that she wanted, she could take responsibility herself and keep him out of it. That's what they had been fighting about just before I came back home and the two of them decided to leave because they had had enough. And honestly, so has my husband. I calmed him down after they left and we got our finest bottle of wine to celebrate the fact that he had finally laid out all of his feelings and he wasn't going to have to deal with this drama in a long time.

I think that's pretty celebration worthy. Update 3. Hi, Guys. It's been almost a year since I last posted here, and wow, I can't believe that's how different my life was back then. I just randomly thought of this account a couple of days ago and it took me a while to remember the credentials, but I managed to log in today. So, a little update for you guys, Katie is still living with Pamela from what we know, and thankfully, they are staying far away from us.

They did not try to contact us after that huge blow up with my husband and I am honestly very grateful for that. My husband and I had a pretty uneventful couple of months after that, but then, we decided to adopt a dog. Having kids was out of the question for us, obviously, because I was really never interested in having children and I think I'm at an age where my body would not be able to support a pregnancy either, without endangering me. We did think about fostering a child or a teenager, but I honestly don't think that either of us is emotionally or mentally prepared for that yet. But a dog? Yeah. that was perfect. Now, I know that we shouldn't compare kids to animals and pets and stuff like that.

But honestly, ever since we rescued our three-year-old golden retriever from the bound, life has changed for us. His name is Bob because we thought it was a funny name. He has brought us a lot of joy and we are really grateful that he chose us as his parents. We post about him all the time and the funniest thing is that a couple of days ago, a friend of mine told me that he follows Katie and she had tweeted something about being replaced and stuff. And even though we can't prove it, because she never mentioned a dog or anything, we were pretty sure that she was talking about Bob. To think that she was jealous of a dog was a hilarious thought, and I could barely stop laughing when I first heard about it. The saddest thing is that I think my husband probably would have

forgiven her if she had just had the decency to apologize. I mean, of course, she is his only kid, and I know that it can't be easy for him to live life apart from his only daughter. But he has to do it and I honestly think that it's Katie's fault. I just wish that she had apologized, and Pamela had actually forced her granddaughter to be a good person for once. But whatever, my husband and I are happy and we spend our days with Bob. Life's good. I hope you enjoy this story.

Mother was relinquished as an infant and was informed she had passed away, then four decades, later she located her genetic siblings, but they expect her to look after. The mother who abandoned her. I, 35F, grew up in the U.S., born and raised in Austin, Texas. My father, 70M, is Canadian, and my mother, 68F, is Greek. Every summer, we vacationed in Greece with my maternal grandparents. When I was 25, my parents retired and moved permanently to Greece after my mother inherited a house and significant amount of money from her mother when she passed away. That's when things took a strange turn. During the last few months of my grandmother's life, my mom went to Greece to care for her, as she was no longer able to take care of herself. In her final days, my grandmother revealed a shocking

secret. My mom was adopted. She wasn't the biological child of the parents who raised her. Instead, she was the daughter of my grandmother's cousin. Apparently, in Greece, decades ago, it was common for struggling families with many children to give a baby to a relative who couldn't have kids. My mother was devastated. She grieved the fact that she never knew her real family and that no one ever told her. After my grandmother passed, she decided to move to Greece to reconnect with the biological family she never met. She traveled to the region where her biological mother lived and met her for the first time, along with two older brothers and a younger sister. Her oldest brother was especially emotional because he vaguely remembered the day they gave

my mother away as a baby. But from the start, my mom was hurt that none of them had ever tried to find her. Their excuse was that she had moved to the U.S., and it was difficult to track her down, while her biological mother said she had made a pact with her cousin, my adoptive grandmother, never to reveal the truth. The entire village had been told that my mom had died as a baby, so no one ever questioned it. For the past 10 years, my parents have lived in Greece, and my mom has built a close relationship with her siblings. However, her relationship with her biological mother has remained distant and formal. She never got over the fact that this woman kept all her other children but gave her away, likely because she was a girl. At the time, boys were valued more

because they worked the fields and contributed to the family's income, whereas girls were seen as a burden. Two years ago, I was able to move to Greece as well, since the parents who raised my mom left her a sizable inheritance. It allowed us to live comfortably, and honestly, I preferred the lifestyle here. We live in a beautiful place near the capital, and life is peaceful. Now, here's the issue. My mom's biological mother is now 96 years old and in very poor health. Her biological father passed away decades ago due to political circumstances.

Her two older brothers, her sister lives abroad, have been taking care of their mother, but they are exhausted. Their wives are complaining, tensions are rising, and at a recent family gathering, they told my mom that she should also help take care of their mother because it's unfair that they are doing it alone. My father was furious when he heard this and told my mother to cut them off entirely. My mom refuses to take care of this woman, she doesn't love her, doesn't feel any emotional connection to her, and can't forgive her for abandoning her. My mom is not close to this woman's,

and of course she has no legal claim to any inheritance from this family. However, she has truly enjoyed her relationship with her siblings and their children and doesn't want to lose that. She's feeling pressured, though, and she's deeply upset by their demands. When I found out, I was livid. How dare these people ask this of my mother, knowing full well that she was abandoned and that no one even attempted to find her. I feel like they're manipulating her, and she's unable to see how unfair this is. I'm getting married in a month to my fiancé,

who is Greek and fully supportive of me, and I am seriously considering un-inviting all of them from the wedding. I want to send a clear message that we don't want contact with them anymore. However, my mother is hesitant, she doesn't want to escalate things, even though she's hurting. I feel like she's not as attached to these people as she thinks. She's mourning the idea of the family she never had rather than truly loving these people. And I hate seeing her being taken advantage of.

I always idealized Greece and the strong bonds of family, but now I see that's not always the case. I'm so disappointed by all of this. What would you do in this situation? Would you cut them off? Would you disinvite them from the wedding? How can I help my mother navigate this? Edit, I forgot to mention something I think is important. My mom suggested they find a senior care facility to put her biological mother in.

She even offered to pay a quarter of the price. My biological uncles were offended because they said it was disrespectful to their mother to put her in a nursing home. Another Greek thing. Although they are generally financially comfortable, a quarter for a good structure can mean 400 or 500 person per month. which, by Greek standards, is enough. I think their idea of help is taking her biological mother home for a few months.

Update 1, February 15, 2025. Hey y'all. First of all, thank you so much for all the responses to my previous post. I decided to share it with my mom and let her read your comments. She was really moved by the similar stories some of you shared. This led to a deep conversation between us. Over the past few years, my mom has learned a lot about her adoption. Unfortunately, my bio-grandma was not a good person.

The wife of one of my bio-uncles, let's call her Maria, set my mom down a few years ago and told her everything. Turns out, my bio-grandma was a very strict and spiteful woman who treated the people who worked for her horribly. She never wanted daughters and even tried to give away her other daughter. but that adoption fell through, so she kept her. My bio-a-ant went through a really tough time growing up and that's why she moved abroad. Her brothers never supported her the way they should have, and they even cheated her out of part of her inheritance. Maria is now thinking about leaving her husband since their kids are grown, and she doesn't want to stay married to a man she knows isn't a good person. As for my mom, she never felt a bond with her bio-mother.

But after hearing everything from Maria, she's decided she doesn't want much contact at all. She knows exactly what kind of people her bio-brothers are and never wanted a super-close relationship with them. They're not in daily contact anyway, but she does feel attached to her nieces, nephews, and their wives. That's the main reason she hasn't cut ties completely. My mom has decided she will help financially but won't take Bio-grandma into her home. She's doing it mainly to support her bio sister, who is under pressure from their brothers to care for their mother. My mom has tried to get closer to her bio sister over the years, but her sister has kept her distance. She explained that she has deep trauma from growing up with their mother and wants to maintain some emotional space.

But she's still happy they met. This past Christmas, my bio-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-an came to Greece and stayed at our house. I wasn't there because I was visiting friends in the Netherlands. but my mom and her sister spent time together, and it brought them closer. My aunt told my mom to cut off her brothers completely and even invited her to move to her country. She has made it clear she wants only a formal relationship with the rest of the family, except for my mom, whom she loves dearly. I had no idea about most of this because my mom didn't want me to see my uncles in a bad light.

She still thinks she'll keep some minimal relationship with them, but she's especially close with a few of her nieces and nephews and doesn't want to lose that. One of my cousins, Maria's son, even confided in my mom that he wants to cut ties with his father. When my bio-uncle asked my mom for help, this cousin, who's only 25, pulled her aside and told her to stay away and not give them anything because they don't deserve it. That really got to me. It showed me that not everyone in this family is selfish or manipulative. I actually have a good relationship with this cousin. He gets along great with my fiancé since they work in the same field. After learning all this, I met up with him last night, and we talked.

He has moved out on his own but still keeps some contact with his dad, mainly because he wants to wait until Maria leaves before cutting ties completely. He told me that his father and uncle inherited a lot of wealth and never really had to work. They started some businesses, but when they struggled, they took large sums of money from bio-grandma and other relatives. Now they've recovered and live comfortably, but they never paid back what they owe. My cousin is ashamed of his family's actions and doesn't want to be judged for them. He also believes they are trying to financially exploit my mom.

Because he cares about her and really respects my parents, he warned them not to get involved. After everything, my parents and I made a decision. My mom will give one lump sum of money for her by a mother's care. Whether they put her in a nursing home or hire a caregiver is their problem. She will also have a final talk with her brothers to make it clear that she is not taking care of their mother because that woman was never a mother to her. When Maria manages to get divorced, which my parents want to support her through, we expect the relationship with the brothers to fall apart. My mom is still sad that she never found the ideal family she imagined, but she feels like that she's lucky to have her sister, Maria, and her nephew, whom she truly loves. As for the wedding,

we decided to invite them to avoid unnecessary drama. That's the update for now. I truly appreciate all the comments and support. I feel sorry for those who have gone through similar painful experiences, and I hope no one has to go through this again. Lastly, I feel terrible forever doubting my grandparents, the ones who actually raised my mom. They were amazing. kind, and compassionate people who helped so many others in the U.S. Everything they had was earned through hard work. I'm so grateful they adopted my mom, and I wish they had also taken in my aunt. Thank you again, everyone.

If I have another update, I'll be back. Comments where O.P. has replied, comment or won, she's still being taken advantage of. They will ask for more money. It's always the same story, the brothers get money and the one. taking care of the elders is someone who has nothing to do with those swindlers. Oh, O. O. P, no really my mom knows what she is doing. She will give an amount of money if they agree to never ask her such a thing. The amount will be relatively small, around 3,000 euros, and she is ready to cut them off entirely if they ever mention anything again. It's not the ideal

solution for me either, but I am glad my mother met Maria and I want her to be safe. The reason I came here on Reddit in the first place was the fact that I didn't want my mom to get hurt. Now I know she understands what types of people her bio-brothers are so I'm okay with whatever decision she makes. Comment or two, do you trust the uncles to actually use the money for grandma's care? I feel like they might just pocket it and claim your mom didn't help. OOP, new Omicron, I do not trust them but neither me nor my mother really care if they will actually help their bio-grandma. My mom has already spoken with Maria and her sister and they are aware of her next move. She wants to give the money to help those poor wives taking care of their mother-in-law who made their life a living hell.

I am so happy my mother knows everything about her bio-brothers. That was my concern in the first place. Comment or three, why are you still inviting them to your wedding? How will that avoid drama? OOP, well my wedding is in less than a month. They are already invited. If I take back the invitation they will for sure become offensive, at the very least. I genuinely want their wives there, especially after learning the truth about their lives and their opinions in the situation, and my cousins.

Some of cousins are relatively young and still attached to their fathers, so there is a good chance they will be offended for uninviting their fathers. So we decided to keep them invited to avoid all these things. My mom plans to talk to them about the money, etc. after the wedding. We have allowed to organize till then anyway, but if they pressure more for an answer earlier, there is a good chance they will not attend anyways. Update 2, hey everyone, first of all, thank you so much for all the comments and messages. I've been so busy with wedding preparations that I couldn't respond to everyone, but I really appreciate the support. I figured it was time for an update on how everything unfolded.

During the wedding planning, things were relatively quiet. I grew even closer to my cousins, my Aunt Maria, and my bio-a-ant, who came back to Greece for 10 days. I learned some truly heartbreaking things about what the women in this family have endured. After everything, my parents decided to fully support the women however they could and to cut off my mom's bio-brothers entirely. The wedding happened last Saturday, and it was absolutely perfect, no drama, just happiness. I could make a whole post about it, but it feels unrelated, ha ha. Then, in the past ten days, everything exploded.

Two days after the wedding, Maria told my bio-uncle that she was divorcing him. Thankfully, we had postponed our honeymoon until the summer, so I was here to support her. She moved into my mom's house, and things escalated fast. My bio-uncle lost it. He showed up at my parents' house, yelling and cursing. My dad was completely shocked but immediately kicked him out. Since then, both of my mom's bio-brothers have been pushing her not to get involved and to stop putting ideas into Maria's head. But, thankfully, Maria's kids are fully on her side.

They confronted their father, told him off, and are now helping their mother find a place to stay and supporting her financially. That set off a whole new domino effect. My bio-a-a-aunt, the one who lives abroad, also confronted her brothers. Up until now, she had kept things relatively civil, but after seeing what happened to Maria, she decided she was done. What we didn't know until recently was that her brothers had been manipulating her too. They told her that if she left Greece and didn't stay to take care of their mother, she would lose any claim to her inheritance.

Now that the truth is out, she's taking them to court to get what's rightfully hers. On top of that, her husband, who is honestly an amazing man, had also lent money to my bio-uncles years ago. But unlike the rest of us, he was smart enough to structure it as a business loan, and now he's suing them to get it back. The final straw for all of us was finding out about the Bio Brothers scheme. Maria told us everything. They had been bitter for years about how financially stable my mom is, thanks to her adoptive parents and the fact that my dad is also well off. They resented that she had a good life while they were constantly struggling due to their own bad decisions. Their plan? To manipulate her into giving them money, using their mother as an excuse.

When my mom hesitated about whether she even wanted to contribute to her bio-mother's care, they lost it. They started talking behind her back, saying things like, she'll see what happens to her. She acts like she's rich but won't even take care of her own mother. After that, my mom was completely done. Now, Bio-grandma is still living in one of my bio-uncle's homes, but his wife has now refused to take care of her. She told them either they put her in a nursing home or the other brother, who now lives alone, can take her in. I have no idea how that will play out, but honestly, I don't really care. This Saturday, they've scheduled a final meeting with all the siblings and their spouses to settle things once and for all. Maybe I should have waited until after that

to post an update, but I was scrolling through Reddit today and figured some of you might want to know what's been happening. As for me, I'm relieved about how things turned out. I'm so glad my mom never had to give them a cent, and honestly, I owe that to Maria reaching her breaking point. When she overheard them talking about how much money we wasted on the wedding and how they could find a way to get their share, she told my mom everything. That was the moment my mom fully let go of any guilt. I'm also happy that we're cutting ties because I never felt comfortable around them. I never felt any warmth or real connection. That being said, I've caught my mom crying or sitting in silence, clearly deep in thought. She hasn't talked about how much this has

hurt her, but I know she's grieving the idea of the family she hoped to have. She spent years trying to get to know them and build some sort of bond, only to realize that it was never real. Still, at least she now knows the truth and won't have toxic, manipulative people in her life. What I am grateful for is the genuine family connections that have come out of this mess. My dad's family is small, and since we lived outside of Canada, I never had much of a connection there. My mom only had her adoptive parents in the U.S., so I never really experienced what it was like to be part of a big family.

Now, for the first time, I feel like I have people I can truly trust and love without second-guessing their intentions. I am nervous about the meeting on Saturday, mostly because of my cousin. He's been through so much with his father, and I feel like he's going to unleash all his anger in that room. I love him so much, and I know he feels like he's finally found real family in us. He also recently came out to his mother, Maria, but he hasn't told his father yet. Maria had no idea. When he told her, she broke down crying, hugged him, and apologized. for not creating a safe enough space for him to open up sooner. He had to live a hidden life because of his father's toxic beliefs, and it breaks my heart.

Maria also carries a lot of guilt. She never worked independently, she helped in her husband's businesses, but he always controlled the finances. She never felt strong enough to leave, even though she endured so much mistreatment, likely infidelity, and was constantly belittled by both her husband and by a grandma. She thought staying was the best way to protect her kids from poverty, which in Greece can be brutal, especially for single mothers. But now she realizes that by staying, she also made her son feel like he had to hide who he was. There's so much more I could say, but I recently found out that my story has been shared in different videos online.

My husband came across it, and for that reason, I don't want to expose any more personal details about my family unless they choose to share their stories themselves. One last thing, I want to say thank you to everyone who commented. My mom keeps coming back to the post and reading stories from other adoptees. She cries every time, but in a way, it's helping her heal. She sends you all her love. Maybe I'll update again after the meeting. One final question for you all, after everything I've learned, I now know that biogramma is and always has been a truly awful person.

I wouldn't be surprised if she had some kind of undiagnation. diagnosed psychiatric condition, but at this point, it doesn't really matter. Even after all the horrible things she's done, even knowing she said things like, look at her, that dumb-looking face, good thing I didn't keep her, at least she didn't eat our food for free, I still sometimes feel sorry for her. She's now completely alone. Her grandkids don't visit because she was cruel, even violent, to their mothers. Her sons don't care. The only person stuck with her is her daughter-in-law. who's only tolerating her because there's no other choice. I know she deserves it. I know karma caught up with her. And yet, sometimes, I think about her and cry. What would you do?

Would you feel bad in my situation? I want to just ignore it, but I feel so sad at times. I hope you enjoy this story. Relative blamed me of sexual assault and my family evicted me, terminated my educational support. Now she's suffering from her. a severe illness and confessed to the truth, yet my family remains unsympathetic. Me to keep quiet. When I was 18, my cousin, let's call her Jade, decided to falsely accuse me of S.A., and unfortunately, my entire family bought the story. Jade is four years older than me and we used to be close when we were kids, but eventually,

we just grew apart. She is my uncle's daughter, who happens to be a single father. My mom's younger brother, my uncle, got married to his ex-wife when they were really young because he got her pregnant. But she ended up cheating on him and that marriage ended within a couple of years. She tried to stay in touch with Jade for a few years, but eventually, she moved away with her new boyfriend, and since then, they have not had any contact. My uncle was a respectable man, and he was the kind of person who would struggle through everything on his own, but never accept help from anyone. He was a single father and it was kind of admirable how he had dedicated his entire life

to raising his daughter, so much so that he never even got serious with anyone else after his divorce with his ex. Until Jade was 18, her father took care of everything and even had a college fund set aside for her. But after that, when she said that she wanted to continue studying, her father told her that he had done everything in his power to fund her education, but now, she was going to have to be on her own because he had to look out for his own retirement as well. And I think that was a pretty fair way to deal with the situation because if she wanted to pursue higher studies, that should have been on her own dime and not her fathers because by then, she was definitely old enough to be working. But she did not agree with that and she believed

that her dad should continue to fund her education for as long as she wants to study, and they had a lot of fights about it. As a result, she ended up spending a lot of time with my family because every time that she would end up fighting with her father, she would come to my mom and vent to her. I, personally, thought that my uncle was being quite reasonable, but I never said anything about it because Jade would come over to speak to my mom and not me so it was not my place to comment. Anyway, one day she came home, unannounced, like she usually did and my parents were not home. I don't remember exactly where they were, they had probably gone out for a party, but I remember being the only person back home. So when she showed up, I instantly told her that my mother was not

there, and I thought that she would go away after that, but she decided to sit inside the living room because apparently, she just needed some time away from her father because they had just gotten into yet another horrible fight. To be honest, I had heard enough about her fights with her father because she used to be very loud when she would come over to talk to my mother, and I wasn't really interested in hearing it again. But since my mom was not there, she started to be very loud. She started venting to me about it, and I think she was expecting me to be just as sympathetic towards her as my mother had been, but I had very different opinions on the situation. So when she started ranting about her father again, I cut her off, and I told her that my mother might have fed into

her delusions, but I thought that what my uncle was doing was perfectly reasonable. I told her that he had dedicated his entire life to raising her to be a competent and capable independent woman, so now it was her chance to prove him right and if she really wanted to pursue a master's degree and then get a doctorate, she would have to do what everyone else does and pay for it all herself. She was also a STEM major, and I knew that whatever job she would eventually find, it would be enough for her to support herself. All she had to do was at least try, but she just kept insisting that it would be just too much for her to handle and she couldn't work as well as study. So I told her that if she had already made up her mind that it was impossible for her to start

working and continue her education, then maybe she should just give up on higher studies. But it was really unfair of her to demand that her father continued to pay for everything, especially after he had done so much for her and instead of being grateful for it, she was acting like he was the villain here. I guess she hadn't expected that reality check and as soon as I said all of this to her, she started yelling at me and told me that I was a horrible human being and that I would never understand what she was going through because I was a privileged brat and didn't even deserve to have the support that I did. If I'm being honest, I thought she was more of a privileged brat than I was,

but whatever, she yelled at me for a couple of minutes and then ran out of the house crying. I did not go after her because, like I said, I was not interested in hearing her cry about the same thing over and over again. But I definitely had not expected what happened after that because the next day, I got accused of SA by her and my entire world turned upside down because of that one accusation. And now, when people are finally finding out that she had lied about everything, my family is blowing up my phone after not having spoken to me for the past three years. Anyway, the day after Jade and I had that fight, my parents woke me up in the morning, and I still remember everything as clearly as yesterday because it was probably the most traumatizing

day of my life. They woke me up saying that my uncle and Jade were there to see me and apparently, it was very important. I had no idea what had happened by then, but once I came downstairs, Jade started screaming about how I'd sat her the previous night and started faking a breakdown. My uncle looked extremely disturbed and my parents were also very shocked. Since she was not in a condition to speak, at least she was pretending that she wasn't. My uncle was the one who did all the talking, and he told my parents that when she had come back home that day after she had fought with him, she had been crying relentlessly, and eventually, he had managed to actually get what had happened out of her.

She had gone back home to her father and told him that apparently, since my parents were not at home, I had lured her in and then, well, done what she accused me of. He couldn't even look at me and my parents were also avoiding looking at me. I tried to protest and I tried to claim that I didn't do it, but nobody was listening to me. It was horrible because even though I hadn't done anything, people were already treating me like a criminal. Right in front of me, my parents started begging for forgiveness and told my uncle not to report me or to go public with this and said that they were ready to do anything that it took to fix the situation. No matter how hard I cried out, my parents and my uncle completely ignored

my existence in the room and it got so frustrating, the way they were ignoring me. mean talking to each other, that I picked up a vase out of frustration and threw it at the wall just so they would pay attention to me. But that kind of backfired, because my dad lost his temper and grabbed me by the arm and dragged me to my room, and then shut me inside. I kept banging against the door until my fists and arms started hurting because there was no way I was going to let Jade get away with this. It was a huge lie to tell, and it might have even ruined my reputation, but unfortunately, my dad did not let me out of the room until my uncle and Jade had left. When he finally opened the door, I started crying immediately, and I tried to tell them that I

hadn't done anything of the sort, but they told me that they had watched the security footage from the cameras outside our house and they knew that Jade had actually come over the previous evening and had run out of the house, crying. A couple of minutes later, and judging by the way she had run out crying, they had chosen to believe her. They said that Jade literally did not have any reason to lie about what had happened and told me that they were ashamed of the kind of son that they had raised. My mother was in tears and couldn't bring her out to say anything, but my dad told me that with every difficulty, they had managed to get my uncle and Jade to promise that they were not going to take any sort of legal action against me. But this meant that they

would also have to promise them something in return and Jade and my uncle had demanded that I be sent far, far away so that she wouldn't have to see me around and relive the traumatic experience. So after a lot of discussion, my dad decided that he was going to send me away to live with my great uncle who lives in Loa. He was the least-liked family member because of his terrible attitude and anger issues and my dad knew that I did not like him at all. But that was the place farthest away from my family, and my dad told me that this was the only solution, so now I just had to accept it and not only were they going to send me away, but they had also told Jade that they were going to take away the college fund that they had set aside for me and give it all to

her, just so they would keep it all quiet. I tried to protest, but there was no talking to them. And eventually, I gave up because I just didn't see the point of anything anymore since even my own parents did not seem to trust me. I was also able to figure out that Jade had probably accused me falsely of such things, simply because she wanted something to hold against my parents so that she could extract money from them because her own father would never accept help of any kind, especially financial, not even from his own family. Anyway, within a couple of days of that incident, I was all packed up and ready to leave, and my parents did not even bother to hug me or wish me goodbye. For the next couple of days, my parents pretended that I was not even at home

and I was under house arrest, so I couldn't even say goodbye to any of my friends. They had taken away my phone and told me that if I did not go off the grid and practically disappeared from everybody's life, they would go with themselves and then my life would be ruined. So I was forced to cut ties with everyone from my past and move away from everything that I knew, all because of a that Jade had told. A couple of days after that incident, my great-uncle showed up to pick me up and I was sent off to live with him in an exile of sorts. Since then, I have had no contact with anyone from my past, not my family and not my friends, and I've had to completely restart my life. When I first moved away with my great-uncle, it was very difficult for me to adjust to his

ways because he would constantly taunt me throughout the day, even though he didn't even know why I'd been kicked out. But the fact that I had been kicked out was enough for him to hold it against me and constantly mock me about it. And I've already talked about how he had a terrible attitude and issues with anger, so I had to walk on eggshells around him. I knew that my parents were sending him money every month, but he still pretended like he was doing me a huge favor by letting me stay with him. I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with him, and after the first few weeks, I decided that there was no point in crying over spilled milk. My parents had cut me off and I was forbidden from having any contact with anyone from my previous life,

so all I could do was make the best of the situation and I decided to start applying for jobs. I couldn't go to college anyway. I knew that because even though I had been accepted into the college of my choice, I didn't have the money or the means to go there. So I started applying to jobs after a few weeks of moping around and after a couple of interviews, I was finally able to get a job as a warehouse worker. It didn't pay much and I was miserable because of how physically draining the job was, but at least when I got my first salary, I was able to move out of my horrible great-uncle's place. I was lucky enough to have a couple of co-workers around the same age as me,

who were also struggling with money. We became close friends, and three of us decided to pitch in and get an apartment together, so that's how I was able to move out of my great-uncle's house and I didn't even bother to tell him because I knew that for him, it would be a good riddance anyway. After I moved out from his place, I never heard from any of my family members again. For the past three years, I've been living with the same people that I got my first apartment with and we have all been incredibly lucky because after working for a few months in the warehouse, all three of us decided to continue looking for better opportunities, since we were always

too physically exhausted. Over the past three years, we have changed a lot of jobs and have been putting aside money because all three of us want to go to college. They have also had their fair share of struggles, but that's not relevant. Anyway, right now, I'm working in sales and I'm making a decent amount and I've been thinking about reapplying to colleges. As for my two friends, they are also doing well, and we have recently also moved into a bigger apartment in a much nicer neighborhood. But of course, now that things have started looking up for me, my family thinks that it's the perfect time to try and get back into my life. As I had said, I have had no contact with them for the past three years, so I was quite surprised when my dad reached out to me

through email a few days back. I'm not active on any social media, since it had been one of the rules that my parents had set when they kicked me out, and I had been very paranoid about them spreading the story and ruining my reputation and life if I went against the rules, so I had stuck to it. My email address has not changed in the past three years, and I have never blocked them anywhere, even though they have. Anyway, I was very surprised to hear from him because, after everything that happened, I had genuinely not expected it. When I read the email, it was basically just an apology for everything that had happened

over the past three years and he wanted me to give him my address and contact info so that he could reach out to me properly. He had provided me with his own contact info as well, in case I wanted to read. reach out to him on my own time. The reason he was apologizing and trying to reach out to me in the first place at all, was because Jade had finally realized that it was time that she told everyone the truth about what had really happened. She was on her deathbed, and I guess she had finally developed a conscience or something, but for whatever reason, she had decided to tell her father the truth about what had happened and he had spoken to my parents. So after learning the truth,

my parents decided to reach out to me once again. But coming on to to what has happened with Jade, she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and it's very unlikely that she's going to make it. She's been suffering for the past eight months, and her condition is only deteriorating, even though the treatment is still ongoing. And no, she wasn't even able to make good use of all the money that she received from my college fund after she screwed me over. She wasted it all away with her terrible life choices because instead of pursuing her master's degree, she decided to take a gap year with all that money and travel the world so she could expand her horizons and truly find herself. She came back around a year and a half ago and

she had already eaten away at more than half of her savings because she wanted to live luxuriously. So by the time she came back, she had very little money left and started asking my parents for more, but my uncle threatened to cut her off if she took any more money from my parents. So she was forced to give up on the idea of college because with whatever money she had left, she couldn't afford a master's degree without working and that's not something that she wanted. But she still had some money left, so she could have put it to good use and at least work to build more capital. However, I guess that year-long vacation had made her lazy and she was already pretty spoiled. So she went on to waste even more of her money by buying an apartment and continuing

to live beyond her means, even though she still hadn't even started looking for a job. Finally, she was able to find a job about a year ago, but then she was diagnosed with cancer and had to quit and now, she has had to sell the apartment and everything else that she bought because she needs the money. And I don't want to come off as insensitive, but after reading what had happened with her, I felt really great because she did not need any enemies since she herself was her own biggest enemy. Once I was done reading the email, I had to think about whether I wanted to get back in touch with my parents or not, and I decided to speak to my friends about it. This also meant that I finally had to tell them the truth about why I had been kicked

out of my house by my parents because initially, I had only told them that we had had a bunch of disagreements and that's why they had kicked me out, but I hadn't told them the real reason. But after that email, I finally discussed it with my friends because I really didn't have anybody else to speak to about it. I told them everything about Jade and how she had lied and thrown me under the bus. Then I told them all about my parents as well and how they had believed her over me. Not only had they kicked me out and sent me to live with the worst relative possible, but they had also forced me to cut everyone from my past off and had actually threatened to ruin my reputation themselves if I went against them. My friends could actually hardly believe what I was telling them

while I was narrating everything to them, and after I was done, they told me that there was no way that they would get back in touch with my parents and forgive them if they were in my place. And I'm taking it seriously because it's coming from my closest friends and pretty much the only ones that I have at this point. I wouldn't have thought about it much if they had just told me not to get back in touch with my parents and just let it go, but they think that I should speak up about what happened to me because, for the past three years, I've been living in fear, even though I haven't really done anything. They are right, to be honest, I have had to give up so much of my life

because somebody told a lie about me and my parents went with it. So if I want to reclaim that, I need to speak up about what happened to me. But before doing that, I decided to tell my parents that I was going to go with the story and the real version of what happened because people deserve to know. And I don't really care if Jade is on her deathbed or whatever, she ruined my life and now I'm going to reclaim it. So I texted the number that my dad had sent me and I told him whatever I was going to do because I already had the screenshots of the email that he had sent me, confirming that Jade had

been lying so now I could post about it on social media and forget about posting. I could finally have social media again. I wasn't asking him for permission, but I guess he misread the situation and now he and my mother and even my uncle are blowing up my phone, requesting me not to do this because Jade already has been through a lot and she is suffering like never before. So she has already received her karma and I don't need to punish her even more. They want me not to go public with the truth because that's going to ruin her reputation and they think that I can come back and return to everything that I left behind without telling people the truth about why I left in the first place

and nobody's going to question it. And they're right, I can't do that, but I don't really think that I want to because Jade took away a huge part of my life and even my friends think that it's perfectly within reason for me to post the truth. It's not to get back at her, it's just so that people know what has happened and I don't think you think that there are a lot of reasonable excuses to disappear from everybody's life for three years and then come back again. Besides, I don't even plan on going back to the city, I'm content enough here. But I do miss my friends and a lot of my relatives who were good to me, so I think at least they deserve to know the truth. My parents and my uncle have been blowing up my phone relentlessly, though, which is the only

thing that has been stopping me from posting. Jade is apparently not in good shape at all, and they have been practically begging me not to post about anything. So whipped up if I went ahead anyway and posted the truth about why I'd had to leave everything behind for three years and expose my cousin, even though she's on her deathbed right now. Update 1, I did it, guys. I thought about it for a really long time, I consulted my friends again and again repeatedly, and they told me the same thing. Jade and my family had taken away three years of my life that I could have spent normally, but I had to live in fear because of them, even though I hadn't actually done anything. It would be perfectly within reason for me to retaliate, regardless of what condition Jade was in.

And a lot of comments here also believe the same thing. To be honest, at the end of the day, it was my own decision, but knowing that most people are going to back me up on this made me feel a lot better. It has been a week since my original post and last night, I put up my post narrating everything that has happened in my life and why exactly I had been off the grid and out of everybody's life for the past three years. Everyone who used to know me in the past, including my friends and relatives, has reached out to me to let me know that they are there for me and that they have missed me greatly for the past three years. I honestly believe it because I did receive a lot of emails from a lot of people in the first couple of months. But apparently,

after that, my parents told everyone not to go looking for me because I wanted to be left alone because I had been through something very traumatizing and I need time and space to heal. So after the first few months of no contact, people stopped trying to reach out to me because they wanted to give me my space. All my friends told me that they had asked my parents about my whereabouts several times, but they had never revealed it, so they couldn't get in touch with me and even a lot of my relatives told me that they had waited patiently for me to surface again. It actually made me cry a little, seeing how nobody had forgotten me and how ready everyone was to welcome me back. Most importantly, people have said that they had always found Jade very shady

but getting to know this was low, even by her standards. My parents and my uncle have had nothing to say so far, and I'm hoping that they stay out because I really don't want to speak to them. As for myself, I feel a lot more free and lightweight now that all of this is off my chest. So speaking up about what has happened with me was a good choice and I don't regret anything. Update 2. Hi. It has been a couple of days since I made that post and my parents reached out to me yesterday to let me know that they are really disappointed in me because they had only requested one thing. That I let sleeping dogs lie and I come up with some excuse as to why I was missing for three years

but not tell everyone the truth about what had happened because Jade deserves some peace and quiet, given her condition. Apparently, after my post, she has lost pretty much all of her friends, and not even anyone from the family is willing to speak to her anymore as if it's my fault. It was shocking that even now, they care more about what Jade is going through than what their own son has been through in the past. An apology is never going to cut it and I told them that I didn't care about their disappointment anymore. They had also let me me down on multiple levels and now, they had no right to expect anything from me. If Jade deserves some peace and quiet right now, just because she's sick with cancer, I could also say the same

thing about myself because when they kicked me out and sent me to live with my horrible great-uncle, I was just 18 and yet, they had no sympathy or mercy for me. And at least I'm telling the truth, Jade had lied and she got away with it for three years. So now, I'm going to reclaim my life and I'm not going to allow anyone to try and make me feel guilty about it. I told them never to contact me again, and that the only people they should be disappointed in are themselves. Then, I finally blocked them, something I should have done a really long time back, but I was scared and confused. However, I think speaking up about what has happened to me has given me a sense of closure and now, I don't feel the pressure to deal with my parents anymore.

They and their expectations can take a hike for all I care. Update 3, Hey. So I decided to finally visit my friends and family after three long years this weekend, and it was pretty much the best decision I had ever made. I also took my roommates along with me for moral support more than anything else. And to be honest, they have also become so close that we are like brothers now, and I wanted them to meet my friends as well. Everyone's been getting along great and my friends seem overjoyed to see me.

I am actually even living with one of them right now because all of them got offended when I said that I was going to be staying in a hotel. I'm going to go back in a couple of days, but my heart is just so full of joy that I can't even explain it in words. My roommates and my old friends are all living together in one of my friend's houses and we are having the time of our lives. I've also managed to meet quite a few of my relatives and they've told me that they have cut off my parents, my uncle, and Jade and they don't plan on having anything to do with these people

ever again. And it makes me really happy that at the end of the day, people always are going to take a stand for what is right. I'm glad that I'm surrounded by people like this, who didn't forget me and love me more than my parents do. I hope you enjoy this story. Mom gave me up for adoption following my father's death and her romantic involvement with my relative. After a prolonged period of no communication, she located me on a social networking platform, pretending to want to reconnect. I am 17-year-old female, was recently contacted by my mother after 10 years of no contact. She put me up for adoption when I was 7 years old, and thankfully, I was able to find a family willing to take me in. For the sake of clarity while I'm narrating what

happened, I'm going to be referring to my biological mother as Julia and my adoptive parents as mom and dad. Julia had me with my biological father when she was probably around 20 years old, and she had to drop out of college because of me. My biological father completed his education, and they got married right after he graduated. When I was around three years old, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and he passed away shortly after I turned seven. I guess the process for giving up my custody had already started long before my biological father passed away because my mother gave me away, and I moved in with my new family literally just one day after my dad passed away. I remember it as clearly as yesterday even today, in spite of the fact that 10 years have

passed since then, just because I was so upset and confused about what was going on. I remember being told by several people that I would be just fine, that my father was in a better place and stuff, but all I wanted to do was see how he was doing. He had been pretty pretty sick, but he was always there whenever I wanted to see him. However, I wasn't allowed to even say goodbye to him after he passed away. I barely had time to register and process these things when my new family showed up the day after my dad's demise, and my mom told me that these people were going to take care of me for a couple of days. But days turned into weeks, then into months, and eventually years. I kept waiting for my mother to reach out to me, and I remember crying a lot

about this initially because I thought that my mother and my family had abandoned me. A few weeks after my mom and dad took me in, my biological grandparents came to see me, and they have been in touch with me since then. Back then, I was too young to be told the truth, but when I was around 14, they could not evade my questions anymore. I just really wanted to know what had happened with my birth mother because I was well aware of the fact that I was adopted. I just wanted to know why all of this had happened since I distinctly remember getting along well with my birth parents when I was little. I found out the truth from my grandparents and my mom and dad eventually. Apparently, after my biological father's diagnosis with leukemia, my mother was devastated.

But instead of being there for him, she started an affair with my uncle. That was horrifying in itself, but nobody even knew about it until six months before my dad's demise. Since his health had started worsening considerably at that point, my uncle and Julia did not think there was any point in hiding their affair anymore because she knew that she wanted to be with him. As soon as my father was out of the picture, she was getting together with him. Julia and my uncle told their parents about it, and my grandparents were obviously disgusted with what was going on. But for my sick dad's sake, they kept their mouths shut about it. I was too young to understand, and they did not want my father finding out of it.

about any of this because he was already going through a lot as it was. Around the same time that they came clean about the affair to my grandparents, my uncle and Julia also announced that they were not willing to raise me and were considering putting me up for adoption. There was a lot of hue and cry about it, but Julia was pretty firm about what she wanted. Apparently, she said that she had been much too young when she had me and she didn't even want to be a mother. She did not feel ready at the time, and it was only because of her parents' insistence that she had me and got married to my father. Had her parents not pressured her,

she probably wouldn't have done either of those things, and her life would have been very different. So now that my father was going to be out of the picture, she did not want me either, and she was going to put me up for adoption. It was obvious that they could not send me away as long as my father was alive, so they waited until he passed away,

and after that, they allowed my mom and dad to finally take me in. Even my adoptive parents were very shocked by my situation, but they really just wanted to adopt a child and complete their family since they had been struggling to conceive for a second time after their first pregnancy, and it was too risky for my mom anyway. I know that my parents probably wanted to adopt a much younger kid, but they told me that they hadn't heard about me from any adoption agency. It was actually one of my mom's cousins who told her about my situation since she used to be friends with Julia back then.

As soon as they heard about me, they knew that they had to get me out. They didn't even care about my age and spoke to my mother in person without any agencies involved. My mother agreed to let them adopt me because even she was struggling to find someone who was willing to adopt a seven-year-old kid through the agency. They spoke to Julia four months before my dad passed away, and a couple of weeks before his death. Everything had been finalized. Even my mom and dad had believed that after my father passed away, I would probably be staying with Julia for a couple of days at least, but she sent me away literally the next day. After I found out about the truth of the situation, I was really glad that Julia had decided to put me up for adoption, and I had been lucky enough to find such wonderful parents because people mostly go for younger kids when they are adopting.

I found a really wonderful family, I love my mom and dad and my older brother, and I couldn't be happier. I also have literally four sets of grandparents, so you can imagine how spoiled I've been right from my childhood. Nobody kept in touch with my uncle or Julia after my dad passed away, and they were not even there for his funeral, which had been organized by my grandparents. I was there because it was a very somber situation, and I was already going through a very confusing phase, so they thought it would be better for me to settle into my new life. After finding out the truth about why I had been put up for adoption and why Julia did not remain a part of my life, I had thought that I would feel unwanted or at least a little upset about it, but I mostly just felt relieved that I did not end up spending life with

my biological mother and found my way to people who actually wanted me. I'm 17 now, starting college in a couple of months, and I barely even think about Julia or my uncle or what they have been up to. But for the past couple of days, I haven't been able to stop thinking about them because she reached out to me on Instagram to ask me if I would be willing to meet with her and mend things. I have a public account, and it's obviously not difficult to find me, but I couldn't understand why she was reaching out to me after so many years. So before I agreed to anything, I decided to ask her why she wanted to mend things with me all of a sudden. Then she sent me a long and heartfelt message about how so much time had passed, but even now she regretted her

decision to give me up and prioritize her life with my uncle instead of her commitment as a mother. She said that she knew it was not her place to demand that I come back to her as her daughter, but she at least wanted me to know that she was not all wrong here, and the only mistake that she had made was that she had committed to a lot of things when she was too young to understand the repercussions of it. There was a lot of pressure on her, and that's why she had made a lot of bad decisions, but she never regretted having me regardless of what my family might have told me. She was just not ready to be a mother, and she wanted to make things right with me.

After thinking about it, I decided to say yes because I was just curious. I did not tell my parents or my grandparents about it. I just went ahead and met her. Only after I met her did I realize that she was not asking me to meet her only because she wanted to make things right with me, she needed my help. I should have realized that earlier, but unfortunately, I have a tendency to try and see the good in everyone, even someone like Julia. We met for lunch two days ago, and in

initially, she seemed very warm and cordial with me. She tried to explain her side of the story, telling me that her parents insisted that she had to marry my father, drop out of college, and take care of me and stuff like that, and she just wasn't ready for any of it, but she had to do it because her parents insisted on it. She later started feeling very suffocated in her marriage, and the news of her husband's diagnosis was the last straw for her, which is why she was driven to have an affair. She did not regret it because she believed that my uncle was the of her life, and she was glad to find him because she has been happily married to him for the past eight years. While talking about my uncle, she started crying and told me that right now her marriage

was in trouble, and that was part of the reason why she had come to me. She said that she needed my help in reconciling with her parents and not just them, but also my father's parents. After she gave me away for adoption without even telling them, they had cut her off for the last 10 years and had nothing to do with my uncle or her. Both of them had been fine with my uncle or her. Both of them had been fine with it in the past, but for some reason, my uncle had recently started fighting with Julia a lot because he wanted to reconcile with his parents, and he knew for a fact that they would never accept him back in their lives after everything that had happened. For some reason, he was blaming Julia for it because he believed that if she hadn't been so hasty in giving me up to my adopted

parents and had waited for a bit, then things wouldn't have gone so sour between all of them. So now the only solution that she could think of was to get me to talk to my grandparents and convinced them to reconcile with my uncle and her, and maybe then she could save her marriage from falling apart because she and my uncle had been fighting a lot over the past couple of weeks. And she couldn't think of any other way to deal with the situation apart from this. Honestly, there's nothing that I regret more in my life

than having gone to meet that woman because clearly, she was not there to genuinely apologize to me, to offer an explanation to me, or even to make amends like she claimed. She was only there because her marriage was in trouble, and she thought that I could help her out. If I could, I don't think I would want to do that because she does not deserve my help after how selfish she has been.

After hearing her out, I told her that her crocodile tears were not going to work on me, and I was about to leave, but she said that if I had been in her place, I would have understood her situation better. She said that she had been forced to become a mother when she wasn't even ready to do it mentally, and in spite of that, she had tried her best to be a good mother to me. If I couldn't even see that because I was so brainwashed by my family, then that just meant I was no different from the rest of them. That just really ticked me off because so far she had only been a mother to me for six or seven years, and even then she had all the help in the world. I was pretty confident that she had not been told to drop out of college by my grandparents, that was her personal choice.

They had told me several times that my mother had chosen to give birth to me, they had not insisted on anything but had only advised her to have me. and then see where it goes. She was the one who misconstrued it as pressure from them, and if it came down to choosing whom to trust between those two people, I would obviously pick my grandparents. So I told her that she could sell her baloney somewhere where people would be stupid enough to buy it since I was not. I told her I did not believe a word of what she was saying even though I'd been willing to give her a chance to be honest and make amends with me like she said she wanted to, but she had cheapened her apology by trying to get me to fix her relationship without even trying to do it herself first. I told her that I was not obliged to

do anything for her since we did not have any relationship. She might have given birth to me, but it was my mom who had raised me, not her. Then I walked out of the restaurant and went back home. After that, once I got back home, I realized that she had texted me, and it was a voice note of her crying. I could tell that she was still inside the restaurant because I could hear the background noise, and that's why I felt a bit guilty because I'm pretty sure you have to be really devastated to start crying like that in a public space. She was crying and saying that it was really horrible of me to say that we did not have any relation because no matter what had happened, she was still my biological mother, and I was her flesh and blood, and regardless

of everything, she still considered me her daughter. But I don't know what to tell her. I really just don't consider her my mother anymore, and I don't really want to feel bad about it because I don't think it's necessary. She hasn't been my mother for the past 10 years. I just feel messy and conflicted because of the way she was crying on the phone, and even now I haven't been able to bring myself to block her. I don't think of her as my mother, but she's still a human being who had a connection with me. Edit, hi, so I thought it was very clear in my post that I haven't told my family about it. I don't think they would be on board with my decision to go meet Julia, and that's why I did not tell them before I made my decision.

I know I owe this to them and I'm definitely going to tell them, but for now, I just wanted this to be something that I made a call on by myself. Besides, I knew that if I had told them about it, they never would have let me meet her because all of them hated her, and rightfully so. I know that for a fact. I guess I just wanted some closure, and that's why I went to meet her in the first place. I didn't know what I was expecting, I knew that she was going to apologize, and I just wanted to talk to her one last time.

I guess it's just that her reaching out to me brought up a lot of mixed emotions, and I guess I wasn't thinking straight, but whatever it is, I did go to meet her, and it's done now, and I don't think I would change my decision if I could go back in the past and do it. I needed some closure, and I got it, and I don't regret what I did. Sometimes you just have to forget about everybody else and do what you think is right. Even if it's a mistake, it's going to be your mistake, and that's what I believe. Update 1, I finally told my family that I had gone to visit Julia, and just as I had expected, they were not happy about it in the slightest. I met her last week, and I blocked her a couple of days back after she kept relentlessly bombarding me with texts

and phone calls demanding that I speak to her again and give her a chance to explain herself. I didn't know what she was going to say to me, but I didn't even want to find her. out anymore. I met her once and got my closure, but that's all that I needed from her, and it's not like she genuinely wanted to speak to me and make things right. She just needed my help, and I'm pretty sure that's the reason why she's even contacting me after the fight that we had at the restaurant. Anyway, I didn't want to speak to her again, and I knew that it was about time that I told my family about our meeting as well. So I sat them all down today, my parents and all my grandparents, and I explained everything to them. My parents were all

obviously upset that I hadn't discussed this with them and I had just taken off without telling them who I was meeting, but they still seemed to understand. It was my grandparents who were really upset with me. They scolded me a lot, and I heard them out patiently because I deserved it, I should have spoken to them first. Mostly they were just worried that my mother would have tried to brainwash me and tried to make them look like the villain since they knew her well enough to expect it. After they were done, I told them that the only reason I had met her was because I needed some closure, and I did not expect everyone to understand immediately why I had that thought process, but it was something that I needed to do, and I did it. The only thing that I was sorry about

was that I did it behind their backs, but I promised them that I would never be dishonest with them ever again, and that seemed to pacify everyone. Then we started discussing the reason why Julia had called me there and the things that she had said about my uncle wanting to reconcile with his parents and stuff. The one thing that all of us could agree on was the fact that there was definitely more to the situation than we were being let on. If she was trying to manipulate me into getting back into the family, it meant that they were probably in trouble and needed some sort of help. Since Julia had said that her marriage was in trouble and she had definitely seemed very distressed when she was on the phone and even when she met me, my grandparents deduced

that she was probably being truthful about my uncle being pissed at her. Now, whatever the truth is, we're not going to interfere because it's not our place to say anything. My grandparents were very about it. They said that they had stopped considering my uncle and Julia their family the day that they announced they were together while my father was still sick. The last straw was when my mother just gave me away without even talking to them or giving them time to explain things to me. They just got lucky that my adoptive parents were kind enough to continue to allow them to be a part of my life. So long story short, I have now blocked Julia. No matter what happens after this, I'm not going to be speaking to her again.

I know that she's quite desperate to talk to me since the last few messages that she sent me were begging me to talk to her and telling me that her marriage was falling apart and so was her life, and she desperately needed me right now. I felt really guilty ignoring all of that, but honestly, what does she even expect me to do? Even if I wanted to, I really don't think that I would be able to get my grandparents to speak to her or my uncle. If I was in their place, I wouldn't want to speak to them either, so it's completely for me not to want to interact with her anymore. I know that she can just make more accounts

and keep trying to get to me, but it's not going to work, so I have decided that if she tries to reach out to me again, then I'm going to tell her that I'm not interested, and if she bothers me, then I'm going to report her. I did overhear my grandparents discussing potential reasons as to why my uncle would want to contact them again after so many years, and they had been speculating that maybe they were having financial trouble. Since nobody from our family has been in touch with them, we don't really know what they've been doing. We know for a fact that they are still living here in the same city, but we don't know what they do for a living. Julia used to be a stay-at-home mom when I was living with her, but now I don't know. But one thing is for sure, if my grandparents are

right and Julia and my uncle are actually trying to reconcile with my grandparents because they are in financial trouble, I will know for a fact that they don't even deserve the bare minimum respect that they receive from other people. Because it is just disgusting human. You know, but it is just disgusting behavior, reaching out to your daughter who you haven't spoken to in a decade so she can fix the situation with your parents just because you need money. That's literally one of the cheapest things I can imagine people doing. And yeah, I really hope that she gets her come up and see if that's actually the case here. Update 2, hey, so she reached out to me once again today. I had blocked her everywhere about 10 days ago, and after a week passed without any sign of her reaching out to me again,

I thought that she had given up, but somehow she was able to find out where I go to school, and I guess that's why we shouldn't put out our personal information on public platforms. It was a lesson learned the hard way. Anyway, when I started walking back home from school today, she showed up on my way out of absolutely nowhere, and I was pretty taken aback. It happened about a block away from school, and I don't live very far from my school, so I usually just walk home, but she showed up in her car and started yelling at me to get in. I told her I was not going to get into her car because I did not trust her, and I said that if she

insisted or tried to create drama, then I would start screaming right there in the middle of the street, and then she would be done for. She just told me she was not here to fight with me or bother me, she just wanted to talk to me, and she did not even care if I was not going to help her to reconcile with her parents. She just wanted to speak to me and reconcile with me at the very least. She claimed that everything had gone wrong the last time that we met, and she just wanted to make up for everything. She knew that I was going to misconstrue everything that she was saying is fake and think that she was putting up an act, but she wanted to tell me that that was not the

case, that she really would love to make things right with me. I could literally hear how desperate she was in her voice, and I don't know why. I know I should have felt bad for her, but I just felt annoyed. So I told her to leave me alone, I did not want anything to do with her, and that's when her true color started showing again. I'm actually pretty proud of myself. for not falling for her act the first time around since she was pretty good at pretending that she was sorry and she really wanted to make things right with me. Anyway, as soon as I told her to leave me alone, I guess I had a bit of a tone, and she completely freaked out at me because of it.

She started cursing at me and said that she was trying really hard to talk to me politely, but if I was going to be like this, then she was going to make sure that she screwed up my life. The woman literally started threatening me, saying I had better watch my back and stuff now, but I just found it very amusing because what was she even going to do anyway? I just continued to walk while she cursed at me, and eventually she just drove off after flipping me off. I was so relieved.

Once I got back home, I told my parents about it, and once again everyone gathered around to discuss what was going to be done. Since she has threatened me, we have grounds for a restraining order, so we are guessing that we are probably going to go that way, and I don't have an issue with it. I would actually prefer that so that she cannot bother me again and again. Update 3, so a couple of days ago, my parents filed for a restraining order against Julia, and after she was served, that's when my uncle decided to reach out to his parents finally,

and just like they had predicted, it was obviously because of money. They had been running a confectionery together for the past couple of years, but it has not been doing well for the last few years, so they were in desperate need of money. They knew that if they reached out to their parents directly, it would not work, and that's why they came up with this whole act. But unfortunately, Julia lost patience with me, and it screwed everything up for them, so who knows, they might even get divorced because of this, and I'll be the happiest person if that happens. My uncle is still trying to suck up to his parents, trying to get them to give him some money and keep saying that he has nothing to do with the way Julia behaved with me, but as their only son,

he deserves to get some help from them. Julia, on the other hand, is taking a very strange approach and has decided to be as nasty as she possibly can to her parents and me, and has been talking crap about us online without any fear of the consequences. All that's doing is making our case stronger, so I hope she continues. We are pretty positive that we are going to be able to get the restraining order against her because it's pretty obvious that she is unhinged now. I don't even know why she's fighting it because the other day she made it pretty clear,

that she wants nothing to do with me anyway. It doesn't matter in the first place because I'm going to be leaving for college in the fall, and I don't think it's going to be likely for her to show up there since she's struggling with money. Regardless of whatever happens, my parents and my family are always going to be by my side, so I don't really think that I have anything to worry about. I hope you enjoy this story. I requested that my sibling refrain from bringing any dishes to the Thanksgiving gathering due to their lack of culinary skills. This upset them, and they declared themselves the main chef, resulting in me being ousted from the event. The family group chat. Every year, our family does a big Thanksgiving dinner, and we all

typically bring a dish or two. My sister, who's a lovely person in every other way, insists on cooking something homemade every time. The issue? She's. a great cook. And I don't mean just not great, I mean she has somehow managed to turn classic dishes into borderline and edible creations. For context, last Thanksgiving, she showed up with her special recipe stuffing that was over-seasoned with random spices like cinnamon and cardamom. It was dry, and the flavors were confusing and totally off for stuffing. Only one person took a small bite, and the rest went untouched. Another year, she brought a green bean casserole that had some kind of strange, chewy texture, she later admitted she used coconut milk and almond flour

to experiment. No one wanted seconds of that either. This year, I'm hosting Thanksgiving. Since I'm responsible for putting it all together, I wanted to keep the menu consistent so that people could actually enjoy a cohesive meal. I thought I'd avoid drama by asking her to bring non-food items instead, like wine, soda, or even some flowers. I explained to her her, very kindly, I thought, that I just wanted to make things easy and streamlined, and I'd handle the main dishes. But she didn't take it well. She got offended and told me I was being controlling and shutting her out of the family gathering. She then accused me of making her feel inadequate and said that Thanksgiving is about everyone contributing, not me deciding what's acceptable.

I told her that everyone appreciates her effort, but that she could contribute in other ways and still be part of it. She doubled down and said she's bringing her famous green bean casserole whether I like it or not. Now, my mom and a couple of other family members have chimed in, saying I should just let her bring whatever she wants because it's Thanksgiving and it's the thought that counts. They're acting like I'm committing some huge offense by wanting the food to be enjoyable for everyone and not have random experimental dishes that no one will eat. But I feel like I'm just trying to keep the meal enjoyable and, frankly, edible. I don't think it's wrong to want guests to actually enjoy the food, especially since I'm

putting in a lot of effort to host. Am I really being unreasonable here? Ida. Update 1. All right, well, things have escalated fast. Thanks to everyone who offered advice, I tried to compromise, but it's already turning into a whole thing. And Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away. After our last conversation, my sister was being pretty cagey about what she planned to make, so I reached out to my mom, hoping she could help smooth things over. Instead, she got defensive, saying I'm overthinking and that it's just one dish. I told her I wasn't sure it was just one dish anymore, especially after hearing about my sister's grocery hall, including canned oysters and edible glitter. Then my mom let slip that my sister has been hard at

work on some creative menu she's planning as her Thanksgiving surprise. Apparently, she's been telling the family group chat, which I wasn't included in, by the way, that I'm being controlling and that she wants to expand everyone's palette with something truly unique. To top it off, my cousin sent me a screenshot from the group chat where my sister said she's bringing not one but three dishes to Thanksgiving now. She's calling them her Thanksgiving trio experience, complete with their own place settings and little menu cards she's designing. I'm officially panicking because I have no idea what she's planning to serve, and from what I've heard, it's not remotely traditional.

At this point, half the family thinks I'm overreacting, while the other half is texting me with things like, is she really bringing glittered sweet potatoes? I feel stuck, if I try to control it anymore, I'm the bad guy, but if I don't, Thanksgiving might turn into a tasting event for my sisters of on guard cooking. So yeah, Thanksgiving is weeks away, and it's already become a family spectacle. I don't know whether to brace myself or just preemptively order pizza. Update 2, November 14th, 2024. All right, so Thanksgiving is now just a little over two weeks away, and somehow,

things have escalated even further than I thought possible. I thought maybe my sister's Thanksgiving trio experience would be the peak of the drama, well, turns out. I was wrong. Since the last update, my sister has become fully committed to making her dishes the main attraction. She's been dropping hints in the family group chat, which I'm still not included in, but shout out to my cousin for the screenshots about how this Thanksgiving will be one to remember and calling it her Thanksgiving debut. She's apparently been referring to herself as the Thanksgiving head chef and has hinted that she's bringing some kind of culinary surprise centerpiece that will transform the whole experience.

From what I can piece together, she's planning a main statement dish in addition to her original three-side dishes. I'm picturing something equally bizarre but on a much larger scale, and honestly, I'm terrified. If her green bean casserole was already pushing it, I can't even imagine what she thinks is worthy of being the centerpiece. Then, to make things even weirder, my mom texted me privately and suggested that I stepped back this year and let my sister shine since she's so excited about her. contributions. My mom thinks if we just give her this moment, it'll make her happy and she'll get it out of her system. She even hinted that maybe I should focus on decorations and drinks instead of the main dishes, which feels like an attempt to turn hosting over to my sister without actually saying it. So now, I'm left with a choice, go along with my mom's plan and let my sister

essentially hijack Thanksgiving, or keep pushing back and risk a family showdown. I just wanted a nice Thanksgiving with dishes everyone would enjoy, but it seems like I'm either about to hand over the whole meal to her, or prepare for some serious drama. Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, and it already feels like a circus. I'm half tempted to just sit back and see what chaos unfolds, but part of me is still worried about subjecting the whole family to whatever artistic statement she has planned. Comments where OPE has replied, YFUV Bath 1984. I cannot figure out why you still haven't cancelled hosting. If she wants to take over, let her do so in her own space. Why would you go through all those trouble to host your family when your sister is actively planning

sabotage? I would have already bowed out. Oop, honestly, I'm starting to feel the same way. At first, I thought I could manage the situation by setting boundaries, but it's pretty clear my sister is determined to turn Thanksgiving into her personal stage, no matter what I do. At this point, it's not even about the food, it's about the sheer amount of effort I'm putting in just to have it overshadowed by her artistic vision. Bowing out does sound tempting, and I'm seriously considering it. Letting her host would give her the spotlight she clearly wants, and I wouldn't have to deal with the stress of trying to balance everyone's feelings. I guess I've just been holding out because I love hosting and didn't want to let her take that away from me. But maybe it's time to throw in the towel

and let her take the reins. In her own house. You're definitely giving me something to think about. Thanks. Too complex, just let her do it and don't cook a damn thing. Oh, and eat before anyone shows up. Oop, ha ha, that would be one way to handle it, right? Just let her have her Thanksgiving head chef moment and show up with a full stomach. No stress and zero cooking on my part. I'm honestly so tempted to go this route, if she wants the spotlight that badly, I might as well let her handle everything and watch the chaos unfold from the sidelines. It might even be kind of satisfying to see her realize how much goes into hosting,

especially if her creations don't quite go over as she hopes. Thanks for the idea. This might just be the perfect hands-off Thanksgiving. Update 3, November 20, 27th, 24. Here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, and things have continued to spiral. I decided to let my sister move forward with her trio experience since pushing back more would only make things worse. I thought we had a plan, she'd bring her dishes, and I'd make sure there were plenty of other options to keep the peace. This morning, my mom let me know that my

sister is now adding a surprise dish to her contributions. She's been very secretive about what it is, which is everyone nervous after her past attempts. My mom thinks it's sweet that my sister is putting in so much effort, but a few other family members are not as optimistic. My cousin texted me privately asking if I had backup food ready, and my dad casually mentioned bringing extra rolls, just in case. At this point, I've decided to stick with the plan and let her have her moment. I'll still have a few traditional dishes on hand so no one goes hungry. Tomorrow will probably be chaotic, but it should at least make for a memorable holiday. Wish me luck, I'll update after Thanksgiving if anything noteworthy happens. Final update, November 28th,

2024. Thanksgiving dinner is officially over, and I genuinely don't know where to start. I feel like I just lived through a fever dream of culinary chaos and family drama, and I need a moment to breathe before I can even process everything. My cousin and I are heading out for drinks to dissect all of it because honestly, what just happened deserves its own Netflix special. I'll post photos later when I get home, but for now, let me try to give you the rundown. So, my sister showed up earlier than expected, which I should have seen coming. She came in like a storm, carrying not just her three dishes but also this giant platter wrapped in foil, which she was clearly trying to make a big deal about.

She immediately started rearranging the table, moving my dishes to the side so hers could take center stage. She even brought her own table runner and candles, saying something about setting the mood for a creative dining experience. I decided not to fight her on it because, at this point, I just wanted to get through the night without a blow-up. Her trio experience was, well, let's just say it was everything I feared and more. She started with a glittery sweet potato mash that somehow managed to taste like a mix of sugar and sand. The glitter wasn't even edible glitter, it was craft glitter, which I didn't realize until one of the kids said, this is crunchy, and I looked closer. Then there was the cranberry and oyster relish.

Yes, oysters and cranberries. It looked like someone had spilled jam into clam chowder, and the smell alone was enough to make me lose my appetite. Finally, she brought a pumpkin curry casserole that had raisins in it for some reason and this weird fishy smell that clung to the air for way too long. But the piece to resistance was her surprise centerpiece dish, which turned out to be a turkey gelatin mold. Yes, she took ground turkey, mixed it with some kind of broth and seasonings, and turned it into a wobbly, translucent mold shaped like a turkey. She even garnished it with parsley and cherry tomatoes to make it festive. I wish I were kidding. The entire table went silent when she unveiled it, except for my cousin, who immediately started

coughing to cover up what I'm pretty sure was a laugh. Things hit their peak when my mom, who has been defending her this entire time, took one bite of the gelatin mold and just, froze. She didn't say anything, but you could see the regret on her face. My sister, noticing the lack of enthusiasm, decided to go on this long speech about how Thanksgiving food is too boring and how she's trying to challenge our palettes. She even called my ham and mashed potatoes uninspired, which was rich coming from someone serving glitter sand potatoes. The breaking point came when my aunt, who's usually the peacekeeper, tried the gelatin mold and actually

gagged. She tried to be polite about it, but my sister saw her reaction and completely lost it. She started yelling about how nobody in the family supports her and how we're all stuck in the past with our unoriginal food. She even accused me of sabotaging her dishes by not hyping them up enough to everyone. At this point, half the table was trying not to laugh, and the other half was just staring at their plates, probably wondering how we got here. My sister ended up storming out of the house, but not before saying something along the lines of, you'll regret not appreciating my vision when I'm famous. She left most of her food behind, which my cousin and I quietly threw out after dinner. The rest of the night actually turned out pretty nice once the tension was gone.

My dad's emergency ham was a lifesaver, and everyone agreed that next year, we're either going to a restaurant or just skipping Thanksgiving altogether. So now I'm sitting here wondering how this even became my life. I'll post photos later because you all need to see the turkey gelatin mold to believe it, but for now, I'm off to grab a drink, or three, with my cousin to laugh slash cry over everything that went down. This Thanksgiving was truly something else, and I don't know whether to feel relieved it's over or brace myself for whatever fresh chaos my sister has planned for next year.

Stay tuned for photos, it's going to be worth it. Next story, gave my daughter $50,000 because she had to pay her own college while her siblings got $100,000 each. Now my middle daughter demands the same amount for her wedding and won't talk to us. So I 50M have three kids, Sarah 35F, Jessica 25F, and Ben 23M. My wife and I had Sarah when we were both 16. It wasn't easy, but with both our parents' support, we could finish college while we raised her. When it was time for her to go to college, we didn't have the money to help her.

So she took out loans and paid for them herself. We learned from our mistakes and started saving for her siblings, Jessica and Ben. who got around a 100k college fund and had no debt. Through all of this, Sarah never complained. She finished her education, got a fantastic job, and could repay the loans in just three years while staying with us to save as much as possible. She has also helped us a lot with babysitting her younger siblings

and has always been selfless and helped out in any way she could, maybe even to a fault. So when she told me five years ago, she was getting married, I talked to my wife and told her how bad I felt. We never did anything for her and that I wanted to give her the inheritance I got from my grandmother, which was around 50k to help pay for her wedding and down payment on the house. Luckily, my wife agreed, and even though she didn't really need it, I know it meant a lot to her. The issue is this, Jessica is getting married next year and had assumed we would plan a similar gift for her. She was quite surprised when I told her

that we never discuss such plans, and even if we wanted to, we didn't have the budget for it. She told us it wasn't fair that we paid for her sister, but would not do the same for her. I tried to explain the situation, telling her that in the long run, we spend twice as much on her and her brother as we ever did on Sarah. However, she insisted that Sarah was already well off, noting that Sarah and her husband had paid off their house and were doing extremely well financially. I told her that this had nothing to do with how much money her sister had. This was us finally being able to do something for our oldest child, who had to sacrifice so much because we had her at such a young age.

She didn't take it well, left angry, and won't speak to us. My wife thinks we should maybe take out a small loan and give her the money because she isn't used to not talking to her kids and is sad she is being left out of the wedding preparations. She is even afraid of us not getting invited to the wedding. But I have put my foot down and won't budge because she is not entitled to our money. Now even Sarah is saying that this is getting out of hand

and even offered to help pay half the money. But personally, I'm at a point where I'd rather burn the 50k than give it to her. Sarah and my wife think that this is not worth destroying our family over, but I think that giving in will only make her more entitled in the long run. Update, November 24, 2024. Thank you all for the fantastic comments and personal messages from my last post. After reading the comments, I felt even more convinced that I was in the right,

so I sat down with my wife to talk. Following many of your suggestions, I showed her the post and asked her to read it. She wasn't happy, especially when she saw how many people had read it, but she was also really curious. This has been on her mind a lot lately, and she wanted to know what all of you were thinking. She had a few issues with my comments. She believes that when I said I would rather burn the money,

it indicates I need to change my approach to problem solving. While it might be easy for people on the internet to suggest that parents cut off contact with their child, she is not ready to lose her little girl. Additionally, she thinks my statement about doing my duty and wanting to take care of myself comes across as selfish and is not something a parent should say. She believes there is a reasonable compromise. Instead of giving her the full 50K, we can offer her half for the wedding.

This way, we can cover most of the expenses from our savings, borrow the rest from Sarah if needed, and pay her back within a year. I told her right away that I was not going to do that. I told her that we could separate our finances and that she could return to work full-time to help Jessica pay for the wedding. However, I made it clear that I was done. As selfish as it may seem, I don't feel obligated to Jessica anymore, and I want to enjoy my life while I still can.

She replied, as she always does, that I am stubborn, and she would take that step if it meant keeping the family together. I told her it was fine but not to come to me complaining about her health when she went back to work full-time. A couple of days ago, she came to me and said that she agreed, with my proposal. We made a plan to open a joint bank account where we would deposit our monthly expenses. After that, we can each use our personal money however we like. We decided on an amount to keep in our savings account for emergencies and agreed to split the remaining

funds 50 to 50. I even agreed to cover 60% of the money needed for our joint expenses. This is the first time we will have more than one bank account, so I'm a bit nervous about how it will turn out. I also believe she mentioned talking to her boss about working more hours, but I want to avoid getting involved in that discussion. I spoke with Sarah and expressed my concerns about giving Jessica any money, which I believe is a bad idea. However, Sarah insists that she wants to help. She mentioned that while she agrees with my viewpoint, she doesn't want their mom to return to work full time. She clarified that her decision to help was aimed at supporting their mom, Jessica. I told her that it was her money and she could do as she pleased, but like her mom,

I wouldn't involve myself in the situation any further. Right before I wrote this post, I sent an email to Jessica expressing my feelings for her. I clarified where I stood and mentioned that she could decide how involved I would be in her wedding. I don't expect to reply, but now I'll have to wait and see what happens. Comments where Op has replied. op added this info in the comments. I forgot to mention this in my post, but part of our agreement is that she should not take out any loans with interest. If she decides to borrow money from friends or family, that's her choice, but I want to avoid having another bank loan under my name. However, I am confident that she won't need to borrow much if she only gives 25K for the wedding,

especially since it appears that Sarah is planning to cover half of that amount. which again, I still think is a bad idea. Commenter, you know these three are making a mess you will have to clean up. Ideally you would nope out, but 50k in debt. This has so much potential to go sideways for you it's almost a guarantee. For example, since op isn't involved in this, we can use more than 50K. What happens if your wife can't work? What if she pays on the loan but only has 10% of the monthly bills?

What if she resents you for this? Will you actually die on this hill and divorce? If not, you may as well go to the bank. Involving Sarah and this is a shitty thing for her to do. Your wife seems to believe she has a separate financial life. That's just not true. I don't know, I could write a 30k word report on this. Half would be petty BS but the other half involves creditors.

That said, I do hope this settles things. NTA op, it's not 50K. I realize now that I didn't explain something clearly. My wife wants to pay 25K for the wedding, which she and Sarah have agreed to split. She believes this is a reasonable compromise, but I disagree with her. I hope you enjoy this story. My partner was behaving oddly during the meal with her closest companion, resembling a romantic duo. When I inquired about it, he mentioned that their romantic connection had ended long ago. Left the church. Sorry for the long post, I didn't realize how much I had to say until I got it all typed out.

Thanks in advance to anyone who reads all this. I've been with my girlfriend Jordan for a little over two years, we live together and we have two cats. Up until this weekend I genuinely thought everything was perfect in our relationship, which I know is what everyone says in these posts, but I really was thinking that I was going to ask her to marry me sometime in the next year. We don't ever get into arguments, Jordan is very sweet and easygoing and normally we just mesh well on everything. Honestly, if everything in our relationship hadn't been so good up until now I probably would have just broken up with her this weekend. But because things have truly been so perfect I'm not sure if maybe I'm jumping to the wrong

conclusion about what to do because my feelings got hurt. The other person who's important in this story is Jordan's friend Mark. She's known Mark for their whole lives because they both grew up in the same small religious community. Jordan isn't part of that religion anymore, she decided to leave the church when she was, I think, 19 and moved to the state that we live in now. Mark still is in the religion and apparently takes it. it really seriously, I'm told he now works for the church back in Jordan's hometown.

Also, as far as I know Mark is the only person from the religious community that Jordan still talks to besides her parents, which I'm mentioning because I now think it could be a red flag. So on Saturday I met Mark for the first time because he was in our city and Jordan wanted us all to have dinner together. At this point I want to say, I will admit that when we were first dating and I found out that Jordan had a best friend who was a guy I didn't really like it, especially because it seemed like they were on FaceTime with each other a lot. But since it was a childhood friend and they mostly didn't see each other in person, I just trusted Jordan that Mark was only a friend and didn't let it bother me and eventually I got over it.

So when we were going to dinner, I wasn't jealous or suspicious of Mark at all. If anything, I was somewhat excited to finally be meeting him since I've been hearing about him for two years. But then the way Jordan and Mark acted at dinner is what convinced me that there's something going on their other than just being best friends. I honestly don't even know how to describe it except to say that I've never seen two people act more obviously like they were in love with each other. They literally would not stop touching each other. They were constantly touching each other's arms and shoulders and at some points they were actually even holding hands. They completely left me out of the conversation and were laughing about inside jokes, and every time they'd

laughed, they'd do this thing where they put their foreheads together or that was when they'd be holding hands. And then also they were just looking at each other in a way that I didn't feel comfortable with at all, it was honestly even worse than the touching. It just wasn't how anyone would look at somebody they're supposedly just friends with. I'm 100% sure that every stranger looking at our table thought that Jordan and Mark were the couple and that I was her brother or something. I felt like a third will the whole time and Jordan didn't even notice how awkward she was making it for me because she was way too focused on Mark and all the attention she was getting from him. And that's really not like Jordan at all, usually she's a lot more considerate

and would notice immediately if I wasn't having a good time or if she was accidentally being rude and excluding someone at the table. So it was genuinely really jarring to be sitting there with her and Mark and basically feeling like I didn't know my girlfriend at all. It was like he turned her into a completely different person who didn't even care that I was alive. So finally at one point when Jordan got up to go to the bathroom I just said to Mark, so are you into my girl or what's going on here? Mark, nothing's going on at all. That ship sailed a long time ago.

Me, what does that mean? Did you guys date at some point? Mark, no, we never did. And then when she left the church, we both knew it meant that we were never going to. And we've accepted being in each other's lives as friends. There's nothing else going on at all. Me, that makes it sound like the only reason you're not together is because she left the church. And all Mark did was shrug.

Me, well, what if she came back to the church? Would you marry her? Mark, oh, she's not going to do that. You might as well ask what would happen if a bicycle had six tires. And so then when Jordan came back to the table, Mark said to her, Op wants to know if we'd be married if you weren't a godless heathen. Jordan, why, did you two call your mom while I was gone? And then she and Mark both just laughed about it and changed the subject.

So because of dinner and the conversation and everything else that I've written about in this post, I really feel like Jordan and Mark are in love with each other and not just best friends like they say, and the only reason they aren't together is because they can't compromise about their religion. I think Jordan thinks that because she's okay with that decision, she expects me to be okay with being her second choice. And in the meantime, she's actually secretly wanting to be with Mark. So that makes me think that I should probably obviously just have self-respect and break up with her because I shouldn't be in a relationship with someone who would rather be with somebody else.

But then the problem for me is that our relationship has been so perfect and Jordan has always treated me so well except for this one night. The only time she's ever acted like this was on the one occasion that Mark was around in person. Normally even when she's talking to him all the time, she's never made me feel this way. So on the one hand, I'm wondering if maybe it doesn't matter what Jordan's feelings are for Mark, as long as he isn't going to be around, it doesn't actually seem to affect our relationship. So maybe I just need to cool off and go back to trusting her that they are indeed. only friends even if it seems to be true that they have complicated feelings for each other.

Or should I just end things? Update, I talked to Jordan on Wednesday night. The TL-DR update to the situation is that I didn't break up with her, after we talked about everything I feel like that would be too much of an overreaction for what's actually going on. I do still think I was right to be upset about what I saw happening at dinner on Saturday and Jordan didn't disagree with me about that, but I think I did jump to the wrong conclusion that it meant that she secretly actually wanted to be with Mark more than she wants to be with me.

Now that we've talked it out, I don't think there's a reason to end what's otherwise the best relationship I've ever had and I'm glad that I didn't just immediately trust my instincts because there was more going on with the situation that I didn't really understand that Jordan has since told me. And now I do feel like she can be given some grace in this situation assuming nothing like this ever happens again. So thanks for the advice, especially for everyone who told me to just talk to her before I made a big decision. So when we talked I decided to take the main piece of advice that I got from everyone and start by telling Jordan that my feelings were hurt by the way she treated me at dinner with Mark and then see how the conversation went from there. It turned into a very long talk so I don't want to try to remember exact quotes and get them wrong but here are the important things. I repeated to Jordan some of what I wrote in the post and said that I felt excluded by her and Mark, especially because they were being overly touchy-feely with each other to the point where it made me uncomfortable. Jordan seemed surprised like she didn't even notice that she and Mark were touching each other that much,

but then she thought about it and said that I was right and apologized. She said that Mark is always really touchy with everybody and not just her, I asked, and so she didn't even think about it, but that she wished I would have said something at the time. because she didn't realize they were being that obnoxious. I said that was part of what bothered me, because I thought that normally she would have noticed something like that. But she was acting so different around Mark and not paying any attention to anything else including how I was feeling that it was honestly just made me question which one of us she cared

about more or if she cared about him as more than just a friend. Jordan apologized more and said that she could understand why it would look that way to me, but that she loves me and cares more about me than anyone else in the world and that she didn't mean to act like that or make me feel that way. She said that she was trying to not make Mark feel like a third will because of being a single guy out with a couple but obviously it backfired and just made me feel like the third will instead which wasn't what she wanted to do either. After that Jordan explained a lot to me about her history with Mark, and basically as she explained it she said that she fully admits she cares about him as more than just a normal friend, but she says that it's not in a romantic way. She said that's why she always specifically refers to him as her best friend and not just as her friend, and said that she would use the phrase he's like

my brother if it weren't for the fact that she once had an actual brother, R-I-P, so she won't use that phrasing for anyone else. According to Jordan the main thing that happened to make her and Mark so close was that when she was 17 she tried to kill herself, and that was actually when everyone else in the community stopped talking to her and Mark was the only person who didn't. For the next couple of years until she moved he was literally her only friend and she said that he checked on her every single day to make sure she stayed alive which is also when they got into the habit of talking on the phone so much.

And also apparently during this time Mark's parents thought they were dating and made a big deal about how they shouldn't be and that's why she made that remark during dinner, apparently calling Jordan a godless heathen is something that Mark's mom said. I did tell Jordan that Mark basically said to me that he thought the two of them would be married if she had stayed in the church, and I asked her if she thinks that maybe Mark is in love with her even if she doesn't feel the same way. She said definitely not and I don't think she was being dishonest. I really don't agree, but I think she genuinely believes that Mark isn't into her in any way apart from friendship. Her opinion of the situation is that she also thinks she and Mark would eventually have gotten married

if she had never left the church or moved, but from her perspective it would have been more because of pure pressure than anything else and she doesn't think it would necessarily have been a good thing. She thinks Mark was just being honest about that, and that possibly from his perspective he thinks he and Jordan would have made a good couple, but he's probably thinking that because he's just assuming that in that scenario she'd be the perfect church wife so there's no reason why they wouldn't be a good couple. But then the big thing that happened at the end of the conversation is that Jordan told me that Mark is coming back through our city on his way home from this trip, and so she was going to invite him to hang out with the two of us again, but she said that if I'm

going to be uncomfortable with him around then she won't ask him. A lot of people were saying that if she didn't offer to cut contact with him or to cut down on contact with him, it meant that she valued him over me, so the fact that she brought up on her own that she wouldn't invite him to dinner with us again because I didn't like it seemed like a really good sign to me. Based on everything else that she said, I do understand why she didn't offer to totally stop being friends with him and I wouldn't expect her to after what she told me about what happened when she was a teenager. So now I'm deciding to take Jordan's word for it that although she and Mark are weirdly close, it's for the reasons that she explained to me and not because she's in

love with him. I think the fact that she was immediately apologetic instead of defensive was good, and the way she explained everything did make sense to me. I don't necessarily trust Mark, but I do think I can trust Jordan. But I am going to watch and see if it seems like she's still talking to him as much as she used to or if anything changes or sounds different. I'm not going to be controlling and tell her that she can't talk to him or that she has to talk to him less, but I want to see if me talking to her about all of this causes her to act any differently at all. I'm kind of thinking she might realize on her own that the way Mark acts towards,

her actually does seem like he likes her as more than a friend now that I've brought it up, but I don't know. It could be that things just go back to exactly the way they were before and I won't know changed until the next time Mark is around in person. But I don't think that's something I should keep worrying about before it happens. Next story, ran into my ex-friend after 10 years. When she saw my wife was pregnant, she messaged me asking why was I never good enough? Every time we almost dated years ago, she was always with another guy. Hello, everyone. I, 35M, am happily married with two children.

My wife 32F and I have been together for eight years married for four. We were out shopping in our hometown when we ran into my ex-friend, her parents, and her children. She moved out of state over ten years ago and I haven't seen her since nor have we had any contact other than Facebook happy birthday. they wishes. She is married with two kids of her own. Anyway, on to the situation. My Phil and her father are friendly with each other. Both retired military and occasionally have breakfast together with their other retired friends. When we ran into each other ex-friend's dad congratulated my wife and I. We figured my Phil told him we're expecting our third child. I saw my ex-friend look at my wife's belly and then acted distant for the rest of the exchange whereas she was friendly starting off.

We trade pleasantries and say goodbye. My wife and I continue about our shopping. By the time we're done, I check my phone and see I have a Facebook message from ex-friend. X-F, it was good to see you again. Me, you too. The family looks good. XF yours too. Would you want to grab coffee and catch up? I'm in town for a couple more days me were actually pretty busy otherwise I would be down. I'm sorry XF I understand. Adulting Can I ask you a question? Me sure.

What's up? XF was I just not your type. Me what do you mean XF I'm asking what did I do wrong? Me didn't respond as this was out of nowhere XF I pursued you for years. We were inseparable for years and you never gave us a real chance. I loved you. Our families loved us. Our friends loved us together. You just never committed all the way to us. You wouldn't even have sex with me and I need to know why. Was I not good enough? Could you not see yourself married to me and having a family together? I didn't respond

and I showed the messages to my wife. She knows of this girl and my reasoning for her and I growing apart. mostly because we see her family everywhere and she asked. My wife told me to be honest with her, but I'm not sure if that's right. It feels mean. I'm going to give my POV on our friendship and I'm hoping I can get some advice on where to go from here. Basically she and I met through friends in high school. I was very interested, but she was dating someone at the time. She ended up asking me out a month or so later and we went on dates and kissed a few times, though we never

had the conversation on being official, hence me calling her friend and not girlfriend. One night while riding in the car, her, who I thought was X, B.F. called her and asked when she'd be over. She didn't have it on speaker, but I could still hear the conversation. She told him I can't talk right now and he asked who she's with. She didn't tell him. He later figured it out and messaged me on Facebook asking if I knew they were still together. I apologized and said I didn't and would cut things off. I called her and she started crying saying she didn't have the courage to tell me they were still together, but she liked me so much and was going to break up with him. I cut her off anyway. Fast forward a few more months and she reaches out and we go through

the same motions. Her wanting to be with me but always having another guy messaging her that I would catch out of the corner of my eye. This lasted, embarrassingly, years. Throughout college and our early 20s it was always the same. She'd reach out, we'd reconnect and things begin getting serious again. I'd check her social media and see she just broke up with someone. We even went on vacation to the mountains together for a weekend and the same thing. She had literally just been there a month ago with her ex the trip with me was her idea. The worst part is both our families really did love us together. My parents were never rude to my girlfriends but would ask me how X is doing these days, or Snide remarks about how her parents miss me. I'll even

my now Phil at one point mention that X's dad brought up how he really thought I'd be his son one day. I confided in my friends years ago that I'm always just a rebound or backup plan and that's why I could never commit or get more physical with her. They told me to just sleep with her when she comes calling and don't pursue anything more. The problem was I wanted more but felt used. Anyways, every time we would plan things out where sex was more than likely on the table, I'd see a guy message her or I'd see a post on social media and it just killed my enthusiasm. When I say that I mean literally, it crushed my confidence every single time. One of my best friends told me I didn't have to pay attention to all that and could have just had my fun with her.

Didn't mean I had to chase a relationship with her knowing I was always a rebound. That felt shitty to me. I had other girlfriends here and there but I wanted this girl. We just clicked, you know. But it's like some sort of goddamn mystical being was showing me a sign every single time things were going to progress our relationship. I just didn't want her to be getting over someone else or having someone on back burner when we'd reconnect. Maybe that's my own insecurity but I know how I felt and it didn't feel good. So I slowly distanced myself.

After a short amount of time passed I met my wife. She met her husband and our lives moved on with little to no contact until the other day. I haven't responded to the message and it's been two days. I was thinking of just lying and saying it's not her fault or just not responding, but my wife is insisting I tell her the whole thing. I know this is a word wall, but I'm honestly conflicted. I told my wife I was going to ask others for their opinion and I'm considering the internet as my others. update, thank you everyone for responses.

I decided to listen to the majority and responded to ex-friend A. The response was well received and we chatted the rest of the week and met up on the weekend before Easter. The short of it is we're both leaving our partners. A and I are going to try this relationship again now that we've completely opened up to each other about our true feelings. Thank you all for the encouragement to do this. Couldn't have done it without you. April fools. I would never.

The real update is pretty anticlimactic, unfortunately. I ended up just never responding to A. It had already been five days by the time I read through every response and decided to just let it go. My wife was fine with that but told me to block her if she messages again. We did a couple Easter egg hunts with different family members yesterday, including at my fills. They have a decent sized property and host quite a few. few people so I wasn't surprised to see non-family members. I was however surprised when A's parents were there with her children. After all the adults scattered and hid the eggs and the

kids started their search A's dad came over to chat with me, nothing out of the ordinary, and we shot the shit for a few minutes. Towards the end I asked if the kids were staying with them for Easter and he basically told me A and her husband were having some troubles and they needed some time alone to sort things out. He didn't go into specific so. He didn't go into specific so. I don't know exactly what troubles are, but congratulations to those of you who called that one. For now this should conclude the story. If she does happen to reach out again and I feel it's worth letting you all know what it says then I will. Otherwise, thanks again. I hope you enjoy this story. Discovered my betrothed was unfaithful, yet my family urged me to pardon him. However,

I also unveiled father's infidelity, prompting mother to depart after three decades. Years. I was to be married in July. Two months ago I came home from a work trip to find my ex-fiancee in bed with my BFF sister. I kicked him out, canceled the wedding, warned him I would get rid of his stuff if he didn't come get it all then weeks later dumped it all on the curbside with a free sign, sold or donated or dumped everything he gave me, and pawned the ring. I blocked him everywhere.

Called the cops on him when he showed up, after I gave his stuff away, banging on him. my door, called them again when he turned up at my workplace and made a scene, and called them on his family when they showed up en masse to plead his case. I didn't go scorched earth on XBFF sister. I did tell her husband I caught her in bed with my ex. Last I heard she'd been kicked out of the house and was back living with her parents. XBFF tried talking me into giving them both a chance to explain, what? No, then got angry at me for ruining her sister's relationship. called me petty and cold-hearted. So I kicked her to the curb too. I don't want dishonest people that are blasé about betrayal in my life. This encounter no doubt simmered under my skin until I unleashed on my parents.

Maybe that's the reason, because it lingered, I was so harsh with them. Last week I met my parents for dinner. I took a date with me to the restaurant hoping as being there would waylay any discussion about my failed engagement. My parents have been pressuring me to work things out with the ex. He's so, so sorry. I owe it to him to talk with him. Give him five minutes to explain himself. She meant nothing to him, he made a mistake.

I'm cruel for shutting him out the way I have. How could I call the police on him? How could I do the same to his family? His parents? They're good people, they didn't deserve to be here. humiliated in that manner. He's having a rough time. He's depressed. Everybody is worried about him. He loves me, really loves me. He's learned his lesson. It's time to grow up and forgive him. No. My date's presence didn't stop them from bringing it all up again. I lost my cool.

Asked my father if he expected me to give my ex a pass every time he sticks his dick into anything that moves? Like he does. I asked my mother how turning a blind eye to her husband's infidelity works for her. How does she hold her head up while having lunch with women that have slept around with her husband for years? Is that the kind of men, the life she wants for me and my sister? For her daughters? I asked if they had any idea of the impact that knowledge had on me and my siblings growing up, knowing that dad was laid home from work because he was screwing his secretary. Knowing Work Weekend was code for dirty weekend with a woman not our mother. Did they not know why it was that of their four children, I am the only one that still talks to them?

Do they not question why they were not invited to my brother's weddings? Why they have never met either of my brother's wives and children? Do they think my sister's silence is because she's being dramatic and throwing a tantrum? Really? I stood from the table, congratulated them on the loss of their last, remaining child. and told them I hoped their arrogance, willful blindness, and misery was a comfort them to their last breaths. Then I left. My date, I should have saved him for a proper date rather than A-F-U to my parents, took me to the nearest bar, let me cry on his shoulder while I proceeded to get shit-faced,

then made sure I got home safely. The next day he messaged me to see if I was alive and sent a double cheeseburger, large fries, and a large sprite over with door dash. I didn't block my parents, but I haven't heard from them. It's been a week and I've calmed down enough to feel regret. Not for what I said, but because I can see the looks on their faces when I made my final farewell. I crushed them, hurt them, especially my mother. Despite their faults, and there are many, I love my parents. I don't like knowing I hurt them.

I'm feeling a lot of guilt about it. Ida. Edit 1. I have yet to read all the comments, but from what I have seen so far, far, I think some details need to be cleared up. My date knew we were going to have dinner with my parents. He asked me out that morning. I told him my plans for the evening and jokingly asked if he wanted to come along. I didn't expect him to say yes. I then informed him I wasn't serious, and anyway, it would probably be a little uncomfortable, and he said if needed, he could post bail. So, there you go. He did not enter that restaurant unaware of it.

of potential drama. Edit 2, the people mentioned in my post are not the only people in my life. I have my siblings in my life. They didn't cut me off. My sister flew in to be with me just days after I discovered the cheating. And I have good friends. Friends who helped me pack up ex's things. Help me to move it all down to the curb. A friend that found me a guy that paid a fair price for the engagement ring. I only mentioned X, X, BFF, etc., because how they acted and what they were saying contributed to all those buried feelings that had been dormant for years coming out when they did, in the way they did. Comments where Op has replied, X's parents. My ex's parents are on the periphery of my parents' circle, and I have no doubt that they know

all about my father's too many to count infidelities. I can well imagine that they expected me to put up with the same disrespect my mother has all these years. Comment her, you love your parents, but you don't like them nor their decisions. Completely make sense given what you have told us about your childhood and their recent behavior. What do you need them to do to remain in your life as non-toxic? Think about that. What do you need them to do? What would be the ideal and what would be the bare minimum? Oop, ideally, I'd like my mother to leave my father and take him for everything. That will never happen. Another thing that won't ever happen is my father practicing discretion. What

does he, what do they care, for the humiliation they forced on us? Knowing their own needs and desires will always be prioritized over anyone else's. I'd settle for an acknowledgment of the hurt we've endured for most of our lives. But I don't think I should hold my breath for that. Comment her, could well be that seeing how her mom sees nothing amiss with her partner cheating and how op seemed to have no issue with it. That's why the ex thought there'd be no consequences for him either. Oop, I can see how people would think that. I didn't talk about it, ever, with anyone but my sister.

Even then, we were both drunk and high when it came up. Of course others would think I accepted that things were as they were. Of course they would. It's not like anyone asked if I was okay with it, so how could they be expected to know that I wasn't? I understand that POV Update, September 29th, 2024 It's been a minute since I was here last.

Life has been busy, work has been busy, and updating Reddit wasn't on my mind. Apologies to all those that continue to send messages asking for an update. I figure better late than never. A quick recap. Lost my temper with my parents when they tried to push me to forgive and reconcile with my cheating ex.

Some really hurtful and harsh truths were shared by me to them in the moment. Afterwards I felt tremendous guilt. The regrets started to eat at me. Where to start? First a thank you to all who replied to my post. I tried to read every comment, and though I didn't post for the validation most of you gave, receiving it did lighten the load a little bit. It didn't take away from the guilt I carried, but I was able to work through that to see that although my timing was off,

what I said was absolutely necessary. Thank you, too, to some of those that sent me private messages rather than posting on the main thread. Having read your own stories of a similar upbringing, conversing with you has helped me to understand that my childhood and teens were traumatic. That those years left wounds that I'd never addressed until this all came about. One more shout out to those that sent harassing messages about my choices. Those people that preached about the sanctity of marriage, and how much men are basic creatures with basic needs. Those that attempted to school me and how to be a woman that needs to lean to do my duty by allowing a man his vices, and that it was really all my

fault for not supporting my ex in his time of need. Special shout out to the men that offered to teach me how to be submissive and learn my place in this world. And last but not least, the sweet little chicken nugget that told me my reaction was proof that I am a serial cheater and my ex should have used a cattle prod on my happy place. It must have been tough for all of you when your women left. Big props to those ladies for escaping a life of misery with you. Now for what has happened since. My mother left my father not long after my post.

Maybe a couple of weeks after. She showed up at my apartment one night with her luggage. I can't explain how broken and pitiful she was. I brought her inside, held her. and my heart broke for her. I realized then that she had no one she could turn to, absolutely no one. No family, no friends. I cannot help but wonder if she had been all alone for all the years of her marriage, and if me or one of my siblings had said something sooner, would she have had the courage to leave my father then? I'd never seen my mother,

usually so dignified and unruffled, looks so broken. It shocked me to see her that way. It worried me so much that I made her sleep in my bed with me. I called my siblings and within days they all came to show support and love. Then it was me, my mother, and my sister sleeping in my bed. It was good for her to see that her children still cared. Because we did care, we did love her. It was the situation my siblings distanced themselves from. At first my mother stayed with me.

She was having a hard time of it. Years of humiliation, shame and guilt ate at her. I was worried about her state of mind and didn't like to leave her alone. I couldn't take time off work to be with her every second of the day, so I took her to the shelter and we got her a dog. My thinking was if she had something to take care of, it would distract her from dark thoughts. I was hoping for a puppy because they're playful and would keep her busy,

but she fell in love with a five-year-old mixed breed, and he fell right back. He's a goof. We don't know how it happened, but we woke up one night to him howling because he had somehow wedged his head in between the spindles on the stairs. His whole head. We had to call the fire department to rescue him. Of course my mother didn't think he was at fault and she now refers to him as her baby. He adores my mother though. My oldest brother moved some things around.

Ren moved her across the country to live with him and his family. He thought she would do better if there was no chance of her rome. running into Dad or one of his many women. He found her a therapist and that seems to be working. She is loving being a grandmother and all reports are that she is an indulgent one. She has a separate in-law suite so she gets to see them every day. My brother tells me when the kids go missing, they can now be found at Grandmas. My dad is my dad. He doesn't lack for company. I had a dinner with him not long after my mother moved across the country where he introduced me to the new woman in his life. I reminded them both that I knew exactly who she was

considering she called my mother her best friend for all my life. Cue another awkward dinner. My dad tried to make it as pleasant as he could, but whenever she spoke to me I would bring up a memory from my childhood of her spending time with our family and ask if she was sleeping with my father all the way back then. The next day he called to tell me how disappointed he was with me. I felt it only fair to share my own disappointments. We argued for a bit. He tried to downplay all he had done over the years, tried to play the victim of his own actions. I ended up cutting the conversation short and blocking him.

It was just over a month ago when he showed up at my door. I wouldn't let him in and I'm sure that rattled him some. He told me he didn't want to lose me too. Say what you want about him, but he is my dad. I love him. I don't want to lose him either. He promised he wouldn't force me to interact with any of his women. So far we have had a couple of pleasant outings that have gone well so far.

I am cautiously hopeful that we can continue to be in each other's lives. As for me, well, I took that advice some of you gave me and I am in therapy. It is humbling to come to the realization that though you may think you're fine, you are, actually, not. It has been almost unbearable to face all that history, and excruciatingly painful to dig through it all. At the end of some sessions, all I want to do is head to the nearest bar and drink until I forget all about what I just went through to find out where it all started and why I am the way I am. I think therapy is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I don't know how some of you have been doing it for as long as you have.

I also don't know why you do it so willingly. I'm a crazy nutter for listening to all you nutters in the first place. But it is helping. Now, for the update most of you want to be. want. I cannot even tell you how many messages I continue to receive from people wanting to know about him. It was almost like you all were saying, girl, we don't care about whatever life crisis you're going through, just tell us about the date. Well, I haven't replied to any of those queries because my post wasn't about him. Now, I figure, in a roundabout way, I use something

because you all played a part in where we are today. I won't give a rundown of everything that has happened between us, but I will give you a few things. He contacted me after seeing a podcast on YouTube. He sent me a link with the query, Is This You? It would be an understatement to say I was mortified. My mortification kept me from replying to him. I was so deep in my embarrassment that I didn't even bother to read the messages he sent me over the next couple of weeks. When I finally did read them, it was to find a whole heap of screenshots of people's comments. I'm going out on a limb, by saying you don't need me to tell you the contents of the comments he was sending me. I eventually got back to him. It was difficult for us to make time to see each other.

As I stated earlier, my life, both personal and professional, has been busy, busy. He also has a life and work. We were only able to meet up for coffee a couple of times. I didn't think we were going to be able to grow a friendship, let alone anything beyond that. I've since learned that he is tenacious and persistent. Like a dog with a bone. He kept at it until we found time to go on a second date. That date went well and lead to another. Then another.

Then he introduced me to the two most important people in his life. His grandparents. His grandfather carves little wooden figurines and I have since acquired a flock of wooden birds. His grandmother thinks I'm too skinny. She feeds me whenever I see her and usually sends me home with food. He gets along with my sister and brothers. He came with me to visit my mother on her birthday and met them all. He was very gracious with her.

I had him saved in my phone as Cheeseburger. He took issue with that because he bought me a double cheeseburger. So I started calling him Double Cheese and then shortened that to D.C. He is still saved in my phone as Cheeseburger. He's an undercover Swifty and I don't quite know what to do with that. I don't have anything against Taylor Swift, but I sure didn't pick him to love her. He did use his little sister and niece's cover for his Taylor Swift love. Now he uses me.

I am fine with being so used. Comments where Op has replied. Commenter, now this was an update, I wish you the best. Ask for a duck to go with those birds. L.O.L.L. I wish you a good life. Boop, I asked for an owl, and he gave me a goose, LOL. Commenter, I'm so happy to hear your dating the cheeseburger. I hope things continue to go well with that.

Was hoping to hear something about the cheating X. Like he's homeless and lost his job. L-O-L-L-O-P, he's not even a blip on my radar. Why do you even still love your dad slash are you in contact with him? I love my dad. It's possible to love someone yet abhor what they do. Just like I love my mother even though she stayed. I will not feel guilty for loving both my parents.

It will never happen. Further down the thread, where do I dodge the question? I love my dad. I love my mother. What he put us through was a firm of abuse, and what she forced us to endure by staying was also a form of abuse. I love them anyway. I'm not going to deny it.

I love my parents. Sue me. Next story. Principal recognized my BF from of when he visited. Now they're threatening to fire me if I don't break up with him. I, 24F, am a high school science teacher and my boyfriend, 25M, is an of model. This is important. Today after school, he helped me carry in some stuff for a lab I'll be doing with my kids.

When he arrived the principal, I'll call her Jan, was outside for dismissal and was able to meet him. While he was helping me set everything up in my classroom, Jan came in and asked if they had ever met since he looked familiar. My B.F. said he didn't think so and that was that. When we finished I gave him a tour of the school that ended at the office. Jan was still there and greeted us again before a look of, what I can only describe as fear, came across her face. She quickly excused herself and we were left alone and confused. My BF asked if maybe she recognized him from his of page. I said surely not since she's a middle-aged

woman who barely knows how to use her phone. He let me live in denial until I got a text from her as we were cooking dinner. She said this, Good evening op, I'd like to have a meeting with you and HR person from HR tomorrow morning. Please be in my office at 7 a.m. So now I'm almost certain that my BF was right and she does know him from his page. He keeps trying to reassure me that it's not about that, but I can see in his eyes that he's at least a little proud of himself. I've kicked him out to go buy me some stress snacks, my friends are busy, and my family doesn't now he's in a model, so I don't know who else to turn to.

Maybe y'all have advice for me? I want to crawl out of my skin. Comments where Op has replied. Dingo that ateer baby. That would be a ridiculous reason to be fired. I would recommend recording if you're in a one-party consent state recording. She can't fire you because she's a naughty girl. Boop.

At the beginning of the year, one of my co-workers told me that another teacher got fired for wearing a skirt above her knees so I'd come just freaked out I guess T underscore T, Hilda. Solomon's Marbles Please say your union. Call your rep, don't admit or agree to anything, in fact say as little as possible. If it's about his a page, you're about to get paid. But here's a flip side. You said he helped you carry things in. Are supposed to have visitors sign in? Did he?

Boop. Yeah, I asked for her permission a day in advance and had him sign in at the front office. They gave him a sticker badge. Update, September 12, 2024. Hello. I asked for advice and y'all gave so much. Thank you I felt very supported. Also a lot of y'all clocked it. I do work for a religious private school. Anyway, I arrived for my meeting at 7 o'clock. I know a lot of you thought it was early but school starts at 7.45 so it was a normal time for me. I did record the meeting, and even though I am in a one-party consent state, I asked to be safe. The meeting started with Jan, my principal, saying that it had recently summed to their attention that my BF had been

publicly participating in Lodax. I asked what she meant since as far as I knew my BF had never had charges filed against him for something like that. That's when the HR lady, Pam, said that somebody, they couldn't name names, just said it was a staff member, found as of account. Like many of you said, I asked what that was since I had never heard of it. They explained although they did not look as uncomfortable as I had hoped. Then they asked if I had ever participated in, or intended to participate in one of his videos. I said no. Jan said that I couldn't bring any unvetted guests into the building, so I pulled up the email thread I had asking for permission and reminded her that he had his ID scanned in order to get a temp badge.

Pam said that it was due to the nature of his online activity, that he would no longer be allowed in the school. I said okay and asked if when I brought my dad to help with things in the future, would I need to disclose his online activity as well. Pam said that wasn't necessary, but that they couldn't have any teacher or staff member affiliated with a sex worker. I asked what that meant and she said that I could not bring him on to school grounds, to school functions, or anything relating to the school. Additionally, since the school represented the church,

the staff could only have relationships with people who upheld a dignified image. Apparently my BF doesn't do that. She also said that if they receive one report from a parent, student, or staff member of my affiliation with him after this meeting, that would be grounds for immediate termination. I asked if that also applied to the staff member who reported it in the first place, since they went on to a corn site. Jan said that was irrelevant, that the meeting was about me, not the other staff member. The meeting ended shortly after, they asked me to sign an acknowledgement of the meeting.

I told them I wanted to review it first and brought it home with me. My BF is furious and at the same time keeps apologizing saying that it's his fault, but it's not. The standards for teachers are crazy. We're going to have a little Indeed slash LinkedIn dates so hopefully I can get out of their ASAP. Lesson learned though, never take a job at a religious school. I hope you enjoy this story. Mill trapped me in a restroom while I was giving birth at her daughter's marriage. ceremony because she didn't want me to attract attention. Several hours later, I regained

consciousness. In the hospital, my husband Richard Rick, M30, and I, F-29, have been blessed with a daughter two weeks ago. This is our first child, and we are obviously very excited. Things have been very busy on our end, and we are just adjusting to being parents. It's a hard shift for both of us, but we're trying our best. We don't really have much help because of what happened on the day May, our daughter, was born. It was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, and I don't think I can ever forget it. Even the happiness of May's arrival is not enough to help me shake the paralyzing fear I felt that day. I think I would have died if not for my husband's timely help. But despite the horrible event, I still feel that since it

involved family, we should be a little softer with them because May is the first child in the family. But I am unsure, and my judgment is clouded with all these hormones and baby duties, which is why I've come to Reddit for help. This story might be long and has a lot of characters, so please bear with me. Rick has two sisters, Anna and Emma. Both of them are younger than him. Anna is 28, and Emma is 24. I have a very good relationship with both of them, and I think there is no animosity between us. We aren't very close since all of us are busy in our careers and don't meet that often. Emma doesn't even live in the same city as us.

But we try to catch up once in a while and stay connected via texts or calls. Another important person in Rick's family, and in this story, is my mother-in-law, F-53. While I am on very good terms with Anna and Emma, Rachel is a different story altogether. We don't exactly see eye to eye, and I honestly think she has a problem with not just me but with everyone. She's the biggest control freak you could imagine, and she just doesn't stop. She wants everything to go according to her whims and fancies. Her kids, all three of them, respect her wishes for the most part because she was the one who raised them after their dad abandoned them. So they try to make life easier for her and themselves. Moreover, if anyone dares to want something other,

than what she wants, she reacts, and the reaction can range from disapproval and moping to a full-blown meltdown with tears and tantrums. It gets difficult to deal with her, so I try to stay away as much as possible. Rick understands this. He knows his mother is problematic, so he lets me keep my distance and deal with her as I see fit. On my end, I understand how he feels about her, even despite her controlling nature, so I let it be. She doesn't like me much, so she doesn't make me much, so she doesn't metal in my life, and that suits us all. However, things got out of control a few days ago, and it was all because of her. Now, I don't think anyone can ever forgive her. On the day May was born, Anna was getting married. It was a lovely ceremony, and her husband, Jonah,

M30, is actually Rick's friend. He proposed to her around a year ago, and Anna had asked me to be a bridesmaid, and I had accepted. However, when Rick and I found out I was I had to request her to ask someone else because I knew I wouldn't be able to manage it. This was almost six months after the proposal, so only six months before the wedding, I was three months pregnant by then. I had assumed I would get backlash from her for backing out halfway, but I knew I had to prioritize. I was extremely nervous and jittery before telling her.

I feared our relationship would be strained forever, but to my relief and surprise, none of that happened. was overjoyed when I told her. She actually forgot about her wedding for a while. When I told her I wouldn't be available for duties, her response was, taking care of you. She even considered shifting the wedding because she didn't want me to miss it, which I would have if May had been born then. That ultimately didn't happen for a lot of reasons, and honestly, she shouldn't have done it anyway. It was a close call in the end, but she supported me throughout. Emma became the maid of honor, two sisters were busy preparing for the wedding, so I didn't bother them much during the pregnancy,

which was harrowing for me. Still, both stayed in touch as much as possible, came over, and supported me a lot. I feel a little guilty for not supporting Anna on the most important day of her life, yet she supported me the whole time. The only person who was a little pissy about the whole thing was my mother-in-law. I think she was annoyed I couldn't be the maid of honor anymore, which caused some disruption in the wedding preparations. That seemed like the only logical explanation, and I got where she was coming from. But the hostility, for lack of a better word, continued even after Anna was okay with the pregnancy and my not being made of honor. The bride wasn't mad in the slightest, but Rachel somehow started antagonizing me from that

point on. It was weird, but I thought maybe I was on edge because of the hormones, and she was on edge because of the wedding, and all this was just creating false narrative. in my head. I ignored her as best as I could, and things were mostly fine. Things got out of control, literally and figuratively, during the wedding. It was two weeks ago, and I was pregnant out of my mind. My feet were swollen, my belly was huge, and I felt like I would pass out. But I still wanted to attend the wedding because Anna wanted me there. I had asked her beforehand if she wanted me there because I wanted it to be her day. I told her the presence of a heavily pregnant woman

might take the attention away from her, and I didn't want that. Wedding days are for the bride and groom, and I would hate to be the one to take away from that. When I told Anna this, she was actually offended and hurt. She said she couldn't believe I'd fill my head with this useless crap and not attend her wedding. She said she didn't care about attention or limelight.

All she wanted was her family there to support her on her wedding day. She said I had to come and not worry about drama. I knew she meant it. She's not the type to mince words. If she hadn't wanted me there, she would have been upfront about it. But she did, and she said so emphatically, and I believed it was my duty to be there for her. So, even though I was physically uncomfortable, I knew I had to be there for her on her wedding day. I'm not going to lie there were a lot of people murmuring, but I did my best to ignore them because I knew Anna was happy.

I was there. That's all that mattered to me in that moment. Rachel didn't interact with me much, and she glared at me the entire time, but I was too uncomfortable to notice. I didn't have the energy to deal with her or make sense of her passive aggressive behavior toward me, so I just let her be. She could glare all she wanted, I wasn't going to react to her. Then came the main incident that left not just me, but everyone around me, shocked and scarred to the core. I started feeling uneasy, just before the ceremony was about to begin. I then, I had already met Anna. I got up and went upstairs,

thinking it would help me feel better, and I'd return once I did. Little did I notice that Rachel had followed me. I was feeling sweaty and weird, so I went to the bathroom, and suddenly, my water broke. It was a genuine flood, and I started panicking because,

even though I loved my daughter more than anyone, she had chosen the worst possible time to arrive. I couldn't think straight and thankfully not, I saw my mill in front of me. By that point, I was crouching in pain. She rushed to me, and I told her to take my phone and call Rick immediately because we needed to get to the hospital. She helped me up and made me sit in the bathroom, and I gave her my phone. That's when she flipped. She said she'd make sure Rick came in an hour, once the ceremony was over, because she didn't want me to steal Anna's spotlight. I asked her her if she was crazy and said there was no way I could handle this for an hour. I tried snatching

my phone from her, but she locked me inside and took my phone with her. So there I was, pregnant, with my child literally on the way, in a bathroom, sitting on a toilet, with no phone and no husband. I don't know how I didn't have a full-blown panic attack, and thank God I didn't because I don't know what would have happened otherwise. I got up and gradually made my way to the door and started banging on it. I screamed and screamed, but since the washrooms were on the first floor and everyone was seated for the wedding by then, no one heard me. I screamed until my voice was gone, but no one came. That's when I genuinely felt I was going to die and take my baby with me. I was exhausted, drenched, sweating like a pig, and had no voice left.

That's the last thing I remember. I don't know what happened after Elle had passed out from exhaustion. I don't even remember how I got to the hospital. I just know I did. I woke up a few hours later, and I was in the hospital with Rick by my side, sobbing. It took me a few moments to realize where I was and make sense of everything. When I saw Rick crying, I assumed the worst. Everything came flooding back mill locking me in the bathroom, my crying and I thought May didn't make it. When Rick saw I was awake, he heaved a sigh of relief and started crying in my arms.

I didn't know what to make of it and felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Then I saw the nurse come in with a baby girl, and I heaved a sigh of relief. I honestly wanted to slap Rick for messing with me like that, but he said he wasn't messing with me. He was just relieved I was okay because I was unconscious when he found me in the bathroom. I held my daughter for the first time, and I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that feeling, or that any better emotion than that exists in life. I just don't think anything will ever top what I felt in those moments. Rick didn't give me any details at that point, and I'm grateful for that because I didn't have the

energy to deal with it. I could faintly hear some commotion outside, and I asked him what was up. He said Mill was outside and wanted to come in and see her granddaughter. I told him what had happened in detail. I told him what she had done, how she had endangered our daughter for no reason. I also told him there was no way I was allowed to. allowing her near my daughter, ever. To me, she was dead. He said he knew everything. When he discovered me in that state, she broke down and told him everything. I told him that just because she broke down doesn't mean I was going to forgive her. He laughed and said his mother was dead to him from this point on and that he was going to press charges for life endangerment.

He said he would go the legal route and make sure she was punished for what she had done. When I heard him say that, I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders. I know he loves his mother. All three of them do. But after the stunt she pulled, which could have cost me and my daughter our lives, I was in no mood to forgive her. If Rick had chosen her over me, our marriage would have been over. There would be no coming back from that. Somewhere deep down, I anticipated that he might choose his mother because, despite everything, she had worked very hard to raise them.

Maybe I wasn't expecting him to stand up for me the way he did, but I'm not complaining at all. If anything, it has made me love him more, if that's even possible. I asked him how the wedding went, and he said it went fine. Emma and Anna were waiting for him to call so they could visit us. I asked if Anna was mad, and he laughed, saying I didn't have to worry about Anna at all. She's been beaming with pride and joy, claiming that her complete, family was at the wedding, and that May's birth was the best gift she could have received. I had tears in my eyes when he told me that, and I told him to call them immediately.

Within a few minutes, Anna, Emma, and Jonah were at the hospital with me. The best part? Anna and Jonah were still in their wedding clothes, and Anna said there was no way she was going to pass up the chance to take a wedding picture with her niece. I started bawling, full on, and it was such a heartwarming moment. After the picture, I apologize to Anna for ruining her day. She hugged me and said I was looking at it all wrong I had made her day. I told her about Mills' behavior ever since we announced the pregnancy, and Anna said the

only thing I did wrong was not telling them sooner. Maybe they could have put a stop to her drama. I told her I didn't want to cause trouble, and Emma chimed in, saying any amount of trouble was fine as long as I was safe. I have tears in my eyes even typing this because that That's when I knew they loved me like family. I wasn't just Rick's wife to them I was family. Anna is one of the best women I know.

She's so secure, so happy, no wonder she is where she is today. I really don't know how Rachel is so different from her children. It's like they saw her and realized that's not what they wanted to become. It's weird, but I don't care. It was beautiful. Mill was still outside, apparently, and Anna had told her on her way and that she would make sure Rick and I pressed charges. Mill wanted to come in and meet May, but I didn't want her anywhere near me. Anna said we needed to keep ourselves safe from her.

Anna apologized to me, feeling she hadn't addressed her mother's over protective instincts or made it clear enough that she had no problem with my pregnancy. She said that if she had, maybe the incident could have been avoided. I told her she had made me feel safe and there was no way she was at fault. All the while, Rick was outside talking to Mill. When I was discharged and came home with May two or three days later, Rick told me what he and Mill had talked about. He said he had informed her he would be pressing charges and that she could eat ST because nothing would change that. He also told her she was never allowed in May's life. She was not her grandmother in any capacity. She chose to put my life and my unborn child's life in danger over an

assumed slight that didn't even concern her. He also said all the money he had been giving her, Mill was living off of Rick and Emma's money, would be substantially reduced. That's when she started crying, saying she had slaved away her whole life for the kids and didn't deserve this. Rick told her that while he knew and appreciated all she had done for them, that didn't mean she had control over their lives. He said she was in the wrong, and he had been ignoring or making excuses for everything she did for years, but not anymore. When it came to May and me, she needed to know she had crossed a huge boundary and proven she was not safe to be around, especially since Anna never had a problem. Rachel said that as a mom, she understood that

Anna hadn't wanted me there to steal the spotlight, but Anna overheard and tore into her. So, we are proceeding with the case, that's for sure. But Rick will handle it because I have a newborn to care for and can't be awest with this drama. Rick said he would handle it. None of the siblings are willing to talk to her anymore. Anna has completely cut her off, Emma only talks to her when necessary, and Rick and I are obviously no contact. I don't think Mill anticipated this, and maybe she genuinely meant to protect Anna, however twisted it sounds. I'm not defending her, not in the least. But I still feel bad for her because it all backfired so horribly. Now a part of me wonders if they should talk it out with her because it feels wrong

and bad to me. I don't know, maybe I'm not thinking straight. I know if I mention this to Rick, he'll fly off the handle. He's furious with her and can't even look at her right now. I hadn't anticipated this, but here we are. Update one, well, any reconciliation is off the table, forever. I know I haven't updated in a long time, but well, I'm a new mom. so between keeping myself and my kid alive, I've been busy. The good thing is that May turns eight weeks old in a couple of days, and we're all super excited. Anna and Jonah have been real sweethearts, helping Rick and me a lot.

Emma had to go back to work but calls almost every day. May is literally the light of everyone's eyes. They dote on her, and the group chat is full of her pictures. There's been no contact with Mill. I convinced Rick not to press charges because we have too much on our plate, and it wouldn't serve any purpose. Rick was reluctant, but he agreed because neither of us has the energy for anything else. When we told Mill last week, she appeared thankful.

I say appeared because that woman is genuinely unhinged, and she showed everyone her true colors last week. Last week, Rick and I woke up at around 1 a.m. to loud banging on the door. I thought it was a robbery, and I ran and hid with May while Rick. Rick went to open the door. I could hear shouting, but I didn't dare come out because I didn't want May to wake up. It turns out it was Mill, and Rick said she was behaving like a crazy person. She kept screaming that she wanted to see May and that we couldn't keep her away.

Rick said he had to threaten her with the police before she backed off. She was trying to force her way in. We immediately alerted Anna and Emma because if something was wrong with her, everyone needed to know. We were concerned, but honestly, it was for nothing. The next day, she sent us a disturbing text. She started off saying we were being nasty and horrid to her by not allowing her to see and we were punishing her because her only crime was being a mother.

There was some more melodramatic nonsense in there. Gradually, her texts became more unhinged. She said she had the burden of raising three kids and always had to juggle one kid's priorities over another, and that's what she felt she had to do on May's birth. day. She didn't want May to take away from Anna's day. She conveniently forgot that May was literally a fetus, and Anna herself had said multiple times that she had no issue with the pregnancy and the wedding happening at the same time. I still understood this part. What rattled me was what she said next. She said she was worried that with May in our lives, she wouldn't be as important

to her kids anymore. When I announced my pregnancy, she thought Anna would be mad, because that's what a normal woman would feel. But when she saw we were all excited about both the pregnancy and the wedding, she didn't like it. Basically, she was saying she didn't like that we were all happy together, with each other, and for each other. She wanted us to be jealous and competitive. She said that when she realized the due date would be near the wedding, she hoped Anna would be mad at us. And maybe then May wouldn't take everyone's attention. But that didn't happen, and all everyone could talk about was May. She said she felt disrespected that a baby who wasn't even born had taken her place as the

uniting factor for the siblings. She sent more things and was still typing when I asked Rick to block her. I told him she was deranged and unsafe for May and all of us. I've had a constant headaches in seeing those messages. I can't believe a woman over 50 is in competition with a seven-week-old baby. It doesn't make sense to me. and it doesn't have to, because I'm done with her. I'm done making excuses for her behavior and trying to understand her motivations.

She can go to hell for all I care. We forwarded the messages to Anna and Emma, and they are disturbed too. They think she might be having a manic episode, and Emma said she will fly down to get mill checked at a facility. I think it's a good idea, but I'm staying out of it. This behavior is crazy, and I don't want anything to do with her anymore. Update 2, we have a restraining order against Mill. She didn't try anything again, but we're being cautious.

Emma got her tests done and spoke to both a psychologist and psychiatrist. Everything is fine with Mill. She was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, but that was it. The doctor said there was no underlying medical reason for her behavior, and suggested Emma take her to therapy. Emma has since gone no contact. She said she was willing to help if something was wrong, but hatefulness is who Mill is, and she can't tolerate her anymore. I totally get that and share the view.

She might have had my sympathy and support in a few months if she had a psychiatric issue, but now that's been ruled out, we know this is who she is. There's no reconciling with that. This is why we took a restraining order. For Rick and Me, May's safety is of utmost importance, and Mill has proven twice she's not safe. Moreover, she has ill-will toward May specifically, so we have to be even more careful they don't come into contact. I think this will be my last update, and I hope I never have anything more to share about this entire episode.

This has been harrowing for the family, and I'm just grateful we are all safe. I hope you enjoy this story. My parent insisted that I conceal my pregnancy and infant child, so that my sibling could receive all the focus at her marriage ceremony, but when I declined, she attempted to manipulate my child, up for adoption without my knowledge using fake legal documents. So my sister is getting married at the end of this year, and I gave birth to my son about three weeks ago. Everybody was happy about this, apart from my mother, and I wasn't even surprised because to her, nothing is more important than her darling baby, and that happens to be my little sister. I obviously got pregnant a

while ago, and my sister got engaged to her boyfriend of three years when I was six months pregnant. Anybody who understands math would know that by the time my sister got married, would have already given birth to the baby. It would have been one thing if my sister was the kind of person who wanted a small wedding and would plan it quickly, but she wanted an elaborate and grand wedding, which would obviously take a lot of time. She and her fiancé had been quite clear about that right from the beginning. But even then, a couple of weeks after their engagement, my mom showed up at my house looking all worried. She told me that she wanted me to do something about my pregnancy because she didn't want me to upset my sister. My sister and I are not close in the slightest.

She's a spoiled brat, and ever since my father passed away a couple of years ago, we've had no contact. The only reason I even stayed in touch with my mother after my dad's passing was because I had promised him that I would look after her, since he didn't think my sister would be up to the task, she was just not responsible enough. Even though my sister had always been my mom's favorite, I had tried my best to maintain a relationship with her. That changed recently when she showed up at my house to tell me that my sister was engaged in getting married. I thought she had just come over to share the good news with me, but she then went on to tell me that since I was giving birth the same year she was getting married, it would take away her limelight because obviously a pregnancy

was a bigger milestone than a wedding. I don't even understand what that was about, and I told her she was being unnecessarily paranoid. First of all, it's not like people would skip her wedding because I had a baby or whatever. I wasn't even going to be invited to her wedding since she hadn't even been invited to mine, were not friends, so there was no way I could overshadow her. I wouldn't even be there, and she and my mom had nothing to worry about. I'm not some celebrity, so I was pretty sure that even at her wedding, nobody would be talking about me or my baby. I thought these were all valid points, but my mother told me I needed to hide my pregnancy and my baby from everyone in the family and all our common friends as well because she didn't want me to steal my sister's limelight.

I thought it was crazy and got into a huge fight with her, after which I didn't speak to her anymore. I felt bad about breaking my promise to my father, but there was no other option for me because she was obviously acting crazy. I was already pregnant and quite irritable, I just couldn't handle her idiotic statements. She hasn't been there for anything after that. It's just been me, my husband, and his family taking care of the baby ever since he was born. My mother wasn't even there for the birth of the child. My husband had called her that day, but she had refused to show up since she was out with

sister. I'm pretty sure that even if she hadn't been out with her, she still wouldn't have shown up because I'm just not a priority for her, and that's the bitter truth. If she could have abandoned her own daughter and our relationship because she thought I was stealing the limelight from my sister just by giving birth, then I had nothing to say to her. Because of all these things, we had absolutely no contact, and I was fine with it. But then she called me up a couple of days ago. When I didn't answer initially, she started texting me frantically and told me to answer the call because she had to talk to me about something very important that had happened. It was clear she had some bad news to share with me.

I really didn't want to talk to her, but I kept thinking about the promise I had made to my father and decided to answer her. I'm really glad I did because that's how I found out she was in legal trouble. She had tried to put my baby up for adoption without our consent, and the adoption agency found out about it. It was a case of fraud and misrepresentation because apparently she had contacted an adoption agency and falsely claimed that she had power of attorney. She told them that both my husband and I were addicts and had been deemed unfit to take care of our baby by the court, so as the custodial caretaker of the baby, she had decided to put

him up for adoption. Obviously, they easily found out that all the legal documentation she provided had been fake and immediately stopped the process. Now they were going to take this up legally. She was calling me because she was scared about what was about to happen next. She had been informed that they were going to take legal action against her and that she would be served in a couple of days. But before they could find out how to contact me and inform me, she decided to tell me about

it herself so I would be able to help her out somehow. She had been crying on the phone and begging me to help her out, but I could hardly understand how she could expect me to help her when she had done something so horrible. I could understand that she wanted my sister to have all the limelight, but going out of her way to put my baby up for adoption, that was just disgusting, and I think it was pretty stupid as well. This way, it's just going to bring more attention to me because now I plan on suing her too. After she explained the situation to me, I just disconnected the phone call because I had nothing to say to her anymore. I didn't feel bad for her at all. In fact, I thought she deserved this and even worse. Later that day, I was contacted by the adoption agency so they could let me know what was going

on and I could do what was needed. I had already spoken to my husband after my mother's phone call, and after the adoption agency contacted us as well, the two of us decided we were going to pursue legal action against her because there was no way she could do something like that and hope to get away with it. We spoke to a lawyer a day after that, and within a few days we had filed a civil lawsuit against her. The proceedings against her are going to start soon. But given the seriousness of the situation, criminal charges have been filed against her as well, so there's little to no scope for mediation. The best she can hope for is an out-of-court settlement or maybe a plea bargain for the criminal charges, but even then she might be facing jail time.

She's under house arrest right now, but she can still contact me, and that's why she's been sending me emails one after the other, begging me to help her out somehow. She's been apologizing and telling me that she just got carried away because she had been very upset with my decision not to hide my baby and my pregnancy for my sister's sake. Obviously, she knows it was a messed up thing to do, and she's really sorry for it. I had been able to ignore her so far, but then she hit me where it hurt yesterday and reminded me that I had promised my father that no matter what, I would always take care of her, and this didn't seem like taking care of her right now. That kind of caught me off guard because I had had that conversation with my father

in private, and I didn't even know that she knew about that promise I had made. So now, Am I the asshole for suing my mother for trying to put my baby up for adoption without my consent or knowledge? Update 1. I have decided not to drop the civil lawsuit against her. She deserves this. She brought this on herself, and I'm not going to back down just because of the promise I made. I had taken it very seriously for the past couple of years ever since my father passed away, and I had tried my best to live up to the promise I made.

But at this moment, it's just emotional manipulation. emotional manipulation at its finest, which is why I almost fell for it as well. I using my father to defend herself, that's just low. A lot of people have criticized me for even bothering to live up to the promise for so long when it was so evident that my mother couldn't care less about me. But I don't know if you guys have ever lost a parent, that stuff is heavy. I lost my father to cancer, so this was literally a promise I made to him on his deathbed. I don't know about everybody else, but that's not the kind of thing I can take lightly, and that's

why I've been putting up with my mother for so long. But this is crossing a line. Now that I have made up my mind, nothing can make me back down, and even my husband thinks I have made the right call. I'm not even asking for a lot of money. I just want her to pay whatever I have spent on her in the past couple of years because I have been taking care of her since my sister wouldn't spend even a dollar on her. To be fair to her, though, she doesn't spend any money on anybody apart from herself, so it's not very surprising. It's probably the reason why my father asked me to be there for my mom, but I don't think he could have seen something like this happening at any point in the future. I'm sure he will forgive me for this, and even if he doesn't, I still have to do it for my own

sake. I also thought it through, her having to pay back the money she owes me is not going to cost her anything. I know for a fact that my father had not only left her the house but a substantial sum of money as well, so she will be able to get by. Even apart from that, she has her brother to take care of her after me. Even if she does lose everything because of this lawsuit, it's still not going to be any of my concern because I have tried my very best, and it's not been enough. I don't think anything will ever be enough for her. I am done trying to be a good daughter. I'm simply a mother now, and that's my only priority. Update 2. It's been a few weeks since my last update. We are currently in the process of mediating since everybody wants to

settle the civil lawsuit out of court. It hasn't been going well so far, and we have had to terminate every session after a while because my mother would get too emotional and would start screaming. I don't know if that's her strategy or if she's actually losing it. Whatever the case is, it's just delaying the inevitable, and I don't think she realizes that there is no way out of this for her. My uncle has also reached out to me to try and convince me to back off. He has told me that the amount I'm demanding from her as a settlement is way too huge and unfair. He has also brought up the fact that she was the one who had raised me from when I was a baby, and this is really ungrateful of me not to forgive her for one stupid little mistake.

But that's the thing, it was not a stupid little mistake. She had literally falsified documentation, and I don't think if it had been a heat of the moment decision, she would have been able to come up with that. It was all premeditated, and that's the scary part because by some fluke, if the adoption agency hadn't done its due diligence, she probably wouldn't even have been caught. The more I think about the situation, the less forgiving I feel, and I feel like no amount of money is ever going to make up for what she did. At least I'm being kind enough to only demand whatever I had spent on her so far, not a single dollar more. Obviously, that's not mentioned anywhere in the paperwork, so he wouldn't know that.

But even when I mentioned that to him, he still told me it was extremely unfair of me to do so. After a while, I started getting agitated, and I really didn't want to fight with him because so far, my uncle and I have not had a bad relationship, and I do not want to ruin that. But since he seemed bent on doing exactly that, I started fighting with him. him as well. I told him that if he cared so much about his sister, then maybe he should just bail her out by offering to bear the cost of the settlement himself. And then we could be done with this a lot quicker. That's when he started yelling at me and calling me all sorts of names, and I ended the phone call because clearly there was no point in speaking to him anymore.

I don't even understand how anybody can find themselves defending her right now given the circumstances. On one hand, I had my uncle, and on the other, I have my sister, who has been insufferable ever since she found out about the lawsuit against our mother. I don't know why, but she has been making me out to be the villain in this situation, claiming that I'm doing this all because I want to get back at her and my mom for not paying me enough attention. At least my uncle had the guts to come and speak to me directly. She has been speaking behind my back to everybody we know, and that's how everybody in the family has been able to find out about the lawsuit. I really didn't want that happening because I didn't want to answer questions

since this is really personal and kind of disturbing, and I didn't think it was necessary for me to talk to people about this. But since she has been talking everybody's ear off about it, people have had a lot of questions and have been reaching out to me as well. So even though I didn't want to bring it up with anyone right now, I'm having to answer questions. The only reason I'm even doing it is because at some point, I might have to get them to testify if this goes to court, so I'm just consoling myself by telling myself that this was bound to come out at some point or the other, so better now than later. But the bigger problem is the narrative that my sister has been setting, like I got vindictive and stuff, and that's why I'm pursuing this legally. I don't even think

she understands the gravity of what our mother has been trying to do, and this is not some sort of sibling rivalry that is manifesting itself in the form of lawsuits. I don't even understand how somebody can be so stupid and self-involved, but well, it's my sister, so it's not very surprising. After all, she's my mother's true daughter. I have been speaking to the rest of my family, and it's kind of funny that this whole thing had actually started because my mother wanted my sister's wedding to be the event of the year, that's why she wanted me to hide my pregnancy and my baby. But now, because of her own actions, this is going to be the family highlight for a long time to come, not just this year. I hate to acknowledge it, but it's pretty scandalous from a gossip

point of view. If I myself had not been involved in this directly, I probably would have found it pretty juicy as well. It sounds a bit trashy to say out loud, but it's really just poetic justice for my sister because now not even her wedding can top something like this. Update 3. My mother has agreed to our terms, and soon enough we will be receiving our settlement money. but apart from that, she's still under trial for her criminal charges right now. She and her lawyer are doing their best to get her out of it without any jail time, but for now it's looking bleak from what I know. I have already been asked to testify by the prosecution,

and so have the people from the adoption agency, so let's see how that goes. Apart from that, even my sister and a couple of other people from the family who are close to us have also been contacted. It's been a couple of weeks since our last update, and so far things have been going to well for our family. We even managed to sneak in a short weekend trip with our son so we could go and see his great-grandparents. I don't mean my grandparents, they're not around anymore, but thankfully my husband's grandparents are still around. When we went to see them and spoke to them about whatever was going on in our family, they told me I was doing the right thing by stepping

up for my child. I even shared the guilt I was feeling because I had broken my promise to my father, but they told me I had nothing to feel bad about because if my father had been around, he would have probably told me to go for it because this is just insane. That made me feel considerably better about everything, and I guess I really needed a change of scenery because when I came back, I started feeling really refreshed. It had definitely been quite a distressing experience for me so far because even though my mother and I had had differences in the past,

it had never gone to these levels. In the last couple of sessions with our lawyers, she had probably realized that screaming and terminating our sessions was not going to make anything better and eventually it would end up going to court, and that would probably end even more badly for her. So probably at the advice of her lawyer, she decided to behave herself and let her lawyer do all the talking. She would hardly even look at me, and even when she would, she would look very quickly, like she couldn't bring herself to even glance at me. I think it's a good thing because she doesn't deserve to feel like she has the right to even see me anymore. My uncle and my sister are

still actively spreading hate against me in the family, but that hardly matters to me because anybody who wants to be on my side is going to be on my side nevertheless. People who just want to gossip, I'm sure they are going to stick to the sidelines and not actively get involved, so they don't pose any threat to me. As long as that's happening, I'm fine with whatever they're saying about me because I'm secure enough to know that it won't make the truth change just because they're saying it. Update 4. It's been a little over a month since my last update. My mother had agreed to my terms, and a couple of weeks ago our settlement money finally came through. We are setting that aside for our son's future because we can do without that money right now.

We're quite happy with it because this was the money we were owed. This is what I had been spending on my mother in the past couple of years after my father passed away. My sister knows that, but in spite of that, she showed up the other day and started accusing me of ruining her wedding because apparently our mother had promised her that she would pay for part of the wedding. Now, since I had sued her and taken back all the money, our mother won't be able to live up to that anymore, and it's all my fault, apparently. It was crazy because literally while she was yelling at me about it, she had mentioned it herself, that I had taken back all the money. That meant it was originally mine, so it's not like she wasn't aware of the situation.

In spite of that, she still thought it was appropriate to be yelling at me instead of questioning why any of this was happening at all. When she showed up, I hadn't even let her in, so I had been speaking to her at the door. The second she started yelling at me, I slammed the door shut because I really didn't need this. I was already quite busy with work because even though I was on maternity leave, I was still trying to work from home so I wouldn't be overwhelmed when I rejoined. On top of that, I had to look after my son as well, so I didn't. didn't have time for this drama. But even when I shut the door, she didn't take the hint

and continue to stand outside and scream about how unfair everything had been for her. After a while, when she still didn't leave, I started to get annoyed and decided to call the cops. Within a couple of minutes, they had shown up. While they were dragging her away, she started cursing at me so loudly that even the neighbors, who had probably been peeking outside from behind the curtains until then, actually came out to watch what was going on. It was extremely embarrassing. While she was cursing at me, she also said a bunch of concerning things about me and my child. I don't want to repeat that, but they were pretty threatening, and I didn't feel comfortable with it at all. I had already called my husband up and told him what was going on as soon as I had called the cops, so he came back

home earlier than usual. I told him whatever my sister had been saying, or rather threatening us with, while the cops were dragging her away. One of the officers had even suggested we file a restraining order because obviously there was something very wrong going on with her, and we do think it would be a good idea to go ahead with the restraining order because I really don't feel safe anymore. Now that I think about it, she not only knows where I live, she knows every other way how to contact me.

If she took it upon herself to try and make me feel uncomfortable, she would easily succeed in doing so. I'm not saying she's going to go ahead and do whatever she, had threatened me with, but even apart from that, there are other ways to intimidate a person, and I'm just scared because I'm a mother now and I don't want episodes like this repeating again. After a really long discussion with my husband, we decided we were going to move. I had already been planning to change my phone number and other contact info so that people wouldn't be able to contact me without having a good relationship with me first.

It's not even just about my sister. I have had a lot of messages and phone calls from people who only want to gossip, and it's getting really annoying at this point. So that was another reason for me to change everything because the last thing I need is visitors who only want to talk about this situation and gossip about it. My husband has been doing well for himself, and if we need to, we can just ask my in-laws to help out as well. But we will definitely be moving, and we will also definitely be filing for a restraining order against my sister because she's clearly unhinged, and I don't want her coming around anymore. Everything has been pretty expensive for us so far because we had to pay for our lawyer, and of course

we have a newborn with us, so even that's pretty expensive. The finances have been a bit tight recently, and with the move and everything, it's probably going to get even more expensive for us. But when I think about my son, it seems worth the trouble. I'm honestly just really tired of everything, but my husband and my son are the only people who keep me going and motivated to do better. I don't think I said it enough, but I'm really happy and lucky to have found a partner who understands me so well. I would say I'm pretty lucky that even his family has been standing by me throughout all this. To be frank, after my dad had passed away, it was mostly my in-laws who had been there for me, even more than my own mother. I know for a fact that not everybody is lucky enough to have such wonderful in-laws, so I'm very thankful for them as well.

It has been a really messy and exhausting past couple of months, and I'm just really hoping that it comes to an end soon. Update 5. Last week, the verdict of my mother's trial finally came through, and she has been convicted on all charges. Since she's a first-time offender, she's going to have to pay a huge fine as restitution to both the adoption agency and me, along with several hours of community service. She has been able to dodge incarceration, but she does have to attend court-mandated mental health treatment, in a rehabilitation facility since her lawyer made it seem like she had been going through some psychological issues. I'm not in touch with her anymore and haven't been ever since she agreed to the terms of our civil lawsuit and we came to a settlement. I found out about it from a couple of family members, and well, I guess it's fair enough. I also managed to get a restraining order against my sister soon after my last

update, so that's another win for me. We are currently in the process of moving houses, and it's a bit stressful, but we can handle it. Especially with the money that's about to come in, it's been a huge relief for us, so we might not need to ask our in-laws for help at all. We won't even need to dip into the settlement money that we had decided to put aside for our son, so it's all worked out in our favor. Even though my mother got lucky legally, she hadn't been so lucky in her personal life. I've been hearing a lot of gossip and have even been sent screenshots of my sister's recent posts on social media. She has denounced everything that her mother has done so far, going as far as to claim that she had no knowledge of any of this until recently and that she doesn't agree with

my mother's behavior at all and thinks that she deserves to get convicted. That's not what she had been saying to me before everything went wrong, before that, she had been strongly on our mother's side. From what I know, she did this because her fiancé and her in-laws had not been comfortable with the idea of him marrying into a family like this, which is quite understandable actually. They had been considering postponing the wedding, which is why she decided to cut off our mother in such a public way. It sucks for our mom because all her life she had been dedicated to my sister, and now this is what she gets. It's pretty sad, but well deserved. I don't feel bad for her at all.

Now that I'm moving, I'm going to have nothing to do with these people, and I really can't wait. I hope you enjoy this story. Discovered my partner kissing their harmful former partner and called off our marriage. In retaliation, I had intimate relations with the women she strongly disliked and shared the provocative images with her. Therefore, this is not. Going to be one of those stories where I need advice or anything, because the entire thing has already come to a close. But I think there's certainly a lot that can be learned from the BS that I just had to experience, and since I learned a lot from stories that others have told here,

I think that it's only right that I bring my own tail to the table. I'm certainly in the mood to make light of the situation because I got my get back and I got it good. I work at a certain large financial institution in the U.S. and I'm not bragging, but I'm doing pretty great for myself, with a lot of potential for growth, and all of this while I'm still just 32. During a conference I went to about six years back, I chatted with the woman who was sitting beside me and we got along so well. A few months after that, we started dating and we've been dating ever since. She just turned 30 a few days ago, but naturally, with the way things ended up, there was no need to call her to send wishes or anything of the sort.

It was exactly on her 29th birthday that I popped the question and she said yes right away. There's a bit of a smile on my face looking back at that because it was one of the happiest days of my life, and I'm sure of hers, but that soured a lot now. Aged like unrefrigerated milk. Either way, I asked her to marry me, she said yes, and we were engaged. Happy days, am I right? Now, I'm not certain if I'm the only one who has experienced this before, but when you deal with women who are too scared to talk about their sexual adventures with their friends,

you, as a partner, might end up being the person they choose to start yapping to. I've had this happen in two separate relationships, of which this was one of them. I think most men don't want to continually hear stories of all the men that their girlfriend, or fiancé, or wife is slept with. It's the same way I don't attempt to indulge any woman with the people I've slept with. Anyway, it happened a few times before I finally told her that I really don't care to hear all her stories. But before that point, I had heard a lot about her most recent ex, I think it is fair to hear about exes in any new relationship, but I don't need the sex. details. The guy's name was Chris and they had a pretty toxic relationship, but he was so good in bed. Of course, we had slept together at this point and I had to wonder whether I was

that good in bed too. Maybe less OS for me. Supposedly the bedroom situation was what kept her in such a toxic thing, which I'll admit was a red flag for me, but she was much younger, and by extension, naturally much stupider, so I let it slide. Anyway, that's necessary background to what I have to say next. I heard a lot about Chris in the early stages of the relationship, but after a point, nothing else. At that point, I assumed she had finally gotten over him and that was good enough for me. I stopped hearing about him about two years in, even sparingly. So, let's fast forward to the post-engagement stage.

I and my fiancé, Sandy, were already getting into the planning phase of things. We're both from relatively well-to-do homes. I personally wouldn't say my upbringing was wealthy or rich, but I've been told I'm out of touch before, and I accept my perspective might be a bit untrustworthy. Either way, both parents wanted something relatively big. I was fine with a friends and family type of situation, no uncles or aunts I hadn't seen since I was a toddler, but everyone, including Sandy, wanted it to be spectacular so I gave up and let them have their way. Now, here's where things get fun, admittedly, this is where things went to hell for me back then,

but as I said, I'm trying to be relatively light-hearted with the situation now. We were searching for a venue, and everyone wanted something in some kind of scenic location, like a private beach, a 10,000-year-old church, city hall, and on and on. Fortunately for me, I made it clear that I was fine just finding an event space in the city, but I was told I didn't have vision, so I told them they could do all the groundwork regarding the location. I wouldn't be stressing myself over something I wasn't that concerned over. So, regarding a venue, Sandy told me that she was going to check out three of them with a friend, and I was totally fine with this.

I mean, what was there to object to? She's been with a friend to try out caterers and to look at dresses, so big whoop. So the day goes by and she tells me that she checked out a few places with this friend and that a certain old church was tickling her fancy quite nicely. She said she was going to check it again, in a few days with the same friend, just to make sure she still felt the same way about it, and I told her that was fine. Because once again, I didn't care about the venue and there was nothing that I could see to make any aspect of the situation seem off.

Eventually, she went back to check the venue out with her friend again, and the consensus was that it'd be the place for her, so we put our name down and we'd have to pay a deposit within 30 days to book the day for ourselves. I eventually did, so the venue was set. Now, everything went swimmingly for the next few weeks. Wedding preparations continued along just fine, with additional things being settled, but for the most part, we hadn't put down too much money.

I am very fortunate to have had things happen the way they did, because one day, when my wife went to sign for a delivery, she left her phone on the kitchen island, and who do I see a notification from? Chris. You there, babe? I was very tempted to go through her messages, but she came back within seconds,

holding the package she had picked up. I had no confirmation that it was the same Chris, but if there was another Chris calling her babe, I think that it would somehow be worse in its own special way. It had to be her ex. Now, I was able to keep my emotions in check, because I know how guys can be. He could be an ex being pushy or trying his luck with pet names and sexual innuendo, and she might be completely unreceptive to it. But as long as she had no idea I knew, I could wait for an opportunity to read more.

That opportunity came about ten days later when her friend came to pick her up to go look at flower arrangements. She just happened to forget her phone, which was perfect for me. There was a chance of her coming back to get her phone, but I wasn't going to waste the chance, so I picked it up and went straight to her messaging app and looked for Chris. They had been talking. In fact, they had been talking a lot. There was a lot of regular stuff there, some talk about the wedding, He mentioned the venue and how beautiful it was, saying we should go there again sometime.

Outside of wedding duties. Ah, so he was the friend she went with. It only rushed back at that moment that she hadn't given me a name, and she usually did. She went with her ex, of all people. The same Chris I hadn't heard of in ages. The same Chris who was so amazing in the bedroom. That spurred me to keep reading up and up and up. Yeah, until I got to the juicy bits.

There was a lot of sexting. A lot, and it was as explicit as you could imagine. Well, it remained in text form for the most part, but there were pictures exchanged. I had to go far up, but it was right around the time that they went to check out the old church the second time. Things were relatively sanitary from their down, besides pet names being thrown around. I couldn't tell if they had slept together, but she clearly. didn't regret what they had done at that point, because they were still talking actively. She was keeping the idiot on speed dial. That's when I heard the door unlock. Now, at that moment,

I considered putting her phone down. I really strongly considered acting like I wasn't doing anything. But you know what, I said to hell with that. I let her walk in on me holding her phone. As soon as we locked eyes, I saw her eyes widen and she nearly sprinted towards me, trying to force a light-hearted watch her doing. When she got by my side, she saw Chris's chat open on her phone and I just looked up at her from where I was sitting. She struggled to find words to say, I could see her lips trying to move. You went through my phone. Really? Are you serious?

Yes, she tried to make me the villain. I was so pissed off by the response, but all I did was laugh. I actually think it might have seemed like I was crazy because she took a step back. I actually had no idea. I genuinely had no idea, I said to her. Your lover sent a message and you went to sign for the package that other day. I saw the notification, and that's what spurred me to check your phone. I definitely had reason to do this, so don't even try and flip things on.

me. Because if things had gone your way, I still would have been stupidly ignorant and you would have continued to cheat on me with Chris. She started to mumble and tell me how it wasn't what it looked like. I know you guys slept together. I was bluffing hard, but I just had a gut feeling. She denied it right away, but I stood my ground and told her to stop lying. She denied it again and I placed her phone on the table and pushed it towards her. I can't marry a liar. That's when she erupted into tears, wailing and telling me that it was just once. I laughed again. Just once yet you sexed with him.

You guys are still in contact. It was a mistake, baby. I made a mistake. She kept trying to touch me, but I kept swatting her away. That line was incredibly funny to me because it was only a mistake because I caught her. She would have kept going along with me and her ex on the side. She would have gotten married to me and probably kept sleeping with him. Like, the length things could have gotten to had I not caught this slut was actually quite distressing.

To think that I had no idea and I had trusted her entirely before I just happened to see that message on her phone. It's riling me up right now thinking of it. I stood up and I went to the bedroom and grabbed her suitcase from out of the closet. She followed me and once she saw me throwing her belongings into it, she started to wail again, which was really starting to piss me off. She kept begging me through tears, but I was really not in the mood for any of this. To imagine I was planning a wedding with her was crazy. Give me the ring back.

If you see the look on her face at that point, it was like she had seen a ghost. I think despite everything, it was at that point she actually realized how deeply she had messed up. She realized the actual consequences of her actions. My hand was outstretched in front of her for like two minutes before she finally took the ring off and placed it in my hand. She didn't even fight it and that made me glad since I was starting to run out of patience at that point. After roughly shoving some of her stuff into the suitcase, I passed it to her and told her to get out of the house, which she did silently. That night, I locked the door, turned off all the lights, and I got to. got drunk. The next morning, I woke up to several missed calls. There were some from her, some from

her parents, and even some from my parents. Obviously, she had to have told them that I said the wedding was off, but I wondered if she had told them why, almost definitely not, I thought at the time. Honestly, I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone because there was nothing they'd do beyond either sympathizing with me or telling me that Sandy and I could work past things. I didn't want to have to put up with either of those. At a few points during the day, people came knocking on my door, but I was silent all through when they eventually left. It wasn't until the next day that I created a group chat and added both sets of parents, Sandy, and her siblings. I wrote a very long message detailing absolutely everything that happened, in as much detail as I cared to include

at the moment. I didn't care that her parents were there or that mine were there. If they were going to have any input on the state of the soon-to-be-canceled wedding, they'd need to know exactly where I was coming from. So yeah, I told them absolutely everything. It was tiring recapping the whole saga, but I did. The group chat was silent for a full hour after that, even though I could see that several of them had read the messages, including my ex-fiancee. The first indication I had gotten that someone had actually comprehended the entire thing was when my dad called me. I remember exactly what he said. Son, I'm sorry.

You made the right choice. It'll hurt, but it was the right choice. That stuck with me because a weaker man might have gone back to his vomit when the pain got too strong, but I never even considered it ever time I remembered that line. Throughout the day, I got messages and calls, some of which I replied to, some of which I ignored. It was clear, though, that everyone had gotten the news and there was no point talking to me about it because my mind was set. That right there was pretty much the last time our wedding plans were so actively spoken about, at least to my knowledge. Her parents never tried to plead with me because I assumed they had the sense to know their daughter had messed up immensely.

But the thing is, that wasn't enough for me. It really wasn't. I really had to make Sandy hurt the same way I did because calling off an engagement isn't real pain for her if it was merely the consequences of her actions. The first thing I wanted to do was get it Chris, but I really couldn't figure out how. I had no real dirt on him, though I did hope that Sandy would want nothing to do with him seeing as he was the root of all the embarrassment and pain she had gone through. After all, her immediate family all knew she was an unfaithful ho and that was satisfying. It probably would have helped if I had come to ask for help here on how I could get back at Chris, but honestly, my mind wasn't in the right place at the time, I hope you can understand that.

So I let him go despite not wanting to. However, the real person I needed to get back at was Sandy, and I had a plan. Here's the thing, we weren't together anymore. Anyone I chose to sleep with at this point was entirely fair game, even if it were her sister, no, I wasn't planning to sleep with her sister, I'm just making a point. The thing was, I wanted to make sure it had hurt her a lot, so I had two options, sleep with the people she loves the most, or sleep with the people she hates the most. Considering how our relationship had gone down the toilet, all her best friends would have

been aware and they'd be difficult to reign for me to navigate. However, the people she hates would be a different kind of evil. I mean, if you're reading this, think about it, how would you feel if your partner slept with the annoying guy at the office who you absolutely hate? It'd make you hate him even more, but it had also hurt a lot because you're sharing your partner with the last person on earth that you would have chosen. That was my reasoning. So, I had to go through my head to figure out a few female co-workers that my wife had complained

about a lot. Top of the list was Sophia, who she hated because she thinks she's all that, which was probably girl speak for feeling threatened by her. That might have meant she was a haughty and I was excited to find out. There was a college classmate called Melissa, they used to be friends, but then Melissa slept with one of my ex-fiance's exes and they had a huge falling out and Sandy's hated her ever since. Finally, I could recall a Japanese girl called Toki, and Sandy explicitly said, I hate her because she tries to act all dainty and cute and the men drool over her like fools. My list had a few other names, but let me jump ahead and tell you that I either couldn't do enough digging to find them online or I failed to seal the deal.

Anyway, Sophia wasn't hard to find. They work at the same place so LinkedIn helped me out immensely in that regard. From there, I was able to find her Instagram account and I messaged her from there. I use IG a lot and I'm not trying to be conceded, but it's a pretty attractive page to those who like slightly lavish lifestyles. I had a lot of cool outfits, my Audi showed up a few times, and a few vacations I had been on also made features. When I followed Sophia, you followed right back within minutes, and I sent her a message. I played my usual slick talk and I could clearly tell she was into me. This went on for a day more before I asked her if she'd like to go on a date and she said yes.

I made it very clear that day to take several photos of her and with her, and I made sure she looked amazing in each one. That date had a happy ending, if I say so myself. The next one was Melissa. Now, at this point, I realized that I was doing a lot in the name of revenge, but I was committed. Melissa lived two states over, but I still sent her and message on IG anyway. The problem was, and I didn't bargain for this, she recognized me. My wife and her had not kept in touch, but I guess Melissa made it a habit to keep occasional tabs on her life out of hate or something, and I certainly showed up on my wife's social media.

I was found out, so I went for an honest route. I let Melissa know I had split with Sandy and she said, good, I hated her. The next message, oh, I'm sorry. I know you must still love her. I told Melissa that, no, I did not still love her, and I was looking exactly for someone who I could share my hate with. She started a voice call with me immediately after that message. I did find that odd, and we got to talking about my ex-fiancee. At a point, I just blurted out, I want to get back at her, and Melissa, apparently a chronic home wrecker, said, you could sleep with me. At this point, I could see why Sandy hated her back then, but this just worked in my favor.

See, setting things up was incredibly easy. I flew over on a weekend, Melissa and I went bowling and sightseeing in her city, again, with lots of photographic evidence for my devious purposes, and then we went to her house and had some fun. She even let me take some very suggestive photos of her. Apparently, the hate between the two of them was a lot deeper. than I envisioned. Finally, it was time for Toki. I was lucky with this one because I found her on Tinder. I had no idea what she looked like, but the name Toki was certainly not common for the area I lived in. I matched with her right away and I sent her a message. She was pretty slow with her

replies and when I proposed a date, she said she wouldn't be available for the week. It took a while for me to seal the deal, especially because when I eventually went on a date with her, it took three dates to get anything to happen. I got my photos, though, of course, all taken with her fully aware. It took exactly six weeks for me to finalize all of this and I won't lie, I really wondered whether I was a psychopath to go through all that trouble to get back at someone. But I knew I'd finally feel a lot better at the end of it, so I brushed those feelings aside. I texted Sandy out of the one day and it took her ages to reply, but she eventually did. We got through some very awkward pleasantries, but I told her I wanted to meet up with her though I didn't tell her

what for and I'm certain that got her hopes up. She told me she could be ready in 15 minutes, but I insisted that we meet in three hours because I really wanted to drive her crazy with the suspense. No, we were not getting back together, but I bet that's what she thought. Finally, the time came, and I met her at a park. She was there before I got there, which was unsurprising since I had been as sluggish as possible while preparing. She stood to hug me and I accepted it. It was easier to get her hopes up if I wasn't too cold. We went through a bunch of dry pleasantries before I took out my phone and sent her a bunch of media.

I told her to take a look. Her straight face melted into a frown as she opened the photos I had sent to her. The first face she saw was Sophia and she said, why are you showing me this? But before I could answer, she scrolled to the next picture, which had me and Sophia in it. Then she kept scrolling, passed the Sophia pictures to the Toki ones. She was a lot of fun to be around. I made sure to say that extremely casually. I saw tears welling up in Sandy's eyes as she kept looking.

Then, she saw Melissa. First, a video of me in Melissa Bowling, and then the more explicit one. She literally watched that video loop three times before I said, None of these women were as bad as you made them seem. In fact, they were all a lot better than you, especially where it mattered most. She flipped out. She stood up and started howling expletives at me. She kept pointing her finger at me aggressively and I wondered if she was going to feel the whim

to hit me at any point. But she just kept screaming and shouting about how I was a scumbag and how I was a piece of crap and on and on. Honestly, I kind of zoned out because I was reveling in the way she was shaking with rage. At a point, she said, you made it seem like you're a saint, but you're worse than me. I stopped her there. I wasn't the one who reconnected with my ex, slept with him, kept having charged conversations with him, and did that all while I was engaged. I am not engaged now, and that's because of everything you did, so if you're mad, you can only be mad at yourself, I said all of that calmly and I stood up. Really, you can only be mad at yourself, Sandy. This was simply what you deserve. She started to cry again, and this time, she looked

truly broken, but that was it for me. Seeing that look was like closure. I truly felt satisfied that I had done what I needed to do. Since then, I haven't heard from her, even when she turned 30. But to be honest, I prefer things that way. I don't know if this is practical advice for anyone, but don't think that any woman is beyond cheating, because that's what I thought about my ex-fiance and I was proven so wrong. If you can sign a pre-up, please do you. do, because I was lucky to get out of my situation before marriage. All I can really say as a parting note is that you should always stay vigilant. If you need to check her phone, do it, especially if you have reasonable suspicion. It's not worth it living with someone who is giving

you trust issues. I manage to get out of my situation, and for the sake of all you younger, and even older, men out there, I hope you do too.