Reddit Stories - Dad's betrayal grandpa's rescue unveiling mom's secret affair on my 18th birthday

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #betrayal #secretsrevealed #rescue #birthdaySummary: On my 18th birthday, dad's betrayal and mom's secret affair were unveiled. Grandpa came to the rescue, revealing the truth behind the family drama.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familydrama, betrayal, secretsrevealed, rescue, birthday, dad, mom, grandpa, affair, truth, drama, family, birthdayparty, scandal, familysecretsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Father called off my 18th birthday celebration in favor of my sibling. However, my grandfather came to my rescue, exposed my mother's infidelity, and amended his estate plan. Now, my father is seeking to reconcile, but I wonder if there are ulterior motives at play. Money? So two weeks ago, I was about to have my 18th birthday at home,

but unfortunately, my horrible younger brother decided that he wanted a weekend away without me and the party ended up getting cancelled. My brother, 15m, is my dad's favorite, if that was not clear enough. And whatever he says in this household, that's what goes. At least there was some balance as long as my mother was alive, but she passed away from lung cancer a couple of years back. Since then, life has been terrible for me because my dad only seems to care about my brother, and he thinks that since I'm older, I can deal with everything on my own.

Even on my birthday, I had been planning to go out for the evening with my friends, and obviously, my dad was going to fund all of our plans. But just a day before my birthday, my brother threw a tantrum and told my dad that he wanted to go away for the weekend because he had been rejected from the football team and he desperately needed something to take his mind off of it. If you ask me, it was not surprising that he hadn't been picked for the team because not only is he incredibly brady and annoying, but he's also not a good player. And he has no team spirit, that's obvious. So it shouldn't have been surprising to him that he didn't get picked,

but he still had a whole meltdown about it and my dad had to agree. I was shocked because all of that was happening right in front of my eyes and I decided to stand up for myself. I told my dad that I was not going to stay home while they went away for the weekend, not on my birthday of all days. Because usually, that's what happens whenever my brother decides that he needs some time away from everything. He and my dad go away together for some time off and I get stuck at home. Both of them really enjoy fishing, so they go away on fishing trips and my dad has a friend who has a cabin in the woods,

so it's pretty easy for them to just take off. I'm not really a fan of adventure and I'm definitely not a fan of the woods, because I find them creepy. So I'm not like my brother and my dad at all. And in the first few instances that this happened, I volunteered to stay home. After that, though, every time that they needed to go away, they wouldn't even ask me if I had any plans of my own and I would get stuck dealing with their absence. And this has been a thing ever since my mom passed away. They never used to do this while she was still around.

I don't exactly have an issue with staying at home alone, but the problem is that I'm not allowed to have anyone over because my dad thinks that if I have a party and stuff then I'm going to end up trashing the house and he's pretty strict about that kind of thing. One time, I had made the mistake of inviting a couple of friends over and we had been very careful to keep the house clean, but my dad decided to go through the security footage and he found out. I received the lecture of a lifetime the next day and he told me that he did not want me inviting my friends over when the house was empty because he did not trust us, since we were all year. young teen boys and that never leads to any good news. So neither could I have friends over and nor could I leave the house and go out on my own because my dad thinks that that's unsafe. And so, I get stuck at home when they're not around. So obviously, I did not want that happening on the day of my birthday. Because then, it would mean that I couldn't have my friends over and neither

could I go out with them. It was my 18th birthday for the love of God, it was an important day for me, and I wanted to go my way just for once. But my brother couldn't even let me have that, and my dad even offered to take me along with them and hire someone to take care of the house for the weekend, but my brother interested that he wanted to go without me since I had never been to the cabin, and I didn't even know anything.

So it would be another task to introduce me to everything, and he was sure that I wouldn't even enjoy it. Besides, if I was there, he would not be able to take his mind off of what was going on in school since everyone would be wishing me on my birthday and that included some folks from the football team because I'm friends with them. And so, my dad even took back the offer of taking me along,

and I got stuck at home. This sort of thing has been happening since my mother passed away. It's always been very obvious to me that my dad has had a favorite, and it's not me and I never even had a problem with it, but that day, I just kind of lost it. I started yelling at my dad and we had a huge fight because of the way he was acting and had been treating me ever since my mother passed away. He never praised me, even when I achieved something big like winning competitions or doing well

in class, but my brother received praise for even the smallest of things. He also behaved very differently with us. He was quite aloof with me and around my brother, he was a different person, he actually acted like a father with him. And I had always put up with it because I knew that my brother was a lot like him, so it was easier for him to connect with my brother, but that was no reason for him to treat me like this. I put my foot down and told him that if he left me home alone on my birthday and did not allow me to bring my friends over or even go out with them, then I would just do as I pleased and

they wouldn't even be able to stop me. But my dad threatened me and said that if I did any of that, then he would cut off my college funds, and I would end up with nothing. I'm supposed to be starting college in a couple of months, so I couldn't risk it because I don't have any money of my own. So with a heavy heart, I had to let them go on the morning of my birthday, and I had to cancel all my plans. My dad did tell me that if I wanted to, I could go out with my friends as soon as they had come back and he would give me the money for having an even bigger party, but that just didn't cut it. Because I wanted to go out with my friends on my birthday and not spend the day at home by myself. So I was really upset the entire day and I cried

myself to sleep that night. The next morning, though, I woke up to a surprise because somebody started ringing the doorbell very early in the morning and when I went to check who it was, I realized that it was my grandpa. My dad's parents both passed away when I was little since they were pretty old and my dad is the youngest of four siblings. And he wasn't exactly very close to the rest of his family. So after his parents passed away, we only spoke to and met his family on the holidays. But I used to be really close to my mom's parents and we used to meet pretty frequently when she was alive since they would come over whenever they could. They live out of state, so they would have to fly all the way here to see us but they always told us that it was worth it.

After my mother passed away, though, things changed and it got even worse for my grandpa because eight months after losing my mother, he lost his wife as well. They got into a car crash and my grandma fought for her life for a couple of days before finally succumbing to her injuries and my grandpa ended up losing his legs in the car accident. He's paralyzed from the waist down and has to use a wheelchair to get around. So for the past two years, I've only been able to see him once a year during the holidays and it's been pretty bad because he used to be so full of life. But after losing his wife and daughter, he has become very quiet and sad. Obviously everyone feels terrible for him, but he says that it makes him feel even worse because he doesn't want people pitying him.

And so, I try to act like my usual self around him, even though seeing him makes me want to cry because I just miss the person that he used to be. That's part of the reason why I've never told him about my weird relationship with my dad and my brother because I didn't want to make things even tougher for him. Sharing that with him would only make him feel bad because he wouldn't be able to do anything about it and I didn't want to make him feel even more helpless. So whenever I visited him in the past two years, I would only stick to the happy stuff. But the day after my birthday, when he showed up at my doorstep with his nurse to surprise me, I ended up breaking down because I was so touched.

A lot of people from the family had wished me, but for him to show up all the way here just to surprise me was something that really got to me and knowing that not even my brother and my dad would have done such a thing for me, that's what made me start crying as soon as I saw him. So, I got pretty emotional and he had to console me for a while before I could thank him and I tried to cover up why I had started sobbing as soon as I saw him by telling him that I was just touched that he had bothered to fly out here, in spite of his restrictions with the wheelchair and stuff. But I guess he figured out that something had gone terribly wrong and after a while, he started asking me where my dad and my brother were. Initially, I tried to make up excuses for them, but I was

honestly exhausted from trying to cover up the fact that they were just terrible to me. So I told him the truth, and he seemed really shocked. And after he had processed it, he started coming off more angry than shocked. He told me that if I wanted to, I could live with him for the next couple of months until I had to start college. To be honest, that would actually be easier for me. because I had decided to go to college out of state because I needed some space away from my dad and my brother. And coincidentally, my college is closer to my grandpa's place than here. So if I stayed with my grandpa, I would only have to drive for a couple of hours to go back

home whereas here, I would have to take a flight back and forth. And it's not like I would be missed here, my dad had my brother and my brother had my dad. So I didn't even have to think twice before I agreed to my grandpa's proposition. and he told me that we would be leaving as soon as my dad and my brother had come back home because he had a bone to pick with my father. So he stayed with me that day, and I told him everything that I had been going through for the past couple of years, ever since my mom passed away. It was as if the floodgates had finally opened, and I had somebody to share all of this with. Of course, my friends knew about it, but it's not like they could help and everyone has

their own crap to deal with. And I'm not close enough to the rest of my family to be talking to them about this, so it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. When my grandpa asked why I'd never told him about any of it, I explained that I did not want him to feel helpless and he told me that he would have fought for custody, but honestly, it would have been very unlikely that he would get custody of me because it's not like my dad was actively mistreating me or depriving me of anything. But he said that he would have found a way to help me out and that I should have told him earlier. Anyway, I hadn't told him earlier and this is how it was. I had to put up with the situation for a really long time, but this was the last straw for me. And my grandpa,

thankfully, was here to finally bail me out. So the day after that, when my dad and brother finally came back home in the morning, they were in for a huge surprise. My grandpa usually treats both me and my brother equally, since he's not my dad, but this time he didn't even bother to greet my brother. He didn't even wait before confronting my father about what had happened and what he had heard from me. And for the first time in his life, my father actually looked ashamed of himself and it appeared as if he was nervous. I knew for a fact that he had always wanted to impress my grandpa, and even when we would be visiting him after my mother had passed away, he would make quite a show of treating me and my brother well. But I had no idea that

he was this scared of my grandpa, and I kind of liked the fact that for the first time, he was answerable to someone because of the way he had treated me. Anyway, after chewing my father out for a couple of minutes, my grandpa told me and my brother to go take a walk because he had to discuss some things with my dad in private and he didn't want either of us coming back home until he had called us back. It was confusing, but it was obvious that we were not supposed to argue right now, so both of us left the house. My brother and I are not exactly friends,

so we went our separate ways and for about 45 minutes, he was at one of his friend's places, and I was at one of mine. When my grandpa finally called us back, he seemed to be in a terrible mood and was very angry. And when I walked in, it was obvious that my dad had been crying because his eyes were all puffy. That was shocking because my dad rarely ever cries and I knew that something must have definitely gone down.

Anyway, my grandpa told me to pack my stuff, just the important things, and the rest would be collected later. So I did what he asked me in about half an hour later, I had a bag ready. Then, we got into a cab and went to the nearest hotel, and there, my grandpa told me that from now on, I would be living with him. It was very convenient, because as I had said, it meant that I would be closer to my college as well. So I didn't exactly have a problem with that, but when I asked him what had happened with my dad, he told me that it was none of my concern right now, and he only wanted me to focus on my future.

While I was leaving, I noticed that my dad had not said anything to me, and hadn't even said goodbye. And my brother didn't even seem to care, so that was that. and two days after I had moved out of my house with my stuff, my grandpa, and I took a flight to his place, and since then, I've been living here. I didn't think that I would hear from my dad or my brother any time soon and I had stopped wondering what had happened between my grandpa and my dad, because clearly, my dad had been happy enough to let me go. But that changed two days ago because I received a message from my dad saying that he was sorry about everything and that he didn't realize that I had been feeling neglected. He acknowledged the fact that he had failed as a father and that he hadn't even realized it because he was so busy with my brother, the one child that he had managed to be able to connect with. He said that he had always considered me very different from him and that's why. He had always maintained a distance from me because he didn't think that he would be able to understand me, but with my brother, it was different.

And he added that he considered not building a good relationship with me as the biggest mistake of his life. He had realized that, thanks to my grandfather. I already knew all of that, so it didn't come as a shock to me and honestly, I hadn't even minded the fact that he was more close to my brother than me since I was closer to my mom than to him. What I didn't like was the fact that he had mistreated me and he didn't even realize that he had been treating me badly, but I guess he had come to his senses after I had moved out. He told me that he really wanted to apologize to me and said that he wanted to make things right. He told me that he knew that I had moved in with my grandpa now and that I intended to stay with him until college was over. But he would really want me to come back home to him, so we could talk it out and work this out. That's what my mother would have wanted, according to him.

And I think I agree, that is probably what my mother would have wanted because when she was around, she was always pushing my dad and I to spend some more time together, but we never listened to her. However, I don't want to commit to anything right now and so, I haven't replied to my dad's message. If I'm being honest, I'm not even sure if I want to repair my relationship with them right now or not. I haven't even started college yet, but there are only a couple of weeks before I do. And even when I do, I only plan on coming back to my grandpa's place on alternate weekends, so that would be more convenient than moving back home. Besides, it's not just about the convenience, but it's also about the relationship that I have

with my grandpa and I don't have that with my dad or my brother. So it's not like I feel obliged to go back home with them to try and fix things, but then again, if he's trying, then shouldn't I? I've just been having a lot of mixed feelings about what my dad said, and I don't know what to do about this situation. Wipta, if I told my father that I did not want to move back in with him and that I wanted to stay with my grandpa. Edit, I honestly don't know why my dad would want me to stay back home whenever he and my brother would go on their fishing trips. He used to tell me that it was unsafe

for us to leave the house completely empty, and even when we would take family trips when my mother was around, he would hire someone to look after the house. It's just a thing with my dad, I guess. As for whether I'm actually my dad's biological son or not, I don't know how to answer that. I mean, I've heard of people treating their adoptive kids badly in comparison to their biological children, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not actually his son. But nobody has ever said anything to indicate that I'm not and neither do I have any paternity tests to prove anything. So as far as I'm concerned, I definitely am his son.

And if you ask me, I don't even think it matters if I'm his biological son or not because he has been the one who raised me with my mother. Biological or not, I'm his son in some way and he should have respected that and treated me just like he treated my brother. Anyway, that's not the point right now and to answer the questions that you guys had for me, I don't know if he's my actual biological father or not. If I find out, I'll let you guys know. Update 1, so after a lot of deliberation, I decided to ask my grandpa whether I'm actually my dad's biological son or I couldn't stop thinking about it after a bunch of people in the comments suggested that maybe he was treating me differently because I wasn't actually his son.

And there was also the comment that my grandpa had made about trying to get custody of me if I had told him about the way my father had been treating me earlier. I started thinking that he wouldn't have said that if he didn't have reason to believe that he would have been able to get custody of me. So I felt like I just had to ask him and I had to work up a lot of courage, but eventually, I felt like I deserved to know the truth. And last evening, I sat down with him, and I just blurted out the question without thinking much and it took him by surprise.

But then, he told me that he knew that was going to happen at some point, and even though my mother had always tried to keep it a secret from me, I'm old enough to know now. And as it turns out, I am definitely my dad's biological son and we know that for a fact because several paternity tests have been conducted to confirm it. Apparently, it's not my paternity that is the problem but the incident that took place before my birth that probably made my father resent me. My dad had been neglecting my mother because of his work before I was born and they had only been married for two years at the time and together for four.

She always regretted this, but my mother ended up having an affair with one of her friends, and my dad found out about it. She ended the affair and they agreed to get couples counseling, but a couple of weeks later, she found out that she was pregnant. The only problem was that she had no idea whose baby it actually was going to be. My dad wanted to terminate the pregnancy altogether, but my mother was not on board with that. So they had to wait for the pregnancy to get to a stage where they could conduct a paternity test, and until then, my mother's affair partner was very much a part of the whole process because it could have been his kid as well, and if it was. My mother said that she didn't want to be unfair to her future kid and had said that all three of them would have to raise me together.

My dad, obviously, was not on board with that idea and insisted that only he and my mother should have custody of the baby, no matter who the actual biological father was. But my mother wanted to be fair and so, they ended up fighting about this a lot. They decided to stay together because they actually did love each other and that ended up turning out to be pretty bad for me because even though I was my dad's son and after they found out about it, my mother cut all ties with her a fair partner. It still didn't seem to be enough for my father. After I was born, a couple of more tests were conducted to make sure that I was absolutely and 100% my dad's biological child. And I was, it had been proven, but in spite of that, my dad continued. to pick fights with my mother until she threatened to walk out with me. Now, obviously, I'm not saying that my mother was right.

She definitely shouldn't have cheated on my dad and should have tried to talk it out with him before going out of her way to look for love outside of marriage. But if my dad had given her a second chance, he should have actually tried to make it work instead of constantly picking fights with her. And I think he's a really confused man because even though he decided to stay with my mother and make it work with her, in spite of her cheating, I guess he couldn't handle that and decided that he was going to take out all his anger and frustration on me. And the fact that I was nothing like him when it came to my personality, that probably just

irritated him even more and that's how we came to this situation, where he really resented me for no fault of my own. When my mother was alive, he seemed to get along well enough with her, so I never would have been able to guess that they had problems like this in the past. But I guess it makes sense when you consider the fact that he had me to resent, so he didn't need to take out any of his anger on my mother anymore. Anyway, that's one part of the story and the reason why my dad seems to feel so guilty about having treated me badly in the past is because my grandpa told him that he was going to cut him out of the inheritance. My dad's own inheritance had to be divided into four parts, because of his siblings, so he didn't really receive a lot back then. But after my mother had passed away, my grandpa had apparently changed his will to leave everything that he had to my dad and his grandkids. However, after my grandpa had found out about the way that I was being treated by my father, he had had had a discussion with him and really chewed him out.

He had told my father that he was really sorry about the fact that his daughter had cheated on him. But that was no reason for him to still hold that against me since none of it was my fault. I hadn't even been born when it happened and even though it was nothing like my dad, I was still his biological child and that had been proven by several paternity tests, some which he had even conducted independently without my mom's knowledge, so that my mother couldn't have interfered with the results. So he really had no reason to behave the way he did with me and yet, one day he had just decided that he was not going to treat me like his son and punish me for what my mom had done.

That was not acceptable, and my grandpa had told him. told him that after he had learned the way I was being treated, he could no longer allow him to expect anything from him. And now, whatever share of the inheritance that my dad was going to receive, that would be going to me instead. My dad had been crying about that and also because he felt like he was going to lose everything in one go. So when I asked my grandpa whether my dad was reaching out to me for the inheritance, because

if he's actually sorry, my grandpa told me that he genuinely doesn't have any idea and that he has told me he knows, but he can't help me out here. For what it's worth, my grandpa told me that my dad genuinely seemed upset, but I still don't know whether he has any ulterior motives or not, and it is very hard to trust him after everything that has happened. So I guess I'm going to continue to not respond to my father until I'm sure. Update 2, so I'm in college right now, I started a couple of weeks back and it's been great so far. I forgot to update you guys on what happened with my dad because to be honest, nothing really happened. After that message that he sent, I did not respond to him, and he did not bother to reach out to me again, so I guess he was only

reaching out to me for the inheritance because if he had genuinely felt bad about everything, he definitely would have made another attempt to reach out to me. And now, it's been almost four months since we last spoke, so I don't think he's going to be trying to contact me anytime soon. As for my brother, we were never really close when we were living together and now, we have absolutely no contact. And I'm definitely more than fine with it. The only person for my family that I'm still in touch with is my grandpa and we speak every other day on the phone. I was a bit mad at him for hiding these things from me, but then again, he was only trying to do right by his family. I don't think I would have been able to handle the truth earlier anyway, so good

call on his part for not telling me earlier. At least I'm an adult now and I can process this, but if I had learned about my mother's infidelity before, I don't know how I would have reacted. Knowing about her past has definitely changed my perception of her, but not in a way that I hate her now. It's just that I realized that she was a flawed person and not the perfect mother that I idolized. But it's fine, I'm always going to love her because no matter what she has done, she is still my mother. Anyway, that was it, I guess. Update 3, hi. So nothing much to add, I'm still no contact with my family.

But I'm graduating in a couple of weeks and I guess somehow, my father found out. He sent me an email congratulating me recently, and I don't know what to make of it. I thought about it for a couple of days, but then I decided not to respond because I'm fine with how things are going right now. I don't want to reestablish contact with him at the moment and when I do, I'll let him know. So that's what I had to post an update about, I guess.