Reddit Stories - Family Secrets Unveiled A Tale of Unexpected Betrayal ( Over 3 Hour Compilation ) - Episode 46

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #betrayal #familysecrets #unexpected #drama #compilation  Summary: In Episode 46 of "Family Secrets Unveiled," unexpected betrayals surface as family dynamics shift dramatically. Secrets long hidden come to light, revealing the complexities of relationships and the impact of choices made. This over three-hour compilation delves into the emotional turmoil and revelations that redefine familial bonds.  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, betrayal, familydrama, secretsrevealed, emotionalturmoil, relationships, storytelling, podcast, compilation, unexpectedtwists, familydynamics, truth, revelations, conflict, drama, narrative, entertainment, listeningexperienceBecome 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. Disloyal spouse was enraged when my daughter declined to conceal her dreadful romance with him. Hello, I'm a 33-year-old man, and my spouse is also 33. About a month ago, my wife confessed to a drunken one-night stand with two strangers we both encountered during a night of heavy partying while on an extended trip in Europe. It feels surreal even as I write this. Here's some background, we've been a couple for 11 years and have been married for the past two years.

My wife has been battling severe depression for the last five years, feeling discontent with her career and many of her life choices. I've done my best to support her through all of this, but over the past two years, I've grown weary from trying to be her rock. During this time, she's turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism for her issues. I believe our relationship was definitely stuck in a rut during this period. We sought help from a couple's counselor who advised us to pursue our dream life together in an attempt to rekindle our enthusiasm for life and our relationship. Hey, my wife always had this dream of living abroad for a while, so after some persuasion, I decided to back her up on this. I took a year-long break for my job to join her on this overseas working holiday. I knew it wasn't the best financial decision, but she supported my career in the past, even

moving around our home country to accommodate my work commitments. So, I willingly agreed to support her this time, long story short, her depression only got worse four months into our adventure. One evening, we went out for dinner and ended up meeting some American tourists, three guys and a girl. We had a blast getting really drunk with them. They were super friendly and even bought us a few rounds. At the end of the night, they invited us to continue the party at their Airbnb.

I remember being at their place, munching on pizza and playing a board game. Somehow, the game morphed into truth or dare. I recall stepping away to use the restroom, and when I came back, I saw my girlfriend locked in a kiss with one of the guys. I was ready to explode in fury and tackle the guy, but everyone around the room was. me tried to diffuse the situation, saying it was just part of the game. My wife echoed their sentiments, claiming it was all in good fun. But it wasn't fun for me. I had just witnessed the woman I adore being passionately kissed by a guy we'd only met a few hours earlier.

I told her we needed to leave right then and there, and we promptly headed home. We took an Uber, and the ride back was filled with uncomfortable silence. She apologized, blaming the alcohol in the game for her actions. When we got home that night, I immediately crashed. I woke up around 4 a.m. and noticed my wife wasn't beside me. I assumed she was in the bathroom, so I went to check, but she wasn't there. I figured she might be in the kitchen, so I didn't bother searching further. I returned to bed, intending to go back to sleep. But before I did, I wanted to check my phone, only to find it wasn't where I'd left it. That's when I fully woke up, realizing something was off.

My phone was nowhere to be found, and my wife was missing too. Maybe she was browsing my phone in the kitchen, I thought. I went to check the kitchen, but she wasn't there. I checked the backyard, but she wasn't there either. Panic started to set in. I wondered if I was dreaming, my mind was racing, where could she be? I even checked under the bed. I couldn't make a call because my phone was missing.

I checked the closet to see if anything was gone, but everything was in its place. I even stepped outside to look around, considering involving the neighbors, but it was still too early in the morning. I stood vigil at the entrance of our apartment until 6 a.m. I was just about to knock on my neighbor's door when my wife pulled up in an Uber. My neighbor emerged and I quickly apologized to him. I rushed over to my wife, questioning her about where she'd been and expressing my worry after waiting anxiously for hours. She explained that she had left her phone at the Airbnb and had used mine to order an Uber.

She claimed she didn't want to disturb me because I was sound asleep, so she decided to go alone. I questioned her about why it took so long given that the place was only a 15-minute ride away. Her initial lie was that she had gotten tired and fell asleep there. When she saw I wasn't buying it, she switched her story, saying one of the guys hit her phone and told her she had to stay until morning to get it back. When I threatened to go there and confront him, she changed her story again, saying she chose to stay because she was tired, and no one forced her to stay. I confronted her, stating that I knew she wasn't telling the truth and demanded she spill

the beans or else I'd head back to the Airbnb and get truth from them myself. The next day, she confessed that she had kissed him multiple times that night, and he might have touched her inappropriately, but she couldn't recall clearly. At this point, I knew something had transpired and she was just going to keep feeding me bits and pieces of the truth, never the full story. I resolved the next day to uncover the whole truth, even if it meant going back to the Airbnb to confront them, assuming they hadn't already left. She tried to dissuade me, but I hopped into an Uber and headed back.

to the Airbnb to uncover what really happened. Upon reaching, I picked up a sturdy tree branch from the sidewalk, just in case I needed to defend myself. Then, I knocked on the door. One of the guys, not the one who had kissed her, answered the door. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused

relatives, and saying things like, Sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones.

Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. He tried to slam the door shut as soon as he saw me, but I was quick. I pushed back, forcing the door open and brandishing the stick. I demanded the truth. Even though my wife hadn't confessed to sleeping with them, I had my suspicions. I asked why his friend had taken advantage of my wife. He got defensive, claiming that my wife had forgotten her phone and had told them that I was

okay with her coming back alone to retrieve it. From his confession, it was clear that my wife hadn't just slept with the guy she'd kissed, but she had been with both men simultaneously. He insisted that it was consensual. He even showed me pictures they'd taken while my wife was there. In all the photos, she was smiling and seemed happy. I returned home, seething with anger. and confronted her. She confessed to everything. So, the Real story was that she had supposedly

left her phone behind and used that as an excuse to go back and continue what she had begun earlier in the night. When she returned to the Airbnb, she didn't want to leave after retrieving her phone. Instead, she continued the party, started making out with the same guy again, and then the other guy joined in. They took her to the bedroom and took turns with her. The third guy and the girl were in a relationship, so they didn't participate in any of the debauchery. She apologized, blaming the alcohol again. I reminded her that she couldn't use that excuse twice. I was in a difficult position financially, having traveled this far primarily for her career.

I was utterly shocked. We have what I describe as a happy and healthy relationship. We're each other's rock, supporting one another through thick and thin, usually with a smile. She assured me that it had nothing to do with her love for me or a desire to end our relationship. She explained that her depression was so overwhelming that she wanted a brief escape, a chance to revisit her younger, single, carefree days. She's filled with regret and is distraught, willing to do anything to prove that she can mend our relationship. Logically, I understand this, and I believe her when she says she still loves me.

But I can't wrap my head around how someone who claims to love her. love you so deeply can so thoughtlessly throw it all away. She pleaded with me to stay, but as you can guess, I took the first flight back to the States, jobless since I'd taken a year-long sabbatical. We only have one car, which is in her name, and I don't have an apartment or any place to stay here in the States. So, I'm currently crashing on an inflatable mattress at my mom's place. I feel utterly devalued and betrayed. I gave up so much to support her in this overseas adventure. And the worst part is, I don't feel ready to confide in my family about what really happened. Oddly enough, I feel more comfortable sharing with strangers online.

We had a phone conversation the other day because I told her I was planning to file for divorce and inform my family. She begged me not to, knowing how stir my family can be and that they'd never forgive her if they found out. I'm not sure if I'm seeking advice or guidance, I think I just need to be heard. I feel like I can't fully disclose what happened to many people in my life right now. I want to start individual therapy as soon as possible, because I feel like I've lost a significant part of myself. I'm ready to let go of my old life, the life I thought I shared with the woman I loved. It feels like a morning not just our past, but our future too. After I told her I was filing for divorce, she flew back home. She tried to persuade me that she would

attend therapy and address a host of personal issues, including her alcohol abuse. She fully acknowledges her mistake and takes responsibility for her actions. We don't have kids, but we do own a house together. We spent our 20 studying, traveling, and working in various parts of our home country before settling down. Starting a family was definitely on our radar, but we were in no rush. We had other things on our plate, like solidifying our careers and saving up for our dream home. Everyone has their own pace and priorities in life, and for some, marriage, a house, and kids might be at the top of the list. For us, it was a bit different. What really gets to me is that after the initial kiss, she consciously decided to go back and make things worse by sleeping with not just one, but two guys.

That's the part that's really tearing me apart. Even if she was drunk, she made a deliberate decision to return. There's no one doing this, no amount of therapy can mend this. The scene keeps replaying in my mind and it's messing me up. As for STD testing, I haven't been intimate with her in any way since that night. Just the revelation of the initial kiss was enough to turn me off completely. I'm heading to get tested for STDs today. I've toyed with the idea of asking her if she's cheated before,

because it seems unlikely that her first affair would involve two men at once. But really, what's the point? We're heading for divorce anyway. I've read many stories about infidelity, and I can see why some people choose to stay and work things out. It's not as simple as she cheated. Dump her immediately. Each situation is unique and should be considered on its own merits.

But for me, I know I can't trust her again, and the mental image of her with two men is something I can't erase, even though I wasn't physically present when it happened. The pictures I saw of her with the two men are etched in my memory. I'm going to need some time alone to re-valuate my entire existence because it's going to be tough to imagine a life without her. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain.

Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads,

meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today. at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Given our long history together. She's tried to arrange a meetup, but I'm determined to end things.

What's been your experience with sharing the details of the infidelity with friends and family? I feel sick to my stomach having to lie about what really happened, but at the same time, I feel like sharing the truth with everyone close to me would bring shame not just on her, but on me as well. It's frustrating having to tell a deluded version of why we're taking a break and why we cut our big overseas adventure short.

Thanks, everyone, I appreciate all your insights. I've started therapy and have managed to share all the details of what happened with a friend who's emotionally savvy, which was such a relief. But every day is still a struggle. Nothing seems to take my mind off things, and sleep has become a stranger to me. I end up collapsing from pure fatigue rather than actually drifting off to sleep. Being back in my hometown, living at my mom's place, it's like being a kid again. I know I need time to work through all of this, but these initial stages are just incredibly tough. Now to the next story.

Story 2 Caught my wife having an affair with a friend, now facing the decision to divorce. Need advice on moving forward. I'm a 42-year-old guy, and my wife is 43. We've been married since we were 19, and next year will mark our 25th anniversary. We have three daughters, a 19-year-old who's away at college and twin 15-year-olds. Most things at home seem pretty normal. My wife has always had her own job and individual interests like yoga and pottery, which is cool.

I have my own hobbies too. But lately, something has felled off for the past few months. It's hard to put a finger on it, but there's this underlying disturbance. Sometimes she seems a bit more distant, even during close moments. We still have our regular weekend morning lovemaking, but it feels like her mind is elsewhere. It's like she's physically there in our marriage, but emotionally not fully present. I've asked her if something is bothering her, but every time she says no. I wouldn't immediately suspect infidelity, but I've noticed that she's been spending more time

alone outside the house in the past few months, maybe around six months. She's been busy, but she used to be so upbeat, energetic, and almost giddy. About three or more weeks ago, things took a different turn. My wife started being around the house much more, but she seemed distant. Now she comes up to my office and hangs out with me, but she's constantly sad. It's like she wants to be around me all the time, which I appreciate, but her behavior is starting to worry me a bit. The strange thing is that our twins are also acting strange. They've become unusually sweet to me, offering to help with chores like taking out the trash, which is not their usual behavior.

It's as if they all know something that I don't, like I have some sort of illness or something, and I'm completely clueless. Their odd yet affectionate behavior started a few weeks ago, around the same time my wife's behavior changed. Two months ago, I happened to look at our Verizon bill and noticed a ton of texts between my wife and an unknown number. When I asked her about it, she claimed it was one of her girlfriends. However, when I checked her phone, there were no texts with that number at all. I questioned her again, and she said she had deleted them to save space, but I didn't see any other

threads deleted. The past six months have been strange, but the past three weeks have been even more bizarre. Yesterday, I made the decision to call my oldest daughter. I shared with her everything I mentioned in my initial post, and she assured me that she would talk to her sisters. You see, the twins really look up to her and are a bit scared of her when she gets mad. This morning, she called me back and said she had spoken to the twins. She's coming home this Friday for the weekend, so we can have a proper conversation. I told her that I can't handle being left hanging like this, as it's too much for my heart to bear. I pleaded with her to tell me what's going on.

She mentioned that it's bad, but it could have been worse. She reassured me not to worry and explained that Friday is the earliest she can come home to talk. She did mention that there's some good news amidst the bad. However, the twins made her promise to keep it a secret. It's important to note that my wife and the twins are unaware that our oldest daughter is coming home this weekend, and she explicitly told me not to inform them. She was very firm about that. I apologize for not having much of an update to share. It seems like I'll have to wait until Friday to find out more. Some of the responses I've received here and other threads I've read have left me terrified. It feels like stories like mine never end happily. I'm fearing the worst. thinking that my wife might have had an affair and the twins are aware of it. My daughter was being cryptic during our phone call and clearly wants to discuss this matter in person rather than over the phone. It turns out that the person my wife had an affair with

wasn't a co-worker or someone from her hobbies. Shockingly, it was a friend of ours, the husband of one of the couples we were close with. Needless to say, he will never be considered a friend again, and I'm determined to let his wife know about what happened. The twins caught my wife with him when she was supposed to be at yoga. They were extremely upset and confronted her about it. She assured them that she had no intention of leaving me or anything like that. According to her, it was just a fling. They both enjoyed the thrill of being like teenagers, secretly dating and sneaking around.

She didn't realize the devastating impact it would have. What she has put the twins through is almost unforgivable. As soon as the twins exposed the affair, my wife ended it immediately. She had planned on keeping the secret for the rest of her life. She told the girls that she should carry the guilt and that if she told me, it would alleviate her guilt but completely crush me, which it has. The girls agreed, and they were all set on keeping this secret. However, my oldest daughter became furious with all of them.

She went off on them in anger. I'm still processing everything that has happened. I packed a bag and left, causing my wife to break down and cry on the floor. I turned off the location services on my phone and drove about an hour away to a cabin in one of our state parks. Right now, I don't feel like talking to anyone. Only my oldest daughter knows where I am. She came to visit me today, and we had a good conversation. She expressed that it's not surprising for her mother to do something like this because she's always been a predictable stereotype.

My wife tends to follow trends, whether it's yoga, essential oils, CBD, or any new shiny thing that comes along she gets obsessed with it. Now, in her middle age, she's just becoming another stereotype. The twins are angry at their mother and worried that I won't come back home. Honestly, I'm not sure if I will either. Right now, I don't really want to talk to them either. My oldest daughter said she'll come home as soon as her semester is over and make their lives miserable. She had to leave a couple of hours ago to go back to school, and now the sadness is setting in. Here I am, a middle-aged guy sitting alone in a cabin, thinking I had my life all planned out, but now everything is uncertain.

I probably won't post about this again. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker.

Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. I'm going to stay here for as long as I can afford it and figure out my next steps. Update. I asked my wife to leave and give me some space. However, she responded with determination, saying, no. I won't abandon our beautiful life and love just because of my stupid mistake.

I'll fight for us with every ounce of strength I have and make things right. We can overcome this. I'm incredibly sorry, and words can't fully express how sorry I am. Please come home and let me fix this. Together, there's nothing we can't do. That's just how she is. It's always been her nature to be stubborn, so I'm unsure of what to do. I genuinely need some space.

Staying at this cabin has been really therapeutic, especially with its amazing hiking trails. However, I know it's only a temporary solution, and I eventually have to go back home. But I also know my wife. With the way she expressed herself, it would take an act of God to make her leave. On top of that, she won't give me the space I need.

If I go back home, she'll overwhelm me with her love and incessantly try, to wear me down until I go along with whatever plan she has in mind. Frankly, I'd rather stay away for a while. I need to be mentally prepared to withstand her onslaught of affection and rationalization because she's an expert in that. She's always reading those self-help and motivational books and browsing websites filled with that kind of stuff.

I made sure to pay for the cabin in cash for a week so that my wife wouldn't be able to track me down if I used a credit card. I already received emails notifying me that someone used a different device to access my credit card accounts, both of them. It's definitely her. I knew if I paid with a credit card, she would look it up and try to find me. I also had a conversation with the twins, assuring them that they were in a difficult situation, but it wasn't their fault. I made sure to let them know that their dad loves them. They mentioned that on Friday, Mom was a complete mess, crying uncontrollable.

However, by late Saturday, she seemed to shift into her I can fix this, we will overcome mindset. Supposedly, she's been reading everything she can find online about repairing a marriage after infidelity. That's just how she is. She tends to obsess over things. Personally, I just need more time alone to process everything. Update.

I used to commute back and forth from the cabin for work, but luckily, we're all working remotely now. It's actually a relief because I'm about 100 miles away from home. I've been allowing my wife to have a short phone call with me each night, just to let everyone know that I'm okay, but honestly, I don't want to be bothered. I prefer communicating with my daughters through text messages. It surprises me how many young people don't realize that smartphones can actually be used for making phone calls. Anyway, here's the thing. I know deep down, that I can forgive my wife, but honestly, I don't see a way for me to stay in this marriage and still maintain my pride as a man. Call me stubborn or bullheaded, but my pride as a man is

important to me. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how to keep that pride and stay in this marriage, but it feels like those two things are incompatible. If I want to hold on to my pride, then I have to divorce her because her actions have been a serious betrayal of our marriage and me. But if I choose to stay in the marriage, it means surrendering my pride as a man, and I don't think I can live like that. I don't even want to have a discussion with my wife about this because she has a way of twisting things around and making me agree with her logic within an hour. Have you ever met someone who seems to always get their way with everyone? Well, that's her. My best friend told me that as a guy in good shape, making decent money, and being nice, I'll have plenty of options with women our age.

Honestly, though, I think I'd prefer to be alone and live a somewhat selfish life for a while. I want to do what I want, eat what I want, go wherever I please, and not have to worry about anyone else. Unfortunately, my time at the cabin is coming to an end. I've been trying to find an apartment to rent, but it's tougher than I expected due to the ongoing virus situation. I told my wife that there's no way for me to stay with her and still maintain my dignity. I explained that if I stayed, I wouldn't be the man she claimed to love.

It would just make me feel broken and resentful, lacking any sense of dignity. I made it clear that we can't continue living like that. She responded by saying we can work things out and that I'm the only man she loves. I replied that obviously, our marriage isn't great if she did what she did. After a conversation, we both agreed that it's time to go our separate ways. I also spoke with my heartbroken twins, assuring them that I love them and will always be there for them. After deep reflection, I've realized that I can't stay with someone who betrayed me in such a way. My self-respect and dignity are important to me, and I would lose both if I stayed in the relationship.

I hope you enjoy this story. Spouse alleged that I was unfaithful with his sibling and requested a DNA test for our new baby, so I expelled him and initiated legal proceedings to end the marriage. Thus, I, a 29-year-old woman, just gave birth about three weeks ago and my son and I are currently living with my in-laws because of a horrible fight with my husband, Michael, 32, male. Michael said that he wanted me to get a paternity test two weeks after our son was born because he suspected that the child was his brothers. For context, his brother Brian, 29, and I went to college together.

Brian and I have been great friends ever since the first day of college and incidentally, it was through Brian that I met my husband, so I can't understand why he's so insecure all of a sudden. My parents live in Iowa and we went to college in Buffalo. Brian lived nearby and he once invited me home because I had been feeling very homesick in my first year. That's how I met Michael for the first time. Michael and I exchanged numbers but we didn't start talking until after I graduated college. We became friends and after that, we started dating after being in a relationship for almost four years, we got married three years back. And so far, everything has been perfect. We were great together and

Brian and I were still really close as friends. The three of us often hung out together in a group and Michael had never had a problem with it. It was only after I entered the eighth month of my pregnancy that Michael started acting weird around us. He started distancing himself from me and spending more time at work. I chalked it up to him being nervous about the baby and tried to fix the situation by trying to tell him that he would be a great father and that he had nothing to be nervous about. However, even that didn't seem to help so I decided to focus on my health until the baby was born. I believe that after our baby was born, he would start acting normal again but that didn't happen. He refused to spend any time with our son and always made up

some excuse not to be around us. He would spend most of his day at work and when he would spend most of his day at work and when he came back, he would tell me that he was too tired to be with the baby. I tried to put up with it, but when his behavior didn't change even after two weeks, I decided to confront him about it. One day, when he came back home from work, I sat him down and told him that I needed to talk to him about his strange behavior. He tried to convince me that he was just tired from work and stuff and that this had nothing to do with me or the baby, but I didn't buy it. I voiced my concerns and told him that if he didn't speak up and tell me what his problem was, then I wouldn't be able to stay with him anymore. Because it was really hurting me to have him ignore us like this.

So then he finally told me that he didn't believe that the baby was his and he suspected that I'd been having an affair with Brian and the child was actually his son. Now he wanted me to get a paternity test for our son. He had no reason to accuse me of something so serious because I had never treated Brian as anything more than a good friend, so it felt like a slap on the face when he said that he wanted a paternity test. I started screaming at him almost immediately because I had already been feeling emotionally unstable, thanks to all the post-pregancy hormones, and that combined with his strange behavior around us had pushed me to the edge. His accusing me of having an affair with his brother was the last thing that I needed.

When I started yelling at him, he told me that this was exactly what he had expected, which is why he hadn't brought it up so far and tried to walk out of the room. But that was really big and I wasn't going to let him drop a bomb on me and then walk away, so I demanded an explanation. He then told me that several weeks ago, when I had invited a few of my college friends to our house for dinner, he'd overheard a conversation between Brian and another friend who had stayed with him. Apparently, the two of them had been talking about how everyone had expected me to end up with Brian because we seemed to get along so well and Brian had just laughed it off instead of saying something to defend Michael.

I didn't even understand what he wanted Brian to defend him from because it wasn't as if saying that everyone had expected him to end up with me was an attack on Michael somehow. It isn't odd for people in college to think that friends of opposite genders might get together in the future and they were just gabbing about the past. It was harmless and fun but ultimately, it meant nothing. Because Brian was my friend and Michael was my husband, that should have been enough for him to feel secure. But he took that too hard and he began to believe that maybe Brian and I did have a thing going on.

That's why he had been acting so strange ever since the day of the dinner party. He was suspecting me of having an affair with his brother and being disloyal to him over a conversation. This episode is brought to you by Spreeker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple.

You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker. Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. ...that I wasn't even a part of.

It was insane, and I tried to explain to him that he sounded really stupid. But it didn't matter to him and he said that now that everything was out in the open, he wouldn't talk to me until I got a paternity test done and he knew for sure that the baby was his. Under normal circumstances, I never would have had an issue with a paternity test, but this just seemed ridiculously stupid. I couldn't believe that he was accusing me of cheating on him with his brother, even after being with me for so long. I was really angry and upset so I decided to take our son and leave the house.

He didn't even try to stop me as I left, but I said, soon realized that I had messed up because I had nowhere to go. I didn't want to go to any friend's house because then I would have to explain to them what happened and this was just very personal. I would have gone to Brian's place but that would just reinforce what Michael already believed and I didn't think that it was appropriate under these circumstances anyway. With nobody else to turn to, I decided to go to his parents' house since I was sure that I could count on them. They seemed to like me and they were my best bet after Brian. So the day that I left, after wandering around for a bit, I headed to my in-law's house and they gladly took me in.

When I explained to them why Michael and I had been fighting, they seemed really embarrassed and apologized to me on his behalf. But they also told me that it was really out of character for Michael to be so insecure, especially when it came to Brian. Because the two of them had always been close and never had the kind of crazy sibling rivalry that others do. And I agreed, it really was out of character for Michael to be insecure about his brother. The three of us were a tight-knit group and that's how it had always been. So this sudden change in Michael's behavior made no sense to any of us. Nonetheless, his parents told me that I was free to live with them for as long as I wanted to

and they would respect whatever decision I made regarding my relationship with their son. They told me that even if I decided to get divorced, they would support me but in the meantime, they would do their best to make Michael apologize to me and actually mean it. They kept trying to talk sense into him for a while, but on the third day, they informed me that they had decided to cut him off until he stopped acting like an idiot. This would be a problem for him because his parents were supposed to let him take over their family-owned textile business in a few months. His parents were retiring and he had been in the running to inherit their business.

But if they cut him off, Brian would end up inheriting it and since he had no interest in running a business, he would probably sell it off, but then Michael would get nothing out of it. But the truth was that my in-laws only wanted him to reconsider what he was asking of me and accusing me of scaring him into thinking that he was going to lose the business. They didn't really have any intention of letting the business go to Brian because they knew that he would sell it and they had worked hard to build a brand for themselves. They were obviously not going to throw it all away over my fight with Michael. They told me that they were just going to let Michael think that they were cutting him off for good

and eventually, he would come around and apologize to me. Then we could sort things out between the two of us, be it by getting back together or getting divorced. Their only goal was to make him apologize to me and talk things through with me and I appreciated that they were doing so much for me because I had nobody else to count on. I couldn't tell any of my friends and I definitely couldn't talk to Brian about any of this because this had a lot to do with him. So Michael's parents were the only ones keeping me sane. After his parents told him that they were going to cut him off, we expected him to reach out to me immediately to sort things out, but he waited for a day before contacting me. When he called me two days ago, I expected him to

apologize to me but as soon as I picked up the call, he started screaming at me and accusing me of trying to manipulate his parents into giving Brian control of the business so that the two of us could benefit from it because apparently he was my lover now. I could hear his voice cracking and knew that he had been crying which made me feel terribly guilty. He told me that he knew what I was trying to do and he couldn't believe that I was cheating him out of a business as well as his baby. He called me heartless and whatnot before I finally told him that his parents were not going to give the business to Brian. They were just trying to scare him into thinking exactly that so he would contact me and talk to me. He went silent for a while after I told him that

and then he said that I was just evil incarnate. He said that he couldn't believe that now I was even trying to turn his parents against him, just because he had valid concerns about the true paternity of the baby that he was supposed to be raising for the rest of his life. It was infuriating to hear him talk about how valid his concerns were when in reality. His only concerns stemmed from a stupid conversation that he had overheard. I tried to argue with him, but he told me that instead of wasting both our time by fighting, I could just do the right thing and get a paternity test. He accused me of being manipulative to get my way and told me to keep his parents out of this. I just feel helpless and have no idea what to do anymore. Ida for not wanting to get a paternity test?

Update 1, I decided not to go through with the paternity test and instead, filed for divorce. It's been one crazy week since the last update and so much has happened that I don't even know where to start. But first things first, thank you so much for all the comments and the advice. Now, coming to why I have decided to get a divorce from Michael. After that last phone call with him, I confided in his parents and told them that their plan to scare him into apologizing and sorting things out with me had backfired miserably and now things were even worse than before. I also told them how he had accused me of manipulating them but they reassured me that they

were happy to have me because I was the mother of their grandchild and even apart from that, they had known me for the longest time and they loved me because I was a part of their family. and since I lived away from my parents for Michael's sake, it was their duty to take care of me and look out for me when I was going through a rough patch. Hearing his parents say such nice things about me made me feel less lonely and more sure of myself. So after talking to them, I decided to tell my parents and Brian about the situation because my in-laws didn't want their opinion to be the only one that I was taking into consideration. Since other people might have a better idea of how to go ahead. When I told my parents about what Michael had said, they told me that

they would support me regardless of what decision I made. The only reason nobody was telling me to leave Michael, despite how obviously wrong he was, was because of our son. I hate to say it about my son, but having a child with Michael is really complicated because I had to think about our kids' future before I made any decision. And then I had the most difficult conversation of them all when I spoke to Brian about what was going on. When I told Brian about what his brother had accused me of and asked him about the conversation that he had overheard, he started looking really uncomfortable

and I realized that both of them knew more than what they were letting on. So I pushed Brian and forced him to tell me what he knew because I was sure that he was hiding something from me and so was Michael, since people don't just start suspecting their wife over something so petty. A lot of you in the comments had also suggested that there might be something that Michael was hiding from me because it just didn't add up. That after years of being okay with my friendship with his brother,

he was suddenly not fine with it out of the blue. There had to be more to the story that he wasn't letting me know, but I had been too caught up thinking about the consequences of whatever was going on at the time, as well as looking after my son, to really consider things like this. But yes, Brian told me the truth and now I hate both brothers because I couldn't even imagine people could be capable of being this stupid and heartless. Apparently, when Michael had overheard the conversation, he had also heard what happened after Brian laughed. Brian had said to that friend that even he had expected that the two of US would get together after college, but life had other plans and his brother got in the way. So Michael was actually mad about that, not just because

Brian laughed it off. And that made a lot more sense because Michael's version seemed a little too petty and incomplete to me. And the reason I didn't find out about it until now was because Michael had promised his brother that he wasn't going to tell me what he heard that day. Brian had been discussing this with his friend in the backyard and he hadn't seen Michael standing around but as soon as he heard what Brian had said, Michael went up to him and confronted him about it. That friend went back into the house but even he didn't tell me anything later on, which I can forgive because he and I are not as close as I am to the others, obviously. When Michael confronted Brian and asked him what he had meant when he said that he had expected

me to get with him after college, Brian ended up confessing that he had feelings for me and had been waiting for us to graduate so he could ask me out because he knew that I had a strict no dating policy until I graduated. But I ended up getting together with Michael instead and that had been his first heartbreak, but he dealt with it somehow and tried not to let it show because he wanted us to be happy. And I have to say, he did a pretty good job. Because for so many years I never had a clue that he had feelings for me and neither did Michael. Brian was the one who begged Michael not to tell me about it because that would ruin our friendship and he didn't want that to happen. So Michael stayed true to his word and didn't tell me about what Brian had said that day.

But Michael still had second thoughts about me and my relationship with Brian and began to suspect me. He knew that even if we did have a thing together, asking Brian would lead nowhere because he would just lie to him and get away with it. My guess is that he started getting paranoid after the day of the party but since he had already promised Brian that he wouldn't bring it up with me, he just started distancing himself from us altogether. And over time the paranoia just got worse, which is why he started accusing me of absurd things

and demanding a paternity test for no reason. I'm guessing at what happened, but I don't know what exactly was going on in Michael's mind for the past couple of weeks, ever since he found out about Brian and his feelings towards me. Regardless of what he was thinking, it was ridiculous of him and I was not going to stand for it. It made no sense to me that he would rather cover This episode is brought to you by Spreaker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio.

If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it.

For his brother, then just talk to me and clear the air with all of us. It's actually crazy and I can't think of one rational, logical explanation for any of this. Getting a divorce was the only option that I had because it had become very clear to me that there was no going back from here. I'm not talking to Brian anymore, but I'm still living with his parents, who have been kind enough to let me stay with them and even get me a lawyer because it's their kids who got me into this mess and they feel responsible for everything that's happening to me. They have been really supportive and helpful and I couldn't be more thankful that I have such great in-laws. People like this are truly rare to come by. I have filed for a divorce and

and soon enough Michael will be served. He and I haven't spoken since that phone call where he told me that getting a paternity test is the only way out of this. I guess he hadn't counted on me to file for divorce because I hadn't brought it up, since at the time I still believe that we could work past this. But that was stupid of me,

there is no way we can work this out. He is being insane right now and I don't think that's the kind of energy that I need around me as a new mom, still struggling to adjust a life with a baby. If he would rather cover for his brother and make me the bad guy by suspecting me of cheating on him with Brian, instead of just doing the normal thing and talking about it, then I don't think he deserves to be a husband or a father. He can stick to being a good brother and a good son, I'll handle the rest since our family doesn't mean as much to him as the one he was born into.

Update 2, hi, guys. So Michael was served with the divorce papers today and he didn't see it coming, I have no clue why. He called me and asked me if I was really going to separate from him rather than just taking the easy way out and getting a paternity test done. So I told him that I knew exactly why he was upset because I had spoken to Brian and he had told me the truth. I told him that he was acting insane by covering for Brian instead of being transparent with me and telling me exactly why he was suspecting me. He replied saying that he had promised Brian that he wouldn't tell me because that would ruin our friendship and when I asked him if keeping that promise was worth ruining our marriage, he said that it was because apparently he believed that he owed this to Brian. But he couldn't just shake off the feeling that something was going on between us.

He said that he couldn't talk to Brian about it since he didn't think he'd get the truth from him because the guy had been hiding his feelings from everyone for so long. It was unlikely that he would be honest now. And neither could he talk to me since he had made a promise. So he started overthinking stuff and that's how he ended up having a total meltdown on the day that I confronted him and demanded a paternity test to confirm if the baby was his. He said that my reaction just made him feel worse and he started believing that I actually had been having an affair because if I didn't have anything to hide, then I would just have

got the paternity test done. I tried to explain to him that this wasn't about me wanting to hide the truth, but rather because of how insulting it was to me that he didn't trust me and was suspecting me of something so awful. Even though I had already filed for divorce, I tried to explain to him that keeping that promised to his brother and not being honest with me had cost him his marriage and the chance of having a happy family. He was also not even speaking to Brian anymore, so what was the point of all of that? But Michael was not ready to listen to Sense and kept insisting that this was somehow my fault for not getting that test done when I still had time. He said that I should have been more understanding because he was in a tough position, that I didn't even know of at the time,

and he couldn't bring himself to ruin Brian's friendship with me because that was his brother. and neither could he live with the fact that there might have been something brewing between Brian and me and the child might not be even his. He said that I should have realized there was a lot going on and at least tried to alleviate his worries by getting the paternity test done instead of making such a huge deal about it. It was an extremely frustrating conversation and after a while, I gave up trying to make him see my side of things. He was clearly too hung up on his own insane anxieties to consider that maybe even other people had feelings and he had deeply hurt mine. To him, some promise that he made to his brother was far more important than his wife and

child and yet, he suspected this same brother to be the father of his kid? It didn't even make sense and even while I'm typing this out, I feel like I'm going to cry because of how ridiculous this situation is. If I'm being honest, I think there might be something wrong with Michael because I can't think of any sane human being acting out like this. If I was a person, I was a person who I was a in his place and I suspected that Brian had feelings for me, I would never have made any promises because my family would be my number one priority. And by family, I don't mean my brother but the family that I chose for myself, my wife, and my son. And even if I did promise my brother that I wouldn't ruin his relationship with my wife, I still wouldn't let myself go crazy

and end up accusing my wife of cheating on me just because I was insecure. The fact that he wanted a paternity test only because he suspected me completely based on his feelings, with nothing to substantiate his fears, is what makes it even worse. Even today, the conversation that we had was completely based on what he was feeling at the moment and he didn't even seem to care that this marriage had two people in it. And a divorce was going to affect both of us, not just him. He also didn't ask about our son and how he was doing. Which was very upsetting because when all of this is over, my son might not have a father figure

in his life, through no fault of his own. It's these two brothers who messed up and for some reason, the universe is punishing me and my son for it. It isn't fair and most of it doesn't even make sense really, but it is what it is. My parents are flying down in a couple of days to meet me because things are getting really awful. Michael's parents are still not speaking to either of their sons and they have started to consider cutting both of them off permanently because they find all of this incredibly disappointing. They're considering letting one of their employees take over the business instead of of Michael. I definitely think they should cut Michael off, but I don't know about Brian. He hasn't

done anything terrible. He was just honest with Michael for once and Michael was the one who let it get to his head and messed up his marriage. That's not on Brian, but it's his parents' decision and I'm not going to interfere there. I'm just grateful that they are standing up for me. It might have something to do with the fact that they do want to see their grandson after the divorce, but regardless of everything, I still love and respect them because they have gone above and be and their attempts to make life easier for me right now. I don't think I would have been able to stand up for myself and file for divorce had it not been for them.

It's crazy how supportive they are, even when it's their own son that they have to go up against. Update 3, Michael isn't contesting the divorce and he also doesn't want custody of our son, regardless of paternity. So that's what's happening right now. I'm not surprised, but I'm still quite disappointed. But at least I have an explanation for his behavior. now. He reached out to his parents a few days back and told them that he had been to see a

psychologist a few weeks ago, around three days after I moved out. They did a complete psychological evaluation and medical exam and he had been diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder very recently. It had taken several sessions with the doctors, but they had finally concluded that this is what was going on with him. It was shocking news for all of us because he had never exhibited any symptoms of mental illness before, so this had to be a very recent development. Or maybe he had and we had all just missed it. There's been a lot of revelations about Michael and Brian in the past couple of weeks so right now, I'm inclined to believe that maybe I didn't know these people as well as I thought I did. Regardless of the medical condition,

I still think that I have no reason to forgive him because he hasn't apologized to me. His mental state can be an explanation for his behavior, at best, but not an excuse to do whatever he pleases and say whatever he wants to. He didn't even have the courtesy to inform me himself he told his parents and that's how I got to know. Apparently, he has also been fired from his job for not showing up for one week straight after I left and he needs money to cover rent, which is another reason why he contacted his parents. I thought he might be lying about the anxiety disorder but he had all the legitimate medical documents to prove it, so I guess it's real and this is happening. In a way, I think it's for the best if he doesn't get to be

be with me or see his son for a while, not until he's better at least. The divorce proceedings are about to begin in a couple of days. My parents are already here and were all living together in my in-law's house, who have been gracious enough to open their home, even to my parents. I just pray that everything falls into place soon and I can regain some sense of normalcy in my life now. I hope you enjoy this story and attempted to have my six-year-old daughter cover a substantial cost for not finishing her meal. As a result, I had to ask her to leave the premises. I am in disbelief that this situation unfolded. I assumed you were informed. About such stories on the internet, hear people talk shit about old people, but I'd never

think that this could actually happen to someone. My F-28 aunt, F-55, has been a miser as long as I have known her. She will never host any family dinner, gift us off the dollar. tree, and have her kids get hand-me-downs or thrift store-bought clothes. After her husband died, and her children moved out, things took such a dramatic turn that we had to essentially cut her off, at least to some extent. The most important reason is her constant demand for money. She'd often call family members, friends, and even her own mother who was in her 80s for money. She has all sorts of reasons ranging from emergency to a quick buck to her check being late. We have all let it slide since the beginning, but this time she really crossed the limits.

Would you ask a six-year-old to pay you for a tiny mistake? I don't know, but this issue has escalated far more than I thought. Hence, I decided to post my story. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't. Talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster.

The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. As I said before, my aunt has always been the one to be as cheap as she could. It is no wonder that no one wants to visit her.

Unlike most of my siblings and extended family members, I've respected her. I tried to help her as much as I could, thinking of her to be family. Sure she might be a miser, but I thought she was a sweet lady. We would exchange pleasantries from time to time and have a phone conversation every once in a while. My husband even helped her set up her garden last summer, that too free of charge. I also visit her sometimes whenever my schedule allows me. And in her own words, she'd always be grateful. Given her history, though I was quite surprised when she asked to have my six-year-old son, Sam, come over for the weekend.

I mean it's not like we don't visit her, but she has never shown me. much interest in our kid before. Despite my better judgment, I thought maybe she wanted to build a relationship with my kid. After all, we had always been on good terms. I did not think too much of it. Sam seemed excited to visit his great aunt and husband and I decided to have a date night. We hardly get to go out since work has been hectic past few months. Now let me clarify that before deciding this I had an extended conversation with Sam about how he has to be a good guest. I do not like to brag, but Sam is a quiet and respectful kid. I went over all the General House rules with him and he seemed happy to oblige.

I even called my aunt to get a heads up and she seemed happy enough. She told me to enjoy some peace for the evening and she'll take care of Sam. We packed him a small bag and dropped him off last Saturday. I called my aunt after coming back from the date and she said she cooked Sam's favorite meal, mac and cheese, and he was happily watching TV. I wished Sam a good night and that was it. Imagine my surprise, when I visit her the next morning to pick up Sam and I see him looking scared and teary-eyed. My mama bear instinct immediately kicked in and I asked him what was wrong. Aunt seemed stern and quiet too and I admit for a minute I thought maybe Sam had been up to some

mischief, although knowing my son, he's a pretty quiet kid. Sam didn't respond and was looking at me with great fear. To de-escalate the situation, I asked Sam quietly if he could go sit in the car while I had an old people talk with my aunt. He seemed relieved to hear that. The poor thing was looking so scared all this time. He seemed happy to leave as soon as I gave him the get-go. However, my aunt immediately blocked the front door. And then, looking at Sam dead in the eyes, she says, don't you have something to do before you leave? What did we say about bad manners. My son was trembling now. I couldn't have any more of it and asked my aunt directly what this whole ordeal was about. She then goes on to tell me that last night Sam had been

unable to finish his dinner and as a result, and I'm not kidding when I say this, this grown-ass woman asked my six-year-old kid to pay her for the food wasted. Apparently, Sam had told her about a small amount of money that we let him keep in his bag in case he needed to buy something when he was with other people or in case of emergencies. I had let Sam bring his money and he also wanted to bring his piggy bank with him because that had his savings from the money that he got on his birthdays and other family events and he really wanted to show it off to everyone. Aunt had known about this because, well, kids talk and now she had demanded him to pay her off.

So now she wanted him to pay for the food wasted and also for other bad manner things that he did throughout the day, basically asking a six-year-old to pay a huge sum just for being a kid. I was beyond furious. In what world did she think this was appropriate? And no, she had not an ounce of guilt for terrorizing a kid over such a small issue. My son looked so confused and scared. He immediately began apologizing saying, he ate as much as he could. He promised me he was on his best behavior as we had taught him to be.

I tried to comfort him, but my aunt started screaming over me. She said she was just teaching my kid to be responsible. That I should know better than raising an entitled kid. At that moment, I felt so angry I just wanted to go off on her, but I didn't want Sam to get more upset. I tried to be as patient as I could and told him to go sit in the car. After Sam left, I asked my aunt as calmly as I could if she knew what she was doing. To this, the woman started screaming again and basically told me that I should pay her and let

this go. But I wasn't going to let this go. I knew she was a cheap person, but she had taken it too far. It wasn't about the money, you guys, it was the fact that she had proceeded to scare and scream at my child who was most likely traumatized from this event. So, I did what I knew would scare the hell out of my aunt. I immediately called my grandmother. Let me tell you, grandmother has been nothing but kind to aunt even though aunt has hardly kept a relationship with her in all these years. As I said before, all of my aunt's kids have essentially cut her off owing to her nature. A few years back, my aunt had lost her home due to late payments and the house she was living in right now belonged to my grandmother. She is the sweetest old lady and had lived in a two-bedroom

house that belonged to her husband. She let my aunt live in this house rent free. However, I knew for a fact that my grandmother loved us more than anything. She was always the one to stand up for the right thing. I called her then and there while Aunt kept screaming at me. After hearing the whole story, my grandmother told me that she would be coming over herself. I didn't stay there any longer and took my son home that day. Fast forward to the next day, I showed up at her house with Grandma. As soon as my aunt saw her, she knew she was done. Grandma walked up to her and told her in the calmest voice ever that she'd better pack up. My aunt was shocked. She had anticipated getting an earful from her mother, but she had never thought she'd be asked

to vacate the house. She tried her best to backtrack by saying she would apologize to us and would never do it again but Grandma wasn't having it. She said she had enough of her tantrums for all these years. She had crossed the limit when she decided to exhort money from a six-year-old and that to her own grand kid. When apologizing didn't work, my aunt resorted to screaming again saying that we had plotted against her and that we hated her. We didn't stay any longer, though. Before leaving, Grandma just told her to pack her shit or she'd have her evacuated in a week.

It has been a few days since then and from what I hear, and is being forced to leave Grandma's house. She has nowhere to go, and because of her reputation of being a miser, no one is letting her stay with them. I wasn't initially doubting myself, but I've been getting calls from our extended family that I went too far. They say I am trying to draw a wedge between a mother and a daughter. I don't think so, but my intention wasn't exactly to make her homeless.

I just wanted her to feel guilty. Did I go too far, Reddit? IDA? Update 1, guys. Thank you for all your support on my last post. I am sorry I could not reply to most of you. Like I said before I have a busy schedule and I was already tired of everything that happened last week. Many people messaged me asking if Sam was okay and y'all are so kind.

I thought I must update Reddit. Some of you've asked about my husband's reaction to this particular incident. You can only imagine how furious he was. In fact, he wanted to confront her that day itself. He is really protective of us. But I calmed him down as I knew my own plan was the best for dear aunt. I wanted to make her understand how wrong she was. A few spoonfuls of dinner wasn't the reason for her going this far.

All she wanted was to extort money from us. And she tried to use my own kid in her ploy when I've been nothing but kind to her for all these years. First things first, Sam is doing better. He was really scared that day and even cried his way home. He thought it was his fault. I asked him about the dinner and he told me he finished most of it but aunt served him more, saying he should eat it all because he cooked only for him. I was baffled. I comforted him and told him sometimes adults mess up. He was quieter than usual that day, but has since recovered.

Husband and I took him on a fun day out with his best friend and so far he is doing fine. As for my aunt, well, I haven't talked to her since visiting her with Grandma. I talked with a few of my cousins though and as word has it, she's pretty upset about how the situation turned against her. My sister told me she is trying to badmouth me to most family members, but I don't really care about it anymore. Like a lot of you mentioned, she's probably sour about losing a free house. And given her history, no one wants to shelter her. That is probably the reason why they're angry with me. I am angry too. The more I think about it, the more I want to lash out at her. If I am being honest, I don't regret involving Grandma one bit.

She deserved the karma to hit her back. I talked to Grandma later on and she said she was sure of her decision. She had let Aunt get away with everything all these years and the least she could have done was be grateful. But instead, she tried to take it all out on a little kid. This was in no way, a civilized behavior. Hence, she deserved to face the consequences of her act. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives,

and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com.

Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. After all, she didn't even call to apologize. I gave her plenty of chances, but she uttered a half-ass sorry, in that too when she was afraid of losing her home. Anyway, I am not going to focus any more of my energy on her. I have had enough of this negativity. I am trying to focus on my family for now, but I'll surely update you if something new ends up happening. Update 2, hello everyone. It is me with the aunt's story again. I didn't think I'll be still talking about it two weeks later but oh well, shit hit the fan. I have a pretty interesting update that I would love to share

with you. And let me tell you, it is going to be wild. Turns out, my aunt is not homeless after all. Sometime after my last update, my mother called me. She told me that she has let aunt live with her while she finds a place in her budget. I did not stop her as she already knew all about her. As fate would have it, she could not keep her around for long. As per my dad, my aunt would keep bad-mouthing me. She would call people and tell them that I wasn't a good mother and I was raising an entitled child. She wouldn't even clean up after herself.

Apparently, she thought my parents should help her as much as she wanted as it was their daughter who got her into this situation. She still couldn't see her own fault. I couldn't believe she was the same woman I knew. Anyway, my dad had enough of it. He told her to leave his home as she was not being a respectable house guest. Of course, she screamed at him too, but my father is a level-headed man. He just asked Mom to help Aunt Pack and call someone else in the family.

Mom initially took her side but quickly switched when Dad threatened to leave if Aunt stayed. I don't blame him. Who could stand their own children being badmouth like that? When Aunt refused to leave, Dad called me. He asked me about it and I told him the whole story again, to which he was dead shocked. He told me he didn't even know how aunt tried to use Sam to get money. Mom had tried to keep peace and just told him that Sam was being a brat and aunt had tried to parent him.

She told him I got upset and called my grandmother to intervene. This new piece of information made me much more angry. I felt as if my own mother betrayed me. And Dad got more furious when he heard me cry. He threw my aunt out that day itself. With nowhere to turn to, my aunt called my grandma again. She begged her to let her live in the house as she didn't have anywhere else to go to. Grandma had already heard enough about her trying to badmouth me and she basically chewed her out.

Aunt kept pestering her, and I guess she melted a little bit. So, she offered my aunt an out. She told her that there was only one way she would let her stay in her house again and that was if she paid the rent and maintenance for the house monthly. Turns out, Grandma was covering the maintenance and electricity bills for Aunt as well. And now, she was being asked to not only cover it herself, but also pay the house rent. Grandma said it was only fair after she freeloaded for all these years. She thought it was the only way Aunt could pay back. Last I heard, my aunt took on the offer. What else could she do? I am simply amazed at how the

whole drama has unfolded. I mean, she could have kept her mouth shut and none of this would have happened. I hope this is the end though. I would love to put this all behind me. Let's hope I won't hear something new. Update 3. Hello Reddit people. Thank you for all the love and support you all have been pouring in. This community has been my rock since the incident happened. I know I responded to a few comments, but people have been showing support nevertheless. I am back with another update because I owe it to you guys. You all have possibly saved my life. Many people warned me after my last update that dear aunt was not going to let this go.

That she might try to corner me again, and I should be on the lookout. Your concerns were not wrong. Soon enough, my dad called me again and said that my aunt had shown up at my parents' house after Grandma served her the ultimatum. He told me that while he couldn't talk to her directly, She tried to wind up a fight. She was constantly asking my mom to intervene and tell me off. Luckily, my mother took my side and told her to go away.

Dad threatened to call the police, but she left. And then the inevitable happened. A few nights ago, I thought I heard footsteps on my front porch. I thought I was being paranoid at first until someone started banging loudly on my door. It was six in the morning. I was too afraid and I woke my husband up. He accompanied me and we looked up in the CCTV that it was my aunt. She looked angry and vindictive.

Husband wanted to confront her, but I felt this wasn't right. I know she was just an old lady, but somehow I knew she could do much more harm than we could have anticipated. There was no way I was going to let her come inside in case she tried to harm my family. I just called her on the phone and asked her what she wanted. Her response was to start berating me constantly. She called me a little B word and I stayed quiet. I wanted to let her finish so I allowed her to shout as much as she wanted and after that, told

her that we had already called the police. I lied that I knew it was her and had already called the police before calling her. This got her to quiet down. She told me she had not expected this from me and that she'd come back. This was when my husband took the phone from me. He threatened her saying, she dared not step on our property again as we would get her arrested on grounds of trespassing. By the look on her face, she knew my husband was serious.

Thankfully, she left right away. Since the incident, I have been immensely paranoid. I am worried for my family. The way my aunt showed up at our door has gotten me to rethink my decisions. I can barely sleep at night. We even changed our locks just in case. Luckily, her showing up here didn't escalate into a fight and Sam was fast asleep. I can't imagine what could have happened in case he hurt her.

We have tried our best to not let this affect our child. He seems to have forgotten that the sleepover incident happened in the first place. I hope that's true. The other thing that I am worried about is the safety of some of my family members, especially grandma. I asked her to come live with us for a few days because I don't believe she is safe. After all, she did all this to protect me. But my grandmother refused profusely. She said she knows her daughter and she will not do anything. We are still trying for her to change her mind. Lately, I have been feeling guilty about it too. I can't help but think that this situation

could have been avoided if I had paid her in the first place. Update 4. I swear I'm tired of writing about this woman. My son might be six, but his tantrums are nothing before the one my aunt has been throwing around for days. It has been a month, and I can't believe I am still writing about this. Thus, I decided to end this once and for all. Let me tell you what happened last week. After she showed up at our house that day, I managed to convince some of her side of the family to talk to her. I was concerned about her own mental well-being and was worried she could be a threat to herself and to others. I also didn't want to put my grandmother through any more stress. The best way to do that was to help my aunt move on from this. A few weeks ago,

my mother gathered some people together at my aunt's house to discuss the matter. They tried talking to my aunt and helped her understand that what she did wasn't okay. She was even promised financial assistance until she could cough up the rent and charges on the home. The whole point was to bury the hatchet, and at first, it seemed that she was getting it. I wasn't there, for fear of what might have happened if things got out of hand, but as my cousin says, and was ready to apologize and even promised to do better. My mother made her see that. All these years grandma had single-handedly supported her and everyone in the family had helped her with money one way or the other. This seemed to be working and my aunt said she was sorry

things had come to such a head. She then, however, goes on to tell my extended family that she will put this all behind us if I am ready to pay her for the damages. According to several family members, she believes that she lost a lot of self-esteem and her respect was damaged because of my family and she now wants me to pay her a huge monetary sum to compensate for that damage. Of course, most people were baffled at her demand but some even chose to side with her. They said that none of this would have happened if I had paid her the very first day and Grandma wouldn't have asked her to move out, let alone pay rent. After this whole drama, I decided to take the reins in my own hands.

As soon as my parents and everyone else told me about this, I called my aunt and informed her in no certain terms that I wasn't going to pay her a single penny. That if she wanted to go to the court, she was free to go. As always, my aunt did not take it well and decided to threaten me. She said she had a talk with her lawyers and that they were going to make me pay as she had some door cam footage from the day I showed up at her house. It sounded so ridiculous that I laughed in her face. I told her that throughout the whole ordeal, I had been nothing but kind to her. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain.

Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives. and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones.

Start your show today. at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. ...ocations, and she had repaid the kindness by traumatizing my family, yet I forgave her for the sake of Grandma. But now, enough was enough. I told her that if she did not let this go or tried to stir up any more trouble for my family, I would surely press charges against her on grounds of harassment. Luckily, I haven't heard anything since then, and my parents say that my aunt seems to have mellowed down. I don't know this for certain, but it seems like she actually tried to get

legal advice. One of her friends is a lawyer and she told aunt that her case would be laughed off in court. This got her thinking and she decided to let the whole thing go. So far so good. I am just grateful for this to end. Needless to say, we are cutting all contact with her from now on. As for my grandma, she has been living with us for a while. I asked her to move in with us for a few days and she happily obliged after Sam begged her to. And they have been inseparable since the day she moved in. Even right now, they are baking cookies together. This is the only good thing to have come out of this scenario.

I feel so grateful to see my family enjoying being together in peace. I hope you enjoy this story. Mill despised me and embarrassed me at her celebration, so my spouse and I decided to stop providing her with five. financial support. However, she reciprocated the gesture. My husband's mother Sharon has always harbored negative feelings towards me. I have no idea why, I guess nobody is really good enough for her darling son. And she did not like the fact that in spite of her clear disapproval of me, my husband still chose to be with me. We have been together for three years and one year ago,

we got married. Initially, my husband and I really tried to get her to like me, but she was always too high and mighty to care. She treated me like dirt and most of the time when I would visit, she would pretend like it was not even there, or else, she would act like I was completely unwanted. The only reason my husband and I would even visit her before we got married was because my father-in-law was very sick, but he was a good man. So, in order to spend time with him before he passed away, we would try to visit as frequently as we could. Unfortunately, my husband lost his father three months after we got married, but he had been sick for a long time, so we were just glad that he was able to watch his son get married before he went away. After his demise,

we also reduced our visits to Sharon significantly. It had been made very clear to us that she did not approve of our relationship and even on the day of our marriage, all she did was sulk about it. So if she didn't like me, we were going to make sure that we stayed away from her. My husband still stayed in touch with his mother but did not visit her as much as he used to. The reason he stayed in contact with her was because his father had left everything to him and only the house to his mother, so it was his responsibility to fund his mom. He would send her money monthly since she had been a stay-at-home mother for the majority of her life, and only her husband had worked. She didn't have any money of her own, she was completely reliant on my father-in-law. and after his passing, she would have to rely on my husband to maintain her lifestyle.

However, my husband did not want her to know that his father had left no money for her, so in order to spare her feelings, he told her that his father had left instructions that all the money was to be directed to his son, but on the condition that he would have to take care of his mother, even though there was no such condition. And before you guys ask, we don't really know why my father-in-law did not leave any money to his wife. From what we knew, they tolerated each other when they were together. I wouldn't call it a happy marriage, especially at the point when I got to know them, but they were together, and I guess there was no reason for him not to leave anything to her apart from the house. Anyway, after my father-in-law passed away, it was my

husband who had been taking care of his mother because even though we did not share a good relationship, I did not feel comfortable, and neither did he feel good about cutting her off entirely, and leaving her on her own. So while we reduced our visits to her house significantly, he still continued to take care of her, and I feel like that in itself should have made her feel a bit grateful towards her son. Unfortunately, I don't think it had that effect. Last week, my husband was out on a business trip, and out of the blue, I received an invitation to Sharon's birthday party. That was really surprising because so far, I have never received any invitations to any of her events, and it's always been an invitation to my husband saying that he is allowed to bring A-plus,

just to make it clear that she doesn't even acknowledge my status as his wife. But this time, the invitation was addressed to me in particular. I was very confused, so I spoke to my husband about it first, and he told me that he had received an invitation as well, but he had received that much earlier, and it was clear that my mother-in-law was inviting me as a second thought. He told me that he had made it very clear to Sharon that he would not be able to make it to the party

because he had a work trip that was more important, but if I wanted to go, I would be free to attend. Before that, he suggested that I should speak to Sharon on the phone and ask what this is all about because it's really confusing. So I took his advice and I called Sharon and I asked her about the invitation, and she told me that she was inviting me to make amends. She said that she was well aware of the fact that she hadn't exactly treated me well in the past, but she wanted to fix that because I knew that we were together for the long run,

and if my husband really loved me, then she wanted to be respectful of that and wanted to give me a real chance. I was very skeptical about attending because so far, the kind of relationship that we had, it hadn't exactly been pleasant to deal with her. But on the phone, she told me that she was really sorry about the way she had behaved with me, but she had spoken to a couple of her friends and had come to the conclusion that she really needed to step up as a mother and as a mother-in-law and do better. So this was her way of trying to make it up to me by extending an invitation to her birthday party and asking me to attend, so we could bond. And I know, I really shouldn't have gone or fallen for her act, but I felt like she was being

genuine, so I decided to attend. It was a terrible decision that I really regret now, but anyway, the next evening, I got dressed and I went to the party. I expected to be created personally by Sharon, but to my surprise, she had hired a doorman for her party, and right in front of me, he went through the guest list and told me that my name was not on the list. I was really confused, so I even opened the invitation to the party on my phone and showed it to him but to my surprise, he told me that what I had received was not even the actual invitation and he told me that somebody must have tricked me. That should have been my sign to go home, but I was genuinely willing to give Sharon a chance. So I just stood there, and I called her up and told her

what was going on. She then came out a couple of minutes later with a bunch of her friends. and I thought that she was going to tell the doorman that I was a last-minute edition and invite me in. But instead of doing that, she started yelling at the security staff to throw me out and said that she didn't even know who I was. Her group of friends who were standing behind her were struggling to control their giggles, so I knew that this was pre-planned. But Sharon took her role very seriously and she started shouting about how she did not want any gatecrashers at her exclusive party, and it was only meant for her close family and friends. And since I was literally nobody, she made a couple of really hurtful comments about how she can't

just allow any sort of filth to enter her house and I walked back to my car in tears before the security staff had to intervene. I didn't even say anything that day, mostly because I couldn't bring myself to do it since I was crying so hard. I drove a couple of miles away from the house before completely breaking down inside my car and calling my husband up to tell him what had just happened. He heard me out patiently and consoled me, even promising me that he would cut his business trip short to come back home earlier than he planned so he could be there for me because this had obviously been a very humiliating experience for me. I could tell that he was very upset with Sharon, but he did not let his anger come through, while he was talking to me

and just focused entirely on comforting me. So, I literally had no idea what was about to happen the next day. Anyway, I came back home that day, and I blocked Sharon. where that I could possibly think of and promise myself that I would never ever speak to her again or even give her a chance to speak to me. The first thing that I did the next day, I speak to my husband on the phone, and he told me that he was coming back the day after. But while I was on the phone, somebody showed up outside my door and they were shrieking their head off when I went to check. I was really not surprised to find Sharon out there because I had expected her to show up at some point, but I did not know what she was screaming about until I heard her out. And I realized

that she was telling me that she was going to take us both to court and make sure that we paid up. I had no idea what she was talking about, but luckily, my husband was on the phone, and when I asked him, he told me that the night before, he had sent a message to her. And in the message that he had sent to his mother, he had said that he was going to cut off her funds now because if she couldn't respect him or his wife, she had no business taking money from us. He told her the truth, that her husband had not left her anything and all the money that my father-in-law had, it went to him. But I guess she hadn't yet put two and two together, and she still thought that her husband had left instructions for her son to take care of her

for the rest of her life. And that's why she had shown up at my door, screaming about how she was going to take us both to court and make sure that she got the money she was owed. After speaking to my husband, he told me to just call the cops and that's what I did. I called the cops and had her escorted off the property but did not press charges against her. I was very pleased with the situation because the way she had treated me was unacceptable and I was glad that she was getting her karma for it. She had humiliated me and now she was going to have to look out for... This episode is brought to you by Spreeker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining our

feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones.

Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Herself, because as far as I knew, she did not have any money and had been expecting her husband to leave her something. At the time, I did not think there was anything wrong with what we were doing, and even when my husband returned, we were fine with our decision to cut off her funds and make sure she stayed out of our lives. But then, two days back, she sent us both an email saying that she was really sorry for her. what she had done, but she needed our help to survive because she literally did not have anything and she was counting on the kindness of her children. Referring to both my husband and I, I could tell that she was trying to butter us up and it did not seem very sincere, but now that I think about it,

there is nobody to take care of her unless we do. And yet, I don't really feel like telling my husband to get back in touch with her or anything. We haven't even spoken about it yet, so I don't know what he feels, but I have been having a lot of mixed emotions on this topic. So Ida for wanting my husband to cut off my mother-in-law's funds after she insulted me? Update 1, hi, so first things first, I have received a lot of comments, calling me stupid and stuff for wanting to give my mother-in-law a chance. I would just like to defend myself and say that I had genuinely and truly wanted to believe that maybe she was sincere about wanting to make amends with me. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone has an ego, and she is definitely not the first mother-in-law in the world to treat her daughter-in-law badly. But I have heard of people who have corrected their behavior and I thought that it would be the right thing to give her one chance, at the very least.

Which is why I went to her party and I do regret it now, but I don't think that I did anything wrong. I was the victim in the situation, not the perpetrator, so I don't think it's fair to hate on me for being somebody who likes to give second chances. That's just who I am as a person and I'm not stupid or gullible, I'm just a normal human being. Besides, I had spoken to her on the phone before attending the party, and she had sounded very sincere. So the act that she had put on was so good that I literally felt like I did not have any reason to doubt her intentions. I feel like we have to give her some credit as well since she manipulated me quite well. Me attending her party and wanting to give her a second chance, shows the kind of person that I am, and her taking advantage of my decision and

humiliating me shows the kind of person that she is. That's the end. of it. Anyway, I don't want to talk more about that, I just wanted to defend myself before more people started sending me hate. I have discussed it with my husband and while both of us regret whatever happened at the party, we are just glad that it brought out her true colors, and we know what kind of a person she is now. Not that there was any doubt about it earlier, she was still terrible but now it's just more obvious. And we also spoke about the email that she had sent both of us and realized that both of us had been feeling equally guilty after it. But after talking it through, we realized that the only reason she was reaching out to us was not because she was sorry,

but because she needed money to maintain the kind of lifestyle that she had so far. So she could pretend that we were her children all that she wanted, but the truth of the situation was that she did not have anyone else to count on and we were basically just her meal ticket. We pretty much stopped feeling guilty after we realized that even though she did not have any money that had been left to her by my father-in-law, she definitely had some money. We spoke to the lawyer who had been the executor of my father-in-laws while he did not tell us why exactly no amount of money had been left to my mother-in-law, he did tell us that she did have a certain amount of money in her bank account that her husband had transferred to her before he passed away and if she was really

struggling. She had a bunch of really valuable stuff that she had purchased and she could always just sell it. Worse comes to worst, she could approach her family for money and ask them to take care of her. The bottom line was, it was not necessary for us to keep funding her, even after she was so disrespectful towards us because it wasn't like she couldn't survive without us. She just didn't want to because she did not want to spend her own money, that's how she had been her entire life. She wanted to portray herself as a helpless damsel and distress so that my husband and I would take pity on her and keep sending her money, even if she continued to treat us like crap. And for a while, she had us fooled and had completely manipulated us into

feeling guilty for her, but we were not going to allow her to manipulate us again. She is a bit of a master when it comes to that, but we are also aware of her tricks and now, it's going to be very difficult to fool us. It has been one week since she sent us that email and we haven't responded to her yet. Neither are we going to, we are going to continue to ignore her because we don't want anything to do with her. If she stops living such an extravagant lifestyle and living beyond her means, she is going to be able to make it work with whatever money she is right now. We are not going to take pity on her and help her out anymore because she had lied to us about being helpless in the first place. Honestly, I just feel relieved that I don't have to

deal with her anymore because it had been very difficult for me to maintain the balance between hating her and still somehow dealing with the fact that she was going to be a part of my life through my husband. But now that he is done with her, I'm feeling a lot better about things. He was never a mama's boy to begin with, let me just make that clear but like any other son, able to take care of his parents and that's why he had stayed in touch with her. Unfortunately, it's very obvious now that Sharon does not deserve it. She could have had a very easy life if she just tried to play nice with me, but what can I say? Some people are just not clever enough and let their egos get in the way of what's good for them. Update 2, hi, so it has

been two weeks since Sharon sent us both that email and after that, she did not contact us for a really long time. Yesterday, though, while my husband and I were having dinner, she showed up at our house once again. I was about to call the cops again, but this time, she was not yelling at us. Instead, after ringing the doorbell and making herself known, she just started crying at our doorstep. At that point, both my husband and I were really confused about what to do because this could be another one of her tricks to manipulate us into feeling bad for her and guilt-tripping us into continuing to support her.

But on the other hand, she was sobbing on our doorstep and I think anyone in our place would have felt just as bad. So after a brief discussion with each other, my husband and I decided that we were not going to open the door, but we were going to try and be gentle with her because the cops on her while she was in the state would not be a good move. We spoke to her through the intercom and told her that we were willing to give her some time to pull herself together and leave.

But if she did not take that opportunity, we would be forced to call the cops. And we really didn't want to do that a second time. So now it was up to her what she wanted. She replied, saying that she did not want any money from us. She just wanted to say that she was really sorry. She knew that this apology was coming a little too late, but now that she did not have anybody.

She had realized how important it was for her to have her family around her and she couldn't exactly fill that void in her life with extravagant parties and time with her friends. because even her friends had families of their own who loved them and spent time with them. So even if we did not want to send her money, the least we could do was at least visit her sometimes because she really missed us and mostly, her son. We did not know what to say, so we just stayed quiet and she continued to talk after we did not respond. She said that she was also apologetic for the fact that she hadn't been completely honest with us. She hadn't told us that her husband had indeed given her some money before he

passed away. But to be fair, we haven't been entirely honest with her either. She brought up the fact that just to spare her feelings, her son hadn't told her that her husband had left her absolutely no amount of money. And in a way, it was fair, but she felt like both of them had lied to each other and let each other down. And that needed to stop if we were going to be a healthy and happy family. So she wanted to be truthful with both of us and said that a reason she did that awful thing on the day of her birthday to me was that all her life, she had believed that woman would ever be good enough for her son. She hadn't approved of me because I was too outspoken, too bold, and too ambitious. Which, I guess, is true. But I really don't understand how that was supposed to be a

problem in our marriage. But anyway, that's the reason why Sharon had never approved me. And when she realized that her approval did not mean anything anymore, since my husband was head over heels for me, that made her resent me even more. She said that she had had to sacrifice a lot when she was married to her husband and they were never in a happy marriage, but she was content with him. And somewhere or the other deep down, she had started imposing the same burden of expectations onto me. And when I did not try to live up to those expectations, she started hating me. She hated the fact that her son loved me so much, which meant that she had serious issues, but she was willing to work through them so she could maintain a relationship with us because

she did not want to lose the only family she had. I thought that was pretty raw and real of her, but we are still wary of her. So after some silence, I told her that we would think about what we wanted to do, but for now, we just wanted some peace and quiet to mull this over. After that, she left and before leaving, she apologized to us for one last time. Right now, both my husband and I are very confused and have no idea what to do. So we are here. Any sort of advice on what to do will be really appreciated because we are completely lost. We really, really don't want to get manipulated into anything again, but we also don't want to be heartless. Honestly, neither of us has any clue what to believe anymore and I guess out of all the things that she said, she was

definitely right about the fact that my husband's family had to stop lying to each other and keeping secrets. Update 3. It's very ironic that in my last update, I had said that my husband's family needed to stop keeping secrets from each... This episode is brought to you by Spreker. The platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process... Simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing.

Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. To other. And in this update, I'm still going to be standing by that statement. because what we have uncovered is so serious. So apparently, the reason my father-in-law's lawyer had been refusing to tell us the reason why my father-in-law had not left Sharon any money was because he had been giving explicit instructions not to tell us the truth. However, that was not really official or formal, it had just come from my father-in-law as a friend. So since there was no

binding document, he was free to tell us the truth, and since we kept pestering him, he was forced to. I don't know why, I just had a gut feeling that getting to know the truth about this situation would unravel a lot of things and I was right. Apparently, the money that Sharon supposedly had was not something that her husband had left her, but it was her affair partner. She had been having an affair with one of her friends from college, who used to be smitten with her back then and still was. Sharon had never spoken about it while the guy she was having an affair with was still alive but three years ago, around the time that my husband and I had started dating, she lost him to a heart attack. He did not have any family of his own, so he had left everything to her and my father-in-law

found out about it much later, when Sharon finally told him the truth a couple of months before he passed away. At that point in time, there was not much that he could do, and he knew that he was dying so filing for a divorce would be pointless. So he decided the only way he could get back at her for this was not to leave anything to her apart from the house and leave all his assets to his son instead. He left the house to her on purpose, so she wouldn't suspect anything and wouldn't try to contest the will after he was gone. And we also found out that whatever Sharon had said to us about having to sacrifice a lot while she was married to her husband, that had also been a load of BS. My father-in-law had given her the option to work after she got married and gave birth to my husband,

but she was the one who said that she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. The only thing she had sacrificed in her entire life was dignity because, throughout her life, she always got somebody else to carry her weight. Anyway, now that we know the truth, we also know that she was putting on an act the day that she came to our house to tell us that she really missed us. I'm glad that we did not bother to reach out to her after that because that would mean that we got manipulated once again and we would feel pretty stupid if that happened. She's a liar, cheater, and an overall terrible human being,

and the farther we stay away from her, the better it is for us. Update 4, hi, so Sharon tried to contact us again, even though it has been one month since we last spoke. I guess it has to do something with the fact that I recently announced my pregnancy on social media, but she pretended not to know about it in her email. She said that she was really looking forward to hearing from us because she thought that it had been enough time since we last spoke and by now, we should have been able to come to a decision about what we wanted for the future.

And she was right. It didn't really take us long to come to a decision about what we wanted, and what we wanted was for her to stay away. So we sent her a message, telling her that we knew everything about her affair and stuff and we did not want anything to do with her anymore. We told her that if she was all on her own right now, it was because she deserved it. She had never valued anybody in her life, and the only person that she genuinely cared about was herself.

So she should be grateful that right now, she gets to spend time with her life. with the only person she loves, herself. If she runs short on money, she can always find another man to have an affair with and rely on him instead. But for now, her son is done with her. It was a really harsh message, but it had to be said because she has bothered us enough and now that we are embarking on a new chapter of our life, we need our peace. And we need her to stay the heck away from us. I'm pretty sure that this message is not going to deter her and and she's definitely going to try again in a couple of months when I'm in the later stages of my pregnancy but my husband and I have already spoken about that possibility and decided that if she

bothers us anymore. We are going to just file a restraining order against her and hope for the best. We are also planning on moving out of this house into a new one and we're going to make sure that nobody gives out the address to her because, with a baby on the way, we need a bigger space. Anyway, I'm just looking forward to being a mother and I can't wait to start afresh. forward slash forward slash. I hope you enjoy this story. My stepmother has been taking my milk from the freezer while my infant is struggling in the neonatal intensive care unit, and when we discovered her actions, I was overcome with anger. Marbles

I'm a new mom to a two-week-old baby boy who is fighting for his life in the NICU. He arrived early and has been in intensive care since birth. I know I had about ten full bags in there yesterday, but when I did, I checked that night, there were only eight bags. I frowned, pulled everything out, and counted twice. Two bags were just, gone. Each bag is about six ounces of milk. That's 12 ounces missing. My first thought was that maybe my husband took some to the NICU earlier or moved them. He hadn't, when I asked, he looked as confused as me. We only bring one or two bags a day to the hospital, and I'm the one who usually grabs them. He hadn't touched the freezer stash.

My next thought was maybe one of the nurses sent us home with milk and it's still in my cooler bag. I checked, nothing there. Lo and behold, I just got home and there are only nine bags now. Three bags gone in one day. That is 18 ounces of my milk gone without a trace. I haven't confronted her yet. I feel a mixture of anger and absolute bewilderment. If it is her, what the heck is she doing with it? It's not like she can feed it to my baby without me knowing. And we have no other babies around. The only semi-innocent explanation I can think of is maybe she thought some older dated bags were expired and threw them out to help. But I would have seen them in the trash, and I didn't. Or maybe she spilled some and was too afraid to tell me. But three whole bags spilled.

That seems unlikely. I did casually double-check the kitchen trash just now, gross, but I had two. There were no milk bags or bag fragments in there. She didn't dump them out in the sink either. As far as I can tell, there's no smell or residue. The bags are just gone. It's late and mill is already asleep in the guest room. I'm lying here in bed wide awake.

I know stress can make you paranoid, but but I am 100% sure someone is taking my breast milk out of our freezer when I'm not here. And the only person who could be doing that is my mill. My husband is just as baffled. When I told him more bags vanished, his initial reaction was, are you sure? That's so strange. I stayed quiet but inside I have this sinking feeling that she's lying. Something is off.

Her reaction was too dismissive, if that makes sense, like overkill Humee? Never. It gave me goosebumps. But again, I have zero proof except missing milk and my gut feeling. My husband seems unconvinced that she'd do anything so strange. I don't want to start a huge fight in my living room without evidence, especially not while our newborn is in critical condition at the hospital. The last thing we need is family drama. But here we are. I'm going to try to get to the bottom of this quietly. Tomorrow, I plan to keep a very close eye on that freezer. Maybe I'll mark the bags or count them with mill so she knows I'm watching.

I'm also considering setting up a camera in the kitchen, which feels so extreme, but at this point I need to know. I'm so confused and frankly creeped out. Who or what is taking my breast milk? And why? I haven't slept properly in days, and now this mystery is eating at me on top of worrying about my baby. Update 2. First, thank you to everyone who commented and messaged after my first post. I didn't expect so many people to take an interest in my weird little breast milk mystery,

but your support and suggestions have really helped. Now, onto what happened today. And oh boy, things happened. This afternoon, I was at the NICU as usual. My husband had gone into work for a few hours, he just started taking a few shifts again, since our baby's situation has stabilized a bit. Mill was alone at our house. The motion alert hadn't pinged me, I probably had bad reception in the hospital, but there she was, standing by the freezer on the live feed. I discreetly walked out of the NICU pumping room to really watch. On the video, I see Mill rummaging in the freezer. She takes out all of my breast milk bags, sets them on the counter, and then. I'm getting angry just typing this. She started to

starts filling a large Ziploc cooler bag with them. It's like a lunch cooler bag, and she's loading all my frozen milk bags into it, one by one. I was watching on my phone, this was no I accidentally knocked one bag into the trash situation. She was intentionally stealing bag from my stash. There was no ambiguity now. The blue tape bag?

I saw it go right into her cooler. I was so shocked and furious I almost threw my phone. Instead, I fumbled to take a screen recording of the footage, in case she somehow deleted the cam or whatever, I was paranoid. Then I immediately called my husband, whisper shouting, because I was still in a hospital hallway, that his mother was literally stealing my breast milk at that very moment. He was stunned, to say the least. He basically said what?

That's insane. Are you sure? This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin

swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. I told him I had it on camera and I was watching her do it right now. A few minutes later, husband called me from his car. He was almost home and had seen his mother's car driving in the opposite direction away from our neighborhood. They literally passed each other on the road. He turned around to follow her, but I guess she wasn't going far because she pulled into a shopping plaza just a block away. By the time he caught up and parked, she had gotten out and was carrying

the cooler bag into a small storefront. Now, this part is where things go from weird to outright absurd. The storefront she went into was one of those little craft and hobby shops. My husband didn't want to confront her in public without knowing what was going on, so he actually parked and waited, watching from a distance. I was on the phone with him the whole time, frantically biting my nails and demanding updates. He saw her through the shop window talking to another woman and handing over the cooler bag. At this point, I was practically screaming into the phone, grab the bag, see if the milk is still in there. He must have heard my faint voice or just had the same thought, because he told her to open the cooler.

She clutched it and refused. So he grabbed it from her. Yes, he literally took the cooler out of his own mother's hands in the middle of a parking lot. She protested and even tried to get it back, but he opened it up. It was empty. Not a single bag inside. My husband told me he has never been so furious and confused in his life. He told her, it's empty.

Where did you put the milk? What is going on? So they drove back, separately. I had to stay at the hospital with our baby, absolutely losing my mind with anger and disbelief. I was so livid I was shaking, and I don't care if that sounds cliche, it's the truth, I was a mess. The amount of betrayal I felt. I can't even fully describe it.

This woman was under our roof, pretending to help, and all the while literally stealing from her sick grandchild. and for some hairbrain soap scheme? I left the hospital a bit early once my baby was stable and sleeping, because I needed to be there for the confrontation at home. On the drive, I was alternating between yelling to myself, trying to rehearse what I'd say. By the time I walked in the door, Mill and my husband were already in the kitchen, sitting at the table.

I didn't even say hello. I just said, why? Let's just say Mill had reasons for doing what she did. but none of them make this any less horrific. I'll post the full rundown of our talk and what we're going to do about it very soon. Thanks again to everyone who's been following and offering support. I have the proof now, at least. Update 3.

I've had a few hours to calm down and I'm back to explain what went down when I confronted Mill face-to-face. When I last left off, I had just gotten home to find my husband and Mill in our kitchen post incident. Initially she was speaking in circles about trying to help and not wanting to upset me, etc. But the gist of it is, Mill has a friend, the woman at the shop, who makes handmade soaps and lotions. At some point, they got the idea to create a line of soap made with breast milk as a key ingredient. So Mill, being the helpful soul she is, pouting face emoji, decided that my milk would be perfect for this. Why mine? because I was producing a lot and the baby wasn't drinking all of it.

She said she noticed I was pumping more than the NIC you needed each day, and she thought I wouldn't miss a few bags here and there. Those were her exact words, delivered in a whiny, self-pitying tone, I wasn't sure he would survive, dear. I'm sorry. I just didn't want all that to go to waste if, if the worst happened. I had to literally hold up my hand and say, stop. Just stop talking for a minute, because I needed a second to not explode.

My husband went rigid and said, Mom, I cannot believe you just said that. He looked like he was about to either burst into tears or start yelling, or both. I told her, so you secretly decided my child was a lost cause and that it was better to steal his milk for your little soap project? Do you hear yourself? Mill started crying again, I didn't say that. I didn't say he was a lost cause.

cause. I prayed for him every day. I was just trying to be practical. You have to understand, I did hope he'd make it, but we have to be realistic. The Neke is touch and go and I thought, well, in case. In case he didn't, maybe the milk could at least serve another purpose. At first, she tried to make it sound noble. They were going to market it as a specialty skin care product, and she said, I was going to put some of the proceeds aside for you and the baby, I swear. She insisted she only gave her friend two cooler bags worth of milk so far. From what we saw, a cooler bag worth seems to be about 20 to 30 ounces at a time, and she's done it twice over a week or two. I challenged her on the money aspect, so you were

selling it? How much per bar? Did you actually get money yet, or were you just experimenting? She claimed they hadn't sold any yet. They were still testing the soap formula and planning the business. But then why did she so urgently deliver the milk today? She said an online acquaintance, a man, apparently, was interested in trying a sample bar, so they wanted to make a small batch to send to him. My husband had been mostly quiet, but here he interjected, looking horrified. Wait, you're telling me you two have been soliciting strangers on the internet with this? What kind of of men are buying soap made out of someone's breast milk. Good question, hubby. Mill got defensive and said, it's not like that. These are just skin care enthusiasts. Some men take breast milk

supplements for health, you know, and others think it's good for the skin. It's a niche market. At this point I couldn't hold back the disgust, so you have men online wanting to rub my breast milk on their bodies and you thought that was okay? My voice definitely rose at that. Mill started with the waterworks again, wailing that I was making it sound gross and she never told anyone whose milk it was, just that she had a source. Oh great, that makes it much better, random men are lathering up with my milk, but at least they don't know it's mine. It's disturbing, it's a complete violation. She just kept saying sorry in a very non-committal way, like she was sorry we found out and got upset, not necessarily sorry for doing it. In fact, she then got

slightly angry defensive and blurted out, well, what about all the milk that just gets thrown away at the hospital or at home if he doesn't use it? Lots of moms make soap from extra milk. I thought you'd eventually do the same or donate it. I didn't think you'd even notice a few bags gone since you're making so much. I literally put my head in my hands. This line of reasoning was unbelievable. My husband said, Mom, that wasn't your decision to make. And you lied about it. Do you not get how wrong this is? She went back to apologizing and said she got carried away with the business idea because money is tight for her and she thought she could make something good come from the tragedy of the baby being sick. I asked her if she has actually

made money yet from this. She said no, they hadn't sold anything significant. She claims all they did was a test batch and gave a few free samples to some folks in her online craft community to build interest. She swore that if it had started making money, she would have given us some portion for the baby or for hospital bills. Honestly, I don't believe that for a second. I think she's just saying whatever might make her look less awful. And even if she did plan to share profits, it's completely irrelevant. You don't get to steal someone's property and bodily fluid, for God's sake, and justify it because you intended to cut them in on the deal later. At one point I asked her bluntly, would you have ever told us if we hadn't caught you?

She paused and then admitted, probably not. At least not unless the business became successful or if. If the worst happened with a baby. There it was again, her presumption that my child might die. As if that outcome would somehow make what she did okay because I wouldn't need the milk. I think hearing that out loud, from his own mother, broke something in my husband. He just slumped in his chair and looked defeated. I was beyond furious and told her, get out.

I can't look at you right now. I cannot believe you. She started to protest, reaching her hand out like she wanted to touch my arm or something. No. We are done here. Get out of my house. I cut her off. I didn't yell, but I was deadly serious.

She looked at my husband for backup. I guess, but he just shook his head and said, Mom, you hurt her. I think it's best you leave now. I had to sanitize my kitchen after she left, because the thought that she was messing around in here with my milk just made me feel dirty. I know that's a weird reaction, but I can't help it. I tossed some of the milk storage bags that were left out of paranoia. I don't think she tampered with them, but I just can't even look at them without thinking of her now. We have a lot to figure out. I'm beyond angry and also heartbroken that this is what I have to deal with on top of worrying about my baby.

My husband is furious and hurt as well. I can tell he's in shock that his own mom would do something so deranged. There's really no other word for it in my mind. This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't. talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster.

The good news is, Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at Spreaker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Right now, Mill is banned from our house and from seeing us or the baby.

Not that the baby is available to see a NICU anyway, but she will not be visiting him with us. That's for sure. I told the NICU staff that she is absolutely not allowed to visit if she tries. She hasn't tried to, as far as I know, but I wanted it on record just in case. They assured me only parents are typically allowed in NICU unless we give permission, so no chance of her getting in. Small relief We haven't decided what the long-term relationship with Mill is going to look like. For now, I don't want to see or speak to her at all. My husband is deeply hurt, but I know it's still his mother, and this is a lot for him to process too.

He did say he's on my side 100% and he wouldn't forgive her until and unless I do, and maybe not even then. So at least we're united. I'll do one more update soon to let you all know how things settle and what steps we take next. Some of you have suggested legal action or other measures. But for now, I need to try to cool down and focus on our baby. The good news, and I need some good news, is that our little one is doing okay in NICU at the moment. In fact, I just got back from a late-night visit and he held my finger and opened his eyes. I'm more determined than ever to give him everything I can, and I'll be damned if anyone,

even Mill, takes that from him again. So much has happened, and my emotions have been all over the place, but here's where things stand now. First off, Baby Update, our little guy is still in the NICU, but he's a fighter. He gained a few ounces, which is huge for a preemie, and the doctors are cautiously optimistic about his progress. After we kicked her out, she went radio silent for about. 24 hours. No calls or texts to me, she probably knew I wouldn't want to hear it. She did send my husband a text the next day. I saw it, he showed me without me even asking, because we agreed to be transparent.

Was my first snarky thought. Of course that's impossible. What's done is done. Also, her text, while apologetic, still included a lot of self-biddy, I hate myself for this. I was just blinded by trying to help. I don't want to lose you too, and so on. It felt like she was making herself the sad victim of her own scheme. We didn't respond immediately. We needed time to cool down and decide how to handle this. My husband and I talked at length. We considered a lot of things. Could this be forgiven? Under what conditions? How do we ensure the safety of our child and my milk supply going forward? What about the soap business? Is she going to continue it with someone else's milk?

A few of you asked if we planned to take legal action. We looked into it tentatively. The idea of suing or pressing charges against Mill is uncomfortable, obviously. She did steal from us multiple times, and technically the value of breast milk could be argued, people do sell it, after all. The police probably would look at us like we're crazy if we said my mill stole my breast milk. It's not a common scenario. We did document everything, though, I saved the video footage, the screen grabs, and we have our text

communications. So if we ever needed to go that route, we have evidence. Instead of going straight to legal measures, we decided to try a more personal approach first. My husband called his father, my Phil, who, by the way, lives in another state and is not very involved. He and Mill are divorced. We let him know, in case Mill turned to him or in case we needed his support. He was as shocked as anyone and basically said, whatever you two decide, I understand. She really messed up. He also mentioned this isn't the first time she's had questionable judgment with a business idea, though obviously this situation takes the cake.

Apparently a few years back she sank a bunch of money into some MLM scheme and he had to bail her out financially. So, not the greatest track record, but nothing on this level. After a couple days, when we were calmer, my husband and I agreed to talk to Mill one more time, with conditions. We laid out ground rules that this was just a conversation, not necessarily a reconciliation. I let my husband lead initially. He told her we were both still very upset and that what she did was a massive breach of trust. She, of course, started crying softly and repeated.

her apologies, this time with less deflection. She said she knows there's no excuse and she's so ashamed. I asked her a few pointed questions that were still nagging me, are you still planning to continue this soap business? She shook her head furiously and said, no, no, absolutely not. I have my doubts that the friend might try to find another source, but that's beyond my control. I did look up the friend's small business site, it's like an Etsy store, and there's no mention of breast milk products anywhere, so maybe it really was still in trial phase. I have no way to verify unless I stock random dudes on the internet for reviews of breast milk soap. Yeah, no, thanks. I told her plainly I don't really believe that she destroyed them, and even if she did, it's too late. Someone else

already handled my milk in a manner I never consented to. He made it clear that while she's his mother and he loves her, what she did was not something we can just sweep under the rug. It will take a long time, if ever, to rebuild trust. He also said something that made her cry harder. Mom, I'm a father now. My priority is my son. And right now, I don't feel my son is safe with you, not because you'd physically harm him,

but because you don't respect boundaries. If you could do this behind our backs, what else are you capable of doing with our child when we're not looking? I can't put him in that position. That hit her hard. She was shaking her head. head and saying, I understand, I understand. She asked if she could ever possibly earn our trust back.

I responded, that ball is in your court. But it's not happening anytime soon. And it may not happen at all. The damage is that bad. I was calm but firm. I also told her I'll be focusing on our baby and my own recovery, and I frankly don't have the mental bandwidth to deal with her feelings on top of everything. So she needs to give us space. She asked if she could at least get updates about the baby's health. Up until now, we have been giving her daily or near daily updates since she was staying with us and presumably caring. Now obviously that's stopped, we said we will let her know if there's any major change, but we're not going to be chatting casually every day. I suggested she lean on some friends or other family for support in the meantime.

Not the details, I was too embarrassed to admit the full story, but I told her I lost some of my stored milk due to an accident and asked how to boost production to replenish it. She was very kind and gave me some tips and extra pumping sessions at the hospital to help make up for the loss. Bless Nikki nurses and staff, they are truly amazing. I wasn't sure if Mill had made a copy of our key at any point. We had given her a key while she stayed, obviously we took that back, but who knows if she's secretly copied it. It might be overkill, but again, peace of mind. My trust in her is shattered,

I wouldn't put anything past her right now. My husband is still processing too like me. But we try not to dwell on that detail because it just leads to a spiral of ickiness. At the end of the day, it happened and we can't undo it, so focusing on baby's health and our little family's future is what's keeping us sane. Some of you asked if we've considered going public or shaming her online or something, since she was going to sell online. Honestly, I don't have the energy. Also, a part of me doesn't want to forever mark my child's grandmother as that crazy lady who made breast milk soap in the public sphere, for my child's sake. I doubt anything will come of it, but it made me feel a bit proactive. I just hope Mill truly sticks to shutting it down.

If I ever catch wind of her trying something like this again, you can bet I won't hesitate to scorch that earth, legally or publicly if needed. For now, though, I'm letting it rest. I've said my peace to her. She knows the consequences. It's on her to do the soul-searching and change, and any penance she sees fit. My focus is on my baby's upcoming heart surgery, yes, on top of everything. My sweet boy needs a minor surgery next week, it never ends, but prognosis is good,

and on trying to take care of myself so I can be there for him. I hope you enjoy this story. Relatives deceived me in the legal proceedings, leading to the loss of custody of my son. Presently, they are seeking assistance from me following a betrayal by my former partner. I covertly captured their admission of guilt on tape. Hello. So this is going to be kind of long because there is a lot of context that I have to mention for everything to make sense. I, 33F, got divorced a couple of months ago, but it had been in the works for almost a year.

I met my ex-husband James through friends when I was 25 and after dating for two years, we decided to move in together and get married. His family was a little conservative and traditional and did not approve of live-in relationships, so we had to get married if we wanted to stay together. And I really liked James, so I didn't see a problem marrying him. My parents were also on board with... This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster.

The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps, your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Spreaker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it.

That decision, and so we got married. Within a year of living together, I found out that I was pregnant and we were overjoyed. It felt like our family was really coming together and everything was kind of falling into place. But unfortunately, when I announced that I was pregnant, my in-laws started pressuring me to quit my job and focus on being a mother. It didn't make it any easier that my job was not very lenient with a maternity leave

and since it hadn't really been a long time that I had been working with them, my maternity leave would be especially short. So at the time, I weighed the pros against the cons and decided to quit my job. It was not a decision that I made alone, everybody had been a part of it. James and his parents kept telling me that it would be the best decision in the long run, and I simply had to do it. James seemed pretty sure of everything and said that he would take care of the family, I didn't have to worry about the money.

He would bring enough home and all that I had to think about was raising our kid. My parents and my older brother also thought that it would be for the best if I quit my job and stayed at home because that's what my mother had done. And even though she had the choice of going back to work, she chose not to because this was a priority for her. I had a lot of pressure on me from both sides of the family. So I decided to quit when I was in my second trimester. Everything had been going well and I had full faith in my husband that he would never let me down, which is why I left my flourishing career to be a stay-at-home mom. However, soon after my son was born, I realized that there was something strange about the way James

had been behaving in the last few months of my pregnancy. I could never quite put my finger. I could never quite put my finger on it, but there was something off about his energy and everything. Sure, he seemed happy when our son was born, and I thought things would go back to normal, but instead, it started getting worse. He started being very irritable around me and any time I would try to talk to him, he would just snap at me. The only time that he seemed happy and content with life was when he was playing with our son, but other than that, it always felt like he was very annoyed to be at home with me. so he would spend long hours at work, and even on the weekends, he would consistently come up with some excuse not to spend time with me. I just couldn't understand what was going wrong,

but I kept trying my best to make our marriage work because unlike him, I loved him and I didn't want to give up on us. This trend continued for about two years after my son was born. He would stay at work for way longer than he needed to and even when he was at home, he wasn't really with me. I couldn't exactly complain about it, because every time I would try to talk to him about it, he would just tell me that he was really tired from work and it was not an easy task for him to be the sole breadwinner for the household. And that was really insulting for me because it wasn't as though I was not capable of bringing home money for myself, but I had to rely on him because he had promised me that he would make

it easy on me. A couple of times, I even asked him if he would prefer for me to go back to work, so then we could split all the expenses and he wouldn't have to take so much pressure, but he would be but he said that it was an insult to him and his capabilities. Besides, my in-laws would never approve of it and we would be in for a really hard time with them if I went back to work. So I continued to stay at home and raise my son, which is pretty much the only thing that brought me joy because James had changed, and he was no longer the man that I had married.

It was only about a year ago that I found out that James had actually been having an affair with one of his co-workers. It had been majorly difficult for me to find out about because, honestly, I was a lot of I had been kind of suspicious about it for a long time. I had even snooped through his phone and laptop a couple of times when he was asleep, but I found nothing. I knew all his passwords because he wrote them down in his notepad, but even that didn't help, it almost felt like he had nothing to hide.

And I felt like an idiot for even being suspicious of him. I even went through his belongings to look for a burner phone or whatever, but I again, found nothing. At one point, I had actually started to believe that maybe a I was just being paranoid and insecure, but the universe had my back and the proof of his cheating was something that I saw for myself. James and I were throwing our son a pretty grand birthday party about a year ago and he had invited the co-worker. He had been cheating on me. She was a single mother with a son around my son's age, so I didn't find it strange that he had

invited her. He had also told me that she was a really close friend of his so I didn't find it unnecessary at all. After my son had cut his birthday cake, I decided to go to the upstairs bedroom because I wanted to change into something more comfortable for the party, but when I walked into my bedroom, I realized that my husband was already in there. And so was his co-worker, on his lap. They were full on making out when I walked in on them and it took me a couple of minutes to even process what I was witnessing. First of all, it was my bedroom that the two of them were going in and that was the most horrifying part of it. And secondly, they didn't even break apart

when they heard the door opening. So I had to walk all the way over to them and make my presence felt for them to snap out of it. I'm pretty sure that they thought that it would be fun to make out in my bedroom, in my house, just for the thrill of it, but they probably didn't count on me having a complete breakdown over it. I'm not proud of it, but knowing that what I had been suspecting for so long

was actually true made something snap inside of me. I grabbed the coworker by her hair and started dragging her outside the room, and I was unstoppable from what I was told. James is considerably stronger than me, but he couldn't stop me and I don't even remember most of it because I think I had a rage blackout. I dragged her downstairs with me with James right behind me, and pushed her into the middle of the room, while everyone was there. I don't remember most of the things that I said, but apparently, I called her a bunch of

derogatory names and told everybody what she and James had been getting up to and my bedroom. I didn't even care that my son was right there and so were a bunch of his friends. Now that I look back on it, it's extremely embarrassing and inappropriate, but at the time, that didn't even occur to me and I was just screaming at the top of my lungs. My parents, my brother, and my in-laws were also present there, and I think it was my father who finally calmed me down and took me back to my room. Once I was inside my room, I completely broke down and started crying. I was sobbing up. I was sobbing. I was sobbing, uncontrollably, but instead of staying with me and comforting me, my dad locked me inside my room

and went back out. I guess I should have known instantly that my parents didn't care about me. I had always known that they cared more about appearances than being real, but that was just insane. Nobody came to check up on me for the next couple of hours and even after I had calmed around considerably, I had no idea what was going on outside. I didn't even have my phone so I couldn't even ask anyone. It was only after midnight that I was escorted out of the room by my brother, who didn't even ask me how I was doing. They probably would have made me stay in the room for longer if I hadn't started banging on it like a crazy person. When I came out, I asked my brother what had happened after I had been locked in and he told me that pretty much everyone cleared out after

my breakdown. He also said that James had left with his parents and my son and the only people in the house at the time for me, my parents and him and he had let me out of the room so we could discuss what we were going to do about this now. But my family's idea of a discussion meant telling me that I had to apologize to all my guests for the way that I had behaved at the party. And not just that, but I also had to apologize to my in-laws and James for what I did. They told me that he had found it extremely difficult to convince his coworker not to press charges against me because what I had done was an act of physical violence against her. So now, I owed it to him to talk about this and work things through instead of making this a big deal.

I freaked out at them and told them to get out of my house because I was not going to allow them to stand under my roof and tell me that I had to apologize to my cheating husband. I got into a huge fight with my family because they were telling me that I owed it to him to make things right and give this marriage a second shot, or else, they would cut ties with me. So I told them to go ahead because I had reached a point where I couldn't care less about what anybody else thought of me. I was going to file for divorce and get out of this mess and I didn't need anybody's permission for it. So I contacted a lawyer the very next day and filed for divorce within a week of the incident. James was served soon after, and he actually had the audacity to be disappointed and shocked. He came back home the day that he was served with the divorce papers and demanded an explanation. I told him that there was no way that I was going to take him back after

what he had done and the way he had insulted me. We got into a nasty. verbal argument where I said a lot of things to him and called him a lot of names and he ended up promising me that I would never be able to see my son again. But I didn't realize that he would actually ensure that he lived up to his words. Then, the legal battle began. The divorce proceedings were easier and simpler compared to the custody battle since we had very few joint assets to speak of. The house belonged to me and there was no question about it because I had purchased it with my own money. Everything else was going to be sold and the cost would be split between the two of us. We just had to wait for six months due to the waiting period in our

state, and after that, once we had come to a settlement, the divorce would come through. The only thing that we couldn't agree upon was the alimony that was due because I had to start from scratch since he had forced me to quit my job and I didn't have enough money of my own. He thought that I shouldn't get any alimony at all, but of course, that was not possible since he had told me that he was going to help me and make sure that I never felt the need to work. Thankfully, I had a couple of texts to prove that, or else I might not even have been able to get that alimony. The divorce process was emotionally easier for me to deal with because, in my head, I had already disconnected from James. But the custody battle is what really screwed me up because, unfortunately, my parents and my brother...

This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSSESXOR. feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing.

Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Decided to stab me in the back for money. My ex-husband and his lawyer were horrible people who started making a case against me for being a terribly careless and psychotic mother to prove that I was not capable enough of handling the task of raising my son on my own. So James and his parents were supposed to have full custody. Now I assumed that my parents and brother had to be bought out by my ex-in-laws because,

they were seriously loaded and I couldn't think of any other explanation as to why they would turn on me. In fact, I'm pretty sure that they even started sucking up to my in-laws in the first place because of their money. Anyway, James accused me of being incapable and unfit to raise our son and demanded full custody, because apparently, I was a functioning alcoholic with serious anger issues. They made up several incidents where apparently, I had lost my temper and put my son at risk of being hurt. Of course, none of that had ever happened, but they needed something to make me look like the bad guy. I thought that at least some people would be on my side on this, but all my friends decided to take his side on this. And I think a lot of that had to do with

my breakdown at my son's birthday party. But the worst betrayal of it all was when my parents and my brother also testified in court against me and claimed that I needed rehab and serious intensive therapy before I was even allowed to be near my son, because I was clearly not in my right state of mind. And that was probably also what had driven James to cheat on me because he was sick of dealing with me. So unfortunately, even though I put up a good fight with my lawyer, I was unable to get custody of my son. The cards were stacked against me and there was very little that I could do to prevent the inevitable. My lawyer and I had been trying our best to put together scraps of evidence to prove that I was a good mother, but eventually, all of it went to waste.

The verdict was announced a couple of months ago and that was the last time that I saw my son in person. I did get supervised visiting rights, but James never let me see him anyway, so it's kind of pointless. He is four years old now, but he barely even gets to meet me and I'm constantly afraid that he's going to forget about me when he grows up. From what I know from a couple of relatives who are still on my side, my family still gets to see him since they post pictures with my son all the time. James and my son are still living with my in-laws and basically everybody gets to see him but me. I can't imagine something more heartbreaking than that. I had been living solely off of the memories of my son and myself, believing that at least

he was taken care of by James, because I don't think I would have been able to give him a nice life on my salary since I'm just starting out. I was able to get a job in my friend's company, but it's a startup and they don't really make much as of now. So my salary is not what one would expect from a woman in her 30s and even the other employees there are all in their early 20s, just there for the experience so they can move on to better opportunities. I do get alimony every month, but it's really not enough because I still have to maintain the lifestyle. I was living before and I can't exactly live like a bachelor and cut costs. But this is all I have right now because of the massive gap in my resume. I had believed that once I cleaned up my act, I would apply for

shared custody again and maybe I would stand a chance then. But the opportunity literally fell into my lap a couple of weeks ago, when my parents reached out to me after months of not being on speaking terms to ask me for help. The help that they needed was that they needed me to bail them out because surprisingly, James was not the wonderful guy that they had believed him to be. My brother sent me an email saying that I needed to come over to their place ASAP because they had realized something huge and they wanted me to know because they were sick of hiding things from me and wanted to be a part of my life again. I tried to ignore that email that day, but I couldn't stop thinking that maybe this would help me with my son, so I went over to their

place in the evening. When I did go, I had expected them to be living like kings because they had sold me out for money from my ex-in-laws. But if anything, they were living worse than before. My son was thrilled to see me, though, so that was the cherry on top of a fantastic evening. When I visited my family that day, they literally started begging for forgiveness. As soon as I walked in the door because apparently, they had realized how badly they had screwed up, and there was no going back but still wanted me to forgive them. After the divorce, when they approached my ex-in-laws and James to ask about the money that they had been promised, James told my family that that was not happening anymore.

Apparently, it had only been insinuated that they would be compensated handsomely if they turned against me and testified in their favor, but there was nothing in writing to prove it, and if my family tried to backtrack and tell me about all of this then they would just make sure that they never saw my son again. So for the sake of my son, they decided to keep their mouth shut, even though they were not even getting paid for it, like they had been promised. But it got worse because they had been used terribly and not only had they been manipulated to testify against me, but they were also being treated like free babysitters. James would drop our son off at my parents' place every single day and they had to watch him

while sacrificing their own time. It was highly inconvenient because even my dad and my brother had jobs to attend to, and my mother couldn't handle all the household work and looking after her grandson all by herself because she was getting old. So either my dad or my brother would have to work from home every day and it was becoming really difficult for them, which is why they had contacted me, to finally put an end to this. Apparently, they wanted to strike a deal with me and said that if I gave them the money that my ex-in-laws promised them, they would take my side this time in court and make sure that I got custody of my son. I was about to suggest this myself, but honestly, it was not surprising that they did it. My family had always been very materialistic and even more so now that

my dad's business had failed and they were back to working jobs for other people. Obviously, they would want money more than ever now because my dad wanted to retire, but he didn't even have enough money put aside since he had put all his money into the business and it went on to fail. They said that they could concoct some story about how they had been pressured and coerced into testifying against me, so they couldn't be charged with perjury while under oath. But Little did know that I didn't actually need help anymore. I had been recording everything that they had said right from the second I stepped foot into the house because I knew that there was something messed up going on and I didn't want to take any risks.

So I had everything on record anyway, but nevertheless, I told my family to send me the screenshots, if they had any, to prove that they had been used and lied to. And then, I told them that I would help them out and then left. I had already seen my son and I had more than enough proof to file for custody again. So that's what I did the next day with my lawyer and this time, I was prepared. The custody case is still ongoing but one thing is for sure, I'll be able to prove that none of the things that James had accused me of had been true and my family had been lying about everything all along. I've already played the recording and that has swayed things in my favor considerably.

James and his lawyer are literally scrambling for evidence in their favor and I am taking it all in and enjoying the show because this is what they had put me through last time and now, I get to do it to them. It's karma at its finest, and I couldn't be happier about it. The only thing that's been less than ideal. They have been claiming that I have also used them just like James did and that I had no right to record them without their consent and use it against them. But in my state, it's completely okay and admissible in court so I didn't understand what they were referring to until they told me that I had betrayed their trust by recording them.

These are bold words from people who betrayed my trust first by taking my ex-husband's side in the custody case. They believed that what I did was wrong because what they had done was out of necessity. They needed the money, but I didn't need to screw them over and put them at risk of perjury because they had already agreed to help me out and testify against James and his family so I didn't have to go behind their back. They've been texting me relentlessly and it's getting harder for me to ignore. So I'd have for going behind my family's back and putting them at risk of being charged with perjury? Update 1. Hello. Everyone.

The custody case is still ongoing. and James and his lawyer are trying their very hardest to prove that they have been telling the truth because of course, they might be facing charges and that's a felony so they might get jail time. But that's really not my concern right now and it shouldn't have been at any point. I don't even know why I was getting worried about my parents when they clearly didn't worry about me when it was my turn. So it's really just tit for tat right now. The comments section opened my eyes to how my parents were extremely entitled. But anyway, I have cut ties with them.

All of them can go where they want to. I want my son to be all right and with me. I have waited long enough for this and I'm not going to let my family and their constant victimization of themselves. If they can sell me out for money, I don't think it's necessary for me to show any loyalty towards them. I'm done now. Update 2, so, the good news is that I finally got custody of my son.

I don't think I've ever felt so happy in my entire life. The other good news is that my in-laws, James, and my family were charged with perjury and, yes, they might go to jail for it. I bet they're regretting everything now. But I don't care about any of it because I got what I wanted. I got my son back and that's all I had ever asked for. From what I know, James is still trying to fight it and stay out of jail, but I don't think it's going to work. I've already filed for a restraining order against all of them

because I've been receiving very threatening text messages and I am 100% sure that it has to be from these people because nobody else would want to harm me unless it's them. Things have been really busy and hectic for the past couple of weeks, but I'm learning to slow down now. I desperately want to spend more time with my son, so I have decided that I'm going to... This episode is brought to you by Spreker,

the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing.

Even better, Sprinker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your friends. podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Cut my work hours shorter. I've also thought about selling the house and moving to a smaller apartment so I can save more money. I still have a lot of work to do. Rebuilding my relationship with my son is not going to be an easy task because even though he is happy to be with me, he still asks about his dad and his grandparents and I don't know what to tell him. He has told me a couple of things about them,

like how he had been living with his grandparents for the most part and his dad and my in-laws were only there for him for part of the day. Whenever I ask him about how it was living with his grandparents, he makes a face and says that it was not that great because everyone would constantly be fighting. And I can totally see that, it sounds like they really gave him a rough time. Just because they didn't want to take up his responsibility.

I can't imagine why they would treat a child like that, but I couldn't put it past these people. They are most definitely capable of even making a little boy feel bad about himself. But anyway, I don't have to worry about that because now he is with me. Update 3, Hi, Everyone. So, I can't believe I'm back here after almost five years. It feels kind of unreal how different my life is right now. Five years is a really long time and so much has changed, the first being how much older my son is. We have a beautiful relationship right now and after

countless therapy sessions, he and I have finally become the mother and son that we should have been right from the beginning. He's growing up to be a wonderful man and I'm sure that he will turn out to be nothing like his father because I just know it in my heart. He is nine years old right now and already a perfect gentleman. I'm raising him on my own and I have full custody because James gave up and moved to Europe after he was out of jail. I can't say that I'm surprised, he went away with his co-worker, who he had been cheating on me with and now, they are married. I guess he just replaced his actual, biological son with the other kid. It's horrifying but that's the kind of person that he is. As for my parents and my brother, they were out of jail after six months for good

behavior. We have not kept in touch and they did not try to reach out to me after they were out, which I am grateful for because I don't think I would have had anything to say to them anyway. I don't have any news about my in-laws. I haven't heard about them or from them for years and it's for the best, I think. I'm living a life now, I have a stable job and a steady income, by God's grace. I'm still working at the company that I started out with my friend's business, and it's doing pretty great. So, life turned out well for me and my son and it's more than what I could have asked for. I'm truly grateful for everything. I hope you enjoy this story.

Caught my upcoming mother-in-law chuckling with her companions about how she secured a devoted son-in-law and is financially secure for the future. This incident caused her to recognize that she won't be able to depend on others for support. Me. I, 32M, am getting married to my fiancé Deborah, 31F, next month. We have been together for two years, and, and I, and I, 32M, am getting married to my fiancé Deborah, Deborah, next month. and I just asked her to marry me last month. I'm head over heels for this wonderful woman and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her.

We come from very different backgrounds. I grew up in a working class family, and I'm the middle child among my two siblings. We always had to work hard, living paycheck to paycheck every month. Deborah, on the other hand, had a much more comfortable upbringing. Her dad was a successful businessman

so he could provide her with everything. She was always surrounded by wealthy kids who threw extravagant parties and events. I put in a lot of effort to work my way through college and eventually landed a job at a prestigious company. My parents were truly proud of how I had built my life without ever depending on them to provide me with financial assistance. When Deborah and I met for the first time, it was at a mutual friends party. Although we knew we were worlds apart, we still had an instant connection. We started going on dates, taking the time to truly understand each other, and with each passing day, we fell head over heels for one another.

Once we started seriously dating, Deborah eventually invited me to one of her family's dinners so she could formally introduce me to her parents. That's when I had the pleasure of meeting her dad, John, a successful businessman, and her mom, Maggie, who was a dedicated stay-at-home mom for the first time. John seemed to appreciate the effort I had put into building my life. Maggie, on the other hand, didn't seem to take a liking to me. It was quite evident that she looked down on my upbringing, and I didn't fit her expectations for the kind of son-in-law she had in mind.

Her disapproval of me was far from subtle, it was painfully evident. She didn't hold back in making it clear that her only child deserved someone she considered better than me. She would often cut me off in conversations and her disapproving glances spoke volumes, making it a challenging and awkward situation to navigate. In contrast, my parents couldn't have been more welcoming to Deborah. They embraced her with open arms, and my brothers took an instant liking to her. They would playfully tease her, telling her that she still had time to run away and escape from me, all in good fun, of course. It was heartwarming to see my family so supportive and accepting of our relationship.

As time went on, I did my best to bridge the gap with Maggie, hoping to win her over. I understood that our different backgrounds and expectations might take her some time to reconcile. However, our interactions continued to remain strained, and I could sense her disapproval lingering in the background. Despite this challenge, Deborah and I focused on building our own world together, filled with love, understanding, and shared dreams. We were committed to nurturing our relationship, even in the midst of these familial disparities. We held on to the hope that, as time went by, Maggie might eventually come to accept and embrace me. Sadly, a year ago, John passed away from a heart attack suddenly. While he left behind substantial wealth, there were also

unexpected debts that needed to be settled. Maggie had to make the difficult decision to sell her house and their car to cover these financial obligations when the bank came calling. Since then, she had to move in with us as she had nowhere else to go and has been living with us for the past six months. I didn't really mind having her live with us as I understood that she was going through a difficult time as she had just lost her husband. I tried my best to make her stay as comfortable as possible, but Maggie always found reasons to complain about around the house. Just for context, Deborah and I have always shared our responsibilities equally since we started living together. Given our careers, we take turns handling tasks like cooking,

cleaning, and doing the laundry as part of our routine. It's a way for us to balance our busy lives and support each other in every aspect. My parents had taught me to be independent from a very young age so I loved doing my share of the household work. Maggie absolutely despised this and would make her disapprovement obvious. Throughout her stay, she has made subtle comments about how a man doesn't belong in the kitchen or a man shouldn't be doing household work. Usually, I don't take it to heart and I ignore it as much as possible but over time, her comments have become progressively more hurtful and insensitive. I have talked to Deborah regarding this and she agrees that her mother's behavior has been

very difficult and hostile. Now coming on to the incident, I was recently promoted at work hence I wanted to do some something special to celebrate this milestone with our family and friends. We decided to host a grand event, inviting our close ones. My to be Mill also extended invitations to some of her rich friends whom she hadn't seen for a while, particularly after her husband's passing. While I'm not one to flaunt things, I entrusted Deborah with the planning, and she went all out with the party preparations. On the day of the celebration, our house looked great. As the guest started arriving, Maggie seemed to be having a good time, reconnecting with her old friends. My fiancé

and I were busy hosting our own friends and relatives. As the party was in full swing, and the guests mingled and enjoyed the festivities, I couldn't help but notice that my to-be-mills' behavior had taken a turn for the worse. She had a few too many drinks and her comments started to get more and more inappropriate. She was bragging about how expensive everything around the house was, particularly the decorations and the food, in front of her friends. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and I could see that some of our guests were taken aback by her behavior. My fiancé and I exchanged worried glances, unsure of how to handle the situation. We attempted to stay cool as we knew Maggie had been drinking a lot since the morning. At one point,

we ran out of wine, so I dashed to the nearby liquor store. When I got back home, we got back home, I found my fiancé outside on the lawn, enjoying her time with our relatives. I served them the drinks and then headed back inside to check on the rest of our guests. That's when I heard my mother-in-law loudly laughing. As she chatted with her friends. I was about to enter the room when I overheard Maggie mentioning my recent job promotion to her friends and went on to describe how she had been living at our place for several months rent-free, all because I was a naive person.

She laughed as she continued to say that she had finally landed a simp's son-in-law and pointed out that I had been covering her expenses throughout this time while she lived rent-free in my house. Her word stung, and I was taken aback by what she was saying. This episode is brought to you by Spreeker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't. Can't talk right now. I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once,

and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. All laughing loudly at my expense. She then went on to say that she was set for the rest of her life now that Deborah was going to marry me in a few months.

My emotions were in turmoil, and I struggled with how to handle the situation. It was disheartening to hear these derogatory comments coming from someone whom I considered family, someone I had tried my best to welcome and support during a difficult time in her life. As I stood there in the hallway, grappling with a mix of anger, disappointment, and a sense of betrayal, I contemplated whether to confront her or wait for a more suitable moment to talk about this. My to be Mill then told her friends that because I came from a low-income family I would continue to be a hard worker to her and she had nothing to worry about. At that moment, I couldn't hear her talk that way any longer and made a decision to walk into the room and

confront her right then and there. I wanted to make it clear to her that she wouldn't be able to take advantage of me anymore. With a wine bottle in hand, I walked into the room and everyone fell into an awkward silence when they noticed my sudden arrival. Maggie's laughter ceased and her expression shifted from surprise to a mixture of discomfort and concern. She was worried that I might have overheard the conversation. pouring wine for everyone and placing the bottle down, I faced Maggie and began to speak,

Maggie, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with your friends. I stood there for a good five minutes, listening to you talk about how you've used my perceived naivity to your advantage. I want to make it clear that I welcomed you into my house with open arms and tried to support you during a difficult time, particularly because you had just lost your husband. However, making hurtful comments like this in front of our feelings. family and friends, and laughing at my expense, is not acceptable. The room remained tense, with the heavy silence weighing down on all of us. I could see that Maggie was taken aback by the directness of my words, and her friends seemed equally uncomfortable. Just as the tension

was at its peak, my fiancé walked into the room, a puzzled expression on her face as she tried to understand what was happening as I stood in the middle of the room. With Deborah now in the room, I went on to explain to her what her mother had been telling people about me. Deborah's eyes widened in shock as she tried to comprehend the gravity of the situation. Maggie's expression shifted from shock to embarrassment. I knew I wouldn't be able to forgive her for the way she had spoken about me. I asked Maggie to immediately leave my house. Maggie's eyes widened as she began to frantically protest knowing that she had nowhere

else to go. Deborah remained quiet as she understood how humiliated I had felt because of her mother. I remained resolute in my decision, emphasizing that I could no longer trust my to be Mill to be living with us. I suggested she could find accommodation with one of her wealthy friends who had joined the party and were evidently relishing and laughing at my expense just minutes ago. Maggie looked around the room, helplessly as her friends avoided eye contact and I couldn't help but smirk. I had reached my breaking point and was no longer willing to be used and taken advantage of. In that tense moment, Deborah, who had been taken aback by the unfolding drama, finally spoke up. She addressed her mother with a mix of disappointment and determination, Mom, you've put us in an

incredibly uncomfortable situation with your behavior today. We've always tried to support you, but this kind of treatment towards my fiancé is unacceptable. Maggie, now calls me. between her daughter's disapproval and her own embarrassing behavior, began to realize the gravity of the situation. She had no easy way out and attempted to apologize, but I wasn't willing to be manipulated any longer. Still seething in anger and disappointment, I walked out of the room. The party soon ended and my to be mill apparently left to stay at one of her relatives' places. Since the incident, I have been receiving messages from people with a variety of reactions. Most of the guests seem to support my decision to stand up for myself, but there are some

family members from my fiancée's side who are telling Deborah that what I did was wrong and that I should not have humiliated her mother like that. My parents, who were present at the party, supported me 100% and had my back. The situation has caused a divide between our families, and the mixed opinions are adding to the tension. So I wanted to post here so I could get an unbiased opinion. Am I the a hole for confronting my to-be-mill in front of everyone after I caught her making fun of me and letting her know that she won't be able to leach off me? Update 1, thanks to everyone for your feedback on my last post. Many folks have suggested that this incident should serve as an eye-opener to the kind of

family I would be marrying into. I have received suggestions that I should get a pre-nup with my fiancé before we get married, which I honestly never really thought about before. But after the recent incident, I'm seriously considering it. That day after the party ended, my wife and I had a lengthy conversation to discuss everything. While my wife is completely on my side, it's hard to deny that my trust has been shaken. It's not her fault, but I'm worried about her family and how easily they could manipulate me in the future. Many comments have pointed out that my mother-in-law's subtle mean comments for all these months were a form of emotional abuse, and I'm starting to see it.

it that way too. I do not wish to have her in my life anymore. Two days after Maggie left, she called my wife, who chose not to answer. So, she sent me an angry text that read, Adam, are you happy now that you've separated me from my daughter? I've already lost my husband, and now I'm losing my daughter because of you. Yes, I used you, but isn't that what a son-in-law should do, pay for his to be mother-in-law's expenses? You could have bought me a new, and place when I lost my house but instead, you forced me to live with you. You have more than enough to take care of my daughter so it wouldn't hurt you to take care of me too. Her message left me seething with anger, and it was evident she felt no remorse for her derogatory remarks in front of her

friends. I shared the message with Deborah, who promptly assured me she would address the situation and advised me to block her mother's number. It remains to be seen what happens next, but I feel emotionally exhausted dealing with this ongoing drama. Her mother's persistent unkindness towards me for no apparent reason, coupled with her unwarranted financial expectations, is really taking a toll on me. Update 2. Okay, everyone hears the update you all have been waiting for. In the days that followed, Deborah continued to handle her mother's attempts at contact.

She firmly explained to her mother that the situation had become untenable and that she had crossed a line. Deborah offered to help her mother find suitable accommodations but emphasized that the living arrangement with us had reached its limit. Maggie's responses ranged from anger to pleading. She continued to accuse me of tearing her family apart and causing her more pain during an already difficult time. I had blocked her so fortunately, she had no way to reach out to me.

As our wedding was fast approaching, I shared my thoughts and fears with Deborah and she took it surprisingly well. My fiancé agreed that I wasn't wrong to have those fears in my head and told me that she was ready to sign a pre-nup so I wouldn't feel this restless and uncomfortable. I was taken aback by how understanding she was, and I couldn't help but feel guilty for having any negative thoughts about her, all because of her mother's actions. After that conversation, I felt much better about our relationship. We were starting to regain a sense of normalcy, when Maggie unexpectedly showed up

at our doorstep a few days later without any warning. I was alone at home when I heard the doorbell ring. She had come to confront me and her accusations and anger poured out when I welcomed her inside to sit. Maggie claimed that I had ruined her relationship with her daughter forever, laying the blame squarely on my shoulders. Her words were filled with frustration and resentment. You think you can just control everything, don't you? She exclaimed, You've taken my daughter away from me, and now you're trying to push me out of her life. This is my family too, and you can't just dictate what happens here. As the argument escalated, her accusations became more personal and cutting.

She accused me of isolating her from Deborah and said that she deserved to be living with her daughter. I took a deep breath, trying to remain composed in the face of her accusations, and responded, Maggie, this isn't about pushing you away. It's about preserving the peace and well-being of our family. Your actions and words have made it challenging to maintain a healthy environment here. I'm not trying to isolate you, I'm trying to set boundaries, I continued. Deborah and I deserve to have a loving, supportive, and peaceful home. It's not about control, it's about ensuring that our relationship is respected and protected. At that point, thankfully, my wife returned from the grocery store and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she could handle her mother better.

She was visibly shocked to find her mother standing inside our house. Hurrying to my side, she asked if I was okay, concern evident in her eyes. I nodded morbidly, relieved to have her presence beside me. Maggie, now directing her attention toward her daughter, accused me of trying to be controlling of her life. She said that she won't let me kick her out of the house, and she planned to live here if my daughter was going to be here. She accused me of trying to divide the family apart since her husband had passed away. This episode seemed pissed as she explained.

This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple.

You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousins swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Blaine to her mother that after what she had spoken about me, she couldn't just expect me to forget about it. She reminded Maggie that she never even apologized to me for the harsh word she had spoken in front of the guests at a party that I had thrown on my house. Deborah reiterated to her mother that she was not entitled to live in my house just because Deborah was going to marry me.

Maggie was displeased seeing her daughter support me, and it only seemed to escalate her anger. The room was charged with emotions and I didn't want this to escalate further, so I asked Maggie to leave immediately otherwise I would call the police. Maggie's expression displayed a mixture of frustration and resignation, as she clearly wanted to argue about this further, but, thankfully, she decided to leave. After this incident, I am planning to take some space from Deborah and her family. I love her a lot, but I don't want to be stuck in a toxic environment like this forever. I guess I need to take some time to rethink our future. Update 3. It's been four months since my last update and I know it's been a long time but here I am. I am thrilled to share that Deborah and I are now happily married.

Our wedding day went off without a hitch and it was a beautiful celebration of our love and commitment to each other. We were surrounded by our closest family and friends, and the day was filled with joy and cherished memories. I know I had mentioned last time that I was a bit unsure about marrying her but after some time off alone, I realized that she was nothing like her mother. As we had discussed before our marriage, Deborah did sign a prenuptial agreement, which gave us both peace of mind. It was a decision that helped ensure that our relationship was built on trust, respect, and a mutual understanding of our responsibilities. One notable absence on our special day was Maggie, our mother-in-law.

We did invite her as I didn't want my wife to not invite her only living parent to witness our wedding, but Maggie chose not to attend the wedding. Her anger and resentment towards me from the earlier conflicts, which led to her leaving our home permanently, still lingered. I couldn't help but feel sad for Deborah, who had to navigate the difficult decision of having her mother absent on such an important occasion. Nonetheless, our wedding was a day filled with love and happiness. We were grateful for the support of our loved ones who celebrated the beginning of our journey as a married couple.

In the days following our wedding, Deborah and I have settled into our married life, cherishing the moments we shared together and planning for our future. We are excited about the possibilities that lay ahead, and we know that our love will guide us through any challenges we might face. Update 4 Married Life has been going great so far Deborah and I have been relishing every moment of our life together as a married couple. We found joy in the little things, from lazy Sunday mornings with breakfast in bed to sitting at home and reading books together. Our love has continued to grow, and we've become even more in sync with each other.

We have embraced the various responsibilities that come with marriage rather smoothly. Recently, I have taken a significant step in my journey toward personal growth and family healing, thanks to everyone's advice. I've decided to start therapy, and it has been a transformative experience ever since. Therapy has provided me with the tools to better understand and express myself and the dynamics within our family. It has allowed me to address the emotional wounds and challenges that I have faced, especially in my relationship with my mother-in-law. With the guidance of my therapist, I have been able to communicate more effectively with my wife and work on building a stronger and more communicative relationship. Once I felt I was ready, we tried to reach out to Maggie, hoping to mend the rift that had developed between us. While it wasn't easy for me to reach out, I knew how much Deborah loved her mother and I didn't want her to live her life without being in contact with her only remaining parent.

We decided to invite Maggie to our home for dinner so we could all talk properly. Maggie had been staying at various relatives' places since the incident, and when Deborah first reached out with a dinner invitation, it took her by surprise. She seemed hesitant but also intrigued by the opportunity to reconnect with her daughter. She arrived at our home and we cautiously began with small talk to catch up on each other's lives. Deborah was the first to break the ice, expressing her desire to see a healthier relationship between me and Maggie. She shared how much she loved both of us and wanted to see us get along. Hearing this, Maggie slowly admitted that her actions had been fueled by a sense of loss and uncertainty after her husband's passing and that she had let those emotions cloud her judgment. She apologized to me for the way she had behaved and expressed that she didn't understand at first how much she had hurt me.

I could see that she seemed genuinely sorry about the incident. The conversation continued, delving into the hurt feelings on both sides, the misunderstandings that had occurred, and the steps that could be taken to mend the rift. It was an emotional and honest discussion, marked by tears and heartfelt apologies. Deborah played a crucial role in facilitating the conversation, acting as a bridge between me and her mother. By the end of the evening, amidst a wonderful dinner, there was a sense of relief and optimism in the room. While the wounds of the past hadn't completely healed, the foundation

for reconciliation had been laid. It was a promising start on the journey toward rebuilding the bonds that had been strained for so long. Since the evening, we have continued to meet Maggie during other family events, and there is no longer any awkwardness. Our relationship has gradually improved. Although I will never feel comfortable enough for her to live with us again, I remain patient and understanding, knowing that healing will take time. I hope you enjoy this story. Wicked stepmother sullied my countenance and made menacing gestures towards my infant. I reached my breaking point when she started experiencing memory loss and my spouse sided with her instead of us.

My partner, a 28-year-old male, and I, 29F, are in a bit of a pickle with my brother-in-law, husband's brother. To be frank, my mill is really quite dependent on her sons. A bit of backstory, it's been like this since their dad died. She's lived with us ever since. We have a basement suite and she stick down there and keeps to herself for the most part until recently. We don't ask her for rent, but she pays $500 in groceries and it manages to cover a bit of utilities too. She had planned to go to see her sister in Toronto last month as she was in the hospital with

some serious health problem had they can't figure out what from. My husband was supposed to drive her to the airport and it's an hour drive there and an hour drive back. Unfortunately, they missed the flight because of a snow storm. The flight ended up cancelled anyways because of the weather. For whatever reason my mill couldn't figure out how to get the ticket reimbursed, we didn't want to handhold her through it, so she ended up losing $800 in a ticket and now has to buy a new ticket to Toronto, but prices have now gone up, so she's looking at $1,300 in round-trip flights to Toronto. Well, my mill doesn't have $1,300, so my husband has already discussed splitting the cost with his brother, but we are all struggling financially and it's just not sustainable for us to

continue living with her. She's constantly throwing out good food or leaving the milk out so it goes bad, but I don't notice until it's too late. She's wasted probably $200 worth of groceries almost every month for the last five months and whenever I say something she gets defensive. For one, she spit in my face on more than one occasion. I texted my husband and he didn't really do anything and he said that I must have said something to really piss her off. I had chicken thighs in the fridge that were marinating for dinner one day and when I went to prepare them for dinner, I found they were gone.

Well, it was only me and her there. So I asked her if she had taken them out of the fridge and she straight up told me she threw them out. I said what? And then I told her they were for dinner and she said that they had been in there for a week and they were bad. I said I just bought those yesterday and they were marinating overnight for dinner today. Then she literally goes off on how I'm an ungrateful bitch and a spoiled brat and my husband should never have married me. I told her she could get the hell out of the house if she thinks that because it's not even her house and she has no right to speak to me this way. Then she said that it's not my house either, it's my husband. It's my husband.

I just stood there dumbfounded, like couldn't even believe what just happened. Then she left the kitchen and went to her room. My husband texts me soon after and he asks me what just happened and what I said to his mom. I called him because I didn't want to have a fight over text, and I tried to tell him what happened but he said I shouldn't be treating his mother like that. I asked her to watch our daughter because I had to go check the mailbox and it was too rainy to take her with me and it would literally be like five minutes. Mill had been good with her up until this point and had been asking to hold her more and to help out more so I figured why not.

But when I came back in, she was getting all angry with my daughter, like full on yelling at her, and my poor baby is just laying there on the floor crying, and honestly looked like she was going to get aggressive with her and hit her, so I ran right in and picked her up and Mill just walked away mumbling to herself. That was the end of having her alone with my baby. After that I left to my moms and told my husband what happened and he asked, asked what the hell was going on and said that he doesn't want to act like a tyrant when he gets home. I told him I was staying with my mom until he got home. When he got home, I came back, but my mill told him that she didn't trust me and thought that I was trying to get rid of her.

This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, Sorry, I can't talk right now. I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. The good news is Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin swears are the next big thing.

Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at Spreaker. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. She even went so far as saying that I was poisoning her food, and that's why she wasn't eating. When my husband and I were laying in bed, he told me all of this and had the audacity to ask if something was wrong between the two of us. I just expressed that I thought there was just too much feminine energy in the house, and we had been getting on each other's nerves.

But I said something felt off with her because of the way she was acting with our daughter. She wasn't safe around her. I told him it was either her or me and our daughter. But what she did to our daughter was the last straw for him, but he could have cared less about what she said to me. And honestly, I didn't grow up in the best household. I'd been called every name under the sun so I can handle her, but I'm not going to subject my daughter to that evil witch.

So now my husband wants to rent a room for her, but in this economy, I don't think so. That would be $1,500 for a woman. one-bedroom apartment in the city. And she doesn't drive. So it would just be us going out of our way to drive her places. When we talk to my bill, he says he can't afford it. Being a single guy, he's sort of struggling too to make ends meet. He's a graphic designer so makes decent cash, but like nothing extraordinary, and he hardly has any savings, but we don't want him to touch that. I'm also on maternity leave and get only 55% of my salary now. That's 7,4,4,000. That's 7,4,000.

$45 every two weeks. We all are struggling and been trying to get a bigger house for a little bit now, but it's super difficult with the housing prices and the interest rates. Now I'm almost at a point where I'm okay to dip into our savings to get her a room somewhere if we were to split with my bill just because I legit need this which out of my house. But he's saying he can't afford it. He has a two-bedroom condo right now, so I suggested that Mill goes to live with him for a bit just so we all get a little break from each other and that $500 can go towards bills bills because it's less mouths to feed too. But he doesn't want to. He also said it would hinder him in the dating scene. He said, how am I going to bring a date back home if everything

goes well? I'll have to call mom and tell her to stay in her room and be quiet and pretend she's not there. The brothers always paid everything for her together since their father died but my husband works away from home and leaves me and our baby with her. So I'm the one that's stuck with her day-to-day. Update 1, it's been a few months since I posted. We took matters into our own hands, and after many discussions, negotiations, and maybe even a therapy session, okay, not really, but it felt like it, we came up with a band-aid solution. We did the old switcheroo. That's right, we swapped living arrangements. My brother-in-law reluctantly agreed to taken my mother-in-law for a trial period. My husband actually advocated for me here.

When he got home from work, I had some tough conversations with him about where I was at with his mother. It was to the point where his mother was nitpicking everything I did. She asked me to clean her bathroom. She even went so far as to blame me for things going missing and accused me of stealing money from her. My husband knew that I was at my wits end and ready to leave. She wasn't too happy at first. Like not happy at all. She blamed it all on me at first and told my husband that I was just trying to get rid of her like old trash. But it had to happen.

Tensions were rising. I heard her say that damn baby want just shut up. Or that goddamn baby, I asked her if she had a problem and she actually said if you don't shut that baby up, I will. And well, that was that. Bill took her in. That happened for a few months until we realized that her memory was going and all of her aggression problems were probably due to that.

He said she was wandering in his condominium complex and couldn't remember where she was or why she was there and she was getting really frustrated with people who would approach her. She actually slapped one lady but the lady didn't press charges because my brother begged the woman, like literally on his knees and gave her some big BS sob story that he has to take care of her and she's not doing well with the stress of her husband, even though he died years before. My husband took her to the doctor because his brother said something was off and sure enough, she had failed whatever tests they do for memory.

The doctor says that she has early onset dementia. He said this explains her irritability and her accusations towards me. Well, my husband took this as a she needs us now more than ever and his brother isn't equipped to take care of her. So he told her she could move back in with us. I said, if she's coming back, me and my daughter are out of there. Update 2, I followed your advice and grew a spine a little late. Yeah, but I am gone now.

Thank you for the harsh truth. Everyone husband decided to move his mom back in and so I moved out and I'm staying with my mom indefinitely and my mom served my STBX with the papers. We're getting a divorce comment. I completely understand what you're going through. My mother-in-law has dementia and moved in with us while I was pregnant, which caused a lot of stress on our marriage. And it was one of the hardest times in my life. My husband thought it would be a good idea for his mom to move in and help out after her husband died. But I quickly realized

it was just so we could take care of her. Her dementia isn't severe yet, but she is short-term memory loss and needs help with tasks like laundry and cooking and basic financial things. My husband works from home and I am a song, but now we also have to take care of his mom on top of our two dogs. It got so bad that the stress of it all caused me to go on bed rest for the last month of pregnancy. This meant my husband had to spread his attention for me to his mom to work during the day as I couldn't get up from bed. I could feel him starting to resent his mom. And at one point, I felt it directed to me too. Well, when our daughter finally decided to bless us with her presence, we, I'm finding my patience is running thin towards my mill. I ended up getting

an emergency C-section and she wants to help, but she can't change diapers, feed the baby, she has back problems so holding her for too long causes her pain and back spasms, and she can't really cook food for us. When I was taking a shower, I left my daughter and her care, she was three months at the time, she started crying and my mill thought she was hungry so she tried to feed her porridge. Well, it's a miracle my daughter didn't choke to death. My Mill claimed it was only a little bit and seemed really innocent about it, but I think she got the hint that I wasn't too happy with her. My husband had to take care of that one because I wasn't comfortable reprimanding my mill given her dementia. This might turn into a crazy

rant, but I'm just so irritated and burnt out by having my mill here. I can hardly speak to her and I get annoyed when she tries to help with my daughter. I feel like such an asshole, but my resentment is so strong because of how much stress she has caused me. It's also put a huge wedge in my marriage because my husband is extremely stressed out by her too. But I know that he feels bad because he feels the need to help her since it is his mother after all. Given all the stress, my husband and I had a huge blow up. He said that Mill wants to move back in with his brother and his wife because I have made her feel

so unwelcome. So I know how you feel up. I told him that he hasn't helped in this situation. I told him he should look in the mirror because he's constantly scolded her and raised his voice at her all the time for the littlest of things and he makes me look like a saint. I have never yelled at her or ever confronted her because that's just not something I would do. One, she's not my mother and two, she has dementia so it would be like trying to yell at a child who doesn't understand up from down. So now, I'm the bad guy. But I've gone to live with my sister.

At least I'm out of there. They can have each other. Now on to the next story. Story 2. Caught my wife cheating on me, and although she thinks I will reconcile with her, but I served her with divorce papers. First time I've ever posted in something like this. Edit, I'm 36, she's 32. Married 4.5 years, together over seven years.

No kids, wife and I have been distant for a while. while, sex initiated only by me, once a month. We had a happy marriage, never fought, but apparently there were a lot of issues was unaware of. I thought we were just in a sexual rut, but it was far deeper than I thought. After my therapist and a friend suggested she may be cheating, I decided to check her cell while she was in the shower and found texts from another man. She immediately admitted to it and confessed everything. This was last Tuesday, a fair happened the Saturday before that. She has been talking to him romantically since November of last year, but known him for longer from work. He lives out of state and comes in town every few months.

I feel stupid for wanting to see if we can work past it. She shows remorse, but no, I'm so sorry, I made a mistake. Can you forgive me and we can work this out? To be honest, that's what I want to hear. This is the love of my life. Been together over seven years, married for for 4.5 years. She was my person. This is so out of character it's unbelievable. She was cheated on in previous relationships and always told me, if you ever cheat, that's it. I'm gone. No explaining, no justifying, to talking. You'll wake up and I'll be gone and you'll never see me again. I made sure to never give her any inkling of me ever seeking anything outside of her. I gave up every female friend I had, let her know any time an ex reached

out or said anything to me, etc. I never... This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like, sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm editing audio. If this sounds familiar, you're probably already a podcaster. is, Spreaker makes the whole process simple. You record your show, upload it once, and Spreaker distributes it everywhere people listen.

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen apps your cousin's swears are the next big thing. Even better, Spreaker helps you monetize your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. Wanted her to ever even think I'd do it. out of respect for her. Her three best friends and her individual therapist she's been seeing

for years were completely shocked when she told them. A month ago, I would never have entertained the idea she could do it. It was so absolutely something she couldn't do, I would imagine her becoming a bank robber before I could imagine her cheating. I've told a few close friends and my sister, that's it. She's told her three closest friends and therapist, and as far as I know, that's it. We went to our first marriage counseling session January 22nd. She slept with him for the first time January 27th, not even a fucking week after our first marriage counseling session. She saw her personal therapist yesterday, second time since she the affair, and went to a solo counseling session with our marriage counselor last night, I go solo tonight. Came home and was

very, very distant. I asked her last night, do you still not know if you want to be with me? She said I don't know. I asked, I would rather hear an I don't know than a no. But it's not a no currently, is it? She said, I don't want to have this conversation right now. I left it at that, said okay, and walked away and cried and drank for hours until I passed out. I'm going to solo counseling to the same marriage counselor tonight. We have a group session booked on the 11th. It's looking more and more like our relationship won't survive this. that she just has zero drive to work on it. I'm devastated.

I never, ever, ever thought this would happen. I knew we had grown a little distant, but not this. I'm so nervous for this session tonight. I feel like I'm going to be telling the therapist I want to work it out. I can eventually forgive her, and she's just going to nod and smile, only for this group session to be her telling me that she wants out. I want this relationship to survive. I'm so scared. I'm sick. Edit, she says she has no desire to continue to see this guy,

talk to him, anything. I asked if she was using him. She said yes, she wanted to have control over something. She says she has not talked to him at all since and will not talk to ever again. She is not seeking a relationship with him. But she's also not actively seeking repairing our relationship. She says she doesn't think I could ever forgive her, and that she doesn't think she could ever forgive herself. Edit, I sent a text from her phone the night I found it to him that read, this is her husband. I've read the texts. He sent some responses the next day, but she says she has not replied to him once and has no plans to ever do so. Edit, I went to the marriage counselor tonight. My session was solo. Her session yesterday with the counselor was also. She said,

solo. I told the MC I feel like she's done. She's not showing me any signs of wanting to work through it. I told her that I know she can't tell me what they talked about directly, but that I know she's done with the relationship. She asked what I wanted. I told her I wanted an apology and her to say she wants to see if we can work through this, but I do not foresee that happening. Lots of other things said, but she did tell me to take some time to step back and really think if I was happy the past few years and asked what I thought a divorce would look like. I feel like she was priming me for the separation. Feels bad man. Super Edit. Most of this will go into a new post. Just starting this here. She's been staying at her parents since last Wednesday. We did a joint counseling session

Sunday together. The counselor asked what we were doing reconciling or separating. I motioned to my wife. She said separating. And the counselor asked trial separation or separating to divorce. She said to divorce. I knew it's what she was going to say, so I wasn't surprised. We had a long talk about why with the counselor. She is going through terrible guilt over what she did, but still doesn't want to work anything out with us. She's not talking to the other guy anymore either. She just wants out. When we talked more, it was a little. It was a little bit of the other. It was a a lot of built-up little resentments that she never and I'm not exaggerating when I say never. Never brought up. Things like, well, I did all the cleaning I offered to get a maid service

at least three times and she told me no, not to do it, she can do it. She said she has to be the mental lead on things with planning. Yes, because she is the one who plans the trips and events. I'm not planning the dream vacation she's always wanted to do in Europe that we did four months ago. Every trip aside from one we've done is to places she wanted to go to, and the one trip we did that she didn't plan, my sister set it up. The counselor then said, well, what about the wedding? She didn't want to have a wedding, she just wanted to elope and you made her have a wedding and she did most of the planning and you weren't very present in planning. Okay, you got me there. I wanted the wedding, and so did her parents and my parents.

She said she never felt like she could talk to me about these things. I asked why, she said she didn't know. I asked if I ever did anything to make her think that. Did I ever yell at her, cuss her, call her names, bang my fist on the table at her, anything to show her that she couldn't talk to me? She said no. Then said that has seen me get mad and frustrated and yell and cuss. I asked if any of that was ever directed towards her, she said no.

And I said exactly, because I can separate a situation I am angry at or frustrated with from one from my wife. And the counselor said, well, how is she supposed to know that? I told her because IT never happened. When I confronted her about the affair, even then didn't scream at her, cuss her, punched the drywall or anything. Yes, I spoke loudly and lots of how could you. And shit, but overall, probably one of the more calm affair confrontations you could imagine.

Then I looked at the counselor and said, that's her proof that she could talk to me. So I said I feel like she never even tried. Every serious conversation we had, I had to bring it up and initiate the conversation. She never did. I told her I would rather have had 10,000 difficult conversations than the one we're having now. But instead, she held everything inside. And when she finally let it out and told me she was having some feelings, we scheduled counseling three days later, and she was fucking someone else less than a week after that.

I tell her that if she doesn't want to be together due to the guilt she has for what she did, and that she doesn't think I'll ever be able to forgive her, that's one thing. And that's something we can work on. Then I said if she wants to separate because you no longer love me, you don't see a future with me, and you genuinely want a divorce, that's another thing. She said she doesn't want to be with me. I asked her, okay, so if I were to wave a magic woman, wand, and have divorce papers ready for you to sign tomorrow, you'd sign them? I asked her this

because I was actually going to pick up the divorce papers the next morning and get her to sign if the counseling session went the way I was expecting. She said, what? That's so soon. I don't know. So I asked, if she wants a divorce, what's the difference in signing tomorrow, two weeks or two months? She just said she doesn't know. The session ends and we go back to our home to continue to talk and let her get more close to take to her parents. I asked her what she wants. She said she wants to be alone. I said, okay, alone and divorced. Or alone for a while and do a trial separation and file for divorce later if we can't reconcile after we take some time apart? She says she doesn't know. So I tell her that that strings me along. That it's fucked up that

she's the one who ruined everything by never talking to me, holding resentment she never told me about and having an affair, and now she's the one with all the power. She says she doesn't have any power and doesn't want the power. And I told her I know she doesn't want it, but she has it. I just have to sit here and go along with whatever she wants. I tell her that I'll have the divorce papers tomorrow if she will sign them. She says I can't have them made that quick. I said yes I can because I started last week. She says she has to read it first. I told her, of course, but it will be what we talked about when I first caught her cheating and said I would divorce her. I keep mine, she keeps hers, both accounts and debts. I presented her with the papers,

she read through them, then said she needs to get them looked at. It's exactly what we agreed to. So I asked why she needs them looked at. I tell her if she just signs now, we're done, no more bullshit. We don't have to go back and forth and she doesn't have to pay a lawyer. She admitted to having a lawyer she wants to look it over, but that the lawyer isn't on retainer. Still waiting on her lawyer to look it all over. Deep down I know that a separating is for the best. The infidelity, the wavering on her wanting kids or not, her emotional immaturity, her lack of communication, the complete betrayal and being treated like I'm not even a person anymore. But if she came back today and said she's sorry and wants to fix it, my dumb ass would

probably say okay. I hope you enjoy this story. Spouse's privileged child almost set fire to our residence while I was by myself with him. Upon informing my spouse, he claimed I would never achieve true motherhood and advised me to shut my mouth. I've been with my... This episode is brought to you by Spreaker, the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain. Symptoms include buying microphones you don't need, explaining RSS feeds to confused relatives, and saying things like,

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your show with ads, meaning your podcast might someday pay for, well, more microphones. Start your show today at spreeker.com. Sprinker, because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour, you might as well publish it. My husband for four years, married nearly one. He's been previously married and has two kids from that marriage, a boy, 14, and a girl, 16. I found myself becoming increasingly more and more resentful of his kids. Before you come at me, let me explain.

So my husband is 10 years older than I am. He got a vasectomy during his previous marriage and first of all, he didn't tell me this when we started dating. We starting dating. Honestly, for years ago I was organizing this protest and he happened to be one of the police officers that was there just making sure everything was going to go smoothly. I took a chance and asked for his number and he actually gave it to me. He was just newly divorced at the time and so we wanted to take it slow.

After about two years of dating, we bought the place we're currently in. It's this lovely little cabin about an hour away from a major city. It's on about five acres of land and we have horses and chickens. It's honestly always been a dream of mine to live where we are. It's perfectly secluded and yet close enough to drive into the city if we need anything. The only thing is, it's a bit far from my way. work. We originally chose it because it was sort of in the middle of work for the both of us. At the time, he worked an hour north of our place. He wasn't willing to transfer to the city that

I currently work at because his kids live in the town he stationed in. So we compromised and said we were going to try to find a place in the middle of where we both work. I didn't make a fuss about the location because I was so enthralled by the beauty of the place but the commute in the winter is brutal. Takes me an hour and a half to get to work, both are. ways. On top of that, my family and friends all still live back in the city. One of my best friends just had a baby and she doesn't want to drive out here. A lot of my friends don't want to commute out here to hang out, so they're constantly asking me to come into the city or hang after I'm done work, but sometimes I just want to go home, even though it takes me an hour to get home.

Ike. It's all starting to add up. But that's all to say that I do love my little cabin. We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it, but we made it our own. Anyway, shortly after my husband and I moved into our home, his son would come every second weekend to stay for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Sunday we'd have to drive the hour up north back to his home or to a gas station or something halfway so his mom would pick him up. My husband's daughter didn't come to stay with us because she wasn't speaking to him. She's still salty about the divorce and is mad at him for leaving her mom. So anything we could get out of them was lovely at first,

even if it was just his son. His son, I'll call him Kalen, really took to me from the beginning. He would hug me. He made me gifts. He wanted to spend time with me. He was the cutest boy. I was a stepmom and totally loving it. Little things started to happen that sort of raised my eyebrows.

He wanted to cuddle with us and sleep in bed. with us because he'd have bad dreams, but I had to draw the line there because I just didn't feel comfortable sleeping with him in our bed. That was all fine and dandy as my husband then went to go and sleep with him over the weekend in Kalen's bed. Originally he would just go down and lay there until he fell asleep, but then he'd actually fall asleep and just stay asleep. So I'd be sleeping upstairs alone all weekend. The way the cabin is, Kalen's room was in the basement. It was all nice and renovated. It wasn't at all dark and dungi, so before you come at me that it was cruel to do that to him

or no wonder he was having nightmares. No. It was a beautiful, finished basement, he even helped with the renovations, and the master room was on the second level. The only reason this bothered me was that my husband started getting deployed away from home for days, sometimes weeks at a time. So sometimes the only time we'd get together were the weekends. Well, if those weekends landed on when Kaelan was coming to,

to stay, we would really ever get together time. Now, also, I will say, Kalen was 12 years old when he wanted to sleep in the same bed as us the whole my husband sleeping with him fiasco. Kalen is now 14 and he's still pulling the same stunt. Is this normal? I'm not sure. Maybe I was raised differently but I feel like it was a little old to be doing that, no? Not only that, but sometimes he'd creep upstairs to scare us. One time, he'd, he'd, He had gone to bed, and he was downstairs for a good 45 minutes. I was getting ready for bed and changing, and he jumped right into our room to give us a jump scare, but the problem was that my top was off and so he got a look at my bits.

He quickly turned around and apologized and went downstairs apologizing but the damage had been done. I was mortified. My husband tried to laugh it off and I literally had to tell him how wrong and inappropriate it was. I was like he's not just a child anymore. He's literally going to be a teenager. Yeah, a body is a body, but I'm not even his bio-mom.

I love the kid dearly, but enough is enough. So I had to tell my husband to go and have a talk with him because I was super uncomfortable about it. So he hummed and hawed a bit before he went downstairs and told him that he shouldn't come upstairs past a certain time at night and if he needs us he can yell at us from the bottom of the stairs. Then I sort of said that he babies him too much. Well, that sort of started.

an argument. My husband goes to say that he is his baby and always will be and he's a sensitive kid. He's like, what do you expect me to do? Spank him? And I'm like, okay, whoa, whoa, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying there's ways to discipline without violence and by actually teaching a lesson. How's a kid supposed to know right from wrong when I'm clearly upset and he sees you laughing at my face? Then he learns that that sort of behavior is okay and even funny. I'm not trying to traumatize Kalyn, like what if I had been fully naked? Well, he didn't like me saying that so he went and slept with Kalin anyways. Also if you say why were you changing with the door to our bedroom open, well, I thought

Kalen was good and asleep. I didn't think I'd have to worry about him jumping in and seeing us. But I guess I was the A-hole that night. I just think Kalin is just a bit childish for his age. I don't ever remember behaving the way that he was at that age. And I think my husband and his ex just sort of baby him and enable that behavior. He doesn't even know how to use a vacuum or a screwdriver for crying out loud. When we were doing our renovations in the basement, Kalen wanted to help. So we let him help and we were asking him to replace the outlet covers. Well, we had the covers that had two screws.

I gave him a screwdriver and told him to just screw in the new one. Well, he was having a heck of a time because he didn't know how to use a screw. I feel like that's not really rocket science. So he was getting frustrated and then ended up throwing the screwdriver on the floor and telling me that he didn't want to do this anymore. So I tried to be patient with him and still keep him involved somehow. So I was like, hey, why don't you vacuum the little bits off the floor? I was working on the ceiling at the time and my husband was outside cutting baseboards.

So then he picks up the vacuum and he's like, how do I turn it on? So I show him the button to turn it on. So he turns it on and he starts vacuuming but then he's looking at me like, Am I doing this right? And I'm like, yeah, right on. Good job. But then he's not really moving big things out of the way or moving things in order to get all of the bits off the floor and it just kind of looks like he's doing a half its job.

But instead of looking like he's purposely missing things, it just seems like he legitimately doesn't know how to vacuum. So I'm like, wow. Great. And then my husband comes in and he starts praising him like crazy and acting like he's made of gold. He didn't even really try to say like, hey, over there, or hey, missed a spot. Like am I wrong here? That brings me to the main part of this story. So there were a few times that my husband had to work the weekends that Kalen was supposed to come over, and instead of missing out on coming over, Kaelan would ask his mom if he could still come by and stay the weekend even though his dad was gone.

And his mom asked me if that would be okay. And I didn't want to be the bad stepmom or seem like I didn't love Kailen or didn't want him around. I mean, I didn't see him as a bad kid. He just sort of annoyed me with how he behaved so childish and as a stepmom, I felt like I couldn't really discipline him or like help in that department. I felt like it wasn't my place. So I'd have to kind of tell my husband how I'd feel. but then he didn't really listen to me.

He was more offended by his parenting style than anything so eventually I just stopped saying stuff and just put a smile on my face and played the game and tried to be the cool, chill stepmom. Anyways, so recently Kalen comes over and we're hanging out and he said he's hungry and wants a snack. So I say there should be some instant noodles in the cupboard if he wants or I can make us a yummy plate of cheese and crackers or something. He's like no problem, I'll make the instant noodles.

So he's in the kitchen and he's gone for a little while and I don't really hear the microwave or anything. Curious, I get up from the couch and I head to the kitchen and I see him sort of looking at this thing of instant noodles and scratching his head as if it's some sort of alien dinner. I'm like having trouble, buddy. And he's like, how do I make this? The noodles are dry. And I literally had to pick my jaw off the floor. Then I walked him through putting the water in, putting the mix pack in, and putting it in the microwave. So the next day, I'm taking a nap upstairs and he's playing his game on the couch.

Then maybe about 20 minutes later, I'm woken up to these awful electrical noises and Kalen's screaming. I run downstairs and the kitchen is full of smoke and the microwave is all up in flames and the flames are literally up on the wall and the wall is on fire and then it's quickly making its way up to the ceiling. Kalen's freaking out and thankfully I remember there's a fire extinguisher under the kitchen sink, so I grab it and start extinguishing this huge at SS fire. Once it's out, I start crying because of all of this adrenaline and how scared I was and I'm seeing the damage to the wall.

It's all charred. Add and we quite literally live in the cabin so the wall is made of tree logs. Literally cannot fix this. Kalin is sobbing and he's saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I just sort of lose it and yell at him to go downstairs. I crack all of the windows open and start the fan so the burning smell will go away. Then I see in the microwave, what looks like could have been an instant noodle thing. Sue looks like he didn't put water in it and just put the noodles and dry and that's what started the fire.

Honestly, I can't. I called his mom and told her what happened and said that I wasn't sure how safe the house was with the chemically electric fumes, and so I asked if she'd be willing to meet us halfway so that Kalin can spend the rest of the weekend at home. She was totally okay with it and apologized profusely. I called my husband and told him what happened and I even texted him photos and he literally just laughed and said, whoa, that's not good. And I said, that's it. That's all you have to say.

And he said, well, I'm just glad you guys are okay. And I said, your son nearly burned down our home. And he said, but it didn't burn down because you were there. And I said, What if I hadn't been here? I said, Your son is 14, he should know better. He's old enough to be at home on his own. What if I wasn't here or what if he was back home with his mom and did the same thing? This was bad, really bad.

I said, this is the product of babying your son. And then he lost it on me and said that I was overreacting. And I said, our house is permanently damaged because of him. And we can't just take a log out of our home and replace it. I said, how am I ever going to be respected by his kids? If my own husband can't even respect me enough to listen to me. He said that I was being the evil stepmother and that I should know my place. And I said, oh, what place might that be?

Then he says, you can't come in and act like you're their mother and try to change everything. And I said, I have never ever not once tried to replace their mother. I'm trying to explain to you that your son is lacking the basic skills of life because you've sheltered him from the world. You keep giving him that silver spoon. And if you're not careful, he's not going to make it in the real world. Then he told me that I was a dumb bitch and didn't know what I was talking about. I'll never know what it's like to be a mother because he's never going to give me children.

I said, you can't possibly mean that. And he said, I mean every word. You need to learn to shut your mouth. And with that, I hung up the phone. So now he's staying wherever he is for work. And I told him to stay there in a hotel. I said, I don't want him to come home. I said he couldn't have cared less if it even burned down.

I'm here and I just spent my weekend trying to clean what I could from the wall. The house smells of burnt. Everything smells. No matter what I do, my hair smells. Ida. Am I wrong here? Update, okay. So some of you said I was taking it too far and others said to leave is it SS. Well, this incident sort of had me looking back at a lot of things and really got me thinking. I mean, he has a vasectomy. And I remember telling him early on in our relationship that I didn't want to rule out having kids of my own one day. And he didn't actually

mentioned that he had a vasectomy until much later after that conversation. And at the time, I just thought that I wasn't going to have kids of my own and that I'd live with being a step-mom and that I was going to be the best step-mom there ever was. Ha! That was a funny daydream. And I didn't even see him not telling me something important like that as a red flag until now. I'll admit, I was blinded by love. I just wanted to make it work. I tried to be the chill chick about it all. He wanted to buy a place halfway for us. Okay, sure. But then he was hardly ever home because he was away for work so much.

So I was all alone in this beautiful house. He literally isolated me from everyone I love. I miss my friends. I miss my family. And he made me hate going to work because I had to drive so far there and back. I used to love work and love what I do. I do want kids of my kids of my family. own. I don't want to have to tiptoe around things or be scared to say things to my husband about

how he should raise his kids or discipline them. I have no power here. I can't live in a place where I'm not respected and my voice isn't heard. I'll never be able to parent these kids when my own husband tries to be their best friend. So I officially left him. We're able to get the marriage annulled. I'm staying with my mom for now. As much as I love that house, I couldn't stay there any longer. It ended up feeling like a prison. I'm back in the city and I'm a few minutes away from work and I see my friends almost every day. I get to spend time with my best friend and her new baby. I feel good about all of this. I've also heard from some mutual friends that my ex was demoted at work. Looks like his dismissive attitude and lack of responsibility finally caught up with him and spilled

over into other aspects of his life. Not only that, but because of his demotion, he's having a hard time coming up with the money to pay child support, and his daughter still isn't speaking to him. I don't blame her. Now on to the next story. Story two. Wife confess she repeatedly cheated on me while leaving me home alone to care for our special needs son. She doesn't regret it and refuses to move out until I buy back her share. Here's a not-so-brief state of our situation. I, 37, and my wife's, 34, relationship has been strained lately with her working nights. And I work days. Because our son, three years old, has special needs, a standard babysitter isn't possible and specialized care isn't available or financially feasible. He has a few hours a week

at school in a therapy setting. Otherwise, he's with one of us. Because of the schedules, we've been the ship's passing in the night. Most days, we got ten minutes to see each other. Not a perfect situation. And it's something I wanted to fix. I've been sleeping in the guest room so that she can decompress and get some quality sleep alone. It was not something I wanted to do. But for her benefit, I thought it would help her sleeplessness. Our sex life has been non-existent for a long time. In the past few months when we have talked, she would mention things like, We should try an open relationship because I don't like Segs anymore and you should be free to explore and getting married has screwed up our finances, we should get an on-paper divorce.

I never took her that seriously because she said them in such a joking tone. Lately, she has mentioned that she feels like we're great roommates. She has also wanted to go out with her friends more often on her nights off. I'm not the type for that. So, I stay home with our son. Admittedly, a special needs child can be very difficult. Her having a night off was completely understandable. Come to two weeks ago, I asked to sit down and talk about our relationship.

She agreed to talk the next day and I actually sent her an email of questions I had on my mind. Questions like, how would you describe our relationship? And do you want to share a bed anymore? And most importantly, have you had sex outside of our marriage? We sat down after our son was in bed and had the talk. We talked for a few minutes about what she thought of our relationship. She said she doesn't see us as a couple anymore. She started to cry.

Then she said, you asked if I've had sex with anyone else. The answer is yes. It immediately hit me like a ton of bricks. I had asked the question more for peace of mind for me rather than a confirmation. I had suspicions before, but I thought they were all in my head. We talked for two hours. I said very little and tried to keep my anger in my check. But here's what was revealed. She did not want to talk about the details of the other relationship with me. That doesn't matter. She admitted to it happening more than once and it was premeditated.

She had gone out with my blessing to hang out with friends knowing that she was going to cheat. the affair is not still going on, but she was still talking to the person. She wasn't necessarily interested in a romantic or sexual relationship outside of our marriage right now, but she's open to anything. She didn't realize until recently that she's probably not really into the whole monogamy thing. As for our relationship, we're done. And she wanted me out of the bedroom completely. She wants to remain in the house to co-parent not just because we have to, but because she wants

to. You're a great dad and that part of you I still really care about. She kept saying, we don't have to make any decisions right now. And I know it's a lot. Also, I don't hate you. I still care about you, and I'm sure you hate me. Since then I've moved upstairs. I've initiated a separation of our finances and healthcare.

That conversation resulted in her crying and saying this is a lot right now. she has relented. She has also said that she's depressed and mourning losing her best friends and retreats to her room frequently. I've mentioned divorce, her moving out, and selling the house, all of which are returned with vague warnings of expense and difficulty, and disrupting our son. Conversations with my friends say she's gaslighting me or manipulating the situation so that she gets to have her cake and eat it too. I've come to believe that having her move out may be difficult for our son, but it's what's best for my mental health. And that's ultimately best for my son. But I have no idea how to make it happen. I feel so lost and broken. Just typing this up has taken a few days because I can't

get through it. All I think about is how I wanted to fix our relationship and how she put someone else above spending time with us. She used my dependability as a father for her selfish reasons. Then think about being kind to her so that she can stay in our child's life. He will need both of us. It is sadness, then pain, then anger, then a few minutes of numbness before it starts again. Merry Christmas to me. I'll add a few more pieces of information. As I said below, some of the nights out were explained as work-related social events, or with friends for work that I don't know. Obviously now I can't trust that information very much. I'm sure that one of of those nights she cheated. It was described as a mom's night off where I took my son to play

at an indoor playground. So we could get ready and then take an Uber out to a bar. Brutal when I realized that one. But I do know some of her friends. One of those friends is actually a female friend of mine from before the relationship. Let's call her Fran. Fran has not been in contact with us, but I've told her the situation and she's been helping me very kindly. I haven't asked her to verify any alibis. I also learned through Fran that my spouse had told other mutual friends that her app has a girlfriend. The girlfriend knows about the affair, an app is trying to repair that relationship. I don't know where that leaves my spouse or even how much I can trust forthhand information. She has apologized indirectly. She said,

I'm sorry that I hurt you. But she also explicitly said that she does not regret cheating. This week she works most days but we're going to try to have a normal Christmas even day. Then I'm taking my son to see my family this weekend. I'll tell them what's going on then. She told her mom that we are not together and that she cheated. Her mom is sad about the situation. I'm talking about her moving out. She refuses to leave until we sell the house or I buy it back alone.

And she gets her share of the equity. She said, that's fair if you're going to be. kick me out. Also, she said that if I tried to stop her from seeing our child, she would fight it. Those are the only two things she has been forceful or antagonistic about. She's open to seeing a divorce attorney or mediator whenever I want. I realized reading the above, I may have made her out to be more manipulative and colder than she may be. But the facts are correct. So, judge us as you will. I hope you enjoy this story. partner's recent love interest covertly organized a fraudulent family portrait session with my daughter,

then informed the photographer that she was her offspring and shared it on the internet. Apologies for the extended explanation. My ex-boyfriend is James. James and I dated for three years between spring 2014 and the end of winter 2017. Since my daughter is obviously older than three, it's clear that she is not biologically James. Her father was not someone who wanted to be a involved with her and signed away all rights when she was born, so he is not involved in the picture. James and I were originally friends, which grew into a relationship when my daughter was around the age of one. As my daughter grew a little bit older, she saw James as a de facto parent, a role that he happily stepped up to. She knows that he isn't daddy, but had the strongest

bond with him of anyone outside of the biological family. Our relationship finished owing to a difference and personal timelines. James wanted to buy a house together. We had lived together in the last year, but we each still had our own places, and moved to another city for work, while I was happy where I was located. It became a self-imposed ultimatum, and while James didn't actually move, it was clear that our relationship was over. We stayed friends, and he changed from de facto dad to fun Uncle James to my daughter. We have both made sure that she was stable about the situation, something that she clearly seems to be. As I do with other friends, my daughter, and I will occasionally visit James,

who sometimes has my daughter without me there for a couple of hours at a time if I have to run errands or something similar. I have no reason at all to worry about James with my daughter, who is always all smiles and five more minutes. When I get back. About six months ago James started dating Tracy. She is someone that he works with who I actually first met while we were dating. Their relationship itself isn't the issue, however there have been instances that have caused

concern in the past few months. The first was when James invited my and my daughter around for a playdate with James' nephew, who he was babysitting. Tracy was there too, which I expected, however when we arrived and James greeted my daughter with a hug she commented on how she looked like her daddy, meaning James. Both James and I said that my daughter wasn't James' child, which is something James later said had come up in conversation between them before. She only remarked that she meant they had a strong father-daughter bond, which I thought odd, but ignored. There have been a couple of other times

when I have seen Tracy either out and about or at planned events when she has said that my daughter really likes spending time with James, which I obviously know, though I just took it as awkward ex's chat. The reason I am posting is about what happened a couple of days ago. Again, James was babysitting his nephew, and had invited myself and my daughter to the park for an afternoon. We get there and everything is fine until my phone rings and I'm told that there's an emergency in the office that I have to sort out because X, Y, and Z aren't picking up their phone. I mentioned this, and James and Tracy offered to look after my daughter and stay in the park while I rush over to the office, only a five-minute drive, to sort out the problem.

I'm gone for about half an hour overall, the issue wasn't really an issue, as it never is. and when I get back everyone is where I left them and all happy. We start getting ready to go home when Tracy mentions to me that someone that she knew, an amateur photographer, happened to be in the park taking pictures of the landscape and had taken a couple of shots of the group, my daughter included, and that she'd send them over because they were apparently really sweet. I was a bit perturbed by someone apparently just coming over and photographing my child, but thought glass half full and decided it was only a nice gesture.

A couple of hours later Tracy sends me over the solo pictures of my daughter. She says that she didn't give her friend permission to use any of the solo pictures of my daughter on her professional page, but the ones of the scenery and of James' nephew were on there, and if I wanted to give consent, then my daughters could be on there too. They were actually very cute, and I looked on the photographer's page to see the rest from the day. There were some sweet candids of the nephew, and some nice couple shots of James and Tracy, but the last picture on there was a family-style portrait of everyone, my daughter included. The caption said something like the James surname, Tracy's surname S. know how to have fun.

I immediately messaged the page asking for the picture to be taken down as it had my daughter in it without my permission. They replied apologizing for the issue, saying that Tracy had said that the little girl was James and he gave his consent. I then messaged James asking him to not give consent for anything involving my daughter, and to remind Tracy yet again that he is not my daughter's father. He replied saying he never gave his consent for any group pictures to be on there, and he resented the accusation. I messaged Tracy later on making it clear that I didn't want my daughter to be used in any kind of situation where the facts weren't clear, and no, James was not her father. I didn't get a reply. I don't know where to go from here. I don't want to be that ex-girlfriend

who tries to get her ex-to-s sneak around behind his girlfriends back for him to see my daughter, but at the same time he's done nothing to stop Tracy from acting out this charade of my daughter being James and therefore hers. If I just cut them both out then my daughter will be confused, though I know she'll bounce back. I know that James will be hurt too, but I need to put mine and my daughter's feelings before that. It's just getting to me that we were able to be fine and stable through our whole breakup, yet a completely unavoidable situation is what will finish this off. Should I just move on without James and Tracy and my and my daughter's lives? Am I simply overreacting and becoming that X regardless?

Update. So I got a lot more interest in my posts than I expected. While some were either end of the spectrum, the majority seemed to suggest that James was too involved in my daughter's life. I had a long think about why I had pursued this route, to clarify to some, I did not force James into this position. He was happy to maintain a relationship with my daughter given that he had been in her life for several years. The comments concerning where my daughter would be as and when James settled down and got married

and had kids of his own also made me think. This situation was definitely one of convenience, especially given the fact that our relationship ended since James wanted to move away and I did not. I definitely had no plans to challenge any of James' life choices. Nor did I ever expect him to prioritize myself and my dad. daughter over anything else. Something I seemed not to convey clearly in my original post was that James really is just a friend and has been for the past year to me, and so because of that I don't use him for anything that a parent would do. On the he's not a babysitter slash daycare posts especially,

he sees her maybe once every six weeks, and since our relationship ended he's been alone with her three times at the most, so this is not me using our former relationship as a tool for free child care. He asks to see my daughter, I don't make him make time for her. As a final clarifying point, this has never been a I want him so you can't have him situation, our time together will always be cherished, but I do not want to pursue a romantic relationship with James again, and he doesn't with me. On to the update. After reading the comments to my post and thinking over the issues, I decided to send both

James and Tracy messages apologizing for my reaction and my heat of the moment accusations the day after I made the post. James responded saying that it was water under the bridge and he would have been annoyed too in the situation. Tracy's response was different. All she sent was a message saying I know he is, daughter's father. I assured her that James was not my child's dad, and even went as far as to apologize if I had seemed off with her or if my current relationship with James was an issue. She asked if we could meet up and talk, which I agreed we met for coffee, and she said that she had been off with me, but not because of my relationship with James. She said that last year she had found out that she was infertile, and while James knew and was supportive, seeing him with my little girl

who she knew he helped raise for several years got to her, which resulted in comments about him as daddy. She then said that the whole photographer situation was set up. She had asked her friend who lived near to the park to come and take some pictures of her, James and the children as soon as it was clear that I was going to have to leave. She told James the same thing she told me about the friend happening to be in the park and wanting some portfolio shots, but told the friend out of James earshot that I was totally fine with the pictures happening, and that James was my daughter's father so she has an on-site parent regardless. She was the one who suggested the family portrait shot, she told the friend to stick that one online but that the individual

ones of my daughter needed to go through me first. She didn't think that I would be interested in looking at the other photos, and thought I wouldn't see it. She said that having a picture of her, her partner, a little boy and a little girl was enough to keep her going since her medical news was hitting her heart. Tracy ended by saying that since James is the only father that my daughter has ever known, she is therefore the closest thing that she will ever have to a child with him. I didn't quite know how to respond. After reading many comments on my post saying that I was a jealous Harpy and that Tracy was an innocent bystander, or even calmer versions of that mindset, I was surprised that my actual suspicions were actually correct somewhat.

This was not the reasoning I ever thought was behind this, though. I thanked her for her honesty and asked if she was talking to anyone else about this. She said she wasn't, but she knew she should be. She also said that James knew nothing of the extent to which she was feeling, other than sometimes she was a little blue. We spent a while searching online for local mental health specialists, and left it with her promising to make an appointment and to talk to James. After getting home, I contacted James to say that I believe that there needed to be some distance established between him and my daughter to benefit everyone

involved in the situation. He said he agreed, and that he would always be there for my daughter if she needed him. I asked my daughter that evening, more out of curiosity, as to how she views James, and all she said was James' nephew's uncle, so I'm taking that to mean that she is by no means dependent on him at the very least. I don't know if this is the end of this, and I'm sure I will get some criticism for not cutting out James altogether, or for even limiting the existing contact, but I believe this will benefit everyone, including Tracy, in the long run. Thank you again for everyone's advice. Next story, sister lied to her husband about having a twin brother who died at birth,

and when he brought it up at my son's celebration dinner, I told him it wasn't true. Usually a lurker, but something happened tonight that has me incredibly confused. Apologies in advance for the length. Backstory, I'm the eldest of four sisters. We're stair-stepped, two years apart. I'm Meg, 38, Joe is 36, Beth is 34, and Amy is 32. Our parents used to joke about how they kept trying for a boy but finally gave up after girl number four. Not gonna lie, it hurt our feelings a little, especially Amy, but they

stopped that and assured us they wouldn't change anything. Every one of us has at least one daughter. I am the only sister that has a son. At 17, he's the eldest grandchild and I'm fairly certain he's my dad's favorite person in the world. They are best friends. It's adorable. Okay, now that you have the backstory slash fam history, let's talk about tonight. My son, who is very intelligent and absolutely crushed high school, recently received his acceptance letter to a pretty prestigious university. Full ride. We are incredibly proud.

My folks wanted to throw him a little congratulatory party, and tonight worked for all of our schedules, which is no small feat, for different families with eleven kids between them. So we all headed to the folks' house for pizza and cake. At one point, Amy brought up that it is sibling appreciation day, and mom said she wanted all of her girls to say what we appreciate about our sisters, and we go youngest to eldest, with most of the compliments going to me, as I was kind of a second mom to them. I told each of my sisters how much I love them, among other things, and then finished my speech off saying something like and I really appreciate that we didn't have any gross

boys stinking up our house. All of us but Beth and her husband laugh. Beth's eyes got really big in her husband, Chase, looked at me like I was something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe. Suddenly, he says that's pretty effed up, I said something like I'd Chase, I've smelled you after your workouts, it's pretty bad. And he got even more mad and said how could you talk about Tyler like that? And Beth starts losing her mind. Guys, she's grabbing him by the arm and begging him to hush, saying they need to go home now, etc. So naturally I'm like, um, who is Tyler? Well, friends. Apparently Tyler is Beth's twin that died during

childbirth. And it made our folks and me so depressed that nobody is allowed to speak of him or reference him. Ever. Beth forbade him from ever mentioning to any family member. After Chase told us this, nobody said a word. It was so damn tense. Finally, I just kind of bluntly said, I'm not sure why, but Beth lied to you about this. I think you guys should talk about it, but I don't want to hear anything else about this tonight, as we're here to celebrate, my son. After that, Beth burst into tears and ran into her old bedroom, with Chase, Mom, and Joe following her. The party never fully recovered and they took off pretty shortly after that. I stayed behind to help clean, and so my dad and son could hang some more. While I'm doing the dishes,

my mom scolded me pretty harshly about calling Beth a liar. If the baby's shoe fits, mother. My dad said I wasn't wrong, but I embarrassed Beth. What the hell was I supposed to do? I was getting chastised over a lie. Absolutely not. Beth also texted me that I effed her over, and a text from Chase's phone told me I was the actual liar sister and everyone knows that.

Amy is on my side, but she and Beth always butted heads. Joe claims she's neutral, but she also told me I didn't have to call her out like that. What the hell else was I supposed to do? Just take the lashing. And why is everyone acting like me calling out? What I consider to be a pretty heavy lie is worse than the lie itself. How do we resolve this situation? I love my sisters so damn much, they are my best friends, but this is so weird and so wrong to put on me.

Comments where OP has replied, commenter one, I can't imagine any other response. I really can't. Were you seriously expected to lie along with her? I think that is shocking. Oop, I have no idea what she was expecting. I have lied for her before. But saying she's at my house while she's really getting boudoir photos done for him is not the same as lying about a whole person who never existed?

It's beyond bizarre. comment her too, I'm kind of impressed that after all of that she managed to convince her husband that you were the liar. Of course, if he still believes her he's dumb as a brick. I'd think there is proof enough on her birth certificate as it will state she was a single birth. Oop, I will say, Chase is not a dummy, and he's typically not malicious. And although nobody really backed me up about this being a lie, at least not in front of me, I think it's pretty obvious that I was telling the truth, as everyone else was obviously confused and dead silent in the moment. I have not responded to the texts, as I'm not looking to burn bridges.

I've made many mistakes, and my sisters have graciously forgiven me. I'm just, flummoxed, and a little hurt. Update, April 12, 2025. Okay, I think we have some answers, the events that occurred last night. I do want to tell everyone who took time to give advice or kind words, thank you. I honestly couldn't read everything. I was, and am, exhausted. But I did get an idea of how I wanted to approach everything, thanks to the advice given. I'll get to the update in a few. I just wanted to answer some FAQs slash comments real quick. One, this is fake. I wish it was.

I really wish my mind worked in a way where I could make things up like this. Alas, my imagination is lacking. 2. Your parents named you after little women? This is probably partially to blame for the fake comments. These are just placeholder names I used, as there are four sisters in that novel. My parents are hippies, and gave us some pretty noticeable names. If I used our real ones, on the off chance any of our friends read this, they'd know immediately this was our family. 3. Beth is continuing to lie and Chase is believing it and your mom and Joe threw you under the bus too. Rie, Chase, I think he knew I was being truthful. Also, I said the text came from his phone. I was actually thinking Beth sent it, as that's not Chase's vibe. About mom and Joe, they didn't

throw me under the bus. But I'll go into more detail soon. 4. Is it possible my mom had twins and I just forgot or didn't know about the death? Absolutely not. I was at all of my sister's births. I don't remember Joes, but I do remember Beth and Amy's, and there were no multiples, no deaths, no funerals, no depression. Five, the birth certificate will prove it. It sure would, yes. But I'm not about to try to strong arm my sister into showing her husband her birth certificate. 6. Your sister is mentally ill, also the golden child, and you're the scapegoat.

I'm not about to say my sister is sick, but I do think she has some issues, as we all do. There's no golden child and scapegoat in this family. My parents were and are really good about treating all of us fairly and equally. 7. You could if slash should have been more tactful slash pulled her aside slash not called her a liar. had I known that Tyler was my dead brother, I never would have asked who he was. Chase and I tease each other a lot, and I honestly thought he was about to come out with some kind of funny joke, all of these nuts. Rie, my lack of tact.

E.I.K. I think it's pretty lacking in tact to make up a whole dead sibling. And really, facts are facts. She lied, and that's that. The night was about my son, so I squashed the issue and chose to move forward. hoping to end the conversation with as little drama as possible. Okay, so now up to the update. After a night of barely sleeping and my blood pressure dangerously high, I called my mom this morning fully ready to let out an emotionally charged tirade about how I feel they unfairly threw me under the bus and took Beth's side

when she objectively did the worst thing my mom answered the phone apologizing and asked me to just listen. When she and Joe followed Beth and Chase to Beth's room, mom did tell Chase that Tyler was not real, and this is an issue between her and Chase, and they should probably leave, because she didn't want the evening ruined. She did get on to me, but it was mostly out of sympathy and empathy for Beth, and she recognized it wasn't okay. She apologized for that. She spoke with Chase this morning, and Beth, who is the one who sent me the text from Chase's phone, finally came clean early this morning, after hours of denying the lie. Something I didn't mention, as I didn't feel it was

pertinent to the story, is Beth's eldest daughter, Madison, isn't Chase's biological daughter. He's been around since Madison was two. Also kind of pertinent is that Chase is a first responder. He loves to be a hero, and he's very good in that role. He met Beth doing victims' advocacy. And as such, I believe they both view him as saving Beth. This has a long been speculated, but it's not exactly our place to say anything. And we all love Chase. He is an amazing person. And Beth is no dummy.

She picked up on Chase's hero complex immediately. It appears that, in an effort to make herself look more sympathetic, vulnerable, broken, she lied about having a twin brother that died in childbirth. I guess being in an abusive relationship and having a small child just wasn't enough? She did not have to do that. They've been together ten years now, and not once did she come clean. To me that proves a clear pattern of deceit and manipulation. However, I'm not going to speculate on her mental health problems or reasonings for not coming clean.

That is for her and her husband to deal with. Neither one of them have called or texted me to apologize, and I'm honestly unsure if they will. Beth is more of the rug-sweeping type, while I'm a confront issues head-on type. I will not be cutting my sister off for this, though. I love her, and at the end of the day I just want her to be happy and healthy. I do hope that this whole issue will cause her to rethink some of her life choices and maybe she can get some therapy. I think we could all use therapy, TBH.

That's where we are right now. My mom did not offer any information about how Beth and Chase are doing, and I did not ask. It's not my business. I have not heard from Joe. but Amy and I have been texting all morning and she is being my best good friend right now and providing a lot of support. Hopefully we can all move forward and grow together in the future. Thanks again for the support you all have sent my way.