Reddit Stories - From HEARTBREAK to Happily Ever After_ A Tale of Tears and UNEXPECTED PROPOSALS_

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #tifu #relationshipadvice #love #marriage #proposalSummary: From HEARTBREAK to Happily Ever After_ A Tale of Tears and UNEXPECTED PROPOSALS_ is a captivating story of love, loss, and second chances. Follow the emotional journey of the protagonists as they navigate through heartbreak and find unexpected happiness in the end.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, heartbreak, happilyeverafter, tears, unexpectedproposals, love, loss, secondchances, emotionaljourney, protagonists, happiness, relationships, romance, storytelling, fiction, drama, plottwistBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

The man was weeping about his former partner's engagement, then asked for my hand in marriage the following day as his second pick, so I ended the relationship with him and discovered he had departed the nation. To win her back. I, 22F, met my boyfriend, 24M, about three years ago through some friends who all went to the same university. We were at this house party and he was just sitting in the corner not talking to anyone. Initially, I thought he was just one of those pretentious guys who thinks he's too good to socialize, but then our mutual friend Jake introduced us and explained that he's just really shy around new people. When we first met, he was super guarded and didn't really talk much. I was the one who pursued him because I thought he was cute and I

liked how quiet and mysterious he seemed. We exchanged numbers that night but he never texted me, so after a few days I decided to text him first. It took him forever to reply to my messages, but eventually we started talking more regularly. We were long distance for a while since I was living in Oregon finishing up college and he was in Washington working at some tech company, but we made it work with weekend visits and stuff. The drive was like four hours each way which sucked, but we'd take turns visiting each other.

I finally moved in with him last year after I graduated because there were more job opportunities in his city anyway. So here's the thing about my boyfriend, he's only had one serious relationship before me and some random hookup. He doesn't talk to the hookup girl anymore because apparently she was crazy, his words, not mine, but he stayed friends with his ex up until about two years ago when she cut contact with him. They dated when he was a teenager for like two years, and then she dumped him because, and I'm quoting what he told me, he had no self-respect. Whatever that means.

Whenever I asked him to elaborate on that, he'd just get all quiet and say something vague like I was different back then or I let people walk all over me. I'll be honest, I was always jealous of this X. She's gorgeous, I've seen pictures, and whenever my boyfriend talked about her, it was like she was some kind of oracle with all of life's answers. He'd say things like X always said that you should never settle for less than what you deserve or X thought that people who did X were just trying to compensate for Y. It was annoying as hell, but I never said anything because I didn't want to seem insecure or whatever. Plus in the beginning of our relationship I was trying to be the cool girlfriend who doesn't get jealous over stupid shit. There was this one time when we were having

dinner with some of his work friends, and one of them mentioned something about relationships, and my boyfriend immediately started with my ex used to say. And I just sat there feeling like a complete idiot while he went on about her wisdom for like five minutes. His friends all exchanged these looks that I couldn't quite read, but no one said anything. I remember. I remember excusing myself to go to the bathroom and just sitting in the stall trying not to cry. When I came back, the conversation had moved on, thankfully. I was actually kind of relieved when she cut contact with him because I thought maybe he'd finally move on. And for a while, things seemed okay. He seemed to be getting less guarded,

and we were actually pretty happy together. Then this past January, I think it was a Tuesday night, or maybe Wednesday, I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and noticed my boyfriend wasn't in bed. It was like 3 a.m. or something. I heard some weird noises coming from the living room, so I went to check it out. He was sitting on the couch in the dark, and I could tell he was crying because of the weird sniffling sounds. The light from his phone was illuminating his face, and I wasn't sure if I should say something or just leave him alone. I mean, everyone deserves their private moments, right? After a while, he got up to go to the bathroom, and I'm not proud of this, But I took a peek at his phone.

He was on Facebook looking at his ex's profile. She had just gotten engaged and there were all these pictures of her ring and her fiancé and them looking all happy together. I pretended to be asleep when he came back to bed. I could feel him getting in beside me but he was really careful not to wake me up. He was still sniffling a bit and it took him a long time to fall asleep. I just laid there feeling like shit, not knowing what to do. The next morning I wanted to ask him about it, but he seemed totally normal.

Made coffee, kiss me goodbye before heading to work, texted me during his lunch break like he always does. I kept waiting for him to bring it up or show some sign that he was upset, but nothing. So I decided not to mention it either. Maybe it was just a one-time thing, you know? Maybe seeing an ex get engaged is always a little weird, even if you're over them. I tried to convince myself that was all it was. But then it happened again a few nights later.

And then again the following week. Fast forward to now, it's been like two months, and my boyfriend keeps breaking down out of nowhere. We'll be watching TV and suddenly he'll just get up and go to the bathroom for like 20 minutes, and I can hear him crying through the door. Or we'll be about to fall asleep and he'll turn away from me and I can feel him shaking with silent sobs. It's fucking weird and honestly really uncomfortable. I keep asking him to talk to me about what's wrong,

but he just says nothing or I'm just tired or some other bullshit excuse. One time he said he was crying because he was thinking about his childhood dog that died when he was 15. Another time he claimed it was because of some sad commercial he saw earlier that day. I'm not an idiot, I know he's lying. I finally got fed up last week and told him he should maybe see a therapist. and he got super offended and said he doesn't believe in therapy because it's just a way for people to take your money without actually helping you. Okay, whatever dude.

We actually got into a small argument about it, which is rare for us because he usually just shuts down when there's conflict. He kept saying that therapy is for weak people who can't handle their own problems and that he's fine and just needs some time. This happens at least twice a week now, and I'm starting to lose my mind. I love him, I really do. but he's always been a bit distant with me, and now I'm realizing that this woman is probably the reason why. I'm starting to think that maybe she said something to upset him when she cut contact, because he didn't seem this bothered when she was dating other guys before she got engaged.

I found her on Instagram and I'm wondering if I should message her and just ask what the deal is. Maybe she has some insight that could help me understand what's going on with him. I know it sounds crazy and desperate, but I'm out of ideas. My best friend thinks I should just break up with him because life's too short to be someone's second choice, but is that really what's happening here? I mean, he chose to be with me for three years. He asked me to move in with him. That has to mean something, right? Yesterday morning, I tried bringing it up again. We were eating breakfast and I just flat out asked him if he was still in love with his ex. He looked at me like I had three heads and said, what? No,

of course not. Why would you even ask that? I explained that I've noticed him crying a lot lately and that it seemed to start around the time his ex got engaged. He got really defensive and said that it had nothing to do with her, that he's just been stressed about work and hasn't been sleeping well. Then he got up and left for work early without finishing his breakfast. I'm so confused. Edit to add, he's at work right now and I'm sitting at home thinking about all this. I forgot to mention that when I brought up therapy, he also said something like you wouldn't understand because you've never been through what I've been through. Like WTF does that even mean?

We've been together for three years and living together for almost a year, and I still feel like I barely know him sometimes. Also, someone in the comments asked if I've talked to any of his friends about this. The answer is no, because most of his friends are also friends with his ex, they all went to high school together. The few friends of his that I am close with live in different states now, so we don't really talk much. And honestly, I'd feel weird bringing this up with him anyway. Another thing I just remembered, a few months ago, before all this started, he mentioned that his ex had texted him out of the blue to catch up. He showed me the text, which I appreciated,

and asked if I'd be okay with him responding. He never mentioned it again after that, so I assumed they just exchanged a few pleasantries and that was it. Now I'm wondering if there was more to it. Update. It's over, I think. I called my dad and asked him to help me move back home. These last few days have been a complete emotional roller coaster. My boyfriend was gone all day yesterday. He wasn't there when I woke up, which was fine. I figured he just went to work early or something, but he still wasn't home when I went to bed. I texted him a few times, just a good morning when I woke up, and then two more at night asking if he was coming home for dinner and if he was all right. I tried calling him too, but he didn't pick up. I was worried sick, but also getting

kind of pissed off. I even called his work to see if he was working late, but the receptionist said he had left at his normal time. I called a couple of his friends, but they hadn't heard from him either. I started to get really worried that something had happened to him, like an accident or something. I was about to call the police when I got a text from him at like 11 p.m. just saying sorry, need some time to think. We'll be home tomorrow. I felt like I deserved some answers, so I decided to snoop through his stuff. I've only done it once before when I was feeling really insecure about his relationship with his ex. Well, on his laptop hidden in a bunch of random subfolders, I found this MS Word document with his ex's name. I opened it and read it, and I'm pretty sure it's a little bit sure it's a

saved copy of the last conversation he had with her before she cut contact with him. It started out normal enough, just catching up and stuff, but then he asked her how her relationship with her boyfriend, now fiancé, was going. She said it was good and that she was happy. Then it got super weird because he said something like, really? Are you sure? She said yes and asked why he was being weird, and he said, I don't know, I don't believe that you're that happy. I can't remember everything exactly because my head was spinning while reading it.

But he basically told her that her fiancé would never treat her as well as he did, and that they've known each other for so many years and managed to stay friends after their breakup, that they've helped each other grow as people and that she should really give him another chance. He literally told her that he's waited for her all these years and that he loves her and always believed they'd wind up together. This was all while he was with me. She called him an asshole. She called him an asshole, rightfully so, and told him that he had a lot of nerve to say all that to her when she told him a long time ago that they would only ever be friends. She also called him an even bigger asshole for doing this while they were both in relationships. She told him to go to hell and to

break up with me for my sake, because I deserve better. That's not even the worst part. This morning, my boyfriend finally came home around 6 a.m., looking exhausted. He woke me up by calling my cell, even though we were in the same damn apartment, telling me to come to the kitchen because he made breakfast. So I went to the kitchen and he had made this amazing breakfast spread, with a ring box in the middle of the table. He told me to open it. I did. It was an engagement ring. He said something cheesy like these last three years with me has been an adventure and he hopes to keep making new adventures with me. I guess that's when I snapped out of whatever fog I've been in, and I just exploded. I demanded to know where he was all day yesterday, why he wouldn't

contact me, why he's been crying over his ex for the last three months, everything. And get this, he got mad at me for being mad. He had the nerve to say that I should be happy because he was proposing, and wasn't that what I wanted? I asked him why he would propose when it's so obvious that he'd rather be with his ex. His response? She's obviously moved on so it's time for me to move on too. I've never been so angry in my life. I've been so patient with this man and done my best to be understanding. I've literally given him everything I had, but I'm not going to marry him just to be his fucking consolation prize. It's so ironic because if he had proposed like four months ago, I would have been over the moon. Now it just broke us. So I called

my dad, crying my eyes out, and he's on his way to help me move my stuff back to my parents' house. That's it. I'm a complete wreck, but I think it's just because everything wrong and twisted in this relationship is finally hitting me, and it took so long for me to see it. Meanwhile, my, I guess ex-boyfriend is just sitting on the couch with his laptop like nothing happened. I don't even know how to process all of this. While I was packing some of my stuff, he just sat there asking me why I was overreacting and saying that I was throwing away a good thing over nothing. When I brought up the document I found, he got really defensive and said I had no right to go through his private files.

Then he tried to explain that the conversation happened a long time ago and that he was in a different headspace then. But when I pointed out that his reaction to her engagement proves that he's still not over her, he just shut down and stopped talking to me. My dad should be here in a couple of hours. I've packed most of my important stuff, but I'll have to come back for the rest later. I honestly don't even know what to say to my ex-boyfriend before I leave. Part of me wants to scream at him for wasting three years of my life, but another part of me just wants to get out of here as quickly as possible. Thank you guys so much for helping me see how unfair this whole relationship was.

I read every one of your comments, even if I didn't respond to them all. Several of you called this exact scenario, saying that he was only with me because he couldn't have her, and I didn't want to believe it, but you were right. Update 2. I took a break from Reddit for a while, needed to clear my head, but logged in today to find a few PMs asking for another update, so here goes. My ex went more or less crazy after I moved back home. The first week after I left was actually pretty calm. He texted me a few times asking me to come back, saying we needed to talk, but I didn't respond. I was staying in my old bedroom at my parents' house, just trying to process everything that had happened.

My mom was being super supportive, making me all my favorite foods and not asking too many questions. Then the weirdest shit started happening. He started sending messages to my friends, some of them are mutual friends, asking to use their Skype accounts to talk to me. He told them that I stole some things from him when I moved out, and he needed them back. I got a bunch of phone calls from my friends asking me about this. They all told me that they knew I didn't steal anything because that's not like me at all, but they wanted to know why he was so desperate to contact me. I wasn't ready to tell the whole story, honestly, I didn't think anyone would believe me, so I just told them that I didn't know what was going on, but begged them not to give him

their Skype accounts. A few days after that, the phone calls started, all from different numbers that I didn't recognize. I didn't pick any of them up, but one day I I'd have about 20 missed calls from one number, then another 20 plus from a different number the next day. It got so bad that I had to set my phone to only allow calls from specific numbers in my contacts, otherwise it would go straight to voicemail. Even if he couldn't reach me, he succeeded in making me feel pretty isolated and paranoid. I really don't know what his endgame was here. Did he think that if he harassed me enough, I'd give in and talk to him? Did he really believe that I stole something from him, or was that just an excuse to get in touch with me?

None of it made any sense. There was one really creepy incident where I went out for coffee with a friend, and I swear I saw his car in the parking lot. I pointed it out to my friend, but by the time we looked again, it was gone. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but it freaked me out. I started being more careful about where I went and who I told about my plans. After about five days of this bullshit, I broke down and told my mom everything that happened. She didn't say much, she mostly just let me talk and cry it out.

Afterwards she told me that I made the right decision but that there's absolutely no reason why I should be going through this alone. She said that she didn't want to push me to tell her what happened until I was ready, but that the best thing I could be doing right now is spending time with people that love and support me. So after going with me to get my phone number changed, she encouraged me to start calling my friends and telling them what happened, and to just hang out with them more in general. I had it stuck in my head that everyone would side with my ex and tell me that I made a terrible

mistake, that his intentions were good and I blew things out of proportion by thinking that he only proposed because his ex-girlfriend got engaged. But I was actually overwhelmed by my friend's responses. Apparently my ex had been telling everyone that we broke up because I had major jealousy issues over his ex, but once they heard my side of the story, I was actually shocked by how many of them said that it made sense. They've all told me that I've done the right thing and that they'd back me up no matter what. I just felt this huge sense of relief and have been making an effort to go out more. So, that's basically it. I'm just going through the motions and I'm going to make an

appointment with a therapist. I wish that I had something more profound to update you guys with, some added wisdom, but I don't. My best advice for anyone going through something similar is what my mom told me surround yourself with people that love and support you. I'll update again if anything significant happens. Update 3. Hello, Reddit. I just wanted to update you guys on some things that have happened. I also wanted to apologize for not responding to any of the comments in my last post. I wasn't in a great place at the time, and wasn't feeling up to it. So, bunch of stuff has happened since my last update, though nothing super dramatic, thankfully. It's been about three months since I moved back to my parents' house, and things have finally

started to settle down a bit. First, my ex mailed me the engagement ring that he bought shortly after my last update. It came in this small padded envelope with no note or anything, just the ring. I didn't know what to do with it, I wasn't sure if the ring was what he had been claiming that I stole. I also felt weird about mailing it back, because what if he claimed that he never got it? So my dad volunteered to personally deliver the ring back to him. I don't know if anything was said when my dad brought it back, and I never asked. My dad isn't really the type to make a scene, but he was pretty pissed about the whole situation, so who knows? Part of me was curious about whether it was an expensive ring or not,

but I didn't want to take it to a jeweler or anything to find out. It looked nice, but I'm not an expert on these things. I just know that if I had accepted his proposal, I would have worn that ring thinking it symbolized our love, when really it was just a consolation prize because he couldn't be with the person he really wanted. That thought makes me sad and angry at the same time. Second, I heard from some mutual friends that a couple weeks ago,

my ex bought a plane ticket and flew to NYC to try and talk to his ex-fucking, fucking wild, right? Somehow he found out the name of the company that she worked for, looked up its location and waited in front of the building all day like some kind of stalker. I have no idea what happened, but apparently there aren't any signs of her coming back with him, so I'm assuming that it didn't go very well. I can't believe that he did that. And I can't believe that I dated someone that was that crazy for three years. But I suppose it helps every time that I hear about something like this, because it reinforces the that I did the right thing. One of our mutual friends, who is still close with him, told me that

after he got back from NYC, he was a mess. Apparently he got drunk at a bar and started telling everyone that he'd lost the two most important women in his life and that he didn't know what to do. He even tried to get this friend to talk to me on his behalf, but the friend refused. I'm grateful for that, at least. I don't need any more drama in my life. I've been staying at my parents' place this whole time, which has been interesting. I love them, but I forgot how annoying it can be to live with your parents as an adult. My mom is constantly checking on me, asking if I've eaten, if I'm sleeping enough, if I'm taking care of myself. My dad is more hands off, but he has this concerned look whenever he sees me. I know they mean well, but sometimes it feels a bit suffocating.

I've started looking for my own place, just a small apartment where I can have some privacy, but the rental market is brutal right now. Anyway, this brings me to where I am now. I started a paid internship with the chance of getting hired full-time, about a month ago, and I love it. The company is pretty small, only about 20 employees, but everyone has been super welcoming. There's a group that goes out for drinks on Fridays,

and they've invited me to join them a few times. It's nice to have work friends again. My old job was remote, so I didn't really get it. to interact with my coworkers much. And I'm a little embarrassed to say that I'm attracted to the guy that hired me, who's about my age. There's nothing going on, and I'm definitely not ready or willing to be in a relationship. It's simply the fact that he is the nicest, best-mannered person that I've ever met.

He's always positive, polite, and smiling, so it's impossible not to be in a good mood around him. So it's not that I think my next relationship should be with him, or that I have feelings for him. It's just that I've realized that the type of person that I should be looking for is someone that makes me feel good, just by being around them. Thanks for reading all this. I don't think I'll be updating again unless something major happens, which I hope it doesn't. I'm kind of over the drama at this point. Forward slash forward slash.