Reddit Stories - Hidden Secrets Unveiling Family Betrayal ( Over 3 Hour Compilation ) - Episode 138

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familybetrayal #hiddensecrets #compilation #storytime #dramaEpisode 138 delves into hidden family secrets and betrayals, revealing shocking stories that unfold over three hours. Each narrative explores the complexities of familial relationships, trust, and the impact of betrayal, leaving listeners captivated and reflective on their own family dynamics and the secrets that may lie beneath the surface.redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, betrayal, familydrama, secrets, storytelling, emotional, relationships, podcast, truecrime, personalstories, lifeadvice, conflictresolution, familyissues, trust, revelations, drama, entertainmentBecome 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. Unfaithful spouse of 23 years pleads with me to reconcile after her partner ends their relationship. I am a 50-year-old individual who has been wedded to my spouse, Amy, aged 48. For over two decades, 23 years to be more precise. We also have three kids together, the oldest of whom is 22 years old and the youngest is almost 18. Our kids are Rachel, 22F, Jake, 19m, and Ava, 17-18F. Recently, Amy confessed to me that she'd been cheating on me with her co-worker Matt, 27M.

I'm using fake names here for obvious reasons. One week ago, she sat me down and told me that she'd been with Matt for two years now and that she finally felt ready to tell me and to take things to the next level with him. All our kids are pretty grown up as well and Ava will be an adult in two months so she believed that this was the perfect time to tell me the truth. I was devastated when she told me and I'm thankful that none of our kids were around to see me dissolve into a puddle of tears and have a total breakdown when she confessed because I'm sure they wouldn't have liked to see that. Rachel moved out for work after college, Jake is in college and Ava was at a friend's place that day so we had the house to ourselves and I'm sure that that was the reason why Amy picked that day to tell me the truth. She tried to comfort me while I was crying and begging her not to leave and give our marriage another chance, but she told me that she could no longer stay with me anymore and waste more of her time being stuck in a loveless marriage. My entire world had been turned upside down that day so naturally.

My first reaction was to try to make her stay and be in denial of whatever she told me so I'd appreciate it if nobody judged me. It was all set in a moment of weakness. I let myself sob for half an hour before the realization finally set in and I managed to compose myself. Amy had been patting my arm all along and saying things like it'll get better and you'll find someone, treating me like a wounded puppy and not her husband who she cheated on and then dumped after 23 years marriage. Once I pulled myself together, I stood up and told her to leave the house because I didn't want her around anymore once they came back. She was visibly surprised that I'd gone from begging her to stay to asking her to leave the house and to be honest, so was I but I said

it nevertheless. If she had anything to say at that point, she didn't say it at the time and left in silence after adding a few belongings of hers in an already packed duffel bag so I knew that she'd already been planning to leave and had seen this coming. She then left after an awkward side hug that I didn't even reciprocate and just stood there stiffly like a statue. After Amy left, I think I must have cried like a baby for the next couple of hours until Ava came back home. I was shattered and didn't know what to do with myself anymore because my marriage had

fallen apart and even worse, the woman I'd loved more than life itself had cheated on me and continued to cheat on me for two whole years until she finally told me. She didn't even think there was anything messed up with what she'd done because the entire time after she'd confessed, she just kept acting like it was no big deal and only tried to comfort me because she probably felt uncomfortable just sitting there silently while I sobbed. There were a million things that were and are still going through my mind in an endless loop, but at least I'm feeling considerably more stable now since one week has passed and I've been able to hold myself together for the sake of my kids. If not for myself, I most certainly have to be strong for them because this has

come as a huge shock to them too. When Ava came home that day, she found me sleeping on the couch and when I woke up, she could tell that I'd been crying because my eyes were all red and puffy. She asked me what was wrong and where her mother was several times before I finally told her because I knew that saying it all out loud would make it real and I'd end up crying again. But I did tell her the truth and inevitably ended up sobbing some more which felt kind of embarrassing, but at least Ava was there to comfort me and it was genuine. She was just as much in shock as I'd been when I first found out. I wasn't thinking straight at the time and so I hadn't told anyone anything by then, but Ava made several calls and managed to inform her siblings

and asked them to come home as soon as they could and also told her uncle, my brother, so he could come over and help us out. My brother Eric, 45M, is still single by choice, but he's a solid guy and I knew I could always count on him if I was ever in any sort of trouble. He proved me right when he showed up at my house within hours of Ava's call even though he lives quite far away. He knew that I needed to rest my head and grieve the end of my marriage and life as I knew it for a few days, so he moved in with us to help take care of us all for the next couple

of days. It's been a week and he's still here and so are all my kids. We're all trying to cope with this together and make sense of the situation somehow because it still feels a little like a nightmare I can't seem to wake up from. I didn't think that Amy leaving would have such an impact on me and my mental health, but I think Eric was right to take that call and move in because I've been really lost ever since she left and can't even seem to bring myself to get out of bed in the mornings. So yeah, I believe that I do need all the help I can get.

My kids are also being incredibly sweet and I'm thankful for it. I've spoken to my lawyer about everything and we're preparing ourselves for the inevitable divorce now. I haven't actually filed for divorce yet myself because I've been waiting for Amy to serve me and it was strange that it hadn't happened so far, but last night, I got to know why exactly she hasn't filed for divorce yet even though she's told me that she's leaving me. Yesterday, really late at night, I received a call from Amy and I was shocked because we hadn't spoken since she left and I didn't have any idea why she'd be calling me after almost a week out of the blue. I answered her call and she sounded distressed and I knew that she'd been crying. She asked about the kids and I told her that they were all here and so was my brother and

tried to keep the concern out of my voice to the best of my abilities because I didn't want her to know that I still cared. I did and still do, but I just didn't want her to know that. After she asked about the kids and I replied as brusquely as I could, she started crying on the phone and that took me by surprise because I didn't expect her to break down. She's the one who'd cheated on me and then left so it didn't make sense for her to be crying. I couldn't stop myself and before I knew it, I'd asked her if she was all right and then, she told me that Matt had turned her away when she'd asked to move in with him the day that she left our house. Apparently, he wasn't ready for a relationship yet and was just messing around with her. He told her to her face that he was still young and wanted to have all the fun that he could before he

finally settled down and while Amy is attractive for her age, she's still 50 and has three kids and that's not his idea of an ideal wife for his future. Because he does want kids and a long life ahead with whoever he chooses to marry and due to Amy's age, a future is not something she can offer him which is why he doesn't think they should be in a real relationship or move in together. So neither is Matt ready for a relationship and even if he was, he wouldn't be in one with Amy and now she was having a total breakdown over it because she had nowhere to go. She was crying on the phone for like 15 minutes because now, she knew that she'd ruined her life with that affair and I honestly felt really satisfied

with whatever was happening. She told me that our kids weren't speaking to her now and they'd all blocked her everywhere without a word and that she'd been living in a hotel for the past week because she didn't know if I'd have her back or not and she was too afraid to ask me. She'd finally broken down and called me yesterday because she couldn't think of what else to do and obviously she couldn't just live in the hotel forever. And now, she was calling to ask me if I'd let her live with her and give her one more chance. I was done to. at the sheer audacity to even ask this of me and within seconds, all my concern and sadness disappeared and was replaced by anger which really should have happened a long time back.

I told her right away that there was going to be no second chance for her, just like she didn't give me one, and that I was glad that this was happening to her because she deserved every bit of this for what she'd done. I then hung up without waiting for a reply and turned my phone off so I could go to sleep without thinking about her. I was really pissed off. I was really pissed off. that she'd even thought for a second that even after what she'd done, she could just come running to me and I'd fix the situation for her like always. We'd had a lot of ups and downs over the years in our marriage like any other married couple, but I'd always tried to fix every fight even though she'd rarely ever apologize to me. It was always me who was chasing after her and trying

to make it up to her even if I wasn't in the wrong, but I'd had enough. I couldn't look past this, I couldn't forget this and I most certainly didn't even want to because this was the reality check that I needed. I'd always loved my wife more than she loved me and more than she deserved to be loved, but that ended now. Now I don't think I did anything wrong by asking her to leave the house and refusing to let her come back because after the house is technically mine since I'm the one who bought it so it's under my ownership legally and she can't force me to let her live her, but she's been trying to manipulate me into believing that I'm being cruel to her. Somehow. After I finally turned my phone back on this morning, I found several texts from her that she'd sent last night after our phone call. She was furious and acting like the victim because apparently, I was being selfish and not thinking of her at all which is such a strange thing to say after she cheated on me.

She's also accusing me of turning the kids against her which is simply not true because until she told me about it, I didn't even know that they'd blocked her and were refusing to speak to her so I don't think that. that's my fault at all. In fact, I really don't see why any of this is my fault and maybe it's the anger talking here, but it just seems insane that she's accusing me of being selfish because I don't want to give our marriage another chance after she cheated on me and then when she got rejected. She came crawling back to me because she thought that I'd just take her back in heartbeat. I don't think I'm in the wrong here at all and I also wanted to make sure that I'm not being unnecessarily cruel out of anger in this situation, so I'm turning to you people now. Ida for refusing to let my wife move back in with me after she cheated on me with her co-worker.

Update 1, Hey, Everybody. First and foremost, a huge thanks to every single person who took out time to respond to my original post. I'm actually so thankful that I made that post and realized how badly I was being gas-liked by Amy because she had me questioning my decision to not let her back into my home and my life. I certainly was having second thoughts and I would have fallen weak had I not posted here. Everyone who responded, thank you so much. I appreciate it and I think you guys save me from another lifetime of absolute misery and

mistrust. That would have been inevitable had I decided to forgive Amy and get back together with her, but yeah, I'm back in my senses now and I know that she doesn't deserve a second chance at all. It's been a couple of days since my original post and she's been texting me a lot to persuade me to take her back and has tried almost every tactic from guilt tripping to gaslight and regularly keeps apologizing while saying that she made a huge mistake by engaging in an extramarital affair at all and that she'll do her very best to make it up to. Me I don't know why exactly she thinks that I'll still take her back despite her affair because this is not just some small petty fight and she's taking things way too lightly. She still doesn't realize the enormity of what she did to me and I highly doubt that she ever will get it. I'm feeling a lot better now so I've sent Rachel and Jake back so they can resume their normal lives.

Ava is still living with me and checks up on me from time to time which I do appreciate, but I've told her not to let me hold her back from going out and having fun with her friends or whatever it is that brings her joy. I know this is a tough time for all of us, but we'll all get through it eventually. and she's supposed to move out for college in the fall as well so I want her to make the most of her time here. My brother's still living with us though and I'm really thankful for it. I spoke about the emotional impact of the affair and Amy leaving me at length, but there are also practical, day-to-day activities that have also been affected by her leaving that seem a little petty but are also a constant reminder of her absence.

Now that Amy's gone, we needed someone to take over her share of chores and she's the one who usually used to do all our laundry because she said she enjoyed it. The kids and I used to keep the house clean, take out the trash, and do the dishes, and Amy used to do the laundry and the cooking because that's what she enjoyed doing. But now it was up to me and Eric to take over because Ava was busy with her own life and I wasn't going to keep her home just to help out with chores. My brother's been a godsend ever since he's come here and even though he's not very emotional or affectionate, he's been there for me and has made me feel like I can let go a little which is something I feel like I really did need. I know he'll have to go

back to his life at some point, but I'm lucky that he's here for me now. Speaking about the legal aspect of things, my lawyer and I have already filed for divorce. We went ahead with the petition yesterday after I realized that now that Amy had nowhere to go, she wasn't going to file for divorce anymore because she wanted to come back now. She's going to be served in a couple of days and then, the real battle begins. It's already exhausting for me to even think about it so I can only imagine how much more mentally taxing it'll be when I actually have to go through it all. I never imagine that I'd have to get divorced and yet, here we are. It's a horrible feeling but there's just nothing else I can do anymore. At least I'll know that I did my very best to keep the marriage

intact and whatever is happening right now isn't my fault. It's hers so I don't need to feel like crap about what happened. I'm also grateful that my kids are all grown up now because I don't think I could have handled a custody battle alongside the divorce now. Update 2, Amy was served with the divorce papers today and I don't think she took it well if the text she sent me are any indication at all. I haven't blocked her because I haven't found the mental strength to cut her off entirely just yet, but I will soon. She sent me several vile messages about the things she wishes would happen to me because according to her, I'm the one who ruined her life and I'm just taking revenge on her for trying to have a little bit of fun so she can distract herself

from her boring and monotonous life. She told me that I'm almost 50 and looked like it too and she just wanted a change of scenery. The thing about me looking my age is fair because I quit going to the gym ages ago and my hairline is receding but I think that's just because like any other normal human being, I'm also aging. I'm the father of three kids and almost Most all of them are adults now, so I think it's natural for me to look my age. It's not even like I'm ugly or unhealthily obese and have kept in decent shape for my age, but if she wants me to look the same way as I did back when we got married, in our early 20s, then that's going to be an issue.

I don't think it's humanly possible to look the same age unless you're a celebrity and can afford to spend all your time and money on maintaining your looks throughout the years. Of course, she finds Matt more physically attractive than me, but that's where the whole marital commitment comes in. If she couldn't exercise any control over herself and flung herself at the very first somewhat young guy whom she found attractive, then that's not my fault. It's kind of pathetic that she's still trying to shift the blame onto me and make it look like what she did was fine and I should have been the one to fix myself. But that's just how she is, I suppose. Only now am I finally seeing all the red flags that I'd been ignoring for over 20 years out of love for my wife,

but now that she's my soon-to-be ex-wife, I realize what kind of a human being she is and I feel like an idiot for never acknowledging any of this before. I should have known, but I chose to ignore it all because I loved Amy. And even now, somewhere deep down I know that I still do, which feels pathetic and embarrassing to admit, but I can't help it. That's really what has prevented me from blocking her and cutting her off entirely so far, but I'm just praying that I find the strength to do it soon enough, because I don't think I can keep up with her insanity anymore. I don't want to see more of whatever this side of hers is. I won't call it her evil side because what she's doing is beyond that, it's cruel to the

point of hilarity if that's even a thing. Update 3, so there's been a very ironic turn of events, but, thankfully, it doesn't affect me directly. I learned from my daughter Rachel a couple of hours ago that as of now, Amy is having online drama with Matt because yesterday, she posted a rant about how Matt had led her on for two years and then eventually dumped her because he didn't see a future with her. Now that I think of it, it was pretty stupid of her to abandon her life without even discussing these things with him I'm not a cheater, but at least she should have thought things through before going headfirst into this whole relationship thing with Matt and at least asked him if he wanted the same

things as well. Coming back to the post, a couple of other female co-workers also commented on that post and said that he'd also been involved with them so essentially, that guy was pretty much the office mattress and had never loved Amy at all. I didn't believe in karma earlier, but this is just karma at its finest and I can't believe that this is happening to her. I've blocked her and so has Rachel, but she found out from a cousin of hers who obviously still has Amy added because we haven't announced our separation to the rest of the family just yet, but I think that Post in itself does the job well. I'm still going to tell my own family soon, but before that, I just want to relish the drama that she's caught up in and take a step back to admire the

crap fist Amy has walked into. That Matt guy truly deserves a round of applause because I really can't imagine anyone being able to pull off multiple affairs in the same office for more than a year. I hated him initially when I learned that Amy had been cheating with him on me, but now I think I'm warming up to him. I might even congratulate him and tell him well played or something, I don't know. All I know is that this is the perfect payback for what Amy did to me and is really just a perfect example of the repercussions of cheating and ruining your perfect life just for a little bit of fun, as she put it herself. At least I'm going to be out of this mess in her life soon enough now and I can't wait for the divorce to come through at this point. Update 4 Hi, it's been a little over a month

since my original post and we're currently in the negotiations phase for the settlement. It's incredible how I now look at her and feel absolutely nothing for her anymore. She smiles at me sometimes during the meetings and tries to talk to me after them, but I do my best to avoid her and keep my distance. As far as I know, she's living with a friend of hers now and has been fired from her previous job, but I don't think I'll have to give her any alimony because of the very public confession of her infidelity on Facebook. Thanks to her delusional belief that Matt would be serious about her at some point. I don't even need to prove that she'd been cheating because she did all the work for me herself.

My kids are still not speaking to her and we like to pretend that she doesn't even exist anymore. I know it's not exactly healthy, but we'll think about that later when some time has passed. Right now, it's way too fresh to be discussed. Emotionally, I'm doing a lot better than I was when I first posted here and I know it'll just get better with time. I'm probably going to start therapy in a few days once I have more time after the divorce is finalized or something and maybe that'll help me feel okay about everything eventually. I hope you enjoy this story. Partner was unfaithful to his spouse with me. How can I connect with his children when they strongly dislike me for disrupting?

their family unit. I am in a relationship with a man and his. Kid hates me because I was a mistress. How do I bond with them when they hate me? I was only trying to protect their dad from their mother's abuse and now I'm worried she is turning her kids against me even though her kids said she can make her own mind up, but because her and her mother get on well, I'm concerned she is worrying about her mother too much and is scared that she will upset her. fake names Chase My boyfriend, 33M Jane, Chase's eldest daughter, 8F Alex, Chase's eldest son, and second child, 5M Chelsea, Chase's third child, 2F Jessica, Chase's youngest child, 9 months old Willow, Chase's ex and the kid's mother, 31F me, 27F. This is how me and Chase met. Chase and his wife first met in January 2011 when he was 20 and she was 18. They began dating for four to five years until 2014 when Chase was 24. His birthday is on summer. They both got married and welcomed a beautiful baby girl on July 14th,

2015 called Jane. They had more beautiful babies throughout the years and had a beautiful relationship until Chase filed for divorce on December 2022. Their relationship was breaking down for multiple reasons such as they were both too tired to look after Jessica and I felt bad for Chase because he was made to do a lot of the work in Willow would always berate him. I first met him when I took my niece and nephew and younger cousins to the park and they were there. I overheard them argue as their children were playing so they couldn't hear them and they weren't noticing.

Willow was asking him where the diapers were and Chase forgot. This has caused an argument since Willow answered back, please tell me you did not forget the diapers. How am I supposed to change them now? Hey, with leaves. The baby pooped itself. Can you go back to get them, honey? Chase said he can't because he's tired and he can't walk back six streets away just to get a packet of diapers.

What do you mean you can't walk back a few streets away? I was the pregnant one, not you. You don't have to worry after walking few streets away. Can you at least buy me a new pair of diapers? Chase looked confused. For you too? For the baby? Stop trying to be funny.

I will go since you keep on doing my heading. Willow storms off to go to the shops. I asked him, does she always yell at him this much? Chase told me pretty much since she got pregnant with the fourth kid. That's not normal. I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's not normal to treat your partner like that. Pregnancy is not an excuse to be rude to people.

How about I lend you a diaper so you can change the baby? I asked him. He thanked me and then we made small talk. I met their baby for the first time and she was so adorable. Chase told me her name and I said hi to baby Jessica. From there, Chase and I became friends. I told him I found the wife needing diapers joke funny and we had a good laugh. Willow came shortly after a little stunned, but she didn't think much of it since she had male friends too and she's not the type of person to get paranoid over having friends the opposite gender. I quickly befriended Willow and we followed each other on Facebook and Instagram shortly after before coming home. I saw Chase a week later in a pub with his then-wife Willow as they

were having drinks for the first time since giving birth. Willow had to go to the bathroom, and I begun to chat to Chase. I asked if Willow still nags at him which he responded yes. I felt bad and said, don't worry, if she can't treat you right, then I will. Don't tell her or she will get mad before winking at him which made him giggle. The problem, from there, we begun dating behind Willow's back until December 13th. 2020 when Willow came back with Jane to get her nails done and caught me and Chase cuddling on the sofa watching TV and she flipped out extremely at us to the point where both Willow and Jane were in tears because of it. Chase tried to explain it's not what it looks like until he realized no one was buying it.

Alex was asking why his mum was yelling at his dad until Jane pointed at me and said it was my fault. Alex looked sad and went back upstairs. I told Willow we were sorry, but it was not appropriate to argue in front of the kids and to think of the children. Willow screamed back if you care so much about the kids then why did you break up their family. I finally found happiness after such a rough life I went through and you ruined it just because you want to chase for yourself just because you're jealous and you couldn't find

anyone so you had to steal people away from others. Willow suddenly realized Jane was watching everything and began crying and apologizing to the children for making them watch that and she wasn't thinking straight, but she didn't mean to upset them. The younger ones were just scared and stood there, but Jane told her it's okay and it's not her mom's fault that I'm horrible. I went quiet because I didn't know a seven-year-old, seven at the time, knew what those words meant, but I guess she was repeating them from their mom so that's what influenced her to act that way. I apologized and explained to her that it wasn't appropriate for us adults to argue in front of children. I explained how I tried to get them to stop, but her mother wasn't listening.

She told me that me and her dad shouldn't make my mom angry if I didn't want her to shout at me, called me a fat pig and told me to get lost. She stormed off to her bedroom. How does a seven-year-old know such details? I tried to explain that I am sorry for breaking up her family and asked if she wanted to move on. put that in the past and that me and Chase will always love the kids. Alex and Chelsea accepted my apology, but Jane kept on ignoring me. Chase and I got kicked out and he filed for divorce on December 15th.

The court thing is still going. They ended up getting 50 to 50 custody, not straight away. When they first got to my house since I offered Chase and the kids to move to mine since I have more room, I wanted to welcome the kids by giving them a hug. But Jane pulled them away and said she hurt Mummy and made her sad so don't go near her and told me she didn't want me here and she only came because she was forced to. I gave them their teddy bears with their names on it which I got knitted by my sister just for them with my own money.

Chase offered to pay, but I refused. I thought it wouldn't hurt to give the kids a small welcome present. Jane told me she hated the teddy bears and they look ugly. She said she has her own one that Mummy gave and Mummy's one was better. Why is she acting like her mum's personal therapist? It's not her job to look after her mom's feelings and I said that she doesn't need to look after her mom and she said she isn't forced and that I want to look after mummy forever even though she says I don't have to and it's her job but I still want to and she isn't forced and accused me of trying to make her hate her mom.

Jane came running back down to sit on the sofa. She used her fingers to go through the sewn-up teddy bear and rip them apart, then stormed off to her bedroom. I went to my bedroom and cried. I got that made personally just for the children a welcome gift and she destroyed it. Why is she rude to me every time she comes to my house? I know I upset her mother, but I want her to bond with me, but she wouldn't let me. I tried to come to her events, but she ran up to her mom and dad in happiness then pulled a tantrum every time she sees me and says what am I doing here and she doesn't want me here.

She says she won't stop pulling a tantrum until I go and I had to live. leave almost every family event in tears because everyone will stare at me and give me dirty looks. She even skipped a few of her siblings' events because I was there and she said she won't go if I'm going. Willow tells me that I should have thought about that before breaking up the family and I said I know and I'm sorry. I've already been punished enough and now my own boyfriend's parents and family hate me and don't want me at family events because they want Willow to feel safe in their home and Jane always starts crying every time I'm joining in. She got on well with Chase eventually, but she still hates me. Last month this year, I showed up with Chase to

celebrate her birthday as Chase was invited, but she began screaming and crying and said she doesn't want me here and I ruined her birthday. She grabbed my present, opened it up, and broke the doll into pieces before throwing it in the bin and said it was the worst present ever and made me cry. Willow said, well, no one told you to cheat with my ex-husband. and break up the family. You should have thought about that beforehand and that it's her choice. If she doesn't want you here, then you should leave

since I didn't even want you guys coming here, but I only invited you both just so you don't sue me for parental alienation. Me and Chase were cussed out by the entire adults, especially Willow's granddad who came up to me and screamed at me saying it was my fault for breaking up the family and manipulating Chase along with Chase's mom even trying to escort me out with his dad escorting both of us out. It even got to the point where now she will get up, get changed, have a shower, have breakfast,

brush her teeth, brush her teeth, go to her maternal grandparents, my parents, my grandparents, or go out in the town with her mom all day, then come back late at night at 8.30 p.m., brush her teeth, get dressed and go to sleep. She even demands she has sleepovers to get away from me and her dad during his custody turn. He tried to sue for parental alienation, but the judge said unless she's sleeping over her mums during our custody term, then her meeting up with her mom outside of her house is not violating custody agreements. I messed up. I tried to call a therapist yesterday, but Willow threatened to take me to court if I tried to do parental stuff and it turned out she already put them in therapy ages ago and the therapist said while bonding with Chase

will be nice. She doesn't have to not hate me if she doesn't want to as long as she's being civil and won't take it out on potential half-siblings in the future. How do I get her to stop avoiding me and hating me and get her to understand that she doesn't have to be afraid of what her mother thinks. Update 1. Fake names, Chase, 33mm. 27 F. Jane, 8F Alex, 2F Jessica, 9 months old babysitter, 20F Mum, 60F. Me and Chase were going on a date night. I hired a babysitter to watch over my boyfriend's children while we go out to a restaurant out of our local area to eat out.

Chase had some rules that the children that the children sleep at 11 p.m. are not allowed fizzy drinks and are not allowed to drink or invite people to our home. They aren't allowed to take the children out after 7 p.m. That sounds reasonable in my opinion. I told the babysitter I made chicken nuggets, there's lollipops, packet of crisps, sweets or a bowl of fruit and I also made some cheesecake if they get hungry. I let it her know not to serve them all at once, but they were just options. I even got juice cartons with straws in case they were thirsty and she understood. I gave her a list of instructions too so she knew how to look after the children, then me and Chase took off. I came back two hours later, it would usually take one hour and 30 minutes,

but there was traffic and I let it the babysitter know and I apologized which she accepted and said she understand. And I found the babysitter feeding Jane, Alex, and Chelsea a can of Coke with three packets of Smarties each, not one packet per child, three packets per child, which me and Chase didn't even buy, and the Coke cans were on the highest shelf on our fridge which the children besides Jane wouldn't even notice if they open it because the fridge is tall. Chelsea had Coke dripping down her shirt and chocolate around her mouth, and Alex came up and cried to me and Chase because his stomach was hurting. I wondered where Jessica was, so I went to her cot, she has two cots. One upstairs and one.

downstairs in the living room and she was in the one in the living room, and found her eating a whole banana to herself. Jessica is being introduced to solids, but she can only eat apples and bananas if they are cut up, which is what was said on the paper. Chase immediately took the banana off Jessica, which lead to her crying. Chase would have let the babysitter off with a warning had it just been the Coke or the three packets had the packets just been the packets we bought, but Jess could have been choking and suffer had she ate the whole banana, not to mention, the babysitter bought a can of beer and drunk it at our home and left the children home on their own. Chase was understandably mad and fired the babysitter on spot while only giving her

half of the money that she should be getting, even getting mad at the babysitter for going out while leaving the children on their own with Jane to look after since a eight-year-old shouldn't be babysitting younger children and drinking it while looking after the babies. Anything could have happened to his kids if they were left on their own for that long. It's not like Alex, Chelsea and Jane were 12, 15 and 19 because if that was the case then I wouldn't be that mad since someone of that age can look after themselves on their own for a short while, but a 5-year-old, 2-year-old and a 9-month-old should not ever be left alone, and I'm just glad nothing happened to them. I even admit that I flipped out at the babysitter as well.

The babysitter left in tears after promising it wouldn't happen, but I didn't want to risk the children's safety and neither did chase so we said to her it doesn't matter if it doesn't happen again, you left four young children on their own. Was drinking alcohol while babysitting and she broke a lot of rules and we weren't going to comprise the children's safety. The children, Jane, Alex, and Chelsea were up and Jessica stayed in her crib after their dad sent them up so we could have a word with the babysitter so they didn't hear much since they had he phones. on and were watching cartoons on their tablets upstairs. That was that. Once the babysitter left, we went back up to put the children to bed. Before you ask, we cleaned the chocolate off

Chelsea and I took her to the dining room to the bathroom which was next to the kitchen to change while Chase was telling the babysitter off, while Jane and Alex just got wipes to wipe off the chocolate around their mouths. Today a few hours ago, I vented to my mom, but she complained that me and Chase were too harsh on the babysitter and everyone makes mistakes, so maybe we were being too hard on the babysitter. Ada? Or Chase and I harsh on the babysitter? Extra information, just in case you're concerned with us storing junk food, we don't usually keep junk food around our house. We just had one multi-pack of eight chocolate bars and one mule a pack of six packet crisps, but we don't eat it too often. This was just a treat, and we limit how much junk they can eat,

and they're not too big on junk food. Update 2, BKBM, Boyfriend's Kids' Bio Mother, got mad because she couldn't afford to get her son a Lego set. The Lego set costed 15 pounds, and her son came to me crying when it was my boyfriend's turn to get custody because his mom wouldn't get it because it was too expensive. He asked me why can't his mom can't afford toys over 10 pounds and I told him, don't worry. Some people can't afford nice things, but it's okay, because I will buy it for you instead since I got enough money. I took him shopping with me to buy the Lego set he wanted, and he got to take it home with him this Monday when he went over to his mother's house and according to his mother,

he went on about how he loves me so much because I bought him a toy. Apparently this made her mad because when me and my boyfriend came over yesterday to collect the kids, she had a go at me and started accusing me of trying to turn her son against her costs. Now apparently her son says he likes me more because I can buy him the Lego set and she couldn't so he loves me more. I tried to explain to my boyfriend's son that not everyone can afford nice things, but that wasn't good enough for her because I'm apparently trying to cause drama, even though she the one that argues in front of her and my boyfriend's kid instead of talking to us privately like grownups.

But I was just trying to look out for her financially and save her the burden of spending a lot of money because she isn't broke, but she can't afford stuff that most people can. My boyfriend even said that we're not trying to cause drama and that he can return it if he wants, to which she said, so what? You can tell the kids that I won't let them play with toys you and your girlfriend buy and have them hate me even more. They don't hate her, but her son wished she could buy him toys over 10 pounds. I'm not falling for that. You know what what? Forget it, but if you even try to pull that with me and try to turn the kids against me, then there will be serious trouble. She said goodbyes to my boyfriend's kids and headed home. My boyfriend's son

asked if he will be in trouble and asked if he isn't allowed to play with his Lego to which me and his father said to not worry and nothing will happen. We said he can play with it if he wants. He doesn't touch the Lego set now because he's scared that his mother will get upset even though it's just a toy. This isn't the first time that she had tried to poison my boyfriend and her kids against us, and even the law had to step in, get her in trouble, and warn her that we could sue her for parental alienation if she turns the kids against us. She tried to sue us for parental alienation once and lost, so now she's bitter that she can't turn the kids against us.

I didn't think trying to save my boyfriend's children's mother money and spending a lot on a toy is a bad thing, but it's now bad co-parenting and overstepping. Was I really overstepping? Update 3. Me, my boyfriend and his children are going abroad on December to visit his family for Christmas. One of them is a baby, yes, BM is okay with. with it and we booked her a hotel and paid for her ticket and plane as well and my boyfriend will also pick her up too. And this is my first time traveling with a baby, 1F, as a grown-up,

27F. Because I do not want to disturb the other passengers on the plane, what can I bring to put a baby to sleep and how can I put a baby to sleep on a plane? I will bring her favorite teddy bear and I will put on cartoons on for her, but she will be tired since the plane ride will be long and I can't really walk around while holding her when she is crying because other people do not want to hear her cry understandably. So how can I put a baby to sleep on a plane? What have you done to sue the crying baby on plane or put a baby to sleep on a plane? Now on to the next story. Story 2. Am I wrong for being upset? Because my boyfriend is buying more expensive gift for his mother. I, 18F, have been with my BF 20 for a year.

and some change. I would just like to say I'm not saying I hate his mother we actually get along quite well. But recently since holidays are coming up we were casually talking about gifts. I told him I would be getting his mom a necklace of this certain genre she likes. He has decided to get her these really expensive shoes. For a bit of context we are going on a family trip and he had told me since he was going to pay for my ticket that I would unfortunately have to settle for a non-so-exensive Christmas gift since he wouldn't be able to afford it. I said sure that was fine, but I also had offered to give him ATL least half of the money for the plane ticket, but he wouldn't let me no matter what. But now he can afford to buy his mother expensive shoes,

while the only thing Hess getting me is PJs. I'm not trying to sound rotten or spoiled, I just don't understand why I'm getting the short end of the stick when he had told me he wouldn't be able to afford anything crazy. Hess also not one of those obsessed boy moms, though his mother is a bit like one. He has always defended me and has even threatened to move out of their home if they ever crossed any boundaries with me. And I know they don't hate me because they have always supported me financially and emotionally, I'm an orphan, so this is why this situation feels a little weird for me I don't know if

I'm allowed to feel this way or stay quiet and just suck it up. I thought I should make this clear since there was some miscommunication. The plane ticket isn't a Christmas gift he had got it for us for our anniversary in September. Yes, I have offered to pay for it multiple times I am not spoiled and accepted it right away. But either way he's judging off of everyone's comment it seems that I am the A-hole. So I will apologize to him and talk to him about everything. Update 1, a lot of people have been saying what do I bring to the table or what worth do I have to be compared to his mother. Which I don't think it's appropriate if I were to make a list of things

that I'd do for him and he does for me would it actually be out of genuine or would it be out of keeping tabs? I only brought up the groceries comment so people didn't think I actually just let him spend so much of that money. Also just for a little buffer a lot of people don't seem to understand why our relationship is the way it is and to put in simple terms his family and I are close because of events we went through together that includes when I was in. A life-threatening accident. When our dog-slash-cat passed away, when he was failing school, we all pulled the way to push him through school and finally when my court trial proceeding started happening his family was there to make me feel like I wasn't alone. Like I said, I've never disliked his family and our bond is practically unbreakable. I was never upset she got a better gift she's done a lot for us.

I was only upset because it was something we had talked about that he wouldn't go overboard with the not getting any expensive Christmas gift didn't. not just apply to me it was for everyone. In my eyes, him getting me the PJs seemed like a way to soften the blow from making the purchase without telling me knowing him and I are trying to save for a future together. Comment where OP has replied. Commentator asked if the boyfriend has been able to spend some money on his mother since she has been nice to OOP and if the boyfriend has been spoiling his mother too much. O.P., no, it's completely okay my fault for reading it wrong. his parents are very well off which is why he is also pretty well off he doesn't get his mother a lot of things why is why I was so shocked this year because last year he didn't get his mother

anything since her husband had bought her everything she wanted so she asked nothing from him I'm assuming maybe the circumstances have changed this year which is why I will be talking to him because maybe there's something I don't know but even then I just thought which is my fault that we were going to stick to our budget like we had said we would but everyone else is right I'm only his girlfriend, so my words wait shouldn't as much as his mother's does. I can see that point that everyone is making now. Update 2. This is a little bit of a long update, so I'm super sorry. I realized I didn't mention this in original post, but me and boyfriend do live together, so when the original post went up he was already asleep so we didn't get the chance to talk about

it till we woke up this morning to go to the gym. He did apologize to me for not communicating that he was going to go out of budget again with his mother's gift. He had explained that after buying my plane ticket, he was planning on not getting anything expensive for anyone. But when the time came around, he was struggling to find something that lived up to his mother's taste, so he had to go a bit out of budget, so she wouldn't be disappointed. He originally said he didn't want to get her anything, but since her husband got her this new bag she wanted at the beginning of the year, he didn't want to get her anything else for Christmas, so in return my boyfriend felt bad and got her something since she kept calling him about how upset she was.

I felt terrible and told him that I was sorry for getting so upset, I just didn't understand why he had a sudden change of mindset. We both do agree that I should go to therapy a bit more since the only reason why it affected me so much was because I did not have the capabilities to understand why his relationship with his mother was the way that it was and we both agreed it was partially because I never had one with my own set of parents to understand.

So I excused myself on behalf of that and agreed that just because I don't feel comfortable or understanding of something doesn't give me the right to assume things. He reminded me that I will always be his number one priority and the first in line for everything, but that this time around was different because his dad decided to not step up the plate for his mother, and he apologized keeping this for me despite not having a reason to. As for me picking up the bill for groceries, he did notice and said he was grateful that I cared enough to make sure he didn't waste any more money, but a fear of having no money was the one feeling he could not share with me and that issue alone was something that I had to work on. Which I do agree we grew up two different ways, so I've

always been the one to worry about the purchases we make and how we'll be able to abstain a comfortable future. So thank you for everyone who commented on the original post for humbling me, but also thank you for making me realize that just because I see things one way doesn't mean it the only way to see them. I hope you enjoy this story. My significant other is interesting. in investigating a connection with a different male, seeking guidance on how to proceed. It pains me to be in this situation and to have to deal with it. Hit join on this group. It kills me that I had to learn what all the acronyms were.

It kills me that I am writing this, but I am hurting and have no support system, and not sure what to do next. For those who care, here is my story. I am a 31-year-old man, my wife is a 30-year-old woman. We began dating back in high school over 15 years ago. We became so close, we did everything together and we were basically each other's first everything. We went to school together, learned how to drive together, and experienced college and the workforce for the first time together. Even though she was two grades behind me in school, that somehow was never an issue and we went to different, yet local, colleges, and that was still never an issue.

I got a job at Walmart when I was 19 and she also ended up getting a job there a year or so later, so we even worked at the same place for a while together. We did everything together, vacations, schoolwork, day trips, movies, dates, shopping, anything you could think of. Her parents really liked me and I them, so they would actually let me stay in their house on weekends, in their daughter's room slash bed, while I went to college. Never any real issues. After my third year of college, I just moved my stuff into their house. I have lived with my wife full time since 2011, the year I turned 21 and her 19. Now, we have definitely had our share of bumps along the way. My wife is the youngest of three kids and there is a nine-year gap between her and her next oldest brother.

Her two older brothers are not very successful in their lives, and a lot of the time they weren't communicating with my wife or her parents for long stretches. Because of this, my wife almost grew up as the only child and she was extremely smart and was always top of her grade in high school and college. Because of this her parents always spoiled her with things and gave her all the focus, which made her become a selfish person. She also had a lot of jealousy issues when we were in our teens and in early 20s, and I always was dismissive towards these feelings and refused to stop talking

to female friends of mine because I felt it wasn't right to let them go. Ultimately, we were able to move through those types of issues, and we communicated and we grew closer together. We were engaged in June 2011, at a Taylor Swift concert no less, and married exactly two years later in 2013. We just celebrated our 15 years of dating back on March 1st of this year. Our son was born in 2016 and just began school last fall. Our son was born in 2016 which completely changed our lives and added a lot of stress to our relationship. We had suffered through a miscarriage right before which took a heavy toll, but we immediately got pregnant a few months later which led to the birth of our son. We both had hoped for a girl but life is unpredictable.

Also, we had still been living with my wife's parents, since 2011. but they had built an addition onto their home in 2012 for her mother who had beaten cancer but had a lot of lasting side effects that made it difficult for her to climb stairs, etc. So they built essentially a mother-in-law apartment on the bottom floor that connected to the kitchen and we were given full reign of the original home. So for the most part life was pretty good, although very busy and stressful. During these times we had fights due to stress, lack of sleep, time it spent at work, and things we didn't agree on all the time.

To me it was tough, but we were always good at communicating and always got through the issues, and never went to bed mad or had any major big fights, maybe one or two tops where one of us would leave the room to cool off. I always thought that even though it was tough at times, we had pushed through and faced so many things and still came out loving each other, and that we were the gold standard of relationships. Her parents were married over 30 years, as are mine. In 2018 my wife's mother passed away due to lasting complications of her long-past cancer treatments, and that destroyed my wife. They were very close and we were still living in the two families with them,

and she slowly became weaker and was placed in at-home hospice until she finally went. Her and her father were completely devastated, as was I because she was a second mother to me and I loved her and our son came to love her and is nearly two years of life. I realized I couldn't properly provide the comfort and support my wife needed in her time of need for reasons I still don't understand. I was raised to avoid pain and conflict and to not show emotions. When my wife needed me, I could only say I'm sorry and rub her leg or arm instead of giving her the full comfort she needed. I feel this became the next major crack in our relationship.

It took my wife a very long time to grieve and process her mother. death, and to this day I feel that my wife still never fully healed properly and in the best way. In the summer of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, we had been house hunting for our first home as I had gotten a very good job and finally wanted to spread our wings as a family and get our own house and yard in an area with a nice school district. Her parents' home is not in a great neighborhood, and our son would be going to the same school we had went, but it was not great then and felt to much lower depth since. While my wife agreed our son needed a better school to attend, she did not want to really move, spend the money, leave her dad who was still grieving,

etc. Which caused a big rift for us again. These issues combined with years since our son was born of slowly drifting apart emotionally and just patching things caused my wife to suggest in the summer of 2020 that we potentially consider separation for a bit. I at the time thought she was crazy for thinking we couldn't get through these struggles as we had always done, and we just needed to talk things out and work on ourselves. We were both still in our 20s and had our son to think about. I ultimately convinced her to reconsider separation and things improved for a while, but I feel we eventually fell into similar patterns. I see now that I wasn't as affectionate towards my wife as I should have been,

and while my love language is acts of service, I don't feel I was fully fulfilling what my wife needed and what her love language needs were. We ultimately paused on the house hunting, but then in early 2021 I was offered a much, much better job with a well over six-figure salary, but the location was about 45 minutes north of our current location. I really considered not taking it because I like my current company and my job was very simple and I knew this job would be much more demanding.

Ultimately my wife said I should take the job, and we now had a much larger budget for a house and the tax rates were at historic lows so everything seems to align perfectly. We purchased a house about 40 minutes north and moved in late March 2021. Things were great at first in the new home. We bought a puppy that April which my wife always wanted for years, but I always said no, not until we get our own home with a yard. In June we traveled to CT so I could buy her a new car and over the summer we figured out she could leave her state job because of the poor commute and I took on the extra financial burden while she settled into her ride-chair business, Uber.

However, right after the August 2020 incident where my wife mentioned separation, I began to develop health issues, which we now recently believe may have been mostly caused by stress and anxiety and moderate depression. The buying the house and moving helped, but I still felt lousy a good deal of the time, physically and mentally. Our physical and intimate relationship suffered even further from this, but we were working through things together. Now to the tough part. My wife has complained a lot about the place we live in now because it is in a cellular and internet dead zone, it is far from things she is used to, far from her dad which she is extremely close with, and it is tough for her because she likes to Uber down in the cities where

we used to live versus up north where it is much quieter. Throughout some of March and April she began doing Uber quests which force you to do a large number of rides in a few days' time, and to hit these goals my wife would sometimes sleep at her dad's house because it was too late to drive home at 2 a.m. This is completely reasonable and something she has done many times in the past with me there as well. So no reason to suspect anything. However, this became a more frequent occurrence and she started working more and more, when really, we didn't necessarily need the extra money. As a side note, my wife and I opened our own bank accounts at the same bank back when I first started working as a team, and we opened up a joint account that was only used to save

for our wedding, but then became our primary household account once we were married. My wife has been employed on and off throughout our relationship, but every time she is earning income, it would always go directly to her old personal account that was linked to the main account, while my paychecks always went to the joint account, and that is the one where all of the expenses and bills would be paid from. I never in 15 years had visibility into her personal account, and my account was only ever used around Christmas so I could mask the in-stores' websites my purchases came from for surprise gifts. I haven't had money in that account in at least three or four years, if not longer. Then on April 30th, my wife told me she was going to go out

and work rides and then hang out with her cousin, who we are both very close with, for her 30th birthday. My wife leaves the house around 11 a.m. on April 30th, and I do not hear a peep from her until she returns around 11 p.m. on May 1st. She comes home and seems kind of distant. I kind of ask like how things went, was she with her cousin that whole time? She is just being strange and standoffish. Then finally says she was doing some figuring things out and said she didn't want to discuss it out 11 o'clock at night. Clearly, I am now understanding she is unhappy again and it's boiling over and she is going to ask to separate again. I push some more and that is essentially what transpires.

She says she still loves me but is not in love with me and she wants to separate and she wants to move and live with her dad. However, she can't exactly move out yet because the aforementioned cousin and her family moved into the house that we left when we bought our own. But we, or I, learned recently that the cousin's husband had accepted a job many states away and the whole family was going to be moving out there, but not until mid-July. So until then my wife has nowhere to really live if she left. At this point, it is after midnight and we are both exhausted. I am just in shock, even though I kind of saw this. is coming, so I just tell her she can stay and we will talk about it more later. At this point my wife is not sad, regretful, or remorseful, she is just kind of cold and unhappy and at that moment her lack of empathy towards me is really crushing. We finally go to sleep,

in the same bed together as usual, while I actually quietly cry myself to sleep. The next few days are tough, but we communicate openly and I get it in my head that this isn't the end all, be all, and there is still whole. for us somewhere. I love her with all of my heart and soul and our family and I figured, hey, I've got two months to work on this. Skip forward to that Friday, May 6th, or rather D-Day. I usually work from home on Fridays and my wife and I had been communicating well since the previous weekend and we were both home on this day. While I tell her I have a long work call that I have to be on at 1 p.m. and I was going to be at least 60 to 90 minutes. Earlier in the

morning, her dad calls her on the phone while she is sitting next to me. The exchange is weird and my wife specifically mentions that I am next to her and her dad basically then rushes off the phone. This was strange to me that he would call her during the day, especially if he was at work, with no real purpose. Well, whatever, I thought it was fishy but I had work to do and a conference call to get on at 1 p.m. It happens that the call only lasts about 30 minutes, and my work desk is downstairs in the living room and our bedroom is right upstairs, and our house is very open and sound travels. While I get off my call early and everything has been muted for my call so the house is silent. I get back to working on my

computer, but then I hear my wife on the phone with her dad again. I really didn't care and was not attempting to eavesdrop, but again it was dead silent and sound travels here, and our house isn't huge. I can essentially hear clearly everything my wife was saying. At first I was just tuning her out and just working, so I missed a lot of the conversation, but then I hear things that make me perk right up, things like no, he doesn't know that yet and yeah he could help fix it, referring to our aging water heater, but I doubt my name. Would let him and he was so mad at me he didn't talk to me for weeks when he found out, referring to someone I didn't know or but then realized it was the husband of the aforementioned cousin.

again who we are all close friends with. So at this point I have a huge pit in my stomach. I'm a pretty smart guy, and it was pretty easy to see that there was something I didn't know about, some person who is apparently a plumber that I don't know about, and someone else who is very upset about finding out a secret. I am too sick to go up the stairs in that moment. My wife comes down after and kind of give her an opening to talk and she doesn't really say anything. About an hour later she goes up and I follow her and basically ask if there is something I should know.

She kind of plays dumb at first then I come out and ask what secret is being kept from me that her dad and others know. She says, very patronizing, I mean, do you really want to know? For which I hesitate and then respond affirmatively. It is then, around 3 p.m. on May 6, 22 that my universe was completely shattered. My wife tells me yes, there is another person she has feelings for and has been seeing for some time, how long I still do not yet know, and her plan is to separate for me to explore a relationship with this other guy. I immediately began crying for the first time probably since our wedding day, and by far the longest and hardest I have ever cried in my entire life. I was sitting at the foot of the bed just bawling and choking and dry heaving and hyperventilating because my absolute worst nightmare, had just come true. My wife is just sitting silent up on the bed where we sleep, not sad,

not crying, not in pain, just quiet. I ask her some questions like how long and who is he and she doesn't want to tell me to protect my feelings. So, the trickle truths begin. I learned that she recently told her dad, which is why he was calling her to check on things, but she never intended on telling me. She told me she was purposely lying and hiding it to spare my feelings. She told me she was purposely lying in hiding it to spare my feelings and then was just going to find this guy a few months after we separated, so it would be no harm, no foul. Too bad she got caught, but she still had no real remorse or regret. At one point she started to cry a little bit, but only after seeing how absolutely destroyed and inconsolable I was for about an hour. She just kept saying sorry,

and I don't want to hurt you and I'd hug you, but you probably don't want that. So, she kept her distance as I was buried in my hands and my tears and my pleas to God and the universe as to why this was happening and how could she do this. Pretty pathetic stuff to witness I'm sure, especially since I've always been an emotional fortress, which has probably contributed to our issues. She offers to move out at this point if I want to help me cope with this wreckage. The problem is, throughout the years I had slowly distanced myself from any friends, most family, and any support group outside of my wife as she has always been my rock and confidant. My wife had just torn out my heart and soul, and she was still the only person I felt comfortable

talking to about it. I tell her I don't want her to leave because I love her so much, so we agree that she will stay until mid-July and we will slowly detach from each other and then she will move out and she will explore with this new guy. It is at this point many people will say I made a huge mistake by letting her stay and not just ripping the band-aid. But in that moment I was so emotionally broken, and she is truly the love of my life and I was always raised to fight for what I love and what I believe in. And I love her with everything and I know she loves me too, just not romantically. And I cannot just let her go without fighting because I would hold that regret of not trying everything I could when I had the

chance. I understand this decision will probably be more emotionally damaging to me over time, but her being here is helping me cope and grieve in a way that I couldn't do alone. Now is the strange complicated part. The sudden and intense shock and trauma of learning of the affair snapped my brain into realizing the things I had been doing wrong and allowed me to understand that I needed to be more supportive, affectionate, and emotionally available. It was in the next few days that I was determined to do a 180, so to speak, and change my whole thinking and attitude towards my wife and our marriage.

I began kissing her a lot, texting her, saying I love you a lot, holding her, cuddling her, we were being intimate and it was great. For two weeks this went on and we had another deep and long discussion where she said she was now torn on what to do because I had, by just expressing feelings that were already there, effectively somewhat relit the flame in our romantic life, and she was torn on what to do moving forward. This of course to me, the time, was the best thing I could possibly hear. My wife is reconsidering leaving.

What I am doing is working. We will be able to build back stronger from this. However, my wife had a few previous plans already set up with O.P. that I was unaware of. A night away with him to watch him race mopeds, WTF. Which was last Saturday into Sunday, and a week vacation in mid-June to Myrtle Beach, which has been our annual vacation spot together since before our son was born. When I learned of these and that she's still planned on going, I've hurt all over again. I learned that I am now actively competing and probably losing to this OP.

Last Saturday, May 21st, we had a cookout in our yard to celebrate the nice weather, it was in the 90s here, and the cousin and her kids came up and we had a really great family day and my wife and I were very happy and affectionate all day. But then that night she packed her overnight bag, some SX toy. and hugged me and kissed me goodbye to go spend a night with O.P., holy F. did that hurt. I was damn near suicidal. I was regretting asking to know the whole truth while letting her still live with me, pretending things were fine. When she came back that Sunday night, we were a bit distant, I was still hurting a lot and we didn't talk much. The next morning as I'm getting

ready for work and getting my son ready for school, I start to break down and say to my wife that we need to have a long discussion. She agrees and she cuddles me and says that this is hurting her and she feels that she is so torn and she hated leaving me that's Saturday and she wants to use her next trip in June with O.P. to really figure out and decide what I want to do. This hurts me, but I get a small glimmer of hope that she might actually choose me and our relationship in all of this.

So I am filled with some hope and I feel a lot better than I had in over four days, sick to stomach, not eating, shaky, etc. However, that night, 523, we have our longest conversation yet, where we both lay out as much as we can for over three hours. We both cry hard in each other's arms. But at the end I ask point blank if there is any hope of me winning her back in these next two months and she says that she feels she ultimately still has to move out and explore with the OP no matter what happens between now and July. She says that she is too afraid of feeling the pain that I am currently feeling if she had to let O.P. go, and that our relationship would suffer because she is afraid that she would feel regret

and resentment towards me for making her break things off with O.P. At this point I am devastated, I think more than the first time, because the hope that I was clinging to, the thing that was getting me through all of this pain and devastation, was basically taken away. This was five days ago, and things have been somewhat strange between my wife and I since. We have had SX once, but our relationship has seemed not as good as it was in the good two weeks following D-Day. My hopes of even surviving these next two months of near-normality seem dashed as well. We are having a big Memorial Day party at our house with my parents, my sister, her dad, cousin and kids, etc. tomorrow so I am just trying to focus on that.

After that I don't know what the future looks like. I am just in so much incredible pain every day, and my wife is always open to communicating with me, asking me how I'm doing, kissing me, hugging me, telling me she loves me. But I know ultimately in her mind she wants to be with O.P. and wouldn't even be here if she had a place to go. I want to bring up reconciliation or MC with her, but I don't know how.

It seems or is probably out of the question in her current state of mind. My hope and my plan was to just show her as much love and affection as possible so she would change her mind and get out of the affair fog so she can see clearly the devastation she is causing me, soon to be our son, and her as well because she clearly won't be able to have a fully healthy relationship with me, or O.P. Or anyone until she can work on herself. She admitted to me through tears that she knows she is a selfish person. person and her selfishness is what is causing her to hurt her family and make the decision

to leave to try to improve her happiness and to avoid the pain I am feeling now. She would rather me burden this pain than do it herself, and that in itself is the root of this whole situation and the main barrier to where this has been a very long story. For those who have made it this far, I thank you. I am unsure of what to do next, how to feel, how to feel towards my wife. Should I talk to her about MC? Should I talk to her dad, who is very much a father to me as well? I have no support system really, I have my family, but we don't discuss these types of things and they would just disown my wife I'm sure for the pain she has caused.

Things are not that simple. She is not a terrible person, she has just done a terrible thing, but now is caught up in the affair fog thinking this new OP can give her more than I can. If anyone has a relatable story, advice, or experience to share, it would be much appreciated. I am barely hanging on right now, the thought of my son and maybe some false hope for the future are all that are keeping me here. Relevant comments where OP replies, look, you are ignoring her actions. Quit listening to her lies.

She isn't figuring things out. She is already abandoned your marriage. She is miles ahead of you and you are getting further behind. Quit playing the pick me dance. She isn't giving you consideration. Quit making things convenient for her at your expense. Get her out of the house. Give her the experience of being single now.

Withdraw all financial and emotional support. O.P. replies, thank you for the reply. Yes, I am aware I am doing the pick me dance and it is. isn't healthy. I am hoping for some magical thing to happen that fixes this whole mess, but that is a fantasy. We still love each other so deep down I thought we could somehow reconcile. With her gone now, I don't know what I'll do, or how it will affect our son. I hope you enjoy this story. Mill came to live in our residence following the loss of her employment and began finding fault with all my actions, subsequently attributing blame to me for my miscarriage, asserting that this

is the reason she does not have a grandchild. I told my husband I can't get pregnant again and left. Hi everyone. I, Lilani, 33F, have been married to my husband Danny, 33M, for two years now. We have had a stable marriage, except for a few issues. One of these issues is Danny's mom, Camilla, 53F, who has never accepted me. She made it very clear from the beginning that she she doesn't like me and that I am not good enough for her little boy. About a year ago, she lost her job and was unable to find anything new. She burned through her savings quickly and was left with nothing. So, Danny insisted that I should be a good wife and let his mom move in with us. I was a bit hesitant at first, but how could I refuse? The other options were placing

his mom in a home or letting her be homeless, and I didn't want to be the villain in that scenario. However, soon it became clear that this wasn't going to work. From the moment she moved in, she started criticizing everything I did. If I cooked dinner, it wasn't done the way she used to make it for Danny. If I cleaned the house, I was either using the wrong products or missing spots she deemed important. She acted like I was some kind of untrained housewife who had no idea how to run a home, even though Danny and I had been living just fine before she moved in. She also started taking over everything.

My kitchen? Suddenly, it was her domain. She went through my cabinets and rearranged everything to her liking. I couldn't find anything anymore. My spice rack was a disaster, and she threw out some of my favorite ingredients because she didn't like the smell. When I confronted her about it, she acted like I was being ungrateful for her help. Then came the unsolicited parenting advice except we don't even have kids. Every time she saw me and Danny spending time together, she'd sigh loudly and say things like,

A real wife would have given my son a child by now. She'd drop hints at family gatherings, asking when she was getting a grandchild and making it seem like I was the reason we hadn't started a family yet. She even tried to set Danny up on playdates with his childhood friends who had kids, saying, maybe this will inspire you too. And don't even get me started on the laundry situation. She took it upon herself to do our laundry. which at first seemed like a nice gesture, but it quickly turned into a nightmare.

She washed all of my delicate clothes with Danny's heavy work clothes, ruining some of my favorite outfits. Then she had the audacity to blame me for buying cheap fabric. She even started folding our underwear and placing them in different drawers. It was so invasive and uncomfortable. Privacy. That became a thing of the past. She walked into our bedroom whenever she wanted,

claiming she needed something. I had to start locking the door, and even then, she'd knock constantly if she needed something. One time, she barged in while I was getting dressed and had the nerve to act offended that I was undressed in my own bedroom. She also had opinions on everything I bought. If I came home with new clothes, she'd scoff and say something like, spending your husband's hard-earned money again. If I got takeout after a long day at work, she'd make passive-aggressive comments about how I was too lazy to cook. The worst part? Danny never really stood up for me. He'd just brush it off and say things like, that's just how she is or she doesn't mean it like that. It got to the point where I dreaded coming home. I started staying late at work just to

avoid seeing her. I found excuses to run errands that didn't even need to be done, just so I could have a moment of peace. My home no longer felt like mine. It felt like I was living in someone else's house, tiptoeing around, trying not to set off the landmine that was my mother-in-law, and the cherry on top. She acted like she was the queen of the house. She took over the living room, watching whatever she wanted on TV and blasting the volume. If I wanted to watch something, she'd sigh dramatically and say, I guess I can go to my room if you really don't care about my entertainment. She even took my favorite blanket the one I've had for years and claimed it as her own, saying it was too nice to be wasted on me. Every time I tried to set boundaries, she acted like I was

attacking her. She'd get teary-eyed and run to Danny, making me seem like the bad guy. And of course, Danny would say, just try to get along with her, babe. She's going through a tough time. I was reaching my breaking point. But what could I do? She had nowhere else to go. I tried talking to Danny, but when it comes to his mom, he becomes blind. I don't know what it is about her, but he just can't see how bad her behavior is, and it's starting to drive me crazy. Every time I try to explain how I'm feeling about the way Camilla treats me, Danny just brushes it off. He says I'm being too sensitive or that I should be more patient with her, especially because she's been going through a tough time. But nothing changes. He keeps siding with her,

and I feel like I'm the one who has to put up with all her nonsense. It's getting so hard to deal with. However, Camilla crossed the line last week, and I think that was the breaking point for me. See, Danny and I have been trying to have a baby for a while now. It's something we've been really looking forward to. But a few months ago, I got pregnant, and we were so excited. Unfortunately, I had a miscarriage last month. It was a really tough time for me, and I was so.

still trying to process everything when Camilla moved in. I wasn't really ready to deal with much, and I felt like I had no space to grieve properly. I tried to keep it together, but I was exhausted, emotionally drained, and I just didn't feel like myself anymore. Last week, I had a particularly long and tough day at work. I came home, hoping to at least get a little bit of comfort from Danny and maybe have some quiet time to myself. But when I walked in, Danny and Camilla were sitting at the table, having dinner together, and there was no food left for me. I was starving and really hoping for a hot meal, but there wasn't anything. I walked into the kitchen, and I asked Danny, is there any food left for me? He just stared at Camilla and didn't say anything.

That's when Camilla spoke up, saying, well, I didn't know when you were coming home, so I didn't make anything for you. I couldn't believe it. I was too tired to argue, so I just grabbed. some bread and jam from the kitchen and went to bed. I was upset, but I didn't have the energy to say anything more. All I wanted was some rest and to not think about how much everything in my life felt like it was falling apart. But I couldn't even get that. The next morning, I woke up still feeling exhausted. I went downstairs, hoping to get some peace and a good cup of coffee, just to get my energy up for the day. But of course, Camilla was already up and sitting at the kitchen table. I started drinking my coffee, hoping she'd just leave me alone,

but then I heard her mumbling about how coffee is bad for you. At that point, I was just done. I was already tired, hungry, and irritated. I tried to ignore it, but then she said something that pushed me over the edge. She told me that I never listened to anyone, and that's why I had a miscarriage. I froze for a second, not believing what I was hearing. I couldn't believe she would say something so cruel, especially considering everything I'd been going through. I was still processing the loss, trying to heal emotionally, and here she was, blaming me for something that was completely out of my control. I was shocked. I just couldn't let it slide. I asked her, what the hell do you think of yourself? What gives you the right to talk to me like that?

She calmly looked at me and said, I can talk to you like that because you're the reason I don't have a grandchild yet. That was it. That was the moment I lost it. I was so angry, my blood was boiling. I told her to shut the hell up and just walked away for a moment to gather myself. But I was fuming. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I didn't want to yell, but I couldn't hold it in anymore.

I wanted to tell her how hurtful and disrespectful she was, how much she was pushing me to my breaking point, but I didn't know where to start. Of course, Danny heard all the yelling. and he came down to see what was going on. I told him exactly what Camilla had said. I was shaking, trying to keep my voice steady, but I was so furious. I just wanted him to see how bad it was, how his mom's behavior was completely out of line. And then Danny said, Danny said that I should just ignore her because she's old and wants a grandchild.

He said I should understand that she's upset and wants to be a part of our lives. And that I should just let her talk like that because she's his mom. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was like he was telling me that my feelings didn't matter, that Camilla's feelings and desires were more important than anything I had gone through. It felt like a slap in the face. I had just experienced the most heartbreaking thing in my life, and here was Danny, siding with his mom instead of standing by me, his wife.

He wasn't even trying to defend me or tell her that what she said was wrong. He was just saying, she's old, she wants a grand kid, you should let it go. I was done. I couldn't handle it anymore. I told him, if that's how you feel, then maybe you should leave me because I can't get pregnant again. The word slipped out before I could stop them. I didn't mean to say that, but it just came out in the heat of the moment. And the worst part was, it was true. I couldn't get pregnant again. I packed my bags, grabbed my things, and left the house. I didn't even know where I was going, but I couldn't stay there. there. I couldn't stay in a place where I felt so disrespected and unloved. I felt like Danny had chosen

his mom over me, and that's something I couldn't accept. So I left and ended up at a friend's place. Now, I'm sitting here, still trying to figure out what to do next. I never meant to hurt Danny, but I was so angry and hurt by what he and his mom were doing. Maybe I shouldn't have said that about not being able to get pregnant again that way and should have waited for the right time, but I was at my breaking point. I had tried to explain my feelings, and nothing had changed. So, here I am. I'm wondering, am I the a-hole for what I did? I know I'm angry, but was walking out too much? Did I overreact? I feel like I'm in the wrong, but at the same time, I just couldn't keep letting Camilla walk all over me and let Danny turn a blind eye to it. What do you

guys think? Update 1, hi everyone. First off, thank you for all the comments on my last post. A lot of you called me an a-hole for not telling Danny sooner about not being able to get pregnant, and I want to try to clear some things up. I get where you're coming from, and I definitely understand why you'd feel that way, but honestly, it's a lot more complicated than it probably seems. The truth is, I needed some time to process everything before talking about it with Danny. I mean, how do you even bring that up? It's not an easy thing to say, and I wasn't ready to tell him when I first found out. I only just learned that I couldn't get pregnant again less than a week before Camilla moved in.

It was a lot to handle, and I was still trying to understand how I was supposed to move forward with everything. It felt like my world had been turned upside down, and then, on top of that, Camilla moved in. I don't know if that makes sense, but I was completely overwhelmed, and I didn't know how to process. everything, let alone talk about it with Danny. But yeah, I do understand now that I shouldn't have said what I said to Danny, especially in front of her. I was just so angry in that moment, and I let everything spill out. I know that wasn't the right way to handle it, and I'm sorry for that. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, but I honestly didn't know how to deal with it all, especially with her in the house. So, after everything went down, Danny called me the day before yesterday. He was

upset, and I could hear it in his voice. But I was still too angry to talk to him. I told him that I would text him when I had calmed down and could actually have a real conversation. I needed some space to think about everything, and I wasn't ready to say anything I'd regret. This morning, I finally called him. I had been thinking a lot, and I was ready to talk, even if it was going to be hard. He came to see me at my friend's place. I wasn't sure what to expect, but we sat down. We sat down, and started talking. I told him exactly what the doctor had told me about not being able to get pregnant again. And when I did, he asked me why I hadn't told him earlier. He was hurt and confused, and I could see it in his eyes. Honestly, it hurt me too, but I knew this was something

I had to explain. I told him the truth. I didn't want to burden him with this when everything with his mom was already so complicated. I knew how important it was for him to have a baby, I wasn't sure how to tell him that I couldn't give him that, especially with Camilla already living with us. The timing just felt awful. I didn't want to bring up something like this while I was dealing with her constant presence in our home. I didn't know how to talk to him about this and deal with her. It felt impossible. At first, he was silent for a moment. Then, he told me that he understood. I'm not sure if he was just trying to be supportive or if he was truly processing it all, but I appreciated him trying to understand. I needed him to get it, especially

since everything with Camilla had been so difficult. But then, I told him something that I knew would be hard for him to hear. I told him that I wasn't coming back home until Camilla was out of the house. I was firm. I didn't want to play games with this anymore. I felt like I had tried every other option. And nothing was changing. I needed him to choose. It was either her or me. I was done living in a house where I felt suffocated, disrespected, and constantly undermined. I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't want to be the bad guy, but I knew I had to set this boundary for my own sanity.

Of course, Danny didn't take it well. He said that he couldn't just kick his mom out onto the streets. I get it, I do. I know Camilla's his mom, and he's trying to be the good son, but I couldn't let it slide anymore. I told him that if he really cared about me, he'd have to make arrangements for her. It was time for a change, and I wasn't going to go back to a life where I felt like I didn't have a voice in my own home. He left, and we haven't talked since then.

I haven't heard from him, not even a text. I don't know what he's thinking, and to be honest, I'm scared. I'm scared that he'll choose her over me, that he'll think I'm being unreasonable. But I also feel like I can't keep sacrificing my happiness for the same thing. sake of his mom's comfort. I've already put up with so much for so long, and I'm at my breaking point. I keep thinking about all the things I said, wondering if I could have handled it better. I didn't want to hurt Danny, but I couldn't keep living like this. I feel guilty about leaving, but I also feel like it was the only way to make him see how serious this was. I hope he'll come

around and realize that I'm not asking for too much. I just need space, respect, and the chance to heal. But right now, I'm not sure what's going to happen. So, yeah, that's where I am now. I don't know what's next, but I just wanted to update you all on what happened after my last post. Thanks for all the support and feedback, even if it's been tough to hear. I guess I just need to figure out how to move forward, whatever that looks like. Update 2, hello everyone. I know it's been a month since my last update, but honestly, it's been such a roller coaster. I needed some time to process everything and figure out where I stand. After Danny left my friend's place, I stayed with her for a while, and it was honestly nice to have some peace and quiet. It gave me a

chance to just breathe and think about everything that had happened. I had to ask my friend to go to my house to grab some of my things, like clothes and personal items. I wasn't ready to go back there yet, and I needed her to get the stuff for me. When my friend went to my house, though, things didn't exactly go smoothly. Camilla was there, and of course, she wasn't happy. She started yelling at my friend, telling her to get everything she could quickly because she wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. I couldn't believe it. Camilla was acting like she owned the place, still trying to control everything, even though I wasn't even there. My friend was really uncomfortable, but she got what I needed and didn't engage with Camilla. I was just so

frustrated that Camilla thought she could still behave like that. Meanwhile, Danny and I were talking on the phone, trying to figure out what the next steps were. It was so hard to have these conversations with him. We were both upset, but we were also trying to work together. After some long talks and a lot of back and forth, we finally decided that the best thing to do for everyone was to rent Camilla a small studio apartment or a one BHK where she could live on her own. Danny and I both have good jobs, so the money for it wasn't an issue. It seemed like a reasonable solution. She would have her own space, and I would have mine, which was what I needed. But, of course, it wasn't that simple. When we told Camilla about the plan, she wasn't happy at all.

She started crying every evening, saying that she couldn't believe her own son was doing this to her. It was heartbreaking for Danny, I could tell. He's torn between me and his mom, and every time she cried, it felt like he was losing a piece of himself. It was really hard to watch, but I also knew I couldn't just let her stay at our house. I had already given so much, and I couldn't keep living in a space where I felt suffocated. We started looking at apartments together, and Danny and Camilla would visit them while I stayed out of it. Honestly, I didn't want to be around her. I couldn't deal with her constant negativity and her refusal to accept the situation.

Every place they visited, Camilla would find something wrong with it. The kitchen was too small, the bathroom wasn't nice enough, or she didn't like the color of the walls. It was like she wasn't even trying to make this work. I couldn't believe it. She was so picky, but at the same time, she wasn't willing to leave the house and give us space. It was honestly starting to feel like she just didn't care about anything except staying with us. I've made it very clear to Danny that I don't want to see Camilla during this process. I've told him that I won't be involved with any of this because every time I'm around her,

it just feels like things get worse. It's like she's pushing all my buttons on purpose, and I just can't handle it anymore. Danny's been understanding to some degree, but I can tell that it's hard for him too. He wants to make everyone happy, but I think he's starting to realize that it's important. possible to please both of us at the same time. So, this is where we're at right now. We've been looking at places for Camilla, and it's been dragging on because she refuses to settle on anything. I'm starting to wonder if she'll ever be okay with moving out, or if she'll continue to try to manipulate Danny into keeping her with us. I can't even imagine

how things will play out from here, but all I know is that I need space, and I need her to be out of our lives for good. I can't keep living in a situation where I'm constantly walking on eggshells. It's been tough. There's still a part of me that feels bad for Camilla, but there's a bigger part of me that just wants peace in my own home. I've tried to be patient, I really have. But at this point, I'm not sure how much more I can give. I love Danny, but I also need to take care of myself. I don't know how this is all going to work out, but I hope things get better soon. I'll keep you all updated as things progress. Thanks again, for all the support and advice. It really means a lot to me. Update 3, Hi Everyone. It's been about

four months since my last update, and I know a lot of you have been wondering how things turned out, so I finally have some updates to share. I've really been reflecting a lot, and it feels like time has flown by, even though these months have felt like a roller coaster. So, after weeks and weeks of searching for apartments, Camilla finally agreed to a place. It was a small, studio that was about ten minutes away from our place. I won't lie, I didn't exactly love the place, but at that point, I was just relieved we had something. It wasn't ideal, but I accepted it as a compromise. I didn't want to keep fighting about it. The important thing was that she was going to have her own space, and it seemed like she was at least agreeing to move out, even if I didn't

feel totally comfortable with the location. Now, I'm sure many of you were wondering if I had forgiven Camilla or if things had gotten better, but that's not really the case. I made it very clear to Danny that even though Camilla was moving out, that didn't mean she could just pop by whenever she wanted. I told him flat out that she wasn't welcome in our house without an invitation, and if she wanted to see him, he could go visit her at her place. I was very firm about this because I needed my space. I needed things to go back to normal for Danny and me, and having her in our lives constantly was never going to be part of that picture. But let me tell you, Camilla wasn't going down without a fight. After she moved out, she didn't just quietly go on with her life. No, she started using other

tactics to try to get Danny to spend more time with her and stay with her. She got some of our relatives involved, calling both me and Danny, trying to guilt us into letting her back into the house. She said things like, how could you be so cold to your own mother? And I'm your only family, care about me? It was honestly so draining. It didn't stop there, though. Camilla even tried to play the health card. She started calling Danny, telling him that her health was getting worse and that she needed

him to take care of her. She tried to guilt him into staying with her, saying she didn't know how long she had left. It was like she thought that by playing the victim, we'd somehow let her stay with us again. It was honestly exhausting, and I could see it was wearing Danny down. I had to remind him that he couldn't let her manipulate him like that. It wasn't healthy for any of us, and the truth was, she needed to stand on her own two feet. I won't say it was easy. It was hard, especially for Danny.

He's a good person, and I could see how torn he was. But he stuck to his guns. He didn't cave, and eventually, Camilla started backing off. It was like she realized that she couldn't keep using these tactics to control us, and you know what? That was a relief. About a month ago, I finally moved back into the house. I had been staying with a friend for a while, but I knew I needed to go back home, especially since things with Camilla had calmed down a bit. I needed to get back to a normal routine. Moving back in was both a relief and a bit strange. It was like things were finally getting back

to normal with Danny, but there was still this lingering tension, especially since we hadn't fully resolved everything with the whole surrogacy thing. Speaking of which, Danny and I have been talking more about looking into surrogacy. I'm still not entirely sure about it, to be honest. It's a big step, and I'm not 100% certain about whether it's the right choice for us. But I've been thinking a lot about it, and I know Danny is serious about it. We've had some deep conversations about what it would mean for us as a couple, and I can see how much he wants a family of our own. But I'm also still processing everything that's happened in the last few months. It's a lot to take in. We're not rushing into anything, but it's something we're considering,

and I'll keep you all updated on what we decide. So, yeah, this is going to be my last update. Things are calmer now, and I feel like we're on the right path, even if it's a bit uncertain. I just wanted to thank everyone for all your support and advice during these past few months. You've all helped me process so much, and I've really appreciated hearing from you. I hope that whatever happens next, we can all move forward with more clarity and peace. Thanks again, and take care, everyone. I hope you enjoy this story. Sibling teased me about my spouse having a life-threatening condition and later brought me to a nightclub for grown-ups once she passed away.

Subsequently, I stumbled upon his unfaithful communications on my spouse's device. Phone and helped his fiancé expose him at their wedding. My wife Amber died three months ago after fighting cancer for two years and my brother Kyle thinks this is all some kind of joke that he can fix with his stupid ideas about what men need. Amber was 31 when she died and we had been married for eight years and Kyle was supposed to be the one person I could count on but instead he turned into this complete asshole who thinks he knows what I need better than I do. The cancer started as breast cancer but it spread everywhere and Amber.

fought so hard and went through chemo and radiation and surgery and everything the doctor said to try but nothing worked and she just kept getting sicker and weaker. Kyle would come visit us in the hospital and at first he seemed normal and supportive but then he started making these comments that were supposed to be funny but they were not funny at all. He would say things like well at least you will not have to worry about her nagging you anymore and maybe this is God's way of giving you a fresh start and when Amber was really sick and sleeping a lot, he said she is just practicing for the long nap and I told him to shut up, but he said I needed to learn how to laugh again and that Amber would. Want me to have a sense of humor about this.

When Amber died, Kyle came to the funeral and he cried and hugged me and I thought maybe he understood how serious this was, but then two weeks later he showed up at my house with a bottle of whiskey and said it was time for me to start living again. I was still barely eating and barely sleeping and barely able to function and Kyle said that was not healthy and I needed to get back out there and meet women. I told him I was not ready for any of that and he said that was exactly the problem and that Amber would not want me to waste away feeling sorry for myself. He kept saying Amber would want me to be happy and that the best way to honor her memory was to move on and start dating again and I kept telling him to stop talking about what Amber would

want because he did not know her like I knew her. Then last week Kyle called me and said he had a surprise for me and that I should not make any plans for Friday night because he was taking me out. I thought maybe he meant dinner or a movie or something normal, but when Friday came he picked me up and drove me to this strip club and said this was exactly what I needed to get over my grief. I could not believe he was serious and I told him to turn around and take me home but he said I was being ridiculous and that this was what guys did when they needed to remember how to have fun. He had already paid for everything and said he was not going to waste his money just because I was being uptight about some strippers. The whole place was loud and dark and smelled like cigarettes and cheap perfume and Kyle kept buying me drinks and telling me to relax and enjoy myself, but all I could think about was Amber and how she would hate this and how wrong it felt to be there. Kyle kept pointing at different women and saying which ones he thought were attractive and asking me which ones I liked and I kept saying I wanted to leave. Then Kyle called one of the strippers over to our table and told her it was my birthday which was a lie and that I needed cheering up because my wife had just died.

The woman looked uncomfortable when he said that but Kyle handed her money and told her to give me a dance and I said no thank you but Kyle said he was paying for it so I was getting it whether I wanted it or not. I finally couldn't take it anymore and got up and walked outside and called a cab to take me home and Kyle followed me and started yelling at me in the parking lot about how I was being ungrateful and how he was. was just trying to help me and how I needed to stop wallowing in self-pity. He said Amber was dead and nothing was going to bring her back so I might as well start enjoying life again and that most guys would be grateful to have a brother who cared enough to get them laid. I told him that what he said was disgusting and that he did not understand anything about what I was going through and he said that was the problem and that I was choosing to be miserable

when I could choose to move on. He said he had been patient with me for months but that patience had limits and that Amber would be embarrassed by help with that. I was being. I punched him in the face and he fell backward and hit his head on a car and started bleeding and I thought I might have really hurt him but then he got up and started screaming at me about how I was crazy and how he was done trying to help someone who did not want to be helped. He said I could rot in my grief for all he cared and that when I finally came to my senses and realized he was right I should not bother calling him. That was a week ago and

Kyle is not called or texted and neither have I because I am still so angry I can barely think straight when I think about what he did. My parents called and said Kyle told them we had a fight, but he did not tell them what it was about and they want us to make up because family is important, but they do not know that Kyle has been making jokes about Amber being dead and that he thought hiring strippers was appropriate grief counseling. I loved Amber more than anything in the world and she was the kindest and funniest and most beautiful person I ever knew and she did not deserve to die and she definitely did not deserve to have Kyle making jokes about her death. I know I am not not handling this perfectly, but I am doing the best I can and I do not need my brother telling me

that the way I am grieving is wrong or that I should be grateful for strip clubs and prostitutes. Kyle always thought he was smarter than everyone else and that his way of doing things was the right way and that anyone who disagreed with him was just being emotional or irrational. When we were kids, he would do things like break my toys and then tell me I was being a baby for crying about it and that toys were stupid anyway and I should be thanking him for helping me grow up. Now he thinks he knows better than I do about how to handle my wife dying and he thinks he can fix me with alcohol and naked women like I am some kind of machine that just needs the right input to start working again. He does not understand that I do not want to be fixed and I do not want to move on and I do not want to start dating and I especially do not want him making decisions about what is best for me. I do not know if I will ever forgive Kyle for this and I do not know if I want to.

He crossed a line that I did not even know existed and now I cannot look at him the same way and I cannot trust him to understand or respect anything that matters to me. Maybe some people would say I am being too harsh but I think there are some things you do not joke about in some situations where you just keep your mouth shut and let people grieve the way they need to grieve. Update 1. I found out something that changes everything and now I know exactly what kind of person my brother really is and I am going to make sure everyone else knows too. Kyle has been engaged to his girlfriend Emma for four months and their wedding is in a few weeks and Emma has no idea that Kyle has been cheating on her the entire time they have been together. I found out by accident when I went to clean out Amber's car which has been sitting in our garage since she got too sick to drive. I was going through the glove compartment and I found Amber's old phone that she used to use for work before she got the cancer diagnosis and had to quit her job. The phone was dead but I charged it up because I thought there might be pictures or maybe. messages on it that I wanted to keep.

When the phone turned on, there were dozens of text messages between Kyle and Amber that I had never known about and when I read them I realized that Kyle had been trying to get Amber to help him cover up his cheating and that Amber had been telling him to stop and to tell Emma the truth. The messages started about a year ago when Amber was still doing okay with her treatment and Kyle was asking her to lie to Emma about where he was on certain nights and asking her to back up stories he had told Emma about work trips that were actually times when he was with other women. Amber had responded to the early messages telling Kyle that what he was doing

was wrong and that he needed to stop cheating on Emma and be honest with her. She wrote things like Kyle, this is disgusting and Emma deserves I am not going to lie for you and you need to tell Emma the truth and if you do not stop asking me to cover for you I'm going to tell her myself. The messages got nastier when Amber kept refusing to help him and Kyle started saying things like I know you think I'm being stupid but this is not that serious and Emma does not need to know every detail of my life. I could not believe what I was reading and I kept scrolling through more and more messages where Kyle was talking about different women he was sleeping with and asking Amber to provide alibis for him and getting angry when she would not

respond. He talked about women from his work and women he met at bars and even women he met on dating apps while he was engaged to Emma. Kyle would keep trying to twist everything around to make Amber feel guilty for not helping him and he wrote things like I thought family was supposed to support each other but I guess I was wrong about you and you are being selfish and only thinking about yourself instead of what is best for everyone and Emma is happier not knowing so you are actually hurting her by wanting to tell her and fine be a bitch about it but do not ruin my relationship because you are jealous that I am happy. I could see from Amber's later responses that Kyle's manipulation was starting to work on her because the cancer treatments were making

her confused and tired and not able to think clearly. It made me sick to read how Kyle had taken advantage of her when she was vulnerable and scared and not in her right mind. Then I could see from the message timeline that Amber had stopped responding completely about eight months ago which was right when she got really sick and had to be hospitalized for the first time. The last few messages were about Kyle telling Amber that he has stopped cheating and would not cheat again if she doesn't tell anyone about it.

I took screenshots of every single message and I printed them out and I made copies and I started planning exactly how I was going to make sure Emma saw them before she made the biggest mistake of her life. Kyle thinks he is so smart and that he can manipulate everyone around him but he is about to find out that some things have consequences and that treating people like garbage eventually catches up with you. I called Emma and told her I wanted to take her out to lunch to talk about wedding plans and she was excited because she thought I was finally ready to be involved in family events again after

Amber died. I felt bad about lying to her, but I knew if I told her the truth over the phone she might not believe me or Kyle might convince her that I was making it up because I was angry about our fight. During lunch I told Emma that I had found something that she needed to see and I showed her the phone with all of Kyle's messages and I watched her face change as she read them. At first she looked confused and then she looked hurt and then she looked angry and then she just looked empty like someone had sucked all the life out of her. She read every single message twice and then she asked me if I had more proof and I told her about the screenshots and the printed copies and she asked if she could have copies for herself. I gave her everything and she put

it all in her purse and then she sat there for a long time without saying anything and I did not know what to say either. Finally Emma said that she had suspected something was wrong because Kyle had been acting weird and distant and he kept making excuses for why he could not spend time with her and he kept accusing her of being needy and clingy when she asked him about it. She said she had tried to convince herself that he was just stressed about work and the wedding, but deep down she knew something was not right. Emma also said that she had thought it was weird when Kyle told her he was taking me to a strip club to cheer me up after Amber died, but that Kyle had made it sound like he was being

a good brother and helping me through my grief. She said now she realized that Kyle probably enjoyed going to strip clubs himself and that he had used my grief as an excuse to go somewhere Emma would normally not want him to go. Emma asked me why I was showing her this now and why I had not told her before and I explained that I had just found the phone and that I thought she deserved to know the truth before she married him. I told her that Kyle had also been horrible to me about Amber's death and that I was realizing that my brother was not the person I thought he was and that he was not the person she thought he was either. She started crying and said that she felt like such an idiot for not seeing this sooner and for making excuses for him and for planning a whole wedding with someone who obviously did not love her or respect her. I told her that it was not her fault and that Kyle was good at lying in manipulation and that she should not blame herself for trusting someone she was supposed to be able to trust. Emma said that she did not know what to do because the wedding was in two weeks and all the vendors were paid for and all the guests had already made travel plans and her parents. had spent so much money and everyone was expecting her to get married.

I told her that all of that was less important than her happiness and her future and that marrying someone who had already cheated on her and planned to keep cheating on her would be the worst mistake she could make. Then Emma asked me if I thought she should confront Kyle before the wedding or if she should wait until after and I told her that was up to her, but that I personally thought Kyle deserved to be humiliated in front of everyone the same way he had humiliated her and Amber and me. I told her that Kyle never faced consequences for his actions because he was always able to charm his way out of trouble or blame other people for his problems. Emma said she needed time to think about it and I told her to take all the time she needed and that I would support whatever decision she made.

I also told her that if she wanted to confront Kyle before the wedding I would be there with her and if she wanted to expose him at the wedding I would help her do that too. We paid for lunch and Emma hugged me and thanked me for telling her the truth even though it was whole. horrible and painful. She said that finding out now was better than finding out after they were married and had kids and she was trapped in a marriage with someone who did not love her. I would probably update again when something happens update too. Emma decided she wanted to expose Kyle at the wedding and she asked me to help her plan it and we came up with something that was perfect and devastating and there was no way Kyle could talk his way out of it. Emma said she wanted everyone to know exactly what kind of person Kyle was before

they watched him promise to love and honor her, and she wanted Kyle to feel as humiliated and betrayed as he had made her feel. The plan was that Emma would go through with the wedding ceremony up until the part where the officiant asks if anyone has any objections, and then she would object to her own wedding and explain why. But we needed a way to show everyone the proof so they would believe her and not think she was just having cold feet or a nervous breakdown. Emma came up with the idea to hide printed copies of Kyle's text messages inside her bouquet and during the objection part she would pull them out and read some of the worst messages out loud to everyone. We spent hours going through all the messages and picking the ones that were the most

damning and that would make it impossible for anyone to defend Kyle or make excuses for him. We picked the message where Kyle said Emma was boring and only good for her family's money and the message where he said he would probably cheat on her after marriage too. We also picked several messages where Kyle was describing specific sexual encounters with other women and bragging about how easy it was to lie to Emma. Emma had the messages printed on nice paper and we folded them up small and wrapped them in plastic so they would not get damaged and we carefully tucked them into the center of her bouquet where no one would see them until she was ready.

We made sure she had enough copies to hand out to people so they could read the messages themselves. The wedding was at this fancy venue that Emma's parents had booked at two months ago and there were about 150 people there including both families and all of Kyle and Emma's friends and co-workers. I sat in the front row with my parents and Kyle's groomsman and I watched Kyle standing at the altar looking smug and confident like he always did when he thought he was getting away with something. Emma looked beautiful in her wedding dress and she walked down the aisle with her father and she was smiling but I could tell she was nervous and scared about what she

was about to do. When she got to the altar Kyle kissed her cheek and whispered something in her ear that made her flinch and I wondered what horrible thing he had just said to the ceremony started normally and the officiant talked about love and commitment and marriage being a sacred bond between two people who trust each other completely. I kept thinking about how ironic it was that Kyle was standing there pretending to care about trust and commitment when he had been planning to cheat on Emma for their entire marriage too even though he probably lied about it in his final messages. When the officiant got to the part about objections he said if anyone here knows of any

reason why these two should not be married speak now or forever hold your peace and there was the usual pause where everyone stays quiet and then Emma raised her hand and said I object. Everyone in the room gasped and started whispering and Kyle looked confused and then annoyed and he said Emma what are you doing but Emma ignored him and started talking to the crowd. She said I object to this marriage because the groom has been cheating on me for our entire relationship. Kyle started saying that is not true and Emma you are being crazy but Emma pulled the papers out of her bouquet and said I have proof and she started reading the messages out loud. She read the one about her being boring and only good for money and the one about him

planning to cheat after marriage and the room got completely silent except for Emma's voice reading Kyle's own words back to him. Then Emma started handing out copies of the messages to people in the front rows and telling them to pass them around so everyone could see for themselves what Kyle had written. People were reading the messages and looking shocked and disgusted and some people started getting up and leaving because they did not want to be part of this disaster. Kyle tried to grab the papers away from Emma, but she stepped back and kept reading more messages and more details about his cheating and his lies and his complete lack of respect for her or their relationship.

Kyle was getting red in the face and yelling at Emma to stop embarrassing herself and to think about their families and their future, but Emma just kept going. Finally Kyle shouted fine, you want to do this here in front of everyone then let's do this and he started yelling about how Emma was frigid and boring and how he only proposed to her because her father could help his career and how she should be grateful that someone like him even wanted to marry someone like her. He said she was lucky he was willing to settle for her because she was not attractive enough or interesting enough to do better than him. Emma's father stood up and started yelling at Kyle about how dare he talked to his daughter that

way and my father stood up and started yelling at Emma's father and then both families were yelling at each other and the whole wedding turned into this massive fight with people taking sides and screaming accusations and insults. Some of the guests were trying to calm everyone down, but most people were either yelling or leaving just standing there with their mouths open watching the whole thing fall apart. Emma took off her engagement ring and threw it at Kyle and it hit him in the chest and bounced onto the floor and she said, I never want to see you again and I hope everyone here remembers what kind of person you really are. Then she picked up her dress and walked out of the venue and her parents and her bridesmaids followed her.

Kyle was left standing at the altar with his groomsmen and his family and about half the guests had already left and the other half were talking among themselves about what they had just witnessed. Kyle tried to make some speech about how Emma had had a breakdown and how none of this was his fault but people were not buying it especially after they had read his own messages describing his cheating in detail. The venue staff started cleaning up and my parents came over to talk me saying she was embarrassed and disappointed and she could not believe Kyle had done these things. My father was trying to defend him in saying that young men make mistakes and that Emma had overreacted but my mother told him to stop making excuses because what Kyle did was

unforgivable. I went up to Kyle before I left and I told him that this was what happened when you treated people like garbage and that he had brought this on himself. He said I was the one who had caused this by showing Emma the messages and that I had ruined his life because I was jealous that he was happy and I was not. I told him that he had ruined his own life by being a cheating liar and that I was glad Emma found out before she wasted years of her life being married to him. Kyle said I would regret this and that he would make sure everyone knew I was bitter and vindictive because my wife died and I could not handle other people being happy. I walked away and left Kyle standing there with the wreckage of his wedding and his reputation

and I felt like finally some justice had been done for Emma and for Amber and for everyone else Kyle had hurt with his selfish behavior. Update 3, Emma called me yesterday and she was crying so hard I could barely understand what she was saying and when she finally calmed down enough to talk she told me something that made everything so much worse than I ever imagined it could be. Emma said she had gone to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases before the wedding disaster because she wanted to make sure Kyle had not given her anything and the results came back positive for HIV.

She said her doctor told her that based on the timeline and the progression markers it looked like she had been infected recently and that meant Kyle had probably given it to her within the last few months. Emma said she had never had unprotected sex with anyone except Kyle and that she had been tested before they started dating and everything was negative so there was no doubt that Kyle was the one who infected her. I kept asking Emma if she was sure and if there could be any mistake but she said she had gotten tested three times at different labs and all the results were the same. She said her doctor had started her on treatment and that her viral load was still relatively low, so they caught it early, but that she would

have to take medication for the rest of her life and that her whole future had just changed completely. Emma said she had tried calling Kyle to tell him that he needed to get tested and that he needed to contact all the other women he had been with, but Kyle would not answer her calls or respond to her messages. She said she had even gone to his apartment, but he was not there and his neighbors said they had not seen him in days and that his car was gone. I told Emma that I would try to find Kyle and make sure he got tested and contacted his other partners, but that right now the most important thing was making sure she was okay and that she was getting the medical care she needed. Emma said her doctor had been great and that the treatment was already working

but that she was struggling with the emotional part of knowing that she would have this virus for the rest of her life because of Kyle's lies and cheating. Emma asked me if I thought Kyle knew he was positive and had infected her on purpose or if he was just reckless and stupid and did not know his status. I told her that either way it did not matter because the result was the same and that Kyle was responsible for what happened to her regardless of whether he knew or not. I spent the rest of the day trying to track down Kyle and I called his work and they said he had not shown up for the past week and that they were considering firing him if he did not call in soon. I called his friends and most of them said they had not heard from him since the

wedding and that they were embarrassed to be associated with him after what had happened. Finally I found out from one of his co-workers that Kyle had driven to one of our cousins' house in another state and that he was probably hiding there until things calmed down. I got the cousin's phone number for my mom and called and explained the situation and told him that Kyle needed to get tested immediately and that there were other people whose health was at risk. The cousin said he would make sure Kyle got the message, but that Kyle was pretty messed up and angry and might not be willing to listen to reason. I told the cousin that this was not about Kyle's feelings and that if he did not get tested and contact his other partners, he could be criminally liable for knowingly spreading HIV. Two days later, Kyle finally called me and he was drunk and angry and he started yelling at me about how I had ruined his life and how everything was my fault for showing Emma those messages. I told him that Emma had tested positive for HIV and that he needed to get tested immediately and he went completely silent for about 30 seconds and then he started yelling again. Kyle said there was no way he was positive and that Emma was probably lying to get attention

and sympathy and to make him look even worse than he already did. I told him that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard and that Emma had no reason to lie about something like that and that he needed to stop being selfish and think about all the women he might have infected. He said he felt fine and that he was not sick and that HIV was something that happened to other people and not to people like him. I tried to explain that HIV does not care what kind of person you are and that plenty of people have HIV without knowing it and without having symptoms but Kyle said I was being dramatic and trying to scare him. I told Kyle that if he did not get tested I would call the health department and report him and that they could force him to

get tested and contact his partners. Kyle said I would not do that because it would cause problems for our whole family and I told him that I did not care about our family's reputation more than I cared about innocent people getting infected with a life-threatening virus. Kyle finally agreed to get tested, but he said he was only doing it to prove that Emma was lying in to get everyone off his back. He said when the test came back negative, he was going to demand an apology from everyone who had accused him of giving M.H.I. 3 days later, Kyle called me back, and he was not drunk this time, and he was not yelling and his voice sounded completely different like all the fight had gone out of him. He said his test results had come back positive and that

his doctor said his viral load was very high, which meant he had probably been infected for several months and had been contagious the whole time. Kyle said his doctor had given him a list of questions about his sexual partners and that he was supposed to contact everyone he had been with in the past year and tell them to get tested. He said the list had 11 different women on it, including Emma, and that was realizing that he might have infected a lot of people. I asked Kyle if he was going to contact all those women and he said he did not know how he could face them and tell them what he had I told him that was not about him and his feelings and that those women had a right to know their status and get treatment if they needed it and that every day he waited was another day they might be spreading the virus to other people.

Kyle said he knew I was right but that he was scared and ashamed and that he did not know what to say to these women. I told him that he should start by being honest for once in his life and that he should give them all the information they needed to protect themselves and get tested and treated. I keep thinking about how Kyle's need to sleep around and lie about it has now destroyed so many lives and how if he had just been honest with Emma from the beginning none of this would have happened. I hope you enjoy this story. Scheduled a trip, but I had to forego tending to my alien mother. Consequently, my spouse embarked on the journey solo and pretended as if no incident occurred. Hello, everyone, I find myself in a dire predicament. My wife right now and I read, really need some help or some sort of advice about what to do because I'm totally lost. And I don't want to get carried away by my emotions. So I'm here to ask for an objective set of

opinions. For context, my wife and I have been married for two years and together for five. Susanna, 36F, and I, 38M, were introduced to each other by a couple of mutual friends and that's how we got together. In the beginning of our relationship, she was very independent. and that's what I really liked about her. I wanted her to stay the same even after we got married, but I had no idea that she would have such a different interpretation of independence. So for the past couple of months, Susanna and I had been planning on taking a vacation because both of us were really exhausted from working and we really needed a break.

We had decided that we would take a trip to California a couple of weeks ago, but I was unfortunately not able to go on the trip because my mother had a bit of an accident just one week before we were supposed to leave. My mom is in her 60s and has lived alone since my dad passed away a couple of years back. She was walking down the street when a car accidentally hit her and thankfully, she only fractured her ankle and sprained her wrists while trying to break the fall. Her insurance covered everything but obviously, she still needed somebody to stay with her and take care of her while she recovered.

This incident took place just one week before we were supposed to leave for our vacation, so I told my wife that maybe we could cancel it for now so I could take care of my mother for the time being. My mother and I have always been really close and she's not a nightmare mother-in-law, I promise you that. She and my wife have in fact had a very good relationship in the past so I don't know why Susanna was so against the idea of canceling the vacation so we could stay with mom and take care of her. According to my wife, she thought it was ridiculous of me to even suggest something like that because we had been planning this vacation for months and she had, really been looking forward to having a break from all the work. She did not want to give that up just to look after my mother since I could just hire a full-time nurse to take care of her.

Obviously, I could do that, but it would still look a little insensitive to just take off on vacation because my mother had been in an accident. And personally, I didn't even care about how it appeared to other people, I just really wanted to be there for her. I think, as her only son, it was pretty normal for me to want that. But she insisted that she had been working really hard for the past couple of months and she deserved this and since it was not like my mother was in a really bad state, it was just minor injuries, she could handle it on her own. I argued that even if we did find a nurse, I would still want to be there for her and check up on her occasionally and I wouldn't be able to do that if I left for our two-week vacation. She was just

not ready to listen to me after a while, she started saying that I was being selfish. and a mama's boy because I was acting like this, prioritizing her over my wife. I found that very unfair because there were several occasions when I had made sacrifices for her and her family's sake and it seemed like she had just forgotten about all of it. And during the week leading up to the day that we were supposed to leave for our holiday, we were fighting literally every day and eventually, two days before we were supposed to leave, she told me that she was going on the trip without me, and if I wanted to, I could join her later. But she thought that I was being unreasonable and she was not going to sacrifice her vacation for me.

After she told me that, I did not speak to her because I didn't think I had anything left to say to her. It seemed like she had made up her mind and nothing I could say would be able to change that, so I did not want to waste my time. I was very upset about it, naturally, and I started spending more time at my mother's place to tell her what was going on. My mother, being the person that she is, told me that I was free to leave and she really wouldn't mind it. But I could tell that she was a bit upset that Susanna had not even visited her because she was fighting with me over this. She had always treated Susanna like her own daughter, and yet she did not even seem to care enough to visit my mom, even though she was fighting with me and not her. So these things started adding up and on the day that she left for the vacation, she didn't even bother to say goodbye to me and just left.

I was heartbroken and had no idea what to do. But after thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided to speak to a lawyer and file for a divorce because things have gone too far and after something like this, I don't think I would ever be able to bounce back from that and look at her the same way again. It was a very difficult step, but I thought that it was necessary because she had made it very clear to me that she couldn't care less about my feelings. I even spoke to my mother about it, and she suggested that I should at least wait it out until Susanna comes back home, discuss things with her, and then file for a divorce if we are not able to come to a conclusion. But I did not want to wait that long. I was hurt by the fact that even after she had left, she hadn't even bothered to talk to me.

So for the entire time that she was on vacation, I just kept waiting for her to come back so we could get this over with. and two days back she finally returned and she seemed to be very happy without me. I was at home since it was the weekend and the second that she entered the house, she ignored me completely and went into the bedroom. I don't even know what that was about, but it just pissed me off even more and I decided that I was not going to wait, I had to get this done that day. So after a while, when she came out from the room after freshening up,

I brought out the divorce papers and handed it to her. I explained to her that what she had done, and the way she had behaved recently had hurt me really badly and on top of that, she did not even seem to be sorry about it. So I had to make this incredibly difficult decision of leaving her because I don't think I would be able to make a marriage work if she didn't even care about my feelings. I think that really shocked her and she literally had no words for the first couple of seconds, and when she finally did, she started justifying what she had done and said that she had always been a very independent human being. and it was unfair of me to expect her to allow her to be tied down. She tried to tell me that sometimes, we would want very different things in life and that was fine, we just had to respect each other because that's how a marriage works in right now, she was feeling like I was only throwing a tantrum because I could not respect what she wanted.

But that was not the case at all. I had thought things through since I had enough time to do it, seeing how she did not bother to talk to me even once while she was gone. and I had literally no way to justify or defend her decisions, which is why I had to take this extreme step. Even then, Susanna could have just either apologized and ended it or she could have just ignored the situation altogether like she had already been ignoring me for the past two weeks, but she decided to continue arguing with me and we ended up in a very horrible fight.

She just kept trying to defend her decision and make it seem like I was overreacting and I got so frustrated by the end of it I literally just started asking her to live. leave because I couldn't tolerate her anymore. So she packed up a few of her things and left the house and presumably, she went to live in a hotel. That fight literally just made me more sure that I wanted to end this marriage because I couldn't deal with the fact that even after so much had happened, she still did not even think that it was necessary to apologize even once. Anyway, that was a couple of days ago and this morning, Susanna called me up to ask me when she should come back home because she doesn't want to waste her money living in a hotel. I told her

that I would rather not have her back home because I'm serious about getting the divorce and she tried to start fighting with me once again, but I just hung up this time. After that, she texted me to apologize, but even then, she was trying to make it seem like she was sorry because I felt bad because she had done something wrong. In her message, she was saying stuff like I'm sorry that you felt bad because I went on the trip alone, but you should have always known. that I was very independent right from the beginning. I don't want to sacrifice my individuality for the sake of our marriage and neither should you expect me to, as a good husband. I knew that she was only apologizing because she wanted to come back home and I own the house, so I told

her that I did not want her to come back. Then, she finally started crying on voice notes and calling me again and again. She can't believe that I'm doing this to her and thinks that I'm being very egoistic, but I'm honestly just trying to protect myself because she has hurt me more in the past few days than anybody else has in my entire life. And I can't have this happening again and again, so I think it's better for us to stay apart for now. I know for a fact that she doesn't really have anywhere else to go since her parents don't live here and she doesn't have a lot of friends who she can rely on, but I don't think that's my problem right now. After all, when I was feeling awful, she did not think it was her problem to deal with.

So I'm just behaving the same way, but I still feel kind of guilty about what I'm doing because of all the voice notes that she has sent where she's crying and seems miserable, even though I know it's necessary for me and my mental health to keep her away right now. I'd have for telling my wife that I don't want her coming back home because she went on our vacation alone. Edit, so some more details about this situation for you guys to make sense of it all. We had paid for everything already and split the cost of it, but we did actually end up canceling it. We wouldn't really be running losses. I had already spoken to the airline and they had told me that if we cancel our tickets up to five days before we are supposed to leave,

we are still going to get our refund, but with cancellation charges. And that was not a lot of money, so Susanna would have been fine with that. Plus the hotel that we had decided to stay in belonged to a relative of a friend so we were already getting discounted rates and I had spoken to him as well, and he had told me that usually, they don't really refund the rooms if they are not cancelled a week in advance, but for me, he could make an allowance for us. I had told Susanna about all of this before I had even suggested canceling the vacation because I didn't want her to worry about the money that we would be losing out on, but she didn't even bring that up, so I knew that this was not about the money. I had also mentioned certain sacrifices that I had made for the sake of her family in my original post, so I would just like to elaborate on that. A couple of years ago, I was supposed to attend my cousin's wedding and she and I were really close. We literally grew up together, but I decided to skip the wedding since my wife was flying out to see her family since her father had gallbladder surgery on the same day and she didn't even have to ask me to accompany her. I just went along because her family had treated me really well and I thought that.

it should be something I need to do not just for my wife, but also for her family. I don't think I was wrong to expect the same out of her. If I could skip my cousin's wedding to be with her for her dad's surgery, she could surely allow us to cancel our vacation and postpone the trip to some later date so I could be there for my mother who is pretty old and had just been in an accident. I have always been there for her family, and I have never even thought of myself as a great husband for doing that. I thought it was just my duty, but I'm guessing Susanna does not look at it the same way. I just think it's very unfair and there is also the fact that she doesn't really seem to be sorry about anything, she just apologized when she realized that she didn't have any other place to go

and living in a hotel would cost a lot of money. It's sad. Update 1, okay, so unfortunately, the comment section here was not very helpful. Most people were divided, some people even even took the liberty of calling me a mama's boy just like Susanna had and I would just like to defend myself on that point. If caring about your parents and trying to be there for them when they need you is something to be looked down upon, then I think that some people here need serious help. I had already made it clear in the beginning that it's not like my mother was some nightmare mother-in-law to Susanna, constantly trying to control her or something. I had mentioned that they have had a very good relationship in the past and my mom has always treated her like her own

daughter, so it was natural for me to expect both of us to want to be there for her. And yes, the accident was not a major one, but she was still quite shaken up after that. Let's not forget that my mother is in her late 60s and even an accident like this can take a really long time to heal because of her age. We have been able to find a full-time nurse and she has been there with my mom but for the two weeks that my wife was not here, I was visiting my mom every other day after work and I would stay with her until it was time for me to go back home. It was not for her sake as much as it was for mine because I already thought that I would

have a breakdown if I went back to that empty home and realized that Susanna was not there. Even then, my mother did not have a single bad thing to say about my wife and instead, she kept convincing me to try to talk to her and said that I should think about things from her perspective as well before coming to a conclusion. So you see, my mother is obviously not the villain here like you guys are so desperate to make her out to be. And whereas my mother was trying to get us to reconcile, Susanna could hardly be bothered to reach out to me or even my mom to ask her how she was doing. In her head, my mother was the reason I was fighting with her and her behavior apparently had nothing to do with

it so she was the one who started villainizing my mother for no reason, just because I wanted to cancel or postpone a vacation so I could be there for her. I think anybody in my situation would have decided to end this marriage because as important as Susanna is to me, I cannot take this kind of disrespect. Not to me and definitely not to my family and my feelings. So I have decided to go through with the divorce. And I have also made up my mind that I'm not going to allow her to come back into my house or my life. My feelings were none of her business when she was hurting me,

so I think it's fair enough for me to treat her the same way. I have spoken to my mother about this as well, and she has made me. mixed feelings about all of this. On the one hand, she's really grateful to me that she means so much to me because not a lot of people would have sacrificed to stay with their injured mother, but I did and she was grateful for that. Her nurse would have just taken care of her because it was her job, but me being there with her gave her a sense of emotional support and she wasn't sure if she would have been able to cope with her situation as well as she did if I had just taken off on my vacation without thinking about her and how alone she would have felt. If she was

able to walk and stuff, she would have just filled her time with going out on her own, visiting friends, and whatnot, but now that she had to stay confined to her bed, she would have been a lot more bored without me and she was happy that I had made this decision without even her having to ask me. On the other hand, she was really upset that this had so much drama between Susanna and me because that was really not her intention. She did not want to become a bone of contention between the two of us ever because she herself had not really been blessed with a good mother-in-law when she had been married to my dad and she wanted to be a better mother-in-law herself, but now she felt like she had failed at that.

I had to convince her that this had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Susanna because I'm pretty sure that even if I myself had been injured, she probably would have had the same reaction. This is not the first time that Susanna has been selfish in our relationship and I'm just beginning to see that now. There has always been a pattern and I hadn't even realized it until this incident took place and opened my eyes to everything. In the past also, there have been several instances of her being incredibly selfish and always expecting me to make all the sacrifices. As I had mentioned I had skipped my cousin's wedding to be there for her when her father was in surgery but just three weeks after that, when I asked her to visit my cousin with me so we could at least give her the wedding gifts in person. She refused to accompany me because she thought that since my cousin did not have an issue with us not attending, it was not necessary for her to go out of her way to visit her and I could just go on my own.

Then there was another incident just a couple of months ago when I had been thinking out loud and I had asked Susanna if she thought it would be a good idea for me to quit my job and start my own business by the end of this year. I had been thinking about it for a really long time, but this was the first time that I decided to say it out loud. Not only did she get mad at my suggestion, but she gave me the cold shoulder and acted very distantly for the next couple of days until I told her that this was just an idea that I was throwing around and I hadn't decided on anything just yet. But from her reaction, I had already judged that she did not think it was a good idea to quit my job and I decided to respect that. Even though she could have put it in a polite way, she chose to act like I had committed a sin

by even suggesting something like this. Her explanation for her behavior was that she has been working really hard as well and to think that I would even consider quitting my job and starting something of my own. Knowing the risk it carries was not something she was on board with and that's why she might have overreacted because she really wanted us to save money for our future so we could retire quickly. And that's why I decided to put off starting my own business because she wanted to save money.

But then, within a couple of weeks, she started telling me that she really wanted a vacation because she needed a break from work and then, when I reminded her that she herself had said that she didn't think it was a good idea for us to spend too much money, she started going on and on about how this was different. It might have been a totally different situation, but in the past, I can only think about me making sacrifices for the sake of our marriage. She always just makes demands and gets away with it,

and when she doesn't get her way, she still tries to put it on me and make me feel bad about everything. But I'm sorry, it can not. longer go on like this and I think I really need to put my foot down at this point. So I think I'm doing the right thing by getting divorced. She keeps texting me and sending me voice notes again and again and I haven't blocked her yet, but I have muted her notifications so that I'm not tempted to read what she sent and allow that to get to me. Because I'm still pretty vulnerable and I know that it'll be very easy for her to manipulate me so I don't even want to see her right

now. She has a couple of weeks to respond to the divorce petition, so let's see where that goes. Update 2. So Susanna finally responded to my petition today, after almost three weeks since my last update. She is not contesting the divorce, which is not surprising because she hasn't bothered to text me for the past two weeks. I checked. What is surprising is the fact that she has a lot of demands and I was not expecting that. Because all throughout our marriage, she has always insisted that she's a very independent woman, but I don't see the independence here right now. First and foremost, she is demanding a ridiculous amount as a settlement and she's also demanding alimony, which doesn't make sense to me because we have the same kind of income.

So I don't understand why she thinks she would be entitled to alimony. Along with that, she's also demanding that we sell the house and split the amount of money we get which is the most nonsensical part of her petition because I think I have mentioned in the past that the house belongs to me. Earlier, it used to belong to my uncle, but he left it to me and his will so I've been living here for a really long time since before I even met Susanna. She has absolutely no claims on this house and that's what really pissed me off because she knows about all of this. There are also a lot of other things, but this is majorly what annoyed me about her petition. I had half a mind to contact her and ask her what she was playing at, but my lawyer advised me against it because that would

probably just give her leverage against me. And she definitely desperately needs that right now because I have spoken to a lot of my friends about this and most of them are on my side here. I have also discussed the petition with my mother and she is very disappointed by how the situation with Susanna has turned out to be. Truth be told, I feel. feel the same way because, in the past, I would have said that she was selfish, but I never really thought that she was capable of being so greedy. I don't really want to use that term, but I think she's being a bit of a gold digger right now because I don't think it's fair for her to demand so much in her petition. It's not like I ever treated her badly and we could just end this marriage

without turning it into something ugly, but I don't think she's on board for that. Ultimately, we are going to have to fight it out in mediation and I'm just hoping that we are able to come to terms that are agreeable for both of us because this petition right now is not something that I agree with and I'm going to make sure that I don't have to do any of this because it's simply not fair. Update 3, hey, so I've been really busy for the past couple of months, which is why there have been no updates. But finally, I have a bit of free time right now, so I will fill you guys in real quick. The divorce proceedings are still ongoing, but the tide is in my favor, so it's all good. I have been able to get my soon-to-be ex-wife Susanna to agree to most of my terms and bring her on the same page, but she is still holding out on the house. That is not something that I'm worried about, to be honest. The house belongs to me, I decide what happens with it, and I think it will be resolved by the next session.

But for now, I'm just celebrating the fact that soon enough, I'm just celebrating the fact that soon enough, will be done with all of this. My mom is also a lot better now and can move around. I'm having a physiotherapist take a look at her and help her out every weekend with some light exercise so she can be back on her feet soon enough. And last month, I also quit my job and I will be starting my new business in a couple of weeks. It was in the works for quite some time because I needed something to keep me occupied during the initial stages of my divorce since I was pretty torn up about it. So I started working on my business model and I spoke to a couple of my friends who were interested and they came on board as partners. We also got our family members to invest and soon enough, we will be in business.

I'm really excited about it because I think it's the perfect time for a fresh start. Susanna and I have not spoken to each other in person since the mediation session started and we only talk to each other through our lawyers. Personally, I'm more than fine with it. She has tried to reach out several times, but I'm really not interested. At this point, I don't even care if what happened in the past was right or wrong or whatever, I just want to move on with my life now. I have a business in the works, my family is there for me and so are my friends and that's really all that one needs to be happy in life.

Of course, I do wish that there was some way that things could have worked out with Susanna since I really did love her and I guess I still do somewhere deep down but love is obviously not enough to make a marriage work. It takes hard work and sacrifice, and it can't be just a one-way street. But I have made my peace with the situation now and from this point onwards, I'm just going to think about the future and not live in the past anymore. I hope you enjoy this story. Abandoned my desired university to assist Father's Enterprise following his assurance it would become mine. However, he He ultimately bestowed it upon my sibling and labeled me a failure. Presently, they're bankrupt and begging for help.

When I, 27F, was 18, I got accepted into my dream college. It was something I worked so hard for. It wasn't just any school either. This was a school with one of the best programs in the country for what I wanted to do. I had worked really hard for that acceptance. I worked hard to balance my grades with extracurriculars, and honestly, I was over the moon about it. It felt like all my hard work was finally paying off,

and I could see my future unfolding in front of me. But right before I was about to accept my offer, my dad sat me down for a serious talk. He had started a small business a few years back, and while it wasn't failing, it was definitely struggling. He was overwhelmed, working long hours, and couldn't keep up with the growth he was trying to push for.

I knew he had been putting in long hours to try to keep it afloat. He told me he was in over his head and couldn't manage things on his own anymore. He said that if I stayed and helped him grow the business, it would be mine one day. It would be our legacy and it would be something I could eventually pass on to my own kids. He made it sound like this incredible opportunity, but I was torn between two opportunities. On the one hand, I had my whole future planned out with college, internships, and eventually a dream job in my chosen field. On the other hand, I couldn't shake the guilt.

This was my dad, someone who had always provided for me, and he needed me. Plus, the idea of owning a business one day did sound appealing. I thought maybe I could help him out for a while, learn the ropes, and eventually take it over like he promised. I thought about it for days. It wasn't an easy decision, but in the end, I turned down my college acceptance. It wasn't because I didn't want to go, but because I didn't want to go, but because I was a I genuinely believed I could help the business grow, and maybe, just maybe, build something

bigger for my future than a degree could offer. I wasn't giving up on my dreams. I was just taking a different path, or at least that's what I told myself. For the next eight years, I put everything into that business. The first few years were hard, but the business eventually started to grow. I worked my butt off, I'm talking long hours, weekends, the whole nine yards. I pretty much sacrificed my entire social life because I was convinced that this business was going to be my future. Eventually, I wasn't just an employee, but I was basically running the place

alongside my dad. Slowly but surely, the business started to grow. We gained more clients, made more money, and things were looking good. It felt rewarding to see the fruits of my labor, and I thought that all my hard work was going to pay off. I was so invested because I believed this was going to be my future. My dad kept reminding me that one day, this company would be mine. All of that made me feel for the longest time that I had made the right decision to stay with my dad and the business. Then, about two years ago, out of nowhere, my younger brother, will call him James, 24M, decided that he didn't like his current career in tech anymore. He had been doing pretty well for himself, but he claimed it wasn't fulfilling and that he wanted to join the family

business. He had always been the golden child. My parents couldn't stop ranting and raving about how smart and talented he was, even when he barely lifted a finger. So when he announced that tech wasn't fulfilling for him anymore and that he wanted to join the family business, I should have seen trouble coming. But at first, I thought it might not be so bad. I mean, we were both adults at this point and whatever happened in the past was behind us. I even thought that maybe with both of us working together, the business would succeed even more. Well, I was dead wrong. The second James stepped into the business, my dad started treating him like he was the second coming of Steve Jobs. Suddenly, all of my ideas and contributions were ignored, and everything

James suggested was somehow brilliant even if it was stuff I had been doing for years. My dad started giving him more responsibilities and credit for things I had been working on. It was like I didn't exist anymore. And it hurt. After everything I'd done to help build this company, I was being sidelined. It all came to a head when my dad called me into his office one day. He told me that I should step aside to give James the spotlight because he had the vision to take the business to the next level.

I was flabbergasted. I had given up college, my friends, and my entire young adult life for this business, and now I was being asked to step aside like I was nothing. I refused, of course, but my dad made it clear that he didn't want me involved anymore. He said I should pursue something else and even had the nerve to say he regretted giving a chance to a loser like me. So, just like that, I was out. I didn't get any warning or a single apology from my dad.

I was just kicked out of the business I had helped build from the ground up. I was devastated, but I knew that I had no choice of my dad. other than to move on. I left my parents' house, found a tiny apartment, and started looking for a job. But after years of running a business, I realized I didn't want to work for someone else. So I started my own consulting firm. It was tough at first, but I stuck with it. I used everything I had learned over the years to help small businesses grow and succeed. A year later, my firm took off. I landed a few big clients, and soon, I was making more money than I ever had working for my dad. The business started getting attention in the local media and over social media because I also

expanded into that field. Anyway, one day, I was featured in a local newspaper as one of the rising stars in the industry. It felt amazing to finally get some recognition for my hard work. And wouldn't you know it, my dad reached out to me after that. After a year of not speaking to me at all, he suddenly called me up. He was all apologetic and sweet. He said he had made a mistake and that he was proud of me. He told me that he had seen the article about my success. I didn't really know what to say to him, but I awkwardly thanked him. He tried to continue making small talk, but I knew that he only called me because he needed

something. So I asked him point blank what he wanted. He tried to say, that it was nothing at first, but eventually, he told me that James was struggling with the business. Apparently, he wasn't as much of a genius as my dad thought. Wow. Shocker. My dad then asked if I could come back and help him out. Or, at the very least, share some of my success with my brother. To say I was furious would be the biggest understatement of the century. After everything they put me through, I can't believe that they had the nerve to ask for my help now. The same brother who took my place, the same dad who kicked me out, now wanted me to save their sinking ship. I told him that I had built my own success from scratch after he threw me away, and there was

no way I was going to share it with anyone, especially not James. I told him clearly that I was not going to help him fix the mess he made. I didn't owe him or James anything, and I certainly wasn't going to bail them out after how they treated me. It's been a few days since that conversation with my dad and honestly, I don't know if I'm being petty. I've been thinking it over and now I'm beginning to feel bad about the way I spoke to my dad. Part of me feels like I should just let it go, but I can't shake the anger I feel about how they treated me. So, I'd offer refusing to help them after what they did to me. Update 1. Hey everyone. Thanks so much for all the support and advice in the I didn't expect this to blow up the way it did, but I figured I owe you all an update.

A lot of people asked me about the work I actually did for my dad's business, so I'll start there and then get into what happened recently. So, when I started working for my dad, the business was pretty outdated. They didn't even have a proper website or any online presence. Not to mention, a lot of things were being done manually. One of the first things I did was revamp the company's entire digital presence. I built a new website from scratch, set up social media accounts, and even worked on online ads, which brought in a lot more customers.

I also helped optimize the supply chain, negotiated better deals with suppliers, and found ways to cut costs without sacrificing quality. On top of that, I developed some key partnerships with other local businesses, which really boosted our revenue. But, despite all that, my dad never really gave me any credit. He always treated me like an assistant. In his head, it was like I was just helping out with small tasks and not the person who was actually driving the company's growth. Even when we saw a significant increase in profits, he'd act like it was just a stroke of good luck or timing, and would never think or act like it was because of everything I did. It was frustrating, but I put up with it because

I believe that someday the business would be mine, like he promised. There were also a lot of questions about my brother, James. To put it simply, he's always been the golden child in our family. He never really had any clear direction in life. He always tried a bit of everything but never stuck with anything. He barely did any work and for some reason, my parents still praised him to the heavens and back. My brother obviously basked in all their praise and essentially would do everything he could to rub it in my face. He would bully me a lot as a child, and then convince our parents that I was the one in the wrong. Typical sibling stuff. Except, he never grew out of it. When he joined the company, he essentially acted like he was the boss. He'd convince my dad that whatever I was saying

was wrong and then he'd pitch the exact same thing I said, and my dad would love it. Yeah, he's that kind of guy. Anyway, we haven't really had the best relationship. and I'm actually comfortable with that now because of everything that's happened. After the last conversation I had with my dad, he wouldn't stop calling. He kept asking to meet up. He said that it was important and that we needed to talk. I ignored him for a while, but eventually, my curiosity got the best of me. A lot of you pointed out in the comments that it would probably be best that I kept my distance

from my dad and my brother but I needed to know what my dad wanted. Part of me wanted to see if he had realized how wrong he was. I thought he'd maybe admit at least partially that he was wrong, but I wasn't expecting a full apology or anything. I agreed to meet up with my dad. When I got to the diner we were meeting at, I wasn't happy to see James there too. I thought it would just be my dad and me,

but apparently, my brother decided to tag along. Right off the bat, the meeting was tense. My dad didn't waste any time downplaying my dad. my success. He basically said that I got lucky with my business and that I should be grateful because, without him, I wouldn't have the skills to succeed. He also threw in that I owed the family because I learned everything from working with him. That was infuriating to hear, especially after everything I did to help grow his business while getting zero credit. I told him that and that only made my dad more frustrated than usual. My dad and I went back and forth for a while

because I noticed that James started panicking. He admitted that he's been struggling since I left, which, I mean, yeah, I knew that. That was the reason we'd even met up that day. He told me that he had no idea how to run a business, and apparently, things have gotten really bad. Just when I thought that at least my brother had some decency, he began blaming me for abandoning them. He said that if I hadn't left, none of this would be happening.

Classic. I pretty much scoffed at him and told him to be real with me for a second. The only reason I even left the company was because our dad decided that James was better than me. Dad told me himself that I was a loser and that he regretted letting me handle the business. I had absolutely no blame on me at all. That's when James revealed that the business was on the verge of bankruptcy. My jaw dropped. When I left, the business was thriving, and it's only been a year.

I couldn't believe it had gotten that bad so fast. James explained that our dad had been hiding the true financial records from him. Turns out, the business started failing right after my brother joined the company. My dad was covering it up the whole time because he hoped that things would magically turn around. Obviously, they didn't. They're deep in debt now, and the business is barely staying afloat. Apparently, a lot of deals I set up had either fallen apart or weren't renewed because my brother didn't know how to maintain them. They lost suppliers and business partners, and customers

started dropping off when the quality dipped. It was just a disaster all around. The meeting ended with them practically begging me to come back. Not to run the business, mind you, but to help my brother so he could stay in charge. I think all I'm ever going to feel around them now is flabbergast. After everything that happened, did they seriously expect me to swoop in, save the day, and let my brother take the credit again? I told them I'd think about it, but honestly, I don't see how I could ever go back. I'm really torn because part of me feels bad for my dad and the mess they're in, but at the same time, I know I'd just be walking into the same toxic situation all over again. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks again for the advice and for sticking with me through this. It helps more than you know. Update 2, it's been two weeks since my last post, and honestly, things just keep getting worse. Yesterday, I decided to reach out to my dad, not because I changed my mind about helping him, but because I wanted to see the financial records of the business. Something about this whole situation wasn't sitting right with me. If my brother really messed up the company, I needed to know how bad things were. I was still on the fence about helping them out because I had spent eight years of my life, pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into growing the company.

That company was my baby, and the fact they ruined it so fast made my heartbreak. I wanted to know that if I made the decision to help them out, the company was salvageable. I figured the least I could do was check the records to confirm everything. Maybe it could also give me some closure. But when I actually saw the records, I think my eyes popped out of my skull and shock. At first, things looked normal payroll, vendor-pillar. payments and regular expenses. But as I kept digging, I noticed a ton of strange transactions. These weren't just the occasional extra charge either. There were recurring purchases that had

absolutely nothing to do with the business. And they were all marked as business expenses. I'm talking about expensive personal shopping, luxury hotel stays, high-end electronics, and fancy dinners that didn't include any clients. It wasn't a case of someone accidentally mixing up personal and business accounts either. These charges were there so frequently that it was obvious that this was intentional. Whoever did it was burning through the company's money like it was their personal piggy bank. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my dad would blow through company money that way. My dad had always been ridiculously strict about finances, and spending company money like this just wasn't something he would ever do. He's been running the business for years

without a single issue. And then it hit me. It wasn't dad but it was his favorite child, and now the CEO of the business James. I immediately called James and asked if he was spending company money on personal expenses. I expected him to show at least a little regret or embarrassment. But instead, he admitted that he was the one spending business money for fun without any hesitation. He even told me that he wasn't sorry about it. According to him, I got to a enjoy eight years worth of luxury because of my work at the company, and now it was his turn to enjoy that. I couldn't believe that he thought that I was sitting in the lap of luxury while working on my dad's business when in reality I was sleeping maybe four hours max a day.

After that phone call, I went straight to my dad to tell him what I found out. I laid everything out every unnecessary purchase, every sketchy transaction and told him that James was the one behind it all. I thought he'd be shocked or at least angry at my brother for jeopardized. the business. But considering James as my dad's favorite child who can do no wrong, should not have expected him to react that way. Instead of being upset, my dad defended my brother. He told me that my brother was only acting out because he was stressed after I left the company. Apparently, my brother had been under so much pressure to manage things on his own, that spending the money was his way of coping with everything. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My dad was trying to justify

my brother's reckless spending by blaming me for leaving. I tried and I mean, really tried to keep my emotions in check. I calmly explained to my dad that what he was saying didn't make any sense. I told him that the stress my brother felt didn't justify him blowing through the business's finances and putting the company at stake. But the more I talked, the angrier my dad got. He kept insisting that I just didn't understand and that I was being too hard on my brother. At that point, I realized there was no getting through to him. No matter what I said, my dad was determined to see me as the problem and my brother as the victim. Talking to him was like talking to a brick wall. So, I left. But things didn't end there. This morning, I woke up to a flood of notifications on my phone.

They were all texts, emails, and DMs from clients and friends. Most of them were asking me if what they saw in the news was true. I had no idea what they were. were talking about, so I went online and found out that my dad went to the local news station and did an interview. In the interview, he dragged my name through the mud. He said that I abandoned the family business when it needed me the most. He made it sound like I was some selfish, spoiled brat who left them in the dust without a second thought. He blamed me for every issue the company was facing. He conveniently left out the part where he favored my brother's work over mine, gave him the business that he promised me, and James spent company money on things that had nothing

to do with business, leading to the business's downfall. I can't even describe how I feel right now. I'm hurt, I'm angry, and, honestly, I'm just, lost. I thought I'd reached a point where I was okay with everything that happened to me. But, my dad going to the press to slam me like that? It's a whole new level of humiliation and betrayal. And now I don't know what to do. I've worked so hard to build a good reputation, and this interview has put all of that at risk. I keep thinking about how many clients will believe what my dad said and whether this will hurt my business moving forward. I've always been proud of what I've built, and the idea that it could all come crashing down because of my own family makes me feel sick. I know I can't control what other people believe, but that doesn't make this any easier to deal with.

I feel stuck. part of me wants to fight back and set the record straight, but another part of me wonders if it's even worth it. All it will become is drama for people to tune into, and that will not help my reputation at all. I don't know where to go from here, but I know one thing for sure I can't keep letting my family pull me down. I've come too far to let them ruin everything I've built. I could really use some advice on what to do here, so feel free to give me your wildest and most creative ideas to set things straight. Thanks for reading if you made it this far and I'll be sure to update you whenever this is sorted out. Update 3, hey everyone, it's been about seven months

since my last update and wow, a lot has happened since then. First off, I just want to thank everyone who commented on my previous posts. I read through every single suggestion and honestly, some of them had me laughing out loud. You all really helped make a dark time a lot lighter and I I appreciate it more than I can say. Now on to the update. After reading through the comments, I took some of your advice to heart and decided to consult a lawyer. I figured it was time to get serious about what was happening, especially after everything my dad had done with that interview. The lawyer told me I had a pretty solid case if I wanted to sue my dad for defamation and slander. He was dragging my name through the mud publicly, and it was impacting my reputation and business.

At first, the idea of suing my own dad felt, I don't know, wrong. I really struggled with it for days. I didn't want to take legal action against my own father. I mean, yeah, he betrayed me on more than one occasion, but, did that really make it okay for me to sue him? But eventually, I came up with an idea that I thought would be a good compromise. So I reached out to my dad and asked him to meet up. I didn't tell him what it was about.

I just wanted to get him there so we could talk. When we met, I didn't let him get a word in. I told him that I only asked him to meet me because he had a choice to make. I gave him two options, either I sue him for defamation and slander, or he signs the business over to me, no strings attached, and he and my brother have nothing more to do with it. I told him that because he kept blaming me for ruining his business, this was his chance to prove it.

He could either let me have it and see if I truly ruin it, or deal with a lawsuit and actually end his company. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. He was silent for a few seconds before he threw a huge fit. He started yelling about how I was being unreasonable and how I was trying to steal his business. But I stayed calm and serious the whole time. I told him I'd give him three days to make a decision,

and if I didn't hear from him, I'd go ahead with the lawsuit. I walked out after that because I didn't want to deal with him yelling at me anymore. Three days later, he called me and said he'd sign over the business. He wasn't happy about it at all. In fact, he made it very clear that he didn't want to give it to me, but I guess he realized he didn't have much of a choice. My brother, on the other hand, completely lost it when he found out. He threw a huge tantrum and accused me of stealing his company.

But honestly, at that point, I didn't care anymore. They'd both made their choices and now they had to live with them. The past few months have been hectic, to say the least. Managing my dad's old business while also running my own consulting firm has been a lot to handle, but I've been doing okay. It's been hard, especially with the bad press and all the damage my brother did, but I'm seeing slow improvements. I've been fixing the messes they left behind and rebuilding relationships with clients. While it's not an overnight success, things are moving in the right direction. Oh, and guess what? The same local news station that my dad went to for that awful interview reached out to me

for my side of the story. I decided to take the high road. In the interview, I didn't reveal too much or throw my dad under the bus. I just said that I was in a rough place and wasn't contributing much to the company. So I thought it would be best to leave my dad's firm. However, seeing my dad's interview made me realize that I needed to go back so I took over the business because I felt terrible for my dad and wanted to help. It actually ended up working in my favor.

People started seeing me as the bigger person, and it actually gave the business a much-needed boost in image. As for my dad and brother, I haven't spoken to either of them since that whole ordeal. They've completely cut me off. They've blocked me on everything and refused to respond to anything I send them. It stings, I won't lie. It hurts to know that they won't admit they were wrong and that they'd rather push me out of their lives than face reality. But at the same time, I feel weirdly relieved. I'm so glad that I don't

have to deal with their drama anymore, and honestly, it feels like karma finally came back around for them. And, I guess, that's it. It's been a tough journey, but I'm proud of how far I've come. The business is slowly getting back on its feet, and my consulting firm is thriving. I've got my hands full, but at least I'm in control of my own life now. Thanks again to everyone who gave advice and supported me through all of this. You guys helped more than you'll ever know and I'll forever be grateful to you. I hope you enjoy this story. Partner played a trick on me by having a female companion sitting on him during my special day,

leaving me devastated and conflicted about the next steps. As a 27-year-old man, I encountered my likely future former significant other. boyfriend Alex, 29M, two years ago through a mutual friend of ours. I never expected he'd be interested in me because, when I first met him, he had only been with women. He came out as bisexual to me and our friends not too long after that, and that same night, he hinted that he was into me. We got to know each other more and it eventually turned into the two of us dating. He's genuinely a sweet and awesome guy, quite introverted, but has a big heart and a real geek about the things he likes. I thought he'd be the one I would be

marrying and all that, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen anymore. Last Monday was my birthday, and I went home early from work so that Alex and I can go out and enjoy ourselves. I told him earlier that day that I would go home early. When I opened the door, I was greeted by him laying on our couch, while the woman I didn't know was on top of him. They were fully clothed by the way. I was basically paralyzed and couldn't react at all. He eventually saw me and had a surprised look on his face, but he also looked like he was trying to hold his laugh in. The woman also looked like she was about to laugh as well. I also started to hear chatter from the kitchen and in our bedroom. Alex then shouted you guys can come out. And so our friends

came out of our bedroom and kitchen, holding gifts, party poppers, and a cake. I guessed them shouting it's a prank. Happy birthday. While turning the party poppers on snapped me back to reality because after they said that, I just quietly turned around and left. I didn't see their reactions when I did that, but I could hear them saying, oh shit and wait. And some other things I can't remember. When I heard them try to follow me, I hastened my pace until I reached my car and drove away.

While driving, my phone started to get bombarded by texts, calls, and messages from my boyfriend and our friends. When it got too distracting, I just turned off my phone and went to a hotel that's far enough from my place. By the time I got to my hotel room, I just started sobbing on the floor. I think I blacked out from crying because when I woke up, it was already sunny outside. I made sure to tell my team leader first that I would be absent for a few days. due to an emergency, and she was kind enough to accept my request. She probably noticed something was off with me because I was sniffling and my voice sounded weak. Right now, I plan on telling my aunt who lives near my area about what happened and asking

if I could live with her for a couple of days until I sort out my mind and know what I have to do next. I'm deeply heartbroken because I've told my BF and my friends before how I felt about cheating and how it essentially ruined my family growing up in my young mind back then, my mom cheated on my dad and it broke our family, and I got cheated on by my first boyfriend. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like I overreacted and that I should have just went with it all. I still don't plan on opening my phone, so I'm using my laptop right now to type this. I don't know how to face and respond to them all after all that has happened. Maybe some time away from them will help, I hope.

Update. Hi there. I'm sorry it took me a while to post an update. I've been busy and I also got back to working two days ago so I don't really have that much free time on me anymore. But before I get started with the actual update, I would like to thank everyone who has given me their advices and wisdom, along with those who wished me well and a belated happy birthday. You folks really made me feel happy even after all that has happened. I never thought Internet strangers could be so kind, LOL. Normally, I confide with my friends whenever I had a problem,

but since they somehow became part of that problem, I thought maybe going here would be a good idea, and I guess it was. Truly, thank you to all of you. Although, even if almost all of you had nothing but great advice and nice things to say, there were some who were skeptical or were even harsh, specifically in the way I just ghosted my boyfriend and everyone at that surprise party. Truth be told, I could have done something more mature as some would say, but really, in that moment, all I could think was remove myself from that situation because I wouldn't know what I would do if I fell back to my old self. Also, sorry for any typos, I wrote this all on my phone.

If you want to go directly to the update, just scroll past this upcoming. wall of text. For context, I found out my mom was cheating on my dad at 14 years old. I got home from school early and found that the house was empty. I went upstairs to go to my room, but as I got nearer to my parents' room, I heard these faint sounds of sex, and it didn't help that the door to the room was slightly opened. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to take a peek inside, and there she was, my own mom cheating on my dad with his co-worker. I felt like I was going to be sick, like it was some sort of nightmare. I froze there for a few seconds before my dad's coworker noticed me

and immediately alerted my mom that I was watching them. When my mom finally realized what happened, she started calling me out and tried to follow me, but I got to run to my room and locked it before she could catch me. My mom was frantically calling out my name and knocking hard on the, the door, but all I could do was cry. The realization that the person I was calling my mom wasn't the person I thought she was hit me like a ton of bricks because I used to adore my mom. She was always around while my dad was working full-time, which made me resent my dad because he was never around. I remember hiding in my bed sheets and eventually falling asleep. I was woken up by

my dad knocking on my door and calling me to come out. I had to comply, of course, and when I opened my door, my father was standing in front of me, with my mom behind him. He gave me a tight hug and asked me about the guys who bullied me while I was walking home from school, and I was confused when he mentioned that. But then I saw my mom looking mad at me and basically telling me through her face that I should go along with it. As much as I hated it, I went along with it because I didn't want to hurt my dad. Since then, I've decided to fully ignore my mom unless it was for a chore or something important, and when I moved out at 18, I made sure to go and see on her and only talk to her when my dad wanted me to. My mom and dad eventually divorced after I moved out.

Turns out, he always knew but didn't want to do anything about it until I moved out because he didn't want me to live in a household riddled with arguments and stress brought upon by divorcing couples. It didn't really work, but I appreciate my dad for still looking out after me even if he was hurting. Then, when I was 19, I got into my first ever relationship. We had a pretty nice start and we were each other's firsts. But, when I found out he was cheating on me, things got really ugly. I know this is not an excuse, but I was young and didn't know how to handle that information when I got it, and knowing how much I hated cheating, I basically went crazy on him and turned to destroying his stuff, deleting all copies of his thesis. And even went

as far as doing this insane Facebook rant where I exposed his cheating and posted picks of him and the guy he was cheating me with, and even mentioned his mom and dad in a post and outing him without his consent. I deleted the post just two days after, but the damage has already been done and my ex ended up moving away and living in another area because of my post. Obviously, I am thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed of what I've done, and I still regret doing all of that. When my aunt found out about what I did, she gave me a pretty stern scolding and insisted that I had to get checked by a psychiatrist because what I did isn't normal, and it's not, and I got diagnosed with severe depression and the doctor also said I had

some unresolved trauma, which confused my aunt. But after telling her what happened six years ago, she fully understood why and gave me a tight hug and cried after spilling everything to her. She felt bad because she wasn't able to do anything to help me before and now is extremely mad at her sister, my mom, for doing all of that to me. Ever since then, my aunt has helped me get the therapy in meds that I needed, and essentially turned into my mother figure. My ex and I don't talk much these days, but we have made amends and are on good terms now. Now that all of this stuff from my past has been finally laid out, for those wondering why I

did what I did, here's the actual update. After I submitted my original post, I packed my things that night and prepared to go to my aunt's house, which wasn't that far but still a bit of a drive nonetheless. When I finally got there, she was incredibly welcoming and I thanked her for allowing me to stay in her house even just for a while. She gave me a tight hug and told me I was always welcome and that she will be there to help me when I need her too. She eventually lead me to the spare bedroom that they have in their house and help me unpack my stuff. She is honestly such an incredible woman and I love her so much, she's basically the mom I've always wanted. Once I was done unpacking, I was again confronted by the fact that I haven't opened my phone for quite some time now. I've avoided it for so long that I didn't think I could open it again, but I knew I had to.

The moment my phone booted up, hundreds upon hundreds of texts, chats, and missed calls popped up on my screen. Even if I was still hesitant, I decided to open my chats and looked at our friend groups group chat the chats from the start were all very frantic in nature, with my friends asking about where I was or what happened. But after scrolling down a few more times, the chats turned into them apologizing that the prank happened and that it was not on the plan at all. One of my friends even blamed the girl that was on top of Alex, my BF, and thought she was untrustworthy. Finally, the chats ended up being them hoping they could contact me and wishing I was safe. I guess they knew I just read their chats because as soon as I was done back reading, my friends immediately knew I was online and asked how I was doing and where I was. They also started apologizing again for not being able to stop the prank from happening and that they didn't know that was going to happen and that they didn't know that was going to happen and thought the original prank was going to be something else.

At this point, I was thoroughly confused because they seemed happy enough to be there during that night, but I knew I had to apologize to them first for ghosting them and asking their side of the story first before speaking about what had happened. Essentially, they were simply planning a surprise birthday party for me with Alex in a group chat that didn't include me. Then, my BF added a few more people into the group chat, saying that they were college friends of his and he wanted them to be a part of the surprise party too since they also wanted to meet and get to know me better. As a suggestion, one of my boyfriend's college friends pitched

the idea of them pranking me. The plan was my BF is going to be on the couch with a serial killer holding a bloody knife and fake stabbing my BF while the killer was on top of him and while my BF is bleeding everywhere. My BF's college friends thought it would be funny to see my reaction, although my friends were initially skeptical. They reassured them that it would be harmless fun and that once my BF and a friend who'll be acting as the killer got their desired reaction on camera. They can just tell me that it was all a prank and my friends

and my BF's other college friends would come out and surprise me with their gifts and stuff. My friends eventually agreed so as long as they don't drag out the prank and immediately reveal everything once they captured my reaction on camera. The day of my birthday comes and everything they planned seems to be going smoothly with them waiting for me. My BF's college friends ushered everyone to hide while they set up the prank, and when it was done, they would hide too. When they finally heard my BF say they can come out, they thought the prank was a success because I looked absolutely mortified. But they knew something was up when even after the prank was revealed, I was still looking shocked and almost teary-eyed even, until I finally turned around.

around and left. They were understandably shook and confused, thinking the serial killer prank was too much, but knowing me, I wouldn't have minded it at all since I love scary movies and an avid horror enjoyer. That was then they realized that my BF's female college friend was on top of my BF, not wearing any serial killer costume and not holding any fake bloody knife. They then saw my BF pushing his female college friend away from him chasing after me. Some of them also tried to follow me, while some were asking what happened to the original plan. Even my BF's other college friends were wondering why their female friend wasn't in costume, but she was just silent.

After a few minutes, my BF came back to our apartment looking distraught and crying. He then tells everyone that they should all go and proceeds to go to our bedroom. They wanted to ask him what happened, but he shut the door before they could. His female college friend then followed him inside which really weirded them out, but after a while, they hear my BF shouting at her, telling her to fuck off. She then goes out the door on the verge of tears and leaves the apartment. They said everything happened so fast that they didn't know how to process all that has happened. Not too long after that though, they realized that I was missing and started calling and texting me, but I didn't respond to any of them. Eventually, I was unreachable, I turned off my phone and decided they should just go home and wait for me to respond.

My BF's college friends apologized profusely to what has happened and didn't mean for any of this to happen, but they basically just ignored them. They then followed their retelling of their side with videos that they've recoded that prove their accounts, along with an apology in wishing that I was doing well. After my friends told me what happened on their point of view, I felt really terrible and apologized again for ghosting them and telling them that everything that happened was none of their fault. I told them that I would make it up to them soon, but they reassured me that they accept my apology and are just happy that I'm alive and well. They also pitched to have a late birthday celebration with me this weekend, and my BF and his friends aren't included this time. I, of course, happily agreed and thanked them for being such great friends and that I really couldn't thank them enough for being such an awesome bunch of people. The morning of the next day, my aunt knocks on my door and wakes me up, telling me that I

have a visitor downstairs. She looked a bit mad, so I can already tell who it was. It was my B.F. Alex, carrying this beautiful bouquet of flowers and my favorite chocolates with him. Even if he looked amazing, his face was the complete opposite. because he looked like he was crying for days. I asked him how he found out about where I was and told me that once I turned on my phone again, an app on my phone that we both have notified him of my whereabouts. It's basically an app that allows you and your trusted friends to share your locations

in real time as long as you have an internet connection and your locations is on. I was a bit frustrated that he actually came here to my aunt's house, but nevertheless, he was already there, so might as well just hear him out on what he had. to say. He basically reiterated what my friends told me, but he added in some more details that my friends didn't know about. Apparently, his old college friends reconnected with him after he lost touch with them after they graduated. They found his Facebook account through some searching and wanted to ask him about his life after all these years. They were especially happy when he told them that he currently has a boyfriend because they secretly knew he was bisexual but

didn't want to make assumptions or make him feel weird about it. Alex eventually tells them about me, and he mentions that him and our friends are planning a secret birthday surprise for me and they immediately wanted to be a part of it. After they were added to the group chat, they started suggesting ideas on how to make the surprise much more fun, until their female friend, will call her Anna, suggested that they do a prank to surprise me. Alex's college friends were immediately on board because they saw TikTok's events of it and they thought it was really funny, but my friends were obviously skeptical.

Eventually, they agreed what the prank is going to be and that the prank wouldn't take too long. Anna volunteered to be the serial killer since it was her idea, and they all went and did their parts of the surprise so that everything would be ready when my birthday comes. The day of the surprise party comes, and everyone prepares for my arrival. When Anna and Alex went into their assigned positions for the prank, he wondered why she still wasn't in her costume and that her props was missing, but all she could reply was that she forgot. Alex offers to find the costume and props, but Anna insists that there's no more time and that I was going to arrive soon. Alex at this point was extremely uncomfortable and

wanted to get out of their position, but before he could do it, I've already opened the door and saw them. He admits that he fucked up by laughing a bit at my reaction because it was exactly the reaction he thought I was going to make but immediately realized what it looked like and called everyone to come out to save himself from the embarrassment and give context to what I was seeing. When he realized that that didn't work, he forcefully pushed Anna away to chase after me, but he wasn't able to keep up once I got into my car. It then sunk into him that he fucked up big time and that when I drove away, that's when he remembered my trauma about cheating, which made him cry while returning to our apartment. He tells everyone to leave. He tells everyone to leave.

and retreats to our bedroom, not really knowing what to do. To his shock, Anna comes inside our room unannounced and starts comforting Alex. He repeatedly tells her to leave and that he'll be fine, but what really set him off was Anna asking him, so does that mean you're single now? That's when he realized she did it on purpose. Alex then shouts at her and angrily asks her to leave, which she then complies to after looking like she just embarrassed herself. Alex is in tears, at this point, and he tells me that he wishes he just didn't agree with the prank. He's cut off contact with his college friends for now and is incredibly sorry about what happened. He then starts hugging me really tightly and says that he loves me so much and that he's scared

of losing me. His words alone also made me cry because even after everything, I still love him deeply and I do believe everything he said. After a minute or two of us hugging and crying, he lets go of me and tells me that we should back together to our apartment, but that if I still need time and space, he'll gladly give it to me. I gave him a kiss and then respond to him with me asking him to help me pack my stuff. Of course, I gave my aunt the warmest of hugs and told her how much I appreciated her for helping me. She was happy things got resolved, but also jokingly threatened my boyfriend that if he did something stupid or hurtful to me again, she'll personally whisk me away to safety and away from him. My boyfriend laughed, but I think he was just hiding his

nervousness. Now, I'm back in our apartment, and Alex even offered to throw away the couch that was used for the prank, but I declined since it's a pretty nice couch and everything that has happened was something no one wanted, aside Anna probably. I've already made amends with my boyfriend and we've both forgiven each other, and my friends are happy that things worked out in the end. Alex is probably now invited to the weekend party but I've yet to ask them, ha ha. Don't worry, I'm also going to get in touch with my therapist soon and book new appointments with her per the suggestion of my aunt. This has all taken a toll on me, but I'm glad to have the support of my BF, my friends, and everyone who has read my post and shared their support to me. Also, I realize that this update is probably not what most of you wanted to happen, and as much as I was close to just giving it all,

up, I never had a reason to in the end and I'm glad I got to hear their sides out before making any huge decisions that I might end up regret later. And I do trust my BF and my friends since they all sounded sincere and they did have proofs to back them up. I think this is going to be my last update since everything seems to have been resolved at this point, but I'll try to make an update if ever something happens, but I hope that's not going to be the case. Once again, thank you everyone less than three. I hope you enjoy this story. Arranged a spontaneous outing for my spouse, but noticed an unfamiliar vehicle parked in front

of our residence. I discreetly captured evidence of her infidelity. A few weeks back, I made up my mind to provide a pleasant shock. My wife with a kid-free night out. My parents live about an hour and a half away from us and I arranged for the kids to stay with them for the weekend. Usually, when I go to my parents I'm gone until later in the evening. We spend all day there and leave around dinner time.

This time, I was dropping the kids off and immediately going home so I could surprise my wife and we could go out as soon as possible. I had made reservations at a nice restaurant and was hoping to go to a few places for some drinks first. I left at 8.30 and was back in our housing plan before 12.30. As I pulled onto my street, I saw a truck parked in front of my house. I did not recognize it. I assumed it was someone seeing the neighbors, though, because it's not that unusual for someone to park in front of our house.

I parked a few houses away thinking I would sneak into the house and surprise my wife instead of pulling in the driveway and going in the garage. I went in through a basement door. I was as quiet as possible, but as soon as I walked and I heard her making sounds from the floor above. When I first heard it, I thought she was just by herself, maybe having some personal time. I didn't want to interrupt her privacy and embarrass her so I was going to go back to my car and just go in the garage so she would know I was home. Then I heard a man's voice. I immediately

felt sick. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. It is hard to describe how I felt in this moment. I decided to go upstairs. I had no desire to confront them, I just wanted to see what was going on. I moved slowly and quietly and went up the stage. stairs. The door was halfway open. The kitchen was empty, but I could tell they were in the living room. It was obvious what was going on at this point by the sounds. There was no way for me to look in the living room without them seeing me. I pulled out my phone and opened my camera app. I put my phone just around the corner of a wall. This part is so hard to write. I could see my wife with a man I didn't recognize. I won't go into detail on what they were doing, but I think

you can figure it out. I started recording it. I was thinking that I needed a record of it for whatever I decided to do in the future. I just stood there in my kitchen, watching this all unfold on my phone screen. I felt like I could just scream at any moment, but for some reason I just froze completely. This went on for several minutes. She finally jumped off of him and made a comment about going to the bedroom and they went upstairs. She even made a comment about how much time they had left. I walked into the living room and found the guy's pants. I took his wallet out and took pictures of his driver's license. I know his name and his address now. I've never met him. I have no idea how my wife knows him. I left the house the same way I entered.

I went back to my car and cried like the pathetic man I am. I decided to be a lot of the pathetic man I am. I decided to watch the video to make sure it recorded. I watched it all. I'll spare the details but I sat in my car for at least half an hour. I couldn't drive to my parents and get the kids as I would have to explain why. I decided that I would pull in the driveway, open the garage, and just pretend like I was there to surprise her. I took my time getting into the house. I made a lot of noise.

When I saw her she was very flustered asking me why I was home. as she was in a robe and said she was just getting ready for a bath. I told her about my plans and she seemed excited. She poured us both a glass of wine and said we should pre-game before getting ready. I don't think I talked much really. She took me into the living room. I'm not proud of what I let happen. I could faintly see the guy sneaking downstairs and going to the basement stairs but I didn't say or do anything.

I just let my wife continue doing what she was doing to me. Since that day, I have watched the video of her repeatedly. I can't bring myself to make any decisions on what I should do next. She seems to know something is wrong with me because she's asked a few times if I'm okay. I feel worthless and every time I hit a low point I watch that video again. I feel like I've watched it at least ten times a day since I caught them. Comments Big ADV

There are two things you should not do in this situation. One, don't look for revenge against her and or the guy, it'll just hurt you more and worst case, put you in jail. Two, don't let her hurt you like this again, because if you stay with her, she will. Boop. I have spent multiple hours looking up this guy. And so considering options from the alt-sub. Filda. Fragmatron.

So what happened to his pants and truck? He run out without his pants? What did wife say about the truck in the driveway? Wife kick his pants under the couch. Boop. His truck was on the street. I don't know where the clothes went to, but I assume she panicked as soon as she heard the garage open. Filda.

Shuga Shuga. So up I'm a bit confused here. You were still able to go through with your plan to take her out on a surprise date and were able to look her in the face, eat dinner, and act like there's nothing wrong? Boop. Not really. We didn't stay out late and went home early. She asked a few times if something was wrong. I tried getting drunk to get through it but was just too hard. Update 1, July 13th, 2024. I stopped watching the video after reading all the comments on my first post. It has helped clear my mind and allowed me to focus on next steps. This has allowed me to be mostly back to my

normal self for both my kids and my job. I have gone through my wife's phone and found nothing. I searched the guy's name from the driver's license. I've figured out how they met. He's a landscaper. She was calling some a few months ago to clean up our yard and ended up getting some mulching and clean up done. I've driven past his house many times. I think he is single as I couldn't find any records of other people living at that address. I've only seen a truck parked in the driveway when I have driven by. I have been avoiding my wife after the kids are in bed to try to limit one-on-one time. I don't want any awkward conversations and I also don't want to have sex.

I have mostly been successful with this but did slip up one night when I had a little too much to drink. I hated myself for it the next day. I don't believe she has seen him since the day I caught them. I've been paying attention any time she's gone. I obviously can't track her 100%. I've read about Apple Air tags but I use Android. I'm guessing any app one would put on her phone may be discovered.

I have installed a doorbell camera on our house though so I can always see the street. When I did this my wife didn't say anything. We continue to do things as a family as we normally would. I have done my best to not let her know what I know and to continue to be a good dad to my kids. The weird thing I'm dealing with now is that she's planned a night out with a friend for drinks. It's a friend from work so I don't know her at all and I'm not connected with this person on social media. When she told me I made up some excuse about work and said I couldn't watch the kids, she

ended up getting our neighbor to agree to babysit. Now I'm debating if I should follow her to really see if she's meeting her friend or the guy. It seems like I'm heading towards a confrontation either way when I just want everything to go back to normal. I'm going to leave my house soon and pretend to be going to work. I'll probably just go to a bar to kill time until I can drive by the place she's supposed to be going to. I'm filled with fucking dread about all of this. Update 2, July 20th, 2024.

I've had so many messages asking how I am doing that I felt I should probably post an update. On the night when she was going out with her friend I still pretended I had work and left the house after the babysitter arrived. I went to a bar and had a few drinks. Then I drove over to the restaurant she said she was going to. I saw her car in the parking lot. I'm not going to lie, I was on edge and incredibly nervous despite the drinks earlier. I was so worried I would walk in and see her with that guy. I was hoping to sneak in and get a look without being seen, but that failed miserably.

She saw me as soon as I walked in the door. She was with her friend and not the guy. We had the what are you doing here? thought you were working expected conversation. I told her work ended early, so I wanted to stop by to say hi since we had a babysitter. I left after a couple drinks and went home to relieve the sitter. So many of you have commented on my last post that I need to confront her and I decided in that moment that I would. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I got the kids to bed and waited for her to come home. I watched the video again to remind myself of what happened. When she got

home she was surprised I was still up and apparently could tell from the way I looked that something was wrong. I poured it all out on her. It probably wasn't fair of me, I didn't even let her sit down. I told her everything. I played part of the video to show her what I saw. I called her some harsh names, said she ruined our lives. In that moment I was incredibly angry. She was very upset, heavily crying and shaking. She told me how terrible she was. She told me how terrible she felt about everything that happened. I told her she had to tell me everything that happened with that guy

and she laid it all out. She cheated on me twice with him. After the time I saw them, she cut things off because she knew it was wrong and she loves me. I asked her for proof, but she said she had already deleted and blocked him on her phone,

Facebook, and Instagram. She did tell me that he is single and knew she was married. She asked me to delete the video, but I refused. She asked me, me why and I really didn't have a reason other than I feel a need to hold onto it for now. She got a little angry at that and asked if I was keeping it to watch again. It was very late at

this point so we decided to go to bed and talk more the next day when we had more time to think. She continued to apologize repeatedly for what she did. We slept separately that night. Over the next few days, things between us seemed better. I felt some relief that it was all out in the open now. We have continued to talk and it feels like we are on a path of staying together and moving past this. I have made it clear that she is never to see or talk to that guy again. While things feel like they are improving, I am still struggling to trust her. Worse yet is that I have a trip coming up for work and I'll be gone for a few days. I've told her that I am not comfortable with leaving right now, but I can't skip this trip.

My boss made it clear that I'm needed. She said I could put cameras up. in the house to keep an eye on her if it would make me feel better. Sadly, I may do that. I'll be gone for at least three days. Overall things are okay. Kids are oblivious that anything is going on and it seems that slowly my wife and I will eventually get back to normal. I hope so at least. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I have watched the video a few times since all of this. I'm thinking that I should probably delete it so it's gone from my life. I don't know what's wrong with me? Comments. Flin underscore J.M. I remember your first post. Did she say how it went from yard work to him in your bed? What was the development? Boop. She did. He came to the

door to ask to wash his hands in the laundry sink. They struck up a conversation. He came out again to finish up the work and they got to talking again. They already had each other's phone numbers and she said some texts were exchanged and she basically made up work for him to come out a third time. That third time led to her cheating. Now on to the next story. Story two. Hubby ignored my requests for dates for a year. Now he wants to go out every week, only to make videos for his business. My husband John 25M, fake name, and I, 26F, have been married for over two years, and dated for about three years before that. Overall, we have a generally healthy relationship with good communication. When we first got married, we used to go on lots of dates, not necessarily anything big,

sometimes just coffee or a drive, but we went out of our way to get out of the house together for quality time. As time has passed, I have taken on more freelance work. keeping me busier, and he started saying that he's just too tired or doesn't feel like getting ready to go out after work or on his days off. Up until now, I haven't had an issue with that. He does work a lot and I don't blame him at all. But here's where things have changed. A couple of months ago, he got really interested in digital marketing, basically selling products online. He bought an expensive course to help him learn, and has started trying to consistently post three times a day in order to build a following on a new Instagram account, so he's really putting a lot of

work into this. I'm not holding my breath that it will work out for several reasons that I won't get into here, unless you want them, but I've never discouraged him from doing it. When he gets stressed, I encourage him, I tell him often that I'm proud of all his hard work, I am, etc. I only mention that to say that I'm not against him trying this out and haven't put him down for it ever. But this is why I've gotten a little sad. Last week, we went on a cute date after he got off work on Saturday, and I loved it. We laughed and talked and generally had a great time like those first dates after getting married. While we were on the date, I had an idea for a cute reel that took maybe five minutes to record,

and then I put my phone away for the rest of the time. When we got home, I created and posted the reel, adding him as a collaborator with his new digital marketing Instagram account at his request. I guess he's gotten advice to post real-life things. Not just videos trying to sell, no biggie. I didn't mind. Well, since I already have a following, small, but bigger than his, that reel did better than any of the other ones on his account. Great.

We both thought. But, now he's asked to go on a small date every Saturday. At first I was so happy. I'd love to get back to our regular dates, but then he said it would be so that we could get content for his page. He asked if I could be a collaborator on all or most of the posts, but if he could post them himself so he gets the credit for the engagement. I guess all the views slash like slash et cetera don't actually bump his page analytics since I was the one who created the post.

I'm feeling hurt because for over a year, he hasn't shown much interest in taking me out. Now all of a sudden, because he needs content and saw how I could help his view count go up, he want to go on dates, though. I guess I'm just feeling used and like I'm not any kind of a priority. I feel like the dates won't even count as actual dates because he's not asking to go out to spend time with me. I do want to reiterate that I'm not opposed to him doing this side job, and I'm not even opposed to helping him or collaborating on posts, though I'd prefer not to do it every week. I'm actually really happy, whether or not it works out as a moneymaker, that he's just putting a lot of effort into something that excites him. I haven't seen him this into anything maybe ever.

I'm asking for advice because I don't know if I should bring this up to him or not. And if I do, what should I say? The last thing I want to do is make him feel bad or discourage him in his new endeavor. Should I just be grateful to be going on dates again? Am I being selfish? Thanks for all any and any advice and sorry if this is very long. Edit, because so many people are getting hung up on the double standard of me making content on the date, but not wanting him to, I just want to clarify that I'm not a content creator

by any means. I asked if he'd want to do this real and he said yes, and it's not a regular thing as I don't post much. To me the difference here is that the whole point of these dates moving forward will be to get content, and for him it will be work, where for me it was just a fun thing for us. Maybe this doesn't make a difference, but that's just how I see it in my head. Comments away underscore grapefruit 4297 so he is in an MLM and he admitted that his wanting to go out with you is to support his cultish business rather than because he values the time. That hurts. I get it.

I'm sorry. I do want to say that these companies slash opportunities slash MLMs are very scripted, high pressure and designed to make people think if they fail they are at fault, despite the actual setup being a massive reason for the failure. They literally borrow cult tactics in order to prey on people. I think you should talk about your feelings, but I also think you should tread lightly because the whole system is designed for him to be defensive if you bring up reason. It's part of the gig.

There is lots of. Hugs. I'm sorry. Hilda. Caroline say Cura. How about you tell him how you feel and that a date is a date of reels are for work? If he wants to go on dates just to get views those can be only one on five dates if you're comfortable with even that. Communicate. Update, August 20, 20, 24. So, first of all, thank you to the

vast majority of you who were logical and kind. Anyways, here's what I ended up doing. Many, many of the comments said that the best thing to do was probably just take the win and find the good in my situation, but if it's really bothering me to bring it up to John. I honestly didn't want to, but I didn't want to be upset on every date either, so I decided to give it a trial run and see how I felt after. I waited two weeks to make a decision and chose to go ahead and mention it to him. For those of you who think I'm some dramatic which whose husband could never do enough to make her happy, I told him, I was sure how I felt wasn't how he intended to come across,

but then explained what I had been thinking. Sure enough, as many of you said, he was just killing two birds with one stone. I told him I was totally fine creating content on our dates, but I just didn't want to feel like that was why we were on a date. He said that he understood and would be careful about it, and that if I was bothered or wanted to have a no-content date, to just let him know. So, that's the good part. The next part was a little tougher. For the advice of a couple of you with either digital marketing or MLM experience, I had the Tough Pyramid Scheme talk. I told him before during and after this conversation that no matter

what he chooses to do, I will support him and help him, but I also explained to him a few things. How the marketing was misleading, how most people lose money instead of making it, how they will try to keep trying to get him to spend more money to make it work, etc. I also suggested that he track his hours of learning, content creating, and posting, so that even if he does start making sales, he can decide if the time is worth the payout. I probably mentioned other things as well, but I don't remember what if so. I have always been very anti-MLM and like to think I know a lot about it, so I just tried to give him all the basic info in a kind way. After all that, I told him if he wanted to keep trying, I was for it as long as he doesn't invest any more money before he makes some.

I also told him how I was so proud of all the work he put into his side hustle so far and how I loved that he was excited about it, how he's been getting up early to work out because of it, he will record parts of his run slash stretches slash etc, but actually does a full workout or run, and I love how it's energized him. Understandably, he was a little sad and quiet, but he understood everything and wasn't mad at all. This was all last night and he was totally back to normal before bed, and he's continued posting today, so I guess I didn't hurt his feelings or discourage him like I thought I might. That's the whole reason I waited so long, but I guess it would have been fine all along. I am looking forward to our weekly dates, and to the fact that we will be able to look back and remember them all since we will have videos from each one. Again, grateful for all of your kind words, and I'm happy to answer comments or questions.

Just be nice for goodness sake. I hope you enjoy this story. My child did not ask me to attend her wedding and decided to have her mother's partner escort her during the ceremony. This situation involves my daughter, Samantha Sam, a 24-year-old woman, but I must accept it. Explain our family dynamics before getting into the reason for making this post. I, M. 51, got married to my ex-wife, Judith F-49, when I was 25. We had known each other since we were kids and had always been together. Judith came from a very broken household and spent most of her days at my place.

My parents treated her like family, and we gradually got close. I had always been in love with her ever since I was a kid. Both of us came from very humble backgrounds and built what we have from scratch. At 24, we got married. I was a normal trucker, I didn't have the money to afford college, and I wanted to make a living as early as I could. Judith didn't go to college either. She worked as a waitress in a local restaurant.

Between the two of us, we were comfortable. It wasn't as though we were starving, but we weren't extremely well off either. Then Judith got pregnant. She decided to quit her job and focus on raising the baby. It was a financial strain for us, but this was the best arrangement possible. We didn't have money for daycare,

at the time, and I was earning more than her anyway, so it made sense for her to stay home and for me to bring in the money for the family. I changed companies, got promoted, and had a bump in my pay, so by the time Samantha turned three, we were quite comfortable. Things were better back then, I won't deny it. The economy was in better shape, so we could afford a lot more on our limited income than anyone with the same or similar paycheck can today. We were lucky because, despite being tight, it was mostly smooth sailing for us. The issue started when Samantha started school. Judith began getting bored at home and said she wanted to start working again. We had a long discussion and finally agreed that I would cut back on some hours and help around the house more,

and she would get a job. This suited me because I had been working myself to death for all those years that Judith was at home. I worked 14 hours a day, six days a week, so the minute I came home, I was beat. I was very happy with the change because it gave me time with my daughter. And the new arrangement worked beautifully at first. I came home at a reasonable time and could spend time with Sam. I helped her with homework, and it felt like I was finally bonding with my daughter after all these years. Judith seemed happy with the change, too. She was a little bit of was a little aloof at home, but I understood that. Her life had been within the four walls of the house for years and years, and this was her time to go out and catch a breather. I was more than

happy to pick up the slack so she could have time to herself. Little did I know that the entire time I was busy bonding with my daughter, Judith was busy looking for a way out of the situation. When she got a job after all those years, it wasn't at her former workplace. It was at a nice cafe that was frequented by affluent people. I think being around the kind of crowd made her look down upon me in our living situation. Mind you, we weren't poor, but we also weren't loaded or bathing in luxury. She started pressing me to work more hours and make more money, but I didn't want to because I didn't see the need. I would much rather spend time with my daughter and wife than slave away for a few extra dollars that we could very honestly do without. I don't know why or when it

happened, but Judith gradually started resenting me and Sam. It all came to a huge blow a few months later when Sam was seven. Judith came home late, drunk as hell. She had developed an alcohol problem, and no amount of support or counseling could help her out of it. She came home, and by then, I'd lost my patience with her. For a long while, it had started feeling like I was a single parent. Judith used to come home late, and I was the one who had to do almost all the chores. I helped Sam with her schoolwork, made her braids, and got her ready for school. There were days when Sam didn't even miss her mother. She had become so used to her absence. So that night was the final straw for me. I told Judith that she needed to get her act straight

and be a mother to her daughter because I was exhausted from playing both dad and mom to her. That's when she dropped the bomb. She told me that she wanted a divorce and that she was having an affair with someone. The next few days were a blur. I won't bore you with the details. She met someone at the cafe, they hid it off, and they'd been having an affair for the past year. The guy, Stephen, now M60, was loaded, and she left Sam and me for him. It hurt like hell, but at least I knew my daughter was safe, and that was all that mattered. She did not fight me for me for. custody. She didn't even want Samantha. I just told her she was allowed to do whatever the hell she wanted, but I didn't want her influencing Sam. That worked perfectly for her because her new

boyfriend wasn't good with kids anyway. It was as though she had flipped and become someone else altogether. She was not the woman I married, and she was not the mother of my daughter. Since then, it has been only Samantha and me. Judith breezes in and breezes out as and when she wishes, with expensive gifts for Sam to compensate for what she could never do emotionally and physically. But the entire job of raising our daughter fell on me, and I tried to do it as well as I could. It was tough, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Now on to the main issue. Sam has been in my care since her mother left. It wasn't ideal for either of us, but it was what it was. I tried to be there for her as much as I could. I never missed a situation. I never missed a

single school meeting, didn't miss her sports events, and drove her to most parties. I tried my best. I knew that I couldn't do much for her financially, so I tried to be a parent and be there for her. I tried to be her friend, I tried to create an open environment at home. I'm not saying that I haven't made mistakes, but I've always tried not to, and tried to do justice as Sam's only parent. Sam, however, loved being with Judith. Judith married into money, and lots of it. So she used to compensate with gifts and extravagant things that I couldn't afford. It made me feel bad because I knew I could never give my daughter what Judith was giving her, but at the end of the day, Sam was happy, and that's what mattered the most to me.

However, I didn't realize that somehow, all this was influencing Sam poorly. She preferred her mother over me because she valued the material things that she got as gifts more than the everyday life that she and I shared together. Initially, I let it go because she was a kid, and any kid would love her shiny new toys more than everyday things. What I didn't realize, however, was that this was becoming a part of her personality, and that this would carry on into adulthood. When she turned 18, she told me that she wanted to be a hairdresser, so I enrolled her in a cosmetology course. She worked really hard, and I was very proud of her. She got her degree, and started working very soon.

Ever since then, she would try and avoid meeting me. I didn't think it was avoidance at first. I just believed her when she said she was busy, and I respected that. She was starting out her job, and the first few months can be rough, so I cut her some slack. I missed her, I missed just the two of us hanging out together, but I didn't express it to her because I didn't want her to feel guilty. She was her own person, and she had every right to live a good life. life. What else had I worked so hard for? But gradually, it began to dawn on me that she was

deliberately creating distance between us. I tried to reach out a couple of times and even asked her if I had done something wrong, but she never disclosed anything to me. We weren't estranged, but we also weren't very close. I guess that's part of growing up. You drift away from your parents. It just hurt me a lot because she was all I had. I never. dated after my divorce from Judith. I was too busy taking care of Sam and working that I never found the time to date. I also didn't want to create a complex family dynamic, and didn't want her to have any resentment or complaints towards me. She was my only priority, and I was happy with the way my life was. My duty to my daughter was much more important to me than the loneliness I felt.

However, when she started growing distant, I just felt as though I had been left behind, and that everyone had started new lives, but I was still there. All this while, I didn't know she was back in touch with her mother and had begun preferring her over me. Well, Sam is 24 now, and she got married two days ago. In the days leading up to the wedding, a lot of drama happened, and I acted in a way that was very uncharacteristic of me. A few weeks before the wedding, the wedding is all paid for by Sam and her husband Mark. Sam told me that while I was a very important part of the wedding, she did not want to do the walking down the L thing. That hurt me a lot because I had been looking forward to this moment all my life. I tried not to react poorly and just

asked her why she wanted to remove this from her wedding, and she told me she felt this was a very patriarchal tradition and she did not believe in it. I told her that I respected her wishes and that I would be there for her in whatever capacity she wanted me to be. Two days later, to my absolute horror, I found out that there was in fact going to be a walking down the L thing, but not with me, her mother's boyfriend, the guy she cheated on me with, was going to be walking her down the aisle. I wasn't supposed to find out. It was an accidental slip-up by Mark, but the damage was done. I asked Samantha if that was true, but she denied it.

I kept pestering her, and she finally admitted that yes, she had asked Stephen to walk her down the L because he wasn't a middle-class piece of junk like me. I don't think I have ever felt as bad as I did in that moment. Even my wife's infidelity didn't hurt me as much. Mark tried to take the blame on himself because even he realized that she had said a lot. He took me aside and told me that his family was a bunch of prudes, and it was only to assimilate with them that Sam had asked Stephen to walk her down the aisle, but I was done.

I thanked Mark for taking her side, but I also told him that I would not be attending the wedding at all. He said that would hurt Sam a lot because she loves me, but I said that I could not stand to be disrespected by her any longer. I think Mark understood where I was coming from and didn't ask me to budge or change my mind. I think I down an entire bottle of whiskey that night. I was miserable and don't remember much of what happened. I blocked Samantha everywhere and told her that there was no relationship between me and her from now on. I don't know if she responded to that, and I don't even have the heart to unblock and check because I feel she doesn't love me at all, and it doesn't matter to her that I'm not a part of her life.

That was the last I spoke to her. Samantha got married yesterday. I didn't attend, obviously, but I got a call from her early in the morning, and she was hysterical. She called from her friend's phone, which is how I could talk to her. She was sobbing continuously on the call, and it took me a long time to even understand what she was saying. She just kept saying that her mom had screwed up and she needed me there to salvage the situation. I asked her what had happened, and she told me that Judith showed up drunk, and by drunk, I mean sloshed, and she was interacting with Mark's parents.

Now, the issue is that Mark's family is very prim and proper, and they do not appreciate any kind of crass behavior. Apparently, that was the reason I was not allowed to walk her down the aisle because I wasn't sophisticated enough. Anyway, so Judith came in drunk and caused a huge scene, which has led to a situation where Mark's parents are saying that they will not be attending the wedding. Sam tried to tell me what exactly Judith had done in between sobs, but I couldn't understand her, and I was frankly not very interested. She had hurt me beyond repair, and there was no going back this time. I was done being her doormat, and I was done running around after her and cleaning her mess when

she was so embarrassed by me that she took away my right to walk her down the aisle. I told her that I was sorry she was going through this, but at this point and moving forward, I could not offer her anything more than words. She had chosen her family, and now she had to live with it. I told her she was worried about me embarrassing her and was confident about her upper-class mom, but that has ultimately backfired, and she only has herself to blame. I told her that I would not be coming to her rescue and that she was free to do whatever she wanted. to. I will not lie, it killed me to say this. It felt as though I had ripped my own heart out of my chest, but I had to do this. I had to enforce my boundaries. I couldn't let her step on me.

I had done everything I could for her. I had lived my entire life trying to make hers better, and she only saw me as something to use and feel disgusted and ashamed about. I cannot take it anymore. When I told her I would not be helping her, she started screaming into the phone, telling me that if I didn't save her this time, I was no father of hers. I just responded that I thought I was no father of yours anyway, given how you had been treating me, and I disconnected the call. She called me again from the same number 15 minutes later, but I did not respond. I was crying, I don't remember the last time I cried so much. I wanted to be there for my girl so much, but she had taken my heart out of my chest and trampled on it as if it were nothing.

And my self-respect did not allow it anymore. But now, I'm feeling that maybe I was too harsh with her. I should have gone. I don't know what has happened. I haven't reached out to anyone, and Sam hasn't reached out to me either. I think maybe I was in the wrong for abandoning her when she needed me. I am just so confused, and now I don't know what to do or how to set things right. A lot of people were asking me why I had such beef with Judith after all these years. Well, if your heart has never been ripped from your chest, spat on, and tossed aside like garbage, you wouldn't know. I know that she and Steven have stayed together for 15 years now and that it has been a long

time, and maybe they are the real deal, but guess what, I don't care. I don't care if they are Starcrossed lovers destined to be together. What I care about is that she chose to cheat on me and be secretive about the entire thing rather than do this the mature way. What I care about is that she stopped being a mother to our daughter, so I had to raise her myself because her new man was giving her the promise of a luxurious life. And what I care about is that she used her boyfriend's money to steal my daughter from me, and she was successful in doing so.

It is because of Judith that I live a miserable life, and no, I will not be the bigger person and forgive her for it. Never in a million years. Call me petty, call me crazy, or call me a jerk, it doesn't matter. I gave my life to her, and I got nothing in return. And to all those who think she and Stephen are a love match, it is far from true, and that is exactly what led to the entire scene at Sam's wedding. Judith arrived drunk out of her mind. And before going to meet Sam, she went and greeted Mark's family. Samantha did not know she had arrived and only learned about the situation

when the damage had already been done. In a drunken state, Judith started flirting with Mark's dad in front of Stephen and Mark's mom. It was apparently very embarrassing, and she was practically throwing herself at him. At first, everyone tried to ignore it, but then things got out of hand quickly.

Stephen came over to salvage the situation, and he had to physically pull Judith off of Mark. Mark's dad. Judith was screaming at the top of her lungs, telling Stephen to let her go. He was embarrassed too and kept apologizing, but a huge scene had already been created by then. This is when Sam entered, but this was not all. Stephen and Judith then started fighting. As in, Judith started the fight. She accused Stephen of being a hypocrite and said that if he was allowed to have affairs with other women, she should also be given the same liberty. Stephen's jaw dropped. He asked her to keep quiet, but she didn't listen, and it ended up being

a huge verbal blowout between the two of them. From what I heard, and by that, I mean what Judith revealed to the entire wedding party in her drunken stupor, is that their relationship has been having a lot of issues. Stephen keeps cheating on her with multiple women, and she knows all about it but tries to act nonchalant or ignorant because, at this point, she cannot afford to break up with him. He has given her a life of comfort and luxury, and she cannot trade that at this point, which is why she keeps tolerating his infidelity. She has also been pushing him to get married, but he doesn't want to, God knows why. Whenever some kind of fight breaks out between them, he placates her by giving her gifts and also by buying stuff for Samantha. Judith unloaded

all of her marital issues right there. Stephen kept telling her that this was neither the place nor the time for them to talk about their issues, but to no avail. She went on an entire rampage, beating his chest, grabbing his hair, and the like. The situation was so bad that had she not stopped, they would have had to call the police. Stephen has marks on his face from all the scratching, and in his defense, he pushed her. She was so drunk that she fell on a few chairs and on top of a guest from Mark's side. All this drama is happening at the wedding venue, where almost all the guests, have arrived. The entire spectacle was seen by everyone. Mark's parents are embarrassed to the core, and they are on the verge of walking out because they could not deal with this humiliation.

They had a lot of friends and family attending the wedding, and to see all this family nonsense was something they just could not fathom. It was at this point that Samantha called me and asked me to come and rescue her, and I said no. By the time we had spoken and cut the call, Stephen and Mark's parents had left. Mark ran after them and tried to get them to come back, but to no avail. A few of the guests from Mark's side left as well. They're probably going to go no contact with Samantha, and to be honest, I don't really blame them. Judith just sat down on the goddamn floor and started howling, saying how she has ruined her life and can't believe she is going to live her years out with a cheater while her daughter gets to marry a nice boy.

So I honestly feel that all this wasn't even an accident or a drunken mistake. I genuinely believe that Judith is so narcissistic that she planned this to deliberately sabotage her daughter's happiness just because she never got that happiness herself. The wedding was an absolute disaster, and Mark is pissed. He hasn't been talking to Samantha, and she is miserable. She sent me an email detailing everything that happened and apologizing for her behavior. But the apology also came with the blame that I should have come when she called me and that it was my duty as her father to have been there, taken her side, and tried to bring things back

to normalcy. I haven't responded to her, and I don't think I will, even though I have a lot to say. But there's no point in saying anything because I know she isn't going to understand my perspective and my feelings, so it is time for me to protect myself. She has hurt me enough, and now I need to take some space for myself. I have been selfless all my life, and thought about others, and never put myself first, but I haven't received the same in return. So now it is time for me to prioritize myself.

I might just end up telling her that I need some space and that I will get back in touch with her if I want to, but as of now, that is the most that I can do. I don't think I will be updating anymore because I want this chapter of my life to be over. I want to bang my head against the wall in grief every time I think of what happened between Sam and me. But I think it is karma that has come to bite her in the ass, and on the most important day of her life, too. She was worried that Mark's parents would not like me, which is why Judith and Stephen were her preferred parents. But at the end of the day, they are the ones that humiliated her and embarrassed her so much that she can't even look at her in-laws anymore,

and it was me that she had to run to, to help salvage the situation. Update 1, to all those who were hoping for a dramatic update, I am sorry to disappoint you. No jaw-dropping event has happened. A lot of you were hoping and wishing that Mark would leave Samantha, but that hasn't happened either. They are still very much together. If there are disagreements between them, I do not know, and I do not wish to. Those are issues between a husband and a wife, and they should stay that way. I do not mean to intrude in their lives, and I know.

No, I am not welcome anyway. And even if I were, I don't want to be a part of Samantha's life anymore. I have done my duty to the best of my ability, and now I am taking a step back. I did not respond to her email. I thought that I would, but I realized that even an attempt to ask her to give me space and respect my boundaries would be met with blame and criticism from her, so it was literally pointless. In other news, I have joined a biker club in my town, and we meet once a week for drinks.

I have made a couple of friends there, and it feels good to have people to talk to. One of the guys forced me to make a dating app. He's a young lad, but he seems good. They're all younger than me, so they try to keep me aware of the new things that youngsters do. It is quite entertaining. They've made a Bumble profile for me and keep asking me if I have any matches or not. One of them is actually coming over today to teach me how to talk to women and get dates for

myself. I feel a little nervous if I'm being honest, ha. I haven't done this ever in my life, but it is also exciting. I have friends, I have a social circle, and I have something to look forward to. I would much rather have my daughter with me and my family back, but I guess we don't always get what we want, and I need to make my peace with that. If I do end up scoring a date, I will let you know. Please leave some tips in the comments for this old man. Update 2, I have my first date today. I met her on a dating app. It's with a woman named Casey, fake name, obviously.

She got divorced a couple of years ago, her husband was apparently a huge mama's boy, and her ex-mill kept interfering in their dynamic. She finally had enough and said goodbye. Nothing is serious between us right now, and we are only meeting for a couple of drinks. We have been talking to each other for a while now, and I kind of like her. It feels good to talk to a woman and get attention. I have been starved of

this feeling for most of my life. Even during my marriage, Judith wasn't really the kind who was very expressive or loving, so this is a good and surprising change for me. Gosh, I feel so stupid, having a crush at the age of 50. But she's a beautiful and kind woman, and I wouldn't mind her company at all. I hope it goes well with her. My friends have all been prepared. My friends have all been preparing me for the date, and they are even more excited than I am. They came over last night to finalize my outfit for the date. I didn't even know it was that big of a deal, but then again, I am practically ancient now. I have been given a list of dues and don'ts to memorize. All my friends are waiting for the date to be over so I can give them the details. I am excited too.

It feels nice to feel young again, to have friends, and to have a life that is not just responsibilities, but also fun. I miss that, and I hope this feeling lasts for a long time because I have craved this for as long as I can remember.