Reddit Stories - Secrets Uncovered Family Drama and Betrayal Podcast ( Over 3 Hour Compilation ) - Episode 144

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #betrayal #podcast #secretsuncovered #episode144Episode 144 of the "Secrets Uncovered" podcast delves into family drama and betrayal, featuring a compilation of over three hours of gripping stories. Listeners are taken on an emotional journey, uncovering secrets that reveal the complexities of familial relationships and the impact of betrayal on trust and love.redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, betrayal, familydrama, podcast, secretsuncovered, episode144, emotionalstories, relationshipadvice, trustissues, storytelling, personalnarratives, drama, conflictresolution, familysecrets, realstories, listenerstories, podcastcompilationBecome 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. Father's spouse pretended her former partner passed away to wed him, but I spotted him at the workplace, hence discovering the reality and revealing her deceit. I, a 34-year-old female, am in a situation. Loss for words and turning to the Reddit community for help. I come from a pretty well-off background and have lived a privileged life all along. My parents always gave me everything I wanted. They were college sweethearts and had a strong, loving marriage.

When I was just eight years old, my parents got into a terrible car accident. When we found out the news, I was with my grandparents and we all rushed to the hospital. Waiting outside during their surgeries was deeply traumatizing, not knowing if they would make it. Sadly, my mom didn't survive, but somehow, my dad pulled through. The guilt of living while she didn't became a daily struggle for him. In the aftermath, he struggled with his role as a parent, especially while I was dealing with the grief of losing a mom. My aunt, dad's sister, super close to him, stepped in.

She got us into therapy to navigate our issues, and that's when my dad started attending grief support groups to connect with others who had lost their loved ones to horrific accidents. In those support groups, he crossed paths with a woman named Linda. who later became my stepmother. My dad and Linda quickly became close friends, and eventually, she met me. Over time, their relationship deepened, and they started dating. They married three years later despite everyone thinking that it was too soon and have been together ever since. Right from the start, my aunt had reservations about her and expressed her concerns, but my dad was convinced that Linda was good for him, and their connection was before marrying,

my dad explicitly told Linda that he would be the sole parent responsible for me and give me any type of punishment. He didn't want her to step into the role of my mother but rather to be a responsible and dependable adult figure in my life. Fortunately, she has largely respected those boundaries and hasn't interfered much in my life. Linda had informed us that she married before, to her ex-husband, Mark, who died in a fire in their building years ago. She would always paint this picture that he was broke, and life was a constant struggle for them to make ends meet. We felt sorry for her as we knew how it felt to lose a loved one. Fast forward to meeting my dad, and now, she's living the high life in comfort and luxury. Linda has a thing for splurging on pricey purses and shoes,

regardless of the occasion. She loves being the center of attention. Over the years, Linda and I have kept things friendly. At the start, she tried to play the whole let's be friends. card, but I quickly nipped that in the bud. I give her respect as much as I can for being my dad's wife, but our connection pretty much stops there. Although I wasn't suspicious, I always kept my distance. Now coming to what happened, I just finished college and landed a job with a cool tech company. The only catch is, it's on the other side of the country. Dad was pushing for me to join his company, but I really wanted to carve my path in a tech gig, starting from scratch and learning the ropes on my own. Before I left, Linda threw a small get-together with close family

and friends. It was heartwarming, but everyone seemed sad about me moving so far away. On the morning of my flight, as I shifted across the country and settled into a new city, I was both excited and nervous to live on my own for the first time and start a new chapter of my life. On my first day at the office, I was introduced to everyone. It's a huge place, mostly filled with hardcore engineers and coders. Given the nature of our work, we spend a good chunk of our time in the office itself working into late hours of the night. About a week ago, during lunch in the office cafeteria, I noticed a guy who looked familiar. He was talking to my boss as they had lunch. The man seemed to have a familiar face, but I couldn't quite place him.

I was sure that I had seen him from somewhere and thought maybe he was someone who lived in my hometown. As I was lost in thoughts, my coworker came up to me and asked me to get ready for a presentation for a new client so I quickly wrapped up my lunch and left. As I entered the conference room, I noticed that familiar face sitting beside my boss. Our boss introduced him as a potential client we had to present to. Everything felt a bit hazy, and I couldn't quite catch his name as I was still figuring out where I knew him from. I quickly set up the projector and got started with the presentation. Throughout the meeting, a nagging feeling persisted, like I had seen him somewhere before. Post-presentation, the man seemed impressed and it seemed like he was ready to get on board with us. I beamed,

leaving my boss and him to dive into further discussions. Once their discussion was done, I saw the man heading for the elevators. I couldn't shake off the feeling, so I followed him, and we ended up in the same elevator. He noticed me and smiled politely. I didn't want to seem like a stalker, so I casually mentioned how he looked familiar to me. He looked at me inquisitively and I asked him if he was from my hometown, but he shook his head.

He asked my name and told me that he had never known anyone by my last name. I realized there was no connection, so I let it be, awkwardly shook his hand again, and thanked him for choosing our company for his project. Later during our team meetings, my boss informed us that this new client we had onboarded was this self-made tech guy who needed our help to polish up his app. His name was Mark and the app we are supposed to design is going to revolutionize recyclable waste management.

When I heard the name, my stomach dropped. It suddenly clicked why I thought he looked so familiar to me. It's because I had seen his photo on one of my stepmother's albums. I vividly recalled the day when my stepmother needed. dad were out, and like any other curious kid, I found myself rummaging through everyone's stuff in our house. I found a photo album tucked deep into a drawer and realized from the photos that it belonged to my stepmother. I was casually flipping through the pages, oddly looking at her pictures, when I stumbled into a picture of Linda standing with a man. They looked at the camera,

smiling, dressed in winter clothes, standing in front of a Christmas tree. The festive backdrop added a touch of warmth to the scene. I never directly asked Linda about the man in the photo, but I had pretty much figured it might be someone from her past. Back then, it was just a peek into Linda's past, nothing significant. Little did I know, this seemingly innocent image would soon collide with my present, sparking a flurry of questions and revelations about the man I encountered at work. My thoughts raced, drawing connections between the client I knew and Linda's supposedly late ex-husband from her history. I was confused as to how Mark was still alive when Linda told us that he had passed away years ago. I felt lost, unsure of what to do, and talking to Linda about it seemed out of the

question. If she had been lying about her ex-husband all this time, there was no way she would suddenly come clean. I needed solid proof before confronting her, confirmation that the man, who is our client currently, is indeed the same person, Mark. Since the revelation, I have been and sticking close to my boss during meetings with Mark, hoping for a chance to talk to him privately and dig deeper for the truth. Today, with my boss on medical leave, it felt like the perfect opportunity to talk with Mark. We got done with our meeting and I asked Mark if he wanted to have lunch with me at our office cafeteria. He agreed and we went down for lunch. We talked about our work and our conversation slowly drifted to family. I shared with him that my mother had passed

away when I was young. Mark looked sympathetic, his expression reflecting a mix of understanding and compassion. I then eased into the conversation, mentioning that my father was married to a woman named Linda. Mark's reaction was noticeable, he went really quiet and looked up to see me like he was trying to process what I just said. The revelation seemed to hit him like a sudden gust of wind, catching him off guard. His brows furrowed slightly, and he took a moment to process the unexpected news. Looking at his reaction, I asked him if he knew her and he slowly nodded. He asked me to show him a picture of her and when I did, he gasped in surprise. I started talking about Linda's version of his past, the fire, financial struggles,

and his apparent demise. The initial furrowed brows deepened into a more pronounced look of disbelief. I could see the gears turning in his mind as he struggled to process the narrative I was laying out. Mark then went on to share his story. He spoke about being married to a woman named Sarah and how they enjoyed two beautiful years together. Sadly, Sarah's life ended in a skiing incident during a vacation. The loss threw Mark into a deep despair. At the suggestion of a friend, he joined a grief-counseling group in his community to cope with the pain.

It was within this group that Mark crossed paths with Linda. She shared a heartbreaking story of Linde. losing her husband to a tragic incident, a shooting in her neighborhood. The camaraderie in the grief support group provided solace, assuring Mark that others, like him, were navigating the heavy grief of losing their spouses. Over time, Mark and Linda became friends as they found comfort in each other's company. Mark entered into marriage with Linda one year later, hopeful that this could be his second shot at happiness. Things went well initially, but one day, while discussing his will, trouble brood. Mark shared that in the event of his death, his house would go to his brother's

children. Linda became quite upset, questioning why he hadn't designated the house to go to her. Mark explained that it was a family home, and he intended to keep it within the family, ensuring she would be financially cared for throughout her life with his savings account money. She asked him about his life insurance money and he disclosed that he had put his brother as his nominee. This sparked a huge fight, with Linda adamant that she deserved the house and the money. After that clash, Mark and Linda's relationship took a nosedive. She started picking fights over trivial matters and even accusing him of infidelity without any proof. The conflicts escalated to the point where they both found it unbearable. Unable to sustain their relationship, they eventually

reached a mutual decision to divorce as it became clear that things weren't working out between them. But to Mark's shock during the divorce proceedings, Linda did a complete turnaround. She accused Mark of financially abusing her throughout their marriage to exert control over her. Linda, being younger than Mark, managed to make this story seem believable, casting a shadow over his reputation. As the divorce unfolded, Linda's false stories took a toll on Mark's life. Her accusations not only damaged his standing but also had a ripple effect, affecting his relationships with his friends and family. Following his lawyer's advice,

Mark had to pay a substantial alimony payment to Linda so she would not continue to tarnish his character publicly. Since then, Linda had seemingly disappeared from his life, and today was the first time Mark had any news of her. Listening to his story left me in shock. Mark's revelations painted a dark picture of Linda's actions, a calculated scheme of deceit and manipulation. As our conversation unfolded, it became apparent that Linda had meticulously crafted a fabricated

tragedy, falsely claiming Mark's demise in a non-existent fire. This sinister plot allowed her to integrate into yet another grief-counseling group, potentially targeting her next victim. The scheme aimed to garner sympathy, portraying her as a grieving widow burden by a tragedy she had invented. Sadly, my father had fallen prey to her convincing tales. After our lunch together, I assured Mark that I would uncover the truth about Linda's deceit. I have spent the whole day mulling over the details and trying to figure out my next steps.

Even now, as I am writing this, I still can't shake off the disbelief and anger simmering within me. It is astonishing to realize how seamlessly she has woven herself into the fabric of our lives, all for the purpose of financially benefiting from my father. On the one hand, I feel conflicted that my father seems genuinely happy with Linda, and I am unsure how to break the news to him as it can potentially hurt him. On the other hand, I know that Linda knowingly joins grief support groups to find vulnerable individuals she can target and manipulate. The fact that she lied about her husband's death in a building fire to gain our sympathy

and trust adds another layer to her deceit. I feel conflicted as to how I should proceed further. Will I be in a whole if I tell my father the truth and confront Linda about her past? Update 1, taking everyone's advice, I chose to confide in my aunt about the situation. I needed another adult to believe my story before confronting my dad. Not wanting to take a leave from work as I have just joined the company, I invited my aunt, Hilda, to visit me here. She flew here last night and was overjoyed to see me.

I had planned to take her out for breakfast and I had invited Mark also. I wanted her to hear the whole story from Mark. I was shaking in anticipation as I drove her to the cafe. When we entered the cafe, Mark was already there waiting for us. I walked up to him with my aunt behind me who looked at him and gave me a curious look. I told her there that we needed to discuss something with her, and concern flashed across her face. After placing our orders, I turned to my aunt. aunt, revealing that this was Mark, Linda's ex-husband. Mark politely smiled, and my aunt looked at him

in disbelief. I asked Hilda if she had ever seen Linda's ex-husband in pictures and she shook her head. I told her that I had when I had gone through Linda's photo album. Although my aunt didn't know what Mark looked like, she knew that Mark was supposed to be dead, so she looked at him in shock. Mark then showed her pictures of him and Linda on their wedding day, honeymoon, and other events. He went on to explain how Linda had deceived him into marriage and eventually, when she discovered he was unwilling to give her any of his properties or life insurance, they ended up in a bitter fight, leading to their divorce. Mark revealed how Linda had almost ruined his life by spreading lies to his friends and family. She only agreed to vanish from his life after he agreed to pay a

substantial amount of money as alimony. My aunt was in total shock the entire time. I then explained to her how Linda purposefully joined grief support groups, seeking out vulnerable individuals to exploit, especially those who are wealthy widows. She then befriends them and marries them in the hopes of securing a hefty inheritance. Hilda, still in disbelief, bombarded Mark with questions, digging for more details about Linda. Each answer seemed to deepen her shock. As Mark continued revealing Linda's deceitful actions, my aunt's disbelief transformed into a mix of concern and outrage. Hilda looked at me and emphasized that we needed to talk to my dad about this as soon as possible. She stressed the importance of revealing the truth to

him before the situation spiraled further out of control. She was afraid that Linda might put my dad through the same fate as Mark. Mark agreed with her and warned us that Linda was capable enough to do this when it came to matters of money. I nodded solemnly, finding solace in the fact that my aunt now knew the truth and we could together reveal the truth about Linda. Mark and Hilda exchanged numbers so Mark could send her his pictures with Linda. With these photos in hand, my aunt and I felt a sense of empowerment as we now had proof to show my dad and the rest of our family. As we left the cafe, there was an unspoken understanding between Mark, my aunt and me. A shared determination to untangle the deceit woven by Linda and protect others from

further harm. Since returning home, my aunt and I have been trying to figure out how and when to break this news to my dad. We don't want to confront him in front of Linda as we don't trust her anymore. It remains to be seen what we do next. Update 2 we finally disclosed everything about Linda to my dad this Thanksgiving. I was determined to be with my dad when we revealed truth to him as I didn't want to talk about this on the phone. Taking a break from work during Thanksgiving, I flew back home for our yearly family gathering and celebration. Upon my arrival, our home was adorned with festive decorations, and Linda welcomed me in. This marked my first encounter with her since learning about her past. I awkwardly smiled at

her and hurried to greet my dad. It had been a while since I saw him and I realized just how much I missed him. The family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner and we all had a wonderful time together. Hilda and I kept exchanging glances, uncertain about finding the right moment to address the challenging topic with my dad privately. The next morning, I took my dad out for lunch, using the pretext of discussing my ongoing projects. Knowing Linda's disinterest in work-related discussions, I was confident she would not join us. My dad seemed surprised when Hilda joined us for lunch, thinking I had invited him alone. Without wasting much time during lunch, Hilda started to ask him if he had ever investigated

Linda's past. My dad stared at her blankly and said he had never done that. I then showed my dad pictures of Mark and Linda, asking him if he recognized the man. He nodded, saying it was Mark, Linda's ex-husband who had passed away. I went on to tell him that Mark was indeed alive and that I had met him at work. My dad looked at me surprised as I went on to explain that Mark was never dead. Linda had divorced him after finding out he wasn't going to transfer any of his properties to her after his demise. In the process of their divorce, she had tried her best to ruin his reputation among his family and friends.

My dad leaned back, processing the unexpected revelation. After a moment of silence, he looked at me and asked, how did you find out about all this, and why didn't Linda tell me the truth? I took a deep breath, explaining my unexpected encounter with Mark at work. I told him how Mark came into my workplace one day as a potential client, which eventually led me to confront him. Mark had no idea Linda was my stepmother, and he was as surprised as we were when I told him about the false story Linda had told us, claiming he died in a building fire. The expression on my dad's face shifted from surprise to a mix of shock and realization. He seemed torn between the truth I presented and the years he had spent

believing Linda's fabricated stories. He started asking more questions about Mark and Linda's past, trying to understand the extent of the deception. My aunt, Hilda, interjected, explaining that Linda had manipulated Mark by meeting him at a grief support group and claiming her last husband died in a shooting accident. She had then married him to financially exploit him during their marriage. Hilda emphasized that my dad needed to recognize the severity of Linda's actions and think about the next course of action. As the weight of the situation settled in, my dad looked confused and betrayed. I felt bad for breaking my dad's heart. He admitted that he felt blindsided by Linda's deceit and was struggling to accept our version of the truth when he was told something

entirely different by Linda. As our last resort, we then decided to FaceTime Mark so he could directly talk with my dad and help sort out any further confusion. Initially hesitant, my dad eventually agreed. Mark and my dad engaged in a lengthy, detailed discussion about Linda. As the conversation unfolded, my dad was compelled to confront the reality that Linda had been deceiving us for all these years. The weight of the truth finally settled on him, and it was evident that this revelation had shattered the image he held of Linda. He was white as a sheet and was struggling to comprehend the extent of Linda's lies. Amid the revelation, my aunt, Hilda, did her best to comfort him, understanding his profound shock at discovering the truth.

I asked my dad to take his time and come up with a plan for what he wanted to do next. I assured him that both my aunt and I were there to support him through whatever decisions he needed to make in the aftermath of this shocking revelation. The gravity of Linda's deception weighs heavily on us all, and the path forward remains uncertain. but my dad's well-being remains my top priority. I will make sure to stand by dad and support him in any way I can and hopefully, Linda doesn't get to continue manipulating and hurting our family. Together, we will navigate this challenging situation and ensure that my dad finds the clarity and resolution he needs for the next chapter of his life. Update 3. It's been two months

since my last update and a lot has happened since then. First of all, following the truth bomb, my dad confronted Linda, leading to a heated argument. Despite her persistent lies, my dad presented evidence, including pictures of their marriage. He then told her that Mark had met me at work and told me everything about their marriage. Linda cornered, finally conceded defeat. Overwhelmed by guilt, she came clean about her lies, laying bare the extent of her schemes. My dad asked her to immediately get out of our house much to my surprise. This was the the first time I had seen my dad raise his voice. Linda, visibly shaken, shot an angry glance at me, seemingly blaming me for exposing her past. I felt no sympathy for her, after all,

I owed her nothing. Taking a firm stance, my dad decided to file for divorce and initiated discussions with his attorney. Initially, when he parted ways with Linda, my dad was not the same. He was sad and shattered. Luckily, we are a close-knit family, and everyone rallied around him, offering us support during this tough period. The revelation about Linda's deceit left everyone as stunned as we were. Despite Linda's attempts to reach my dad, he blocked her on all fronts. I was pretty sure she wouldn't dare to message me, given that I exposed her truth. Today, I see my dad going through a tough time, but I am also glad he's separating from that awful

woman. I genuinely hope he finds healing and moves on to better days after this tough chapter. Amidst all this, my bond with my dad has grown stronger. We share our thoughts and feelings more openly now, helping each other navigate the emotional aftermath of Linda's deception. It's clear that the healing process is slowly happening, and we will take some time but eventually move past this obstacle together, leaving the shadows of the past behind. I hope you enjoy this story. I discovered my spouse's secret online activities, so I initiated the divorce process and obtained sole custody of our child. Greetings, I am a 39-year-old man who is employed as a receptionist in a hotel and am married to my wife, Jessica, 34F, who is a nurse in a hospital.

We have been married for 12 years and have a 10-year-old son. Our married life was simple and normal, just like every single. normal person has. Though financially we suffered a lot and had great difficulty meeting the ends, somehow, we managed to do it. Jessica was a great partner and mother. She's a hardworking woman and took half of the responsibility, which made it less difficult for both of us. I didn't make much money as a receptionist. So, I had to do extra work in the food hub, so we were hardly present at the same time but we cherished weekends a lot. Our son, Robert, used to spend his daytime with his grandparents, and in the evening we both take

him home at nine usually, but sometimes during Jessica's overnight stay, Robert stays the night at his grandparents. Our marriage was going smoothly, and things were just normal, with a mixture of peace and stress. However, I was grateful to have a partner like Jessica who never left my side in times of adversity and helped me through. We both were absent parents and that really made me feel sad, but at the end of the day, it was for our own good. But things got weird and took a bad turn on the day she came back from her friend's wedding. It wasn't just a normal wedding, but a luxurious five-day event. I was also invited to the wedding, but due to my workload, I refused to go and stayed back. I also skipped it so I could save money. After she came back

from the wedding, she was unusually quiet. I asked her if she was fine, and she got irritated by me, so I let her settle in the comfort space and gave her time. However, it started to trouble me more when she turned cold toward me not only did she become quiet, but she became irritated at me, but she was not telling me at all what was bothering her. After a week, she finally burst out of her frustration. At the dinner table, I casually asked her which movie she wanted to see tonight. Initially, she ignored me and then got agitated at me for asking her such questions. I asked her, what was wrong? And she told me that she regretted marrying me, and that all her friends were having their dream

lives, but as for her, she was suffering, and I was not doing much as a man. I failed to provide her with the life she wanted. Instead of watching movies at home, when will I take her to the theater? There were a lot more which she said and stood up from the table. leaving the half-finished plate on the table. I stayed silent because I saw it coming. One day she was going to snap at me, and it wasn't her fault for having such wishes. I decided to apply for jobs and interview more and more. The next day she didn't come home in her usual time and said she had extra hours at the hospital. I and Robert waited for her,

but it got late, so I tucked him in the bed. After a while, I slept two, and Jessica came back at 4 in the morning. I asked her to come and sleep next to me, and I would take care of the housework. I wrapped my arms around her waist and tried initiating SX, but she got irritated and asked me not to touch her. Obviously, I respect her consent,

but the way she snapped at me made me feel like she was disgusted by me. I somehow managed to keep my thoughts calm and went back to sleep. The next day was Sunday, in the morning, I called her for breakfast, and she came down looking irritated. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me she wanted to buy herself a set of lingerie, and she wanted my card. In that situation, I couldn't say no to her, so I gave it to her. The card had money that I was saving up for Robert, and I felt quite uneasy.

I asked her if she could wait for a week until my salary came, then buy it instead of using my card. She threw my card on the table and asked me to keep it, calling me stingy that I even refused to buy her basic things. I held her wrist and apologized millions of times to make her accept the card again. She took the card, kissed my cheeks to say, thank you, and left. Her phone was on the table, and it started buzzing. I took her phone and saw the text registration of some social media applications. I was going to open the phone, but Jessica can't. came down, and I put the phone down on the table immediately. She took her phone and went outside.

After a while, I took Robert to his grandparents, and on my way, I got a message from the bank about the debited money. It was $1,200. I stopped my car, and my hands were on my head, thinking how crazy Jessica had been acting. I dropped off my son, called Jessica, and asked her to come back home. She came back home, and I asked her about the stuff she bought for $1,200. And how could she spend such a huge amount of money in just one go? I have been saving it for the family, obviously. She kept listening, started crying, and kept blaming me, saying that I ruined her life and that I couldn't even fulfill her basic wishes. All her friends are living a luxurious life, it's just me living at rock bottom.

I told her she was acting crazy and greedy, and she knew my financial condition before marrying me. I did my best and I'm still doing it, and she shouldn't blame me for that. I told her that everything was fine a few months ago, but what's wrong now? Why was she acting like that suddenly? I don't know what happened to her.

She sat in front of me with those guilty eyes and apologized to me for acting like that. She told me that on her friend's wedding day, all her friends were wearing branded clothes and carrying luxurious bags and accessories. Her friends kind of embarrassed her and asked her if her husband wasn't doing enough for her. I felt bad for her and forgave her. Along with that, I asked her to understand that not everyone can afford the same lifestyle. And we both were trying our best to resolve this situation, so she shouldn't make herself feel embarrassed. Instead, she should feel great that she was an independent woman.

She hugged me and we got intimate after so many days. I was happy and satisfied with the ups and downs because that's what makes the relationship more transparent and worth it, but soon it went down again. Again, her phone started buzzing with text messages from some app, but from the locked screen I wasn't able to see which app it was. I was going to open the phone, but the password was incorrect. At first, I didn't mind and asked her for the password and told her about the text. She didn't give me any details or her password, and she casually took her phone and left the room.

After Jessica fell asleep, I took the phone from her side and tried entering the password, but it failed again. I was annoyed and tried processing my thoughts as to why she had changed her password. As soon as I put her phone back, it started buzzing again with a series of notifications. It was troubling. In the morning, I went back to work and dropped her off. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, and I did remember but pretended to be oblivious as I prepared a surprise for her. After dropping her off at the hospital, I went back to my place and set it up beautifully with warm lights and lilies. Robert was going to stay at his grandparents tonight.

I was so excited and happy while preparing her favorite meals. After placing everything nicely, the door opened, and Jessica walked in. Her tired face changed into happiness as soon as she saw the house set up romantically. She ran toward me and hugged me tightly. We had a great time together and finally, we sat down to talk. She told me that she loved the efforts I had put in, but if we had money, we could go to a fancy restaurant. She also started telling me about her friend, whose husband gifted her. her a diamond ring. I started to feel insecure and realized that she didn't like what I did

to make her happy, and she was not satisfied at all. I listened to her quietly faking a smile, I didn't want to fight with her on my anniversary. To distract her, I started clicking pictures of us. But as soon as I was going to upload those, she asked me not to post these pictures as our house and everything looked cheap, and she didn't want her friends to see them. She was so harsh and made everything seem worthless. The food and the flowers were worth nothing in front of her greedy eyes. Jessica was from a well-to-do family, but she was never greedy, or maybe she never showed that to me. She knew about my humble earnings and she never complained about it. But suddenly she has become so materialistic. I was still not able to process my thoughts. She went inside

the bedroom and called me after a few minutes. She was wearing red lingerie and looked extremely ravishing. I went towards her and started kissing her, but she stopped and asked me to click a few pictures of hers. We had fun and the rest of the time went fun. In the morning, I got a call from Robert's school, and I immediately drove off. After reaching the school, the teachers told me that he got into a fight. I asked Robert what was wrong that he punched his friend. He told me that his friend, James was making fun of Mom, and he was telling everyone that Mom got fired from the hospital. James' mother was also the nurse in the same hospital as Jessica. I didn't want to believe what I heard, maybe it was just a rumor.

If that really happened, why didn't she tell me? I left for my work after that, but I was just not able to process all the changes going on in my life. I sense something is wrong with Jessica, there's something she's. She's hiding. I'm not doubting her outrightly that she's cheating on me, but she's definitely up to something. Update 1. Hey everyone, it's been a week since my last update as I was dealing with many issues and finally decided to divorce Jessica after knowing the truth.

After hearing the rumor from Robert, I could not sleep for days and decided to find the truth. Today morning, I just drove off to the hospital. I asked the receptionist to call Jessica, introducing myself as a day. her husband. The receptionist looked at me and then shared looks with the other lady on the counter. The receptionist told me that Jessica no longer works there. I asked her since when. She said a month ago. I asked her the reason, but she didn't tell me. Her look suggested that she knew and it was pretty bad but she didn't tell me. I was coming out of the hospital, confused and angry. I was wondering if she was fired, then where was she working these days, and from where

was she getting money? As I was about to get in the car, James' mother waved at me to stop. She apologized for James' behavior and how she shouldn't have talked about such things in front of her son. I nodded and said not to worry. She said she had something I needed to know. I knew what it was. She told me that after Jessica came back from her leave, the wedding leave, she started feeling very insecure and sad about her life, and the only thing she talked about was money. She took Jessica's cribbing's to be normal stuff, as we all feel like that sometimes, but that didn't stop there. Jessica created an adult profile on social media. I was shocked that I felt numb. She said that Jessica got fired because she was caught

making obscene videos and clicking naked pictures in the storeroom of the hospital. One of the janitors saw it and made videos of it and leaked it to every staff and that's how everyone got to know. I asked her for the name of the social media app and gave me her number and told me that she would send me an account link of Jessica's profile. She asked me to stop Jessica, or that would create problems for Robert in his school. I requested her not to discuss all this in front of James as that would further create problems for him. She agreed. I felt so disgusted after hearing this that I wanted to throw up. Never in my life have I felt so worthless, and I blamed myself for everything she was doing. It was because I failed to provide.

After crying my heart out inside my car, I decided to gather all the evidence by myself and then confront Jessica because she was going to feed me lies on lies. While I was driving back, I remembered that a few days back, I was scrolling down my social media and saw a new profile on my suggestion. In the profile picture, there was a woman who was wearing red lingerie, but her face was hidden. I don't know why her back resembled that of Jessica's. I clicked on it, but it took me to an 18-plus website for adult entertainment. I took that to be another promotion gimmick of an adult dating app and ignored it. Now I realized that the social media app shows you the suggestions if the person is in your contact list. That woman was definitely Jessica. The dot started to connect and I felt uneasy and anxious. In the evening, when I reached

home, I found several packages on the couch, dresses, heels, bags, and whatnot lying around that were just bought out of the store. I took out the bill from the sofa and couldn't breathe for a moment after seeing that she bought $900 lipstick. Jessica came out of the room and looked scared to see me. I showed her the bill and asked her where did she get all the money. She threw the stuff from her hand on the floor and told me that she regrets marrying me and that she feels confined inside the walls of poverty. She wanted a few things for herself, and she got it.

What's so big deal about it? She was like, why does my life always have to be about our son or this house? Why can't I spend my savings on something I love? I almost laughed at her manipulative tactics but pretended not to know the truth. I took a deep breath and again asked her, where did she get all the money? She looked at me and told me that she got promoted to a different healthcare center, and they paid her a good amount. I nodded and went outside for a walk.

James' mother texted me Jessica's adult account details, and without even opening the account, I knew it was Jessica. I put my hands on my face and didn't have the courage to open it and see it for myself, but the anger and the insult she put me through daily were humiliating, only to realize that she sold her body to the public for materials and ruined our 13 years of marriage. I searched the username, and it showed the exact same account I had on suggestions a few days ago. I made a new account, created a whole fake profile, and did everything that was needed. I found her account, but to see her content, I had to subscribe, and it cost $200.

I paid that amount, a big amount for me, but a small amount to pay to save myself from daily humiliation. Her profile said, Your Personal Nurse, and after taking the subscription, the account finally opened. My palms were sweaty, my mouth felt bitter, and I almost threw up when I saw those pictures. Those pictures and videos were scary, but the comments were terrifying. Half of the stuff was hidden, and they cost such high rates. Not only this, but she also posted the pictures I clicked on the day of our anniversary. The same pictures now looked disgusting to me, the comments were outrageous, and I couldn't

look at that anymore. More like, I couldn't look at her anymore and immediately thought of divorce. There was no time to delay that, so I called my first. brother and asked him to help me prepare the divorce paper. He worked for an attorney. When I came back home, she wasn't there. She left a note, leaving for night shift. The fun part is she's jobless, I don't want to spell this out, but I God know what kind of night shift she's into. I don't think I'll be able to sleep until I confront her and humiliate her the way she insulted me, and for that, I didn't have to do anything because she did it herself. Update 2, it's

It's been a while since the last update, as I was dealing with severe trauma, and the divorce process was harder to process. So, the next morning after my last update, I woke up to Jessica's yelling at Robert, asking him to stay the FCK away from her expensive things. He was apparently messing around with the expensive stuff she bought last night. This brought anger down my body. I asked Robert to go inside his room. I gave her a cold stare and asked her again where she got this much money.

She put her phone aside and asked me if I had lost my hearing ability. I laughed at her comment and told her that at least I didn't lose respect for myself the way she did. She looked completely oblivious and asked me what I was talking about. I told her to continue with the your personal nurse business and that the divorce papers would reach her soon. She understood where I was coming from. It was her username on the adult website. She sat on the sofa and fell ashamed. I told her not to feel ashamed or regret this after getting caught because it was her own choice.

She started crying and saying that she couldn't take all the insults she went through in front of her friends and cousins when they showed off their luxurious whole she was leading a mediocre lifestyle, so she took that path and bought herself the expensive stuff. I yelled at her that a modest lifestyle is still much better than showing your naked body to the world and if she still wanted to pursue that, she should have told me. I know it's her body and her choice BS, but she need not keep me in the dark and would have done that openly. I told her that I knew why she got fired from the hospital and that my innocent boy had to suffer the bullies in his school because of her fantasy and greed. Her body language suggested she had no remorse. It felt like she was going to continue doing this after our divorce, and every tear was just an act of being caught and not guilty of what she had been doing.

She said we could figure out a middle ground and I couldn't take our son away from her. I told her that it was impossible to spend my life with someone who could show her nudity and nakedness in front of the whole world just for the sake of easy money. I know she didn't care about our son at all. I asked her if she had any idea how humiliating it was going to be for Robert when he got to know from his friends or people around him that his mother sold her nudes for a living. Have you thought of the consequences we are going to face because of your greed? She remained silent and then started arguing, saying that it was partially my fault and that she had no choice. I told her she clearly had a choice and she chose to be a re instead of being broke. Her face disgusted me and I left the house with Robert for my parents.

I worked over time and did as many jobs as I could for her and my son, and still, she was an ungrateful, disgusting, immoral BTCH, and I could never accept such a person back in my life I've been living with my parents for the last one week. Jessica didn't try to contact me or our son. The divorce paper is supposed to come in the next few days and I want this to be over as soon as possible. Update 3. Hello everyone. I finally got rid of my ex-wife for my life. Few. It took days for the divorce papers to reach her. During the divorce process, Jessica and her parents filed a case against me for complete custody of Robert. I had almost lost the case. They made me look poor and unavailable father who never did anything for my son. Like I said, her parents are well off and they claim that I won't be able to provide a good

life for Robert. And that's when I made them ask her about her job and if she is a suitable guardian for a 10-year-old. Obviously, I cannot leave the custody of my son to Jessica's parents I told the judges and showed the proof of her immoral acts and how her reputation will take a toll on Robert's mental health and social value. I don't want my son to go through bullying. And that's how I got the complete custody of him. Robert himself was not attached to her mother, but I did allow her to meet him whenever she wanted. Jessica's parents and her siblings blamed me for her actions. They said that she chose that path because I couldn't give her the life she deserved.

They never wanted Jessica to marry me and this whole scenario gave them another opportunity to make fun of me. The joke is on them actually if they really can see. Anyway, I don't give a S-H-T about anyone now. I'm just happy to have a peaceful life with my son. I lost a fortune going through this, but it was worth it. As for her, I heard she is still there on that adult site, selling her nudes to make money. Thankfully, I didn't forgive her and dodged a bullet. I hope you enjoy this story.

Established a business with my closest companion, and subsequently had to terminate my sibling for embezzling from us. However, it emerged that our guardians coerced him into doing so, was giving them all the money. Hi, so I, 33F, run a company of my own with a friend of mine. We deal in wooden furniture and have a fairly successful business. We started this business eight years ago from scratch when the two of us were just 25 and quit our jobs together to start something of our own. That turned out to be pretty much the best idea of our lives and we are very proud of what we

have accomplished. My friend, Patty, and I both went to business school, and while she had her parents take care of her tuition, I had to make my own way, because my parents had always made it very clear to me that they could only support me. A high school was over, but after that, I was on my own. My mom was a kindergarten teacher and my dad was a car mechanic, so it wasn't exactly like we were rich, but they did their best. From a very young age, it had been drilled into my head that I had to be successful, and I had to make my own money because that was the most important thing. So I worked very hard and thankfully, I managed to get a scholarship before college, so 75% of

my tuition was waived off and what I actually had to pay. I took out a student loan to get it covered and recently finished paying it off a couple of years ago. My brother also followed in my footsteps and went to the same business school a few months after I had graduated. My brother, Finn, 29M, unfortunately, did not get a scholarship so he had to rely entirely on student loans and racked up a much bigger debt than I did. Lucky for him, though, by the time he graduated, Patty and I had already started on our business journey, and we invited him to work with us. For a year or two, we were struggling financially, and it was difficult for us to not give up,

but then all of a sudden our sales started shooting up because one of our products had gone viral on social media. So we finally became profitable and started expanding our range. Finn was responsible for handling our finances because he was great at math. much better than the two of us and we also trusted him because he was family. We were doing great and everything was going well for a certain period of time but then, I started noticing discrepancies in financial books that Finn would show me, and he would pretend it was not there until I pointed it out and then he would claim that

it was just a mistake and he would have it corrected immediately. But I knew he didn't make mistakes. I started suspecting that something was going on so I decided to go through the books myself and I found out that somebody had been stealing money from the company. I talked to Patty about it and she said that she had also noticed the same, but had been scared to bring it up with me because it was not something nice that she was going to be saying about my brother, but she suspected that it was him. It almost felt like my bolt had been turned upside down when we came to that realization

because Finn and I were incredibly close, and I couldn't believe that my baby brother was stealing from me. Patty and I worked really late one night and ran through the financial accounts with a fine-toothed comb and found that he had been guilty of misallocation of funds and had been getting away with it for a few months, and there was no denying it anymore. I was disheartened, and I almost pressed charges against him because I was so disappointed in him, but Patty was the one who talked me out of it and told me that regardless of what he had done, he was still my brother. So she told me that I would regret pressing charges against him in the long run or suing him, and there was no need for it at all.

We could just deal with it ourselves and have him fired while making sure it's all hush-hush. I decided to go with that because she was right. I loved Finn and I didn't want to hurt him in a way that would be irreversible, but I knew that I had to cut ties with him because this was just unacceptable behavior. The next day, we confronted him about it, and to my surprise, he didn't even try to deny it. He just accepted it all and said that he would resign himself, he didn't have to fire him. When I asked him why he had stolen from the company, he refused to give me an answer and just walked away. That was the last time I spoke to him after that, I pretty much cut him out of my life entirely.

He had broken my heart and betrayed my trust, and I couldn't forgive him for it. I already let him off the hook easily by not suing him for what he had done. That's the most that I could do for him. I couldn't forgive him, because that was not something I thought that he deserved because he had not even given me an answer as to why he had done it in the first place. He had apologized, but it was not enough for me. I did talk to my parents about it as well and they said that they were shocked by his conduct. They said that they had known about it, and had they known anything, they would have cut ties with him long ago.

They said that they found the entire affair quite shocking because Finn was not the kind of guy to be dishonest or steal, but they said that maybe he was just struggling with money and couldn't bring himself to ask me because I was. Already so successful and he was working for me anyway, so his pride didn't allow him to fall even further. At the time, I thought it might have been a legitimate theory, but with time, it started seeming more and more unlikely. Because Finn and I had a great relationship, and he never envied me. He always just asked me for whatever he needed and even when he needed a job when he had graduated, I was the first person that he approached. We didn't have any competition or rivalry going on and even I didn't look down on him for any reason. But that was the only theory that I had at the time, so I never questioned it, and it was better than not knowing why he did it at all.

So for years, I believe that he had been stealing from the company because he was too proud to ask me for help. He got paid a handsome salary, but it's never enough for anyone and maybe he just got greedy. That's what I kept telling myself for yours until a few days ago, when Finn reached out to me, after almost five years of not speaking to each other. I hadn't heard from him after he was let go from the company and since then, we have grown exponentially, and we're doing quite well now. The last that I had heard, he was working in a much smaller law firm and had moved away from everyone, and was living in the suburbs. He didn't keep in touch with anybody, not even our parents, and it was hurtful because I thought that my brother and I were

really close and he would never do anything to ruin our relationship, but I was wrong. For a long time, I held a grudge against him because I couldn't come to terms with the fact that he had wronged me so badly. But then, he sent me an email a couple of days ago and that explained everything. In that email, he mentioned that he had stayed away and kept secret for five long years, but now that things have changed for him significantly and he is about to get married, he wants me to be there for him and doesn't think that he can continue this act anymore. I was confused by what that meant until I read the rest of the email. He went on to tell me that not only had my parents been in on the fact that he had been stealing

from the company, but he had, in fact, been stealing for their sake. I couldn't make sense of what he was saying, and I thought that he was lying, but then he attached proof of him, sending large amounts of money from his bank account to my mom's account and they had all the right dates and looked legit enough. Besides, five years had already passed, and there was no reason for him to be lying about anything now because he didn't stand against this. He told me that a couple of months before he had started stealing, my mom had come to him and said that they needed his help because they were struggling financially, and my dad's car repair business wasn't doing too well because now,

people just relied on bigger names, and the locals like him had been forgotten for the most part. And, my mother was also considering quitting her job because she was too old to continue running around after little kids for very little money. But they still had bills to pay and food that they needed to eat to sustain themselves, so they were asking my brother for help. They could have just asked me directly, but they were asking for such a huge amount of money that they were afraid of asking me because they felt like I would say no. They lied to my brother and manipulated him into thinking that they had apparently already asked me for help a couple of times before they had come to him, and I had said no to even making any little contributions and that is why they

were asking him for help now. They had lied to him and made up a lot of stories about me, about how arrogant I had become and how I had refused to help them out several times, and even insulted them when they asked and called them beggars. I had not done any of those things and I never would because it's just not me, but I guess my parents were the ones who were too proud to ask me for help and they thought that manipulating my brother to steal from the company was a much better idea than just coming to me for help directly and requesting me to take care of their expenses. And my brother, bless his heart, as smart as he is with numbers, he's just as stupid when it comes to matters of personal life. It was all our parents' idea for him to be

dishonest while working for him, and even though he felt guilty about it, he continued to do it because he believed that he was going to return the money to me eventually anyway, and was going to make sure that he got the means to return all the money to me and come clean to me before it all went too far. He was just about to tell me the truth because he wasn't comfortable stealing from us anymore when we found out on our own, and he was fired. He couldn't bring himself to expose our parents because they had made him promise not to ever say a word about this to me. He figured that he had been fired, he would go to our parents and tell them about it and they would fix the situation by telling me the truth, but instead, they threw him under the bus, and said that they had nothing

to do with this anymore. They did a complete 180 and said that if he said anything to me, they were just going to deny everything and say that it was his idea, and then it would just be his word against theirs. He fought with them a lot, but they were not ready to take responsibility and he was so depressed at the time that he didn't even think it was worth it to go back to me and tell me the truth because he had lost faith in everything. So, instead of coming to me with the truth, he just decided to disappear from us. He found out later that I was still in touch with our parents and I was still supporting them financially but now, the only difference was that the middleman had been cut out and they were taking money from me directly because now, they were not too

proud anymore. He had been very disappointed in several times. He had wished to tell me what had actually happened years ago, but then he figured out that what I didn't know could never hurt me, and so, he kept his mouth shut for my sake, because he knew that family meant everything to me, and had already been betrayed by my brother. I would probably find it a lot more difficult to deal with. I found out that my parents were in on it as well. I thought his logic was very flawed, because if anything, if he had actually told me the truth, then I would have forgiven him because it really did seem very out of character for him to do something so dishonest. But he is an emotional fool, which is how he got caught up with my parents and their reckless

plan in the first place, and then he stayed silent about it for ages because he knew that my parents needed the help, and if he turned me against them, then they would be completely on their own and would end up broken homeless. So he sort of became the sacrificial lamb and continued to suffer in silence so that nobody else would have to. I found myself very emotional when I read that email and he had attached his phone number at the bottom so I could call him if I wanted to reconcile with him and as soon as I was done reading it, I called him up immediately. And he answered,

It was a very emotional conversation for both of us, but we did manage to put it in the past, and he invited me to his wedding. We also decided to meet in a couple of days so that we could actually discuss everything that had happened because it was just crazy to me that he had been suffering for so long and had allowed himself to become a doormat for our parents, who turned out to be pretty much the worst people on this earth. We haven't met yet, but I have already confronted my parents about what I found out through that email.

I visited them that very evening and showed them that email and asked them what that was all about. For a few minutes, they started to deny everything, but then I told them that this was their one, and only chance to be honest with me, and if they didn't tell me the truth this time, then there would be dire consequences. and they had to take my threats seriously because they depend on me for everything and I'm essentially

the one who has been taking care of them for the last few years. As it turns out, I had been the one taking care of them anyway before that as well, I just didn't know about it. When I told them that there were consequences, they finally dropped the act and told me that everything that my brother had said had been true and had indeed been manipulated into taking money from me and being dishonest with me. And their reason was just as stupid as what they had done. They told me that my dad's business had been struggling, and my mom was too tired to continue working, so they really needed the money to fall back on. But my dad was too proud to ask me for help and so, my mother had the plan that she eventually put into action. She manipulated

Finn, and she knew that it would be easy for her to do so because he was quite innocent and naive. Once that was done, it continued for a few months before my dad found out about the truth. My mother had been telling him that they were still getting money from her savings that she had put aside a couple of years ago, but later on, he realized that there was no way she had saved up such a huge amount of money because her salary wasn't high enough. And secondly, she was much too much of A to be able to save up that much so she had to come clean to him. For some reason, while my father was too proud to actually ask me for money, he didn't have any qualms about living off of stolen money. He told me that by that time, he had accepted the fact that desperate times call for desperate measures and was ready to do whatever it took to keep surviving. And he also felt that he had a huge role to play in my success. He was the one who had paid for everything whenever was a kid, so now it was

my turn to pay him back for everything. In his eyes, he justified everything by believing that he was just taking back the money that I owed him. So my parents made their peace with it by believing that I owed them money anyway, and they were just taking back what was rightfully there so they had nothing to feel sorry about or feel ashamed of. They changed their minds but never felt that it was important to tell me the truth so that I could make things right with my brother, and just continued to shamelessly take money from me after they had thrown Finn under the bus and ruined my relationship with him, accusing him of stealing, and claiming that they knew nothing about it. Was furious when I found out the truth, and I decided immediately that I was going to cut my parents

out of my life because they had no right to be part of it anymore. They had betrayed me in the worst way possible, and they had done something that they were never going to be able to fix. I would never get back those five years with my brother, and I was never going to be able to forgive them for that. So I told them that I was done with them and they could stop counting on me for help. I told them that what they had done was just not okay and I just couldn't accept it and let it go. They tried to tell me that it had been five years since then and acknowledged that they had been very stupid in dealing with their problems, and were way too egoistic for their own good, but at the end of the day, I was still their daughter, and it was my duty to help them

out when they needed it. But the thing, though, it might have been duty had they been good parents to me, which they had clearly not been. What kind of parent ruins the relationship between two of her kids just for their own selfish gain? And it wasn't even as though any of the things that they did made any sense. They were just doing things to protect their own false sense of pride when it suited them, and when it didn't, they had no issue, changing their minds about it. But the only people who suffered because of all of this were me and my brother, and that was not fine with me anymore. A line had to be done somewhere and I was the one who was going to draw a boundary with them. They kept insisting that I was making a big deal out of nothing and now that things were fine

between Finn and I, I had no reason to be mad at them. It was just unbelievable how ignorant they were, and it took all my strength to not scream at them because I knew that would be pointless. All that they cared about, all that they could see was their own interests, and if something didn't serve them, it was useless to them. That's what they had done with my brother. They had used him and then discarded him and he was no use to them anymore and who's to say that they wouldn't do the same to me? I ended up getting into a really nasty verbal fight with them

which ended with me walking out of their house and making up my mind that I was never going to look back because my parents were not the people that I had believed that they were. And since then, it's been a total crap fest because they haven't stopped calling me and I don't have it in me to block them yet. I feel like a horrible person because in spite of everything that they have done, they are still my parents and they are old and have nobody else to count on. I know that they screwed up in a very big way, but I feel like if I abandon them then I'm

letting them down and being a bad person. I talked to Finn about it and he had nothing positive to say about any of this. He told me that he had been facing the same dilemma when my parents were. first approached him to ask for help. Neither of us knows what to do but one thing is for sure, if we don't help them, nobody else will, and they might have to go back to working. Which would be really bad because both of them are pretty old now and I don't think it's a good idea for them to go back to work. But the alternative is to continue helping them out with money, which just seems very unfair. I don't understand what I should do right now. I'd offer telling my parents that I won't

help them out financially anymore after I found out that they had scammed me and ruined my relationship with my brother? Update 1. Okay, my brother and I met for lunch yesterday. I still haven't blocked my parents so they do keep texting me, but I have muted their notifications so I don't get bothered by it constantly. I have also archived their chat so I don't have to be reminded of what I am ignoring every time I open my phone to text somebody. Finn and I forgot about all our problems as soon as we saw each other and it was really nice to see him and talked to him after so long. He has changed a lot in the past couple of years

and has been dating a woman for the past two years. And it turns out, his fiancé, Jackie, was the one who convinced him to reach out to me and tried to make things right by telling me the truth. Because he didn't need to take the fall for my parents in order to be a good son anymore and she was right. I'm going to meet her in a couple of days as well and I'm very excited about it.

But then we started discussing what we were supposed to do regarding the situation with our parents, and we hit a dead end once again because there was just no correct solution to any of this. I know most people in the comments said that there was nothing wrong with me wanting to cut my parents out of my life after what they had done, but I know logically it's the right thing to do and I don't have anything to feel bad about, but I am human and I do feel bad. The world would be a lot easier to understand if it functioned on the basis of logic and rationality, but unfortunately, that's not how the world works and I am not an emotional, feeling robot, who just does things because it's the right thing to do and it makes sense to do it.

So while I am fully aware of the fact that it would be better for me to just cut off my parents, I can't do that, because I have to think about the consequences of it as well. They are bad, but that doesn't mean that I have to get down to that level as well. A lot of you guys called me a doormat and whatnot for even considering forgiving them or staying in touch with them, but I don't really care about it. This is the real world and I have to think about a lot of things and factor in the consequences of my actions before I come to a conclusion. So Finn and I are still talking about it, but I hope that we will be able to reach a common ground soon enough because I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to hold my parents off.

Update 2, hey, so Finn and I have been talking on the phone for the past couple of days. It's been three days since we met, and we have finally come to a decision about what we should do regarding our parents. The two of us have decided that we are going to cut them off, but we are going to still continue to send them money. From what we know, they did have a retirement fund, but my dad put all his money into reviving his car repair business a couple of years ago, and that went bust as we all know, so they don't have any money of their own anymore. That's why they have to rely on us. So whether we like it or not, we can't leave them, but we can stop talking to them so they know that we don't want a relationship with them anymore.

Finn and I have also decided that he's going to join the company back again, now that we know that he was innocent. I've already spoken to Patty about it and she's completely fine with it because she thinks that he's a good guy and deserves a second chance, especially since the first time that he was fired. It was not even his fault. I mean, apart from the fact that he was manipulated and lied to, his intentions were good, and his heart was in the right place. But this time, things are going to be different, and we're all going to make it. sure of it. Update 3, So Finn and I finally spoke to our parents, and we let them know that while we were

still willing to cover for them financially, we would not be keeping in touch with them. We visited them last evening and told them that for all their necessary expenses, they could rely on us, but for everything else, they had to make their own way. They were not in agreement with this, and there was a lot of drama. My mother kept crying and my dad claimed that we were being selfish and disrespectful towards them, but I couldn't see anything wrong about any of this. What we were suggesting was far more generous than they deserved. Had we been a little less considerate, we probably would have cut ties with them altogether, and not even bothered to help them out later.

Judging by what they had done, we were being quite generous. The two of them were pretending to be the victims here and claimed that they had always been good to us, but we couldn't do the same for them. and that's when I lost my car and started screaming at them because scamming me out of money and then manipulating my brother counted as being good parents then boy did I have some news for them. I really told them off because I just couldn't take the fact that they were pretending to be the victims even in a situation like this, where their lies had been caught, and they have confessed that what they did was messed up. It was crazy to me that they were still trying to portray us as the bad guys because clearly,

anyone in their right mind would know when to drop it. They could have just accepted our deal and let it go, but they had to create a whole scene for no reason. So they ended up losing us altogether and my dad had a lot to say. He said that he would rather be homeless than take money from us. And honestly, it was fine with us. So we left their house, and that was it. Now we don't even have to keep in touch with them or give them money.

They rejected it themselves, so that's it. Finn and I, however, are going to keep in touch obviously, and in a few days, he's going to set up a meeting for the three of us, including his fiancé. I'm really happy that we are reconnecting because I had lost a lot of time with my brother and it's going to be nice to finally have him back. I hope you enjoy this story. Father requested that I cover the expenses for my step-siblings university education and assured to reimburse me. However, when I required the funds for my wedding years later, he declined due to certain circumstances. Doesn't approve of my fiancé. I, M. 33, have had a very rocky relationship with my family for the most part.

I've tried my best to be understanding and accommodating, and I believe my parents have too, but I guess that hasn't been enough to ensure a cordial living environment. When I was 10 years old, my parents got divorced. I wouldn't say I felt any resentment at that time, only relief because living with both of them under the same roof was no simple task, especially for the faint-hearted. I grew up with the most dysfunctional set of parents, who were always fighting and screaming about one thing or another. I was made their referee or mediator at a very young age, and I remember having to resolve

their fights or get them to talk to each other on bad days. On some days, when I felt overwhelmed, I just didn't. come back home from school and went to stay with my paternal grandparents, they lived a few blocks away. It was only with them that I felt some respite, and they doted on me, so I loved being there. They tried to intervene in my parents' issues, and when they realized that their efforts were futile, they tried to tell my parents that it wasn't my job to be the adult in the house and take care of their issues. But I guess all of that fell on deaf ears. Moreover, I never felt that what I was doing wasn't what normal kids do, because I had grown up being the tethering point for my mom and dad.

I had to bear this responsibility since the beginning, and I never even imagined that wasn't what other kids spent their time doing. So, when the divorce was happening, I was relieved. I spent two weeks with each parent, and it was only in that situation that I actually began to thrive. There was no more shouting, no more anger, just one on one time with one parent at a time, and I loved every bit of it. I got their attention, I got peace of mind, and I got a lot of free time to do what I wanted to. One good thing about them was that after the divorce, they never once complained about each other to me. They might have had issues with each other, and they might have ran into friends,

but they chose never to do it with me, and I am very grateful for that. The constant barrage of hate against each other stopped the moment the divorce was finalized and mom moved out. Five years later, when I was 15, my father remarried my stepmom, Savannah. Savannah and I have shared a cordial relationship thus far. She has never tried to be mom to me but has always tried to include me in the family unit. She is a good woman and I have nothing against her. The initial period of adjustment with her was hard, but all in all, things turned to me.

turned out reasonably okay. The only issue was her daughter, Gemma, now 25F. She was seven years old when Savannah and dad got married, and if I'm being honest, she was a bit of a brat. My dad, in order to keep the peace, bent over backward to accommodate Gemma and all her ludicrous demands. Anytime she did something to anger or trigger me, he defended her by saying that she was a kid and was trying to adjust to moving to a new house, which is why I had to be the bigger person and not create a fuss. A few examples of what happened after she moved in was that she took over my entire room. Since she was supposed to stay there permanently, and I was there for only 15 days a month and would anyway be leaving in a couple of years for college, I had to be okay with this

compromise. Well, I wasn't. I didn't want to give up my room or even share it with a strange kid half my age. My dad was insistent that the maximum compromise that could be reached would be that she and I would be sharing a room. Savannah stepped in at that time. I don't know if it was because she wanted to protect her daughter from a stranger or she didn't want to antagonize me, or a mixture of both, but she said that taking away my room would be cruel and they would fit Gemma in somewhere else. It was her urging that ultimately made Dad leave things as they were and not the fact that I didn't want to change my room. It felt weird knowing that he didn't listen to me but listened to his new wife. That was the point when the dynamics changed for me. I didn't like being at dad's place,

and it wasn't because of his new wife and daughter, it was because of him. He was the one who made me feel unwanted. It was only because of Savannah and her efforts that I continued going there, to be honest. She took an active interest in my life, tried to spend time with me, and and made food that I liked when I was there. It was as though she saw Dad being negligent, and she tried to cover up for him. Gemma was a whiny little girl and I generally stayed away from her, and Savannah never forced me to form a bond with her daughter either. It was generally Dad who tried to push the U.R. Siblings Now Narrative.

Three years later, while I was about to leave for college, Dad and Savannah had a kid together, my step-sister Ashley, now 15F. There is too much of an age gap between Ashley and me to form any sort of relationship with her. Even though she's technically blood, I have no bond with her. When she was born, my dad called me aside and told me that he was in a bit of a rough spot, so he wouldn't be able to help me with university, and that I was on my own. That came as a big shock to me because I had always been told that both mom and dad had saved for my college, and the combined amount was enough for me to not rely on loans.

When he backed out, my mother pitched in more to try to minimize my loans. I still had to take loans, but they were not as hefty, and I have held good enough jobs after college to be able to keep paying them off. However, this kind of permanently strained my relationship with Dad. This was money that had been promised to me, and he used it for his new family. I rarely went to Dad's place after that. I had very low contact with him, but surprisingly stayed in touch with both Savannah and Gemma. I guess it didn't matter to my father that I was no longer in his life because he had a kid to take care of again.

We were low contact for almost the next seven years, in which I graduated college, got a job, and moved cities, even lived abroad for a year. However, when I was 25, Dad reached out to me again. He tried to engage in some small talk, but I knew there had to be a reason for him to get in touch with me. And then he said it. It didn't take him long. Apparently, Ashley had had a medical emergency a few months ago, I had known about it from Savannah and regularly asked for updates, and it had been a huge financial strain for them. Savannah had some money saved for Gemma's college, but Dad had used it all for Ashley's medical bills without Savannah's knowledge. So, he was begging me to help with Gemma's tuition fees and said that he would repay every penny to me. I didn't want to help him out, I wanted him to face the consequences of his actions.

And I told him so. I told him that he had failed me as a father, and I had hoped he would do better by Gemma, but clearly that was not the case. I told him this was exactly how he had left me stranded when I had to go to college, and now he was doing the same to Gemma, and that too after literal. stealing the money meant for her. I told him that I had taken out loans, and so could Gemma, but he said that she did not have the support of her biological father like I had support from my mother. I disconnected the call. I knew I would help Gemma.

She was a sweet kid and I had nothing against her, but I didn't want to deceive Savannah. So, I called up my dad again and told him that the only condition that I was willing to help him out with was if he was honest with Savannah, and that if he promised to pay me back. He said that he did not want to involve Savannah, but I said that I wouldn't be shelling out a single penny if he wasn't honest with her. He cut the call, and I thought that was the end of it. But three days later Savannah gave me a call. It sounded like she had been crying, and she just thanked me for everything I had done. I told her that I would help out Gemma with the tuition fees, but that I would be giving the money to her and not dad because I did not trust him. She agreed and that was that.

Even Gemma called me up, thanking me, and we have had a better relationship since then. Now comes the real issue. I am engaged to my fiancé Mihira, and she is Afghan by ethnicity but was born and brought up here. This has rubbed my father the wrong way, and he has made sure to be very public and vocal about his disapproval. Not that I care, because I don't have a functional relationship with him anyway. My mother and Savannah both like Mihira and Gemma and she are quite close. So, all the people that I care about have a good opinion of her, and that is what matters to me. We are planning our wedding, and I went to my dad, telling him that I need him to pay me the money that he owes me, aka Gemma's tuition money, and that I wanted it soon because that would go into funding the

wedding. My father told me point blank that he would not be giving me any money if I planned on getting married to that immigrant scum. I told him what I did with that money was immaterial, and he had no right to hang it over my head like a sword. It was my money, and he owed it to me. Even if I used it to wipe my ass for the rest of my life, he did not have a say in it. He wasn't doing me a favor or lending money to me, he was only returning what was rightfully mine. He said that he would not be doing it to fund my wedding and that I could do whatever I wanted, but he wouldn't budge. To say that I was furious would be an understatement. There were a lot of harsh words spoken, and I uninvited him to my wedding. I also told him that I would be exposing his treachery

to his family and the world, but I think he did not take me seriously at that time. I decided that instead of going nuclear, I would just let the close family know how he was deceiving me. So, I drafted a long text, detailing how he stole Gemma's money to take care of Ashley, and then came begging to me for help, and promised to return the money to me, only to backtrack the minute he found a reasonable excuse to not pay. This was the gist of the entire text because it is too long to replicate here. Anyway, I sent the message to my mother, Savannah, Gemma, my paternal grandparents, and my father's sister and her family. I kept Ashley out of it because she is a kid, and she should not be knowing all this. I hadn't expected any drama or revelations

in response to my message. Frankly, I had only done this to vent my frustrations and anger, and a part of me regretted it too because I could afford the wedding on my own. But I am so glad I did because it opened a huge can of worms and now it is for all to see how big of a scum my father really is. A day after I sent that text, my paternal grandfather, grandpa from now on, called me up. We exchanged pleasantries, but he cut to the point soon enough. He asked me if what I had sent in those texts was the truth and if I had actually helped my dad with Gemma's tuition. I said that I had and that I had loaned him quite a lot of money for the same. He asked me if I was sure that he had said that he had used up the money for Ashley, and I said that I was

completely sure. That was when Grandpa told me his side of the story. So, when Ashley fell sick, Dad called up Grandpa immediately. He said that he was facing financial difficulties and that he did not know how to arrange for Ashley's medical expenses without taking on huge debt. He said that he had Gemma's college fund, but since he had no access to that, he could not use it for Ashley. I cut in and told my grandpa that dad had told me that he had, in fact, complete control of those finances and had used them, and that too, without Savannah's knowledge. I also told him that I had to intervene and tell Savannah that he had used up Gemma's money. All in all, what I gathered from the conversation was that Gemma's money was not used for

Ashley's bills, because all of that was paid for by my grandpa, and even he was assured that the money would be returned to him. Gemma's college fund, therefore, was taken by Dad for other reasons that he has not yet disclosed, and no one knows, Savannah and Dad were in it together, and just wanted to scam me out of the money. I felt so nauseous after I cut the call. It was as though I was stranded among scammers and cheaters, and not one of them could be trusted. I felt as if I had ruined my wedding because all this was just too much for me to handle, and that too right before the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I called up my mom and told her everything.

She just told me to cut this crap out of my life, and that I could fight these battles later. She said that I was getting married to a good woman and that I owed it to her and myself to not let other people ruin this experience. She said that I had all the time in the world to take Dad and Savannah to task, but this was not the time. I knew she was right, and surprisingly, I didn't have to do anything or even wait, because my grandpa was furious, and he was back with his little revenge that was about to completely screw my

dad, for all time to come. So, the house that Dad and Savannah live in is owned by my grandpa. He gave it to Dad to live in when he married mom, and then never asked for it back. It was anyway assumed that the house would go to my grandpa when he passed. He also never charged dad rent, but dad had to pay for any upgrades and changes that he made to the house, which were plenty. Now, for the drama, my grandpa sent a message to the family group that he would be gifting me a house for the wedding to allow me to start a new life with my wife. He said that he had done the same thing for my father, and was going to do the same for me, considering the fact that his son had not thought of doing anything for his son. It was a poorly masked jive of my father,

and I was all in for the show. But what he wrote next was completely unexpected. He said that the house that was supposed to go to my father, the one that Dad was living in, but was still legally owned by Grandpa, was the one that he would be gifting me. I know that he has done it out of spite, and I am sure even Dad knows it.

The thing is, I do not live in the same town as Dad, and have no plans of returning, and this is a well-known fact in my family. The ownership of the house will of course be a huge asset for me, but I won't be staying in that house, at least until I retire. But my dad will. That has been his only home for so many years now, and to take that away from him and give it to me is a deliberate and hard slap in his face. I am not saying that I feel sorry for my father, not at all, but I know it would feel horrible to be in his position right now. With the actual ownership coming to me, he now knows that he is always at my mercy, in the sense that I can have him evicted, I can ask him for rent, I can do anything, and without reason.

I mean, of course, I can't flout rules, but let's be real, we all know how much power homeowners have over their tenants. I have no idea what the outrage regarding this is going to be, but I am sure that there will be something. My father is going to make a huge fuss about it, I am sure of that, but I can't be bothered with this unnecessary drama before my wedding. I will gladly accept the gift from Grandpa. Whatever the reason, he has given it to me, and I will respect him and his gift. I don't know what I am going to do with it yet, and I am not going to waste time thinking about all this right now, either. Update 1, well, shit has hit the fan. My wedding is a week away, and the family is in complete shambles.

I tried to stay away from the drama as much as possible, but I just couldn't. I was forcefully dragged into it, even when I tried to maintain boundaries. After Grandpa had made it known that he was gifting the house to me, this caused a huge stir because Dad, I am sure, never even anticipated that something like this could happen. He called me up a couple of times, but I didn't answer his question. calls because I knew all too well what they were going to be about. He then sent me a text saying that I needed to knock some sense into Grandpa and said that he was ashamed of the man I had become because he had not raised a petty person like me, who would turn his back on his own family.

I didn't respond to this text either and have since blocked him. He has been trying to get in touch with me through other sources, even getting Savannah to call me. She called me once, but when I didn't respond, she was respectful and hasn't tried calling me again. When nothing else worked, he started sending me emails. He is getting desperate and it is showing. I try my best to ignore his nonsense, but it is mentally taxing to wake up to five emails every single day. I just dread waking up in the morning because I know that there is something waiting for me. He is still invited to my wedding as of now, but I want to cancel the invitation.

I know it will send a bad message, but at this point, I don't care. I can't even look at his face right now, and if I am being honest, I need distance from Savannah too right now. I am scared he is going to pull off something during the wedding as well. I called up my grandpa and I told him that he needs to ensure that all this drama is kept away from me until I'm back from my honeymoon. I told him that I didn't care what you do, you needed to make sure that this didn't spill over onto my wedding and my honeymoon. I have already dealt with a lot due to the family, and I don't want to screw up the one important day of my life. Grandpa assured me that he would make sure Dad didn't do anything and that I would not be contacted about all this until I was back for my honeymoon. I hope nothing bad happens, but in the event that it does, I will just deal with it once I am back.

I have a lot on my plate and I cannot allow myself to deal with a father who doesn't care about me and has used me like a cash cow right now. Update 2, I am now a married man. Mejira and I returned from our honeymoon a few days ago, and it was amazing. I had the time of my life there, and thankfully, no one from the family disturbed me, they couldn't because most of them were blocked. I thought the drama might be over by now, but boy, I was completely wrong. I hadn't even imagined that things would be so dire by the time I returned. I got a call from Gemma yesterday, asking to meet her in Savannah.

I told her that I wasn't very comfortable meeting Savannah, I had uninvited them from the wedding because I just couldn't handle the stress. She said that she understood my apprehensions, and so did Savannah, but she still wanted me to meet them just once so that they could clarify everything. I was reluctant, but I said okay because I didn't want to let Gemma down. She was an innocent party, and I did not hold anything in. against her. She said that both she and Savannah were actually in my city and that they wanted to meet as soon as possible. The meeting was, well, long. It was awkward between me and Savannah

initially, and she congratulated me on the wedding. I told her that I disinvited them primarily because of Dad, and also because I thought maybe somewhere she was complicit in the entire situation of extracting money out of me using Gemma's education and Ashley's health as a front. The minute I said this she broke down sobbing. She said that she had no idea that Dad had actually taken money from Grandpa, and then proceeded to tell me what happened. By the time she had told me the entire story, I had literal flames coming out of my ears. So, Ashley was sick, that part is true. Dad had used some of his savings for her treatment, but that was not enough. So, he said that he would ask Grandpa for money, and promise Savannah that he would give the money back to

Grandpa. She said fine, and that was the last she heard about the money from him. Ashley got better, and for her, everything was back to normal. So, when she found out all those years ago that he had used up Gemma's money, she was furious and didn't believe it at all. When she asked Dad about it, he just told her that he had used up that money to repay Grandpa. He concocted an entire sob story about how Grandpa was pressuring him, that he had no choice at that point but to use that money, and that I had offered to help myself. Savannah said that she was very embarrassed by the entire situation, but was still very grateful to me for the help. Their marriage hit a rough patch during that time, and it took them a lot of counseling and therapy to get back to normal. She said that all that came crashing down when Grandpa said he would be gifting the house.

to me and disclosed to her that he had never received the money back. She said it felt like someone had slapped her across the face. She asked him where the money was. He tried to lie and make his way around it but ultimately admitted that he had an affair, and the affair partner was trying to out his secret to Savannah. In order to shut her up, he had to give her that money, and only then did she leave him alone. Once the cat was out of the bag, it was over for them. Savannah has since then moved out of the place and they are headed for a divorce. She said that Dad had been trying to get her to reconcile, but she said that cheating was something that she was just not willing to condone.

I couldn't believe my ears. So much had happened in that meeting that I just did not have the bandwidth to process that information. I consoled her and we then left. I have been in touch with both her and Gemma, and I plan to continue doing so. I just feel horrible that I disinvited her for no fault of hers. She was, in fact, the biggest victim in all of this. I can only feel rage and disgust right now.

I cannot believe my father would be a cheater, on top of being a fraud. I mean he is the worst combination ever known to mankind, and I don't want anything to do with him ever again. I just want to help Savannah out and do right by her, even though she was failed by my father. Update 3, I am now charging my father rent. He is continuing to live in the same house, and I told him that I needed him to sign an official agreement to continue residing in the house. The rent is a good amount, and that coupled with the divorce and the process is going to bleed him dry, and he deserves it.

I have also decided that I will be splitting the rent two ways, and sharing it with both mom and Savannah. Savannah will be getting the larger share because she was always a stay at home. home mom, and she needs the money now more than ever. My mother, on the other hand, has been a working woman all her life, and she does not really need the money. In fact, she was the one who gave me this idea and was of the opinion that all the money should go to Savannah. Mahira and I don't need the money for ourselves. We are comfortably placed where we are, and we could easily do without the additional income. The same cannot be said for Savannah, and I feel it is my duty to help her

She was there for me when my dad wasn't, and I want to thank her for all that she has done for me. I know she isn't going to accept the money, but I will make sure that she does. My father reacted poorly when served with the rent agreement and tried to get other family members to manipulate me into taking back the agreement. But unfortunately for him, the entire family now knows that he is a filthy, filthy man, and they don't want anything to do with him either. He tried to get in touch with me via texts, calls, and emails, but all of them were unanswered and well documented. He then tried to get to me via grandpa, but he gave him a stern reality check

which has since then calmed him down. He is not on my head asking me to reconsider for the past few days. I think he has understood that given the circumstances, he cannot really expect anything better. Savannah is going to try to get full custody of Ashley, though that doesn't seem very likely at the moment. Dad is better place to take care of her financially, but his incompetence as a parent is not difficult to prove. I don't know what will happen on that front, but I genuinely hope that Ashley stays with Savannah. Savannah is a great mom and she will do well with Ashley. I cannot say the same for my father. Funnily enough, I can say the opposite. for him with every ounce of conviction.

I hope you enjoy this story. My future spouse invited my former tormentor from secondary school to our marriage ceremony as an unexpected attendee and labeled it a playful joke, but after I canceled the wedding, he shared on social media. Media calling me crazy and controlling. Had things been normal, or rather ideal, I would have been on my honeymoon at this moment, instead of writing a stupid Reddit post to get perspective from people I don't even know. I had no idea life would turn around to be so cruel and unpredictable. I should be in Greece right now, with the man I consider to be the love of my life before I broke my trust, carved a dagger out of it, and pierced my heart

with it. I was supposed to get married to Duncan, M28, who I've been in a relationship with for three years now. The relationship was never problematic, so I had never anticipated that something like this could happen. It was actually one of my best and most secure relationships, which is why now I feel like maybe I did overreact and cause such a fuss over what was a harmless prank. In high school, there was a guy named Aaron who was the stereotypical bully. He was good at sports, a little dumb otherwise, and unnecessarily cruel. There was no reason for him to be this wicked and wild. I know there is a general tendency for everyone to look for some sob story and try to whitewash every villain that they come across, thanks, Disney, but there was absolutely no redeeming quality to

Aaron. He was just pathetic, disgusting, and a bonehead, and honestly, with the kind of stunts he used to pull off in school, he should be rotting in some kind of remand home. The problem was that his father was a powerful figure in our city, we come from a small town, so nobody could do jacks about him. Everyone in school knew he was a bully, and nobody had the guts to stand up against him, not even the teachers. One day, I had had enough. I went to the principal of the school to complain, and he said that he would look into it and do something about it. A month passed, and nothing happened. Aaron hadn't stopped, so I knew the principal hadn't done anything. I went to the office again, this time with my dad. My dad forced the principal to make a written complaint so that it was

in the school records. I was too young to understand that at the time, but now I do. Dad knew that if we tried to escalate the situation outside the school, the principal could just claim that I had never come to them with a complaint. So Dad ensured that we created a paper trail that couldn't be refuted. Things got serious. Aaron was called to the office, and his father was called. The father didn't turn up, he was too busy, you see. On another day, his mother was called, but she didn't turn up. This happened three times, and no parent came.

So ultimately, it just boiled down to the principal giving him a verbal warning that this should not be repeated, and if it did, the school would have to take action against him. Everyone knew that the school wouldn't take any action against him. But most importantly, Aaron knew that nobody could touch him. He was invincible, and that was the moment when the bullying got exponentially worse. Earlier, it was just insults and things, but now it devolved into actual pranks. like he would tip the guy in the school cafeteria to put a roach in my food. He would lace my usual class seat with gum, and that would stain all my clothes. He was clever about it.

He wasn't abusing me either physically or verbally but had resorted to some mean and twisted kind of mental torture, which was somehow hilarious to everyone else around me. Whenever I tried to create a fuss about it, I was called a prude and a snob, and that I had no funny bone in my body. All in all, the experience was. horrible, and even though it was a decade ago, I sometimes still have nightmares from it, and I hate Aaron with every fiber in my being. There is no way that I would ever forgive him. Even if he has changed, which the grapevine tells me he has, I don't care. I don't owe him

forgiveness, and I am never going to forgive him. Aaron became a part of my past that I buried deep inside me once I left for college. I went out of state, graduated, and have never been in contact with him or in touch with him since. Both of us have a few mutuals on social media, so I would get to see him in a group photo or something once in a while, but that was the extent of it. For me, the Aaron chapter was over the minute I stepped out of school, and even though I am still traumatized by what he put me through,

I had mentally just stopped engaging with his memories or that part of my life. When I met Duncan around three years ago, we hit it off pretty quickly. Six months into the relationship, however, he tried to pull a funny prank on me. He was the self-proclaimed prankster of his group and was quite proud of it. I had come to know this in the initial few weeks of us dating. However, I had made it very clear to him that I was not one for pranks and that it just triggered bad memories in me. He seemed to understand it, but six months in, he tried to play a prank on me. I got wind of it beforehand, and I thwarted his plans. We had the biggest fight of our relationship at that point in time,

was very close to breaking up with him. I told him that if he couldn't respect such a basic demand that I had from him, I actually and he could do whatever the hell he wanted to. I was out of this mess. It was a bad fight because he said that it wasn't such a big deal and I needed to grow a funny bone. It just kept on getting worse, and I got horrid flashbacks from school. That was when I broke down and told him what had happened to me when I was in school. He was quiet for a moment and then apologized profusely. He said that, that he had no idea that I had gone through this, and he was very sorry. He seemed sincere about it, and I thought that I should give him the benefit of the no-all-my-trauma associated

with pranks. This was two and a half years ago, and he had never pranked me again, until the day of our wedding. I had honestly completely forgotten about that incident, I had no reason to remember it. I know it was a massive fight, but things got resolved, and he was genuinely remorseful, so we pushed past that bump. Now, coming to the day of the wedding, everything was going smoothly. It was a small ceremony that we had planned with a couple of friends and family, and I was very happy. I was certain that he was the guy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and I thought

that everything was perfect. Duncan had mentioned that he had invited a special guest to the wedding a few weeks ago, but I didn't really pay much heed to it. I thought that it would be his old grandmother, I love her, she's a sweetheart, and she had told us that she wouldn't be able to make it. I had thought she had somehow managed to come anyway. It's around half an hour before I am to walk down the aisle. There are a million things running through my mind. I try to call Eloise, my maid of honor, but the call isn't going through. I panic a little, calm myself, and then call Samantha, a bridesmaid. The same thing. The call

isn't going through. I try Neha, another bridesmaid, and it says the same thing. By this point, alarm bells are blaring in my head. I call Jonah, Duncan's best man, and he says that he can't see anyone from my wedding party, essentially the bridesmaids and my maid of honor, and he was about to call me to check if everything is okay. I asked mom, who was with me at the time, to call dad up and find out what was happening, and she comes back all flustered, saying that nobody has any idea where these guys are. I am hyperventilating at this point, and I am genuinely scared because I can't get through to anyone. I asked Jonah to not tell Duncan, because I don't want him to get worried. Little did I know that this was his doing all along. I try to sneak into the wedding

hall in order to figure out what the hell is up, and what I see just makes the earth shake from beneath my feet. It was Aaron at the door. I don't remember anything else. I just remember gasping and collapsing on the floor. I was completely frozen, I couldn't move my damn body, and a few people actually had to carry me away. There was a lot of commotion for the next couple of minutes, I remember that much. I faintly remember Duncan coming towards me. He was concerned, I'll give him that. But when I got better, I don't even know how long that took. He started laughing. He said that I should have seen my face, and that it was the best prank he had pulled in ages. I looked at him in disbelief. By that time, my mate of honor and bridesmaids

had come, so I asked them where they were. They said that they had been locked inside a room and their phones weren't reachable. Duncan was the one who had called them there, and he had even taken away the phones of some of them. And Aaron was the one who had locked them inside. I hissed at Eloise, she has been my friends since school, and she knows about the entire Aaron thing. I asked her why he was here, and she said that Aaron was the special guest Duncan was talking about. Even at that point, I couldn't get what these guys were saying, so I asked all of them to leave and told Duncan that I wanted to talk to him. He said that we could talk after the ceremony, because it was getting late anyway. I didn't budge, and I asked him why Aaron was there.

The thing is, he knew who Aaron was. I had shown him photos from school, so it wasn't as though he had no idea who Aaron was. Apparently, Aaron got a job in the same office building as Duncan, and both of them actually hit it off a few months ago. When Aaron found out that I was the one Duncan was engaged to, he was overjoyed, what an absolute moron, because he thought that since we had a friendly history together, things would be better. I asked Duncan why he encouraged Aaron, or even became friends with him, and his response was that Aaron had actually told him the truth of the matter. Apparently, Aaron's version was that he was not a bully, but rather a jokester, and I used to be very sensitive. That was why Duncan decided that it was best if Aaron came to the wedding and we could

bury the hatchet. I was too stunned to speak. I don't know what came over me, but I took off my ring and handed it to him. I told him that we were over, and there was no wedding happening. All hell broke loose. I went outside, announced that the wedding was off and thanked everyone for coming, and just took off with my family. I really don't know how my friends handled the mess after that, but they did, and they haven't told me what they did because they don't want to stress me out. This was last week, and Duncan has gone crazy. He has been blowing up my phone, my parents' phones, his family is continually trying to get in touch with me, but I have just iced him out. I have been so numb these past few days, and I can't even think straight. And if that's not all, he has been

slandering me all across social media, saying things like I couldn't have taken a single prank, and that I was a prude and whatnot. It is a mess, and I really don't know how the hell I got into this mess. Things were perfect between us, and it wasn't supposed to be this way. I don't know what made him pull that prank. I don't even know what led me to take that decision. I saw Aaron, and everything came flooding back. And I think even at that point, I hadn't thought of calling the wedding off. When I heard Duncan's excuse and justification for what he did, I just lost it. I couldn't believe that the man who had known me for so long, whom I had confided in and shared the most traumatic part of my life with, had suddenly decided to believe my abuser over me. He had no reason to do

that. He hadn't even told me that Aaron was working in the same building. To me, even associating with him was wrong, but maybe I am overreacting. Because I am all across social media, and Duncan has been cussing me out. Everyone says that I have been very dramatic about all of it, and that it was foolish to throw away three years over one stupid joke. My parents and my friends support me, and they say that I was in the right to do what I did. But they also say that eventually I will have to talk to Duncan, and I can't keep avoiding it for all time to come. I know that I will need to talk to him, but God, I don't know what to say. I am second-guessing my own decision right now. Maybe all the others.

are right. Maybe I could have handled it better. Even if I was annoyed, I could have just resolved it in a different way rather than choosing to go all nuclear. I don't know what to do, and I don't know where life is going to take me. Update 1, it has been two weeks since my last post, and I have finally had some time to think about what happened and why I reacted the way I did. It wasn't easy, but it had to be done. I also went through every single comment that you guys posted, and though I didn't reply to some of them, I have read all of them. I am so thankful for you and your advice, and I'm glad I came to Reddit for help. You guys have opened my eyes to so much that I was willing to brush under the carpet

because my ex-fiancee was a prankster. I didn't even realize exactly how bad the situation was and how demeaning and insulting it was to me as a partner. To all those who pointed out just how big of an A-hole Duncan is, I want to say thank you, because even though he has been great in all the years before this, this is something that is not excusable, at least in my eyes. The funny part is that because I still haven't spoken to him about what happened on the wedding day, he is continuing to spew ST about me everywhere.

In public, he is acting as though everything is my fault, but privately, he has been begging me to talk. I wanted to be done with the drama, so I had gone to meet him yesterday. He wanted to come home, but I said that I would only be willing to meet him in a public place. We met at a cafe, and the meeting was a disaster, to say the very least. I had hoped, stupidly, I admit, that he would at least have had some remorse, that he would have used this time to introspect and dig deep to understand why I reacted the way that I did. But no. He was his usual cocky self, and I had had enough of it. He started off by saying that I had reacted very

poorly, and it had shamed him in society. He also said that it wasn't that big of a prank, and it certainly did not warrant such an overreaction. I let him speak to his heart's content and then tore his argument apart bit by bit. I told him that the fact that he had even invited Aaron to the wedding was weird as hell. Why would you even think of bringing my abuser to the day that is supposed to be the most special one in my life? He had the audacity to scoff at me and say, I know how big of an abuser he was, Mel. I had never in my life imagined that he would stoop to this level and say something so cruel to me, but well, maybe I had never seen this side of him. It took every ounce of strength in me to not jump across the table and slap him square in the face.

I told him that if he believed a literal stranger over me, the woman he wanted to marry, then to say, and that I was glad I called off the wedding. He rolled his eyes, and I believe he was still treating it like a minor fight and not a breakup. He said that I was being dramatic for no reason, and I needed to calm down and talk rationally. I told him that there was no more talking to be done between us because he clearly didn't believe what I said. Moreover, he chose to believe my abuser, call him to the wedding, all for what? A few cheap laughs. And nobody found it funny except him. It wasn't even a good prank at that. He then said something that just made me lose all respect for him. He said that he was willing to forgive me and take me back, in spite of my silly

shenanigans. But I needed to publicly admit that I was being dramatic. It was like talking to and listening to a goddamn wall. He was being so obtuse about the entire thing, as if I was the one at fault. And at that point, I realized that he genuinely believed that it was me at fault. He kept on insisting that I needed to stop taking all this so seriously, and I had had enough. He was being a bonehead, and I had no interest in talking to him anymore. I just handed him my ring, and I think that is when he realized that I was dead serious about us not being together anymore. His entire demeanor changed in an instant.

It was pathetic to watch, honestly. He started begging me to reconsider, saying that he made a mistake and whatnot. The change was disgusting because I knew it wasn't genuine. I told him that if it took me returning the ring to realize how big a of a mistake this was, then he is an immature little schoolboy. I told him that we were done and that I was not reconciling with him. He begged me to sit down so that we could talk more about this, but I was done. I walked out of the cafe, and I felt so much relief and power in that single instant. The feeling is indescribable. He has been blowing up my phone since then, apologizing,

saying that he now realizes that he was wrong. But I haven't been responding at all. What is the point of realizing all this now, when I have called off the wedding and given my ring back? I don't need his sick apologies anymore. I know it's going to hurt in the longer run. We've been together for three years. We had planned an entire life with each other. So yeah, it is going to be difficult, and it will probably hit me in a couple of days, the magnitude of it all.

But it is what it is. I can't force myself to be with him again. He hasn't just betrayed my trust. I have also lost all respect for him, and for me, there is no coming back from that. None at all. So yeah, there goes three years, and there goes everything else, but at least I can sleep at night knowing that I made the right choice for myself. Update 2.

I took the advice of a lot of you around here and decided to clear the air myself. After my meeting with Duncan, he was acting all needy and clingy for a couple of days, after which he went radio silent. I had thought that maybe he had understood that it was over for good between us, and good sense had prevailed. I was wrong. I got a frantic call from Eloise,

who told me that Duncan had posted a long, a sobbed story on both Facebook and Instagram for the world to see. It was a very one-sided, half-baked attempt at trying to garner sympathy, and any last ounce of respect that I felt for him evaporated the minute I finished reading all that he had written.

He had basically called me, me every name in the book and told the world that I was the one causing him distress because I was jealous of the fact that he was making new friends, aka Aaron. He tried to portray me as a batsty crazy, controlling partner, writing things like I'd always been this way, and he had had to compromise on friends and friendships because of me, that has never happened. He tried to paint me as a toxic woman who had a problem with anyone that wasn't me, so much so that I was insecure over a friend that he had made in the office, and the worst part according to him was that the friend was a man, so there was no chance of anything happening between them. He pretended to be all

good and submissive in the post, saying that he would have understood and even relented had his friend been a woman, but given the way I was behaving over a male friend, going to the extent of canceling the wedding and not being open to reconciliation, it showed that I was egotistical, insecure, and narcissistic. He threw together whatever words he could find and tried to malign me in the worst way possible. I had never thought that he could stoop to this level, but he proved me wrong again. And I knew that I had to do some damage control. This was getting completely out of hand, and it was time for me to play some offense, or he would just whitewash everything that he had done and become the victim in the entire situation. It took me an entire day to sort out my thoughts

and write whatever I did. The text slash post is too long to copy here, but it didn't really say anything other than what I have already mentioned in my original post. I made sure to include the part where I was bullied by his new friend in school and that I had told him early on in the relationship that I had an aversion to pranks of this sort. I didn't mince words, I didn't try to be nice about it. But I also did not lie. Every single word that I put out for the world to see was the truth, and that was exactly what was not palatable to Duncan. To say that the post blew up would be an understatement. All the people who were whining over what a bitch I was and consoling and cajoling Duncan were now storming my DMs to apologize and get their act right. I was flooded with

texts and calls, surprisingly none from Duncan himself. I just got a text from him a day later calling me a stupid bitch, and that was it. I then blocked his numbers because I don't need him in my life anymore, and I certainly don't need any more of this drama. The surprising thing that happened was that his mom reached out to me. I have always liked her, she has been the sensible kind, even though we haven't interacted a lot to be considered close. She told me that she had heard a very different story from Duncan and that she was sorry for not asking me earlier. She said that she had believed her son, and that she now realizes that that was a mistake. She apologized on his behalf, and I told her that she didn't have to. Out of all the people that reached out to me,

her apology and message seemed the most genuine, and she didn't even have to apologize if I am being honest. It wasn't her fault that her grown son was behaving this way. I thankfully haven't had anything from Aaron yet, and I know I won't. If he still had the gall to stand in front of me and play that stupid prank on the day of my wedding, I can make a fairly accurate estimate of how much he would have matured in all these years, zero. The narrative has changed now, and people are boycotting Duncan, both for being in a whole and for lying about everything for social media brownie points and sympathy from internet strangers. It's sad how things have turned out for him.

It's sad for me, too, because the adrenaline rush from all this drama is going to wear off soon, and I am dreading that because that is when I will have to face reality. It's not something that can be avoided, and now I think it's time I rip the Band-Aid off. It has been a long time now, me swimming and drowning alternatively in this godforsaken mess. It's time I got myself out of it. I owe it to myself and my parents and friends who have stood by me in this entire episode. Thanks to all of you who supported me and made me stand firm on my decision because I was very close to retracing my steps and going back to Duncan when I had first posted.

I am glad I didn't go through with it, and I didn't let him gaslight me into thinking that I was the one overreacting. Hopefully, things will get better from here onwards. Update 3. I'm going on a trip. Duncan and I had originally planned that we would go for our honeymoon a couple of weeks after the wedding. Well, now this is no honeymoon, but I had spent conventinginged. considerable money on the bookings, so I thought, why the hell not? I am going to go for a solo

trip to Southeast Asia. I know it might sound weird to a lot of you, but I need a break, and after being in a relationship for three years, I need to restart, and more importantly, rediscover how to do things myself. I have had no contact from him now, which makes me really relieved, and also a bit sad because no matter what happened, I do miss him. Of course, I am not going to go back to him, but it isn't easy letting go of an attachment that lasted for so long. So I need this trip in order to get back on track and get my mind off things. The situation isn't ideal, but I need to learn how to make the best of it. I hope you enjoy this story. Child openly criticized me after supporting my former partner and the divorce and

cutting ties with me. Many years later, she attempted to disrupt my wedding and is currently demanding an apology. I. 45F. got married for a second time a week ago to James, 39M. He and I have been together for the past four years after we met through some common friends and after living together for almost two years, we finally decided to make it official. But my wedding was almost ruined by my daughter and James

had to kick her out to prevent her from causing a scene at the wedding. And now everybody is blaming me and accusing me of having failed as a mother because she was really upset at being kicked out. My daughter April, 19F, wasn't even invited to the wedding and I know it sounds bad but I had valid reasons for not inviting her. She and I had no contact a couple of years ago because she had taken her dad's side in the divorce and had publicly insulted me. My ex-husband Donald, 47M, and I got divorced six years ago because we just weren't compatible anymore and I was sick of trying to make our marriage work. He and I got married really young when we were in our early

20s and had April shortly after. Things started changing and getting difficult for both of us once we had a daughter because now, there were several more expenses that we had to think of and Donald just wasn't taking his job seriously. It felt like he was never going to get promoted and I would have to continue doing everything for him. He was incompetent at all the household work and I could pretty much say the same thing for anything to do with April. He was just lazy and it was like he wasn't even interested in stepping up and helping me out. I got tired of of doing everything on my own and being with him was becoming exhausting for me, but I still pushed myself and tried to make that marriage work for several years. I had fallen out of love

with him way before I even filed for divorce, but I was trying to make it work for the sake of our daughter. Unfortunately, even April was becoming like a miniature version of my ex-husband and expected me to constantly run after her and do everything for her. It was really difficult for me to deal with both of them since I was not only working in the office, but I didn't get a moment to myself even after I came back home and they would make me do even the most basic of tasks for them. And the worst part was that they were never even grateful for any of it and practically treated me like a maid around the house. I just got sick of it one day and I decided to move out without telling anyone and then I filed for divorce. My parents and a couple of my friends were

really supportive so I didn't have to worry about where I would live or even about finding a lawyer. Donald tried to get me to come back when he was served with the divorce papers and said that he would change but it was too little and too late for me. So I rejected that and said that I was going through with the divorce and he couldn't change my mind. He tried many times to win me over and get me back but when, even after almost a week and a half, I still hadn't changed my mind. He changed gears and told me that he was going to make sure that I regretted the divorce. He hired one of the best divorce attorneys with the help of his father, who was paying for everything, and decided to file for full custody of April and tried his very best to make sure that I didn't get much

from the divorce. His lawyer was ruthless and it was a really long and difficult process for me personally. Because they were dragging my name through the mud and I just didn't stand a chance since they had manipulated all the facts and made me seem like an unstable and selfish person. Worst of all, they had portrayed me as a terrible mother and April had actually been part of it. She had made a very public post on social media during the divorce where she claimed that I was a bully and that I constantly kept picking on her. She said that I made her miserable and she wanted nothing to do with me after the divorce. She added that she wanted her dad to have custody and wished that I wouldn't even have visiting rights. That was pretty much the final nail in the coffin because if April herself didn't want to live with me,

then there was no point of a mediator or any custody battle. She had made it very clear to the world that she preferred Donald over me and would rather live with him. So the custody battle ended with Donald getting full custody of April and I got visiting rights, but they would have to be supervised. I did get the house and the divorce, but that was about it and it broke my heart because I had wanted my daughter to be on my side and to realize that her father was not the man that she imagined him to be. She was just 13, which is probably why she didn't understand that being the fun parent wasn't enough and that he was raising her to be just as lazy and incompetent as him. It would be cute for a while,

like it had worked out for Donald while we were in college. But that sort of behavior wouldn't fly when she was in the real world and didn't have her family to shield her from real life responsibilities and expectations. It was devastating for me, but I still tried to keep in touch with April, in spite of the things that she had said about me, because she was obviously being misled by Donald. Even during the divorce, before she made that post, I would often pick her up from school to spend time with her and she would try to convince me not to go through with the divorce. And I would try to tell her that I was just miserable in that marriage and it was better for all of us if her father and I separated. We would argue about it, but she would at least talk to me.

In the weeks leading up to that post, she just cut me off, and even when I would try to pick her up after school to hang out, she would blow me off to spend time with her friends or make up some excuse and avoid me. It was very clear to me that something had changed and it was Donald who had convinced her that I was the bad guy here. Nonetheless, I tried to keep in touch with her after the divorce, but she just wouldn't speak to me. And because Donald had full custody and I could only get supervised visits, he had a lot more control over her and made sure that I didn't get to see her more than once or twice in six months. I tried to reach out to her online, but she blocked me there. I even tried to renegotiate the custody terms, but my lawyer advised me against it because it was just too soon and they had already

painted a very negative and unstable image of me. I was also struggled. I was also struggled. at work so it was just not a good time for me and I made one of the most difficult decisions that I have ever had to make. I showed up at Donald's house unannounced one day and demanded to see April. I caused a racket when he said no and April came into the living room to check out what was going on. When I saw her, I asked her point blank if she wanted me as her mother or not. I didn't beat about the bush and I tried not to let any of my emotions show on my face. She thought about it for a while and then she told me that she didn't consider me her mother anymore because I had broken up their happy family because I was too selfish to think about her so now,

she wanted nothing to do with me. I had already seen that coming but I just wanted to hear it from her before I cut her out of my life. Just so I would at least have the satisfaction of knowing that I tried my best and wouldn't have any regrets in the future. Once April had made it clear to me that she didn't want me to reach out to her anymore, I stopped trying because I needed to get my life back on track. It was a really difficult call for me to make because I had to cut the most important person out of my life and it was devastating for me, but I powered through it somehow and threw myself into my work. I did keep tabs on April and I knew that she was doing well in school. I wanted to reach out tomorrow a couple of times, but I held myself back because I felt like

if she wanted to talk to me and make things right with me, then she would have to take the first step. Because now that I was older and had already gone through so much, I was too fragile to handle another heartbreak at the hands of my own daughter. So I didn't talk to her for years after the divorce, which is why I didn't even consider inviting her to my wedding. For starters, I didn't even think that she would want to be invited because if somebody doesn't reach out to you after almost six years, then it probably doesn't even occur to you that this person might want to reconnect. So when the invitations were sent out, I didn't include my daughter on the list because we hadn't spoken for a really long time and I didn't want to get insulted once again.

But somehow, she managed to find the details of my wedding, probably from some loose-lipped relatives, and then showed up on the day of my wedding. I got really lucky because by the time she turned up, James and I were already done with the ceremony and we were just about to have our first dance as a married couple. We had a really great security team because they knew better than to bother us while we were in the middle of something. Instead, they waited until they knew for a fact that we were done with our first dance and then they summoned us outside to ask if April was wanted at the wedding or not.

Apparently, they had caught her trying to sneak inside the venue after they had denied her entry the first time. April looked furious and demanded that I let her in because, after all, she was my daughter and she deserved to be at my wedding. Honestly, I was so shocked to see her that my brain just stopped functioning and I couldn't come up with anything to say to her because this was the first time that I was seeing her as an adult. seeing how shaken up I was by April's arrival, my husband decided to take over and told the

security team to take her away because she wasn't on the guest list and our wedding was no place for her if she wasn't invited. So they escorted a kicking and screaming April out. James and I spent some time alone on the bench outside so that I could process what happened since I was really shocked. I absolutely hadn't been expecting April to show up at any point because she had never expressed any interest in my life ever since the divorce. It took me a while to realize that this was my wedding day and it was about me and James, so it was okay for me to want to celebrate this without making this day about anybody else. After I had pulled myself together, we decided to rejoin all our guests and take my mind off

April and her sudden reappearance. We had a really fun day and by the end of it, I had almost forgotten that April had even showed up at the wedding. But I was reminded of it the very next day when Donald called me for the first time after the divorce to berate me about what my husband had done. He was really pissed off because he believed that James had no right to have her kicked out, especially when this was my wedding that April wanted to attend. He told me that April had showed up at the wedding so she could extend an olive branch and make peace with me, but James had ruined it by having her escorted out. Apparently, she had been

really upset and humiliated by what we had done and Donald believed that I was responsible for it. So James and I owed her an apology. I told him that I wasn't going to apologize because that was my wedding day and if she wanted to really reach out to me and make things right with me then she should have done so before and I would have even invited her to the wedding. But the day of my wedding was supposed to be about me and James and I didn't think there was anything wrong with us kicking her out because we had several valid reasons to do that. The first one was that she had tried to sneak into the wedding and even when she was caught, she had a really nasty attitude and was acting as though she was entitled to attend a wedding that she hadn't been invited to instead of just apologizing and dealing with it nicely. So we knew that she hadn't changed since I had told James all about April and her behavior

in the past. I think he judged the situation correctly and made the right call by not letting her in. Also, James and I had planned for months to have a perfect wedding and the invitation had been sent out several weeks ago, so if she knew where to show up, I was assuming that she had known about the wedding for a really long time. If she had really and truly wanted to make comments with me, then she would have reached out before the day of the wedding instead of leaving it for the very last minute. That was just really suspicious and it made us feel like she had just been looking for an opportunity to sneak into the wedding and ruin it. And that's why James had not let her in, he had to make that decision on his own. I thought that these were all valid reasons and told Donald

that April would just have to deal with her disappointment. He didn't take that well and accused me of being a failure of a mother. So I reminded him that I hadn't been her mother for the past six years, thanks to the custody arrangement that they had asked for. I also reminded him that April was the one who had said that I wasn't her mother and that's the reason why I'd even cut her off. He was the one who had turned her against me, so now he had no right to be mad about the fact that she and I didn't share a relationship of any sort.

He got annoyed and hung up on me when I said that and I thought it was over, but then he got more of his family members to contact me and tell me that I was being a terrible mother. He, along with his entire family, is now accusing me of failing to understand my daughter's feelings and it's getting to me. James doesn't think that we did anything wrong, but I have started to feel differently and it's messing with my head. I'd offer letting my husband kick my daughter from my previous marriage out of our wedding because she showed up uninvited.

Update 1, Hi, so James and I would just like to thank everybody who commented on my original post and made sure that we knew that we were not in the wrong. We have since blocked Donald and everybody who was texting me because I don't need the kind of negative energy in my life and I don't need to question myself when it comes to my daughter. Honestly, my only regret is that I didn't block Donald a really long time ago. The only reason I didn't do that was that I had always expected that at some point, he would reach out to me and tell me that April wanted to speak to. to me. And well, I guess it kind of happened but not the way I had expected it would happen. Either way, I don't think that I'm a bad mother because I just decided to put myself first for one day. And it was my wedding day, mind you. It was supposed to be special for me. If April and Donald don't understand that, then well, tough. Because I'm not going to be apologizing to either

of them for sure. Now that that's out of the way, I would also just like to touch upon certain things that people had said in the comments of the original post. A couple of people had accused me of abandoning my daughter in the comments and I would just like to say that I had really fought hard to get custody of April. I think I made it very clear that even after the court order that April was going to stay with her father and I would only get supervised visits, I still tried to see her and get the order reversed. I did everything in my power to have a relationship with April but she was the one who rejected me, not just once, but every single time. And I really don't know what anybody else in my position would have done. I didn't abandon her because she was

living with Donald and she was quite happy without me for the last couple of years. That was very obvious. If she had wanted me in her life, then she could have reached out to me any time and I would have gladly accepted her back into my life, but the truth of the matter was that she didn't want me back. So she didn't reach out to me and I know that I'm her mother that should always forgive my daughter, even if she doesn't ask for forgiveness. But I'm also human. So I hope that clears things up because I would hate for anybody to think that I abandoned my daughter. Update 2. So it's been a week since I got married and April reached out to me today, but unfortunately it was not a nice conversation that we had.

She texted me in the afternoon and told me that she wanted to speak to me in person but I was at work, so I told her that I could speak to her once I got off work. And that was enough to make her snap at me. She accused me of not caring about anything apart from my work and myself. which is why I had cut her out of my life in the first place and let her grow up without a mother for all these years. She told me that she had been waiting for me to reach out to her and tell her that I loved her, but it never happened.

And even when she decided that she was going to make my wedding day a bit more special as a gesture of peace, I rejected that and let my husband kick her out. She told me that she had expected me to at least apologize to her the day after the wedding and accept that I had made a mistake by kicking her out but even that didn't happen and instead, I doubled down and tried to justify my behavior to Donald and the rest of her family. She ended her rant by telling me that she was disappointed by the way that I was treating her as if she wasn't even my daughter. That remark really got to me because, for years, I had been fighting for her to be with me. And I knew that Donald was the one who had alienated her

from me so he was the one to blame but even after she grew up, she didn't think that she owed me an apology. So I kind of lost my cool with her and told her that I had no regrets about what I had done because I didn't trust her anymore after that scathing and untrue post that she had made against me during the divorce. I had worked hard to salvage my marriage and build a relationship with April when she was younger but Donald spoiled all of it. And in spite of knowing the truth, she decided to go ahead and make that post against me so she could take her dad's side. That had broken my heart but I had still persisted and tried to forgive her because she was just a child and she didn't know what she was doing. So I kept trying to reestablish my relationship

with her, but she didn't want it and turned me away by telling me that I was not even her mother anymore. I reminded her of that incident and told her how much it had hurt and how depressed I was after that, but she had no idea about it because she just didn't care about her mother's feelings. In all these years, she hadn't even bothered to contact me even once and I couldn't forget that. Even on the day of my wedding, she showed up and made that day all about herself without bothering to think about how it would make me feel. I told her that if she had truly wanted to reconnect with me then she had the opportunity to do so before, but she chose the day of my wedding because she didn't even think about how I would take it. I told her she had grown up to be just as

selfish and entitled as her father and I wasn't going to speak to her until she decided to change. Because I was done dealing with the two of them. I had divorced Donald's several years ago already, but I had still been willing to hold out hope that April wouldn't turn out to be like her father. Clearly, I had been wrong and she was just like him. I told her she could reach out to me once she was ready to apologize, but until then, I had nothing to say to her and I didn't want to hear from her. I didn't give her a chance to continue the argument and disconnected the call immediately after I was done speaking. It didn't feel as good as I thought it would and I almost called her back to take back everything that I had said. Because even though we were fighting,

it felt nice since at least now she was talking to me and not pretending that I didn't even exist. It's weird, but that's how it is. Update 3 A couple of days have passed since April last called me. Honestly, I had expected her to reach out to me sooner, but it hasn't happened yet. I am a little disappointed that she hasn't contacted me yet, but there's not much that I can do. So I'm just trying to manage my disappointment by spending more time with James and planning our honeymoon, which we are supposed to leave for in a couple of days. James thinks that if we are meant to work things out then April will reach out to me before that.

So I really am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that she calls me before the honeymoon begins. But Donald has tried to reach out to me and obviously, whenever he tries to talk to me, it's never good news. He showed up at my office the day after I spoke to April on the phone, but I refused to speak to him. So instead of leaving like a normal human being, he decided to shout and tell me that I needed med to cut ties with April instead of trying to manipulate her into going against him. He also told me that the reason that she was just like him was because he was the one who had raised her while I was off romancing other men. That was way out of line and he had no right to say that so I turned around at that point and told him that I would call the cops and report

him for stalking if he ever showed up anywhere near me again. I was sick of him thinking that he could say whatever he wanted and get away with it and I wanted to scare him bad enough for him to stay away from me since I'd had enough of his BS. So I told him that I would call the cops if he didn't leave and he thought that I was bluffing until I brought out my phone and told him that I had already dialed the numbers. All I had to do was make the call and he would be in really big trouble. I could see on his face that he didn't want to leave because he didn't want to appear weak but after weighing the odds in his head, he decided to get into his car and drive away. Good for him, honestly, because I really would have called the cops if he didn't leave me alone.

When I told James about it, he suggested getting a protective order against him and I'd love to, but I don't know if we have grounds for it just yet. We have spoken to a lawyer just in case we need it in the future but right now, we're not doing anything because I don't think he poses an actual threat yet. He is weak and stupid and I'm not scared of him in the slightest, if I'm being honest. Update 4, hi, so there are just two days to go before James and I leave for our honeymoon and April finally got in touch with me today. I honestly couldn't be happier about it because things walked out exactly as I had expected

them to. Not only did she reach out to me, but she actually apologized to me this time and said that she had been a horrible person for the past six years. She acknowledged the fact that she had been her father's daughter all these years, but after speaking to me on the phone that day, she had done a considerable amount of soul searching and realized that she had made a mistake. She had tried to speak to Donald about it, but his reaction just proved what she had been afraid of, that he had been misleading her all along and alienating her from me for his own gain because he wanted to get back at me for the divorce. They got into a big fight on the day of our phone call in the evening and I suppose that's why Donald showed up at my office the next day to

berate me. But after that, April had been thinking about the way that she had been behaving with me and figured out that the way that I had reacted to her showing up at my wedding had been completely normal. Because I obviously didn't trust her the way that I used to and she had nobody else to blame for it but herself because she hadn't even apologized to me. She had realized that she made a terrible mistake, so now she wanted to set things right with me and make sure that she didn't waste any more of the time that we had together. It was a really emotional conversation and we decided to meet each other in person tomorrow and she even told me to bring James along because she felt like she owed him an apology as well. So we're getting together

for lunch tomorrow and I really hope that it goes well. Update 5, so James and I just returned from our lunch with April an hour ago and it was surreal. Because it felt like we were finally catching up on the time that we had lost and I had never even thought that this could happen. It was kind of emotional in the beginning and then after the apologies and stuff were out of the way, we started speaking to each other about everything that had been happening in our lives. It was quite fun to hear her talk about her time in college and then we shared the story of how James and I had met. We actually had a really nice time and we have decided that we are going to meet for either lunch or coffee once a week at the very least, along with therapy. This is going to be

quite a shock for Donald, but April told me she doesn't care about it anymore. And I'm really looking forward to fixing our relationship. I hope you enjoy this story. Remove my aggressive roommate from our residence late at night when she accused my spouse of harming the infant for consuming apple juice, but now her relatives are involved. Is calling me an a-hole? Some background I, 32M, and my wife, 25F, have been together for five years and married for three and are expecting our son right now.

We've had our ups and downs when we first got together because I was fresh out of a pretty bad relationship where my ex was basically emotionally abusive for years. She would constantly manipulate me, make me feel like everything was my fault, and isolate me from friends and family. It took me a long time to recognize the patterns and get out. I am my wife's first serious boyfriend,

which sometimes made things complicated in the beginning. She didn't have much experience with relationships and I was still dealing with baggage from my ex, so we had to figure a lot of stuff out together. There were some rough patches but we always communicated well. When we first started dating, I noticed pretty quickly that she was really hard on herself about literally everything. Like, she would make the smallest mistake and act like she had committed some terrible crime against humanity. She was always putting herself down and saying she wasn't good enough at stuff. even though she's actually really talented and smart.

It was honestly painful to watch someone so amazing talk about themselves like that. I remember this one time she was making dinner, she's a great cook by the way, and she accidentally overcooked the pasta a little bit. Not even that much, it was still totally fine to eat. But she got so upset about it and kept apologizing over and over like she'd ruined the entire meal. I tried to tell her it wasn't a big deal, but she was. was really beating herself up. That's when I started to realize something wasn't right with how

she viewed herself. Another time, we were at a friend's party and she accidentally knocked over a glass of wine. It wasn't a big deal, didn't even stain anything, and our friend was super chill about it. But my wife was practically in tears apologizing. She offered to pay for the glass, which was just some cheap IKEA thing, and kept bringing it up throughout the night. It was so disproportionate to what actually happened. After seeing this pattern for about six months, I suggested that maybe she should talk to someone professional about why she felt that way all the time. She wasn't super into the idea at first, which I totally get. Therapy can seem intimidating if you've never done it before. So I suggested we could do couples therapy instead,

even though we hadn't been together that long. I figured it might make her more comfortable if I was involved too, and honestly, I thought it could help me process some of my own stuff for my previous relationship. During those therapy sessions, I think we did like eight or ten of them, can't really remember exactly, she started opening up about her childhood. Holy shit. I mean, I knew her relationship with her parents wasn't great based on some comments she'd made, but I had no idea how bad it actually was. Her parents, especially her mom, were classic narcissists. They basically worshipped her brother and treated her like she was some kind of burden. Nothing she ever did was good enough for them. If she got an A, they'd ask why it wasn't

an A plus. If she won second place in something, they'd focus on why she didn't get first. If she cleaned the house, they'd point out the one spot she missed. Meanwhile, her brother could do whatever the fuck he wanted and they'd praise him like he was God's gift to the world. They paid for his college completely but made her work through school and take out loans. They went to all his games and performances but always had something come up when it was her turn. I remember sitting there in the therapist's office listening to all this and just feeling sick to my stomach. At one point she talked about how when she was like 12 or 13, she won some school award for a project and was so excited to show her parents, but when she got home they were too busy celebrating her brother getting on the basketball team to even look at it.

She said she ended up just throwing the award away because what was the point of keeping it? I'm not an emotional guy usually but I straight up cried hearing that shit. What kind of parents do that to their kid? The more sessions we had, the more of these stories came out. Like how her mom would buy her clothes that were deliberately a size too small and then make comments about her needing to lose weight. Or how her dad would compare her grades to her brothers even though they were in completely different subjects.

Or how they'd criticize her appearance constantly but praise her brother for looking handsome even when he rolled out of bed in wrinkled clothes. The therapy was good for both of us, honestly. It helped me work through some of my own baggage from my ex, and it really helped her start to see that the way her parents treated her wasn't normal or okay. Our therapist was great at helping her recognize the patterns of emotional abuse and start rebuilding her self-worth. She's become so much more confident. She still has moments of self-doubt,

but it's way better than before. She started standing up for herself more, pursuing her interests without constantly seeking approval and just generally being more comfortable in her own skin. It's been amazing watching her grow and become more assertive. For a while after we got married, we went completely no contact with her parents. It was hard for her but definitely for the best. The first few months were tough. She'd get these guilt-trippy emails from her mom or voicemails from her dad acting like she was being unreasonable. Sometimes she'd waver and wonder if she was doing the right thing, but ultimately she knew it was healthier to keep her distance.

Then about a year ago, they seemed like they were making some effort to be better, so we went to low contact. Like, occasional phone calls, sending holiday cards, that kind of thing. They sent a gift for our anniversary which was surprisingly thoughtful. Her mom even apologized for any misunderstandings in the past, which wasn't a real apology but was more self-awareness than she'd ever shown before. We were cautiously optimistic that maybe they had reflected on their behavior or whatever. There was this awkward period where we weren't sure how much to share with them about our lives. My wife would agonize over what to tell them and what to keep private.

She didn't want to give them ammunition to criticize her, but she also wanted to try having some kind of relationship if possible. It was a delicate balance. So that brings us to the current situation. My wife is seven months pregnant with our first kid, a boy. She was actually the one who suggested letting her mom visit from overseas. I was skeptical, but she really wanted to give her mom a chance to be part of our country. kid's life if she could behave herself. She had this hope that maybe becoming a grandmother would soften her mom somehow, or that her mom would be better with our kid than she was with her.

I supported her decision even though I had my doubts. Her mom arrived about a week ago, and it started out okay, I guess. A little awkward but not terrible. She brought some baby gifts which seemed like a good sign, and she was making an effort to be interested in the nursery we were setting up and asking about the pregnancy. There were a few subtle digs here and there, like commenting on how much weight my wife had gained or suggesting better ways to organize the baby clothes, but nothing major. But as the days went on, I noticed my wife getting quieter and more anxious. She started apologizing for stupid little things again, which she hasn't done in forever. She seemed tense all the time, like she was waiting for something bad to happen. At night, she'd vent to me about

little comments her mom had made during the day that made her feel inadequate. It was like watching her regress right in front of me, going back to that insecure person she was when we first met. I suggested maybe cutting the visit short, but my wife wanted to try to make it work. She kept saying it was important for her to try to have a relationship with her mom, especially with the baby coming. I think she was also worried about seeming dramatic if she asked her mom to leave early. That's always been something her parents accused her of, being too sensitive or making a big deal out of nothing. Then nothing happened for like three days, it was just this weird tense atmosphere in the house. I'd come home from work and could feel the negative energy. My wife would be super quiet

during dinner while her mom dominated the conversation. I tried to bring up topics I knew my wife was knowledgeable about or interested in, but her mom would somehow always circle back to stories about her brother or unsolicited advice about the baby. Then last night everything went to shit. It was pretty late, maybe 11.30 or midnight, and we had gone to bed. My wife got up to get something to drink because she was having pregnancy cravings for apple juice. I had to use the bathroom so I got up too. When I came out of the bathroom, I heard shouting coming from the kitchen. At first, I thought maybe someone had broken in or something had happened. I ran down there and found my wife standing there looking absolutely terrified with a broken

glass on the floor and apple juice everywhere. Her mom was screaming at her about how apple juice is bad for the baby and my wife was trying to kill the baby and she doesn't deserve to be a mother if she's so selfish and careless. My wife wasn't even saying anything back, she was just standing there with this look on her face like she was a scared little kid. It was the exact same expression I'd seen in old photos of her from childhood, this sort of of resigned terror like she was just waiting for the verbal assault to be over. I fucking lost it.

I didn't even think, I just started yelling at her mom to get out of our house. When she tried to argue with me, I told her if she didn't leave immediately I'd call the police and have her removed. She kept saying it was the middle of the night and where was she supposed to go, but I honestly didn't give a shit at that point. Our area has plenty of hotels, and she has money. I just wanted her away from my wife. She tried to appeal to my wife, saying something like,

Are you going to let him treat your mother this way? But my wife just kept staring at the floor. When I moved toward the phone like I was actually going to call the police, her mom finally started gathering her stuff. She tried to make a big dramatic scene about leaving, going on about how ungrateful we both were and how she was just trying to help. She made a point of saying she'd remember this when we needed. her help with the baby. Just more manipulation tactics. Eventually she called an Uber and left,

still complaining the whole time. After she was gone, I spent like an hour just trying to calm my wife down. She was shaking and crying. She told me that the juice she was drinking was actually fresh apple juice she makes herself from organic apples, not even the processed kind from the store. Not that it fucking matters because a glass of apple juice isn't going to hurt anyone regardless. But apparently, her mom had read some article about how too much fruit sugar is bad during pregnancy and decided to use that as ammunition to attack my wife. It wasn't about the juice at all. It was just another opportunity to make my wife feel inadequate and incapable of being a good mother.

My wife also told me that throughout the week, her mom had been making little comments when I wasn't around. Stuff like are you sure you're eating right. The baby looks small in the ultrasound pictures or I hope you're not planning to go back to work after the baby comes. Children need their mothers at home. Just constant little jabs designed to undermine her confidence. Since then, we've been getting calls and texts from her family members saying I'm a complete asshole for throwing an old woman out in the middle of the night. Her brother called and left this long voicemail about how I brainwashed his sister again.

the family and how I'm some kind of controlling monster. Apparently, her mom has been telling everyone that I physically intimidated her and made her feel unsafe, which is total bullshit. I never even got close to her. Even my own parents called to tell me I should have let her stay and dealt with it in the morning. They said I could have just separated them for the night and had a calm discussion the next day. Maybe they're right and I should have handled it differently, but seeing my wife so upset just

triggered something in me and I reacted. I know my parents mean well, but they didn't see how terrified my wife looked. Thing is, I don't really regret it. The look on my wife's face was exactly like the same terrified expression she used to have years ago when we first met and she was still under her parents' influence. I'm not going to let her get dragged back into that mental state, especially not while she's pregnant. I feel like the stress of having her mom around was probably worse for the baby than any amount of apple juice could ever be. It's been a day now and my wife seems to be doing better with her mom gone, but I keep getting these angry messages from her family. They've obviously only heard her mom's version of events. I blocked a few of the more annoying ones,

but it's still stressful. My wife is upset about the whole situation but also seems relieved that her mom is gone. I've been trying to make the house as calm and positive as possible. I took a couple days off work so we could just relax together. We've been watching stupid comedies and ordering takeout and trying to focus on getting ready for the baby. I think it's helping, but I know she still feels guilty about the whole thing. She keeps wondering if she should have tried harder to make it work with her mom, which breaks my heart because she's always been the one putting in all the effort. I keep telling her that it's not her job to manage her mom's emotions or behavior,

but it's hard to overcome decades of conditioning. She spent her whole childhood being told that any problem in the relationship was her fault, so it's hard for her to accept that some people are just toxic no matter what you do. So Reddit, Ida. I know kicking someone out at night isn't ideal, but I don't think I was wrong to protect my wife. Update Most of you agreed I was NTA which helped me feel better about the situation since I was really conflicted for a few days after everything went down. There were a few people saying I overreacted, and I've been thinking about that too. Maybe I could have handled it better, but in the moment I just saw read.

A lot of people were messaging me asking for an update, so here it is. A lot has happened since I posted, though honestly not as much as some of you were predicting in the comments. No, we didn't get a restraining order, L.O.L. And no, her mom didn't try to break into our house in the middle of the night. First off, me and my wife went to therapy again after this whole thing. We found our old therapist was still practicing, so we scheduled an emergency session. It was really helpful to have a neutral third party to process everything with. During the session, she opened up about why she had invited her mother to visit in the first place. She said she'd seen how her mom sometimes acted nice with her brother's kids,

and she had this hope that maybe her mom would be the same way with our son. She really wanted to give her mother one more chance to be a proper grandmother, which I get. Everyone wants their parents to be better, right? She said she had these memories of her mom occasionally being loving and supportive when she was really little, before her brother was born. And she kept hoping that person was still in there somewhere and could come back. It's like she's been chasing this idealized version of her mom that only existed in brief, moments. Our therapist explained that narcissists like her mother rarely change in any meaningful

way. They might put on a good show temporarily, especially when they want something, like access to a grandchild, but their core behavior usually remains the same. Some of you mentioned this in the comments too, and you were right. The therapist also pointed out that pregnancy is an especially vulnerable time, and having someone around who undermines your confidence can be really harmful. She helped my wife see that protecting our baby also means protecting herself from toxic stress and emotional abuse. That seemed to really click for my wife. After a few days of thinking and talking, my wife and I decided to write a letter together

and send it to everyone in her family who had given us shit about the incident. It took us like three evenings to get it right because we wanted to be clear but not overly emotional. The letter basically laid out the history of emotional abuse my wife suffered, reminded them that they all knew about it and did nothing to help her, and made it clear that we won't allow that kind of toxicity around our child. She included specific examples of things her mother had said and done during the visit. My wife told them all that she's done trying to be the bigger person and that if they can't respect our boundaries, they're welcome to fuck off out of our lives permanently.

We sent the letters both by email and regular mail to make sure they got them. Then we waited. For like a week nothing happened, and my wife. wife was getting anxious about whether they'd even read the letters. Then the responses started coming in. Her aunt, her mom's sister, was surprisingly supportive. She sent a long email saying she'd always seen how my wife was treated differently than her brother, but never felt it was her place to say anything. Which is kind of a cop-out if you ask me, but at least she acknowledged the problem. She apologized for believing my mother-in-law's version of events and said she'd like to maintain a relationship with us and the baby if we're open to it. A couple of cousins sent

similar messages. One of them even shared that her own mom, my wife's other aunt, had been kind of shitty to her too, though not as bad. Apparently there's a pattern of toxic parenting in my wife's extended family. Other relatives either didn't respond at all or sent brief, defensive messages. Her brother sent this ridiculous email about how my wife was always too sensitive and how their parents had sacrificed everything for both of them. He claimed my wife was just jealous of him and making up stories for attention. Real asshole stuff. My wife read two sentences of it and deleted the rest.

The most surprising thing that happened was when her father called her. This was a few days after we sent the letters, I think. Her dad has always been more passive in the abuse. He'd let her mom do the active criticism while he just silently withheld a problem. or attention. Sometimes that's almost worse because it's less obvious. When she told him what happened with her mother, he tried to do his usual gaslighting routine, saying it probably wasn't that bad and my wife must have misunderstood or overreacted. But my wife wasn't having any of it this time. She was like a different person on that call, so strong and clear. She straight up asked

him if he had ever actually cared about her because it never felt like they did. Then she just went off, listing every shitty thing they'd ever done to her from childhood onwards. Like how they forgot her 16th birthday but threw her brother a massive party for his. Or how they refused to come to our wedding because her brother had a minor league game the same weekend. All this stuff came pouring out of her, years and years of hurt and resentment. Her dad didn't say anything the whole time she was talking. I could hear him breathing on the speakerphone but he never tried to interrupt or defend himself. When she finished, she just said, as far as I'm concerned, I don't have parents anymore and hung up. She cried for hours afterwards, and I just held her. I also called my

parents to ask why the hell they hadn't taken my side knowing the history between my wife and her mom. Turns out her mother had called them crying, claiming I had physically threatened her and practically shoved her out the door, which is complete bullshit, I never touched her. She told them I was controlling and isolating my wife from her family, basically projecting all her own toxic behavior onto me. Once I told them what actually happened, they were horrified. They came over the next day to apologize to both of us. My mom hugged my wife for like five minutes straight and kept saying how sorry she was for doubting her. I'm an only child so my parents are pretty protective of both of us. My dad even offered to call my father-in-law to set him straight, but we told him

that wasn't necessary. We're trying to reduce drama, not create more. For now, we're just focused on getting ready for the baby to arrive. We've been finishing the nursery, crib is finally set up after sitting in a box for months, stocking up on supplies, and doing those childbirth classes online. My wife seems much happier and more relaxed with all this toxic family drama behind us. She still has moments where she gets sad about not having the kind of supportive parents most people take for granted. Especially with the baby coming, she sometimes talks about how she wishes her kid could have loving grandparents on both sides.

But then she reminds herself that it's better to have no grandparents than abusive ones. I'm not sure if we'll ever reconnect with her parents. Right now it seems unlikely, but who knows what could happen years down the road. My wife has made it clear that any future relationship would require genuine acknowledgement of the past abuse and real, consistent change in behavior. Not just hollow apologies or temporary good behavior. I might update again after the baby is born, depending on if anything else happens. Thanks again for all the support and advice.

I hope you enjoy this story. Spouse departed from my mother, but returned when he realized she didn't receive any inheritance and I did. Hello, I'm currently facing a dilemma. because of my deranged mother and equally stupid soon-to-be ex-husband who have teamed up to absolutely destroy my peace of mind just for their own greed. I wish I could talk about this to the people I'm friends with but this feels just too personal and embarrassing to discuss with anyone I know in real life and trust me, y'all will know why I'm saying that once I tell you guys what I'm going

through. I don't have much family to speak of so I can't exactly talk to anyone else either. So I'm here, turning to the Reddit community mainly to get this off my chest and also make sure I'm not the bad guy here in any capacity like I'm being made to believe. So this all started just two weeks ago when, out of absolutely nowhere, my husband of three years, let's call him Kevin, told me that he wanted to break up with me because he developed feelings for my mom. Yeah, you're reading that right, and no, I'm not joking. Believe me, I was just as taken aback as you guys probably are right now and definitely a lot more disgusted when he confessed when he told me that he'd been having an affair with her for three months now. I'd never noticed because I'd been busy with work and his behavior had really never been suspicious enough for me to take note anyway. For context, my mother is just 20 years

older than I am. I'm 27 right now and my mother is 47. My mother had me while she was in college, but my dad was never in the picture. He broke up with my mom the day she told him she was pregnant and even tried to get her to terminate the pregnancy, but she wanted an excuse to drop out of college back then, so she decided to have me anyway and told my grand, her mother, that she wanted to be a song. My grandparents were rich enough to let her do that,

but they still weren't happy with her decision to drop out of college. They tried to get her to go back after I was born, but she refused and instead, dabbled in a bunch of professions before settling on interior decoration. Not an interior designer, she doesn't design anything but just advises people on where to put their furniture and how to decorate their rooms to make it visually appealing. It's a whole rich people shindig so she's pretty good at it. She's not a qualified professional, but since my grandpa was a well-known realtor, he'd get her

jobs. My mom is the flakiest, most unreliable person I've ever known and she's really lucky that she belonged to an affluent family because otherwise, she'd be out on the streets. I was practically raised by my grandparents because my mother never had enough time for me. She wasn't busy with work, she was busy being a social butterfly while I was a kid and I actually used to think that my grandparents were probably my biological parents and my mom was my older sister or something. That's how I spent my childhood and by the time I hit my teens, I had no hopes for my mother because she was still just as carefree about her life as she was in the past.

My grandpa passed away while I was in seventh grade and then on, it was just me and my grand against the world. The world, including my mother, because most of the time, she was a total pain to deal with. I mean, if you ever have to explain to your mother as a 15-year-old why it's not a good idea for her to go to Iceland with a guy she met on Tinder just two days ago, then you'd know what my teen years were like.

She's a total idiot and has to be. has no concern for how her behavior affects other people, not even her own family. Gran had drilled the idea into my head that I was on my own after she passed on because my mother would never be of any help to me. So I worked bloody hard and made my way to the top of the company I work in right now because I didn't want to leave anything to chance. I'm the C.O at my firm and I earn twice the amount Kevin does. He's the head of sales at a smaller firm, but I'd never, ever judged him for it or made him feel

smaller. Part of the reason for that was the fact that I'd graduated from one of the finest business schools in the state and interned at the very company I work in right now, thanks to Grant's connections. She taught me to be humble, unlike Kevin and my mother who thought they were real big superstars over something they weren't even sure of yet. I met my husband at a common friend's birthday party about five years back and we got along like a house on fire because we shared a lot of common interests. We went out for two years and when he proposed. I didn't have to think twice before I said yes. He was a good man, or at least I thought he was back then.

He'd always joked about how I had a hot mother which wasn't entirely untrue. I would never call her hot because she's insane and also she's my mother, but I cannot deny that she fits the beauty standards well for her age. I mean she's made a significant amount of money from scamming people into believing that her so-called feng shui decor worked. And a lot of that money has gone into makeup and Botox, so of course she's attractive for her age. Also, I don't mean to demean the actual professionally trained decoration specialists and I guess maybe the real feng shui works,

but whatever my mother does is a scam because she literally doesn't know the first thing about it. I respect the people who actually know what they're doing, but since my mom doesn't count as one of those professionals and she's also just a generally crappy person, I think I'm allowed to speak badly of her. I'd thought Kevin would be different from the other men I dated in the past, though, and that I'd be able to trust him, but that turned out to be a bust as well. He'd joke about how my mother was hot enough to pass off as my sister and despite my strained relationship with her, I'd laugh it off because nobody would imagine that something like this could actually happen to them. I'd only ever kept in touch with my mother because of Gran.

She made me who I am and I'll be eternally grateful for that, even if that meant having to deal with her psychotic daughter. She was never ready to give up on mom because she was a good woman who loved her daughter in spite of all her flaws, and then there's my mom, who could never bring herself to love me more than herself in spite of all the efforts I put in. Even after Grand passed away almost a year ago, I still tried to keep in touch with my mom. Our relationship was bad, but I still found myself looking out for her, more out of a sense of obligation towards Grand than for her sake, but that ended when Kevin told me about the affair. Two weeks ago, he sat me down after I returned in the evening from a business trip and told me with a

straight face that he was in love with my mother and that they wanted to be together now. I thought he was joking at first and laughed at it, but for the first time, he didn't laugh. He went on to tell me, in great detail, how he and my mom had been fooling around behind my back for three months. Kevin and I fought over something stupid and my mother had texted him at the time to ask for advice on how to fix her headphones. That's how they got to talking and slowly it turned into something more than a friendship. They didn't intend to take it far initially, but it just happened and they couldn't help themselves. I'm sure Kevin didn't mind that my mother looks so much like me, too. I kicked him out that very night and he left without much of a fuss

because he knew that he could just go to my mother's place instead. I think I must have finished an entire bottle of wine while crying like a damn baby that night. I was up till the wee hours of the morning, just sobbing so hard that my eyes swelled up to twice their size. At around 4.30 in the morning, not being able to deal with the overwhelming anger and pain of it all, I decided to text my mother. I was drunk and that was probably what pushed me even more to send that text. I called her a lot of names and told her she was a crap daughter to Gran and a crap mother to me and was getting even worse with age. I told her that she was a con artist at best and once her Botox and fillers wore off, Kevin would see her for the ugly which she was and dump her

as well. I didn't expect her to respond to that, but she did and boy was that response eye-opening. She told me that she might lose her beauty one day, but she'd never lose her bank balance, which was about to increase tenfold. Thanks to Grand's will. I'd totally forgotten about that while grieving Gran, but her lawyer had told us that we'd be informed of what exactly she'd left us after the probate period passed. It would take almost six to nine months and it had already been seven months, so we'd be hearing from him shortly.

Gran had instructed her lawyer not to inform us of what exactly to expect before the probate period passed. The only thing that we were allowed to know was where she wanted to be buried and that's all. So neither my mother nor I knew what she'd left us, but since she had a lot of money, assets, and property, we were expecting a lot.

Or rather my mom was, because all I cared about at the time Grand passed away was that she was gone and now, I was truly on my own. The contents of her will didn't matter to me much, because either way, I don't care for money more than my relationships. But evidently, Kevin did and that's why he chose my mom over me because both of them expected her inheritance to be greater than mine. They must have been confident about it, too, because the way my mother bragged about it to me made me feel as if she'd already heard back from the lawyer and knew what she was going to be inheriting before I did. Anyway, I didn't reply to that text afterward and tried to erase it all

from my mind. I spoke to my lawyer the very next day and told her that I wanted to file for divorce at the earliest. Within a week of Kevin's confession, I'd filed for divorce and he'd been served. Now all we had to do was wait for this to end so he could live out the rest of his days with his ex-wife's mom but something miraculous happened and I truly have to thank Grand for this one because even after she's gone, she still has my back. I'd already requested Grand's lawyer, the executor of the will, to inform us separately because I couldn't bear to be in the same room as my mother and Kevin. So five days back, she told me that my mother had already been informed of what she'd inherited and it was my turn now. I visited her with zero expectations because I really didn't know what was

going to happen, but while leaving, I think I must have been the happy. damn person to exist on this planet at the time. I'd inherited all my grandmother's money, assets, and property while my mother inherited nothing but a diamond ring and matching diamond earrings that Gran used to wear. That's all my mother inherited. Apparently, the reason Gran left everything to me was because she'd looked after my mom her entire life, but now that she was nearing 50, my mother was old enough to start looking after herself. So ironically enough, my gran who had always told me that I'd be on my own after she passed away, had made sure to make me independent enough not to rely on my inheritance and the one woman who'd been counting on

grand her entire miserable life had been left with absolutely nothing. So really, she was the one who was on her own. It was karma at its wicked best and I'd never felt as vindicated as I did in that moment. My mother had come to know just an hour before I did, but after that, I didn't know what was going to happen. I was excited because I knew that even if my mother didn't try to contact me, Kevin surely would and that's exactly what happened. The guy could have waited it out just for the sake of putting up a show, but he had no patience and texted me the very next day, saying that he'd made a huge mistake and wanted to come back to me if I'd still have him. He said that he and my mother were never meant to be and spending those few days with her had made him realize

how good he had it with me so now, he'd come to his senses and wanted to give our marriage a second chance. I literally laughed out loud when I read his lousy attempt at reconciliation. They probably had no idea that I knew my mother had inherited barely anything and there was no huge inheritance to look forward to anymore. After one whole day of contemplating what to say to Kevin, I finally responded to his text with a clown emoji and then blocked him. I was also 100% sure that he must not come clean to my mom either so for good measure, I took a screenshot of the text he'd sent me and sent it to my mother with three clown emojis. I turned my phone off after that because I didn't want to deal with any of the drama that was

inevitably going to happen next. Instead, I chose to watch Netflix and enjoy my night without letting Kevin or my mother bother me anymore. The next morning, I got to know about the aftermath of my text. My mom's next-door neighbor's daughter is the one who told me about everything that went down. My mom still lives in the house I grew up in, FYI. My grandpa had left that house to his wife and daughter to live in so after Grand's passing, my mother continued to live there. The neighbor's daughter and I are friends so she was quite candid with me and told me that around 10, she started hearing a lot of yelling from my mom's place, but nobody bothered to check because their family knew what kind of person my mom was and didn't like her one bit. Then there was

screaming all of a sudden and that's what finally brought them out. My crazy mother had physically kicked Kevin out of the house and he was lying on the pavement while my mother threw all sorts of stuff at him and screamed the most vile, disgusting things at him. Kevin had screamed because she'd grabbed a hardcover book and thrown it at him and unfortunately it had hit him right in the forehead. When her neighbors discovered him, he'd already been hit and was trying to stop the bleeding with his hand.

It was a deep gash and he'd had to get five stitches for it. which was pretty horrifying to hear. He also pressed charges against my mother, and while she only had to pay a huge fine because it was a misdemeanor at most, it was still scary because Kevin was actually badly hurt. She hadn't intended for him to get so hurt, and neither had she been in her senses at the time,

so the cops let her off easily. It also helped that she had a really good lawyer and was friends with the D.A's wife. Of course, my mother blamed me for it once she got back home and texted me a bunch of horrible things from her second number that I hadn't blocked, which I've been trying my best to ignore, but I really can't help wondering if what happened really was my fault or not. What Kevin and my mother did to me is definitely unforgivable, but now, I feel like I should have just counted my own blessings instead of trying to meddle

in their lives to mess with them. What I did was out of spite and anger too, and it's not like I'm proud of it or whatever. If I'd known that this would have such insane consequences, then I never would have sent my mother that screenshot. I literally only just wanted to make them both feel bad, but I did never intend for anyone to seriously get hurt. My mother has never had any history of physical violence, not to my knowledge at least, so this wasn't something I could have ever thought of beforehand. I feel terrible about what happened and my mother's constant attempts to victimize herself and make me look like the bad guy are making it worse. Even Kevin has been posting cryptic quotes about betrayal and stuff, which is highly ironic, but that's beside the

point right now. I feel like they're making me the bad guy just to shift the blame onto someone else, but I don't know. I'd offer trying to mess up my mother and soon-to-be ex-husband's relationship after my mother bragged about how she stole my man with an inheritance she doesn't even have? Update 1. Okay, so thanks you guys for being so, so incredibly supportive in the comments. Thank you for all your kind words, especially the people who were appreciating Gran. Yeah, she was one of a kind and I think I was very, very lucky to have her in my life. Truly one of the luckiest people alive to have had a magnanimous personality like Grans as a part of my childhood. That does make up for having a mother like the one I do, L-O-L. I don't feel guilty

anymore about what happened because what I did was not that big of a deal. They ruined my so I ruined their relationship, tit for tat. My mother's the one who went ballistic and attacked the guy she allegedly loves, so I'm not going to feel bad about that at all. She's the crazy one here, not me. And she's sure as hell isn't going to make me feel like the villain when she did everything wrong. Kevin got hurt, I do feel bad for him because a physical attack is never justified, but at the same time, he's the same guy who literally cheated on his partner of so many years with their mother. That's just gross and I can't imagine anyone thinking they still have the right to ask their partner

to forgive them and take them back after doing something like that. He was too timing both me and my mother. I'm sorry that he got hurt, but that's also not my fault. Not my fault and not my problem either, so I've decided to block all of them on every single platform that exists. Heck, I even blocked my mother on PayPal. So you know it's serious, ha. On a serious note, though, I've also been thinking about a restraining order because my mother lost it.

There's no telling what she might get up to next and if she's annoyed at me for ruining her relationship, she might come for me next. I don't want that but neither do I want to give up the home and career I've worked for for so long and relocate just because my mother's crazy. So a restraining order is my best bet to protect myself against that psycho dinosaur now. I just hope it doesn't come to that. Update 2, it seems that I might have to file for a restraining order after all. I'd ignored my mother altogether for almost two weeks and was beginning to move on.

Kevin had also responded to my divorce petition and he wasn't contesting it so it felt like things were falling back into place and with copious amounts of therapy and self-love, I'd finally get over this nasty incident. Unfortunately, my mother decided to return to terrorize me and yesterday, I found her waiting for me in my front yard right outside my door. I'd just come back home after a long day of work and I was in no mood. I told her to get away or I'd call the police from inside the car but she didn't budge and instead told me that I could try whatever I wanted to but she wasn't going to move until she had a

word with me about the inheritance. I told her she could speak to me from a distance because I was curious to know what she wanted to say. So she told me very plainly that she wanted half of whatever I'd inherited because it was fair since Gran was her mother and not just my grandma. I actually laughed in her face and told her that she was the last person who should be talking about what's fair. Then I told her to get out because I wasn't giving her jack and dialed 911 in case she tried anything funny. She glared at me then started walking towards my car and I instinctively rolled up my windows. I did it just in time

too because as soon as she came close to the car, she gave it one swift kick in the passenger side panel and dented it. I saw the dent only after I got out of the car which I didn't do until I'd watched her get into her own car and drive away a considerable distance. I photographed it for evidence and I'd already have the security footage from the cameras outside my house to prove that my mother had caused the dent. Then, I called my lawyer and told her what had happened and said that I wanted to file a restraining order against my mother as well. So now, that's happening as well. I guess my mother just doesn't like the idea. of living a peaceful life and has to screw things up all the time.

I did try to file a police report for it, but since she's friends with the DA's wife, the precinct head told me that his hands were tied and he couldn't help the situation. It's fine though because at least I have the security footage and she can't change that. It shows her face and everything as well. I've even downloaded it and backed it up on my laptop so that I don't lose it at any point. The next couple of days are going to be stressful as hell with all the trips I'll have to take to court, but at least I'll get rid of these people. Update 3, hey, everyone. It's been busy lately with the divorce proceedings and everything. We're in the middle of settlement

negotiations right now and it's so damn frustrating. At least I managed to get a restraining order against my mother last week so that's done with. Few. Kevin and his lawyer have concocted a bunch of lies so I'm trying to put together all the proof of him cheating for the next meeting and hopefully that'll be an end to this. It's annoying but I'm going to therapy regularly to deal with my anger and process it so it doesn't get in the way of my daily life. If I've learned anything from this, it's that I don't want to end up like my crazy mom. I just had to vent here for a while but I feel better now and I guess I'll be back whenever the divorce is finalized. For now, this is it. I hope you enjoy this story. Spouse assisted a hurt young woman reached the medical center. Half a year after,

as I am expecting a baby, her communications became more unsettling each day until he eventually attempted to create space. So, I'll start by saying I'm generally quite a secure person and have never felt like I had any issues around this until I read a message sent to my husband yesterday, and I'm kind of spiraling. Sorry this may be long. For some backstory, my husband does downhill biking has done since he was very young, knows his stuff, he's out there every day. Generally rides with the same group of guys but they mostly stick to weekends. My husband goes out every day of the week luckily because his job allows him to. If he's out on his own generally weekdays and the dogs are free, he'll take the dogs.

They love it. So around six months ago he was out in the morning with the dogs and ended up coming home earlier than usual. While he was out, he found this girl who fell off and had badly injured her arms slash wrist. As you can imagine, he's done the same numerous times, knew exactly what to do and where to go to get seen quicker. He got her to the car park, packed the dogs and bikes up and took her to the GP who referred her to hospital, and he came home. All good. Around a week after this one of the guys he rides with sent him a screenshot of a post in a Facebook group that was made for people specifically who build and maintain the bike trails.

It went something like, I'm looking for someone called, insert husband's name here, who helped me last week when I fell and got me to hospital. He drove a husband's truck, and had three dogs, then listed our dog's names. She had posted in a few groups

before being linked to the group for the trail builders, who my husband goes out there with. My husband isn't on social media so he said he could send her his number. She text him to double check she had the right person. He said it was and that he was glad she was feeling better and he was happy to help. She offered him money or to take him for lunch which he declined and just said again that he was happy to help. They text back and forth every now and then, her initiating and it's

mostly, hey, how are you hope you're well, etc. Until she starts getting better and can ride again, it turns to, hey, we should hit the trails sometime. Now, without tooting his horn for him, he's very good. Used to ride competitively when he was younger, same with much of the guys he rides with. Most people at the park know who they are and generally if they hear them coming, we'll just get to the side and watch them pass. He tries to decline her offer in a way not to offend her, but there's no way she can keep up with them. There's a section that's just big jumps to practice on. He says maybe next time he's on those he'll give her a shout and they can meet up there. Eventually that happens and he gives her a few tips, which then turns into her texting him more

often about biking, asking for him to tutor her and just general stuff. This goes on for the next couple months, there seems to be a friendship starting. I've never once had any concerns about this and was quite happy for him to continue, and they do. So yesterday, Monday, he went out with the dogs and a bumped into her, said they spoke for a while and went a cycle with the dogs to wind down before he came home. She started texting him when he got home and I can see these messages coming through the iPad as I was using it. To be clear, he's not hiding the texts. He openly leaves his phone lying around, no passcode. Let's our daughter play on it. Happy for me to use it. Doesn't get weird or

secretive about it in the slightest. He knows the iPad and laptop are linked to his phone and can all be seen by anyone using them. He has never gave me cause for concern. It's her intentions I'm not too sure on at this point. So anyway, the dogs. We have three working gun dogs used in the fields regularly, and while they can look like they're running right down these trails, they are extremely well-trained and tuned into whatever my husband is doing. Which becomes more apparent when he's not on the trails, and their following watching is every move. These texts start on about the dogs for a bit when she sent a text which ended in the following. Like a slave looking to please their master admittedly, I don't care for emojis and the texting

garb people use nowadays. I don't even know what the face means frankly. But something about this made me feel icky, and I feel like there's an undertone going on here. He replied, but seemed to ignore that last comment. However, this caused me to think slash look back on her communication, and feel like I've noticed a few red flags. 1. She always initiates. 2. If she doesn't get a reply, she seems to keep sending messages until he replies. 3. Not once has she ever referenced or acknowledged the fact that he's married or has a family. Even when he mentioned that he's been away for my birthday, or that he's going to our daughter's

dancing show. She'll change the subject as if she's pretending we don't exist, or to close down any mention of us. 4. She often makes excuses for them to meet up. One-on-one. I'm sure there's more, but I don't want to scour through every message and feed into this more than I already have in case it's nothing, but am I crazy for thinking there may be something going on with her? I don't want to bring it up in case it is nothing and I look like I'm being paranoid. It just isn't sitting right. I'm also pregnant, and the hormones are doing their thing.

Should I say something? Or leave it and monitor this more closely for a bit? Or is this the effect of a 30-something pregnant mom whose husband seems to be aging like a fine wine, and any female he meets doing what he loves, being in amazing shape due to the hobby? Comments where Op has replied, usually right too,

I am kind of like your husband. I do a lot of helping people, in a different vein though. And there are a lot of rather lonely and awkward people out there who just keep messaging once they have my contact info, men and women. I think you've handled this with grace. But I think it's totally reasonable for you to have a convo with hubby and just say, dude, she's pretty pushy and you're not doing anything wrong, but I'd appreciate it if you'd shut her down and just tell her that you're not in a position

to be a coach and your ride time is focused so you can't help her. She sounds a little starstruck and needy, but he's not doing anything wrong here, so I wouldn't make it a big, hairy deal. Boop, thank you, I just don't want to be the preggar's wife who's demanding he blocks women because I'm making things up in my head. Lyser Petty, he ran into her while he was out walking his dogs. Was that a plan meeting? Does she live near you? Ah, hell nah. That's stalker behavior. He needs to cut her off now. Boop, no, the bike park. He was up with the dogs when she spotted them and called one over. Honestly, I have no idea where she lives. I know very little about her other than

she's much younger than me. Inevitable underscore rate 9652, totally not on topic, but what are gun dogs? Sounds like your husband is just being nice, but that sheik is being scandalous. Sometimes men don't pick up on this stuff so I bring it to his attention and talk about how you both should handle this psycho-discretful woman. Oop, hunting dogs, I'm hours are used weekly for flushing slash retrieving. Thank you. I've had enough comments to make me feel confident enough that I'm not being dramatic. We'll be talking to him about it once our daughter's in bed tonight and go from there. Update 1, it escalated quickly. So, my last post got a lot more responses than I thought it would get. I wasn't going to post an update, but feel like I owe it

to all the people telling me to trust my gut. For those asking why my husband hadn't been more abrupt with her, in a nutshell, he always tries to keep the peace. I downplayed how well-known he is in our town. He comes from a well-known family in our area, and was a downhill rider in the UCI, and features in various channels. People come here specifically for the bike trails, and typically wherever he goes, there's usually a handful of people who recognize him and want to say hello. It's not a huge town, everyone knows everyone kind of place, and, like anyone, he would would never want people to come away from any interaction with him with a sour taste in their mouth. After our daughter was in bed I spoke with my husband, told him my thoughts, and he agreed

she was being inappropriate, and that he in no way done or said anything that would indicate he was all right with it. He hoped by ignoring it she would get the hint and leave him be. He didn't want to make things awkward or embarrass anyone and admitted he probably should have said something. So after reading everyone's comments, there were loads of amazing ways people suggested it's shutting her down, which in hindsight would have been an amazing way to stop her in her tracks. However, he didn't want to ruffle feathers so we went with the, we're starting to get ready for the baby and have lots to do slash prepare and simply don't have the time or energy to be spent on the bikes or meetups and he will be unavailable to her for the foreseeable suggestions.

He typed it up, handed it to me for my approval, and I hit send. Minutes later his phone pings, I'm in the kitchen, he's in the living room, and I see his eyebrows raise and he just looks at me. I go over and he just hands me the phone. The fucking neck on this girl astounds me. She replied, OK, do you think we could meet up quickly tomorrow? My heart sank. And I knew exactly what that meant. I burst into tears. In my head this was the start of my world crumbling. My husband tried calming me down and asked me what I'd like him to do, block her there and then, or ask what she wants to see him for. I wish I'd just told him to block her, but for some reason I wanted to know more. He replied asking what meeting up would achieve.

She just says there's stuff she would like to talk to him about face to face. I felt like I was literally being punched in the chest and being winded at this point. He eventually gets the point across that he is not going to meet with her and drags it out of her. She tells him that at some point feeling started, that turned into fantasies, and that basically he could do whatever he wanted to her. That I didn't need to know about it and she would be happy to keep it that way. As she put it our thing it was more graphic than I'm willing to type. I felt like I was still keeping a level head on it until this point I lashed out got very, very angry. Started crying uncontrollably. My body was vibrating with anger. I've barely slept. Woke up crying.

felt like absolute shit all day today. I've already got in touch with our friends who run these Facebook groups she joined and asked them to remove her and make sure she doesn't join again. My husband replied last night and told me it's sorted and I don't have to worry about her. I didn't see the text he sent but it's there on the iPad, but I can't bring myself to even open the A message app after seeing what I saw. It's not fair that someone thinks they can just do something like that regardless of how it's going to impact an entire family.

Currently, I don't want him leaving the house. I don't want him to ever go back to the trails. I don't want the dogs even going up there. The fact she has even touched my dogs makes me sick. So there we are. I still feel like my life slipping away from me. Like someone's trying to steal it. My confidence is shattered.

My eyes sting. My head hurts from crying. Don't feel like eating. Don't think I've ever felt as low as I do just now. Husband's trying his best to comfort me, but it will take a while, I guess. He feels very guilty, despite me telling him he's done nothing wrong. I can't believe how quickly my life just changed with a stupid text. So, thank you to everyone telling me to believe my gut.

And everyone else who took the time to comment. Edit, I just want to add, I'm not controlling my husband. I'm not holding him hostage. He had to take them out today. The bike park is almost in our back garden. I'm describing how I feel just now. Like it's a personal attack on me and my family. And I know this happens all over the world.

My eyes were never open to it. This man's baby is about to burst out of my body. I don't feel attractive in any sense of the word right now. I feel I'm well within my rights to be a little distraught after seeing a text from a much younger, much fitter girl describing in graphic detail the things she wants my husband to do to her. Final update. Hey everyone. My last two posts got so much attention and I'm still receiving lots of messages asking what's happened since and if I know what my husband told her.

Anyway, an update before I log out of this account. So I had so many people telling me I'm crazy, overreacting, need therapy, etc. I get it, I probably was overreacting. but also feel like some people just don't understand the places your head can go when you're heavily pregnant. I know what this girl looks like, and alongside my current self, had no idea why my husband would not take her up on her offer. I'd done nothing but compare myself to her and couldn't understand why he would stay with me if he was getting offers like that. Even to spitty my husband making me feel very loved and attractive every day, I convinced myself he found me repulsive and that he would leave me.

Madness I know. But I also had moments of clarity. It's been an emotional few weeks as it is. Did you read the text your husband sent to her? No, I haven't. I ended up deleting the chat from the iPad because I didn't want to see her messages. He told me something along the lines of, I've no idea how or if I've gave you the signal that I was looking for something like that,

but I can assure you I'm not and I don't appreciate the attempt to pull my family apart. delete my number, don't try to contact me, do not try and talk to me if you see me out and about. You've caused a great amount of stress to my family and especially my wife, who is expecting very soon, and has access to every message you've sent to me. Leave me alone. Lots of people also commented that I've handled this way better than they would have. Truth be told, I'm constantly sysying between trying to forget this even happened, and texting or calling her myself. But I realize the longer I leave it to do this, the more pathetic I'll look. Trying to take the high road. But I'm not going to lie, this has been extremely hard.

I also want to focus on the baby and not this right now. All and though I feel much better than I did a few days ago. One thing I've taken from this and far too many people reached out to me to say the same is how amazing my husband really is. I feel like I've taken him for granted after reading some stories people have shared privately and I'm so lucky to share my life with him. So that's it. I didn't plan on making an update again but I've still been getting so many messages asking the same things. But this will be the last. Thanks for all the responses and the few crazies also sending me horrible messages. I know you're reading this. Take care. Next story, cousin only eats when I feed her. But when she made a mess at my brother's party, my aunt blamed

me. Found out she barely let her daughter leave the house and my mom had enough. I want to start by saying that I absolutely love my baby cousin, Lily. She's one of my favorite people in the world, and I see her as more of a little sister than a cousin. But during a recent family gathering, things got a little tense, and I'm left wondering if I handled the situation poorly. I'm 24, female, and part of a large, joint family with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and plenty of cousins. Since I work in another state, I only see everyone during holidays or special events. Being the oldest of my generation, I've always been close to my younger cousins, especially Lily, who's just four years old. We have a two-decade age gap, but I adore her and babysit whenever I can.

She's very attached to me and even sees my mom as a second mother. Recently, I attended my younger brother's birthday party, a rare chance to relax and catch up with family after a stressful year. Lily was there, of course, and as the youngest cousin, she didn't have any playmates her age. Naturally, she gravitated toward me. She kept pulling me away from the table to join her games, and I happily played with her for a while. When it was time for dinner, I even fed her because she refuses to eat unless it's from her mom,

my mom, or me. After making sure she was settled, I handed her off to my grandma so I could grab a plate of food and enjoy the meal. I honestly thought she'd nap or play outside in the garden. But when I came back, I found chaos. Lily had pulled at the tablecloth, spilling several dishes and creating a huge mess. She was crying because my aunt, her mother, had started scolding her, and the whole scene had become a disaster. Later, my aunt came up to me and, in a very pointed tone, said I should have kept an eye on Lily. She implied that the mess was my fault, essentially blaming me for not watching her. I was so shocked that I didn't know how to respond at first. But then I told her, as calmly as I could, that Lily is not my

responsibility. She is her mother, and it's ultimately her job to look after her. My aunt stormed off after that, and now my family group chats and calls are blowing up. My mom and grandparents are getting complaints about how disrespectful I was for speaking to my aunt that way. I didn't mean to cause any drama, but I genuinely feel like I did nothing wrong. I love Lily and always try to help out when I can. But I was hoping to enjoy this one event without being on babysitting duty the entire time. So now I'm wondering, Ida, for standing up for myself? Or should I have handled things differently? Comments where O.P. has replied, commenter one. NTA, you are 100% correct. Lily is not your responsibility. You handled it perfectly reasonably. Her mother is no under

no illusion that she can blame you for her poor parenting. For anyone saying you should be looking after Lily, tell them that the next gathering you are delegating that responsibility to them. At the gathering remind the person and everyone else that they volunteered to watch Lily. Oop, I wish I could say that in my group chats without everyone aiming for my head. Right now there are mostly neutral responses. A few say that I need to just apologize for my rude tone and smooth things over. My mom and grandparents are on my side completely. My aunt is mom's cousin but they were brought up like sisters so my mom is also getting messages from her.

All I'm going to say is, I've never been so motivated to go back to work. Commenter 2. Do not apologize to anyone. This will give them the idea they were right and you should have been watching her daughter. NTA. I would also decline any invitations in the future where they will be attending. Maybe they can latch on to another family babysitter. Oop, my mom also told me not to apologize to my aunt.

but I don't want to start a family war by saying that I wouldn't attend any future events. I'm the oldest as I have said, and in my culture it comes with a shit ton of responsibilities. Don't get me wrong, I had a good childhood. I love all my extended families even if there are occasional hiccups. But this is the first time my aunt a second mom growing up has blown up on me about anything. My mom wouldn't allow anyone to talk to me that way at all. No one. So, maybe she is showing her true colors now? I sure hope not. I hope this is just stress or something. I know it's wishful thinking, but I only come back home when I'm free from work.

I don't want my safe harbor to be ruined because of this. Update, November 26, 2024. Hey, everyone. Thanks for all the advice and support. I'm back in my city. now, and things have finally calmed down after what felt like endless family drama. I'll start work tomorrow, so I thought I'd share an update on how everything unfolded. As I mentioned, my aunt had been calling and leaving messages nonstop after the incident. My mom, who is absolutely my superhero, told me to stand my ground and not give in to the pressure. She even stepped in to handle things herself. On Sunday, she went to my aunt's house and, according to my cousin Carl, fake name, tore her a new one. Apparently, my mom didn't hold back. She called out my aunt's

behavior, her deadbeat husband, and her overly controlling parenting style. It turns out, my aunt has been clashing with pretty much everyone in the family, collecting grudges like Pokemon cards. I hadn't realized how bad things had gotten since I've been away for work. Here's some context I learned later. Lily had a few health scares as a baby, which led my aunt to become a full-blown helicopter mom. She barely lets Lily out of the house unless it's to visit our family. Even her preschool is run by my uncle, aunt's brother, and my aunt pulls her out of school whenever she feels like it. According to Carl, Lily is lucky to have some freedom when she stays at our house,

which explains why she's so attached to me and my mom. While my mom was handling my aunt, I had a beach day with my brother. It was just the two of us, and we had the best time eating ice cream and building sandcastles. It felt nostalgic, like revisiting our childhood memories of living by the coast. It also made up for not celebrating his birthday properly due to all the chaos. Monday was a relaxed day at home with my cousins. My grandma even brought Lily over so I could say goodbye before heading back. Getting her out of my aunt's house was apparently a battle in itself, but I'm so grateful I got to spend a few hours with her.

She's such a joy, and I'll miss her terribly. Now, for the funny bit, Carl called me shortly after I posted my original story. His exact words. Breaking out of the prison, are we? Right behind you, sis. He's been cracking jokes about the whole situation ever since, which has definitely lightened the mood. As for my aunt, she's still trying to stir up drama, but most of the family is on my side. Once the truth came out, it became clear that her accusations about me neglecting Lily were ridiculous. Everyone knows how much I adore Lily, and I've always been there for her when I could. After reading all the comments and advice, I've decided not to apologize. I would have considered it just to keep the peace, but she's blown this so far out of proportion that it's not worth it. My mom has told her to stop acting like a child and quit spamming the family group chats.

Her words, not mine, at this point, I'm putting the drama behind me. Almost everyone in the family has reassured me that I did nothing wrong, so I'm moving forward with a clear conscience. Thank you again to everyone who helped me see this situation clearly, I truly appreciate it. I hope you enjoy this story. My lifelong companion from early years transformed the perception of my whole neighborhood against me due to a falsehood she spread regarding my feelings for her future husband. Eventually, the reality came to light. Oh my goodness, I am overwhelmed.

Such a jumble right now. Let me try to make sense of all of this. When I, 26 F, was five we moved, and our next door neighbors had a girl my age named Bella, 27 F. We immediately connected and grew up thick as thieves. Our families were also close. I moved a couple of hours away for college while Bella stayed home. She would come visit me frequently, stay with me, and we had great times. I met Barrett, 26M now, in an econ class sophomore year and realized we had a lot of friends in common. He was a smart, attractive guy so we ended up hooking up a few times after study sessions. It was fun, but there wasn't really long-term chemistry, so we remained friends. We never even talked about dating. We weren't close after that, but we were on

group text threads together and saw each other frequently at parties. I introduced Bella to Barrett at a party senior year and it was love at first sight for her. She interrogated me about him and I informed her of our history. She seemed pretty upset about the fact that we had hooked up, but I assured her that there was absolutely nothing romantic there and that she had my blessing to pursue him. She did, and after a few months, they started officially dating. She was over the moon. I was happy she was happy. I graduated and accepted a job six hours away from home. Shortly afterwards, Bella and Barrett ended up moving in together in my hometown. I visited them frequently at first, but life got busy so we ended up seeing each other annually at

Last Christmas, my family hosted a Christmas Eve party with our two families at which Barrett proposed to Bella. It was a heartfelt proposal and everybody was thrilled for them. Bella wanted to talk about nothing but wedding planning that holiday and we had tons of fun brainstorming ideas together. There were no signs of what was to come. Over the next few months, I expected to be formally asked to be Bella's maid of honor. She had mentioned this over the holidays, but the ask never came.

She started screening my calls. Finally, I received a save-the-date in the mail and still hadn't heard from her about whether I was in the wedding so I got her on the phone and asked her. She told me that she had thought it through and didn't think that I should be in the wedding at all because I lived so far away. She thought it would make coordinating bridal events too difficult. She was making her cousin, who she doesn't even like, her maid of honor. I was pretty hurt by this.

I was her closest and oldest friend. I introduced her to her fiancé and was friends with him too. I told her that I could get the time off work, would buy plain tickets, whatever was required of me, to participate, that I didn't think that it was going to be as challenging as she thought. She shrugged this off. Instead, she directed the conversation to whether I was going to be bringing someone to the wedding. I was a little confused by this question because I just had a bad breakup. and she knew all about what went down.

I told her that since I wasn't seeing anybody currently, I'd probably be attending solo. She told me that she would keep my plus one open until the last possible minute and encouraged me to try to find a date so I wouldn't be lonely. I thought this was a nice gesture, but reassured her that with my family present

and tons of mutual friends from college and our hometown that I would be fine. The next few months passed without much incident. I didn't hear a ton from Bella. I probably could have reached out more, but I was still stinging a bit from not being asked to be in her wedding party. I also saw on social media that she had an engagement party that she had not told me about or invited me to. That also hurt, but I didn't say anything. I figured we were just growing apart.

It happens. Then six weeks prior to the wedding, I got a call from Bella. She told me that one of her bridesmaids had dropped out and that she was hoping that I could fill in. I wouldn't be going to any of the events as those were already booked, but I would be in the wedding party. I was thrilled and relieved and accepted immediately. She told me that she was doing a reverse color palette for the bridal party where all of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were wearing white, and she and the groom were wearing black.

This didn't seem that strange, Bella has always liked to stand out and has unconventional taste. She apologized for the late notice and asked if I could find a white dress in time. I had a white slip dress already that would work and sent her a picture of it on the call to see if it would work. She verbally approved it and tagged it with a thumbs up on the text chain. This will be important later. The wedding was at noon, so we were supposed to meet to do hair and makeup at the venue at 8 a.m. I left my parents home early and arrived in sweats with my dress in a bag and greeted Bella and the other girls. We had fun drinking champagne and getting ready.

About two hours prior to the ceremony, Bella told everybody to get our dresses on so we could do some pictures. I grabbed my bag and went into the bathroom to change and tweak my makeup. When I re-entered the room, every last bridesmaid was in a blue dress. I was the only one in white. My stomach dropped. My mind raced back to the conversation I had with Bella. She had said white, right? I hadn't misheard.

No, I was certain. She had called out the reverse color scheme. I had Googled it. No, this was a setup. Bella was in the middle of the room in a bathrobe with a resigned look on her face. She said to her cousin, I told you she was going to do something like this. Her cousin approached me and asked what I was wearing. I mumbled that Bella had told me to wear white. Bella didn't even blink. She stared back and huffed out a laugh and said something about how of course I would have to make today all about me. The cousin started screaming at me, going off on me about how I was jealous, in love with Barrett, and how completely unhinged I was. Honestly, I froze in that moment. I was so spun around by how fast everything went from great to shit, I couldn't even find the words to defend myself.

Eventually, I stammered out that I had another dress at my parents' house and could go home and change. Bella said something like I think we both know that this is the end of our friendship. I've given you too many chances. It's time for you to go. I started to cry. I didn't really know what was happening or what she was talking about, but I knew that whatever was going down was really bad. Finally my leg started to work again and I fled.

I left all of my things at the venue and just ran to my car and went home, sobbing in the white dress. About a half hour later, my phone blew up. Texts from nearly everyone in my life, telling me that I was bitter, that I was a whore, that I needed to grow up and get over my jealousy, asking how I could do that to Bella. Even my mother sent me a text telling me how disappointed she was in me and that we'd talk when they got home. I did what any rational person would do in the situation. I broke into my parents' liquor cabinet and got drunk.

As a result, the conversation when my parents finally arrived home was somewhat confused. My dad wouldn't even look at me and my mom and I kept talking past each other. She outright didn't believe that I had been told to wear white and I didn't understand why. Then finally she said something like because of everything else that happened, and I was like, What are you talking about? What does that mean? And she said, you know, your ultimatums to Bella. The next few hours revealed the truth.

Over the last several months, Bella has been building a fiction with nearly everyone in my life that I am mentally unstable and madly in love with Barrett. She has concocted a web of outlandish tales and systematically poisoned my family and friends against me. My boyfriend apparently dumped me because of my feelings for Barrett, lie. He cheated and I dumped him. I told Bella that she needs to choose between me and Barrett, never happened. I told Bella that I couldn't be in the wedding party because I couldn't support her marriage given that Barrett was meant for me, lie.

I had a major meltdown before the engagement party and that's why I wasn't there. On and on, lies on top of lies. In all of these stories, Bella has painted herself as the patient, long-suffering friend trying to deal with a friend clearly going through a tough time. She expressed understanding for my unrequited love for Barrett and empathized with how hard it must be for me to see her marry the love of my life, and has made great efforts to try to sustain our friendship despite how complicated the situation is. The lie has been going on so long, my mom literally did not believe me. Finally, I grabbed my phone and handed it to her

and told her to go through my text messages with Bella. Asked her to show me any evidence of any of that happening. It was when she was scrolling through reading our messages that she saw the picture of the white dress I had sent Bella with her thumbs up on it. I had completely forgotten about it. The absence of any ultimatums or Barrett drama in our texts and the picture of the approved dress flipped my mom. She finally believed me. She was horrified that she had bought into a false narrative. She called my dad into the room and explained what was what. My dad isn't the type of person you want to piss off. We had to spend significant energy trying to calm him down so he didn't walk next door and ripped the house from the foundation. My mom still says that I'm a bit of an

asshole because I should never have assumed that I could wear white to someone's wedding. I should have confirmed with the other bridesmaids about what they were wearing, and that was part of my job as a member of the bridal party. Fine, I own that. But it doesn't change the fact that I never meant to hurt Bella, and she has been setting me up for this epic fall for months. The next day, hung over on multiple levels, I sent screencaps of my call history with Bella and the photo of the approved dress text to multiple people. Unfortunately, this is where my occupation works against me. I am a graphic designer and people believe that I photoshopped the image.

Trust me, if I was going to Photoshop some proof it would have been a hell of a lot more compelling than somebody liking an image. So pretty much nobody believes me except my mom, dad, and one. of the other bridesmaids, one of Bella's friends from college I don't know well. She was there during the dress incident and she found me on social media and DM'd me that she could tell from the stunned look on my face that I was telling the truth. She said that Bella had a pretty bad case of COVID at the beginning of the year, and ever since then had changed as a person, becoming cruel and self-absorbed.

She said the wedding events had been horrific and Bella was a monster and she was planning on going no contact now that it was done. So that's three people out of hundreds that don't think I'm an asshole. Everybody else does. My reputation destroyed. My life in tatters. I don't think I'm the awe, but I submit myself to Reddit's judgment. Relevant comments.

Oop answers some questions. Did Barrett maybe say something about him having feelings for you that you did not reciprocate? This is possible, I guess, but I'm not aware of any incidents. I think perhaps this has more to do with Bella's cousin putting poison in her ear about me than Barrett actually having feelings for me. But that's just a gut instinct. I don't actually know. And where was Barrett in all this?

You said he was your friend, so it seems odd that he would watch his bride attempt to ruin your life for the fun of it. The first time I saw him after last Christmas was at the rehearsal the night before the wedding. I gave him a hug and congratulated him and expressed how excited he must be. and we talked about my drive-up and how some of our mutual friends' flights had been cancelled. It was entirely benign. Bella was talking to somebody else and I greeted her a bit later. I never saw him the day of the wedding because I didn't make it that far.

I have no idea what he makes of all of this, but I have to imagine that he's been poisoned to believe I'm some deranged stalker as well. I haven't reached out to him because I'm worried doing so would add fuel to Bella's narrative. If your parents were at the engagement party, why didn't you tell them you weren't invited? My parents were not at the engagement party. My understanding was that it was more of a friend's engagement party than a familial one. But they did know that it happened, and I do think they expected me to come home for it. There was a lot of miscommunication between my mom and I.

My parents are pretty low EQ and uncomfortable with emotions and drama, so they didn't pry too deeply. My mom would ask me questions like so Bella told me a little bit about what is going on. Are you okay? And I would assume she was talking about my cheating ex where my mom was actually talking about my unrequited love for Barrett. And I would respond with something like I'm struggling a little, but I'm getting through it. I'll be okay, thanks mom. And like that we kept talking past each other. Looking back, there were a few things my mom said that confused me, but I didn't see clarity at the time. in response to some more questions on that thread. So if they expected you to come home for it,

why did they never ask you about your plans to attend and when would you be home? I wish I could answer your question, but I genuinely do not know the timelines from my end. I don't know what my parents knew when, when the party invites went out, when my parents were told by Bella that I couldn't handle going. All of this happened without me knowing about it. So I just don't know.

Trust me, the fact that my parents thought all of this stuff was going on with me and didn't properly talk to me about it has been difficult to swallow. Also, how is it that as you're getting ready at the venue you never see her wedding dress or talk about the flipped colors for the wedding until it's time for the bridesmaids to get dressed? I was boxed out of all of the other wedding events except for the rehearsal which lasted about 30 minutes. I was never really put on group texts about the wedding, which I thought was owed to my last-minute involvement. Dresses were in garment bags and put on a rack. At one point her bridal gown was removed from the room to be steamed.

I don't think it was back yet when this all went down, which was why she was still in a robe. My understanding was that she wanted photos of us helping her get dressed, which was why we were getting dressed first. Now I suspect the timing was intentional. I was the only person who thought there was a flipped color palette so I don't know why that would have come up in conversation. We talked about a lot of stuff but wedding colors didn't come up. It seems like both you and your parents are poor communicators and Bella relied on you not reaching out to her, or her parents, the other bridesmaids, or your parents to ask about wedding plans, yeah, my relationship with my parents is, well, I think I'd need a whole additional Ada post for that. It's complicated.

Update post, January 16, 2024, almost two months later. I've gone back and forth about updating my post. If you read my update, hopefully you'll understand. understand why. For safety reasons, this will likely be my one and only update. For those of you bitching about length, I included a TL, doctor at the end. Before I get started, I want to address a question a lot of commenters had about my parents. A lot of people were questioning why my mom would hear all of that stuff about me and not check in on me or confront me. It's because I'm an apostate. Last year I left the religion my parents raised me in, which Bella is still involved in so she has superior credibility. My politics differ also. From where mom and dad sat, I was a sinner capable of any act of evil because I turned my back on biblical

principles. Assume that the broader religious community in this town believes the same of me. Despite this, I tried to have a relationship with my parents. I am an only child. They are my only family. But there was strain and distance there. For example, I did not tell my parents a lot about my breakup because the circumstances of that would reinforce some of my parents' worst beliefs about me. It's also the reason I haven't been home in the last year. It's also one of the reasons I assume things were strained between Bella and I in the last year. I didn't bring it up because, as everybody wanted to point out, my post was already too damn long, and this one will be too. Sorry.

I would have guessed that the events of the wedding would strain my relationship with my parents further, but unexpectedly it has brought us closer. I think many of my parents' strong opinions of me were more about how they felt my leaving the church would ultimately reflect on them in the community. But now that the community has rallied against me and the worst has happened, they've circled the herd. They've waged holy war in their church on my behalf in the last couple of months. It's weirdly cemented that my parents actually do care about me, despite

our differences as people. So in that regard, this awful event has been a blessing. A lot of the awkwardness between us from the last year has faded and it really feels like they've chosen a side and that side is me. We had a great holiday together. So in that way, I'm glad this happened. On to the update. In the immediate aftermath of the wedding and post, I did as people suggested and sent out a screen recording of my text messages with Bella, all of them going back months, counter her narrative that I was unstable and explaining my side of the story. There were three camps that emerged as a result. First were my high school friends. Most of them are religious and had been extensively brainwashed by Bella. None took my side, except for the one bridesmaid

who had already contacted me. Next were the college friends closer to me. None of them had heard Bella's whisper campaign and accepted the evidence immediately. Several of them told me that they had never really liked Bella and that she had shit-talked me behind my back. This was news to me, but also a relief because these are the relationships I most don't want to lose. And it looks like I won't. The college friends who were closer to Barrett just didn't really care. A lot of these guys are classic dude brothers that are drama adverse, so I'm not shocked they aren't relishing the chance to wade through and litigate the evidence. No hostility coming from these people anymore, but no support either. I can live with that. Bella's nuclear and extended

family I have given up on. When I was back for Christmas I tried to go over to speak to Bella's parents, who were like parents to me also, and they refused to even open the door. I left a letter in their mailbox. It went unacknowledged. In general, things settled down into a new normal and I just focused on my life and my work and trying to move forward. I went home for the holidays and just hung out with my parents. Life was okay. Then, January 1st, I signed into an older email account that I haven't used in a while to reset a password. In the spirit of New Year digital housekeeping, I started going through old messages,

intending to close this account for good. When I saw an email from my ex with the subject line I win. I cannot describe the gut punch that I felt when I saw that male. I freeze up now just writing about it. My ex, let's call him Matthew, was the perfect boyfriend. Until he wasn't. He became extremely controlling after our first year of dating. He wanted to control what I wore, what I ate, who I talked to, who I connected with and

what I posted on social media, etc. He was very cunning and nuanced with the way he tore me down slowly. over time. But then he slipped up, I found out he was cheating, and I woke up enough to get out of there. The breakup was a living nightmare. He refused to allow me to break up with him. We were living together. He installed tracking software on my phone and bugged my car. He had people at my job reporting to him on my movements. I couldn't get away from him. I couldn't hide. He kept showing up. He held my dog hostage. The police were useless because he was never physically violent and was careful not to write his threats down. I was in absolute hell for months, living under the terror that he

would show up again. I had changed my job, my number, my address, my email account, my social media profiles were private, this was the one place I forgot to block him. The IWN email was sent the day after the wedding. He said that he had become close with Bella after we broke up. He called himself the architect of my demise. He said he had fed Bella's paranoia about me and Barrett and that together they had planned my punishment. He said losing everyone important in my life was what I deserved. And then he said we should get back together. Unless I wanted more unfortunate things like this to keep happening.

Yes, he a delusional prick. It took me a while to collect myself and get my shit together after reading that. I fell apart for a few days. My mom helped pull me back together and now knows the details about what happened with Matthew. She connected me with a family friend, an attorney, that is currently helping me file for a restraining order against Matthew. I tried during the stalking period, but couldn't afford an attorney and was denied. I think with the email evidence and the attorney saying things the right way, it will be granted this time but the hearing is not for another couple of weeks. It is on Zoom and

Matthew will get a chance to be there. I am terrified to see him, even just on a screen. If you read this Matthew, please realize that I am not so terrified that I won't taste the fuck out of you if you ever come near me again. Once I had dealt with my own safety, I had the realization that I was in possession of absolute proof that the wedding incident was a setup. I considered blasting it out everywhere, but I still have so much shame about being in an abusive relationship and cannot bring myself to do it. So I decided to just forward it to Barrett with a small amount of explanation. Barrett did not respond to the email.

I do not know what happened in Bella and Barrett's household after that, but what I do know is that two nights later, Bella drunk drove her car to my parents' house. While attempting to park in their driveway, she ran over their mailbox. When my parents answered the door, she started screaming about how I'm a home-reaking slut. In her drunken ramblings, my parents were able to figure out that Barrett had left her. Her parents were called over from next door to collect their drunk daughter. My dad said they seemed extremely embarrassed. I know a lot of people here will probably be fist pumping the air

that Bella met with some karma. I'm not one of them. Matthew is a monster, and I know firsthand how charming and convincing he is. Bella, much like I did, fell for his act. Her happiness has been destroyed by Matthew too. And I have a really hard time blaming her now that I know that he was pulling the strings. But she also made her choices. I'm not dumb enough to reconcile with her either. My number one priority is my safety and anybody who has ties to Matthew is somebody I need to stay far away from. Bella will have to find her own path back to good.

There is a role that opened on my team in another country. It's a manager position, which would be a promotion for me and my boss thinks I should apply. While it would be harder having even more distance from my folks, I think being in an entirely new country might help cultivate a feeling of safety for me. One that I'm not sure I can get in the city now. So that might be what's next for me. I don't really know how to end this properly. I'm just tired. Thanks for the support, Reddit. I probably won't sign into this account again. I hope you enjoy this story. My partner has been absent every weekend for the last three years, and I recently discovered that he has been deceiving me about his whereabouts. My significant other,

a 27-year-old male, and I, 24F, have been together for three years. We don't live together but are close enough to spend a lot of time together. However, it is very rare for us to spend a whole day together. When we have, it's been a weekday where our schedules have just happened to line up, i.e., no work and no class. We have never spent a day on the weekend together. He works as a research assistant while getting his PhD. Every single weekend for the three years we've been together he insists he has work. I realize how stupid I've been now, but foolishly I trusted him. I trusted that he had work every single weekend for three years. That was, until today. I've been studying for finals and it's the toughest it's ever been, so I was craving

some time with him. Just a day where we could kick back and relax with each other. Of course, he says he can't because he's working and I shut up about it. So, today I'm getting antsy anyway and hoping we could at least spend the evening together. I end up texting him, asking when he thinks he'll be back and we can spend the night. I've done this plenty of times before and he always responds fairly quick. This time I'm waiting for a while. After two hours I decide to text a work friend of his who's also a research assistant with him. Wouldn't you know it, it turns out they don't have work today. In fact, he informs me in that same text that they rarely ever have work on weekends. Rarely ever. So now, I'm sitting here wondering WTF is going on. I have no idea how to

confront him about this. I mean, this has been going on for three years. If he's cheating on me, he basically has a second family at this point. But obviously that's where my mind goes and I have no clue what else it could possible be. Like, is there any possible explanation for this besides cheating? How in the world do I confront him about something he's been doing for three years? Since he's doing whatever it is tomorrow, do I just drive over to his place in the morning and wait and then follow him? Has anyone had anything like this happened to them before? Update 1. So I logged into this account for the first time since making my original post and find that there are a lot of messages. I haven't read them all, but I will. The recent ones all

ask for an update, so here it is. When I logged off, things seemed to be pretty split on what I should do. Most people just decided to call him a cheater or say that I'm the side chick. Frankly, I wasn't sure I could wait another day to confront him, so I confronted him the night of that post, no games or stalking or anything. Anyway, I had texted him telling him to come over when his work was done and he did. I waited about five minutes, if that, for him to settle in before telling him that we needed to talk about something important. He immediately responded with a oh which was a bit demeaning but that sarcastic response

honestly matches his personality. I tell him everything that happened, how heard I was, how I didn't feel like I could trust him about anything considering he's been doing this for three years, and then asked if he had anything to say. He told me he wasn't cheating on me or anything like that, he was just embarrassed about what he had been doing. I asked him what he could possibly be so embarrassed about as to hide it and lie to me about it for three years. He takes like a minute to compose himself and then mutters something. He clearly feels guilty but I obviously don't hear it so I ask him what he said because I didn't hear. He tells me that he volunteers at a homeless shelter every weekend since coming here for his PhD,

volunteering at a homeless shelter. I swear to you, whatever emotions are coming across here were multiplied 10x in the moment. I could not comprehend what he was saying. Like, he was embarrassed for volunteering at a homeless shelter? It didn't, still doesn't, make any sense. So I asked him what he meant and he repeated that he volunteers at a homeless shelter for six hours on Saturday and six hours on Sunday, every weekend. Of course I ask him why he would be embarrassed about that and he asks if we can talk about

this more tomorrow, Sunday, and he can instead show me that he isn't lying by taking me to volunteer. I don't know what I was really thinking, I think my mind was just blank so I agreed with a sure and asked him to leave. He apologized for the whole thing and left and then sent a text that he'd pay. pick me up in the morning so he can prove to me that he's not lying. Of course my mind races all night and I tossed and turned all night but Sunday came anyway, he wasn't lying. He takes me to a homeless shelter slash soup kitchen place, I don't really know the difference, and we make food, clean,

and pack daily necessities for six hours. It clearly isn't the place to have the conversation. So I spend most of my time doing the work and chatting with other people and they were really nice but of course the whole thing was still weighing on my mind the entire time, so I start asking them about my boyfriend and they confirm that he's been working there as long as they remember and is there every weekend. He's been there longer than most of them, it seems. Finally our volunteering ends and we head back to his car and I try to start the conversation, but he shuts me down and asks me to wait until we get back to his place. I say fine, maybe I'm being a doormat here, but I was just so confused and lost, and we head to his

apartment. Once there, the talking begins. He asks if I believe that he's telling the truth about working at the homeless shelter every weekend and I say that I do since I confirmed it with a lot of people while there, but I also said that I don't understand the lying, especially for as long as he did. He apologizes again and asks if I really want to know why he kept it a secret. I say, of course, D-U-H. He sighs and then tells me that he doesn't like people knowing that he likes helping people. Obviously I'm going WTF because this is so weird and I ask him to explain. He tells me that when he was an undergrad student he would always try to help his class behind the scenes by discussing problems they had or negotiating for curves or extensions

on their assignments even when he didn't personally need it. He said he enjoyed doing it and kept doing it as a master's student but then started to do so before slash after classes publicly. Apparently most of his classmates were still happy with him but a few basically hated him for it because he was babying them or something. So he went back to doing things behind the scenes and no longer tries to associate himself with any of the things he does to help others. Hopefully I'm not the only one who finds this so dang weird. Like the homeless shelter stuff and assisting your classmates aren't remotely the same? I say as such and he tells

me it does the same thing. It helps people so he doesn't like people to know about it because then they might misinterpret his intent and think he's masquerading as a good person. Then he assures me that he's not a good person at all, but he still wants to do what he can for people so this is what he does, WTF. So I ask if he really thinks I would get mad that he's helping homeless people in his free time. He tells me he wasn't sure at first, especially since I wanted to spend weekends together when we were first going out, duh, every couple does. So he just lied to hide it at first, but he knows I wouldn't do that now but kept the lie going because he thought it would be too weird to suddenly say that he's volunteering at a homeless shelter.

I feel like I've come to the conclusion that he's just really, really weird. His way of thinking has always been odd, but this in particular is just so weird. Like, he seems to understand the situation and where I'm coming from but didn't think to tell me the truth on his own. We started going in circles so I ended the conversation and had him drive me home in silence. Since then he sent a number of texts and has tried to call me a few times. I didn't pick up on Monday or Tuesday because I felt like I needed time to think, but I finally picked up today and we had a talk in which we both reiterated what we had said. I know a lot of people, literally all of them at this time, were telling me to break up with

him but I'm still thinking things through. I'm going to try and get him to hang out this weekend and make my decision after that I think some more. This whole thing has been so weird. I'm sorry that I've repeated that so much but my brain is still rather scrambled. I don't think there will be any more updates to this because we either stay together or break up, but if there are, they won't be posted here. Edit, reading through a lot of the comments on the previous post now.

To answer the most common questions, I haven't met his parents but I have met a few of his friends, he doesn't have social media, he's met my family since I'm local, and we do spend holidays together if they aren't on weekends. Update 2. So I asked him to come over so we could talk and he did. I then asked him some of the questions people had on here that I had written down. Volunteering for six hours but still not having time for me, he said he would get there a little early and leave late, but would then spend the remaining hours running errands and actually

working on PhD slash assistant stuff. I asked if he could give me details, he gave some details about academic articles that I don't remember. I asked why he couldn't spend more weekend evenings with me if this was the case. He said that he was really busy. He said that he was really busy. with work and that I would distract him, ouch. Out of all the things said, I think this is the one that bothers me the most. I asked if the volunteering was court-ordered. He laughed at that and was clearly confused by the question but answered that given the special population he works with doing his PhD, he doubts he'd be able to work with them if he had

a record that required so many hours. I asked if he was ever going to tell me about the volunteering. He initially says he doesn't know, then replies that he probably wouldn't have. He apologized for lying but then said that whether he was working or volunteering doesn't make a difference to how much time he spent with me. Obviously I pushed back on this and he got defensive and we had an argument that basically reiterated how I felt like I couldn't trust him because he was lying about this while he kept apologizing for the lying slash making me feel that way but that it wouldn't have changed

how we spend time together. Ultimately I asked him to explain to me again why he hid it in the first place. Like he said previously, he used to talk to Professor. during undergrad about extensions and questions others had behind closed doors and then make sure those things were stated to the rest of the class. He did the same thing in his master's program. This is where I got lost before. One of his professors was a hard ass and some of his classmates were scared to talk to him about their grades, so he thought he could show them that he was willing to discuss grades and he made a joke about his own grade in class. The professor didn't find it funny

and went on a tirade about respect and showing him up and apparently the class ended shortly thereafter because it was so tense. He said that some of the other students felt like they needed to cut ties with him to show the professor they weren't in on the joke and that a few of them made a show of hating him from that point forward. Hearing it more in-depth at least makes this make a little more sense to me. I stated again that helping homeless and helping classmates seemed like entirely different things altogether. He said that they felt like the same to him but that I was probably right and he was wrong. I asked him why he said he's a bad person. He replied asking if he said that and I said yes. He said that he didn't want the volunteering to make him seem like

a good person because he's not. I asked what he meant and he replied that I know him. I said I'm not sure I do. He said that I know what he means. I don't, you do, etc. in circles. Personally, I think he has low self-esteem, but this is a wish. weird way to express it and I'm not sure what else it could be. I told him I wasn't sure I wanted to continue the relationship because of the lying. He seemed hurt but then just said okay and that it's my decision. I told him that he should at least get therapy for the classmate thing because it's clearly affected him negatively. He replied that he probably should but he won't. After that I gave him an ultimatum, either spend more time with me on weekends and go to therapy

or we break up. I told him to think about it and that he is until Saturday. He said he would and he went on his way. Update 3. This will probably be my last post here. Saturday came and he asked me to compromise. He would take a day off from volunteering if I volunteered with him the other day and he wouldn't have to go to therapy. I said I needed to think about it. I told him later that night that I'd accept the compromise if he was willing to go to one therapy session. On Sunday morning, he told me he wouldn't be willing to go to therapy and ask that we go out to dinner. We went to a local diner and basically talked about ending things. He apologized for ending things this way and said that he knew he wasn't exactly being reasonable but he's doing what

he feels like he needs to do. I basically said that that's up to him. We wished each other the best, he gave me a parting hug, and I went on my way. So yeah, three years of commitment for this. Kind of sucks. Have a good day. Update 4. I'm pretty intoxicated while writing this, so let me just first say sorry for my incomprehensableness.

Is that even a word? Anyway, I've been keeping myself busy with school and stuff, but some casual stuff every once in a while has been good stress relief. What isn't good stress relief was a text message I received today. I should have blocked him but I didn't so here we are. I didn't respond to him but here's the message verbatim. Hello, sorry for contacting you. I am sorry for how I acted.

After you left I really gave a lot of things some thought. I didn't want therapy because I didn't need a professional to tell me that I'm different or weird or diagnose me with something that jeopardizes my profession and I especially didn't want them to try and change me. I bit the bullet in January. I was diagnosed with schizo-typal personality disorder, you can look it up, I guess. I'm not seeing the therapist frequently, especially after he suggested altering some of my behaviors and told me that I'm coping using my volunteering.

Sorry, I'm just saying that you were right and I wasn't being fair to you. Please do not feel burden to respond. I hope you are happy. God, he hopes I'm happy. I mean, really, after everything he acts like some sort of victim. Just, ah, I hate it so much. Every single time I've thought of him since we broke up I just get more angry. I guess it is nice to know that I wasn't imagining things and there is something actually

wrong with him, but did he have to contact me? Gross. Anyway, I was huffing and drinking and spotted my login details still on my laptop desktop and figured an update wouldn't be too hard. I hope you guys know how to pick them better than me. Next story Husband and I agreed we don't want more kids but when I suggested he get a vasectomy

or I get my tubes tied, he screamed that it would take away our manhood and womanhood. Okay, Reddit, I need some unbiased outside opinions because I truly feel like I'm going crazy dealing with this situation. I, 28F, and my partner, 28M, have two children together and have been married for eight years. For those eight years I've either been on birth control when we were preventing pregnancy or tracking my cycle when we were trying to conceive.

Adding this just to give the community the context that reproductive responsibility has always fallen on my shoulders. Recently, we discussed the possibility of being done with children since we have our two and the family really feels complete. My partner is in agreement that a third child is off the table for him as well. So with that I thought great. I can bring up sterilization for either him or I, the reason I wanted this is because I've had every form of birth control before and none of them ever left me feeling 100% okay, so I wanted to be done with birth control completely since we both agreed we're done. It's been about three months since our talk about more children, so I brought up either getting a vasectomy for him or me getting a salp-injectomy, removing my fallopian tubes, what I thought would be a productive conversation completely blew up.

He outright refused a vesectomy and when I was okay with that and said I'd happily get a salp-injectomy he completely flipped his shit on me. screaming at me about how he forbids it from happening and he won't allow me to damage myself like that. I ended up just leaving the conversation and headed to get our kids from school but on the way I ended up calling my gynecologist to schedule a consultation for the salp injectomy after making sure I won't need my spouse's approval. So Reddit Ada if I go through with the sterilization against my partner's wishes? Update 1, March 7, 2025. Due to the support and advice I found on here I managed to get the confidence and level headspace needed to try to have another conversation with my partner. After getting our children to their school slash daycare for the day I went to our local coffee shop to pick us up each a cup,

I figured it can either be seen as a show of care or a peace offering. Once I got home, he was sitting at our island Doom scrolling through TikTok. I think we've all been there. I decided standing across from him would be a bit of a better choice, so I gave us our respective cups and asked if I could get his attention for a conversation. Well, what I hoped would be productive turned unproductive quickly as he sighed with an eye roll and turned off his phone. I started by asking the big question of if he wanted any more children. I even suggested he doesn't think about what I said on the subject and just tell me his feelings

about more children. With that he answered a firm no and told me as he said before a third child is and will always be off the table. I then asked him if he had any fears or concerns about surgery slash medical procedures. He said no to this question as well. So I asked if he understood the procedure and what it entailed and he said yes he does, which is why he doesn't want me to get it done. In his words, I wouldn't be a woman if I got any part of my reproductive organs, what makes me a woman, removed and he refuses to allow me down that path. I then followed up by asking about his getting a vasectomy and he said it's pretty much the same thing for men and he won't let anyone take away if manhood. The final question I managed to ask was did he just expect

me to be on birth control forever and this man looked me in M face and said it's worked so well for me already why change things up, guys, as I stated in my previous post, I am miserable and in debilitating pain with birth control. At the end of this, I just grabbed my coffee and went sit on our porch just trying to wrap my head around the conversation while he sit in the house acting like nothing is wrong and we're just having a normal day off together. Update 2, March 9, 2025. Hey, Reddit, I just wanted to give a small update. I've been reading all of your comments on my last two post, I swear. I appreciate all the advice. and kind words, sometimes even the unkind words because it gives me more to think about. So to start

I've been at my sisters with the children all weekend. I told my husband that she was feeling lonely and wanted us to stay over. He believed it as we usually try to do this once a month. I called off of work Monday so my sister and I can meet with the divorce lawyer that handled her divorce. I'm unsure if divorce will be the path I go down but I want to get my ducks in a row before laying it all down for my husband. Also, I would like to answer some questions that I saw a lot of in my last post. Yes, I still plan to go through with the sterilization. I absolutely don't want any more children even if this ends in divorce. I plan to tell him it's getting done no matter what he says or believes. There will definitely be no sex with him anymore. I feel like I lost

all attraction and respect for him. The children don't know what going on. They just think it's a fun time at Andy's house. Condoms are a no, I exist because of a broken condom. I currently have an IUD and while yes it has been the best birth control I've been on I still cannot function properly for a week out of the month due to pain, bleeding, and depressive episodes. No, he hasn't done anything like this before which is what caught me so off guard with everything.

Disagreements in our relationship have up until now been able to be discussed and compromised on. We grew up in a deep Catholic community but first. fell away from the church years ago. Update 3, March 17, 2025. So I would like to start off by saying thank you everyone for the amazing support I've received throughout the comments and messages. I know I haven't replied in a while, but I have been reading it all.

Now to start off I'll update everyone on the meeting with the lawyer, I was able to talk through my options as well as what legally would buy my husbands and what legally would be mine. I know my next steps of things would lead to divorce and I feel confident in taking those steps if needed. After the meeting, I went back home and got settled back in. I ended up just doing normal task until the kids got home and when my husband got home I suggested getting the children to bed early so we can talk, so we did just that. He ended up starting the conversation by saying if I planned to get the sterilization then he wants a divorce because he can't be with

someone who doesn't share his same values. At that moment I knew this was it for us. So I informed him of my consultation this week for the surgery and my intention to go through with it no matter what. There was honestly a lot of back and forth, I want to say it lasted for three hours before he said he's done and left the house. He's been staying at his moms and hasn't really asked about the children staying with him. I have offered per the suggestion of my lawyer but to no avail. Currently I'm getting a legal separation agreement written up so hopefully start the divorce process peacefully or as peacefully as possible. The kids ask about him, but I just keep telling them he's helping Grandma for a bit. I'm not sure how to tell them he won't be back.

Thankfully, my therapist suggested a children's therapist to me, so I planned to set them an appointment soon. I'm honestly not too sure where everything went wrong with us. I always felt like we had true love, but maybe I was just naive to any of the other signs.