Reddit Stories - SIBLING uttered harsh remarks about his spouse during our family COOKOUT, PROMPTING her

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #relationships #cookingdisaster #spousalconflict #familygatheringSummary: During a family cookout, a sibling made harsh remarks about his spouse, prompting a tense situation. The incident led to conflict and discomfort among family members, highlighting underlying issues in the relationship.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familydrama, relationships, cookingdisaster, spousalconflict, familygathering, siblingconflict, harshremarks, tensefamilyevent, familydiscomfort, relationshipissues, familyconflictresolution, familybonding, communicationbreakdown, familyunity, familytherapyBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Sibling uttered harsh remarks about his spouse during our family cookout, prompting her to astonish everyone by revealing she was engaged in a romantic relationship with another person and was ending their marriage and subsequently his existence. Fell apart and he made a terrible decision that got him arrested. My brother David has always been the type of person who thinks he's funny when he's actually just mean, and yesterday at our family barbecue, things went way too far and now everything has completely. fallen apart. Some background first, my brother David is 32 and his wife Sarah is 29, and they've been married for about six years now. Sarah has had a really difficult time getting pregnant and

has suffered through two miscarriages over the past four years, which has been heartbreaking for everyone involved. She finally got pregnant again about seven months ago and made it past the point where her previous pregnancies had failed, so we were all cautiously optimistic and excited for them. David has this terrible habit of making what he calls jokes that are really just cruel comments disguised as humor, and he's been doing this to Sarah for years. Yesterday was supposed to be a celebration because Sarah is due in about six weeks and we were having a family gathering to celebrate the upcoming arrival, but David had been drinking beer all afternoon and started making his usual inappropriate comments. It started small like it always

does, he made some comment about how Sarah was finally doing her job as a wife and how he was proud that his investment was paying off. Sarah looked uncomfortable but didn't say anything because she's learned over the years that arguing with David just makes him double down and get meaner. My parents, my aunt and uncle, and my cousin were all there, and we kind of just awkwardly laughed it off like we always do because confronting David about his behavior never goes well. But then David started getting worse as he kept drinking, and he began to making comments about how Sarah better not mess this up like she did the other times and how he was going to make sure she didn't do anything stupid to kill this one too. Sarah's face went completely white when he said that and I could see her hands shaking, but she still didn't say anything and just excused herself to go to the bathroom.

When Sarah came back, David was talking to my dad about how he was going to raise his son to be tough and not weak like Sarah's side of the family, and when Sarah sat down, David turned to her and said something that I still. can't believe came out of his mouth. He said, and I'm quoting this exactly because it's burned into my memory, you know Sarah, I'm starting to wonder if you actually got pregnant by someone else this time, because God knows I would have let any man sleep with you if it meant finally getting an air. The entire table went completely silent and Sarah just stared at him with this look that I had never seen on her face before. My dad started to say something, but Sarah held up her hand and stood up, and what happened next was like watching. a bomb go off in slow motion.

Sarah looked directly at David and said, You want to know the truth, David? You're right. This baby isn't yours. I've been having an affair for the past eight months with someone who actually treats me like a human being instead of like a broken incubator. I'm done pretending that this marriage is salvageable

and I'm done letting you treat me like garbage while I smile and take it. I'm leaving you, I'm keeping this baby away from you, and I never want to see you again. She then turned to the rest of us and said, I'm sorry you all had to witness this, but I can't do this anymore, and she walked out of the backyard,

got in her car, and drove away while David just sat there with his mouth hanging open like a fish. David immediately started yelling and demanding that someone go after her, insisting that she was lying and just trying to hurt him, but nobody moved because honestly, we were all too shocked to process what had just happened.

When David realized that nobody was going to chase after Sarah, he got a Uber, and the rest of us just sat there in stunned silence for about 20 minutes before everyone decided to leave. That was yesterday, and now David is staying at my apartment because Sarah changed the locks on their house and won't answer his calls or texts. He's been begging me to call her and convince her to come back, insisting that she was just angry and didn't mean what she said about the affair, but I honestly don't know if I want to help him. I love my brother and I've always tried to support him, but watching the way he's treated Sarah over the years has been really difficult, and part of me thinks that maybe Sarah finally had enough and decided to fight back in the only way she knew would hurt him as much as he's hurt her. David keeps saying that Sarah is being dramatic and that married couples are supposed to be able

to joke with each other, but what he was doing yesterday wasn't joking, it was deliberately cruel and designed to humiliate her in front of our entire family. I don't know what to do here because... Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere, from Apple Podcasts to Spotify.

But the real game changer for me was Spreker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career. Spreaker also has a premium subscription model

where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Sprinker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-R dot com.

David is my brother and he's clearly devastated, but I also can't get the image of Sarah's face out of my head when she finally snapped. She looked like someone who had been holding their breath underwater for years and finally came up gasping for air. I'm questioning whether I should try to help David get his wife back or whether I should just stay out of this mess entirely. Update. I've been getting a lot of questions about my previous post, so I wanted to clarify

some things and provide more context about the situation with my brother David and his wife Sarah. First, I want to make it clear that our family doesn't bully or mistreat Sarah. This is entirely about David's behavior toward her. The rest of us have always liked Sarah and tried to include her in family activities and conversations. My parents have always been kind to her, my cousin gets along well with her, and I've always considered her a friend. The problem is specifically with how David treats her, and while we've all witnessed it over the years, none of us have been effective at stopping it. I realize I didn't provide enough background about David's pattern of behavior in my original post, so let me give you some examples of the kinds of things he's

been doing to Sarah throughout their marriage. These aren't isolated incidents. This is how David treats Sarah on a regular basis, and it's gotten worse over the years. David has been unemployed for the past three years and Sarah works as a nurse practitioner, so she's been supporting them financially during this entire time. Despite this, David regularly calls Sarah a gold digger in front of people and makes comments about how she's lucky to have found someone willing to take care of her. When people point out that Sarah is actually the one working and paying the bills, David just laughs and says that Sarah wouldn't be able to afford their lifestyle without him, which doesn't make any sense since he doesn't contribute any income. After Sarah,

Sarah's first miscarriage, David started making jokes about her being defective and broken, and these comments have continued throughout all of her pregnancy struggles. He's made comments at family dinners about how Sarah can't even do the one thing women are supposed to be good at and how he's starting to think he picked the wrong horse. When Sarah gets upset about these comments, David tells her that she's being too sensitive and that he's just trying to lighten the mood during a difficult time. David treats Sarah like she's his employee rather than his wife, giving her lists of things to do around the house and getting angry when she doesn't complete them

exactly how he wants them done. He's told her that since she's the one working, and she has a habit of working so she should also be handling all of the household responsibilities because that's how partnerships work. When Sarah tries to explain that she's exhausted from working long shifts at the hospital, David tells her that plenty of women manage to work and keep house, so she must just be bad at time management. The way David talks to Sarah in public is embarrassing to witness. He interrupts her when she's speaking, corrects her in front of other people, and dismisses her opinions on topics even when she clearly knows more about them than he does. When Sarah tries to contribute to conversations about her work or current events, David

will make comments like Sarah thinks she's an expert on everything or here comes Dr. Sarah with another lecture. He's trained her to basically stop participating in group conversations, because he makes her feel stupid every time she opens her mouth. David has also developed this habit of testing Sarah's commitment to their marriage by making unreasonable demands and getting angry when she pushes back. He's told her that if she really loved him, she would quit her job so they could focus on having children, even though they need her income to survive. He's also told her that she should cut contact with her friends because married women shouldn't

need friends outside their marriage and that her close relationship with her sister makes him feel Sarah doesn't prioritize their marriage. The pregnancy comments have been especially cruel because David knows how much Sarah's fertility struggles have affected her emotionally. After her second miscarriage, David told people at a family gathering that Sarah keeps killing his children and that he was starting to wonder if God was trying to tell them something. When Sarah started crying and left the room, David told everyone that she was being dramatic and that she needed to develop a sense of humor about their situation. During this current pregnancy, David has been making comments about how he's going to make sure Sarah doesn't mess this up and how he's considering hiring someone to keep an eye on her to make sure she's following all of the doctor's recommendations.

He's also been telling people that he's not going to get his hopes up about this pregnancy because Sarah has disappointed him before, which is an incredibly hurtful thing to say about someone who has suffered multiple pregnancy losses. I want to emphasize that I love my brother and I've tried to talk to him about his behavior over the years, but David doesn't think he's doing it. anything wrong. When I brought up specific comments he's made, he tells me that I'm taking things out of context and that Sarah knows he's just joking around. He says that Sarah is oversensitive and that she needs to learn to laugh at herself, and he gets defensive when anyone suggests that maybe his jokes are actually hurtful. The rest of our family has also tried to address this with David, but he becomes angry and accuses us of taking Sarah's side against him. He's said that We don't understand their relationship and that Sarah complains to us to make him look bad,

which isn't true because Sarah has never said anything negative about David to any of us. Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere, from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion.

That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreaker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career. Sprinker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Sprinker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network,

Spreeker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R dot com. She's actually been incredibly loyal to him and has defended him when people have questioned some of his behavior. So when Sarah finally snapped at the barbecue and revealed that she'd been having an affair, I wasn't surprised that she had reached her breaking point. I don't agree with how she handled the situation and I think having an affair was wrong, but I also understand why she felt trapped and desperate enough to look for emotional support

outside of her marriage. David is still staying at my apartment and he's still insisting that Sarah was just trying to hurt him and that she'll come back once she calms down. He keeps asking me to call her and explain that he's sorry and that he wants to work things out, but I'm honestly not sure if I should get involved. I feel terrible for David because he's clearly. devastated, but I also feel like maybe this is the consequence of years of treating Sarah badly, and maybe he needs to face that reality instead of having me fix things for him.

Update 2. After days of David begging me to reach out to Sarah, I finally agreed to meet with her yesterday afternoon. David has been staying at my apartment for almost two weeks now and the constant pressure to fix things with Sarah was starting to wear me down, so I thought maybe if I talked to her directly, I could get a better understanding of where things stand and what might be possible going forward. I texted Sarah and asked if she would be willing to meet, and she agreed pretty quickly, which surprised me because I wasn't sure if she would want to talk to anyone from David's family right now. We met at a place that's far from the neighborhood where she and David live, and I could tell that Sarah had been having a really difficult time

because she looked exhausted and stressed in a way that I had never seen before. Sarah immediately apologized for how everything went down at the family barbecue and said that she knew the way she revealed the affair was hurtful and dramatic, but that she had reached a point where she couldn't pretend anymore in David's comments that Day had pushed her past her limit. She said that she had been planning to leave David for months but hadn't figured out how to do it, and when he made those disgusting comments about letting other men sleep with her, something inside her just broke and she decided to tell the truth in the most shocking way possible. I asked Sarah if what she said about the affair was true, and she confirmed that yes, she had been seeing someone else for about

eight months. She explained that she met this person through work and that it started as just a friendship with someone who listened to her and treated her with respect, but that it eventually became something more. She said that she knows having an affair was wrong and that she should have left David before getting involved with someone else, but that she had been scared to leave because David had convinced her over the years that she was lucky anyone would want to be with her. Sarah told me that the baby is definitely not David's and that she had already confirmed this with her doctor, which means that David has no legal claim to the child. She said that the father of the baby is someone who has been supportive throughout her pregnancy and who is

excited to be a parent, unlike David who has spent months making cruel comments about her pregnancy and treating it like an inconvenience. When I asked Sarah if there was any possibility of her working things out with David, she was very clear that she was done with the marriage. and that nothing David could say or do would change her mind. She said that she had spent years trying to make David happy and trying to be the wife he wanted, but that she had finally realized that David doesn't actually want a partner, he wants someone to control and belittle,

and she wasn't willing to subject herself or her child to that kind of treatment. Sarah also told me that David had been calling and texting her constantly since she left, and that some of his messages had been threatening and scary. She said that David had been showing up at her workbook, and her sister's house trying to force conversations with her, and that she was considering getting a restraining order if he didn't stop. She showed me some of the text messages David had been sending, and they were really disturbing, he was calling her names, threatening to take legal action to get his baby, and telling her that she was going to regret leaving him.

I felt terrible reading those messages because that's not the David that I know, but Sarah pointed out that this is actually exactly the David she's been living with for years, and that I've just never seen this side of him because he saves his worst behavior for when they're alone together. She said that David is very good at presenting himself as a victim when other people are around, but that behind closed doors he's controlling and emotionally abusive in ways that most people don't see. Sarah told me that she wanted to maintain a relationship with me and the rest of David's family if possible, because she's always felt welcomed and supported by us, but that she understood if we felt like we needed to choose sides. I was honest with her. I was honest with her.

her and told her that while I understand why she left and I don't blame her for wanting to get away from David's behavior, David is still my brother and my priority has to be helping him through this situation, even if I don't agree with how he's been treating her. Sarah said that she appreciated my honesty and that she didn't expect me to abandon David, but that she hoped I would encourage him to get some kind of professional help because his behavior has been escalating in she... Hi, I'm Darren Marler, host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your

show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career.

Spreaker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Spreaker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast network, Spreeker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-K-E-R.com. he's genuinely concerned about what he might do. She said that David has never been physically violent with her, but that his emotional abuse has gotten worse over the years and she's worried that losing control of the situation might push him to do something dangerous. We talked for about an hour and Sarah was very calm and reasonable throughout the entire conversation,

which was not what I was expecting based on how David has been describing her mental state. David has been telling me that Sarah is having some kind of breakdown and that she's not thinking clearly, but she seemed completely rational and like she had thought through her decision very carefully. When we were getting ready to leave, Sarah asked me to tell David that she hopes he can find a way to be happy, but that she won't be changing her mind about the divorce and that he needs to stop contacting her. She also asked me to let him know that if he continues to harass her, she will be getting a restraining order and involving the police, which she doesn't want to do but will if necessary. David is completely falling apart.

and I don't know how to help him. When I told David about my conversation with Sarah, he got angry and accused me of being manipulated by her, and he insisted that Sarah is lying about the affair and just trying to hurt him because she knows it's the one thing that would destroy him. David is convinced that if he can just talk to Sarah face to face, he can convince her to come home and work things out, but based on my conversation with her, I don't think that's going to happen.

Sarah seemed very sure about her decision and very aware of what she's giving. giving up by leaving, but also very clear that staying with David isn't an option for her anymore. I don't know what my role should be in this situation because David clearly needs support, but I also don't want to enable his behavior or make things worse for Sarah. I'm starting to think that maybe David needs to accept that his marriage is over and focus on figuring out how to move forward, but he's not ready to hear that yet. Update 3. It's been about six weeks since my last update and the situation with David has gotten so much worse that I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

After I told him about my conversation with Sarah and made it clear that she wasn't going to change her mind about the divorce, David completely lost it and moved out of my apartment in the middle of the night without telling me where he was going. I found out the next day that David had gotten a room at a cheap motel and had been spending his days drinking at various bars and trying to find out information about Sarah's whereabouts for mutual acquaintances. Sarah had moved in with her sister temporarily and wasn't telling people her specific location because David had been showing up at places where he thought she might be, which was starting to scare her. About a week after David moved out of my place,

I got a call from a bartender asking me to come pick him up because he had gotten into a fight with another customer and was too drunk to drive himself home. When I got there, David was sitting outside the bar with a black eye and a cut on his lip, and he was so intoxicated that he could barely stand up. The bartender told me that David had been talking loudly about his wife cheating on him and had gotten aggressive when another customer told him to keep his voice down. This became a pattern over the next few weeks. I would get calls from different bars and restaurants asking me to come get David because he was causing problems or was too drunk to get himself home safely. David has never been much of a drinker, so seeing him drunk every

single day was really alarming, and it was clear that he wasn't eating regularly or taking care of himself in any way. The worst incident happened about two weeks ago when David got into a physical fight at a bar and ended up getting arrested for assault. The other guy apparently made some comment about David's situation after overhearing him complaining about Sarah, and David threw a punch and ended up breaking the guy's nose. I had to use my savings to bail David out of jail, and when I picked him up, he was completely unrepentant and kept saying that the other guy deserved it for disrespecting his marriage. Around the same time that David's drinking was getting out of control, he also developed a gambling problem that seemed to come out

of nowhere. He started going to a casino about an hour outside of town and would disappear for entire days at a time, coming back with no money and asking me to lend him cash for food and gas. When I asked him why he was gambling when he couldn't afford it, David told me that he was trying to win enough money to hire a private investigator to find Sarah and prove that she was lying about the affair. David became increasingly demanding about money and would get angry when I refused to give him cash or let him borrow my credit cards. He started showing up at my workplace asking for money, which was embarrassing and unprofessional,

and when I told him that he couldn't keep doing that, he accused me of abandoning him during the worst time of his life. Last week, my parents and I decided that we needed to stage some kind of intervention because David's behavior was getting dangerous and self-destructive. We invited him over for dinner and tried to talk to him about getting professional help for his drinking and his emotional problems, and we offered to help him find a therapist or a support group for people going through divorce. David became furious when we brought up the idea of therapy and accused us of thinking he was crazy. He said that there was nothing. He said that there was wrong with him and that the only problem was that his wife had betrayed him and destroyed

their marriage, and that once he got Sarah back, everything would go back to normal. When my dad pointed out that Sarah had made it clear she wasn't coming back, David started yelling and threw a plate across the kitchen, which shattered against the wall. David then stormed out of my parents' house and didn't answer his phone for three days, which had us all really worried because he had been making comments about not having anything left to live for and about how maybe Sarah would be sorry if something happened to him. We were afraid that he might hurt himself, so my dad went to the motel where David had been staying and found out that he had checked out without paying his bill and nobody knew where he had

gone. David finally called me yesterday and he was calling from yet another motel, this one even further from town, and he sounded completely different than he had before. Instead of being angry and aggressive, he sounded defeated and exhausted, and he kept repeating that he didn't understand how everything had gone so wrong so quickly. He asked me if I thought Sarah would ever forgive him, and when I told him honestly that I didn't think she would, he started crying on the phone, which is something I had never heard David do before. I'm at the point where I don't know how to help David anymore because he refuses to acknowledge that his behavior contributed to Sarah leaving, and he won't consider getting professional help or making any changes to improve

his situation. Every conversation we have ends with David asking me to contact Sarah on his behalf or to help him figure out a way to win her back, and when I tell him that's not going to happen, he gets angry and accuses me of not caring about him. I love my brother and I want to support him through this difficult time, but I'm starting to realize that I can't fix this situation for him and that my attempts to help might actually be enabling his destructive behavior. I'm thinking about stepping back from trying to help David until he's ready to help himself, but I'm also worried about what might happen to him if everyone in his life stops trying to intervene. The whole situation has been emotionally exhausting for me and it's starting to affect my own mental health and my relationship with my boyfriend, who has been very patient but is getting frustrated with how much time and energy I'm spending on David's problems.

I think I need to set some boundaries with David, but I'm not sure how to do that without feeling like I'm abandoning him when he needs support the most. Update 4 I honestly can't believe I'm writing this update because what happened yesterday is so far beyond anything I could have imagined. that I'm still trying to process it all. David has been arrested for attempting to kidnap Sarah's newborn baby from the hospital, and I'm completely stunned by how far he's fallen and how dangerous his behavior has become. Sarah gave birth to a healthy baby girl three days ago, and apparently David found out about the birth through someone at Sarah's workplace who didn't realize that David wasn't supposed to have this information. Sarah had specifically asked that her location in the baby's birth not be shared with David, but somehow

the information got back to him anyway. Yesterday morning, David showed up at the hospital wearing scrubs that he had somehow obtained and told the nurses that he was Sarah's brother coming to visit his new niece. The hospital staff didn't have any reason to doubt him since he knew Sarah's name and the baby's birth date, and they directed him to Sarah's room without checking his identification or verifying his relationship to Sarah. When David got to Sarah's room, Sarah was sleeping and the baby was in a bassinet next to her bed. According to what the police told me, David picked up the baby and started walking toward the elevator,

apparently planning to leave the hospital with her. A nurse stopped him to ask where he was taking the baby, and David told her that he was bringing the baby to the nursery for some routine tests. The nurse became suspicious because David wasn't on the list of people authorized to move the baby, and when she asked to see his hospital identification, David became agitated and started walking faster toward the elevator. The nurse followed him and asked him to stop, and when David refused, she called security while continuing to follow him. Security arrived just as David was trying to get on the elevator with the baby, and when they asked him to hand over the baby

and explain what he was doing, David had a complete breakdown. David started screaming that the baby belonged to him regardless of who the biological father was, and that Sarah had stolen his child in his life and that he was just taking back what was rightfully his. The security guards had to physically restrain David to get the baby away from him, and during the struggle, David was yelling and cry. Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt.

Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere, from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's monetization. Spreaker offers dynamic ad insertion. That means you can automatically insert ads into your episodes. No editing required. And with Spreker's programmatic ads, they'll bring the ads to you, and you get paid for every download. This turned my podcasting hobby into a full-time career.

Sprinker also has a premium subscription model where your most dedicated listeners can pay for bonus content or early access, adding another revenue stream to what you're already doing. And the best part, Sprinker grows with you. Whether you're just starting out or running a full-blown podcast net-es, network. Spreaker's powerful tools scale effortlessly as your show grows. So if you're ready to podcast like a pro and get paid while doing it, check out Spreaker.com. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R.com. I'm in saying that nobody understood what Sarah had done to him and that he couldn't live without his family. The police were called and David was arrested for attempted kidnapping,

trespassing, and harassment, since apparently there was already a restraining order against him that Sarah had gotten without any of us knowing about it. I got a call from the police station yesterday afternoon asking me to come down because David was asking for me and they wanted to verify some information about his mental state and recent behavior. When I saw David in the holding cell, he looked completely different than the last time I had seen him, he had lost a significant amount of weight, his hair was unwashed and messy. David kept insisting to me that he hadn't done anything wrong and that he was just trying

to see his daughter, even though every other. had explained to him multiple times that the baby wasn't biologically his and that he had no legal rights to her. He kept saying that Sarah had brainwashed everyone against him and that the baby was his regardless of what any DNA test might say, because he had been married to Sarah when she got pregnant. The police told me that Sarah was extremely shaken up by what had happened and that she had been moved to a different room in the hospital for security reasons. They also told me that the baby hadn't been harmed during the incident, but that David's behavior had been so erratic and aggressive that they were concerned about what he might have done if he had actually

managed to leave the hospital with her. I asked the police officer what kind of charges David was facing, and she told me that attempted kidnapping is a felony and that given the circumstances and David's recent pattern of harassment, he was likely looking at significant jail time. She also told me that the hospital was reviewing their security procedures because David shouldn't have been able to get access to Sarah's room so easily, especially since there was already a restraining order in place. I spent about an hour at the police station trying to talk to David and understand what he had been thinking, but it was like talking to a completely different person than the brother I grew up with. David kept going back and forth between being angry

and defensive about his actions and breaking down crying about how much he missed Sarah and how empty his life was without her. When I asked David what his plan had been if he had successfully left the hospital with the baby, he said that he was going to take her somewhere safe where Sarah couldn't find them, and that eventually Sarah would realize that they belonged together as a family and would come back to him. It was clear that David was not thinking rationally and that he genuinely believed that kidnapping a newborn baby was somehow going to fix his marriage. I called my parents after leaving the police station and they were just as shocked and horrified as I was by what David had done. My dad said that he was going to contact a lawyer to see what could

be done to help David, but my mom pointed out that David's actions were criminal and dangerous and that maybe jail time was what he needed to finally face the consequences of his behavior. I've been thinking about this whole situation non-stop since yesterday and I keep coming back to the fact that David's actions could have seriously harmed a newborn baby and traumatized Sarah even further after everything she's already been through. The most disturbing part of this whole thing is that David still doesn't seem to understand that what he did was wrong, and he still focused on blaming Sarah for everything that's happened instead of taking responsibility for his own actions. I'm starting to think that David needs serious professional

help and that this situation is way beyond what our family can handle on our own. Final update, it's been four months since David's arrest at the hospital and I wanted to provide a final update on how everything has been resolved, even though the outcome is not what any of us hoped for when this whole situation started. David was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison for attempted kidnapping, criminal trespassing, and violating a restraining order. His lawyer had tried to argue for a reduced sentence based on David's mental state and lack of prior criminal history, but the judge said that David's actions had put a newborn baby at risk and showed a pattern of escalating harassment that required serious consequences.

During the sentencing hearing, David was given the opportunity to make a statement, and I was hoping that he would finally take responsibility for his actions and show some remorse for what he had put Sarah and the baby through. Instead, David used his time to continue blaming Sarah for everything that had happened and to insist that he was the real victim in this situation because his wife had betrayed him and destroyed their marriage. David told the judge that he had never intended to hurt the baby and that he had just wanted to hold his daughter and spend some time with her, even though multiple people had explained to him

that the baby was not biologically his and that he had no legal relationship to her. He said that Sarah had turned everyone against him and that nobody understood how much pain he was in because of her affair and abandonment. The judge was clearly not impressed with David's statement and pointed out that David had shown no remorse for his actions and seemed to have no understanding of how his behavior had affected other people. She said that David's inability to account accept responsibility for his actions and his continued harassment of Sarah suggested that he was likely to re-offend if he wasn't given significant jail time to reflect on his behavior. Sarah was also given the opportunity to make a statement during the sentencing hearing,

and it was the first time I had seen her since our meeting months earlier. She looked healthy and composed, and when she spoke, she was very clear about how David's behavior had affected her and her ability to feel safe in her daily life. Sarah told the judge that David's harassment had started long before the hospital incident and that she had been living in fear because of his threats and attempts to contact her. She said that David's attempt to take her baby from the hospital had been the most terrifying experience of her life and that she still had nightmares about what might have happened if the nurse hadn't stopped him.

Sarah also spoke about how David's emotional abuse during their marriage had affected her self-esteem and mental health, and how his refusal to accept their divorce had prevented her from moving on with her life and healing from their relationship. She asked the judge to give David a sentence that would protect her and her daughter from further harassment and would hopefully motivate David to get the help he clearly needed. After David was sentenced, Sarah's lawyer announced that Sarah had decided to leave town permanently with her daughter and the baby's father to start fresh somewhere where David wouldn't be able to find them once he was released from prison. Sarah had apparently been offered a job at a hospital in another state and felt that

relocating was the best way to ensure her family's safety and peace of mind. I approached Sarah after the sentencing hearing to apologize on behalf of my family for everything David had put her through, and to let her know that we didn't support his actions and understood why she felt the need to protect herself and her daughter. Sarah was gracious and told me that she didn't hold David's behavior against the rest of us, and that she appreciated our family's kindness to her over the years. Sarah also told me that she had named her daughter Luna and that she was a happy and healthy baby who was being raised in a loving environment with people who would never treat her the way David had treated. Hi, I'm Darren Marler, host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most

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she felt relief knowing that her daughter would grow up without being exposed to David's toxic behavior. I asked Sarah if she would be willing to stay in touch so that I could get updates about Luna as she grew up, but Sarah explained that she felt it was better to make a clean break from anything connected to David for her own emotional well-being and her daughter's safety. She said that she hoped David would eventually get the help he needed,

but that she couldn't be part of his healing process because her priority had to be protecting herself and her child. My parents and I visited David in jail a few weeks ago and he was still insisting that everyone had overreacted to his actions and that Sarah was being vindictive by moving away and taking his daughter with her. David seemed to have no understanding of how his behavior had led to this outcome.

I've started seeing a therapist to help me process everything that's happened and to understand my own role in enabling David's behavior over the years. I'm learning that by constantly making excuses for David and trying to smooth over his conflicts with other people, I was actually preventing him from facing the natural consequences of his actions

and learning to treat people better. I don't know what's going to happen to David when he gets out of prison, but I've decided that I'm not going to continue enabling his destructive behavior by bailing him out of consequences or making excuses for his actions. David is an adult who made his own choices, and if he wants to have healthy relationships with people, he's going to have to learn to treat them with respect and take responsibility for his mistakes. As for Sarah and Luna, I hope they're happy and safe in their new life and that they never have to deal with David's harassment again. Sarah deserves so much better than the treatment,

she received from David, and I'm glad she finally found the courage to leave and build a better life for herself and her daughter.