Reddit Stories - Sisterly Deception Unveiling Family's Dark Hidden Agenda ( Over 3 Hour Compilation ) - Episode 105

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #familydrama #sisterbetrayal #hiddenagendas #emotionalturmoil #compilationIn Episode 123 of "Sisterly Deception," family secrets unravel as hidden agendas come to light. The emotional journey reveals betrayal among siblings, challenging their relationships and trust. This over three-hour compilation explores the complexities of family dynamics and the impact of deceit on loved ones.redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, betrayal, familydrama, deception, secrets, emotional, trustissues, siblingrivalry, hiddentruths, relationships, turmoil, conflict, storytelling, drama, revelations, podcast, compilationBecome 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. Spouse covertly invited his sibling on our post-wedding vacation without my knowledge despite my objections. Consequently, I left him at the airport and embarked on a solitary journey in its place. Hey. So my husband Jacob, 30M, and I, 27F, got married about a week ago and yesterday, we were supposed to leave for our honeymoon. But I ended up taking a flight to someplace else altogether because his younger sister showed up at the airport and apparently, Jacob was in on this the whole time and had actually

invited her to come along with us. For context, his sister Angie, 26F, recently went through a terrible divorce with her ex-husband and has been very torn up about it for the past couple of months. Angie and her ex had been high school sweethearts and got married as soon as they could. They spent several beautiful years together until about a little. a year ago when Angie found out that he had been having an affair for months with one of his co-workers. She tried to make it work with him even after that, but after several sessions of marriage counseling, her ex was the one who filed for divorce because he claimed that he just

couldn't do this anymore. She begged him to stay, but in spite of that, he left and they got divorced. She received everything in the divorce, the house and the cars, and a hefty settlement, but even that wasn't enough for her because she wanted her marriage to stay intact. and didn't care about anything else. I thought it was really sad and I honestly felt bad for her because she was a sweet person and she didn't deserve it.

To be honest, nobody deserves to live like that, and I had witnessed firsthand how depressed she was in the months following the divorce. I wanted to help her out, but all I could offer her were words of consolation. I wanted to involve her in the wedding so that she would stay busy and distracted,

but Jacob told me that he didn't think it was such a good idea because being part of a wedding like ours would just remind her that her own marriage had fallen apart, and he made a good point, so I decided to only stick to checking up on her once in a while. Angie and I were never close friends, but we got along well. In fact, I think I could say that about most of Jacob's family. I wouldn't say that I was close to any of them, but we got along well, and I never had a problem with any of them so far. But then, a day after my wedding, my mother-in-law, Nora, 55F, called me up and said that she wanted me to invite Angie to accompany us on our honeymoon. Jacob and I had been planning for this for a really long time and I think I had been more

excited about the honeymoon than the wedding, if I'm being really honest. I love traveling and so does Jacob and we love mountain ranges in particular, so we had a whole tour of the Alps planned. We had taken about three weeks off from work and we have been really looking forward to this ever since we planned it. Now I did feel bad for Angie, and I would have been willing to do whatever it took to cheer her up, except for this. Nora told me that even Angie loved to travel, and she believed that going on a trip with us would help her with the pain. But Angie wouldn't be willing to come along unless I invited her personally, so she wanted me to ask her and make it seem like I wanted her to come along.

But truth be told, I didn't want her to come with us. For starters, this was supposed to be our honeymoon and I don't think it's appropriate for family to accompany the newlyweds on their honeymoon. And secondly, I was really looking forward to this since the weeks leading up to the wedding had been really busy and hectic for both of us. Jacob and I had specifically taken time off so we could travel and have some quality time with just each other. It didn't seem fair for Nora to ask me to give all that up for the sake of Angie's happiness. So, with a heavy heart, I had to tell Nora that I couldn't do so because it wouldn't be fair

to either of us I expected her to understand that this was supposed to be our honeymoon and I didn't want Angie tagging along. She didn't fight with me at the time but tried to convince me that this could do her world of good and I would be doing them all a huge favor by inviting her to come with us. She told me that she was going to cover the cost of Angie traveling with us and I didn't even have to worry about the money. All that I had to do was invite her and be there for her. She was pushing it really hard, but even then, I stood my ground and I firmly declined it because it was not fair to either of us. I could understand that it was difficult for her to deal with a divorce, but she couldn't just tag along with us and expect us to give up our honeymoon just so we could

cheer her up. Besides, it wasn't even Angie trying to convince me to let her come along. Nora believed that it would be good for her to travel with us. Had Angie approached me, I might have even considered saying yes. But I didn't think that she wanted to come along with us either because she hadn't said anything of the sort, and even when I had mentioned the honeymoon to her, she hadn't shown any interest in wanting to come with us, and I just told me to have fun. That was it. So after a few minutes of conversation and arguing, Nora decided to drop it and it didn't come up after that.

After that conversation, I spoke to Jacob about what his mother had said, but strangely enough, he didn't have any reaction to it. He just asked me what I had told her, and I told him that I had said no. When I said that, he just grunted and that was it, no further discussion about it. In hindsight, I probably should have read more into it, but at the time, I was just too excited to start packing for our honeymoon, so I didn't pay much mind to his reaction. In the week between the wedding and the honeymoon, we were busy at work because we were trying to wrap everything up before we left.

So we didn't have a chance to meet anybody from his family. And nobody tried to get in touch with us either. Jacob and I would talk about the honeymoon and our trip occasionally whenever we were at home this last week, but he didn't say a single word about what he had been planning. Until the very last minute, I had no idea that he had invited Angie to come with us and I only found out when we were at the airport and Angie and Nora showed up. Yesterday, Jacob and I left about three hours before our flight was scheduled at the airport. While we were waiting outside and taking our bags out of the cabs, I suddenly noticed Angie and

Nora approaching us. I tried to give everybody involved the benefit of the doubt until I noticed that Angie had her bags with her. I knew then that she was definitely not here to just say goodbye to us or drop us off. She yelled surprise really loudly and then hugged me when she was close enough, but I was still trying to process what was going on, because I think I had been very clear about my feelings on this with both Jacob and his mother. However, despite what I had said, here, she was seemingly ready to accompany us on our honeymoon. When Angie realized that I looked confused and not happy when I saw her, her smile faded, and she asked me if I was not happy to see her. I didn't even know what to say, so I just turned to Jacob for an explanation. I wanted him to tell

me that he had no idea about any of this and that Nora was the one who was responsible for this. But instead, he told me that after I had informed him about the phone call and the conversation that I had with Nora the other day, he couldn't help but think about how nice it would be for Angie to come with us on the trip and have a good time to distract her. The reason he had not reacted that day was that he had gone behind my back a couple of hours later and told Angie that apparently I was the one who had suggested this idea and invited her to come with us on the trip to surprise me. And he was right about one thing, I was definitely surprised, but not in a good way. I thought it was sneaky and selfish of him to go behind my back to the one thing that I had told

him that I didn't want. I like Angie, like I said, she's a really nice person and I like her. But I like a lot of people, I'm not going to take all of them with me on my honeymoon just because it would be a nice thing to do. I don't have to do things just because it's a sweet thing to do, especially when it comes to something as intimate and special as a honeymoon. After Jacob told me that this was his idea, and he was the one who had invited her to come along with us, I sort of snapped at him right in front of Angie and his mother and told him that this was simply unacceptable. I knew that Angie would feel bad about it, but that was the thing on my mind at that moment. I told him that he had gone behind my back, and I couldn't forgive him

for that, because it had barely even been a week into our marriage, and he was already being sneaky and lying to me. He tried to pass this off as something really small and insignificant, but he thought, I had been planning for this honeymoon for ages and I had made it very clear to him that I was really looking forward to this. Even on the day that I had told him about the suggestion that Nora had made and that I didn't like the idea of asking Angie to come along, just because she was depressed, I think I had been very clear about my feelings on this. So this was not petty or insignificant in the slightest to me, I felt like he had betrayed me and I was extremely upset. But he simply refused to look at it like that, and he said that I was making a bigger deal

out of it than was necessary and completely blowing this out of proportion. He told me that Angie would be paying for herself. She would stay in a separate room and she would only join us for certain activities, but we wouldn't be together all the time. However, that was not enough for me, because at the end of the day, she was still going to be accompanying us on our honeymoon. And I don't know about everybody else, but I really think that's weird. Had this been any other trip, like a normal weekend trip, I don't think I would have had a problem but asking my sister-in-law to come with me on my honeymoon was where I drew the line. After a bit of fighting and arguing, I decided that I had had enough, and since Jacob refused to take accountability and accept

that he had done something messed up, I thought that I was better off going away on my own. I had already taken three weeks off from work, and I wasn't going to let that go to waste. So I dropped the argument and went inside the airport, after telling him not to follow me. But of course, he did follow me. However, I didn't want him around me at that particular point in time, so I actually had to yell at him to stop following me around and said that I didn't want him anywhere near me or I really would report him for harassment. That stopped him from coming after me, but I could tell from his face that he was really upset and hurt by what I said. I didn't care because I was pissed off and I just wanted to be away from him. So once I had yelled at him, and he had stopped following me, I decided to get myself a ticket

and hopped onto the next flight to Miami. I was really lucky because it didn't require me to wait for long and I was on the flight before Jacob even had a chance to change his mind about following me. Once I landed in Miami, I decided to turn on my phone and check for texts and I realized that my inbox was full of messages from Jacob, Angie, and Nora. All of them seemed to be really apologetic for whatever. had happened, but the only apology that really stood out was the one that I received from Angie. She told me that when, a few days ago, Jacob had visited her, and told her that I had been

suggesting that she accompany us on our honeymoon, she could barely even believe it. Apparently, she was even about to ask me if I was actually okay with it because she didn't want to be intruding, but Jacob was the one who told her not to ask me because he wanted it to be a surprise for me. He had laid it on thick and made her believe that this was my idea. But after our fight at the airport, it had become clear to her that this was all planned by her mother and her brother and she said that she was sorry on their behalf because what they had done was really stupid and she didn't blame me for reacting the way that I did because she was in my place. She probably would have done the same thing. Her apology seemed genuine,

and I told her that it was okay. I could understand that she was going through something really difficult and she wasn't even involved in any of this so I forgave her. But with Jim, Jacob and Nora, it was a different story altogether. Jacob was apologizing, but he was also trying hard to make me seem like the bad guy here. And the same applied to Nora as well. They were trying to push me into believing that they only had good intentions and didn't think that I would get so upset about this. They claimed that they had believed that I would eventually be okay with this because I

always acted like I liked Angie and I do, I really like her. But like I said, that doesn't mean that I want her arrest. on my honeymoon and if they can't accept it then I don't know what to tell them. Now, I know for a fact that I'm not in the wrong here, but I still kind of feel bad. And it doesn't help that ever since I landed here, I've been fighting with Jacob nonstop. It's because he just doesn't want to accept that he messed up by going behind my back and that this was not the right thing to do. I understand and I really respect the fact that he loves his family so much and is willing to make sacrifices for them. But I think it's extremely unfair to

me to make the same sacrifices for his family. And not to mention, I'm his family as well now and he owes me certain things. It just feels like my happiness doesn't mean as much to him as his families and it feels really petty to make it seem like a competition, but that's how it appears. If he actually valued my happiness as much as he valued his sisters, maybe he wouldn't have gone behind my back and done the one thing that I had asked him not to. We have been fighting and it's been really bad because we've just been married for a week and we've gotten off on the wrong foot already. We have been together for almost seven years before this and I feel like crap right now because something like this has never happened before. We have always had a relatively normal

relationship and yes, of course like any other couple, we have also had fights. But none of this magnitude and I just don't know how to deal with this. He insists that his heart was in the right place and that I really need to understand that. He claims that while having Angie accompany us on the honeymoon wasn't going to ruin anything for me, it would have meant a great deal to her and maybe even saved her from getting worse down the road. And I can't explain to him

that having Angie accompany us on the honeymoon would have kind of ruined it for me, without sounding like a really terrible person and the kind of wife who wants to separate her husband from her family. But I promise you guys, that's not the case. I know, logically, I am not the bad guy here, but all the fighting with my husband has made me feel like I'm losing my mind and I have absolutely no idea how to go ahead. I'd offer leaving my husband behind at the airport

and canceling our honeymoon when I realized that he had invited his sister to accompany us on our trip. Update 1. So, I'm still in Miami and I have been traveling a lot. This is my first time here and a lot of you guys suggested a couple of places that I should go see, and I've been doing exactly that to take my mind off of things. I still haven't been able to sort things out with my husband because Jacob is being very stubborn. He is sticking to whatever he believes, and he honestly thinks that having Angie be with us on the honeymoon wouldn't have been any different. He is so convinced of it that it took me all the comments here to make me realize that I wasn't going crazy and that he was being unreasonable. I can't understand why he doesn't get it when even Angie herself has

acknowledged that it would have been weird. He has been texting me, but I have just given up on trying to explain things to him. I had been arguing for a while, but I completely wasted the last few days that I have been here, staying in my hotel room and arguing with him. I have spent enough of my time, trying to make him see sense, but I can't help him if he refuses to acknowledge the obvious. The worst part of this is that I can't even fully enjoy myself because, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking about Jacob and what I'm going to say to him when I go back. I can't avoid him forever and we are literally married, so it's not even like we can just break up and be done with it. My entire existence feels heavy and I don't know. I just feel like

everything is going wrong right now. I have talked to my parents about this, but they don't really know what to do either. They only advised me to do whatever I felt was right and they would be supportive of it. And I guess that's kind of helpful, knowing that they will be on my side no matter what. but I can't help feeling like everything is falling apart and the fact that it's been less than even a month since our wedding is what makes everything so much harder to deal with. I know it's really easy for people to just tell me that this is a huge red flag and I should leave my husband, get divorced and be done with it. But in reality, it's not that easy. And I'm not even talking about the legal process of divorce, I'm talking about the emotional

and mental toll it takes. I don't know what I'm going to do, full disclosure. I just have absolutely no idea and I don't even know what to expect. Update 2, I returned from Miami a couple of days ago and I don't know. Things have not been great so far. The day that I came back, I returned to an empty home because Jacob was not here. I spent three weeks in Miami and after two and a half weeks, he stopped texting me. Even the last few messages that he sent me were, he was still insisting that he did not of bad intentions and that I needed to reconsider whatever I was doing. When I came back home,

I decided to finally respond to him, and I told him that I was back here. I didn't know what was going to happen, I just felt like I had to tell him because then at least something would happen. I couldn't stand the uncertainty of not knowing what the future holds and I felt like I just had to talk to him. So the day that I told him that I was back here, he texted me back saying that he would come over the next day and we could talk. I thought that it was a good sign and we would finally get somewhere, but when he came over the next day, we were still stuck talking about the same things. We were still fighting about who was overreacting and who was in the wrong.

He continued to say that I shouldn't have reacted the way that I did in front of Angie and made such a big deal out of this because I should have just trusted him since he would never do anything to jeopardize our relationship. But the fact that I was against something as silly as Angie joining us for our honeymoon, which was nothing, but a glorified vacation, made him feel like I was being a little too oversensitive, and that I had no need to act so crazy about it. I thought that it was really unfair, I had already told him before how I felt about Angie joining us, but he had completely overlooked it.

More than Angie being a part of our honeymoon, I had a problem with him, going behind my back and lying to me. In fact, not only lied to me, but he also lied about me when he told Angie that it was my suggestion that she'd join us for our honeymoon. I would love for her to be happy, but not at the cost of my own happiness and I don't think there's anything selfish or cruel about it, like the way he was trying to portray it. If anything, he was the one being selfish because he couldn't be bothered to think about my feelings and only cared about being the good guy for his family but not for me. It made me feel like he was telling me I was not worth it and that was a really sucky feeling.

On top of that, there was the fact that he was currently living in a hotel because he said that he hadn't even left after he found out that I had taken off without him. He told me that after I stopped responding to his messages, he had half a mind to go ahead and file for a divorce because he thought I was taking things too far. I thought this attitude was uncalled for because he was the one who screwed up. We argued a lot and to some things up, there was absolutely no improvement in our situation. He keeps saying that I don't have a sibling, which is why I don't understand why this is so important to him. And all right, maybe that's true, I'll never personally understand what it is like to have a sibling and care for them so much.

But you know what? There were several people in the comments of this post, who did have siblings and they told me that this was taking things too far. So yeah, maybe he is the one who is wrong, and he's just trying to gaslight me into believing that I'm the one who is overreact. Whatever the case, I'm not falling for any of it. I have made up my mind that if he doesn't apologize to me soon, then I might just have to talk to my lawyer and prepare for a divorce. If he does apologize, that's a different story. I have been thinking about marriage counseling, but that's only if he approaches me within the next few days and tells me that he is sorry about everything. Right now, it seems really unlikely.

Just by the way, he and Nora are the only people who think that he is the only people who think that he is sorry about everything. only people who think what he did was completely fine, and I am the one who is taking it too hard for no reason. But Angie, the person who they are fighting so hard for, is actually on my side on this. She has reached out to me several times to let me know that she has been trying to explain this to both Nora and Jacob and tell them that what they did was backhanded, and it was just not cool. But they're not even willing to listen to her, which just goes to show that it's more important for them to be right, even more than doing the right thing. I totally don't even know what to think anymore because this situation is just ridiculous. I thought that I had married a

sensible and amazing man, but right now, I don't feel that this is the same person that I had married. I have a lot of conflicting feelings, and talking about it here helps me make sense of it, even if it's just a little. I just don't want anything apart from a resolution to this, it's getting really tiring now and I can't continue to deal with this drama all the time. Update 3, Hi, Folks. So this update is long overdue now. I haven't posted anything here for the past couple of months because I've been going through a terrible divorce. I did decide to give Jacob a chance and suggested marriage counseling. A couple of days after my last update here, he had expressed that he wanted to work on our marriage and he didn't want to give up yet. Jacob said that he wasn't ready to

to let go of me and wanted to work on our issues. So after a lot of deliberation, he and I decided to give marriage counseling a try, but it didn't help. We would be doing perfectly fine during the sessions in the presence of our therapist. But as soon as we were out, it would be back to fighting and it would feel like we were just wasting time during therapy sessions. We still didn't give up though, we attended the sessions for almost a month until we finally called it quits. Because it just didn't make sense to keep attending the sessions and work everything out there but continue to keep fighting in real life. He wasn't ready to accept that he was being a little too family-oriented for his own good and was forgetting that I was his family also and I wasn't okay with living a

life like that, where I would always come second. So both of us agreed that it would be for the best if we just separated. It sounds easy, but it was an incredibly difficult decision to make and both of us were shattered that this was not going to work out. We filed for divorce, mutually, and right now, we are in the settlement phase. At this point, I don't even care what I get out of the divorce. I just want this to be over so I can move on with my life and pretend that this never happened. I have been looking into individual therapy for myself because it's really crazy what I'm dealing with here and I really think I could do with help to process everything that's going on. My parents and my friends have been incredibly supportive and I'm really grateful for it

because they're the only people who are actually making it easier for me. I know lots of people are gossiping about me and how my marriage fell apart within less than a year, but I honestly don't even care. What matters is the people who I care about on my side and think that I did the right thing. As long as I have that, I'm not too worried about what happens in the future.

I'm just going to work and focus on myself now. Sure, it's going to be a painful couple of months emotionally, but people have gone through worse and survived, and I'm hopeful for the future. Thank you so much for all the love and support that you guys have shown me. It means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy this story. Expecting former spouse and her partner mistreated our child as a servant and refused to cease.

Therefore, I informed her she is unsuitable to be a parent and opted to initiate legal proceedings. Full custody. I, 40M, have a daughter, Jade, 16F, with my ex-wife, Margo, 38F. Margo and I met when I was 21 and she had just turned 19. We met at our friend's party and we got along really well. I asked her out the day we met because he was really smart and pretty and I really liked her. Unfortunately, she said yes that day and we ended up together for a really long time. We dated for a couple of months before we met each other's families and then eventually, after almost a year of dating, we decided to move in together.

Margot went to college nearby and she had been living on campus, but I asked her to move in with me in my apartment, and she agreed. This is important because later on, she would blame me for everything that went wrong and insisted that it was my fault that she didn't have a career of her own. She was more than happy to move in with me in my apartment, and I didn't have to ask her twice. We started living together, and everything was going great. Our families approved of each other and we were in love, everything was perfect. But then, shortly after her graduation, Margot found out that she was pregnant. Again, let me just make it clear to everybody that she was the one who wanted to keep the baby.

Something she would blame me for, for the next several years to come. I was okay with whatever decision she made because it was her body and I didn't think I would have problem with anything. But of course, when she decided that she was going to keep the baby, I was thrilled. I was 24 at the time and was working in a marketing and advertising firm, I had decent pay and I could afford to take care of the household expenses and a baby. But unfortunately, I would not have been able to afford child care at the time on my salary and Margot had just graduated so she had no work experience and I couldn't ask her to find a job while she was pregnant.

So we had a lot of discussions about it and we decided that she would stay at home and raise our child while I worked. I think I must have asked her if she was sure about that decision more than a billion times of course, it made me feel really guilty. I did not want her to have to give her career

because of me and the baby, but she said that she was fine with it and she just wanted to start a family at that point. She was a really bright student as well and would have done really well career-wise if she tried to look for a job at the time, but she didn't, and that was her choice. It's very important that I let everybody know that all these decisions that we made, I'd left it all up to her for the most part.

I had never forced her or tried to convince her to do anything because I knew that she had the most to lose. Be it moving in with me, she would be the one having to make the move because, of course, I couldn't move into her college dorm. The decision to keep the baby and not terminate the pregnancy was also in touch. entirely hers because again, she would be the one who would have the most to lose. She would be carrying the baby and she would be the one unable to find a job after graduation, which was the most crucial time. So I had never talked to her or tried to convince her to do

anything that wasn't in her best interests. Even the decision that she had made about her being a stay-at-home mom was all her as well, and I was just there to support her along the way. But unfortunately, just when the going got tough, she started blaming me for everything. A couple of months after our daughter was born, she started exhibiting symptoms of postpartum depression, and I decided to talk to her parents so they would convince her to start therapy. I had already tried to talk to her about it myself, but she told me that it was nothing and would get really irritable whenever I would bring it up. If I'm being honest, I was just really scared that she would end up doing something to the baby

out of anger or something because I've heard stories. So I really wanted her to get help, but she was not willing to admit that she had any problems at all. Now I know that raising a child is a really difficult job and no matter what is happening now, I will always be grateful to her for doing her best at the time. However, I still have to say that she had become a really difficult person to live within the years following Jade's birth. She would constantly be mad at me, and in the first couple of months, I could understand the logic behind it. I expected it to go away with time, but even after almost a year or two had passed, she still seemed to be mad at me all the time. We couldn't even talk to each other without everything turning into a fight, and I

always felt like she was looking for an excuse to fight or argue with me. She would snap at me for the smallest reason, and even though I would let it go most times, it was really difficult to do so, because I was doing my best at work after slogging for more than half the day at work, nobody enjoys coming back home to a perpetually annoyed and angry wife. With time, I found it harder and harder to let things go or just drop a fight, and it would just keep escalating. She would always keep blaming me for everything that went wrong in her life and I could never understand why. I have already mentioned that all the choices that she had made were completely her own, and I had never tried to influence it. But even then, every time

we were arguing, she would bring up how she had sacrificed everything for me, and I couldn't even be grateful to her for that. I don't know where she got that from because I was always looking for opportunities to make her realize that I was grateful for everything that she had done for me and our family. I would organize dates every weekend, and try to take them out for dinner at least four times a month to fancy places because I knew how much Marco enjoyed it. I would celebrate every milestone with great pomp and extravagance, but nothing ever seemed to be enough for her. She would still keep complaining about how I was just never grateful. Even when I would take her out for dates and stuff, she would keep looking for excuses to fight with

me, and would never just be in the moment and try to enjoy it. It was all getting frustrating for me because I was sick of getting blamed for every single thing. It had come to a point where I was regretting ever even meeting Margo or even asking her out. Even when I would bring up valid points during fights, she would just negate all of it by saying that she had sacrificed her career to raise our daughter. I had promised to support her, so I just had to shut up and deal with it. But I don't think constantly having to be a doormat for her to walk all over was my definition of support. I still put up with it though for the sake of my daughter because I didn't want Jade to suffer.

We stayed in that marriage for almost five years and with each year, the fights got worse and it became harder for me to put up with Margo. A couple of months after Jade had turned five, I came to the conclusion that I could no longer make this marriage work. After a particularly nasty fight, I realized that Jade deserved a better life, and we couldn't provide that for her if we stayed together. By then, Margo and I were either always fighting or just not even talking to each other. And that's a hostile environment to grow up in, which is something I did not want for Jade. I had always figured that after one point, Margo and I would go back to being a happy couple, but by then, I had given up all hopes of that ever happening.

The future of our marriage seemed really bleak and so, getting a divorce was what was best for the family. So one day, I decided to drop Jade off at my parents and talked to Margo at home. I told her that this was not working out and our daughter deserved better, so we should really start thinking about divorce. I didn't have any idea what she was going to say, but I surely didn't expect her to confess to cheating on me. She told me that she had been having an affair for the past and had been hooking up with a co-worker of mine, whom she had met at a work party that she had accompanied me to. That made things a lot. easier for me, and I didn't feel any guilt leaving her. I had also fallen out of love with her by

then, but it still came as a huge shock. The divorce was mutual and I got pretty much everything, she didn't even try to fight me for it because she knew that what she had done was wrong, and there was no taking it back. So she let me have everything and she got the bare minimum in the divorce settlement. She didn't even ask for alimony, because having an affair already disqualified her from it. One thing that she did put up a fight for was Jade. She fought tooth and nail to get partial custody and work out an arrangement that suited both of us.

I had wanted Jade to spend three quarters of the month with me and Margot could have her for one week, but she was not okay with it. She and her lawyer fought really hard and pushed it up to half the month because she was not ready to settle for anything less than that. I had to concede because I didn't want to exact revenge on her or anything through Jade, I wasn't going to fall that low, and at the end of the day, she was her mother, and I couldn't take Jade away from her. Because that would always mean that Jade would grow up to resent me for it and I couldn't risk it. It's just ironic to think that after fighting for Jade so hard, this is how Margot has been treating her.

After the divorce came through, it was easy for us to fall into a co-parenting arrangement because now, we didn't have to deal with each other constantly anymore. I felt like my life had changed for the better after the divorce because I could finally do everything that I had always wanted to do while working on eggshells around Margo. It was a huge relief, and I actually even quit my job to start my own business because that's something I had been thinking about for a really long time. Besides, I don't think I could have continued to work there, knowing that the guy who had broken up my marriage just sat a few desks away from me. Working there during my divorce was hard enough, I didn't want to be.

to continue it even afterward. I know for a fact that the two of them broke up shortly after Margot announced our separation online because she was the one who told me about their breakup while apologizing to me for everything once again. But at that point, the apology and everything meant nothing to me. I just stayed in touch with her because we had to co-parent Jade. Had it not been for her, I would have had no reason to talk to her ever again. But anyway, we kept the contact to a minimum after the divorce and even until today, we don't talk unless it's absolutely necessary. It's been more than a decade since our divorce, and both of us have moved on completely. She got married a couple of years ago to a guy whom we'll call

Shane. From what I know, my ex-mother-in-law set her up with that guy, and they got married after about two years of dating. I'm not sure, but I think he's an architect and I've heard good things about him. Good for her, I guess. I have also had my fair share of flings and casual relationships but nothing too serious. Right now, nobody wants to date a guy with a teen daughter. But a couple of months ago, all of us received a huge shock when Margot announced that she was pregnant for a second time. Of course, given her age, I thought that it was a little risky, but it's not my place to say anything. Besides, plenty of women go for a late. pregnancy now with all the advancements in the medical field and I honestly wished the best for her.

The least I could do was congratulate her and that's exactly what I did. I left it at that, and she thanked me for it. That was all the interaction that I had with her when she first announced it, about four months ago. But after that, I started noticing that Jade would always be very reluctant to go stay with Margot. And she would always seem very tired and unhappy whenever she would come back. I didn't think much of it at first and even Jade told me that she was just tired from school and stuff like that, that it had nothing to do with Margo, and I believed her. This had been going on for the past couple of months ever since the pregnancy announcement, and I only recently picked up on it. This month, when Jade came back to live with me, I realized that

she looked even more exhausted than usual, and I knew that something was off. I decided to talk to her and ask her what was going on, but she refused to tell me anything for the first couple of days. She insisted that everything was just fine, but I could tell that she was hiding something from me. So, after a lot of insistence, she finally agreed to tell me what was bothering her. And ever since then, things have pretty much taken a turn for the worse. Jade told me that her mother and Shane had pretty much started to treat her like their free housekeeper and were making her do all the work around the house. Every day after school, as soon as she would be back, she would be expected to start cooking, and once she was done with that, they would demand that she start

cleaning the house from top to bottom. And the worst part was that all of them lived like slabs because for the part of the month that she wasn't living with them, they would just not clean at all. They would wait for her to come over and then, they would start making her do all the work. She said that she couldn't even say no because every time she would protest something and say that she didn't want to do it because she didn't have the energy to, Margot would play the pregnancy card. She would start whining about how I had never been helpful when she had been pregnant with Jade, but this time around, she had expected things to be different and hoped that her daughter would be more sensitive than her husband. Margo couldn't do anything because apparently, she was always too tired, even though she was just in her second trimester, and even that had barely started. And Shane claimed that he was always exhausted after work, which is why he couldn't help out. So unfortunately, they were relying on her to do all the work around the house.

Margo even claimed that apparently, this was not even that much to ask of Jade because it wasn't like she was having to do everything for her throughout the month. They would have to do everything for themselves when she was living with me. Jade had not been happy about any of this, but she had to do it because she didn't want to feel guilty that she was abandoning her pregnant mother. So she kept doing it without complaints and it was a pretty thankless job too. She only put up with all of it because Margot was pregnant and she didn't even tell me anything because she was afraid that I would get mad and then there would be a whole thing about it. She wanted to avoid the drama because it would inevitably lead to a lot of

stress for her mother and that would not be good. But she finally realized that she couldn't go on like this after something that took place a day before she came back home. She said that she had been trying her very best to not think of Margot and Shane as bad. But after what Shane had said to her the day before she came back home, she didn't think that she could go back there again because they had officially taken things way too far. Apparently, the day before she left, she had been packing her things in her room, and Shane happened to walk past. When he noticed that she was packing her things, he asked her why she was doing that and she told him that she was going to move back here for the next two weeks because her time was

up here and it was my turn according to the arrangement. Shane hadn't realized that the time had passed by so quickly, and he made a comment about how he was going to miss her because now, for the next two weeks, until she came back, the house would be a mess again. He said that he had been considering hiring a housekeeper just for the two weeks that she wouldn't be living with them, and then laughed about it as if it was a joke. When Jade asked him to elaborate, he told her point blank that as of now, she was just a glorified housemaid to him. But apparently, he said that it was meant to be a compliment because she was really good at it, and he thought that she could actually make a career out of it since she would at least be useful than unlike her mother. I was honestly stunned when Jade told me that this is what Shane had said because I'd only heard good things about him from other people.

But that was the single most misogynistic and disgusting thing I had ever heard. It was really difficult for me to control my temper at that moment. But Jade told me that she had already made up her mind and she was not going to go back so there was no need for me to confront them or whatever. But I couldn't let something like this just slide and I knew that I had to talk to Margot about it. I called her up after about an hour and told her everything that Jade had said to me, including the comment that Shane had made. I demanded an answer and an explanation as to why she thought any of it was appropriate because my blood was boiling. They had been treating our daughter like she was a housemaid for weeks now, and Margot had been encouraging it. It was simply unacceptable because she was a school student, and there was no reason for her to work twice as hard as anybody else.

I could still forgive Margo for not doing any work around the house because maybe it was really that difficult for her since she was pregnant, but I couldn't see any reason why her husband couldn't help out. If my 16-year-old daughter can do all the work around the house and go to school and not let her schoolwork suffer, I think a full-grown man should be able to accomplish the same thing without making much of a fuss about it. Also, let's not forget that he is the adult in the situation, and it's insanely unfair to make a literal child do so much work without any help. It's almost criminal and I could not let it go. But to my surprise, she just started laughing at it and said that it was no big deal. She said that she was sure Shane had meant her as a joke. It was not meant to be taken so hard. I could not believe that she was saying it and told her that whether it was a joke or not,

really insulting, and jaded and I didn't like it one bit. So then she told me that I needed to stop trying to create drama where there wasn't any and made it sound like I was the one who was overreacting. I couldn't understand what was so funny about any of this, because not only had he insinuated that my daughter was just there to do all the work, but he had also implied that Margot herself was pretty useless. So, if not, for her daughter's sake, she could at least have some pride, and be offended for herself, but she thought that it was all a joke and it was no big deal. She tried to explain to me that this is how they talk to each other and it's all fine because she knows that he doesn't mean it. And apparently, even if he does, she doesn't

mind it because it's technically true since she is just a stay-at-home wife and doesn't really do any of the heavy lifting apart from all the household chores. I was shocked that this is how she felt about herself now because things had been pretty different when we were married and she would constantly be talking about how much work she had to do around the house and I respected her for it. But now, it seems to me like, she has lost all respect for herself, and I would not want my daughter to be around her anymore because she's lost the plot. So I told her that I didn't think she was fit to be a mother anymore and that I prayed her next child would be a son because she was clearly not the right person to handle having a daughter. And then I hung up on her.

That statement of mine has obviously not gone down well with anyone because she and her family have been harassing me ever since because apparently, they think that what I said was out of line, especially since I was saying it to a pregnant woman and I should have been more sensitive. Jade also thinks that I should have just dropped it because she had already told me that she was not going to go back and I had no need to speak to them because clearly, they were all in over their heads. So I'd have for telling my pregnant ex-wife that she was unfit to be a mother. Update 1, hi, so it's been four days since I made my original post here and there have been a lot of comments. Most of you guys agree that I did the right thing and I'm glad that you guys feel that way. A lot of you, however, have refused to believe that I was a good husband the first time around. And let me just say that, I know what I was, and I know how supportive I had been throughout. Our marriage only fell apart because Margot wasn't ready to give us a chance to work.

Otherwise, I could have cheated on her several times and said, Oh, things are getting really tough, I need an outlet and so I have to sleep with someone else outside of my marriage. But unlike her, I wanted to give a marriage a fighting chance because of Jade, and even when I filed for divorce, it had been for Jade. As much as they appreciate the mindset that housewives deserve more appreciation, and I am in 100% agreement with the fact that they do, I don't think Margo qualifies for it because let's not forget that she literally cheated on me. That being said, I've decided that I didn't say anything wrong and I do not owe her any apology.

I also talked to Jade about it and she told me that she would prefer not to be around her mother for the time being, because if she thinks that what Shane said to her the day before she left was no big deal then clearly. They had very different ideas of how she should be treated and she did not want to go back to a place where she was not even given the bare minimum of love and respect. And I agree with her so we have decided to file for full custody, even though she's just going to be a minor for two more years. We want to ensure that for these next two years, Margot won't be able to screw us over in any capacity. Update two, so my lawyer and I filed for full custody of Jade a couple of days ago, and yesterday, Margot, Margot, was served. Needless to say, she did not take it well and put me on blast online. She made a whole post about how I was the most insensitive man she had ever met, and that she regretted ever giving up

anything for me. She, once again, accused me of ruining her life by forcing her to give up her career and blamed me for everything, just like she had been used to all her life. But this time, I was not going to take this. I took screenshots of it and sent it to my lawyer. And then I decided to respond to her in the comments and put out the whole truth so that everybody could see what a nasty liar she was. Of course, she disabled comments as soon as she realized that I had something to say because she was a coward, but that's exactly what I expected from her. I blocked her after that and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders now because I don't have to deal with this anymore. Whatever happens after this, we'll just duke it out in court and let it go. Update 3, hello.

So a quick update here, turns out that we didn't need to get started with the proceedings for the renegotiation of the custody arrangement, because, by some miracle, Margot has decided to sign away her parental rights over Jade. She notified me about it a couple of days ago, and my lawyer drew up the papers within a few days. I have to say, I didn't see it coming, because the first time that we were fighting for custody, she had been really up in arms, and like I said, said, she had fought tooth and nail for Jade's custody. Not only was she allowing Jade to be treated badly, but she was even ready to give up her custody because she had a new family now and apparently her priorities were all different. For a fact, she put it in an email, and once again, she blamed it all on me. She believed that I was the one who had turned Jade against her and forced her to believe that Margot was a bad person and a bad mother. She accused

me of poisoning her daughter against her and said that she hoped I was finally happy now because I was getting exactly what I had wanted all along. I had proved to everybody that she was a terrible mother and Jade also believed it. I don't even know how this could be my fault because it's not like I told them to treat Jade badly. She herself didn't want to live with Marville or Shane anymore which is why she said that she would appreciate it if I had full custody. Terminating her parental rights altogether seemed a little extreme, but that was her choice and so far, I had never tried to stop her from doing anything that she wanted to. And neither was I going to do so now or in the future. When I told Jade about it, she seemed a little upset, but she

told me that this was for the best and that she didn't mind. However, I have still decided to put her in therapy because I think it would do her a world of good. She has gone through enough and really, the poor kid could do with some relaxation in her life. I would not wish a mother like Margo on anyone but lucky for her, that's not going to be the case anymore. I just hope and pray that I can be a good single father to her now. She seems happy to be with me and I hope that it remains that way. I hope you enjoy this story.

Spouse's privileged child almost set fire to our home while I was by myself with him. When I informed my spouse, he mentioned that I would know. never truly be a mother, and to be more careful. Shut my mouth. I've been with my husband for four years, married nearly one. He's been previously married and has two kids from that marriage, a boy, 14, and a girl, 16. I found myself becoming increasingly more and more resentful of his kids. Before you come at me, let me explain. So my husband is 10 years older than I am. He got a vasectomy during his previous marriage and first of all, he didn't tell me this when we started dating. We starting dating. Honestly, for years ago I was organizing this protest and he happened

to be one of the police officers that was there just making sure everything was going to go smoothly. I took a chance and asked for his number and he actually gave it to me. He was just newly divorced at the time and so we wanted to take it slow. After about two years of dating, we bought the place we're currently in. It's this lovely little cabin about an hour away from a major city. It's on about five acres of land and we have horses and chickens. It's honestly always been a dream of mine to live where we are. It's perfectly secluded and yet close enough to drive into the city if we need anything. The only thing is, it's a bit far from my work. We originally chose it because it was sort of in the middle of work for the both of us. At the time, he worked

an hour north of our place. He wasn't willing to transfer to the city that I currently work at because his kids live in the town he's stationed in. So we compromised and said we were going to try to find a place in the middle of where we both work. I didn't make a fuss about the location because I was so enthralled by the beauty of the place but the commute in the winter is brutal. Takes me an hour and a half to get to work, both ways. On top of that, my family and friends all still live back in the city. One of my best friends just had a baby and she doesn't want to drive out here. A lot of my friends don't want to commute out here to hang out,

so they're constantly asking me to come into the city or hang after I'm done work, but sometimes I just want to go home, even though it takes me an hour to get home. Ike. It's all starting to add up. But that's all to say that I do love my little cabin. We put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it, But we made it our own. Anyway, shortly after my husband and I moved into our home, his son would come every second weekend to stay for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

On Sunday we'd have to drive the hour up north back to his home or to a gas station or something halfway so his mom would pick him up. My husband's daughter didn't come to stay with us because she wasn't speaking to him. She's still salty about the divorce and is mad at him for leaving her mom. So anything we could get out of them was lovely at first, even if it was just his son. His son, I'll call him Kalen, really took to me from the beginning. He would hug me. He made me gifts.

He wanted to spend time with me. He was the cutest boy. I was a stepmom and totally loving it. Little things started to happen that sort of raised my eyebrows. He wanted to cuddle with us and sleep in bed with us because he'd have bad dreams, but I had to draw the line there because I just didn't feel comfortable sleeping with him in our bed. That was all fine and dandy as my husband then went to go and sleep with him over the weekend in Kalen's bed. Originally he would just go down and lay there until he fell asleep, but then he'd actually

fall asleep and just stay asleep. So I'd be sleeping upstairs alone all weekend. The way the cabin is, Kalen's room was in the basement. It was all nice and renovated. It wasn't at all dark in Dungji, so before you come at me that it was cruel to do that to him or no wonder he was having nightmares. No. It was a beautiful, finished basement, he even helped with the renovations, and the master room was on the second level. The only reason this bothered me was that my husband started getting deployed away from

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

was that my top was off and so he got a look at my bits. He quickly turned around and apologized and went downstairs apologizing, but the damage had been done. I was mortified. My husband tried to laugh it off and I literally had to tell him how wrong and inappropriate it was. I was like he's not just a child anymore, he's literally going to be a teenager. Yeah, a body is a body, but I'm not even his bio-mom. I love the kid dearly, but enough is enough. So I had to tell my husband to go and have a talk with him because I was super uncomfortable about it.

So he hummed and hawed a bit before he went downstairs and told him that he shouldn't come upstairs past a certain time at night and if he needs us he can yell at us from the bottom of the stairs. Then I sort of said that he babies him too much. Well, that sort of started an argument. My husband goes to say that he is his baby and always will be and he's a sensitive kid. He's like, what do you expect me to do? Spank him? And I'm like, okay, whoa, whoa, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying there's ways to discipline without violence and by actually teaching a lesson. How's a kid supposed to know right from wrong when I'm clearly upset and he sees you laughing at my face? Then he learns that that sort of behavior is okay and even funny.

I'm not trying to traumatize Kalen, like what if I had been fully naked? Well, he didn't like me saying that so he went and slept with Kalin anyways. Also if you say why were you changing with the door to our bedroom open, well, I thought Kalen was good and asleep. I didn't think I'd have to worry about him jumping in and and seeing us. But I guess I was the A-hole that night. I just think Kalen is just a bit childish for his age. I don't ever remember behaving the way that he was at that age. And I think my husband and his ex just sort of baby him and enable that behavior. He doesn't even know how to use a vacuum or a screwdriver for crying out loud. When we were doing our renovations in the basement,

Kaelin wanted to help. So we let him help and we were asking him to replace the outlet covers. Well, we had the covers that had two screws. I gave him a screwdriver and told him to just screw in the new one. Well, he was having a heck of a time because he didn't know how to use a screwdriver. I feel like that's not really rocket science. So he was getting frustrated and then ended up throwing the screwdriver on the floor and telling me that he didn't want to do this anymore.

So I tried to be patient with him and still keep him involved somehow. So I was like, hey, why don't you vacuum the little bits off the floor? I was working on the ceiling at the time and my husband was outside cutting baseboards. So then he picks up the vacuum and he's like, how do I turn it on? So I show him the button to turn it on. So he turns it on and he starts vacuuming but then he's looking at me like, am I doing this right? And I'm like, yeah, right on. Good job. But then he's not really moving big things out of the way or moving things in order

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

okay. And I didn't want to be the bad step mom or seem like I didn't love Kalin or didn't want him around. I mean, I didn't see him as a bad kid. He just sort of annoyed me with how he behaved so childish and as a step-mom, I felt like I couldn't really discipline him or like help in that department. I felt like it wasn't my place. So I'd have to kind of tell my husband how I'd feel, but then he didn't really listen to me. He was more offended by his parenting style than anything so eventually I just stopped saying stuff and just put a smile on my face and played the game and tried to be the cool, chill step-mom.

Anyways, so recently Kalyn comes over and we're hanging out and he said he's hungry and wants a snack. So I say there should be some instant noodles in the cupboard if he wants or I can make us a yummy plate of cheese and crackers or something. He's like no problem, I'll make the instant noodles. So he's in the kitchen and he's gone for a little while and I don't really hear the microwave or anything. Curious, I get up from the couch and I head to the kitchen and I see him sort of looking at this

thing of instant noodles and scratching his head as if it's some sort of alien dinner. I'm like having trouble, buddy, and he's like, how do I make this? The noodles are dry, and I literally had to pick my jaw off the floor. Then I walked him through putting the water in, putting the mix pack in, and putting it in the microwave. So the next day, I'm taking a nap upstairs and he's playing his game on the couch. Then maybe about 20 minutes later, I'm woken up to these awful electrical noises and Kalen screaming. I run downstairs and the kitchen is full of smoke and the microwave is all up in flames

and the flames are literally up on the wall and the wall is on fire and then it's quickly making its way up to the ceiling. Kalen's freaking out and thankfully I remember there's a fire extinguisher under the kitchen sink. So I grab it and start extinguishing this huge at SS fire. Once it's out, I start crying because of all of this adrenaline and how scared I was and I'm seeing the damage to the wall. It's all charred. Add and we quite literally live in the cabin so the wall is made of tree logs. Literally cannot fix this. Kalin is sobbing and he's saying

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I just sort of lose it and yell at him to go downstairs. I crack all of the windows open and start the fan so the burning smell will go away. Then I see in the microwave, what looks like could have been an instant noodle thing. Sue looks like he didn't put water in it and just put the noodles and dry and that's what started the fire. Honestly, I can't. I called his mom and told her what happened and said that I wasn't sure how safe the house was with the chemically electric fumes, and so I asked if she'd be willing to meet us halfway so that Kalin can spend the rest of the weekend at home. She was totally okay with it and apologized profusely.

I called my husband and told him what happened and I even texted him photos and he literally just laughed and said, Whoa, that's not good. And I said, that's it. That's all you have to say. And he said, well, I'm just glad you guys are okay. And I said, your son nearly burned down our home. And he said, but it didn't burn down because you were there. And I said, what if I hadn't been here?

I said, your son is 14, he should know better. He's old enough to be at home on his own. What if I wasn't here or what if he was back home with his mom and did the same thing? This was bad, really bad. I said, this is the product of babying your son. And then he lost it on me and said that I was overreacting. And I said, our house is permanently damaged because of him and we can't just take a log out of our home and replace it.

I said, how am I ever going to be respected by his kids? If my own husband can't even respect me enough to listen to me, he said that I was being the evil stepmother and that I should know my place. And I said, oh, what place might that be? Then he says, you can't come in and act like you're their mother and try to change everything. And I said, I have never, not once, tried to replace their mother. I'm trying to explain to you that your son is lacking the basic skills of life because you've sheltered him from the world. you keep giving him that silver spoon. And if you're not careful, he's not going to make it in the real world.

Then he told me that I was a dumb bitch and didn't know what I was talking about. I'll never know what it's like to be a mother because he's never going to give me children. I said, you can't possibly mean that. And he said, I mean every word you need to learn to shut your mouth. And with that I hung up the phone. So now he's staying wherever he is for work. and I told him to stay there in a hotel. I said, I don't want him to come home.

I said he couldn't have cared less if it even burned down. I'm here and I just spent my weekend trying to clean what I could from the wall. The house smells of burnt. Everything smells. No matter what I do, my hair smells. Ike. Ida. Am I wrong here?

Update. Okay. So some of you see. said I was taking it too far and others said to leave is it s. Well, this incident sort of had me looking back at a lot of things and really got me thinking. I mean, he has a vasectomy. And I remember telling him early on in our relationship that I didn't want to rule out having kids of my own one day. And he didn't actually mention that he had a vasectomy until much later after that conversation. And at the time, I just thought that I wasn't going to have kids of

my own and that I'd live with being a stepmom and that I was going to be the best stepmom there ever was. Ha! That was a funny daydream. And I didn't even see him not telling me something important like that as a red flag until now. I'll admit, I was blinded by love. I just wanted to make it work. I tried to be the chill chick about it all. He wanted to buy a place halfway for us? Okay, sure. But then he was hardly ever home. because he was away for work so much. So I was all alone in this beautiful house. He literally isolated me from everyone I love. I miss my friends. I miss my family. And he made me hate going to work because I had to drive so far there and back. I used to love work and love what I do. I do want

kids of my own. I don't want to have to tiptoe around things or be scared to say things to my husband about how he should raise his kids or discipline them. I have no power here. I can't live in a place where I'm not respected and my voice isn't heard. I'll never be able to parent these kids when my own husband tries to be their best friend. So I officially left him. We're able to get the marriage annulled. I'm staying with my mom for now. As much as I love that house, I couldn't stay there any longer. It ended up feeling like a prison. I'm best to be. I'm best to my mom for back in the city and I'm a few minutes away from work and I see my friends almost every day. I get to spend time with my best friend and her new baby.

I feel good about all of this. I've also heard from some mutual friends that my ex was demoted at work. Looks like his dismissive attitude and lack of responsibility finally caught up with him and spilled over into other aspects of his life. Not only that, but because of his demotion, he's having a hard time coming up with the money to pay child support, and his daughter still isn't speaking to him. I don't blame her. Now on to the next story. Story two. Wife confess she repeatedly cheated on me while leaving me home alone to care for our special needs son. She doesn't regret it and refuses to move out

until I buy back her share. Here's a not-so-brief state of our situation. I, 37, and my wife's, 34, relationship has been strained lately with her working nights. And I work days. Because our son, three years old, has special needs, a standard babysitter isn't possible and specialized care isn't available or financially feasible. He has a few hours a week at school in a therapy setting. Otherwise, he's with one of us. Because of the schedules, we've been the ships passing in the night. Most days, we got ten minutes to see each other. Not a perfect situation. And it's something I wanted to fix. I've been sleeping in the guest room so that she can decompress and get some quality sleep alone. It was not something I wanted to do. But for her benefit, I thought it would help her sleeplessness.

Our sex life has been non-existent for a long time. In the past few months when we have talked, she would mention things like, we should try an open relationship because I don't like Sags anymore and you should be free to explore and getting married has screwed up our finances, we should get an on-paper divorce. I never took her that seriously

because she said them in such a joking tone. Lately, she has mentioned that she feels like we're great roommates. She has also wanted to go out with her friends more often on her nights off. I'm not the type for that. So, I stay home with our son. admittedly, a special needs child can be very difficult. Her having a night off was completely understandable.

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

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

relationship with me. That doesn't matter. She admitted to it happening more than once and it was premeditated. She had gone out with my blessing to hang out with friends knowing that she was going to cheat. The affair is not still going on. But she was still talking to the person. She was still talking to She wasn't necessarily interested in a romantic or sexual relationship outside of our marriage right now, but she's open to anything. She didn't realize until recently that she's probably not really into the whole monogamy thing. As for our relationship, we're done. And she wanted me out of the bedroom completely. She wants to remain in the house to co-parent not just because we have to but because she wants to. You're a great dad and that part of you I still really care about.

She kept saying, we don't have to make any decisions right now. And I know it's a lot. Also, I don't hate you. I still care about you, and I'm sure you hate me. Since then I've moved upstairs. I've initiated a separation of our finances and health care. That conversation resulted in her crying and saying this is a lot right now. But she has relented.

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

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

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

said that she does not regret cheating. This week she works most days, but we're going to try to have a normal Christmas even day. Then I'm taking my son to see my family this weekend. I'll tell them what's going on then. She told her mom that we are not together and that she cheated. Her mom is sad about the situation. I'm talking about her moving out. She refuses to leave until we sell the house or I buy it back alone. And she gets her share of the equity. She said, that's fair if you're going to kick me out. Also, she said that if I tried to stop her from seeing our child, she would fight it. Those are the only two things she has been forceful or antagonistic about. She's open to seeing a divorce attorney or mediator whenever I want. I realized reading the

above, I may have made her out to be more manipulative and colder than she may be. But the facts are correct. So, judge us as you will. I hope you enjoy the this story. Father selected brothers' outdoor adventure over my marriage celebration, so I had my stepfather accompany me down the walkway. He arrived in tears after viewing the pictures and is now requesting a repeat ceremony. So yesterday, I got married and in the evening, after everything was over, my dad finally showed up and we exchanged words, which made him cry and now I feel awful because of that. For some context, my fiancé and I got engaged about five months ago and since neither of us wanted a huge wedding with a lot of people and a massive venue, we decided to get married

in our backyard with just our family and friends, since we wanted to keep the wedding as private, small and intimate as we could. We have been together for four years and this was a really special day since we were getting married on the day of our fourth anniversary together. So even though it was a small wedding, it was obviously still not feasible to reschedule it because we still had decorators and caterers coming in and that's why I could not entertain my dad's request to postpone it. And more than a matter of couldn't, it was mostly because I did not want to because I did not think it was important to do such a thing. It wasn't like my dad was asking me to reschedule my wedding for something important. He wanted me to postpone it because my golden child

brother was in town and had organized a camping trip for the same weekend. Yeah, I'm not even making it up and I don't think I would have ever been able to make something as ludicrous as this. Anyway, last week, my dad called me up and told me that he wouldn't be able to make it to my wedding if I had it this weekend because he had a medical emergency. It was a very lame excuse because I couldn't think of a single medical emergency that would him to wait for a week and could not be rescheduled. So I pushed him until he finally told me the truth. And he confessed that he had agreed to go on a camping trip that my brother had surprised him with, but unfortunately, it coincided with the dates of my wedding.

I think it's pretty obvious what the choice should have been, but for my dad, the camping trip was the highest priority since my brother comes back home only for a couple of weeks every year and my dad does not want to lose out on spending any time with him while he's here. He tried to tell me that rescheduling my wedding was going to be easy because it wasn't like I was having a huge wedding in the first place. I just had to tell a couple of people that I had rescheduled it and speak to the vendors, and that's it. I tried to explain to him that the date that we were getting married on

was really important to me, but after talking to him for a while, I kind of knew that it was pointless because he had already made up his mind and was going to go on the camping trip with my brother. It did not come to me as a surprise that he had chosen my brother because honestly, he has always been the golden child. My brother, 30M, is three years older than me and has always been an overachiever, while I've just been an ordinary kid. So naturally, he got a lot of attention from everyone and he was always praised while I kind of got overlooked. I used to be a lot of, I used to I used to feel really jealous of him and I wanted to be happy for my brother, but I just couldn't because he was such a brat with a huge overinflated ego.

He knew that he was pretty great at a lot of things and I guess all the attention that he had always received made him pretty arrogant and he really thought that he was God's gift to mankind. In short, he was insufferable and was also a bit of a bully to me. So we never got along and I was glad to see the back of him when he left for college. Our parents got divorced when I was in middle school and it happened because my mother and my mother ended up having an affair with one of her friends from college. The divorce was really nasty and left everyone feeling really bitter about it, but, thankfully, my dad agreed to a shared custody arrangement with my mom in spite of everything. If I can be frank, I would say that the divorce was something that everyone had seen coming. The only thing that had been a surprise was the fact

that my mother had ended up having but nobody was shocked that my parents were getting divorced because for as long as I can remember, they had always been fighting and none of my childhood memories, even the happy ones, have my parents being happy together. When we were out amongst other people or during vacations or holidays, they would put on a happy face for the sake of the family but that was just for show. There were weeks when they would hardly even speak to each other or look at each other and they even slept in different rooms. I'm pretty sure that after a certain point of time,

my parents had fallen out of love with each other and were just staying together for the sake of it. And neither of them did anything to fix that. So my mom ended up having an affair and I'm not trying to defend her but my dad had never been an easy guy to live with because, during the time that she had an affair, he had been going through a particularly rough patch in their marriage where they were fighting viciously almost every day and had started hitting the bottles, which seemed to make the fights even worse. One day, my mom finally told him the truth about her affair and left the house, but she still stayed in touch with her kids. Or at least she tried to stay in touch with the both of us.

I was the only one who would respond to her messages while my brother ignored her because he never was able to truly bring himself to forgive her for cheating on our dad. It was quite expected that he wouldn't be able to forgive her because my dad and my brother had always had a very special bond. Right from when we were little, it was very obvious to me that my dad had a favorite and even though he insisted that he didn't, his behavior made it very obvious. As we grew up, my relationship with my dad was strained at best and after the divorce, when I decided to maintain a cordial relationship with my mom and my stepdad, I guess he started

to resent me because he was very distant from me afterward. I think he had wanted me to behave the same way that my brother had been, constantly bad-mouthing our mother and her husband. My mom got married to my stepdad a couple of months after the divorce was finalized and I was a bridesmaid at her wedding, while my brother refused to even attend. But she still had partial custody of us. So whether my brother liked it or not, he would be forced to. to spend half the month with our mother. He would be intolerable during those couple of weeks, especially because my mother did not play favorites with us, and I guess that did not sit right with him because he couldn't get away with his terrible behavior. Several times, my dad even

tried to file for full custody because he believed that my mother and her husband were tormenting his son, but his claims had no weight so he failed to get custody of us and I'm glad because at least with my mother, I had one parent who cared about me. And my stepdad was a pretty nice guy, So it's not like I hated him either. I was really little and very confused about whether I should be okay with my mom, in spite of the fact that she had cheated on my dad but after a while, I just decided that I would do whatever made me happy and have a good relationship with my mother made me happy. And I'm glad that I put in the time and effort to build a good relationship with her and

spend time with her because we ended up losing her to the Big C about six years ago. I'm very grateful for all the time that we got to spend together and regardless of what happened in her marriage, she was always a good mother to me and that's what matters. Even in her last few days, my brother was hardly there, but at least he bothered to visit her a couple of times, so I guess that brought her some peace before she finally passed away. A couple of months after her passing, my stepdad left the stake but we have kept in touch. About a year after my mom passed away, my brother got a job offer that would require him to relocate to London and he took it up. He lives there now and comes back once a year to visit our

father for a couple of weeks, which is why he is here right now. My brother and I no longer speak, but after my mom's passing and my brother leaving, my dad and I had actually started improving our relationship. He apologized to me for being cold to me after he found out about my mother's affair because he just felt betrayed and heard about a lot of things and ended up behaving in ways that he was not proud of. Especially with me, he acknowledged the fact that he had always paid more attention to my brother, but not me and that's why we had such a strained and difficult relationship. But he said that he wanted to work on it and that's what we did. So for the past couple of years, we actually had been getting along well, which I didn't even

think was possible. I thought that things had finally started changing, which is why I'd asked him to walk me down the aisle on the day of my wedding and he had agreed. I knew for a fact that he was still really attached to my brother but I didn't have a problem with that, as long as he continued to treat me well, like a daughter that he loved. However, after what had to be a child, he loved. However, after what happened recently, I realized that he would never truly treat me like a priority as long as my brother was here and the only reason he had even bothered to try and fix our relationship was because my brother had left for London and would only be here for a couple of weeks every year. So I was important to him, but only for as long as my brother was not around.

Things really hadn't changed as much as I had believed in this recent incident was a harsh wake-up call because I could hardly believe that my dad was asking me to reschedule my wedding in favor of a camping trip with his son. So I did the only thing that occurred to me at the time. I agreed to delay my wedding in the heat of the moment, and minutes after I had disconnected I was on another call, but this time, it was with my stepdad, and I was asking him to walk me down the aisle before I even knew it. I was furious at the time and I'll admit that what I had done was pretty vindictive and was done purely with a spirit of revenge, but while I was doing it, I thought I was doing the right thing for myself so I could teach my father a lesson. My stepdad had been invited to the wedding as a guest anyway since I had already mentioned that he was a nice guy and I didn't have a problem with him.

Besides, he was the only person who got me through my mom's funeral so even though we don't talk on a regular basis, we are still close enough. When I asked him to walk me down the aisle, he seemed skeptical about it for a couple of seconds at first since he was aware of the fact that my father was also going to be there, but I got him to agree eventually. I really didn't think much of it because I thought that even though he was a couple of what I was doing was petty, it was well deserved and my fiancé agreed with me, so that was all the validation that I needed. For the past week, my dad had hardly even bothered to keep in touch

and I knew it was back in town, which just added fuel to the fire. And then, yesterday, I finally got married and my dad was not there, which was expected. I had been waiting until the very last moment for some sort of miracle and then maybe he would show up, but that never ended up happening and my stepdad walked me down the aisle. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about that and it was my wedding day, so I'm obviously very happy about how it turned out in general. The only thing that went wrong was that after I sent my dad a picture of me being walked down the aisle by my stepdad, I expected him to be mad,

but I hadn't expected him to actually get on the next bus and come back home so he could speak to me. But that's what happened and I feel bad about everything that took place last evening. I had asked one of my cousins to take a picture of me from my phone while I was walking down the aisle and send it to my dad and she did. He saw it a couple of hours after that and then there was no response, which I thought was a bit weird but I was busy with the wedding lunch and stuff so I didn't pay much mind to it. Then, around 8 o'clockish in the evening, when the guests had started to leave, my dad finally

showed up. My brother was also there with him and both of them seemed exhausted but it was only my dad who did all the talking and told me that he was really sorry for not taking my wedding seriously, but now that he was back. He wanted me to have another ceremony the next day, so he could be there for me and finally walk his little girl down the aisle. He told me that he was aware of the fact that he had really been very disrespectful of me by choosing to go on the camping trip and asking me to reschedule my wedding and I was totally justified in doing what I did, but he really regretted all of it and he just wanted one more chance. He told me that he didn't even care if nobody attended,

he just wanted another ceremony so he could at least have the satisfaction of knowing that he had gotten the opportunity to walk me down the aisle. And he seemed pretty desperate for another chance, which made me kind of upset because I realized that maybe if I hadn't asked my stepdad to walk me down the aisle, I don't think my dad would have cared this much. I actually went ahead and asked him if he would have come back so quickly and behaved the same way if I hadn't asked my stepdad to step into his shoes and walk me down the aisle, or if he wouldn't have cared, and that seemed to make him think for a bit and that was all that I needed to see. It was obvious that this was more about him versus my stepdad rather than him caring about me and I told him that he had

really disappointed me and I was not going to have another wedding just for his sake. He had his chance and he blew it and now, I just wanted some peace and quiet, away from him. Then, I politely asked him to leave, but he just ended up breaking down and kept asking me to forgive him. He was crying and he told me that he was really sorry for not prioritizing me. He said that he just hadn't realized that I was actually going to go through with the wedding and as soon as he saw those pictures that I had sent, he and my brother took the next bus back home. But when I maintained that, I just wanted him to leave because I wanted to enjoy the day of my wedding to the fullest.

He got kind of offended and told me that I was being heartless and I couldn't just treat him like this over one mistake. At that point, I got really annoyed. And I told him that if he could treat me badly throughout my life in spite of not having a valid reason, then I had the right to do this to him. Especially because he had given me more than several reasons by now and everything that was happening to him right now, he totally deserved it. I told him that I wanted him to go away and that I was glad that I had asked my stepdad to walk me down the aisle because even though he was not related to me by blood, at least he cared

about me and it wasn't just for show like it was with him. Then I walked inside the house while he continued to cry, and after a while, when I looked out, my brother and my dad were gone. Now that it has been a considerable amount of time since that happened, I feel kind of bad about what I said. I feel even worse that I made him cry. I'd defer for asking my stepdad to walk me down the aisle instead of my father and then trying to make him feel bad about it. Update 1, Hey, everyone. So I've thought about it long and hard and I have decided that I have nothing to be sorry for. After all, it was my dad's decision to have me reschedule my wedding so he could go on some stupid camping trip with his son. And I have made excuses for him all my life. I'm sick of doing that

now. There is just no excuse for this kind of behavior and I don't have to forgive him if I don't want to. I do feel bad about making him cry, but honestly, there is only a certain level of mistreatment that people can tolerate and beyond that, I think they earn the right to make that other person cry. Throughout my childhood in teenage years, there have been several times when I have cried because of how he has treated me, and I've never let anybody find out about it, not even him, and I highly doubt that he would fix anything, even if he knew. So I'm pretty content with my decision of not reaching back out to him again. I have spoken to my husband about it and he thinks that I've made the right call and the only reason he hadn't said anything so far was

because he did not want to influence my decision. He wanted it to be mine and only mine. And I even discussed it with my stepdad because I felt like I was betraying him a bit by using him for revenge on my dad, sort of. So I felt like I owed him a bit of an apology, but he told me that it didn't matter because at least he knew that after my biological father, he was the first person that I thought of and I guess that's true. Besides, I really do value him and both he and I are aware of that. So that's all good and for everyone in the comments who were upset with me for using my stepdad, I guess it's clear that he doesn't mind and as long as he doesn't seem offended, I'm fine with what I did. Anyway, it's been a couple of

couple of days since my wedding and my dad has tried to text me several times and has been calling me at least once a day, but I haven't responded. I haven't even opened his texts, so I don't even know what he's trying to say to me and I really don't want to find out. I'm going on my honeymoon in a couple of days and I want to keep my mind off of these things for a while now. Update 2. So, my husband and I are leaving for our honeymoon tomorrow and today, when my dad called me in the morning, I let it ring but then, a couple of minutes later, I decided to go through the messages that he had sent me so far. I think I already mentioned in my last post, that he had been calling me every single day ever since the day of my wedding, without fail. The timings would

differ, but he would call. I hadn't gone through his messages so far, but today, I finally did and all of them were just the same. They were worded differently, but the message was just that he was sorry about everything and that he really wanted to fix things. He told me that he really valued me and he knew that he had not been the best father so far, but he just wanted one more chance to fix things. He also acknowledged the fact that I had been right to be upset with him because I had actually given him a lot of chances to fix his behavior so far, but he had always been biased towards my brother and he knew that I was upset. But as my only surviving biological parent, he really wanted to be a part of my life, and he said that he was ready to do whatever it

took to get me to forgive him. I felt really sad reading those messages because the situation itself was just so upsetting. But I had made up my mind that I needed some space away from him and so, after reading those messages, I decided to call him back. He picked up almost instantly and started apologizing, but I told him that I was only calling to tell him that I was going on my honeymoon and I wanted him to stop calling and texting for a while. I told him that I had read his messages and I knew that he was sorry, but I needed him to cut it out for a while because constantly apologizing was not going to change whatever had already happened. It was only going to keep everything fresh in my mind and I did not want that. So I told him that when I was ready to talk to

him, I would contact him myself, but for now, I wanted him to stop trying to contact me. If he was upset about what I had said, he did not let it come through in his voice, and he just told me that he could understand and he would wait for me to contact him again. So that was upset. So that was that and now, I really just can't wait for the honeymoon so that I can take my mind off of all this drama. Update 3. Hi. So I'm currently on the third day of my honeymoon and my father has been successful in sticking to his promises so far. He hasn't tried to contact me even once. But surprisingly, somebody else did get in touch with me today, and it was totally unwanted and unnecessary. I'm referring to my brother who called me up this morning to lecture me about the

importance of family and tell me that the way I was treating my father was horrible, so I needed to apologize to him as soon as possible. He had called from a burner phone, so I did not even recognize the number and when I answered the phone call and I heard him on the other end, I was about to hang up, but then he told me that he knew that I wanted to hang up, but if I did, it would just prove his point that I was an escapist. And I don't know why, but it worked because he just knows how to push my buttons, I guess. Anyway, I ended up staying and he told me that I couldn't just run away from the family that I had and whether I liked it or not. My dad was going to be my dad and my stepdad could never replace him. I don't know why he felt

the need to say that to me. It's not like we are in school right now and are back to the stage where we were picking sides during the divorce. So I told him that he needed to stay out of this because this was between my father and me and he told me that because of my hurtful behavior, my dad had been miserable and even the camping trip had been cut short, because of which his visit had been ruined, so this was between all of us. And then he told me that he knew for a fact that I was always jealous of and he couldn't do anything about it, but I couldn't just take it out on our father because it was not his fault that he wanted to prioritize the child who had actually always been there for him, unlike me, who had betrayed him during the divorce. I was stunned by how

childish and idiotic he sounded, but I told him that this sort of behavior was expected from a man-child like him. I also clarified to him that I was not jealous of him in the slightest, I asked, actually pitted him because even though he was doing well in his career, he was still emotionally stunted, and no matter what he achieved, he was still going to be miserable and dislikable. He was about to argue, but before he could say anything, I cut him off, and I told him that if he argued, it would just prove my point that he was miserable, and he was desperate to prove that he wasn't. And then, I disconnected the call before he could say anything, which was pretty satisfying in its own way. I shouldn't have spoken to him at all, but well, at least

least I got back at him. I've also decided that for the rest of the trip, I'm just not going to be answering any calls unless it's an emergency or something. So I recently came back home after my honeymoon a couple of days ago and we were still on vacation mode for a couple of days, but yesterday, my husband had to go back to work and so did I and now that we are settling back into our old lives, I decided that it was time to confront my father and talk to him. So after work today, I went over to his place and he seemed quite surprised to see me there. Of course, my brother was also there, but I just ignored him because he's not very important to me. I also asked to speak to my dad in private because I did not want to have any conversation

in front of my brother, because I was sure that he would find it impossible to stay quiet and would try to keep interrupting, and I did not have the patience for that. He did not seem very happy about it, but had to agree to go back to his room so my dad and I could speak in private. Once we were by ourselves, I told my father that I was very disappointed in his behavior because I had thought that things were finally getting better with us. For the past couple of years, we have been getting along well and that's why I'd asked him to walk me down the aisle, but when he asked me to reschedule, I knew where his priorities were. It was a bit petty and vindictive of me to ask my stepdad, but then he is important to me as well, just in a different way.

I told my dad that I still didn't know if he had shown up that day because it was my stepdad walking me down the aisle instead of him and he felt competitive or whatever or if it was because he actually regretted missing my wedding, regardless of who was walking me down the aisle. I told him that it really didn't matter at this point because whatever had happened, we couldn't change it. He seemed very upset up until that point, but then I told him that the only way we could deal with this was by starting again. I know people would want me to cut him out of my life forever, but realistically, that's not possible, and neither do I want to do that. As somebody who lost her mother to cancer, I know how cruel life can be and how quickly people

can be taken away from you. And regardless of how he has behaved in the past or even recently, I've had some good times with my father, and I can't disregard all of that. But I also can't disregard the bad times. So I had to come to a place of acceptance and I told my father that from this point onwards, I would be willing to give him a shot to fix everything that he had messed up. But for now, I wanted him to keep his distance. I explained to him that I needed some time to heal and he had to be willing to give that to me. Maybe it would take some weeks, or maybe it would take some months or maybe even years, but eventually, when I would feel better about him and our relationship, we could try to make

our father-daughter bond work again. Until then, I just wanted to stay low contact and then I asked him if that was acceptable for him. He just nodded and then asked me if he could hug me before I left. So we hugged and it was a bit emotional, but I did not let myself cry until I was back in my car. Anyway, that's the decision that we came to and I guess it works. At least, for now, it does. I hope you enjoy this story. I never informed my relatives about my operation as they spent my whole youth penalizing me for my condition and thinking I pretended as a young child for

recognition. Hello everyone history, I come from an extremely low income, uneducated, and prejudiced family, basically Midwestern rednecks. I was born with a disability. I was born with a disability, that affects the way I walk. Growing up, my parents didn't believe that my inability to walk normally was a disability they, mainly my father, my mom just kind of goes along with him, thought I was doing it for attention or despite them or something, even as a toddler. Because of this, I was punished for walking the only way I am physically able to, which means I was basically punished constantly for about seven to eight years until a teacher had to sit down with my parents and strongly suggested they take me to see someone. At this point, the disability was identified, and the doctor

suggested surgery which my family couldn't afford. So I spent a number of years in leg braces, physical therapy, etc., which didn't work, as it's a congenital disability. My parents and family, despite being told what was going on, still blamed me for my condition they believed that I fake this disability long enough as a baby and toddler that I eventually made my body this way. They've always been resentful because of that, and used to constantly remind me how much money they had to shell out for my problem. Throughout my childhood, I was constantly teased about my condition by other kids, I was in leg braces when Forrest Gump came out, yelled at and punished by my parents, and criticized by extended family and other adults, even strangers at the grocery store. People even commented on it in my receiving line at my wedding two years ago. I spent years learning a fake normal walk for when I can't wear shoes, developing a thick skin,

and learning to laugh at myself. I've been reminded of this condition by everyone I meet and everyone I know on a constant basis for my entire life. At this point, it's such a strong part of who I am as a person and my resiliency, I don't even think of it as a disability, really. Just a part of who I am. The problem, at this point, I'm 30 years old. Over the past, decade or so, I've had a lot of problems with my feet because of the unusual weight distribution pattern I place on them attempting to walk. Over the last year, though, I started noticing signs of nerve damage, numbness, tingling, and shooting pain which renders me barely able to walk at times, and my doctor strongly stressed revisiting an orthopedic surgeon. At my consult,

the surgeon was shocked. He kept asking me questions with this incredulous look on his face, taking pictures with his phone, and commenting on how surprised me was that I could walk as well as I can at this point. He said it's one of the most severe cases he's ever seen of this particular condition, as most are fixed in childhood via surgery. The imaging of my lower extremities showed tissue damage and nerve impingement, making surgery a necessity at this point. So I scheduled a surgery a couple months from now. I've had a lot of weird feelings about this since scheduling the surgery. The first pertains to how when I'm going to tell my family. For years I have completely avoided any talk of my condition and generally ignore all of the comments made by everyone, still walking like a freak,

huh? And the like. I know my parents still believe I did this to myself. Even though I've developed a pretty thick skin to others, I still get emotional thinking about the abuse, shame, and humiliation I suffered at the hands of my parents and family all throughout my childhood because of this. I'm afraid that it's all going to boil back to the surface when I tell them, and start a fight. We already have a tepid relationship, and I don't want to make it worse. The other weird feeling I have pertains to the feeling that I'm fixing something. I know that at this point, it's either surgery or losing the use of my lower legs over the next few years. However, it feels like I'm losing a piece of me. I've spent 30 years telling myself that there's

nothing wrong with me, finally fixing my condition feels like I'm agreeing with everyone, that there was something inherently wrong with me all along. The surgeon said I would have to relearn how to walk, run, jump, etc. I'm excited to know what it feels like to walk on two good legs, but at the same time, I start to cry even thinking about changing this part of me forever. It's part of me. It's the way I was made. Fixing it makes it seem like I agree that I was made wrong. I don't know how to make peace with that feeling. Edd it wholly canally, I came home from school to see this, and oh my goodness. Thank you all so much for your kind words and support. I am truly reading all the comments, even if I can't respond to all of them. I want to thank you

all so much. Your comments made me laugh, cry, and seriously think about a lot of things in my life related to my family. I wanted to address some points that I've seen come up a couple times. I've for better clarification. 1. My family no longer thinks I'm faking. At this point, they believe that I faked my condition as a baby and toddler, and that led to the condition I live with today. Kind of like A. If you keep making that face it's going to stick that way mentality.

There is absolutely no getting through to them about this, so I just ignore it. 2. I grew up in a poor, uneducated, generally abusive household with an abusive alcoholic father, and an enabler for a mother. I've been in therapy off and on for almost a decade now, but really started to make progress a few years ago when I started seeing my current psychiatrist, so no worries on my current mental health. Although I still have a lot of problems related to my family history as well as other things that happened, I am in the best possible place now, and actively dealing with it. Three, the reason I still keep my family and my life is because of a few reasons. One, of course, is the unconditional love I feel for them. As horrible as some

of them have been, deep down I will always want to help them and hope that things will get better. I realize this is stupid of me, but I've been working at limiting my exposure to them for a number of years now, and it is a slow process. Another reason, which I know is also probably stupid, is for the sake of my other family members. I am very protective of my family, and in my teen years something of a caretaker slash head of household role with them when my dad's alcoholism got really bad. I can't handle the thought of the stress and pain I would cause my mom and siblings if I were to cut them out of my life. I don't know if I could do that to them. I do love them, as flawed as they are. Four, after reading through most of the great comments you guys left,

I think I'm going to simply get the surgery and not say anything. I live across the country from my family, and only see them one to two times a year for a week. week or so at a time. I probably won't be seeing them again until next Christmas. I could potentially get the surgery and mostly recover by then. If they notice, they notice. I realize by reading your comments that I don't owe them an explanation. If they push about it, I'll do what I normally do, and leave the situation before I get upset. It's not of their concern what I do with my body. Thank you all so very much for your kind words. They mean the world to me. Update, hi everyone.

I was so overwhelmed by the positive responses and well-wishes back when I posted about this, that I thought I would update all of you on how things are going. So I had my surgery about a month ago, and it went well without any complications. I was an excruciating pain for the first couple days, but my husband was by my side 24 to 7 to help out. He had a week off from his work, so it worked out nicely, and I was able to wean myself off the narcotic pain killer. they gave me after about five to six days. Since then, I've been on crutches, and still have about another three or so weeks of crutches to go, most likely. I don't want to get crazy specific about what my disability or surgery was for privacy purposes, so unfortunately that's all I can

really say about it. It's been tedious, but the great thing about recovering from an injury or surgery, I suppose, is learning a new level of patience and endurance. I'm really happy with my recovery so far and the results I'm seeing already. I can't wait until I am recovered and strong enough to try walking without the crutches or any other device and see what it's like. Leading up to the surgery and immediately after, I didn't tell anyone about it, not even my closest friends. I was kind of afraid of how word might get around, if people would bring it up or something. It got really difficult, though, to keep the secret, as my husband and I had to be careful about what we said and who we said it to. It felt like we were sneaking around,

like we had something to be ashamed of. Finally, I told a couple close friends, who were very supportive. I wasn't planning on telling my family, but I finally did. I felt like I was lying by a mission when my mom would call and ask how everything was, anything new, etc., and I would just try to act normal. I finally told her, plain and simple, yeah, so I had surgery about two and a half weeks ago. She was pretty shocked, and she seemed genuinely hurt that I hadn't told her, not in what she said, but in her tone. She asked my why I hadn't mentioned anything, and I said that it had always been a very tense subject in the family, and I didn't want to bring it up. I think, somehow, that that got through to her. She seemed genuinely regretful

of the situation. She was speaking to me with shame in her voice. We didn't talk long, as I was studying, but later that night, I just kind of thought, to hell with it and made a post coming out to my friends and other family members and letting them know what I had had done. I wrote a narrative about what it was like growing up being different, the rude and hurtful things people would say, the feelings of shame and isolation that I felt, and how those feelings were so strong that I was debating whether or not I should even tell anyone. It was a positive post, though, overall, as I tried to remind people that individuals with disabilities shouldn't be treated like an outcast or an exhibit. And honestly, I don't have time or room in my heart to feel

angry or resentful, I am so hopeful for the future and looking forward to normal mobility. Everyone was incredibly supportive about the post, and my parents called me a bunch of times in the days after. We played phone tag a bit, and when I finally talked to my mom a couple days ago, she said she wanted to start looking at flights to come out here and visit me and help out. I told her that wasn't necessary, that I was pretty used to the crutches now and the limited mobility I have, and she said she hopes I can reconsider in the next couple days, as it would make her feel a little bit better to be able to help me out, cook, shop, etc. Apparently me getting the surgery and intentionally not telling them.

Coupled with the FB post that my mom saw, I didn't call them out or anything in it, just talked in general about how difficult it was, made my parents feel horrendously guilty about the way I grew up and was treated. My mom wanted to try to make it up to me somewhat by flying out here and spending some time together. I appreciate the sentiment, and I'm glad that they're seeing the way they treated me in a new light, but I do think I'm honestly too busy in the next couple weeks to host a guest. I told her we could revisit the discussion in a couple weeks. So, everything is pretty great right now. I made peace a long time ago with the fact that I will never be completely comfortable or close with my family, but it's nice to know that people can change

or try to. I really appreciate the effort my parents are putting in, even if it's not necessary. It's the thought that counts, I guess. I don't want to say I'm glad they feel bad, but I'm kind of glad they feel bad. It shows that they're human, maybe there's some hope there. Anyway, thank you all again so, so much for your kindness and support, your replies and massages meant everything to me, even if I didn't get around to responding to them. I read and appreciated every single one. Here's to good health and a good life, goodbye. Next story, husband's family upset his little brother for years, when I stood up for him.

My husband told me to stay out of family business, so I kicked him out and help his brother to escape. I'll try to be brief. I'm still fuming. My husband, M29, comes from a big family, for brothers, two sisters, raised by a single mother for the most part. The youngest of his siblings is Joseph M19. In the six years I've known Joseph he's always seemed awkward and a little too quiet and socially inept. I have always had a special fondness towards Joseph because he's such a sweet person and I was a little awkward growing up myself. Joseph has been struggling with some classes and I've been helping him. My husband took me on a special dinner night to thank me for this and it was there that he revealed why Joseph sometimes struggles. Apparently, their dad

who is now dead left their mom over accusations that Joseph was a product of infidelity. He was not. But their dad was super paranoid about infidelity and treated his wife like property. The father started abusing Joseph when Joseph was as young as two, beating him. He left shortly thereafter and passed away a few years after that. The abuse didn't stop there. My mill picked up where the father left off. The beatings and abuse is too graphic and unspeakable for me to detail it here. It's disgusting and inhumane.

My husband said that all the siblings took part including himself. When I could no longer take listening to the details, and the extent to which my husband participated, I asked him why and how he could do those things. He went into full-on-defense mode when he saw how furious I was and said they were told he was not their brother. Like that's a valid excuse? He said the family buried it and doesn't talk about it. That Joseph started defending himself at about 13 and the abuse stopped then. I asked him if anybody had apologized to Joseph. He said he doesn't need an apology, that he just needs to forget and in time he will. Since that night three weeks ago I've been unable to be

affectionate in any way towards my husband. It's like I went from totally in love, but totally repulsed by him. He's suddenly somebody I don't even know. I honestly don't know why Joseph has chosen to stay around all these animals and I'm disgusted with myself for marrying one. Last weekend we had a backyard cookout as we often do. Most of his siblings were here. Joseph knocked over a pitcher of iced tea. He's a little shaky and a little clumsy, but it was an accident obviously. My Mill went off and started berating him and called him an idiot and a few other names. She started to berate him about his hands and how they shake so much and told him to get control

of it and stop shaking. I gave my husband a look, like, hey, jump in here. He didn't do anything. I lost it. I went completely crazy on her and told her. that maybe if she hadn't beat him and other things. At this point my husband jumped in and told me to take it easy on his mom. I told her to leave and she told everybody to leave with her. Joseph only stayed because I practically begged him to stay but she told him to leave too.

I tried to talk to my husband about what happened and why I went off. He told me to mind my own business about his family business. I told him to leave at this point. He reluctantly left and has been calling and texting me nonstop to forgive him. Edit 1 colon finally heard back from a friend I had emailed. She's a counselor. She told me I acutely victimized Joseph by bringing up the abuse that Friday night. She says I should have simply stood up for him for what happened that night. She says I should apologize to him for that and I will tonight.

She also said it's probably going to be the first and only apology Joseph ever gets that's even remotely related to all the abuse he suffered, so be ready for anything. I'm picking him up at his friend's house tonight. His mom kicked him out over what happened. Everything is happening so fast now. My parents have stepped up big time and offered to move him in. My dad is going to teach him how to drive and help him get his DL. He's going to give him his old car that nobody drives.

Now we just have to convince him to accept our help. Haven't read all your comments, but I will. Just things are happening fast I need to keep up. I know my kids will be fine. Right now I'm in full get-Joseph help mode. I have not read all your comments but I will. Thank you all. Oh, I almost forgot.

I spoke to my husband on the phone finally. He thinks he's going to talk his way back. I asked him why his mom kicked out Joseph. He said he had no idea what I was talking about. He didn't know. Joseph told me that my husband has been staying at his moms and he was there when Joseph was kicked out. I will file divorce. No chance I'm taking him back.

Edit 2. Some of you have asked about the details of he abuse. I left them out to spare you. Something inside you breaks when you hear the details of what they did to Joseph. I wanted people to read this and not have to visualize it. Horrible and tragic are not big enough words. Edit 3 Sorry I can't respond to every comment and thanks for some kind words.

But just to add some clarity to some questions I keep seeing. No, he has no remorse, nor does he think an apology is needed. He also feels no therapy is needed for anybody, just time to heal. But at the same time he acknowledges that Joseph's shaking and struggle are a result of he abuse. I don't get this contradiction, but I will get therapy for myself as well and try to get more answers. Also, yes, my dad is pretty awesome. I knew he would spring into action if I just talked to him. My mom is great too.

I knew dad would get her to sign on as well. They like Joseph, and they had reservations about me marrying my husband, but that was for other seemingly petty reasons at the time. I swear on my life that I did not know my husband and his family had the secret. I only knew that they all seemed normal but Joseph was clearly damaged. He is very sweet-natured but you can tell he has endured some things. I always wanted to get close to him and try to understand him but I never would have guessed. Update, I filed for divorce after a few conversations with my husband. He blames Joseph for our divorce and became very threatening.

At one point he said he would turn walk away from me and our two kids if I didn't stop the divorce process. I called his bluff and told him good, go, we would be better off. In my state it takes six months to finalize divorce with children involved. I have sole custody and he never filed for joint custody which is good. Now on to Joseph. There's so much but I'll try to be brief. He's in therapy and lives with my parents. He's sticking it out with school even though he has anxiety and depression.

He's fighting really hard to heal. Sometimes he has setbacks and is just like a broken down little boy. He has a very strong will and spirit and sometimes I wonder how far he would have gone in life even now at 19 if the animals hadn't totally broken him. His siblings and moms still try to contact him and guilt him for not staying with his mom to take care of her as she ages. They all agreed that Joseph's life would be to be the mother's caretaker as they all go on live their own as they wish. He actually feels guilty about not fulfilling that shockingly. He has a long way to go before he realizes that his life is his to do as he wishes. They don't have his phone number anymore, but they email him.

My dad got him a new phone because his mom would call him and berate him and guilt him. It seemed like every conversation with her set him back two steps. She still knows how to crush him sadly. I wish she didn't have that power over him. I've never wished a death penalty on somebody like I do on her. He's dating a girl and I'm scared she might hurt him, break his heart, but my dad is more encouraging of that and has to remind me to not overprotect him. Joseph has become very close with my mom.

He drives her grocery shopping and enjoys doing that stuff with her. My dad taught him how to drive in like one week. He is about to go take his driving test for his DL. He's still on a learner's permit. There are a lot of positive things going on but progress is very slow and sometimes it's like watching a clock. It just seems like he's standing still in terms of anxiety and depression. I can't say too much about all that's going on but I can say that my parents have an attorney

and are going through the adoption process. I wanted this to be a more upbeat and positive update but honestly Joseph struggles a lot. Law enforcement is now involved because some of the physical abuse is more recent than I thought, just from his mom. He has a few scars and he has broken bones that never healed properly because he never got medical attention. Protection orders are likely to be granted. If they are, then according to the investigator's charges will almost be inevitable. That part of it I can't say much about but can say that Joseph is willing to go forward with that process for now under the guidance of his therapist. But we have been warned that he may choose to back off later.

though one cop said there is a point of no return for the DA even without Joseph's cooperation. I hope you enjoy this story. Father exchanged my mother by marrying his partner and evicted me after I instructed her to depart from our existence. My mom meant everything to me. Remember reading books, watching documentaries, and going on road trips with her. She baked my sister and I cookies whenever we were sick. Her and Dad would take us hiking every other week. I still miss her even now.

When I was 11 years old, she passed away from a driving accident. It was the hardest year in my life, and it hasn't gotten easier. Two years after she passed, my father started dating a woman named Nicole, and four years later, they're getting married. Nicole is younger than my father. After dating Nicole, I saw my father come back into his shell, but it turned into something else. Nicole brought adventure back into his life,

but they often went on elaborate trips and frequent nightouts. During all of this, I felt neglected. My father slowly stopped taking my sister and I on our weekly hikes. He started speaking less and less over calls, and he even once forgot my mother's birthday. After she came into our lives, I started losing my father. He just wasn't there anymore. One time, when my sister and I were home alone, she fell down the stairs and got a huge cut on her forehead.

It was clear she needed stitches, so I called my father immediately. Nicole answered the phone, and I told her to give the phone to my father. She refused saying he was busy, and before I could get another word in, she disconnected the call. I embarrassingly had to ask the neighbor to bring us to urgent care where my dad later met us. This woman at one point removed my mother's picture from the fire mantle to put up a picture of her and my dad from their trip to Washington. The thing that tipped me over was when she made my father forget about my mother's birthday. Every year, my sister and I go with our father to visit my mother on her birthday. It was an annual tradition even before Nicole entered our lives.

Nicole and my father went on a trip to Florida and were supposed to be back three days before my mother's birthday. But, because this woman is motion sick, my father decided to break the drive back into small intervals to make it easier on her. Because of this, he ended up missing our annual trip. He didn't even call us. Not even a week later, my father has the nerve to tell us about an exciting surprise Nicole is pregnant. I get angry and tell my father you need to knock her ass up when you can't even be here for us.

I then look at Nicole and tell her she is a disgusting piece of trash and to get out of our lives. My father gets angry and yells at me to go up to my room. Later, my grandpa unexpectedly came over to pick me up. My father didn't text me shit. Even as I left, he wouldn't even look at me. It's been two days, and I'm still at my grandparents' home. I feel ashamed for saying what I said, yet I don't feel overwhelming regret. Ida.

Edit when I saw how deep the cut was, I immediately called my dad. He was staying over at Nicole's place at the time. When I called, Nicole picked up. She said, hello. I said, sister's name is bleeding. Can you pass the phone to Dad? She said, Dad's name is busy. I can't.

And, immediately afterwards, she disconnected the phone. I then left to go get my neighbor. I've decided to contact my maternal grandpa tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes. Comments where OP has replied. You didn't say your age, but I hope you can move out soon. I appreciate it. I'm 17, and I've spoken to school counselors too.

No one is willing to help me. I've tried talking with my dad about how I feel way before my outburst, but it always ends with it happened years ago. It's time to move on. I don't even know what that means. My sister can't get help either, so I'm trying to peacefully exist for her. I am 17. My sister is 13. My dad is 44, and Nicole is 34. Has Nicole ever tried to connect? I ran out of characters in the original post, but that's the thing. Nicole never made any effort to talk to us apart. from when we go out for family dinners, or when we are at parties. Even then, the conversations are always about her. My dad invited her on our hikes early in their relationship, but she didn't

like being outside. And, over time, my dad stopped taking us hiking even when we asked him. Nicole does pottery from time to time, and I've invited her to my art honor society events, but she always declined. We've made every effort to get to know her, but she's always declined. We've made every effort to get to know her, only seems interested in talking with my dad. She doesn't understand we are a part of his life too. Grandparents and their role in this. I didn't touch on this before, but I am currently living with my paternal grandparents. They live the closer to us than my maternal side grandpa. I've tried talking to my paternal grandparents too, but it was also a very wishy-washy conversation. Not to say it didn't help at times, but it's clear that they were justifying my

dad's actions at every chance rather than hearing me out. I don't want to live like this. I hate holding resentment, but I can't help it. I've asked my dad about therapy, but he doesn't believe in that type of support. This morning, I asked my paternal grandparents if I could spend Thanksgiving at my maternal grandpa's place, but they refused. And, that's another thing. thing. I can't escape the situation or the bad feelings if I wanted to. Ick, Dad and Nicole will come over for Thanksgiving, and I'll have to sit there. Counseling I want grief counseling mainly, but even just help working through my resentment towards my dad

and Nicole is enough. I don't want to go to bed crying every other night. I don't want to feel hate. I just want to be mentally at peace. My dad doesn't believe in therapy. My dad doesn't believe in or counseling. I don't know what made him hold those views, but it's made it harder for my sister and I to get help. I've secretly talked to school counselors, my paternal grandparents, my dad, my aunt, dad's sister, but it's never a productive conversation. The only person who has helped me the most was my maternal grandpa, but we are barely allowed to see him. I've calmly expressed how I felt to my dad on multiple occasions. You said you talked to your school counsellor. What do they say?

They can't point me towards a resource without my dad's consent. The conversations usually end with to continue to speak with my dad. I don't expect them to have a solution to every situation, but it would be nice to just be heard fully. I also have to censor a few details when I speak with them because they have sent a police officer to my house in the past. My dad was angry about that situation, and I don't want him to feel angry with me. As for therapy, my dad doesn't believe in therapy or counseling, so I'm limited with options. More on the police visit. When I spoke to the school counselor, I mentioned that when my dad and Nicole were traveling abroad,

he left me and my sister home alone for three days and forgot to leave us some money to get food. Because of this, a police officer was sent to our home to check on us. And my dad got angry about me sharing family information to strangers. Another time, he forgot to pick up my sister from swim practice for an hour or so. My dad got a call from the swim place, and he told me to walk, 30 minutes walk, and get my sister. As for feelings, I feel like my mind is a bit lighter, and my heart doesn't feel as heavy as before. It helped me process my emotion somewhat. Maybe you need to tell the school counselor what is going on regardless.

I've debated about it, but at the end of the day, my sister and I still need our dad. He financially supports us, and we still live in his home. He has control over our college funds, so the last thing I want is to jeopardize that. Also, my sister is still young, and I know she still needs him even if he is emotionally unavailable. I don't want that to potentially be taken away from her. OOP is voted and hey. Mini update. I've called my maternal grandpa when everyone was still sleeping. It ended up being a two-hour call. I basically mentioned to him everything I've said here, and how I want to live with him if possible. He said that as much as he wants me to go

get out from there, that he can't do much without my father's approval. I hinted at a legal approach, but he said he wouldn't be able to see us if it got that far. My grandpa also shared some new info regarding my dad. According to him, when I was 14, my sister was 10, my dad dropped us over at my grandpa's farm since he and Nicole were flying out. A day after they returned, my grandpa dropped us back home. We were still sleeping in grandpa's car when this ordeal happened. But when my grandpa knocked on the door, my dad answered the door drunk out of his mind. From what little he could see, my grandpa saw that the house was a mess. He told my dad that he would bring us back the following day once my dad was in his right mind. We left back to grandpa's

place. Then, my grandpa got a call from my dad the next morning, threatening him with the police if he didn't bring us back immediately. My grandpa mentioned that he would speak with my paternal grandparents to see if something can be done about our situation. Update 1. Hi everyone, it's been a while. I really want to thank all of you for your perspectives and advice. Just wanted to give an update. Regarding Thanksgiving dinner, when my dad and Nicole arrived, I asked if I could speak with them both. My dad said he didn't want to talk and went into the living room. Nicole still remained by the front door, so I apologized for insulting her.

She replied that she needed to leave and went to the living room. Overall, she still seemed rightfully angry with me. Dinner was awkward because my grandma would try to get my dad and I to talk. talk, but he wouldn't really bother. After dinner, I pulled him aside and apologized again. He ignored me and went straight to Nicole. I still wasn't sure if I was heading back with him or not, so I packed everything just in case. When he was getting ready to leave, I asked him if I could come back home. He said Nicole wasn't comfortable having me home even though it had been a few days since the incident. I spent the entire night crying on the phone with my sister. Therapy and

living situation. After having my call with my maternal grandpa, he called my paternal grandparents a couple days later to discuss my situation. I overheard the call between them. My maternal grandpa expressed he was concerned about me, especially my mental state and asked my paternal grandparents if they were willing to talk to my dad about putting me in therapy. My grandparents said they'd be willing to take me to their church's mental support group or talk with their faith leader who specializes in grief counseling. My grandpa pushed back on the idea and mentioned a need for more professional help, but they were not receptive to the idea.

All three of them also had a heated conversation about my living arrangement. My grandpa said it was ridiculous for a grown man to throw out their daughter, and it was shameful that my paternal grandparents are not hard-pressed in helping me get back home. That's all I heard regarding the conversation. Now, my grandma started taking me to weekly private sessions with the faith leader. I'm not entirely happy with the arrangement, but it has helped me start to process my grief in a healthier way. Also, I am still living with my grandparents. I apologized over and over through text to my dad and through my grandparents, but he has to

has not responded. My maternal grandpa has called my dad many times, but my dad blocked him. I am contemplating telling my school counselor next semester all the details regarding my dad and not admitting anything to protect him. I also wasn't invited to my dad and Nicole's Christmas dinner which hurt, but I'm starting to not care to have a relationship with my dad. I don't know if my feelings will change. In a twisted way, it was good he didn't let me go back home with him. The space has helped me focus on myself. Comments where OP has replied. Is your sister still in the house?

I ran out of characters in the update, but my sister is still living with my dad. She visits me over weekends and I've walked home with her from school, so I still have some contact. Text him once more and say you're not sorry, have him sign away his parental rights and then go scorched earth. I've thought about this long and hard to the point it had mentally consumed me. I've imagined every revenge and final say moments, but one thing I've recognized in therapy is how much my resentment and anger has been holding me back from moving on. I am now just trying to emotionally detach from them. I have every intention to involve the school counselor for my sister.

You've done the right thing. Thank you. I'm looking forward to college and putting this behind me. me in time. I'm trying to convince my grandparents to allow my sister to live with them full time, so she has some semblance of peace. Has your father stopped leaving your sister alone for days at a time? He hasn't gone on any major trips since the end of November, but he definitely will for his California trip in January. I've asked my grandparents if they could let her stay over during that and honestly for the foreseeable future. OOP responds to a comment with advice and

questions here. I can't live with my maternal grandpa because I'm sure my dad wouldn't allow it. He has threatened to call the cops in the past when my sister and I stayed at my grandpa's place. Given how my grandpa and dad are not on speaking terms, I believe trying to live with him will only further prevent us from seeing him. Believe me, I never wanted to go to a faith leader for mental help. My paternal grandparents are hell-bent on not taking me to a valid professional. They don't believe in it and are worried what others might think of me if I do. I can drive myself, but I don't have my own car. I also don't want to lie to my grandparents about my whereabouts if I do take their truck.

It's too big of a risk for me. I've lost a lot of love and respect I have for my father. I've stopped trying to communicate. I still end up crying some days, but it's becoming less frequent. The only reason I'll ever talk to him, is if it's anything regarding my sister. Nicole is 34 years old, and my dad is 44 years old. I hope he is present for the baby.

I have no expectations for him having regret or expressing remorse. My image of him pretty much died the moment he kicked me out. I already work at a local diner, so I'm hoping to save enough before summer at least. Also, I've gotten into two to three colleges as of RN. I'm excited for that chapter. Tie for your advice. I ended up spending New Year's Eve with a couple of my friends and sister, a little silver lining in all of this egg. Also, Nicole's cooking kind of sucks, so missing Christmas wasn't that bad.

I'm not religious, so I was skeptical of the faith-based approach in therapy. It's better than nothing, and the faith leader actually strays from religious-rooted reasons during sessions. More info Hi everyone, I'm feeling overwhelmed with the amount of messages, but I want to say that I am not literate regarding the laws around my situation. Regarding my sister and I's college fund, my mom worked in a small boutique and some money earned through that was set aside. While my dad worked as a consultant,

and I do know he did put some money into the funds too. I don't know if my sister and I received any money regarding benefits or any monetary inheritance from my mom after she passed. I'm still understanding a great deal of information and writing everything out first. I even recently opened up a bank account with my grandparents' help, so now I will not be dependent on him for simple monetary needs. I have thought about emancipation, but in less than a year, I'll be 18, so I am not sure if that avenue is worth my energy given everything else. Also, thank you for leaving info in the comments. I'll certainly be looking into all of that.

Also, I know it is a small percentage of people, but please don't send me messages telling me to do violent things to my dad or Nicole or wishing harm on their baby. I don't need that, nor would I wish it upon anybody. More new comments. I believe my mom and dad contributed to a 529 plan for both my sister and I. I'd count how much is in it, or if he'll try to change the beneficiary, to possibly the baby after. I am trying to figure that out since my mom contributed to it as well. If I can still be entitled to that money, or if I could get the money back if he tries to change the beneficiary, I'd give this part as possible, but a possibility that I thought of.

Faith leader says his behavior is a result of denial of the mourning process, and that his unhealthy coping mechanisms, X, constantly going out with Nicole, have manifested into his current actions. Also, he may be ignoring us because we remind him of mom or some BS like that. The leader puts heavy emphasis on family, so it's clear he's just finding roundabout ways to explain my dad's actions but doesn't acknowledge his wrongdoings. He at least acknowledges my feelings and discusses healthy coping mechanisms and how to manage grief. The faith leader never agreed or disagreed with any of my sentiments. New update

Hi, I wasn't sure if I was still allowed to add long updates to my old post, but I wanted to give one. Right now, everything is a mess, so I'll try my best to be coherent. This in hindsight was an idiotic mistake on my end. But after I scheduled a meeting with my counselor, I mentioned it while calling my sister. On the call, I never explicitly mentioned my intention to report him, but she started freaking out and telling me it was not a good idea. She ended up crying on call saying that I would be hurting our father if I reported him. I told her that I wouldn't go to the meeting to help her calm down. Regardless, I still planned on going to the counselor meeting.

I scheduled the meeting during the second week of January while my father was out in California. Night before the meeting, I got a call from my father. He said that if I ever wanted a place to live again to not spread lies about him to the counselor, I said that I would never do that, and that was the end of the call. This was the first time I've spoken to him in days, and I never gave any indication of me reporting him. I realized my sister must have said something, so I called her to talk. I asked her why she would tell him something like this, and she said that he called her to ask what I was doing. She slipped up and told him that I was planning to meet with the counselor.

I still ended up going to the counselor meeting, and I told him that I told him. him everything that was going on. I told the counselor to please not notify my father about the meeting, and he agreed. At the very end, the counselor gave me two to three pamphlets for mental health support, and said he'll follow up with me. He also dodged my questions regarding what will happen a day later right after I got home from school, my paternal grandpa called me over and said he wanted to talk. He told me that the school called my father to set up a meeting with the counselor. He started to yell and get angry with me saying that if I pull this shit, they'll take my sister and the baby away. He also said that I wasn't raised to lie and continue to reprimand me.

I never thought my grandpa was capable of being this way, but it scared me how angry he got. I also got grounded, so I'm not allowed to drive or visit friends for a couple of weeks. I don't know what exactly went down in the meeting between the counselor and my father. From the call between my grandpa and father, I learned there was a police officer present in the meeting and that they will be doing a wellness check. Also, my father denied everything that I told the counselor and chalked it up to me being spiteful because I lost my mom. I wasn't in a good mental state afterwards, and I am still not. I call my friend and ask her to stay on the phone with me most times, or I just rot in my room. Also, as punishment, my grandma stopped taking me to the faith leader, so that's my current situation.

I hope you enjoy this story. Guardians compelled me to labor from the age of 13 in order to demonstrate my value, all the while pampering my sister who was separated. Subsequently, they insisted that I relinquish all my funds to cover the expenses of her elective surgery. So I called my grandfather who cut them out of his $300,000 inheritance. I, 18M, come from a weirdly patriarchal family. They are more problematic than they are patriarchal because all my life, I have had to face the music for being a boy, whereas my elder sister, 25F, has been pampered with a lot of love and attention because she's the eldest and because she's a girl.

I cannot stand her, and she doesn't bother about me. It has always been this way, and I think this is how it is going to be forever. I don't have any qualms about it, though. She is insufferable, and there is a reason that she doesn't have a single friend. No one other than my parents can even stand her for more than six months. The maximum time she has ever had one person, either a friend or a boyfriend, stick it out with her has been six months. And I don't blame them.

With grace, even that is an achievement. And she is so thick that she doesn't even understand that the problem is with her. She has been made to feel all her life that she can do no wrong, and everyone else is basically against her, and she has the right to cut anyone off who doesn't treat her like a queen. Well, too bad, the real world doesn't work this way. All this entitlement comes from the enabling behavior of our parents, who think no end of grace, to the point that there are days when Kelsey F-14, my younger sister, and I feel that they only wanted one child, and we are just there for decoration. But I am glad I have Kelsey with me. I love her more than I love anyone else in the world, and I want her to get out of this hellhole as soon as possible.

Especially because they encourage Grace's behavior and want Kelsey to copy her. And I know that if she ends up like Grace, she isn't going to be able to do anything in life. She is too young to be turned into a prop, and I will not let that happen to her. It's a relief that her personality is completely opposite to that of Grace's, so she naturally doesn't have the propensity to behave like the queen of the house. I know it is only me who can protect her from the ridiculous and dated beliefs that my family has about everything.

Ever since I was a kid, I had been taught that I was the man of the house and that I had to take up dad's business as an adult. It was hammered into me early on that being a man meant having endless responsibilities, being serious all the time, and earning money and providing for the family. That's what the men in my family did. I never knew any better, so that is what I inculcated within me. However, the push to start earning my own money came early on. My father said that he was not going to offer me any sort of opportunities on a platter, and only if I could prove that I was worthy of his help, in the sense of financial aid for

college, etc., would he be willing to shell out money for me? I had to prove my worth as a man to him. And all this when I was just a kid. I remember I was given this lecture before my 11th birthday when I had asked my dad if I could have my friends over for a party. He said that I was transforming into a young man and now I had to become aware of the responsibilities of the world and give up this childishness. I wish I hadn't listened to him, but at that point in time, I did not know better. I picked up a job when I was 13. It wasn't much, but I liked what I did.

I used to walk the dogs of the families in the neighborhood initially, and then, I started dog sitting as well. I have always loved animals and because I started very young, I picked up the skills, knack, and most importantly, the patience for a job like this. It wasn't much, but it gave me money, some of which I spent, and most of which I saved. My parents were proud of me, and that made me proud of myself. They never asked me what I did with that money, they never asked me how much I made. They just tried to ensure that I wasn't spending the money on dangerous things like alcohol and drugs. They used to check my room for the same regularly, but they never found anything, because I didn't have those habits. I used to stash my money and save

it, and I had decided that I would be saving it all up and using it for college. I was naive back then. I thought that all this money would have been enough for college, when it clearly wasn't. Moreover, I was also quite sure that my father wouldn't be spending a dime on my education, especially since he had already told me that the only way that I could get financial assistance from him was if and only if I showed him that I was worthy of it. The thing with indoctrination of this kind is that I never felt worthy of dad's money. I still don't. And this experience is completely opposite to what Grace lives on a daily basis.

She has had none of these struggles. The only thing that has ever been asked of her has been to look pretty and to make sure that she marries well. Those are the only two things that have ever been required of her. And this was driven home to her since she was young, I guess, because I never remember her even trying to do well in school or get into hobbies that aren't about makeup or dressing up. I still remember when I was not even ten, we had to go out to Dad's friend's place, and Grace was running a temperature at that point. She wasn't dressed up, and my parents were aghast. To them, a normal grace was much worse than a sick grace. She asked them to let her sit the party out because she wasn't feeling well anyway,

but they forced her to go and said that we would only be there for a while. I think she might have had it bad, too, with them, but that just made her insufferable instead of a decent enough person. They've tried to put Kelsey through the same shit, too, but I have been trying my hardest to not let her fall for this. Plus, with all of Grace's drama every other week, they are very occupied with her to bother much about us. The issue happened a few weeks ago, and I had never thought that it would blow up into something

so major. I am not complaining, because I finally feel vindicated after all these years, but it just feels weird having the family at each other's throats. It started because I got into one of the best universities in my state for undergrad, and I was quite proud of myself. I also got a full scholarship, so there was no issue of financial aid. Mom and Dad are proud of me, too, and Dad said that I had worked very hard and that he was proud of me. I rarely get to hear these words, so they mean a lot to me.

However, what he said next just blew me out of my mind completely. He said that since I had a scholarship, I could work and pay for the living costs. I was kind of bummed because I had been working ever since I was 13, only because I thought that maybe Dad would help me out when the time came because I had shown him that I was responsible. I had been hoping that at least my late teens would be enjoyable because I had spent every other part of my teen slaving away either at school or working. He said that he had been trying to train me for the trials of life ever since I was a boy. There were no trials, I could have had a very comfortable life. I was sullen for a while but I decided to talk to Dad about the situation.

I was hoping he would understand, and even if he didn't, the worst that could happen was that he would scream at me. It didn't matter. I needed rest, I needed a break, and I needed a life. I went to dad and told him that I had been working ever since I was a kid, and only because he had promised me that he would help me out with college if I showed him that I could be responsible with money and that I was worth all the effort and investment. I told him that I didn't know how else one could prove his worth and that I had tried my best all these years. I told him that I was tired of working, and I wanted to have a good experience in college, and I said that I wanted him to help me with living costs. I had quite a good sum saved because of all those years of working, but I told him that that wouldn't be enough for all my expenses, which is why I needed his help.

He just sighed and he looked defeated. He said that he knew where I was coming from, but that he couldn't do much right now because Grace was going through a lot. I lost it. I told him that Grace was always going through a lot. He had always preferred her over me. He had paid for all those exorbitant clothes and makeup for her, he had funded both her weddings out of his own pocket,

and all for what, for her to be dumped by her husbands because she was an idiotic ass and she had no personality other than being a stupid Barbie doll. Dad looked exasperated and said that there was nothing that he could do other than help her out because she was in a very bad place right now. The bad place is that she has had two divorces already. Her first husband was Dad's friend's son, Luke. He was a couple of years older than her. They got married when she was 20 and he was 28, and he was done with her within a year.

I don't know the details of the divorce. I was very young, and I was gladly kept out of it. All I knew is that Dad and that friend of his are still on good terms, but Dad has been kind of pissed with Grace ever since. She got married again two years ago, and this guy nobody in the family liked. His name is Andrew, Andy, and he just gives everyone the ick. I don't know what she saw in him other than his money, because he is loaded. That part is true. But he is just weird and disgusting.

So much so that even my parents don't like him, and that is a surprise because they like everyone with money. Things went south in that marriage as well. He was a serial chief. He knew he could get away with it because Grace was crazy about the money and the luxury, so he knew how to shut her up. Mom and Dad had never liked him anyway, and they tried to get her to leave him, but she never listened to them. She said that she could not bear another failed marriage and that she would stay in it and make it work, no matter what it took. Well, what it took was another woman that he knocked up and left Grace for.

So she came back home. That was a year ago, and she has been home ever since. It has been horrible for me, and especially for Kelsey. Now that my parents have realized that their project has failed, and Grace couldn't do what they wanted her to, they have now started eyeing Kelsey. They try to get her to listen to them, but I have done my part well. I have trained her into not getting manipulated by them because I know their tactics. Grace, for her part, is miserable, and in all honesty,

I don't really want to bring her out of her misery. I know being divorced twice by the age of 25 is a lot for anyone to take, but I cannot make myself feel bad for her. I just can't. I have never liked her, and I don't think I ever will. Anyway, so Dad told me that at this point in time, his focus was grace because she had had two failed marriages already, and he had to do something about her.

Which is why all the focus was going to be on her, yet again, and in hindsight, I don't even know why I was surprised, and that I needed to be understanding of the entire situation. I had wanted to scream at him then, but I thought it was just futile. And then he said something that just made all that simmering rage inside me burst to the surface. He told me that since I knew how bad things were for grace and because I had a full ride to university, so I was practically sorted, he wanted me to give all the money that I had earned to him so that he could use it for grace. and use it for what?

For cosmetic surgeries because she felt her husbands were leaving her because she wasn't pretty enough. I have never heard a proposition that was more ridiculous than this. I have never felt so much anger ever before. I would have slapped my father that day, honestly, I don't know how I didn't. I started screaming. I don't remember what I said, but I knew it wasn't sweet or nice. It was nasty. I was spewing shit verbally the entire damn time because I just couldn't believe his audacity.

I told him that I had ruined my entire childhood because of him and his stupid notions, and that was why he had failed both Grace and me. I told him that Grace was an unemployable little piece of shit because they never let her develop any personality or hobbies other than being beautiful and having a husband, which is why they were now feeling guilty for the way her life was, and they would pander to any and every whim and fancy of hers because that was the only way that they could feel less guilty. I told him that there was no way I was letting him touch even a penny of my money, especially for Grace's glow-ups. He was surprisingly calm and told me that he understood my frustration, but that now was the time for me to stand by my family and do the right thing.

I told him that I had been led by example, and if he had never done the right thing by me, I don't know how he could have expected me to do the right thing. I had never seen that happening in my life and my family. I had only seen favoritism and partiality, and if he wanted me to let go of all that just like that, that wasn't going to happen. I told him that I was a fool to expect him to help me out, and similarly, he was a fool for believing that I would be giving any money for grace. I then simply stormed out of the room and broke down.

Was so, so frustrated. Logically, I knew that if I did end up taking a job, I would be able to survive, and well, in college. But to hell with logic. I was just broken at that point. I think the fact that no matter what I did, no matter what I achieved or how I behaved, I was never going to be worthy enough for my family finally hit home. There were two children in the house.

One was a young woman who never did well in school, got married twice, and then got divorced twice. She never had to lift a finger or want for anything. And she had to do just one thing, according to my parents, stay married. She couldn't even do that. On the other hand, there was me. I don't even remember the last time I was stress-free, or the last time I was truly happy. I was always either studying, working, or on the lookout for work. More than the money, it was to prove to my parents, and especially my dad, that I was a good kid,

and that I am doing what you want me to, so just love me in return. But that didn't happen, and I now know that it's never going to happen. Grace is their favorite, and nothing on earth can change that. So I knew that I had to do something, and fast, to be able to save both myself and Kelsey. I didn't know who to go to or who to talk to. I knew that talking to my uncles would be of no use because they would only sympathize with me. And even if they tried to talk to Dad, Dad would just rebuff them, and it would all end up falling on me.

The only people who could talk sense into my dad, and who Dad listened to, were my grandparents. I knew that they were the only ones who could put an end to this crap. And by this point, I didn't even want Dad's money. I had reconciled myself to the fact that I would ultimately have to end up doing everything on my own and fund my way through college.

Now I was out for blood. Now I wanted the world to know what really happened behind these closed doors and show the world who my father really was. Little did I know that one call to my grandfather and things would become so different. Had I known the kind of influence Grandpa had over Dad, I would have called him years ago to put an end to this shit. I called Grandpa and told him everything. I didn't leave out a single detail, not the part where I worked only because I wanted to prove myself to my parents. Apparently, they had told everyone that I was working because I wanted to, and they had tried to stop me from doing so many times, but I was adamant and never listened.

I told him about the scholarship and dad's refusal to help me out financially, and finally, I told him about the cosmetic surgeries that Grace is planning, and that dad is wanting me to fund. It was a long and hard call, and I had a feeling that Grandpa had not understood quite a bit of it. He told me to calm down and that he wanted to meet me and discuss it in person with me. I agreed. We met at his place the next day, he lives an hour away, and I repeated everything. He didn't interrupt me and didn't say much. By the time I was done, he just asked me what I wanted, and I said that I was not sure, but that I was sick of the bias and the neglect. He told me that I had nothing to worry about and that he would take care of everything. This was last

week and nothing has happened as yet. Dad keeps trying to pressure me into giving my money, and now he has involved Mom as well. Mom straight up emotionally blackmails me, but I am not going to relent. I know Grandpa is going to show up and I know he is going to blast the daylights out of Dad. I trust him. But now, I just cannot wait for it to happen. I need my vengeance, and I need my justice. Update 1, guys, the blow-up happened. and it was much worse, or rather better, than I had expected. I had honestly never thought that it would circle back like this, but hey, I'm not complaining in the slightest.

Grandparents came and called the family together. Dad thought this was just one of those regular meetings where we will have lunch and then be on our merry way. Boy, he was wrong. It started with Grandpa asking Dad what he was planning for Grace. Mom mumbled something, but Dad said that she wanted to enroll. in a college and that they were contemplating what was best for her. Everyone knew that was a lie, but Grandpa was in no mood to play.

He straight up asked Grace what courses and colleges she was looking at, but she had nothing to say. She stared blankly at everyone, and it caused so much embarrassment. L.O.L. Dad was completely red in the face. Then Grandpa turned to me and asked me what my plans were for college. I told him that I had a full scumptu. but I didn't have any help for living costs. He looked at Dad and made a face. Dad pretended

not to see it. That's when Grandma came in. She asked Dad how much he was going to give me, not if he was going to give me money, but only how much. Dad said that we hadn't discussed it yet. That's when I said that actually we had discussed it, and he had completely refused to help me out. Grace kicked me from below the table, but I didn't care. This was coming out. Dad started laughing nervously, saying that it was just silly banter between father and son, and my mother was glaring at me. If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under the ground, being eaten by insects right now.

I retorted that it did not look like banner to me, and I had even been asked to give up all my savings to fund Grace's cosmetic procedures. Grandpa banged his hand on the table and asked Dad if it was true. I think Dad was too stunned to me. and he immediately said yes. The entire room was quiet and grandpa, bless his heart, gave a lingering look to every single person present there. He has a penchant for the dramatics and it worked beautifully. He asked Dad why he was behaving that way, but Dad didn't have an answer. He then turned to mom and asked her how she was okay with this partiality, but she didn't have anything to say either.

He then got up and said that since the parents in this situation were choosing to stay quiet, he had no option but to take things into his own hands. He said that he had set aside a $300,000 inheritance for the three of us, which he had wanted to divide equally among the three of us. But he said that since my parents focusing all of their energies and money on grace, and not on Kelsey or me, he was forced to rethink this division. He said that he would be leaving $30,000 for grace, and the remaining $270,000 would be divided equally among Kelsey and me.

My jaw dropped. $135,000 is a lot of money. It's insane money. I had never wanted this. Like I had never told my grandpa that I wanted him to give me more money, so I don't know why he made this decision. But when he said this, all hell broke loose. Gray started yelling, saying that she never knew that there was so much money that she could use.

and that it was unfair that she was getting peanuts whereas Kelsey and I were getting so much. Grandpa told her that all her life, she had been getting so much, and Kelsey and I were getting peanuts, but she didn't protest then. Dad tried to chime in, saying that this wasn't fair and grandpa was discriminating between his grandchildren. But Grandma promptly said that they weren't discriminating, they were just being fair. It was mom and dad who had started the discrimination, and they were just trying to make things better easier for the two other kids that mom and dad treated like crap. She also said that none of this

would have happened had they been good parents and had they known that this is not how one lives in a family. Dad said that there was no need to punish Grace for a crime that she didn't commit, and that she should have her share. Grandpa got wild. By then, he was still a little civil. But I think the fact that Dad just kept on defending himself and grace and not saying sorry triggered Grandpa to no end. He said that actually, Dad was right, and I could hear Grace breathe a sigh of relief beside me. He said that the real culprits were Mom and Dad, and poor old Grace was not to blame. So he said that the inheritance die for Dad was now also going to go to Kelsey and me. I could see all the colors drain from Dad's face. It was evident that Dad hadn't

thought this through, but too bad for him because Grandpa had. Dad quiet. said that Grandpa couldn't do it, and he just said, watch me. It was a dead-ass Chad move, and honestly, that man has my respect. He said that he had nothing more to say and that he would be taking our leave. He also warned Dad to not hound either Kelsey or me because we were not to blame in any way. He had done what he thought was right, and if Dad tried to manipulate or harass us, Grandpa said that he could go a lot lower. I think Dad is really scared because he hasn't said a single word to us ever since Grandpa left. Kelsey is a kid, and she doesn't understand much of whatever happened, but I know that Dad is petrified that Grandpa is going to follow through.

Mom has been trying to talk to me, but I just avoid her like I've done all my childhood. Now I'm suddenly the hot thing of the family, and everyone is sucking up to me, even Grace. I told her to piss off because she was the last person I wanted to talk to. I am just so glad that Grandpa has cut them off, and now they're finally going to face the consequences of their actions. As for me, that's a lot of money, and I know I'm going to be set for life with that kind of a head start. As of now, I don't have to worry about college, and I don't have to worry about after college either. Update 2, this is just a small update. I have left for college.

Leaving home was bittersweet. Kelsey hugged me and cried, and I cried too. I know it's going to be very difficult for her, and I know that my parents are going to try and manipulate her. I have told her to tell me everything that happens in the house, and she has promised me that she will. I can only hope I can do enough to save her and not let her get brainwashed by the idiots that I have to call my parents. Grandpa said that I can use part of my inheritance for the living costs, and I am very grateful to him. I told him that I will probably take up a job because, for me, it wasn't really about the money. It was more about the lack of acceptance and the neglect that I faced from my parents.

All that rage was just that. He said that he respected my decision and that I was much more of a man than his own son, but he also said that he wanted me to enjoy life because responsibilities and duties will always keep on burdening me. So we reached an agreement that I will try working, and if that strains me or doesn't, doesn't work out for me, I will not hesitate and reach out for that inheritance because it is mine by right. I thanked him, and both of us cried a little. I don't think I will be using the inheritance, and I don't even mind working. It just feels nice to have someone support me, to have someone to bank on, financially and more than that, psychologically. I guess I have missed this feeling my entire life, and it is all very overwhelming for me now. I won't be updating anymore because I have am starting a new phase of my life away from home, and I want to keep the resentment at bay as

much as possible. Hopefully, I will not need to post again. I hope you enjoy this story. Caught my soon-to-be mom giggling with her pals about how she snagged an easygoing future son-in-law and is financially secure. This made her understand she won't be able to depend on others for support. me I 32 am getting married to my fiancé Deborah 31F next month we have been together for two years and I just asked her to marry me last month I'm head over heels for this wonderful woman and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her we come from very different backgrounds I grew up in a working class family and I'm the middle child among my two siblings we always had to work hard

living paycheck to paycheck every month. Deborah, on the other hand, had a much more comfortable upbringing. Her dad was a successful businessman so he could provide her with everything. She was always surrounded by wealthy kids who threw extravagant parties and events. I put in a lot of effort to work my way through college and eventually landed a job at a prestigious company. My parents were truly proud of how I had built my life without ever depending on them to provide me with financial assistance. When Deborah and I met for the first time, it was at a mutual friends party. Although we knew we were worlds apart, we still had an instant connection.

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

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

It was heartwarming to see my family so supportive and accepting of our relationship. As time went on, I did my best to bridge the gap with Maggie, hoping to win her over. I understood that our different backgrounds and expectations might take her some time to reconcile. However, our interactions continued to remain strained, and I could sense her disapprored. lingering in the background. Despite this challenge, Deborah and I focused on building our own world together, filled with love, understanding, and shared dreams. We were committed to nurturing our relationship, even in the midst of these familial disparities. We held on to the hope that, as time went by, Maggie might eventually come to accept and embrace me. Sadly,

a year ago, John passed away from a heart attack suddenly. While he left behind subsisting, substantial wealth, there were also unexpected debts that needed to be settled. Maggie had to make the difficult decision to sell her house and their car to cover these financial obligations when the bank came calling. Since then, she had to move in with us as she had nowhere else to go and has been living with us for the past six months. I didn't really mind having her live with us as I understood that she was going through a difficult time as she had just lost her husband.

I tried my best to make her stay as comfortable as possible, but Maggie always found reasons to complain about around the house. Just for context, Deborah and I have always shared our responsibilities equally since we started living together. Given our careers, we take turns handling tasks like cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry as part of our routine. It's a way for us to balance our busy lives and support each other in every aspect. My parents had taught me to be independent from a very young age so I loved doing my share of the household work. Maggie absolutely despised this and would make her disapprovement obvious. Throughout her stay, she has made subtle comments about how a man doesn't belong in the kitchen or a man shouldn't be doing household work.

Usually, I don't take it to heart and I ignore it as much as possible, but over time, her comments have become progressively more hurtful and insensitive. I have talked to Deborah regarding this and she agrees that her mother's behavior has been very difficult and hostile. Now coming on to the incident, I was recently promoted at work hence I wanted to do something special to celebrate this milestone with our family and friends. We decided to host a grand event, inviting our close ones. My to be mill also extended invitations to some of her rich friends whom she hadn't seen for a while, particularly after her husband's passing. While I'm not one to flaunt things, I entrusted Deborah with the planning, and she went all out with the party preparations. On the day of the celebration, our house looked great.

As the guests started arriving, Maggie seemed to be having a good time, reconnecting with her old friends. My fiancé and I were busy hosting our own friends and relatives. As the party was in full swing, and the guests mingled and enjoyed the festivities, I couldn't help but notice that my to-be-be-mills beheld. had taken a turn for the worse. She had a few too many drinks and her comments started to get more and more inappropriate. She was bragging about how expensive everything around the house was, particularly the decorations and the food, in front of her friends. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and I could see that some of our guests were

taken aback by her behavior. My fiancé and I exchanged worried glances, unsure of how to handle the situation. We attempted to stay cool as we knew Maggie had been drinking a lot since the morning. At one point, we ran out of wine, so I dashed to the nearby liquor store. When I got back home, I found my fiancé outside on the lawn, enjoying her time with our relatives. I served them the drinks and then headed back inside to check on the rest of our guests. That's when I heard my mother-in-law loudly laughing. As she chatted with her friends.

I was about to enter the room when I overheard Maggie mentioning my recent job promotion to her friends and went on to describe how she had been living at our place for several months rent-free, all because I was a naive person. She laughed as she continued to say that she had finally landed a Simp's son-in-law and pointed out that I had been covering her expenses throughout this time while she lived rent-free in my house. Her word stung, and I was taken aback by what she was saying. Her friends were all laughing loudly at my expense. She then went on to say that she was set for the rest of her life now that Deborah was going to marry me in a few months.

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

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

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

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

Maggie's eyes widened as she began to frantically protest knowing that she had nowhere else to go. Deborah remained quiet as she understood how humiliated I had felt because of her mother. I remained resolute in my decision, emphasizing that I could no longer trust my to-be-mill to be living with us. I suggested she could find accommodation with one of her wealthy friends who had joined the party and were evidently relishing and laughing at my expense just minutes ago. Maggie looked around the room, helplessly as her friends avoided I contact and I couldn't help but smirk. I had reached my breaking point and was no longer willing to be used and taken advantage of. In that tense moment, Deborah, who had been taken aback by the unfolding drama, finally spoke up.

She addressed her mother with a mix of disappointment and determination, Mom, you've put us in an incredibly uncomfortable situation with your behavior today. We've always tried to support you, but this kind of treatment towards my fiancé is unacceptable. Maggie, now caught between her daughter's disapproval and her own embarrassing behavior, began to realize the gravity of the situation. She had no easy way out and attempted to apologize, but I wasn't willing to be manipulated any longer. Still seething in anger and disappointment, I walked out of the room.

The party soon ended and my to be mill apparently left to stay at one of her relatives' places. Since the incident, I have been receiving messages from people with a variety of reactions. Most of the guests seem to support my decision to stand up for myself, but there are some family members from my fiancé's side who are telling Deborah that what I did was wrong and that I should not have humiliated her mother like that. My parents, who were present at the party, supported me 100% and had my back. The situation has caused a divide between our families and the mixed opinions are adding to the tension.

So I wanted to post here so I could get an unbiased opinion. Am I the A-hole for confronting my to-be-mill in front of everyone after I caught her making fun of me and letting her know that she won't be able to leach off me? Update 1. Thanks to everyone for your feedback on my last post. Many folks have suggested that this incident should serve as an eye-opener to the kind of family I would be marrying into. I have received suggestions that I should get a pre-nup with my fiancé before we get married, which I honestly never really thought about before.

But after the recent incident, I'm seriously considering it. That day after the party ended, my wife and I had a lengthy conversation to discuss everything. While my wife is completely on my side, it's hard to deny that my trust has been shaken. It's not her fault, but I'm worried about her family and how easily they could manipulate me in the future. Many comments have pointed out that my mother-in-law's subtle mean comments for all these months were a form of emotional abuse, I'm starting to see it that way too. I do not wish to have her in my life anymore. Two days after Maggie left, she called my wife, who chose not to answer. So, she sent me an angry text that read, Adam, are you happy now that you've separated me from my daughter? I've already

lost my husband, and now I'm losing my daughter because of you. Yes, I used you, but isn't that what a son-in-law should do, pay for his to be mother-in-law's expenses? You could have bought me a new place when I lost my house, but instead, you forced me to live with you. You have more than enough to take care of my daughter so it wouldn't hurt you to take care of me too. Her message left me seething with anger, and it was evident she felt no remorse for her derogatory remarks in front of her friends. I shared the message with Deborah, who promptly assured me she would address the situation

and advised me to block her mother's number. It remains to be seen what happens next, but I feel emotionally exhausted dealing with this ongoing drama. Her mother's persistent unkindness towards me for no apparent reason, coupled with her unwarranted financial expectations, is really taking a toll on me. Update 2. Okay, everyone hears the update you all have been waiting for. In the days that followed, Deborah continued to handle her mother's attempts at contact. She firmly explained to her mother that the situation had become untenable and that she had crossed a line. Deborah offered to help her mother find suitable accommodations but emphasized that the living arrangement with us had reached its limit. Maggie's responses ranged from anger to pleading.

She continued to accuse me of tearing her family apart and causing her more pain during an already difficult time. I had blocked her so fortunately, she had no way to reach out to me. As our wedding was fast approaching, I shared my thoughts and fears with Deborah and she took it surprisingly well. My fiancé agreed that I wasn't wrong to have those fears in my head and told me that she was ready to sign a pre-nup so I wouldn't feel this restless and uncomfortable. I was taken aback by how understanding she was, and I couldn't help but feel guilty for having any negative thoughts about her, all because of her mother's actions. After that conversation, I felt much better about our relationship. We were starting to regain a sense of normalcy, when Maggie unexpectedly showed up at our doorstep a few days later without any warning.

I was alone at home when I heard the doorbell ring. She had come to confront me and her accusations and anger poured out when I welcomed her inside to sit. Maggie claimed that I had ruined her relationship with her daughter forever, laying the blame squarely on my shoulders. Her words were filled with frustration and resentment. You think you can just control everything, don't you? She exclaimed,

You've taken my daughter away from me, and now you're trying to push me out of her life. This is my family too, and you can't just dictate what happens here. As the argument escalated, her accusations became more personal and cutting. She accused me of isolating her from Deborah and said that she deserved to be living with her daughter. I took a deep breath, trying to remain composed in the face of her accusations, and responded, Maggie, this isn't about pushing you away. It's about preserving the peace and well-being of our family. Your actions and words have made it challenging to maintain a healthy environment here.

I'm not trying to isolate you, I'm trying to set boundaries, I continued. Deborah and I deserve to have a loving, supportive, and peaceful home. It's not about control, it's about ensuring that our relationship is respected and protected. At that point, thankfully, my wife returned from the grocery store and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she could handle her mother better. She was visibly shocked to find her mother standing inside our house. Hurrying to my side, she asked if I was okay, concern evident in her eyes. I nodded morbidly, relieved to have her presence beside me. Maggie, now directing her attention toward her daughter, accused me of trying to be controlling

of her life. She said that she won't let me kick her out of the house and she planned to live here if my daughter was going to be here. She accused me of trying to divide the family apart since her husband had passed away. Deborah seemed pissed as she explained to her mother that after what she had spoken about me, she couldn't just expect me to forget about it. She reminded Maggie that she never even apologized to me for the harsh words she had spoken in front of the guests at a party that I had thrown on my house. Deborah reiterated to her mother that she was not entitled to live in my house just because Deborah was going to marry me. Maggie was displeased seeing her daughter support me, and it only seemed to escalate her anger. The room was charged

with emotions and I didn't want this to escalate further, so I asked Maggie to leave immediately otherwise I would call the police. Maggie's expression displayed a mixture of frustration and resignation, as she clearly wanted to argue about this further, but, thankfully, she decided to leave. After this incident, I am planning to take some space from Deborah and her family. I love her a lot, but I don't want to be stuck in a toxic environment like this forever. I guess I need to take some time to rethink our future. Update 3. It's been four months since my last last.

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

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

together and planning for our future. We are excited about the possibilities that lay ahead, and we know that our love will guide us through any challenges we might face. Update 4. Married Life has been going great so far. Deborah and I have been relishing every moment of our life together as a married couple. We found joy in the little things, from lazy Sunday mornings with breakfast in bed to sitting at home and reading books together. Our love has continued to grow, and we've become even more in sync with each other. We have embraced the various responsibilities that come with marriage rather smoothly. Recently, I have taken a significant step in my journey toward personal growth and family healing,

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

We decided to invite Maggie to our home for dinner so we could all talk properly. Maggie had been staying at various relatives' places since the incident, and when Deborah first reached out with the dinner invitation, it took her by surprise. She seemed hesitant, but also intrigued by the opportunity to reconnect with her daughter. She arrived at our home and we cautiously began with small talk to catch up on each other's lives. Deborah was the first to break the ice, expressing her desire to see a healthier relationship between me and Maggie. She shared how much she loved both of us and wanted to see us get along. Hearing this, Maggie slowly admitted that her actions had been fueled by a sense of loss and uncertainty after her husband's passing.

and that she had let those emotions cloud her judgment. She apologized to me for the way she had behaved and expressed that she didn't understand at first how much she had hurt me. I could see that she seemed genuinely sorry about the incident. The conversation continued, delving into the hurt feelings on both sides, the misunderstandings that had occurred, and the steps that could be taken to mend the rift. It was an emotional and honest discussion, marked by tears and heartfelt apologies. Deborah played a crucial role in facilitating the conversation, acting as a bridge between me and her mother.

By the end of the evening, amidst a wonderful dinner, there was a sense of relief and optimism in the room. While the wounds of the past hadn't completely healed, the foundation for reconciliation had been laid. It was a promising start on the journey toward rebuilding the bonds that had been strained for so long. Since the evening, we have continued to meet Maggie during other family events, and there is no longer any awkwardness. Our relationship has gradually improved. Although I will never feel comfortable enough for her to live with us again, I remain patient and understanding, knowing that healing will take time. Partner has an overly sensitive female acquaintance who behaves affectionately solely in his presence, and when I attempted to address the issue, he became upset.

subsequently, I uncovered the reality about what he was hiding. My boyfriend Justin, 26M, and I, 23F, have been a couple for just over seven months but started dating a couple months before that. So in all I've known him less than a year and I'm already head over heels for him and feel like I've known him forever. I know it's still our honeymoon phase, but I've genuinely never felt this strongly about another guy before, and have definitely never thought as long term as I'm thinking with him. Justin is confident, charismatic, passionate and driven, intelligent and emotionally mature,

values his family, is especially kind to children and elderly people, and just has a presence that lights up the room. It also doesn't hurt that he's 6 feet 1 inch, handsome, has a yummy body, and is an amazing lover anyway, L.O.L., the only real problem in our relationship, from my point of view, is his friendship with Olivia 24F, who is as known since her first year of university. 6 years. BF. is smart with women, used to attention, and doesn't cross boundaries with them. The only time he comes close is with Olivia, and even then, it's mostly her initiating things, but the way she behaves around him is honestly the number one source of conflict in our relationship.

I am quite friendly with Justin's circle of friends now and I hang out with them at least once per week, so things can be pretty uncomfortable for me. Things that make me uncomfortable, She is exactly my BF's type, not really her fault I know. I have seen a few girls that my BF has been with from his social media, and they all look more or less like Olivia. She's 170 centimeters, 5 feet 8 inches, athletically built, has cat eyes and a pouty mouth, and just gives off a sexy aura. I'm 162 centimeters, 5 feet 3 inches, in shape, and have a decent face but one,

it bothers me that I'm nothing close to Justin's type and two, that Olivia is his type. Olivia has always been nice enough to me, but when I first met her she gave me an eyebrows raised. Let's see how long you last kind of look. I admit that I could be overthinking this one. She's always finding excuses to touch Justin. An example is brushing food off of his clothes slash face, hello, that's my job, or fixing his shirt collar. She also likes to give him back hugs. Once, she hugged him from behind and I overheard her saying how come you never give me back hugs anymore. The way she said it was low and whispery and rubbed me the wrong way. I'm 99% sure an objective passerby could have interpreted her tone as seductive. When I brought it up to Justin,

all he said was yeah, that was weird, I guess. She has this cute act that she does for Justin when he doesn't want to do something for her. Sometimes, this is probably weird in itself, she'll ask him to by her something, like an ice cream, and when he says no, she'll stand in front of him and pout and make dear eyes. Or sometimes she just grabs him and pushes him towards whatever she wants, points to it, and as the cutesy act, she greets him by saying, hey, you. And winking and pretend shooting him, Justin only listens to Olivia. He's a pretty stubborn guy and doesn't really follow others, unless it's Olivia. One of the things that bothers me the most in this regard as an incident that happened in a club. Justin and I were drinking with his friends,

when another group of people got in an argument with some of Justin's guy friends. Justin tried to defuse the situation at first, but the other's guys were extremely disrespectful and he was on the verge of fighting three guys at once. I kept telling him to leave them alone, but he just wouldn't back down, even after the bartender threatened to call the police. Then Olivia walks over to him, pulls him by the arm and yells at him stop. You're acting stupid. She dragged him to the bar and they were talking there alone for 15 minutes. I know I probably should have went and checked on him but I was pretty shocked slash angry

considering what just happened. One of Justin's friends noticed me watching and told me, don't feel bad. It's always been this way with them which obviously made me feel worse. Yesterday we went to dinner with his friends. The day was pretty warm, so Justin was only wearing a t-shirt, but by the time we finished it was windy and quite a bit colder. We decided to take a walk along the river walk, and Olivia suddenly wrapped her cardigan around my BF's shoulders. He started joking around and posing like a model before giving it back, but I kind of wish he would have just given it back to her right

away. There are a lot of these kinds of instances where Olivia will do small, caring things for him. Things that a G.F. does, my woman's intuition just tells me that Olivia wants more from Justin than he's giving her. She's sarcastic and rude to him half the time because that's their dynamic slash her personality. However, when he's not paying attention to her, I sometimes catch her stealing glances at him. Sometimes she looks smitten, sometimes she looks straight-up lustful, and sometimes she looks sad. I think it's obvious she has feelings for him, but when I brought it up with my BF, he told me they were just close.

There is much more to add, but I'm just going to end with this. I understand that some people are natural flirts, but Olivia doesn't act like this to any other guys in their group. Her personality is pretty strong. She's sarcastic and relentlessly teases them, but no touching, no cuties why act, none of the small, thoughtful stuff, and definitely none of the misty odd gazes. Some of the guys even jokingly complain that they're jealous that she only acts like a girl to Justin.

Yesterday, after the cardigan thing, when Justin dropped me off, I asked him to talk because I've been growing more insecure about his friendship with Olivia. We talked in my apartment for around one hour about it and didn't really make any progress. Basically, he agreed not to meet Olivia alone, but said that she was important to him, told me some things they helped each other get through in university, and that he wanted her in his life. I tried to initiate sex with him after that, but he said he was tired and left. I cried after that and called my older sister and talked about the situation. She told me that since Justin hasn't done anything to break my trust, that I should continue

trusting him and that there's a reason he's with me and not Olivia. She also said that if he crosses the line, I need to be strong enough to leave him. I also called my best friend this morning. She, on the other hand, is convinced that Justin and Olivia were or are more than just close. She thinks I need to give him an ultimatum, choose the friendship or the relationship. Basically, I'm at a loss for what to do now. I love Justin and really think we have a future together, but this friendship with Olivia is driving me crazy. Is this just jealousy slash my insecurities or do I really need to give my BF an ultimatum?

I really, really like him but I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable in this relationship as long as Olivia is a part of his life. Edit, thank you all for your replies. I tried to respond to as many as possible. In reading your comments, my own post and some self-reflecting I realize that a lot of the issue has to do with my insecurities slash fears about what could be happening or what may happen in the future. I don't know why it's been so hard for me to stop rationalizing these fears and accept that

they aren't indicative of what actually is happening. That being said, though I realize that a lot of the points of discomfort I've felt are purely a result of my gut feelings, there are still several things that Olivia does with my BF that are personally not okay with me. I understand that it was wrong of me to even entertain the thought of asking Justin to distance himself from her. But at the same time, if they really are that close and nothing farther than platonic feelings are being shared, I think that one, my BF shouldn't have a problem establishing within reason boundaries with a female friend whose behavior makes his GF uncomfortable, and that too, that female friend should understand and respect those wishes. I understand that some of the things that bother me, like her cute act or

some of her other affectionate gestures, might just be part of her personality towards him and that I'll probably just have to suck it up and deal with it. But for me, it's within reason for him to ask that she cut out the intimate physical stuff like the back hugs, grabbing his arm incessantly, brushing his hair slash face, clothes, etc. Justin and I haven't talked much today, but I'm meeting him later tonight and I will tell him exactly what I've written above. I'm not going to ask him to stop being friends with her, and I'm not going to ask her to distance himself from her. I'm also going to ask him to clarify some things for me, like the extent of their physical relationship slash if there's any romantic history between them that I'm not aware

of. Some people might have a problem with this, but I think that given the nature of the nature of the of their relationship slash the fact that they see each other so often, he should be transparent about it. I think this conversation will help me decide whether a compromise can be made and I can learn to deal with their friendship healthily, or if I will have to do the hard thing and walk away, which I really, really don't want to do. Update, I met just in the night after I added the edit to the original post, with the intentions of telling him that I was wrong for wanting him to distance himself from Olivia, but that I wanted one, for him to ask that she toned down the physical intimacy and two, that he disclosed the extent of their relationship in the past.

I.e. how far their physical relationship has gone, if either of them has confessed romantic feelings, which was something I previously wondered about but always avoided asking him. That talk didn't go as planned at all. I thought he was going to be understanding of me and honest about his feelings, but he stonewalled me and was super rude and an all-around asshole to me. As soon as I brought up Olivia, he laughed and shook his head and asked me if I was really going to do this shit again. I tried my best not to get emotional and just explain my point of view, the whole time he was leaning his head against the wall, didn't make eye contact, and was playing with his earrings. So when I asked if he understood my feelings and was okay with what I was asking of him,

he smiled sarcastically and said, of course, honey with a fake tone. He was extremely angry when I asked if they have hooked up before, his exact words where you haven't even been my GF for a year, if you think you're entitled to know every little detail from my past, fuck yourself. He walked out after saying that, and I cried. He'd never talked to me like that or expressed anger towards me before. I was shocked, hurt and angry. Obviously he was hiding something. I didn't know if something had happened between them or he had feelings for her or what, but I wanted to talk with him again, so I messaged him telling him I wasn't trying to make him mad. But that I felt like we needed to talk again. He didn't reply to my messages that night,

and the next morning he still hadn't replied. I never thought I would do this, but I sent Olivia a message asking to meet for a coffee. Surprisingly, she answered almost immediately and agreed to meet in the afternoon. When we met I told her about my feelings about their relationship, how Justin had reacted the other night, and straight up asked her if there was any romantic feelings between them.

She admitted that she has feelings for Justin, but that it was complicated. She said she loves him and hates him at the same time. She told me that I should leave him, that she wasn't just saying that because she wants to be with him instead of me, but that it was because Justin has always been a player, has been charming and leaving girls for years, that she's waited for him to change, that she knew she could never be truly happy staying by his side as a friend. That she should leave him too but couldn't. I thought she might try to BS me but she seemed very sincere when saying these things. I asked her what the extent of their relationship was like in the past, and she told me that. basically, she was attracted to Justin at first sight when they first met in university, but that Justin had a long-distance GF at the time. Justin broke up with his LDGF. They got closer, Justin had some problems, she wouldn't tell me what they were, that he counseled to her about, this led to them kissing one night and having sex. That was her first time. She confessed feelings to

Justin but he said he didn't want their friendship to be affected if the relationship didn't work out. They were on and off FWBs throughout college. Justin had a handful of short-lived relationships during that time and he cheated on one of his GFs with Olivia. She claimed at this point that they haven't had sex since he's been in a relationship with me, I'd quote to believe. When they graduated, their friend group rented a vacation pension on an island. One night their friend Ashley walks in on them in the bathroom. Justin told Ashley that it was a drunk mistake, Olivia was extremely hurt and refused to

to see or speak to Justin for weeks. After being ignored, Justin apologizes to her, tells her he has feelings for her, and they go on a few secret dates but Justin never commits to a relationship and then backtracks and says he's confused about his feelings not ready for anything serious. From that point on, they went back to being FWBs until Justin met me. I'm a little confused and skeptical as to why she's told me all this, so I ask if she has any proof. She searches chat logs and shows me multiple messages of him booty calling her. She starts getting emotional and tells me that Justin has amazing qualities, but that he has

some deep personal issues that he refuses to work on that prevent him from being a good partner right now. I asked her what she meant, but she wouldn't tell me. I could tell that she cares about him a lot. She's been single this whole time. There were likely many opportunities for her to end up in a happy relationship, but she turned a blind eye to them all for Justin, who can't even admit that he has feelings for her. Even though I didn't like some of the things she did before, I actually sympathize with her a lot. It sounds like Justin put her through a ton of shit, given her false hope and taken it away, and she's always stayed by him for whatever reason. After, she tells me not to worry about throwing her under the bus because she was going to tell Justin herself that she told me

about them. She said she wanted him to be mad at her. Later that night Justin called me trying to explain himself to me, but I broke up with him. I was crying on the phone. I really didn't want to break up, but I knew it was the right thing for me to do. Regardless of what was true or false about his past, it was just too much drama for me handle and the way he reacted to me when I had originally wanted to talk to him scared me. He didn't try to fight me or ask me to say, we just kind of sat in silence on the phone for a while before hung up. It's been about two weeks since then. I know that Justin was probably a bad boy and

it was only a matter of time before he broke my heart but I feel devastated. I'm just starting to be able to get back into my normal routines, but even then sometimes it's just so hard to get out of bed. I think about Justin every day. It's like the more I'm away from him, the more I think about the good things we had together. I miss his smell, his laugh, his touch, just being able to be with him whenever I want. Part of me hoped he would reach out to me, but he hasn't. I met Olivia last week and she told me that Justin wasn't talking to her anymore, and that it was probably a good time for her to move on from him. My ass. Last night I saw Olivia uploaded a couple Y picture of her and Justin on Instagram. They were in a nightclub or some dark place. He had his arm wrapped around her

with a drink in that hand and she was sipping from the straw. I know it was a mistake not to block slash unfollow Justin and his friends. After I saw that I blocked and unfollow them all. That was kind of what inspired me to post an update. I don't know if Olivia played me or if Justin is working his magic on her again, but I just feel shitty all around. It hurts no, but I know these people would have been toxic for me if I had stayed with him. It just hurts so much more than I'd imagined. Next story, boyfriend claims his chronic pain stops him from doing chores and going out with me but he can still go kayaking with friends and have fun time whenever he wants. I, 26F, have been with my boyfriend, 30M, for a little under two years. In the time we've been

together his chronic pain, which isn't connected to any particular slash known condition as he refuses to go to the doctor, has gotten worse and worse. It's reached a point where he's almost incapable of doing chores or house projects, is usually too exhausted slash in pain to make or agree to plans and getting him to do anything outside of the house together is like pulling teeth. His objections always revolve around his pain and fatigue. I've never suffered from chronic pain, and thank God, so I'm not one to judge or accuse someone of making it up since the pain itself is invisible and my boyfriend looks perfectly healthy.

But he's now been unemployed for about four months and I'm starting to question things. I'm starting to feel doubtful for a number of reasons, and the main ones are that A, he never turns down his friend's invitations to hang out, even when the activity is something physically intense like kayaking or going hiking or going to a music festival and B, he is never too tired slash in too much pain to have sex. Over time it's almost made it seem like he's conveniently in an unbearable amount of pain when he has to do something he isn't all that interested in, i.e. chores, and I'm starting to feel hurt that he just doesn't seem to want to hang out with me outside of

what we do lazing around the house. I've never accused him of faking or exaggerating his pain, but I have tried to talk to him about doing more fun stuff together, and it always circles back to his pain or him accusing me of trying to keep him from spending time with his friends, which I'm not trying to do by any means. I've done a ton of research into autoimmune disorders and other conditions that could be causing his problem, always bringing my findings and suggestions to him, but he just doesn't believe a doctor or any traditional medicine will help him. I'm also bothered because when we go to family outings or parties that we're both invited to, it's rare, but it does happen. He will talk anyone who will listen Zeyer off about how bad

his chronic pain is and how frustrating it is to not be able to find a solution. The thing is, he's not actually looking for a solution. He just smokes weed every day and calls the good enough while lamenting and complaining that his body is the way that it is. He also refuses to return to work because of his pain. For additional context, he seems to have really extreme muscle spasms slash tightness, particularly in his back. I'm happy to support him through hard times, but the fact that he won't work is getting concerning and I feel severely stuck. I'm not interested in supporting him financially on a long-standing basis, but at the moment I partially am by covering some of his expenses. If this post makes me a total asshole for questioning the degree of my boyfriend's chronic pain, so be it.

I just need help and answers. So, here are my questions. Where do I go from here? Do you think it's possible that my boyfriend is using his pain as a crutch? Should I put some kind of ultimatum in place that will get him medical care slash attention? Your advice is appreciated. Update, March 21st, 2025. Thank you to everyone who responded to my post and was so compassionate and kind. It was incredible to hear from so many people who acted.

battle chronic pain slash illness and those with loved ones who do. I hope to continue deepening my empathy towards anyone who is struggling with an invisible illness. On to my update. Armed with some fresh perspectives and some fresh frustrations, I talked to my boyfriend and told him that he needs to see a doctor or I will no longer be able to support him financially and stand by while he remains unemployed and unmotivated to get the help he needs. I also addressed the idea of managing slash balancing his energy levels differently so that we're able to share household responsibilities more effectively, spend quality time together, and keep him doing the things he loves with his friends. His response was, really bad. He told me that if I'm not willing to step up and clean around

the house, something I'm already doing, that there's no use living together and that my efforts to clean are the bare minimum and not good enough for his standards anyway. He was also really mad that I haven't taken initiative to take care of yard projects and car repairs. He sat there and spouted off a whole list of things I'm not noticing and cleaning. And, once again, he was focused on this idea that I don't like his friends slash him jealous of them and want him spending less time with them, which isn't true at all. This really stung. He basically brushed over everything I said and focused on my perceived faults. This told me everything I need to know and I told him I was leaving. He was just mad, not sad or hurt at all.

I'm still crying excessively over his whole reaction. I still don't know how real or unreal his chronic pain is, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore. Thank you again, everyone, for your support and kindness. I'm truly at a loss. I hope you enjoy this story. Mother evicted me due to her fresh household. Subsequently, upon discovering my personal, prosperity, she appeared requesting funds for higher education for my brothers and sisters.

Upon my denial, she struck me. So for context, my mother had me when she was 20 and my biological father was never in the picture for me. My mom told me that he had never wanted to have kids with her and since they were just together for a couple of months at the time. When she got pregnant, she had given him the choice to leave, and he had taken her up on that offer. She told me that her break up with him had been quite bitter, so she had decided not to take any child support from him and he hadn't been willing to offer any either. So it was convenient for both of them to just never speak again. Thankfully, my grandparents were very supportive and were always there for her, that's how she was able to complete her education and then get a job. She dated a couple of men when I

was younger and then, when I was around eight years old, she finally started dating Harry. She used to work with him at some point, and they dated for almost three years before she got married to him. Harry and I got along well enough, it was not like he and I were super attached to each other, but he didn't hate me and we were just cool with each other's presence in the house. For years after they got married, my mom got pregnant and everyone was really happy about it, including me. In hindsight, I probably should have seen what was going to happen in the future, but I was too caught up in the belief that no matter what, my mom would always be there for me. After all, she had been through a lot of hardships while she was raising me, so she was obviously

not going to let it all go to waste and abandon me. So even though we had started growing apart and she had made it very obvious that she was distancing herself for me after she got married to Harry, I thought that it was probably just a temporary phase and things would get better again. So I tried my best to be there for her while she was pregnant, but she was. She would always get very irritable whenever I was around, so I decided to make myself scarce just so it wouldn't bother her. But I guess I hadn't made myself invisible enough because six months after she gave birth

to her twins, she and Harry told me that they wanted to have a serious chat with me. And they told me that now that they had two kids to deal with, they couldn't have me in the house as well. I think I had just turned 16 at the time, so I was still a minor and they couldn't legally kick me out without getting into trouble, so they tried to be. to gently nudge me by telling me how hard it was becoming for them to support our whole big family on their limited income. I honestly don't think that two adults, one teenager, and two babies were impossible to support

on the income of two web developers and had been able to provide quite a comfortable lifestyle for us so far. It was obvious to me that they were bluffing, and they just wanted me out of the house, but even then, I tried to make suggestions that would prevent that from happening because I really didn't want to move away. I tried to tell them that I would take up a job if money was the problem, but my mother told me that more than anything else, she wanted to save money and other resources for the kids who actually deserved it more at the time, referring to the twins. She didn't say that they needed this more, she said that they deserved to stay with them more than I did, and that was all that I needed to hear to help me make up my mind that I needed to get out of there because I was clearly not wanted. They hadn't even told me where I should be going after I left, all they had done was nudge me

in the right direction because they wanted me to go and they knew that I had enough pride to realize that I was not wanted, so their plan worked. Technically, it wasn't even kicking me out in the real sense of the word since they hadn't forced me, but honestly, I would count it as the same thing because they had pushed me into a corner where I had my back against the wall and I felt like I simply had no other option. After I left that day, I headed straight to my grandparents' place and they were quite unhappy about what my mother had done but did not cut her off because they still wanted to be there for the twins.

My grandparents were getting old, so it was obviously not an option for me to rely on them financially, and I had to get a part-time job at 16. I would see my mom and Harry occasionally when they would visit my grandparents with the kids, but they rarely ever asked about me, and even when they saw me around, they were mostly very formal with me. It didn't feel like they missed me at all, and they actually seemed quite happier without me living with them. Even my mother seemed way less irritable than she used to be, and it broke my heart, but I couldn't do anything about it. I stayed with my grandparents until it was time for me to start college, and even then, my mom had nothing to do with me and I had to

rely on a couple of friends to help me settle in my dorm since my grandparents were obviously not young or fit enough to be doing that. I had to take out a student. I had to take out a student, and I had to take out a student loan and even for that, I had to ask one of my relatives to be the cosigner because my mom and Harry had declined for the same reason that they had kicked me out, that they wanted to save their resources and their money for the future of their kids, since they had the twins pretty late in their lives. I was lucky that one of my uncles had come to my rescue and agreed to be the co-signer, as long as I promised him that he would never have to actually pay any money. So I worked throughout college alongside completing my education in order to make sure that I

did not end up defaulting on any payments after I graduated and would have a head start regarding money. After I started college, I pretty much had no contact with my mother anymore, and even at my graduation, it was just my grandparents who attended. My mom did not even bother to congratulate me then. After I graduated from college, I started working and living separately because I did not want to be a burden on my aging grandparents anymore. It was very difficult for the first couple of years because I did not really earn a lot of money, but I had to cover rent, groceries, and utilities, and even start reducing my debt on my income, while still making sure that I saved for the future. I think that was what I would actually refer to as limited income, but, thankfully, that's not

the case anymore. I worked my way up in the company and it was not easy, it took me a really long time, but I'm in a relatively comfortable position right now. I won't bore you guys with the details, but I'm pretty proud of how far I've come, especially considering the fact that I hardly had any help from anyone. I make a comfortable living and quite unexpectedly somehow, in spite of not being in touch with me for the past many years, my mom was able to find out about it. So I'm almost 33 now and I'm working in an upper management position in the same company that I started out in. I received this huge honor of getting promoted about four months back and very few people knew about it because I wanted to keep this private.

One of the people that I did tell about this was my uncle because I wanted to thank him for becoming a co-signer on my loan application back when I was struggling to find a way to cover my college expenses. And from what I know, he recently met my mom and Harry at some family get together and told her to get in touch with me so she could finally congratulate me after so many years of keeping me away from her because I was finally doing well in life. I'm sure that he had his heart in the right place but it kind of backfired because she definitely did not reach out to me to continue. congratulate me in any sense of the word. Anyway, the bottom line is that my mom found out, and she recently showed up at my house with Harry, demanding to speak with me. I've already mentioned that after I started college, I did not have any contact with her. And once I graduated, I decided that there was no point in hoping that someday, my mom might come back to her senses and try to make things right with me, so I blocked her everywhere as well and completely cut her

out of my life. She did not seem any worse off at either, honestly, I don't even think she noticed. I hardly kept in touch with anybody from my family apart from my grandparents, who already knew that I did not like talking about my mom, so they refrained from speaking to me about her. As for my uncle, I did not exactly keep in touch with him either. So I really had no idea that for the past couple of years, my mom and Harry had been doing really badly financially. I only found out about it recently, when they showed up at my house and started telling me about how difficult everything has been for them. The only reason I had even let them in was because I had assumed that they were here to finally make things right with me but I guess it was just wishful thinking.

But instead of congratulating me on how well I was doing, they started off by talking about how they had heard from my uncle that I had received this huge promotion, and I was one of the youngest people in such a position in my company right now and they were surprised that I hadn't told them anything about it. It was funny because I was surprised that they had expected me to even talk to them after so many years of no contact, let alone expect me to tell them good news about my life and my career. They even told me that they were quite disappointed that I had cut them out of my life just because they had decided that they wanted to be there for their babies more than me, since they needed their time, money, and resources more than I would have.

As a teenager, they said that they had expected me to be mature about the whole thing and understand why their priorities had changed, but instead, I had started distancing myself from them after I moved in with my grandparents instead of being supportive of their decisions. I don't even know why they would expect me to be supportive of their decision to kick me out of the house, but well, that's how they started off our meeting after so many years, by trying to gaslight me into believing that I was somehow the bad guy for getting upset that they had kicked me out of the house so they could be alone with their babies. Then, they did not even give me a chance to talk about my side of things and quickly moved on to talk about how difficult the last couple of years had been for them. They started talking about how they had started their own business, but unfortunately, they had fallen flat on their faces since it had failed to take off, and now, they were trying to cover up their losses, but unfortunately, since the twins were also at an age where they needed to start thinking about colleges and stuff. They needed money to cover the expenses of two kids, and they needed it ASAP. That's when I finally started to realize why exactly they had come to me because they needed the money. They wasted no time in getting to the point and even tried to sugarcoat it by saying that initially, they had been quite offended when they found out that I had been doing so well and hadn't reached out to them yet, but I could make it up to them by funding my siblings' education.

I simply could not believe the audacity of trying to make it sound like they were doing me a favor by letting me make it up to them by covering the college expenses of two kids who I didn't even know anymore since I had left them behind, in my past. So I immediately told them that I was not going to be doing any of that and it was downright offensive that they thought they could manipulate their way into something like this. I lost my temper with them and I reminded them that they were the reason that I had to pay for college and work throughout my years in college because they refused to help me out financially simply because they wanted to save for the future of their kids, since they deserved it more than I did, according to their opinion back then. and I had never questioned it, nor had I ever bothered them after they made it clear that they wanted to prioritize their twins and not me. But now, since they had chosen who they wanted to prioritize and even kicked me out and refused to stay in touch with me for so many years, they had no right to expect anything from me, let alone financial support.

They didn't even have the right to expect me to speak to them anymore. I told them that since they had wanted to save their money and resources for the kids that actually deserved it, they could now use that very same money that they had saved by kicking me out to fund their college expenses instead of trying to emotionally manipulate me. Then, I requested them to leave because I was done with this interaction and had nothing left to say to them anymore. It had been pretty stupid of me to allow them to enter my house in the first place, believing that maybe they had finally come to their senses and shown up to apologize to me for how they had treated me for so long. When I started getting at them

and telling them to leave, they started getting offended as well and told me that it wasn't like I was all innocent in this situation. Their defense was that back when we had all been living together, I had always been very overenthusiastic and over-involved in their lives and used to get quite annoying. I don't even understand how that's a real problem that they had with me. I was literally a teenager and I was only trying to stay connected with my family when they were drifting away from me. And then, they started telling me that by rejecting their request right now, I was no better than them because I was forgetting all those years that my mother had supported me and raised me on her own. This was my opportunity to make it up to her and help her out,

but here I was, acting all ungrateful and disrespecting everything that they had done for me in the past. I thought that it was insanely dumb for them to bring that up since back then, I was literally a child, there was no way that I could have chosen not to rely on them. Even if I had wanted to be less of a burden on them, I still would have had to rely on them financially and it wasn't like they were doing me a favor. As soon as they thought that I was old enough to handle stuff on my own, they nudged me into leaving home and essentially just kicked me out and then refused to even acknowledge my existence for almost the next 18 years.

Even after all of that, I couldn't understand how they had the audacity to demand that I helped them out for everything that they had done for me in the past. Things got pretty nasty and personal in the argument after that and I started threatening to call the cops if they did not immediately get off my property. So after a while, they did leave, but my mother kept telling me that she had made a lot of sacrifices when she was younger just because she wanted to be a good mother to me, and only once in her life, had she ever expected me to understand her situation and allow her to prioritize other people rather than just me. and she believed that I should have been more understanding instead of shutting her out for so many years and now, apparently, I was the one trying to paint her as the bad guy and not the other way around. It's been messing with my head ever since and I don't understand if I'm actually the one at fault and ended up expecting way too much from my mother or if she is just gaslighting me.

I'm mostly sure that I'm right, but just to be completely sure, I have decided to post on Reddit to ask you guys for objective opinions. I'd offer refusing to cover the expenses for my half-siblings to go to college because my estranged mother and stepdad are not doing well financially at the moment. Edit, I have spoken to my uncle and I have told him that what he did was not right or acceptable. Even if his intentions were not bad, the impact of what he did was definitely not good. If he had not told my mother about what I was up to in life and given out my contact info and address without my permission, I wouldn't be in this situation at all. He apologized to me profusely

and told me that he had no idea that my mother would end up doing something like this because even he had no clue that they were struggling financially. Had he known that, he wouldn't have told them anything about my life. And even otherwise, he acknowledged the fact that it was not his place to talk to my mom about these things, and if we had wanted to sort things out on our own, we would have done so without his interference. I do not plan on cutting him out of my life because, after all, it's not like he had his heart in the wrong place. Had that been the case, I would have been a lot more upset with him, but honestly, he just made a mistake. Moreover, he is the reason why I've been able to go to college in the first place because nobody else had been ready to step up and help me out by taking on the responsibility of becoming a co-signer on my loan application, except for him.

If you think about it, had it not been for him, I might not have been in this position at all and I don't want to be ungrateful to him. But I'm also not a doormat, so I made sure that I told him that what he had done was not right. I think I struck the right balance and whatever I did, it was fair enough. Things between us are completely fine, I'm not going to hold this against him because I think in some way, I kind of needed disclosure. I have also spoken to my grandparents about what's going on with my mom right now and they think that I am in the right and have told me that they're going to try and get her and Harry to get off my back. They have always been in touch with my mom because they didn't want to lose contact with their other grandkids, and that's quite understandable.

While they can sympathize with what their family is going through, they don't think that what they're putting me through is right or justified. So that's their stance on this and I think it's fair enough. Update 1 so it's been almost nine days since I last spoke to my mom and since then, she has taken it upon herself to constantly remind me everything that she had done for me right from when I was a baby and email it to me every other day, probably to make me feel like I was indebted to her or something. I don't really understand what the point of any of that was because she was legally supposed to do everything that she did for me.

It's not like she did me a favor by raising me on her own. And it's not like she did it for as long as she was supposed to. to. She did it for as long as it was convenient for her. As soon as I started becoming an inconvenience, she and her husband decided to kick me out under the pretext of saving money and resources for their future and the twins. Well, we are in the future right now, and the twins are grown up, so I think they should rely on themselves and not waste their time trying to guilt trip and manipulate me. I had been ignoring the emails, but a couple of days back, I decided to right back to her, and I told her all of this, whatever I have said in this post so far.

Obviously, she did not take it well and started calling me ungrateful once again. And I just told her that she could call me whatever she wanted, it wasn't going to change the facts. And the fact that she was a terrible mother and that was the reason why I wanted nothing to do with her anymore. After that, I blocked the email address that she had been sending me emails from, but she just created another one and started trying to bother me again. So I did the same with that one as well and I'm going to keep doing it until she realizes that I'm not going to sit here and think about her when she never did the same for me. Honestly speaking, I'm really glad that we are having it out right now because I'm sure that it will all be over soon and I'll have the closure that I need. The only reason I had invited them inside my house and spoken to them that day was because I was still under the delusion that maybe they had changed.

that maybe they were here to congratulate me and make things right with me but speaking to them reminded me that they were the kind of people who were even capable of feeling such things like remorse or guilt or shame. It helped me open my eyes to just how selfish and manipulative they are once again. And now, I have just completely given up any hope of ever reconciling with them. Update 2 My mother showed up at my work earlier today and I think that might be the craziest thing that she has ever done so far. Thankfully, I was not at work today, so she left pretty quickly and failed in whatever she had been trying to accomplish. I had taken a day off because I was feeling kind of under the weather and I'm so glad

that I did because I'm sure that otherwise, had I been at work, she definitely would have thrown a tantrum or done something horrible to embarrass me. I found out about it when the receptionist called me to tell me that my mom had shown up at work and demanding that she meet me, and was refusing to leave even after she had been told that I hadn't even come into work. I was already pretty scared when I told the receptionist that I would speak to her in person because I really had no idea what she was going to do.

But when they put her on the phone with me, I told her that I was at home and that if she tried to do anything funny at my workplace, I would sue her so hard that let alone sending her kids to college, she wouldn't even be able to send them outside of their house out of sheer shame and embarrassment. I think that really scared her because I had tried my best to sound intimidating

and I guess that worked. On the other end, she immediately told me that if I agreed to meet her in person. Only then would she get out of my workplace and I told her that she was in no position to be making demands because I knew for a fact that she couldn't afford a lawsuit on her hands right now. And if things got extreme, even my company wouldn't hesitate to sue her, and that would be a different conversation altogether because they are not going to be as lenient as me. So it would be in her best interest to just leave without making much of a fuss. After I said that, she handed the phone back to the receptionist and I'm assuming that she left because after that, I did not get any calls or notifications regarding this from work. But it was definitely a close call and I cannot afford something like this happening again, so I have decided to speak to a lawyer just so I can get to know if there are any preventive measures that I can take.

I don't know if this is grounds for a restraining order or not because it's not like she has threatened me but I'm still going to talk to the lawyer and try and figure something out. Until then, I'm just going to have to hope that this recent interaction was bad enough for her to consider leaving me alone now. Update 3, hey, so I guess I don't need to worry about whether I should file a restraining order or not since I'm pretty sure we have grounds for it now. Last week, my mother had shown up at my workplace, and I had somehow managed to get her to get off my back. And then after what happened this week, I think everyone should get a restraining order against her. So a couple of days ago, when I came back home from work, I saw her standing outside my door and I immediately told her that I was not in the mood to argue with her right now, and if she did not go away, I would call the cops.

I even had my phone in my hand and I was about to dial when she literally came running at me and tackled me to the ground, so my phone went flying out of my hands. She started trying to beat me up and all this while, she was cursing at me continuously, blaming me for everything that had gone wrong in her life. I was taken aback by how psychotic all of this was, so it took me a while to try and fight back, but when I did, it was very easy for me to overpower her because I work out and I'm also a lot younger than her.

Thankfully, my neighbors had realized that something was going wrong and had called the cops because of all the yelling and had even come to my rescue themselves. They even held my mother down while we waited for the cops to arrive. When they finally did, I decided to press charges. So she's in a lot of trouble right now and I have also spoken to my lawyer and have filed for a restraining order against her. From what I know, Harry has left with the kids to be with his parents, and I really don't know if he's going to be coming back any time soon or not because my grandparents said that after he bailed her out that day, she had been charged with a misdemeanor since I was not seriously hurt. He had confronted her about what she had done and said that she couldn't be behaving like this,

but she started fighting with him as well. I think she just snapped because obviously she's been going through a hard time and she just couldn't accept that I was doing well in my life. Honestly, she's responsible for whatever she's going through right now and I refuse to feel bad for her. Soon enough, I'll have the restraining order against her, and I had been considering moving out of my house into a bigger one anyway, since now I'm earning more. So there is never a better time, and I think I'll finally start looking for options.

I really hope that my mother deals with whatever she's going through and tries to be a normal person because it's embarrassing to be related to somebody like that. Even my grandparents have told me that they don't want to associate with her anymore because she had been pretty rude to them as well. So you know, she only has herself to blame for everyone distancing themselves from her. Anyway, that's none of my concern.