I took my kids to see their step brother… AGAINST my wife’s wishes!-r/AITAH | Reddit Stories - ok storytime

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 3 (00:18):
I took my kids to see their step brother against
my wife's wishes.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well maybe she thought you were talking about the movie
step Brothers.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I have one son with my ex wife and three
kids with my current wife. My oldest is nineteen. The
other kids are thirteen, twelve, and six, all boys except
for the twelve year old. My oldest traveled overseas during
summer break, but there was a two week period where
he was at school but had no class and no commitments,
and he wanted us to come visit him. By the way,
this comes from by Okay fifty five seventy and if

(00:49):
you want to spit your own stories, go to the
r slash Okay story Time. Separate it. So I said
that we would go, and when I told my wife
she was annoyed. I committed without asking her. We didn't
have plans She said, I couldn't know that for sure
without asking her. I said, if there are plans I
don't know about, surely, that means she made a commitment
without asking me exactly. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. That argument fizzled out, however,

(01:16):
she later informed me we were invited to go on
a trip with some friends that would overlap, and she
wanted to go on the trip. I said, we already
had plans. She said she never agreed to the plans,
and the argument resumed. Eventually, I said she could do
whatever she wanted, but the kids and I were going
to fly out to visit my son. I said it's
important for them to spend time together so they continue

(01:38):
to have a good relationship now that he's an adult
and we probably won't see him as much. She said,
I know she hates California, where his school is, and
it's insensitive for me to just assume she's okay with going.
I told her, if she doesn't want to go, don't go.
I'll go alone with kids. She didn't want that, and
the fight got intense, so I said we should ask

(01:59):
the kids what they want to do. When we asked
the kids, she really talked up her vacation plan and
pooh pood going to California, but the kids wanted to
see their brother. She still didn't want me to take
them after that, and we continue to argue about it
right up until the kids and I left. We had
a great trip. Ever since we returned from the trip,
she has been frosty towards me. Last week she dropped

(02:21):
the bombshell of wanting to do couples counseling. I agreed,
and we just found someone and made an appointment for September.
All my friends say the counseling is a bad sign,
the divorced and married alike. I guess I just want
to know what I'm in for. Am I going to
go in and immediately get roasted for my actions? Ultimately,
I love my wife, and I love my kids, and

(02:42):
I want my kids to have a good relationship with
each other? Is that so bad? There are some comments?
But what do you think?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I mean? According to her, it's probably pretty bad. Yeah,
Like the commenters are saying, he probably just doesn't like
it because it's not our kid.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, I think that's it. I think like not liking
California is such a silly excuse to like not get
your other kids to go visit their brother.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
I think that she's just upset that he still has
this other kid, because we haven't really heard much about
her relationship with his son. Yeah, and I wonder if
it's at all close. Comments come and one. The only
thing that matters in this whole situation is that the
younger siblings wanted to go on this trip to visit
their brother. Had they not, would you have gone alone

(03:28):
to see your son and allowed them to go on
the trip their mother wanted. I have a feeling you
would have. Your wife sounds very emotionally immature. To be honest,
I hate California. I couldn't possibly spend even a moment
there to spend time with my step son. Five years later,
the twelve year old gets accepted to a California school.
Guests whose mommy's gonna go with their child when they

(03:48):
go away to school in California to move them into
their dorm visit during parent weekend, et cetera. Yeah, your
wife guaranteed, she's the eighthole year Ope, he says, and
the oldest wanted them all to visit. He sounds like
a great guy who loves his family. Hopefully they stay
in each other's lives. I think that's probably another reply.
Common two says, your friends are wrong in your case, Yes,

(04:10):
couples who need counseling are more likely to be on
their way out. But in your case, it seems like
you two are pretty bad at communicating with one another.
Marriage counseling could actually benefit the two of you and
give you both the communication tools and aptitude that you
both lack. Common three says, to me, everyone secksier. You
were the ale for a green to go without talking

(04:31):
to her first and volunteering everyone to the trip. I
think how you handled it after that was pretty well done, though,
and it certainly helps you your point that the kids
did want to go on that trip. She's the ale
because it seems apparent she just really didn't want to
go on the trip and is coming up with excuses
to try and torpedo it. The bias against California is
weird to me. Counseling doesn't have to be bad. My

(04:54):
wife and I did it early in our marriage when
we had some stumbling blocks, but it mostly has reminded
us that we like each other and got along well
even if we didn't always agree to me, it seems
like you have issues communicating and that's something that could
be worked on in counseling. And there is an update, folks,
any thought, No, I.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Just agree with all of that last comment. That was
a very nice, stute comment.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Several people commented on my posts asking more like demanding.
But that's by the bye that I speak to my
son about my wife. We spoke today. I asked him
if he was disappointed that she didn't come with us
to visit him, and he said no, that he wasn't
at all surprised she didn't come. I asked why that was,
and he said, they're not close.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah. I had to say, if the kid already.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Knows that she's not coming.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
If she does not like your kid, your kid already
knows me. Yeah, even if.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
You don't, Yeah, your kid probably knows that it's not
California that she doesn't like.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
And he said he didn't feel positively or negatively about it.
I asked if he felt she was a good stepmother tim.
He said, sure, that's no, that's a no, that's sure.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
You want to get married, sure.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
He said that honestly, he didn't really consider her a
stepmother because he never truly lived with her. He only
interacted with her when he was visiting me, and even
then not very much. With me and his siblings. There
are frequent calls and video chats between visits with her.
Nothing so even though technically she's his stepmother, dim she's
just her name, but she was a good her name

(06:32):
to him. We talked about other things afterwards, but the
conversation bothered me. Tonight I talked to my wife about it.
I asked her how she felt about my son. He
said he's a fine young man. I asked if she
loved him. She said that was a weird question. I said,
I didn't think it was. She said, she loves me
and I love him, so she loves him by proxy.

(06:53):
Ay the transit of property of love. I love him?

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Did you just algebrain my son relationship with you?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
That bothered me too, but I pushed past it. I
asked why she didn't want to visit him. She said
he's an adult and adults need to establish their own lives,
not remain dependent on their childhood's support systems. She said,
it's all well and good to link up if we're
already going somewhere, but I know she doesn't like California,
so if she went, it would only be to see him,

(07:25):
and she thinks that's a strange thing to do. I asked,
doesn't she want all the kids to remain close? She said, no,
and it's odd that I do.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Nope, I'd like them to not like each other.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
I want them to hate each other.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yes, I don't want peace, I want problem always nice.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
She reminded me she isn't close with their sister at all.
They talk only occasionally and sometimes go years without seeing
each other in person. When they do see each other,
they get along fine, but they don't need to see
each other. She also pointed out that I barely knew
my brother before he passed away, which is a sore
spot for me. Girl, Well what are you doing? Also, dude,

(08:03):
how did you not realize that your step that your
wife had no relationship with your son.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
I don't know. Well, I guess he never lived there,
I guess.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
So.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
She reminded me that my mother and uncle were estranged
and I went without seeing my cousin for ten years
because of it. With all this being the norm, it
makes no sense to her that all the kids spending
time together should be such a high priority. I told her,
I don't consider those relationship models to emulate. I want
the kids to all be close. She said, we can't
force them to be close. I said, no one's forcing

(08:34):
them to be close. They're close. However, if we don't
facilitate them spending time together, they'll drift away. She said
it's natural for siblings to drift away once they've reached adulthood.
She said that is inherent to growing up, and by
trying to prevent it, I'm preventing my son from maturing.
What are you talking about? I literally would divorce her
over this.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
I was about to say, I'm like, there's not oftentimes
where I'm like, okay, this is like divorced territory because
it's a conversation. Yeah, yeah, this is like school.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Are you crazy mindset to have? I said, we fundamentally
disagree on this issue, and I am not willing to
cut my son out. She said, no one's suggesting that,
and that I was being weird. She said, it's weird
that I acted like we hadn't seen my son in forever.
When he flew out over for his birthday that was
almost six months ago and only for the weekend that

(09:23):
was barely a visit. She said, So we all have
to be together at least once every six months. I said,
not all of us, but yeah, I want to see
my son at least twice a year, and I want
the kids to be with us if at all possible.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
She said.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
That was a little crazy because he's an adult with
his own life. But if he's cool with that and
that's what I want, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Once every six months is beyond reasonable.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
That's crazy. Honestly, that's that's not a lot, that's bare,
that's very little.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
She said.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
The only issue is she doesn't want to have to
schedule everything in our life around my son. She also
doesn't want me four the kids to maintain the relationship
that they want.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's just like a how did you not know this
about your boss?

Speaker 3 (10:07):
That is what I'm asking, because I'm like, she's been
treating your son like this the whole time, Like, how
did you not notice that she never wanted to be
around your son.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
I don't know, man, I don't I don't get that
see your son more.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Put your son first, I said, since we already have
this therapy appointment in September. Let's table the topic until then.
At least now we both understand the other's position. I
asked her if she would stop being frosty in the meantime,
and she agreed to thaw out. She said getting everything
out in the open eased her resentment. I resent her.
I think there is definitely a good foundation here for compromise.

(10:41):
I'm sure this therapist would be able to help us
hammer out in agreement. I don't think so. She fundamentally
thinks that siblings shouldn't be friends, and that's crazy. I
think she needs individual therapy.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Like, what are we agreeing to? That's my question.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
She's got trauma from like her relationships with family, and
I think she needs individual therapy.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
I think my wife's perspective on sibling relationships is sort
of weird.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Is sort of weird.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
But she feels the same way about me, So I
guess we're I'm sure we're both slightly off center. No, No,
you're she's way off base and you're normal.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
She is way more off center.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
I guess I never realized how neutral my wife and
son were about each other. It kind of bums me out,
but I know I'm being unreasonable. You're not because neither
of them are unhappy. What so my dissatisfaction comes from
a selfish place? What do you what do you want
to shorten it up? Took your advice and everything is
on the path to resolution, although not fully resolved. Nothing

(11:44):
has been resolved, zero zilch. Not a thing has been resolved.
I don't like this. What are you talking about? What
are you actually talking about?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
They're turning me into the no face from ah spirited
away ah ah. My sister kept asking me to babysit
for free, and I've had enough start charging her. I
am twenty nine female, child free by choice. My sister,
Clara is twenty seven female, has two boys, ages three

(12:19):
and five. We live close to each other and I've
been in their lives since the beginning. We are each
other's only family, and we come from a broken and
dysfunctional family. I love the boys, but they are a
lot of work, especially on top of my own career
in social work and my personal reasons for not wanting
kids of my own. By the way, this comes from
user pretend mode nine four ninety four, and if you

(12:40):
want to submit your own stories, go to the r
slash okay, storytime subured it, and Op says I watched
them probably ten to twenty hours a week currently, and
it's getting exhausting. The times I've been needed have slowly
increased over the last seven months. At first, it was
Clara looking for a part time job, going to mandated
courses to get unemployed, occasional movie nights with friends, which

(13:02):
I was okay with. Now I spend most of my
free time at their house. Lately, the cause has been
that her best friend's mom is passing away and Clara
needs to be there. She's a single mom, and I
get it it's hard, but recently I feel like she's
using me and I rarely see my fiance as we
both work shifts that change all the time. Sometimes, when
she's asked me to watch them and I've had other plans,

(13:23):
Clara sends me a voice message of the boys crying
missing me and guilt tripping me, saying it's such a
shame I care more about myself than them. Why what?
That's actually insane?

Speaker 4 (13:35):
She's like, we're cool.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
She's like, guys, whip up some tears really quick. I
need a babysitter tonight. That's crazy, crazy.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I need a free babysitter tonight, telling me she would
ask someone else if she had anyone else to ask,
saying really mean things about me being selfish for wanting
to enjoy date night when she has to choose between
her kids and her best friend's ailing mother. I could
handle if that's all it was, but now it's also
a affecting the next time we meet. When I get there,

(14:02):
the house is a mess, there's nothing to eat, and
they happen to have a day for a shower or
Clara casually mentions I need to put together a gym
bag or something similar for them the next day.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Are they not showering every day?

Speaker 2 (14:14):
They're not?

Speaker 6 (14:15):
Is that's what that makes? It sound like she's showing
up to give them a shower. She's literally trying to
make you the nanny. Yeah, for free, no money, recompense whatsoever.
That's crazy, These weird extra things that are obviously revenge.
Before she got home, she casually asked if I had
done the extra things, and when I hadn't, she suddenly

(14:35):
had to stay a little later. This happened a few times,
and I'm ashamed to admit it took me too long
to understand what was happening. Another thing she does for
revenge is not prepare meals for the kids or even
leave money. Stop doing this, just stop. When I go
to the store, she promises to pay me back, but
tries to guilt me into saying she doesn't have to pay.
She's also not kept her worried about.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Things she'd promised, saying she doesn't want to do things
for me if I can't help her with the boys.
Last month, she promised to pick me up after leaving
my car for maintenance, and she didn't show up. I
was stranded. It took her two and a half hours
to answer her phone and get there. She also had
the audacity to huff and puff about how inconvenient it
was she had to drive me.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
Oh my god, it's costing Opie money to.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
Watch these kids. Yeah, because she's buying everything for them.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
And she's neglecting and abandoning her children. Yeah, she's just
lucky that she has ope to take care of them. Sorry,
this is so long, but it's mind blowing writing this
all down and seeing what I'm putting up with. I'm
such a doormat. So yesterday I told her I couldn't
come today. When she called desperately needing me to watch

(15:43):
the boys for the evening, and when she started her
ti rate of me being selfish, I kind of just snapped.
I told her to shut up and listen. If she
thought I was that horrible of a human and so selfish,
she had two options. Either stop relying on me so
much and letting her kids be exposed to my selfishness,
or I'll really start being selfish and will not watch

(16:04):
them free of charge ever again. Never do anything extra
without being compensated. She hung up without saying anything, And
there's your answer.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yeah, you're doing You do not have to watch the
kids for free.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
To I or ever again. After I had stopped shaking,
I hate confrontation, as you can imagine, I started to
really panic as I feel like I just lost my
last remaining family member. You lost an actual parasite. My
fiance said it was a long time coming and I
should have stood up for myself ages ago, but he's

(16:38):
biased as he loves me. I don't really have time
for proper friends outside of work colleagues, so I don't
know who else to ask if I made the biggest
mistake of my life. What if I don't see my
nephews again. What if I had just done it a
bit longer and she'd eased a bit, that was never
gonna happen. There's never gonna do that good.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
Unless she had been showing signs already of getting better
or listening to you at all, she was not gonna
get better.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Update. A lot has happened during the first twenty four
hours after me telling her that ultimatum, I decided not
to answer her calls or texts. The letter cooled down.
She called seventy seven times, sent over one hundred texts
and voice messages. They're mostly just her calling me a
horrible person who abandons her family. Mmmmm. Blocked, blocked, immediately blocked.

(17:24):
I outlined a few rules with my fiance's help the
future if she comes to her senses and agrees to
my terms. I had conditions like I could watch them
up to three times in two weeks, not more than
four hours at a time. Meals needed to be provided,
no bath time or bedtime. I'm not spending any money.
And I got messages from an unknown number saying how
horrible of a sister I am because now they have

(17:46):
to watch their mom pass away alone without Clara. There
to comfort them.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Huh huh?

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Do these people not know what babysitters are? Based on
the suspicions I had earlier and the language similarities, I
think this was my sister pretending to be her friend.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
I talked to my supervisor on Friday afternoon and asked
for her opinion. We made a report together on Clara.
The supervisor said it's better to do so, especially now
that it's escalated and she might retaliate against me by
hurting the boys in some way, as she's obviously not
above that. I'm probably going to give her next week
to cool off before resuming contact, and depending on what
the messages say, then I might contact her. If they

(18:24):
are as harmful as now, I probably won't respond at all.
It makes me unbelievably upset, but I hope the boys
will also get a more stable environment without me, as
she's using them as pawns with me. Thanks for the
messages and the reality checks I obviously needed. For some reason,
I've become blind to my sister's behavior and was only
concerned whether I'd lose the boys from my life. Update

(18:46):
number two CPS called and asked for more info, which
I provided. They wanted to know specific dates and whether
I had proof, and I sent them a lot of
screenshots of messages with Clara. I chose to make the
report with my name on it, as I felt like
it added credibility. I've had one Zoom appointment with a
psychologist through my work. It's been great so far, and
I already got homework on boundaries. I haven't heard from

(19:07):
Clara or the kids other than the harmful messages. I'm
ashamed to say. I've driven by the house a couple
times just to see if everything looks normal, and it does.
I had a talk with my fiance after a comments
or suggested the kids might need to be removed from
Clara and if we were planning on fostering them if
it came to that. We are not. We don't want
kids and have known that from the beginning. The day

(19:29):
to day life as a family with kids sounds absolutely horrible,
to be honest, and there's nothing about it that appeals
to us. We don't even want pets. We would become
resentful and probably would lose ourselves in the process if
we went there. And there's a third update.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
Ah, I have nothing else right now.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, I think I mean, she's clearly not like broken
enough to not be able to afford a driving to
see her friend or going out or seeing whatever. She
has the money to be able to pay a babysitter,
so it's insane that she's treating you this way.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
She doesn't have the money to pay for the babysitter,
she shouldn't go out and do things that are using
the money that could have been for the babysitter.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Right, And if she's just like I imagine, maybe she's
just like leaving the kids at home by themselves. Can't
do that. We've got a third update here. Today was
my birthday. I'm thirty, yay, and I just had an
ordinary work day. When I got home, my sister was
waiting for me. Clara congratulated me and actually seemed normal
at first, but when I couldn't behave like I normally would,

(20:33):
she got irritated. She said she'd known I never loved
the boys and was only jealous I didn't have kids,
and I tried to make them love me more, and
then I'd falsify it, reports the CPS and get custody.
I actually kind of laughed, it was so ridiculous. I
told her I don't even want kids, and wouldn't take
hers even if they were offered. Dang, I hope the

(20:53):
kids do that.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
I wouldn't want your kids even if I had the chance.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, if they were like, you can take them.

Speaker 6 (20:59):
I be like, oh, and the kids are just behind her, like,
but why we love when you come over.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Right, showers and I love when I come over showers
and food. Oh no, I was gonna say I love
when I come over because I get to leave, but
now it just feels mean. So I don't want your kids.
I don't want any kids. It might have been a
cruel thing to say, but I'm just so tired. She

(21:28):
somehow got angrier and said how horrible the boys will
now feel, knowing I'd abandon them, I proving I didn't
love them. I knew I couldn't win with her, so
I just asked why she was here and where the
kids were. Clara said they are whereabouts were none of
my business, and she was here to tell me I'd
never see them again. I'd accepted that as a possibility,
so I didn't really react, which made her even angrier.

(21:50):
She tried to grab me, but I stood about six
feet away, so she couldn't reach me, and I just
ran inside the building and closed the door behind me.
She followed, so I shouted through the door that I
would call the police. She didn't leave. She banged on
the door and left without saying anything. After around twenty
minutes of just breathing, my fiance came home from work.
I was still on the floor, so he obviously freaked out,

(22:11):
and I told him everything, and he said we should
make a police report and also update the CPS people
about Clara's a regular behavior. It's getting late and I
can't sleep worrying about making the police report tomorrow and
wondering what to tell CPS. And there's a fourth update
a month later. Let's get into it. Sorry it took
a while, but I've been trying to keep busy as

(22:32):
I missed the boys. I haven't heard from them at
all since my sister was banging on our door. CPS
has been in contact a few times, but as we
let them know, we wouldn't be willing to take the
boys unless absolutely necessary, not even for a short foster placement. Oh,
they haven't been telling us as much about their situation,
so as far as the boys go, I've accepted I'll

(22:53):
probably never see them again. I wish that if I
can keep tabs on them, I can reintroduce myself when
they're ten years or so old and have their own phones.
It's far away, but I have to have something to
look forward to. CPS is actively still investigating. My sister
failed to show up demandatory meetings and wasn't available when
they tried to reach out to her, And at least

(23:14):
once Clara arrived at the house without the kids just
as CPS came by and they realized the kids had
been home alone for the time Clara was gone. Clara
said she just dropped off something the street over, so
she was gone for less than three minutes. I don't
know if I believe that, and the CPS didn't think
so either. The reason we don't want to take the
boys is mainly our health. I have a chronic illness

(23:35):
and my fiance is in a wheelchair. Makes a little
more sense.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
Now, I mean it made sense anyway. A lot of
people don't want kids.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
No, but I mean, just why. It's like, absolutely, in
no way are we doing this. I'm chronically ill, my
husband is wheelchair bound, and these are five year old.
We are not a cool will take care of two
kids who are toddler age. We live in a one
bedroom apartment and having the boys' beds and stuff would
make it inexcess for a wheelchair, and that is just

(24:02):
not okay. In addition, we just don't want kids at all.
I don't think i'd be a great parent, and I
can't expect my fiance to parent either, because he didn't
sign up for it. I hope the boys are small
enough so that they are easy to place. It breaks
my heart, but at the same time, I just can't
do it. There is a fifth update, let's get into it.

(24:23):
The first court date came and went without my sister there.
She did not show up. The next date was set
for late July and they issued fines if she didn't
show up again. The boys were placed together with a
family and they resumed contact with us and wanted us
to meet them. They are now four and almost three.
It had been around ten weeks since we last met,

(24:45):
so they were shy at the beginning, but I think
at least the older one recognized us. They looked healthier,
gained some weight, and overall just better. I hadn't even
noticed they looked bad before. Now but with the improvement,
the difference is clear. The July court date also came
and went with no word from my sister, so then
the court had to decide if they make the decisions

(25:06):
without her. Apparently it's not common to have family court
about custody issues with no legal guardians present who knew.
I just wish this was all over, obviously, but it's
not my call to make, so I'm just focusing on
building a relationship with the boys. See them around once
a week, either alone or with my fiance. We could
apply to see them without supervision, but have no need to.

(25:30):
We understand the boys need to be protected, as they
have practically no one. We still think we did the
right thing by not taking them in Beyonce had a
scary summer with pneumonia and we wouldn't have been able
to be with the boys. I'm content with how things are.
I wish none of this happened, and I feel really
guilty as it seems my sister's mental health was tolerable
before I started to push back, and now she's unrecognizable.

(25:52):
Stop it. Your sister's deteriorated mental health is not your
responsibility or your fault. Please, it's crazy, So I'm starting
to feel guilty about that, not that I've seen her
in months, but still. My fiance said he thinks the
breakdown was inevitable and just happened to happen. Now, hey, y'all,
it's John Ogi host here. We're gonna get back to

(26:13):
the stories, but here's a quick three minute break from
as for more sponsors.

Speaker 5 (26:16):
My family thinks I'm ruining my life because I'm planning
to move.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Don't you damn move away from me?

Speaker 5 (26:25):
I female, twenty two and my partner, male twenty seven
just welcomed our new baby in May. He is the
most absolute perfect baby in the world. In October twenty
twenty four, when I was one month pregnant, I lost
the home I'd been living in.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
For two years.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
This home was a statement of my independence and truly
felt like my safe haven. I was absolutely lost, but
my partner guaranteed we would be okay.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
By the way, this.

Speaker 5 (26:55):
Comes from False Raspberry thirteen seventy two, and if you
want to submit your own stories.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Go to the r slash Okay storytime subreddit.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
And Opie says we were both going through a really
tough financial spot and thought our troubles would be over soon.
We ended up moving into a home that my grandma
used to live in before she passed. This home was
seriously trashed, a hoarder house filled with fecal matter, trash
and fleas.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
Equal battered trash fleas.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Wow, the unholy.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Trinity new type of fleasio.

Speaker 6 (27:29):
I think that's how you get the plague with my
dude burn it ses accidentally.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
My sister female twenty four, was supposed to be caring
for the home and cleaning it up, but she hadn't.
We thought everything would be fine, that we'd clean it
up and make this place a home. Well, let's just
say the nine months following that day were absolutely heck.
We were promised this home would be our own, that
we would buy it off my mom and be able

(27:56):
to make something of ourselves. But from the moment we moved,
my sister and her boyfriend would fight constantly. I mean
literal screaming matches that lasted hours, from slamming doors to
literally coming downstairs waking us up and demanding we choose sides.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
My god, I I would truly just go until they
left me alone. I would pick no side except the
side of noises that.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
It would probably work. I want to see how long
you can do.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Though it escalated to full on screaming at me while
I'm just trying to walk to the bathroom. I pleaded
with my mom to pump them out and let us
handle everything, but she refused, saying my sister needs help
and she can't abandon her.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
That was the first blow.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
The second was when we were forced to buy everything
to fix the place up. We used our tax money,
which was fairly good money, to buy flooring for the house.
We worked expecting help doing this project, but got nothing.
We were doing the nursery and still had to deal
with constant criticism about how the floor was done. My
mom came in and ripped it apart to do it

(29:12):
her way, causing us to waste good flooring.

Speaker 4 (29:15):
Once we finished that.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
We stayed there for two more months before my partner
and I decided we needed to get out of there. Finally,
the third blow the plumbing was done improperly and required
a twenty two K project to resolve it. Guess who
was responsible to pay for it? You were if you
guessed us, you and a fry.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Oh what did we win? Oh?

Speaker 5 (29:38):
No?

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Is it? The fecal matter in the fleas, Yes it is.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
Is it the old piping out the fecal matter fleas.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Metal pipe soound dot MP four.

Speaker 5 (29:48):
As this house is only legally ours by renting, not
even an ownership agreement, but just a rental agreement. We
were told if we wanted it fixed, we had to
fix it ourselves. By that point, I mean we weren't
going to take the risk, because what if we don't
get the house, We'd screw our credit over. It's too
risky of a game to play. The cherry on the

(30:09):
cake was my partner trying to find a good job
for months during my pregnancy.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
I forgot she was pregnant. Crazy reminder, Oh.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
God, you're in that house pregnant. Get out of town,
get out of here, literally leave.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
He applied to over one hundred places and not a
single interview. He's been stuck in a construction job building
grain bins for only three hundred dollars a week, while
I was working full time pulling in only five hundred
dollars a week.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
By April twenty eighth, I had to take my leave
due to severe sciatica and paint so I wasn't getting
any pain anymore. Then came baby time May twenty eighth,
I delivered my perfect son.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
I was so happy.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
It felt like all my troubles were gone in a
single moment, even though they were just beginning. We moved
in with my mom due to the sanitation of that home,
leaving my three cats at the other house so we
could still take care of them since they weren't allowed
at my mom's.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Okay, bro, you.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Had three cats in the Doodo fly flea house.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
On day three postpartum, my sister calls me freaking out
about my cats, claiming I need to get rid of them.
Just some backstory. I have three wonderful cats. They're so
sweet and gentle. I'd asked her a month prior if
she could watch them for a week before my partner
is back to working and driving to the house.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
She said she would, but was now.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
Freaking out on me, causing my first panic attack while
heavily exhausted. This was my tipping point with our relationship.
The drama following her has made me realize that blood
isn't thick and that it's okay to simply let go
of a family member. After two months of staying at
my mom's relentlessly trying for jobs and getting nothing whilst

(31:55):
still paying rent and bills at.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
The other place. We both had enough.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
We decided to come down to Florida as a little
escape for two weeks to see his family. We're currently
at his mom's so they can meet the baby. While
we were here, my partner decided to try applying to
a job. The first one got a callback within a day.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
It was his previous.

Speaker 5 (32:16):
Job before he'd move to my home state, and he
was offered his old position making a pretty good wage.
We decided maybe we should take that opportunity and move
with his family. For one, we wouldn't be paying rent
bills or groceries, although we will still help. And two,
we would finally get to bring our cats to live

(32:37):
with us. They would help us until we're back on
our feet and getting a place of our own. I
was ecstatic with this idea and believed this was the
answer to my prayers. I brought this up with my
family previously, and they were passed away, set on no
that it's too far and they want my baby to
grow up with his family in our home state. As

(32:57):
much as I wanted to do that, it was hard
since no job opportunities were coming to us and we
were suffering.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
Well.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
I made the decision yesterday. It was final.

Speaker 5 (33:07):
I called my dad, sisters and mom to get their support.
While my dad is sad about it, he supports me,
my mom and sister is not so much. My sister
female twenty nine says, I'm taking her nephew away, but
I won't be happy there because I won't have them there,
that they know me better than anyone, and I'll just
be miserable. My other sister, our roommate, says again, I'll

(33:30):
be taking their nephew away, ruining the chance of him
knowing them, and completely screwing her over as she would
have to take responsibility of the house.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Oh booooo. They're just trying to make you think like
all of those are good things for you. They're not
get out of here with your kid.

Speaker 4 (33:49):
They can cry about it if they want to.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, they can come visit. Yeah literally, is that an
impossibility for them?

Speaker 4 (33:57):
No, sounds like an answer.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
She tree he did me horribly and was late on everything,
so I honestly couldn't care less. My mom, worst of all,
is saying that I'm just drawing the family, that my
partner planned this, that he's ripping us away from her.
They all told me that they hate my partner for this,
and then told me that I should respect their feelings,

(34:19):
as if mine ever actually mattered to them. I said,
I understand their feelings and know they're upset, but this
is a good opportunity for us. I explained the benefits,
and I said I would be able to visit whenever
and that he will get to know them.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
They don't believe me.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
They are saying we have opportunities there, but we don't.
We've both applied to good jobs but got nothing for
months now. My phone was blowing.

Speaker 4 (34:44):
Up all night.

Speaker 5 (34:45):
It's six am right now, and we're meant to be
driving back from our vacation today. We weren't expecting to
move right now.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
I'd plan on.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
I'd planned on sticking around in my home state, taking
my baby to his appointments, and switching his insurance out.
Now I don't even know if I want to stay
as long as I said I was going to. I
have absolutely no family support, and everyone is messaging me
saying I'm making a horrible decision for my son and
that I'm not looking out for anyone's best interests.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
So am I the a hole here.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
Should I stay or should I move and pursue this opportunity.
We have some more backstory. I wrote this at like
four or five am, half asleep and just going through
my emotions. My grandma passed away from June of twenty
twenty four. That's how my mom got the house. It's
technically still in a contract with the owner that my
grandma bought it from. It's a huge mess being dealt

(35:39):
with in court, which is why I was also worried
about not being able to actually buy it and pouring
more money into it. Also not a bot, not a
creative writer or AI, though if I was, maybe I'd actually.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
Get a job.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
Loel.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
I was always walked over by my family. I mean
literally what they said went. I just stuck like a
lost puppy and followed along. But they are also my
family and I love them. This move is obviously going
to take a huge toll, since we've all always been
so close. But why is it so wrong of me
to want to, I don't know, spread my wings and fly.

(36:15):
Sounds corny, but I just don't understand. We have an update.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
Oh yeah, since this morning.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
I applied to jobs last night and already got an
interview this morning for a high paying job at eleven thirty.
Wish me luck, that's the end day. That's crazy that
they like went on vacation in Florida. Both applied to
a job and they were like, yeah, you want to interview.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Crazy, it's crazy. I think it's a sign, and I
think it's a sign to get out of there. Yeah,
if that's what happened, it's a sign, don't listen to
get out. I took in my orphaned friend, but she
ended up ghosting me. At the time, I twenty five female,
had a friend from high school twenty three female, who
had neither parent in her life. She had moved away

(36:59):
from my hometown for her senior year of high school,
and I had always been the one to travel to
visit her for graduation, vacations and just to spend time
with her since I was the one who had a car.
My life has always been hectic and I don't have
a ton of money, but I always make the effort
to stay in touch with my good friends. By the way,
this comes from user Methuselah eighty seven and if you
want to submit your own stories, go to the r
slash Okay Storytime subreddit I'm Dakota.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
I'm Carly, and I'm Keon, and Op.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Says her mother moved her all over the place because
she could never hold down a job. She was also
an emotionally manipulative and harmful parent who controlled her daughter
with fear. She leapt from man to man, trying to
find someone to support her financially, never actually getting to
know her daughter or care about her needs, only caring
for her and keeping her modestly happy because she thought
it was her job, which it is. My friend's biological

(37:46):
father abandoned them immediately, so she never really knew him,
and her mother only dated for money. After briefly remarrying
and then divorcing my friend's stepfather, the mother moved the
two of them to a house in the middle of
nowhere and began to date a richer, older man. My
friend would visit her stepfather because they had a good relationship,
but ultimately found out that he was crap talking her
to her mother and it ended their relationship. That is

(38:08):
the weirdest thing I've ever read. After that, my friend
lived alone with her mother and dated some ahole who
was just using her for the spicest leap. After she
finally broke up with him, she asked me point blank
if she could run away from her mother and live
with me. I was a junior in college at the time,
living away from home, so I begged my parents and
older sister to agree. They're not the greatest people on earth,
but they're deeply caring and they knew her well, so

(38:29):
eventually they agreed. I separated out my things to make
space for her, went out to where she was living
as a visit, and we packed up her car and left.
Her mother had put the car title in her name
as a show of trust after a lifetime of distrust
of her daughter, likely for harmful reasons, so nothing was stolen,
but of course we didn't tell her mother and we
left while she was out with her boyfriend. My friend

(38:49):
moved into my room with me and spent about a
year working locally and trying to date around while I
was home for the summer with her or at college.
During the year. When I was there, she was happy,
but when I wasn't there, she rarely called or texted
me and spent all of her time with boys. I
asked her a couple times why she didn't call, and
She said that I was ignoring her and not making
any effort, which wasn't true. I cared about her deeply

(39:12):
and always tried to keep in touch. Eventually I had
to give up trying to fix things with her, though,
because she wasn't trying at all and I lived a
few hours away and was busy with school. Yeah, I
think you should just like reiterate if she would do that,
just be like, yeah, so I literally like moved you
out of your house into my own home with my family.
So stop telling me I don't care about you, right,
because that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Talk to me when I'm at school still.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, Like I would be like, straight up, I'm not
hearing that. Don't even say it to me because it's
gonna I'm not hearing it. I tend to befriend people
with problems, but never really thought about them that way,
as I'm a kind and compassionate person who doesn't mind
going the extra mile. I wanted her to have this
stable family life I got to grow up in. My
parents are conservatives and we are not, my sister included,
but they were excellent with personal responsibility and the self disciplined.

(39:56):
A person needs to become an adult plus, they liked
her and she liked them. My friend's mother would call
her and text her angrily about the move and accused
her of being a sappig because she decided to move
in with me. We both thought that was stupid and
laughed about it. When it came time for my junior
year of college to end, I was given the huge
opportunity to study one of my language majors overseas. It

(40:17):
was in a country my parents knew nothing about, and
my family was not very supportive, but I knew I'd
never be able to afford to travel unless I did
it through school, so I accept it. I would leave
in August, and it was May. That summer. I broke
up with some guy I was dating, and it was
very difficult for me, so I had her support and
the support of my friends from college to get through it.
I needed to work before I left to raise some

(40:39):
money for the trip, so I took a job by
the school and lived rent free with a friend for
a while. I made very little money and I was
very depressed at the time, so my friend thought that
she would come and keep me company by visiting. Well,
she got wasted and started hitting on me.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
It was not where I thought that was going.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Oh, I am not into girls. She knew that, so
I was really annoyed and I tried to put her
to bed like a child. But my girlfriend that I
was living with was like, sure, I'll have spicy sleep
with you.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
She said, Opie, you might not be interested.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
But I I lost it. Not only was this in
a small trailer and I would have to hear the
whole thing, but my waisted friend it apparently brought a
bunch of spicy sleep toys in the back of her car,
so she brought one out to make fun of me
with it.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
I use it with your roommate.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, I don't know. You don't want to use this,
hu huh. I scolded her and the friend that I
was living with for being like that, and said, do
whatever you want, and then I just went to bed
in the other room. They were both adults at the time,
so I figured that they could do whatever they wanted.
But honestly, it annoyed me to be not only in
the middle of it, but to be hit on like that.
My girlfriend was a big bye and obviously I didn't care,

(41:44):
but I felt it was disrespectful to try and have
spicy sleep with a stranger. She just met with me
in the home.

Speaker 6 (41:50):
What is it big buy?

Speaker 2 (41:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
I'm big into both.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
So after that, things were never the same between me
and my friend. I moved back home briefly before I
moved overseas, and my friend ignored me and was always
out with her current boyfriend. She tried to act nonchalant
when I was around, but I could tell that she
had already checked out of our relationship completely. She waited
until I was gone, and then my family told me
that she moved in with her boyfriend and stopped contacting
them altogether. She left all her things, almost never visited

(42:16):
or texted or called them or me, and even though
she had a key, never came by to pick her
things up. Dude, they'd be on the curb if it
was me, Honestly, bring you into my home. You don't
even have the decency or the respect to like talk
to me or say goodbye or say thank you. You
leave all your crap here like I'm a storage container.
It's all on the sidewalk. I was concerned that maybe
she was being held somewhere against her will, so I

(42:37):
went out of my way to contact her to make
sure she was okay. Her a whole boyfriend was the
only one I could get in touch with, and he
said she's fine as far as I know, and was
super vague about letting me speak to her, which is
a stupid move. When someone lives in your house with you,
How could you not know? And why can't I talk
to her? Turns out that she had changed her online
name to hide from her mother and had blocked me
from her account. I made a new account as a
throwaway to ask her why and what she was doing

(43:00):
and if she was okay, and she didn't respond to me.
I left it there for a while. I was worried,
but I was also angry at her and didn't know
what I could do from overseas. When I finally came home,
my family let me know that it had been months
since my friend contacted them, meaning that she'd missed every
holiday and birthday since she'd moved out, and had only
vaguely texted I hope you're all doing okay, but otherwise
gone radio silent. She still lived in town, so I

(43:22):
thought this was insane. Who abandons their stuff and their
foster family without a word of explanation. She had been
living rent free, fully provided for it with my family,
and never paid for anything, which made me even angrier,
how ungrateful for her to just up and vanish without
even saying goodbye. She finally got back in touch with
me when she noticed that I was home and agreed
to meet, but she brought her wealthy a whole boyfriend

(43:44):
with her when I specifically asked if we could talk
alone to discuss what had happened, and she refused to
say anything specific in front of him and acted flippant
and dismissive of our concerns. All she would talk about
was how much weight she had lost with him as
her personal trainer, and she was wearing a crop top
to show off her smaller waist. I express my concerns
and she just brushed me off.

Speaker 5 (44:02):
Ahh yeah, I mean I think we knew that she
wasn't going to reach out to anyone when she moved out.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
That's kind of her.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Moo. You unknowingly created a monster because you helped her
ghost her mom.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Maybe she actually just is a ghost. Maybe I called it, guys.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
She's actually her name's Casper.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
And she's a ghost, not very fresh.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Not friendly, which is crazy.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
And she's big bye, big bye. She said big bye,
bye bye bye.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
They left eventually after us learning nothing and basically stopped
talking to everyone, me included, and I tried several more
times to talk to her before I lost it. I
texted her and said that if she was going to
act like we were nothing to her and that we
didn't matter at all in her life, that she was
never to contact me or my family again because she
was banished from the family. I wasn't about to let
her string us along for whatever dumb butt ride she

(44:48):
was trying to take us on. I threw a crap
in a box and said come get it, or it's trash.
She did eventually pick it up, and we never spoke again. Honestly,
I have nothing to add because you've cut off your
friends exactly the way I would have done it.

Speaker 4 (44:58):
Is you did the right thing.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
At this point that crap in a box, say get
it or it's trash, and she crawled over like the
little Cretan she is behaving like. For context, during the
time I was gone overseas, she picked up smoking, slept
with a married man, refused to get car insurance, and
overall just neglected all of her relationships except the ones
with men.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Oh okay, So I have to assume.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
That she may have in some way been in love
with me or otherwise wanted me to give up my
future to spend my life with her. I'm not sure
why or if she ever planned on communicating her needs
to me, but I fully had no idea and would
never have given that impression if I knew how she felt.
It's been a long time, and although I'm well traveled
and graduated college, I live with my family again since
I had some financial difficulties and dating is difficult for

(45:42):
me after having been mistreated so many times. I try
not to dwell on this fallout with my friends since
I couldn't make things work out with her, but I
always had this terrible lingering guilt for giving up on
someone who was essentially in orphan. I worry about her
to this day and hope that she didn't hop from
one harmful relationship to another thanks to her upbringing. I
know I can't control her, and I never intended to.
I was just concerned for her well being and don't

(46:03):
know if anything I could have done would have saved
the situation.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
My friend's wife is scamming our friend group, and I want.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
To expose her get right at heart.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
I know the title sounds wild, but I really need
some advice here. Not using my real account for this one.
My best friend Dave thirty five male, is married to
Beth thirty nine female. They've been together for roughly ten
years and married for five ish. In twenty twenty three,
Beth and Dave purchased a home out in the country
and started their mini farm dream. This turned into a

(46:35):
nonprofit for Beth as she wanted to bring in larger
animals that needed new homes.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Stop, that's so cute.

Speaker 5 (46:41):
It's pretty common where we live to retire farm animals
to smaller farms, so we thought, Okay, cool, she's onto
something here. I'm not entirely sure how much money they
raised for the startup, but I was under the impression
that donations were pretty sparse over the first year.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
By the way, this comes from Peter Potter Bean. Do
you want to submit your own stories?

Speaker 5 (47:01):
Go to the r slage Okay Storytime sub reddit, and
Opie says Beth has always worked in the service industry
and late night bars around town. The lack of constant
donations was a surprise to Beth because she thought she
had networked better throughout the year to have more financial support.
I remember thinking, you gave these people drinks for tips,
and that's all they've ever really owed you.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
But sure, I'm sorry that sucked.

Speaker 5 (47:25):
No real consistent updates ever came from the nonprofit efforts,
and it felt pretty uncomfortable to ask. Around July twenty
twenty four, Beth alerted our friend group that she had
been going through some health issues and was looking for
extra support. She claimed they were having trouble finding answers
from doctors, maybe an intense case of meningitis. This evolved

(47:45):
into an autoimmune diagnosis, and she's now been without work
for a few months. She started reaching out for financial
support and looking for any sort of side gig she
could get. Then August twenty twenty four, she claims she
had a stroke. Dave claims he was there during the
time of her stroke, but has been one hundred percent
on her side because, of course, your wife just told

(48:06):
you she had a stroke after other health issues. They
both seem very uneducated about the medical system on this
level of situation. I've tried to ask more questions about
how this went down in full detail, but he keeps avoiding,
probably embarrassed that he doesn't have the answers because he
wasn't there for her during this traumatic time. September twenty
twenty four, Dave and Beth posts that their having a

(48:27):
benefit dinner to help offset some of beth doctor expenses,
which also contains a gofund me. I was unable to
make the dinner, but my partner and I still donated.
I ended up hearing that not a lot of folks
showed up, but didn't think much of it at the time. Also,
during this time, she was randomly sending texts here and
there to friends within the friend.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Group that raised a few red flag.

Speaker 5 (48:50):
Texts like can you send me twenty dollars to get
gas to get home? And can you send me fifty
dollars to get my flat fixed? And multiple other versions
of this at all hours of the night. These texts
went on from July twenty twenty four through April twenty
twenty five and are maybe still happening.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
I would reach out to the husband and be like, Hey,
what's going on.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
You guys actually need this.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Yeah, She's been like reaching out texting me at like
two in the morning, for like ten bucks because she
wants to buy like Celsius. What's going on?

Speaker 5 (49:21):
I'm the sober friend in the group, so I feel
like most of our friends kept this from me naturally
or wanted to make sure it was real before bringing
it to someone that wouldn't be able to sit on it.
So I'm just now finding out all of this late
night text information. I feel this intense pressure that I
needed to tell my friends sooner than later what the
f is happening or what is circling our friend group.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
But I'm not sure I have solid proof.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
I don't even know what you have proof of. I
still don't know what's going.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
Do you want this lady's medical records?

Speaker 3 (49:49):
I don't. I'm just confused what you think is happening.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
Basically, most of our friends think she's using and lying
about her diagnosis, using the money for hard substances.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
Okay, well if you think that, reach out to her
husband and say hey, we think that she has a
substance abuse problem, and also stop sending her money. I
guess pretty straightforward solutions how.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
We got here.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
Around a month ago, Dave made an unusual Instagram story
that said, does anyone know anyone that goes by the
name Bear. I texted him two days later and asked
if everything was okay, and he gave me some weird
story about how Beth borrowed money from this guy and
the guy was pestering her, but he was arrested now,
so everything was gonna be okay. I think this is

(50:34):
where Dave put his foot down and forced her to
go back to the doctor, because he's under the impression
that this is behavioral changes from the stroke.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
I wouldn't yeah, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised.

Speaker 5 (50:45):
She agreed to go, but her only catch was that
she wanted to go alone.

Speaker 4 (50:50):
Okay, Well, no, there's an easy answer.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
You know. You don't get to make there's no there's
no bartering here.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
This conclusion really came to fruition this week when Bee
released a new updated evaluation summary from her most recent
doctor visit. The document looked like it was created on
Canva in a few minutes. No logo from the hospital,
no doctor signature, no anything really other than a text
on a white page.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
So we called the hospital to see if they would
just tell us if she was in the building on
that date.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Now I feel like Bear is like a dealer.

Speaker 5 (51:23):
Well, the admin ended up revealing that she couldn't find
any record of Beth in their system at all. I
can't see where Beth has ever been a patient at
this hospital. Isn't that wildly breaking?

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Hip Ba, This is exactly what she said.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
Since talking about this, amongst the four of us involved
in this investigation, I've learned that she's been fired from
two jobs in the last year for being in the
bathroom and unable to be found during her shifts. So
now we're in a pickle on how to bring this
up to Dave.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
Insight on Dave.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
Dave is pretty traditional in his ways of moving through life.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
He was a chef at a famous.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Restaurant in our downtown area and ended up changing his
job to a nine to five in order for her
to have insurance for these doctor bills. He works from
nine to five, then comes home and does the farm work,
then likes to go fishing on most weekends. So they've
been in a routine where each other exists under the
same roof, and they have a roof and one of
them is employed.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
Therefore most of the bills are being paid.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
You know that straight couple lull that happens to some
folks where they accidentally settle in their roles too much. Anyway,
I could totally see how this could be happening late
at night when he's asleep behind his back because he's
constantly busy taking care of things around their lives. I
don't have any intel about their financial routines or how
they monitor each other's money at this time. I should

(52:42):
also say that there's a one hundred percent chance Beth
will threaten self harm when Dave comes to her with
this information, and I feel like that adds another layer
of how I should bring this up to him.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
He's as sensitive loyal as f Scorpio, so this could
go either way.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
What does this mean?

Speaker 4 (52:59):
What do I do?

Speaker 3 (53:01):
I don't know. Stop speaking in riddles?

Speaker 5 (53:03):
How do I tell him this information without solid proof
that she is using? Does that even matter?

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Dude? Don't go to him and say I think your
wife is using. Go to him and say, hey, we've
been getting a lot of strange texts in the middle
of the night asking for money, and it doesn't seem
like your wife goes to this hospital.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
We're really concerned. We're a little bit.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Concerned about your wife.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
Do you have noticed anything. Yeah, do you know a bear?

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Do you know a bear?

Speaker 4 (53:28):
Have you checked in on your wife at all lately?

Speaker 5 (53:31):
Some comment comment one, He's not going to believe you
because the admin broke the law by even giving out information.
I actually doubt this entire post because you added that
in nobody with a brain would ever give out this
info over the phone. Someone replies, in a rural area,
trust me, this could one hundred percent happen. I've seen
some wild nonsense from some of these smaller hospitals.

Speaker 4 (53:52):
Opie says.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
My partner called the doctor's office and just stated basically
that we were concerned friends with an odd situation of
potential fraud, just trying to verify some information about our
friends whereabouts. The admin asked for her name and date
of birth. We provided, and she said back she was
unable to provide any information regarding the patient.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
Okay, well that actually makes a little bit more sense,
because that's just them being like, we can't.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Tell I will say, however, though, Opie gave a direct quote. Yeah,
that said something very different from that.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Well, that's what I was confusing, because earlier she.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Said that's a direct quote from her.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Yeah, she said, oh, they said that she never had
been to the hospital when here, and now she's saying,
we don't have anything, we can't tell you anything about her.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
This is wildly She's just very different.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
My partner stated they weren't asking them to break patient
confidentiality awareness of hippolaws, and that we were just seeking
a confirmation that she was there in this office on
the date of the medical form she sent out, and
the woman quickly stated, I can't see where this person
has ever been a patient at this hospital, to which
we said, thank you, that's all we needed to be honest,

(54:55):
we were surprised to get this response too, comment too. Ultimately,
Dave deserves to know the truth about his wife. Maybe
present it in person at a coffee shop or something,
try to help him figure out how to react.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
It's sad she's doing this. We don't know that she's
doing anything.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
I don't know. I really, I'm just really concerned for
this woman. Yeah, we know. Okay, so now we know
that she's never she never went to the hospital.

Speaker 4 (55:16):
Maybe they got the wrong hospital.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Yeah. I think the thing is, I think there are
so many different ways that this could go.

Speaker 5 (55:21):
And there's so many variables that so could just be mistaken,
and you could be so.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
So off base, But I think regardless, you just need
to express concern and that's it.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
It's sad she's doing this, but yeah, i'd want that
info off my shoulders. The other way to look at
it is it's none of your business, but I personally
always want to know the truth. Comment three. You could
try curiosity. Try hey, man, with how much money Beth
is needed from friends? The medical bills to insurance must
be outrageous. Or hey, when you submit medical bills to

(55:52):
insurance for Beth, is all of it covered? How much
have you guys had to pay out of pocket? It
must be a huge amount.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Heys, Sam, We're gonna get back to the stories, but
here's three minutes of bads from our sponsors.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
My friend ruined my reputation over a.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
Man, not over a man.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Get gross, do.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
Better, So for starters. The story I'm about to tell
happened in twenty nineteen. I nineteen female at the time,
was really close with the nineteen female girl let's call
her Latrice Latersea and I had been friends ever since
middle school. I moved away to a different state, and
we still stayed close via social media like Snapchat, et cetera.
While in twenty nineteen, I had moved back to where

(56:31):
she lived and we became best buds all over again.
She was about three months pregnant at this time. She
was having issues figuring out who her baby daddy was,
so me, being the detective I am, helped her with
figuring it out. By the way, this comes from Cherry
Blossom three two seven on the comfort Level podsub reddit,
and if you want to submit your own stories, go
to the r slash Okay storytime subred it. I'm Sophia,

(56:53):
I'm Carly.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
It's a girly stream. I'm Keon.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
I was in college and had a part time job
while also helping her prepare for her baby. So a
few months passed and she was then six months pregnant.
She had been dating and seeing other guys from online
dating apps all throughout her pregnancy. Me being a supportive friend,
I never judged because I knew her and her baby's
father relationship wasn't working out, so why not look for
a new man? I thought she didn't know who her

(57:17):
baby thought.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
Wait did she help her salute it?

Speaker 3 (57:20):
And then they like, I guess, so I guess they
figured it out. She eventually found a new boob, and
of course I did a little background check on Facebook
to make sure he was a decent guy, you know,
like regular friends do. So fast forward to about the
time she popped out. My godson Latersea and the guy
let's call him Brad, had been talking and talking, but
never been on a date or even seeing each other

(57:41):
in person. So I gave her the idea of meeting
up with Brad before having her baby, because what if
he was at kidnapper you know. Laterse agreed and I
came along with her. She got Brad on the phone
and asked if she could see him. This is where
it all went down. Brad first said he couldn't because
he wasn't home. She tried to reschedule, and then he says,
you can, and because his baby mama'll live with him

(58:02):
and she wouldn't like two females coming over. Okay, pause
right then and there. I asked if he had ever
mentioned that before. She said no. I also knew I
never saw a child or a baby mother on his Facebook.
So she tried to reschedule again. This time he said sure.
Brad gave her an address and she gave it to me.
We pulled up over to the address and it was
in the middle of an apartment complex. Latercea and I

(58:23):
were confused. She tried to call Brad, no answer. I
tried to call from my phone, no answer. At this point,
I'm not comfortable, and I tell her let's go. She
doesn't want to. Laterrece felt played and upset. I calmed
her down. We got back in my car, and as
soon as we did, Brad calls. He asked, true if
she had on a green jacket. It spooked me, so
I put my car in reverse because no way, Jose.

(58:46):
We don't play like that around here. Eventually, after like
five minutes of silence, he says he saw us from
his window, but he was nervous, too nervous to come
out right then and there I knew he was a fake.

Speaker 5 (58:57):
Catfish, Bagel catfish.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
There's no way out of all this time. He hasn't
shown his face to Latrese, not even once on a
FaceTime call or anything. So I told Latrice, this guy
is a catfish. She didn't believe me, but we left anyway.
Now fast forward two weeks, she has had my godson
and has made it back home. The trees and Brad
are still communicating. She's sending him pictures of her son,

(59:20):
and he's telling her he can't wait to meet him.
By this point, I had already begun my research on
this guy. I knew his name, address and everything. OP
is freaking FBI agent. I spilled all the means to
La Trees the moment she got off the phone with him.
She tried to deny, deny, deny, but I was persistent.
She eventually agreed with me and told him she wanted

(59:42):
to FaceTime. He said he couldn't because she's yeah.

Speaker 5 (59:44):
I just I.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
Was like, how are you texting me? He's like, from
my iPad? No, yeah, I said, iPod touch. I can't.
I justdn't have face time. It was excuse after excuse.
I kept telling her to just block out, and eventually
she did after some convincing. So now to the nitty gritty.
She says she felt plaid after wasting all her time
on a catfish. So I told Latrice applied for catfish

(01:00:11):
as a joke. This girl really went and applied.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
They accepted. Now at this point, in my mind, I'm
thinking Brad is blocked and she hasn't spoken to him
in weeks, but boy was I wrong. She ends up
being on the show, but chimes me in as her savior.
They welcomed me in all nice like. We told him
what happened to her, and now I found out he
was a catfish and all of that samow along the way,
the story got switched to me being the bad guy.

Speaker 5 (01:00:37):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
I was furious after everything we've been through. She lied
to me and tricked me. The guys from the show
told us we were going to meet the catfish guy,
but then they only took Latrice, which struck me as odd,
but I paid no mind because I'm her friend. I
wanted her to get closure with or without me. They
called me to meet up and tell me that Brad
says I sent him pictures of my private areas and

(01:00:59):
was telling him I wanted him, which couldn't possibly be
true at this point. Laterrece was crying, asking why would
I do this? And I'm just confused because I didn't
do anything wrong. The show stars try to paint me
out as the bad guy when I literally never saw
the guy's face or anything. I apologize to Latrese, but
not for doing her wrong, just because I knew she
was hurting. She was still my friend at this point.

(01:01:20):
I didn't know how bad she may have felt, but
I tried to tell her Brad was lying. They spun
it out as if I was trying to apologize for wrongdoing.
I hate that show with every fiber of my being.
Kelsey J. Says, I watched this episode the other day.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
They have millions of people thinking I'm some sort of evil,
backstabbing person, and I never have been and never will be.
After the show was aired, I got so much backlash, cyberbullying,
and pestrument. I've never experienced something so horrible. People that
don't even know me are thinking of me as a
bad friend in person, when in reality I never betrayed

(01:01:56):
her in the first place. But now years later, I
want my get back. She deserves to be punished for
publicly insulting and shaming me. She went out of her
way to go to YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram let the
world know how bad of a friend I was. I
tried to clap back, but the Internet is such a
hateful place it almost led me to do some bad things.
Lites got paid for my embarrassment, and so did Brad.

(01:02:19):
Did they like catfish? You did they catfish?

Speaker 5 (01:02:22):
You?

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
What?

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
I need to know more because also, like that seems
beyond wild for producers to do.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Yeah, that's so so crazy, Like.

Speaker 5 (01:02:33):
That does seem like a defamation lawsuit in some way.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
Absolutely, you could sign something maybe knowing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
See if you can sue man. Yeah, because that's like
how I just don't understand how they would flip something
that's supposed to be about finding a catfish so far
on its head, you know, right? Was he that they
paid catfish? Yeah, that they pay the catfish. I don't understand, Like,
why would they pay the catfish? Did they find him?
I don't understand. One of her old friends that she

(01:03:00):
vented to after the show was aired told me that
they planned it together, Latresea and Brad plotted to make
me the bad guys so they could get a quick check.

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
And the producers didn't realize that. And like, I guess
they want good TV.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
I just want to know. Am I the ale for
wanting her to suffer how I've suffered these last few years.
I will never be able to erase the trauma, but
I just want my truth told. I'm still being humiliated
by people who don't know me. People from my hometowns,
strangers in public and on the Internet. I want someone
to tell me I have every right to still be angry.
It seems like my reputation as a person has been

(01:03:35):
shattered by someone I trusted. Comment one, Why didn't you
sue them and the show for defamation and emotional damage
back then? Opie says, I did try to speak out
back then, but the show's management told me I couldn't
because I signed a contract before recording. But I never
knew they were going to backstab me in the middle
of the show, Like I literally got blindsided by Brad

(01:03:55):
trying to flip the script on me. I even tried
talking to Latrese after the crew left her. She just
shut me out and called law enforcement on me. Comment
to says, I read your post and one of your
applies to a comment you said that you signed a
contract with the TV show, so you can't take legal
action against them. Take that contract to a lawyer. Yeah,
tell the lawyer that the TV show accepted Brad's lies

(01:04:16):
about you messaging him and wanting him and aired it.
Tell them about the online abuse you suffered afterwards. They
will do this for a percentage of your compensation from
the TV station rather than you having to pay them directly.
Because the show can't actually win. They didn't do their
due diligence and they screened lies about you to millions
of yours. Any forensic analysis of your phone records will

(01:04:36):
prove it, Opie says. Anyone that I've told this to
you before has never told me I could still suit.
They've all told me to let it go and let
it just pass away. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money
for a good lawyer. I don't have a village that
will ride behind me either. My own family didn't even
help when the situation was still fresh. But thank you
so much for your advice. Another Reji read.

Speaker 4 (01:04:56):
It really deeply.

Speaker 6 (01:04:57):
There.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Do you see anything that you could maybe go off
of And if there's something there, like.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
You said, they'll do it for a percentage of the compensation.
You don't have to pay upfront. They earn what they
get from getting you money. You can actually sue the show,
Brad and Latrese. The show would be the hardest because
it's been a while, but Latrese and Brad you could
both sue for defamation since you can prove you never
sent them picks or messaged him, and you can prove
she made it up with him, and since she has
publicly aired a known falsehood, they have zero defense. And

(01:05:25):
your lawyer will be able to get text records from
all parties involved, so you will approved. He says, OMG,
all this time, I haven't been told any of this.
This is why I posted to get better in sight
and help. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Dank.

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
My next advice would be delete this post.

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
Yeah, dang man, it's crazy

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