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00:00 r/charlottedobreyoutube - My husband’s stepsister went nuts over our wedding, so we ghosted his family and moved to another country.
30:22 r/charlottedobreyoutube - Pushy stepmom tries to erase mother, gets a dose of karma
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Sam, this is John, and we are
the founding hosts of Okay Storytime Podcasts and we have
some foundational stories coming up for you. But the thing
is this foundation needs a little support from these sponsors,
So stick around two minutes and we'll get into the episode.
My husband's stepsister won't leave us alone, so we left
the country. Get out of there, Get out of that country.
(00:23):
Me twenty seven female and Callum twenty eight male, met
in college, fell in love, and decided to get married
once we both found stable jobs and a little life footing.
Callum is the nicest, weedest guy on the planet, but
also a bit of a people pleaser. He'll bend over backwards,
hold up to not hurt anyone's feelings that's relevant later
to explain why things went the way they did or
(00:45):
so long. By the way, this comes from Public Sense
fifteen oh three, and if you want to submit your
own stories, good to our slash Okay Storytime sr So.
A bit of info about me. I have dual citizenship.
My dad is Canadian, but I went to college in
the States in the same city. My maternal grandmother lives
family Looper Chill. Unless hockey's involved, then the gloves come off.
Callum's family not chill, They suck. His mom is actually fine,
(01:08):
she's the ex wife of his dad, But dad and
stepmom not so much. Enter Layla, which we love. Leila, yeah,
generally who at the time of this story was twenty
one female. She is Callum's stepsister from his dad's for marriage.
She's been in his life since she was a little kid.
(01:29):
But the critical detail here, Layla has had a crush
on Callum. Wait four years wait.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait the stepsister.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Don't go into the washing machine, step says the crush.
Layla has been a painfully obvious crush on Callum since
she was fourteen. At the time, everyone in his family
brushed it off as cute and puppy love. They make
comments like isn't it adorable how she follows him around,
which totally ignored how uncomfortable it made Callum. Once Callum
(01:58):
moved out, he went low contact with them, mostly to
escape Laila. She didn't take the hint, though, she kept
sending weirdly suggestive selfies, baking emergencies to guilt him into visiting,
and worst of all, making threat of self harm if
he didn't pay her enough attention.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Dude, why isn't this family do we anything to stop this?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
It was emotional blackmail, and Calum, being the nice guy
he is, felt torn between guilt and genuine unease over
her behavior. Throughout our time dating, Laylah was absolutely clingy.
She'd get furious if he ignored her calls, bombarred him
with text messages, and would show up at his apartment
and later our house, seemingly determined to insert herself into
(02:38):
every moment of our lives. Meanwhile, her mother, callum stepmom,
and Callum's dad did nothing more than coddle her, dismissing
her behavior as nothing more than harmless puppy love, rather
than stepping in to address the escalating boundary violation. That's
so frustrating now our engagement. I mean, Lailah's gonna go banana.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, Callum and
(02:59):
I Godden gave. She planned a sunset picnic and did
the cheesy ringing glass stunt, but with sparkling apple juice
as I don't drink. When we announced our happy news,
Leila immediately lost it. She posted sad, dramatic Tiktoks wrote
MOPI captions on her socials and repeatedly called me a
gold digger, which is wild because we're pretty much on
(03:21):
equal footing financially. Layo's parents suddenly decided it was Callum's
and my job to manage her feelings.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I'm sorry if I don't like usually encourage clapping back
on people's socials, but honestly, I would just go on
all of her posts and say you're into your step
brother question Mark and just leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
They insisted we post upon our wedding because it was
too distressing for Layla and that our mental health was fragile,
which is probably true, but it's not Op's job. I
maybe stand in and get her some help.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Sorry, yeah, there's some therapy. Health is fragile because you
guys did nothing.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
They even floated the idea that Callum should go to
couple's therapy with her to work out their relationship issues.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Why would you go to couple's.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Therapy, Yes, you read that right, couples therapy, not family
therapy couples. Suffice to say, that was a no from us,
But Callum did offer to attend family therapy, and we
were even willing to pay for it, they refused, and
the guilt tripping escalated. Relatives on that side of the
(04:27):
family started blowing up Callum's phone, telling him he was
being cruel by not taking Leila's emotional turmoil more seriously. Meanwhile,
Callum's biological mom, who's divorced from his dad, saw the
situation for what it was and encouraged him to cut
everyone from that side off and go no contact, just
like she did. But Callum wasn't quite ready to go
that extreme just yet. As I said, he is a
(04:47):
people pleaser, but we are working on it now. The
wedding dress, because of all the drama, I decided to
do dress shopping with only my mom, I made of honor,
and a couple of close friends who were honorary bridesmaids.
As I didn't plan on having a full wedding party,
I didn't even think to invite Layla or her mom
for obvious reasons. But that didn't stop Layla from showing
up unannounced to the dress shopping.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Who does that? She probably freaking showed up in a
white dress.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I'm here my own priest.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I have him on retainer.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
He's ready to stand in anytime. He can object to
he'll object to yours and then do mine.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
It's really quite easy.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
One stop shop. A friend posted a group picture in
front of the building to her Instagram, which is how
Leayla found out where we were. I was in the
middle of trying on a gorgeous a line gown when
who do I see in the mirrors reflection behind me? Layla? Dude,
It's like a horrible yeah, Hi, it's me Layla. Now
I don't remember everything that was said. Stress plus time
(05:44):
equals funny equals fuzzy memory. But some moments are burned
into my brain, like the way Laylah stormed right over
to me, looked me up and down, and sneered, Wow,
they actually have dresses in your size. Well, I'm not
a twig by any means. I love carbs way too much,
but I I do work out regularly and I'm proud
of my body. Yet hearing that while wearing what had
(06:05):
been and told that moment my yes dress was like
an ice cold got the old one too good hit.
My mom and friends were too stunned to respond right away,
as was I. But the boutique owner, an older, clearly
battle tested woman who must have seen every type of
bridal meltdown under the sun stepped in, forming Layla in
a stern and overly sweet tone that this was a
(06:27):
private appointment and she needed to leave. Layla's response, it's
probably gonna be measured and regularly.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, probably like oh, sorry, didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I'll see myself to declare that she was the groom's
sister and had a right to be there as this
was her brother's wedding. She then started pulling dresses off
racks at random, tossing them aside with nasty comments about
each one didn't suit.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Me or wouldn't fit baby girl. You can't have it
both way. He's either your brother or your lover.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, he can't come to the side. It took a
bit more back and forth and the thoughts of police
before Laila stormed out, And of course, Callum's dad and
stepmom tried to twist the situation into it being my fault.
Why didn't you invite her in the first place? You
know how sensitive she is. Just the same old tune
of Layla's fragile catered to whim the silver lining. I
(07:17):
still found my dream dress that day. It wasn't the
one I had been originally going to pick when Layla
showed up, but one that I personally think was far better.
That night, Calum and I had a long talk and
we agreed that Layla and by extension, that side of
his family would not be involved in any wedding events
outside of the actual wedding and would be on an
even stricter info diet. If they kept pushing, we'd have
(07:38):
no choice but to disinvite them entirely. We knew it
would stir up a hornet's nest, but we were out
of options. We did all the needed things to ensure
our wedding was drama and stress free. Passwords with all
our vendors, a day of coordinator who also recommended a
security company, and several other measures to be taken, no
plus ones unless we personally knew them, et cetera. Dude,
(08:00):
you know this kind of sounds like what the final.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Test you're You're like, Oh, you had to get through
Layla before you could have Callum. Yeah, we had to
know that you were strong.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I mean, yeah, the love is strong if you can
get through all this mess. Well, meanwhile, Callum's dad and
stepmom kept pushing. They said we should be patient because
Leila's mental health was delicate, and Calum's dad even threatened
to not attend himself if we didn't let her come
to my bridle shower, which honestly felt like more of
a relief than a threat, which brings us to the
next arc in this drama, The bridal shower.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
The shower.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Oh wow, we're not even a quarter done. Dang man,
there's a chunker. My bridle shower was a Bridgertron themed
high tea, because your girl was deep in her bridgerstron are.
Picture a dozen of my closest friends in a few relatives, Mom, grandma,
and cousin, dressed to the nines, pinkies out, sipping from
delicate teacups and speaking in fake push accidental. It was
(08:55):
honestly perfect, loss of laughter and zero signs of drama.
But the moment we left that bubble of the Regency
inspired bliss, my happy mood absolutely tanked. We stepped out
into the parking lot, chattered about how wonderful the evening
had been, only to find my car had been vandalized.
Both side mirrors were broken, almost every panel, keyed, four
(09:18):
flat tires and scratched on the hood. Was one word salute.
When the police arrived, they asked me if I had
any idea who might have done it. I could think
of only one person, who do you think it is?
Using your powers of deduction?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Must be that retainer priest.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I never trusted him, never trusted him. It was Leila.
The officer said, they do what they could, but with
no security cameras in that particular lot, it was basically
a lost cause unless someone confessed or we had direct evidence.
My insurance ended up covering part of the damage, but
the timing and the emotional toll was brutal. I remember
sobbing on the curb he dressed, and all feelings so
(09:54):
utterly done At that moment, I even considered if staying
with Callum was even worth it. No, let her take it,
don't she's she's gonna win. Don't let her win.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Don't let her win.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
He was and still is. And of course, when we
told Callum's dad and stepmom about the incident, they said
there was no proof it was Leila, and that random
acts of vandalism happen all the time, right because random
vandals regularly right that particular insult on vehicles parked at
Bridal Showers and yet none of this prepared me for
what Layla did next, the break in. Oh man, do
(10:26):
we have a lot, Leilah.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I really think that you have to talk to Callum
and say, dude, I understand that you have people pleasing tendencies,
but like I feel like my life is in danger.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, I mean this is getting dangerous.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Leila is crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I mean she's just drying property with drying property. But
now we get into the break in. So, with the
wedding just a few months away, Callum and I took
a quick weekend trip to visit my parents because the
stress was real. While we were gone, Laila apparently got
a key somehow. I don't know how her goal. We
still aren't entirely sure, but my friends and I believe
she might have been looking for my dress, which I
(11:03):
hadn't picked up from the shop yet as it needed alterations.
What she did, however, was go room to room wreaking havoc.
She ripped our frame photos off walls, destroyed them. Then
she pulled clothes out of my closet, leaving a huge
mess and torn fabric and broken hangars. Poured belief into
(11:23):
our fish tank. We know this because she left a
bottle next to the tank. And worst of all, she
stole my engagement ring. Oh now, my question is like,
why would you take off her engagement ring? Which I
bet you she's about to dance now. To answer the
question that I know you'll be asking, I had two rings.
A simple band that I wear daily and has inset
diamonds in the band so they don't get snagged or damaged.
(11:44):
Then I have my engagement ring, which is the fancy
diamond ring that I usually only wear on special occasions.
I'm clumsy and worried about knocking out the stone. Both
three wings are part of a set with my wedding
band and can be worn as a ring stack if
I want. And no, I didn't get my engagement ring back.
We don't know what she did with it, but it
was insured, so I did to get a very nice
replacement and even a second proposal ring along with you.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
You have to deal with this crazy family, Yeah, like,
thanks you for thank you for putting up with me.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, oh my god, this is wild. If not for
the cameras across the street the neighbor had, we might
have thought we'd been burglar eyes by a random stranger.
But no, who did we see entering our house like
she owned the place? Layla to even park in our driveway,
the audacity still ranking. We called the police and she
(12:34):
was ultimately arrested, but of course her parents and the
monkeys came flying to the rescue, and she was out
on bail soon after, and of course we were to blame. Wow,
there was not one word of an apology, not one
drop of remorse, just gaslighting and blame shifting. According to them,
we were blowing things out of proportion, and that Layla
was just emotion.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
She broke into their house. How is that just emotional?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Every phone call or text from the to the family
left us exhausted, anxious, and even more determined to keep
them at distance. That was the final straw about darn.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Todd, Dude, I'm sorry, no more.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Straws to be given.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Arrest Laila. You have proof, I.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Mean she finally, Yeah, we have proof to Brianna Coppola,
But I mean she's on bail, so she can still
cause more ruckus.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What is this?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'll never forget standing in the middle of my destroyed
living room, shaking with rage and heartbreak, knowing there was
no going back. We were done. Trying to compromise or
be polite about Laylah's behavior. If she'd proven anything is
that she'd escalate as far as she could if we
didn't draw a hard line, because we'd learned I was
pregnant while on our weekend get away, and if Lailah
was willing to go this far over a wedding, we
couldn't even imagine the length she might go if a
(13:45):
baby was in the picture. I laid it all out
for him that day. I was done, and either he
came with me or we were done too. Thankfully that
served as a wake up call that Callum needed. Now
we're getting to the next part of this story, canceling
the wedding.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
It's got to be an elopement.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Original plan was to power through and still have the wedding,
albeit with strict security, But after the break in and
now knowing I was pregnant, we decided enough was enough.
We were done putting up with Laila and her crazy
so we officially canceled the wedding. This was both out
of sheer exhaustion and because we honestly feared for my safety.
Layla was arrested for the break in, but let's be
real that doesn't magically fix her obsession. I guess we
could have gotten in a restraining order, but a piece
(14:22):
of paper don't stop crazy. We lost some of our deposits,
but honestly, that was the least of our worries. And
we're going to Operation Ghost, or some of my friends
jokingly called it. Our plan was dramatic and perhaps O
wee bits extreme, but my friends and I had a
lot of fun coming up with it. Step one, take
a breakup why to redirect Laylah's focus off me. Our
(14:43):
logic was that if Laila thought Calum and I were
no longer together, maybe should back up. The breakup story
was also to give me cover to move out of
our house and leave the country destination Canada, where my
parents live and I have support network of family and
friends that depend on That's crazy. That is so terrible
that you had to move to Canada but also.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Take a breakup, lie about leave under the cover of night,
and her parents still.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Cannot haven't held her accountable at all yet. That's crazy.
That's the craziest part. I feel so bad for op
tydaysha Powell says, I would have left to be honest, sorry,
but I've yet to find a man that makes me
want to allow my peace to be harmed.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well, I think I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
To say his fall. I mean like, if you really
love him.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I do think that you know. The things that I
will hold against him is that he's.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Not the people pleasing. I took all my things what
we could salvage after Layla's break in, that is, quit
my job and went to live with my parents. I
changed my phone number, blocked a bunch of suspicious accounts,
and basically went quiet on social media. If Laila or
her minions tried to stalk me, they'd hit a wall
of an activity. Meanwhile, Callum stayed in our old place
for the time being, as we had loose ends to
(15:56):
tie up the least on the house we were renting,
his job, et cetera. Thankfully, our landland was very understanding,
as we already discussed not renewing our lease, both because
we wanted a bigger place and because he wanted to sell.
After moving out and shipping me the few things I'd
left behind, Callum stayed with a friend, ignoring the offers
to stay with his dad and stepmom, and continued working
(16:16):
for another few weeks. Firstly because he wanted to leave
his employer on good terms and worked through the requested
notice period. And secondly because he had a particular date
in mind for his departure, which was about as petty
as I got in this entire song. Originally, we'd set
our wedding date for Midsummer, and after we canceled, Callum's
dads side of the family decided to turn that date
(16:37):
into a support Calum party. Leila was apparently in her element,
feeding them nonsense about how I was never good for
him in planning a party that would be far better
than what our wedding could have ever been.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Oh my gosh, it's going to be at the best
wedding I mean party, Yeah, the Callum.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Best engagement party for us, I mean just regular party.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
The priest, I mean, I mean the party planner.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
They're just there. They're not even going to do anything
unless unless something crazy happens, which I'm lazy makes crazy.
It's not like anything happened. No, no, no, no, it
wouldn't surprise me if she'd even bought herself a white
dress for the occasion. What they didn't know was I'd
booked Callum's fright for the morning of what would have
been our wedding day. He never would show up to
(17:19):
that party, didn't text or call to tell them he
wasn't coming. He just turned off his phone and ghosted them.
Happily ever after, minus the crazy in laws. That's the
next section of the story. To this day, Hallum and
I remained no contact with his dad's side of the family.
His mother, on the other hand, has been an amazing grandmother, loving, calm,
one hundred percent free of drama. He lived across the
country from us. I never really got involved with that
(17:41):
side of the family's antics. I'm so thankful we have
had at least one grandparent on Callum's side who can
shower our son with affection without bringing a tornado of
nonsense through the door. We've built a safe, stable, and
loving home. Callum's thriving in a new job. I'm soaking
up every moment of stay at home motherhood. I work
but remote, and our sweet boy is growing up surrounded
by loving, mentally stable grandparents, great grandparents and uncles. If
(18:04):
you made it this far, I salute you. I know
it was long, but trust me, before I polish it
up and trimmed down all the minor things that happened
in between, It was a lot longer, stay safe, set boundaries,
the toxic in laws and if all else fails, a
fake breakup and moving to another country, it might just
do the trick and we have an update. You thought
this was thought we wrapped it all alone. No, you thought, oh,
(18:26):
such a nice little bow. There's nothing crazy that's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Leila couldn't, could never, possibly.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
She can come to Canada. She doesn't know how to
fly now Leyla knows that to fly, and so do
her flying monkeys. Mmmmm M says, Yes, we love a
happy ending.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Wrong, wrong, We got an update and it might be happy,
but it might not be family reaction.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Sonny says, aren't they siblings? What the heck? There's step siblings,
step sibling, there's step siblings, and apparently Op and Callum
are the only people who find anything weird about that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, we don't have a lot of details. We know
from some friends and former co workers that his family
went around asking about him, and they were informed he
moved away, but he didn't tell his coworkers where, and
those that didn't know new enough not to spill the
details to his family. Leila did get into a verbal
altercation with one of my friends at her work, trying
(19:17):
to demand if he was with me and where I was.
The police were recalled to remove her from the store.
While that much happened. Beyond that was another day in
the Walmart. She was banned from the store. As my
friend manages that Talum's family knows that my family lives
in Canada, though not exactly where. They know which city,
but it's a big one. There were some attempts to
contact my parents, but those were either ignored or met
(19:37):
with stonewalling, and my parents ended up changing their numbers.
I'm my god, they're after doing so much. Wow. I
believe they do know we have a baby and got married,
but they aren't privy to our exact location. We can't
completely cut them off from learning details since we still
have contact with his mom and her side, who posts online,
as well as friends and other family members. We do
ask that post contain no pictures of our son or us,
(19:58):
but I know we can't control everything. As for our wedding,
after all the stress and drama of our first attempt,
we decided to scale down our plans. We got married
in an intimate backyard wedding with only a very few
close family and friends. Well, I couldn't wear my original
dress because my baby bump made it a bit of
a tight fit. It's a dress that isn't overly wedding
one of those reasons I chose it, and I ended
(20:19):
up wearing it for our first anniversary while we recently celebrated.
And now next part of the story Leila's arrest and charges.
Maybe finally some karma beIN caught up. What finally some
some karma catching up with ba Karma?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Then you said, bin.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Kotta some kara karma's catching up? Okay, God, finally karma's
catching up. Because it was our first official offense and
her parents got her a good lawyer, she ended up
taking a plea deal. She didn't serve jail time, but
was sentenced to probation, mandatory counseling, and ordered to pay
restitution for damages, which was paid to our lawyer into
(20:58):
a trust and then allocated us good From the time
Layla was arrested to the court hearing, it took around
six months. There were multiple delays, mainly because her lawyer
requested extensions. According to what our lawyer told us, we
weren't there for the hearing itself, using instead to submit
victim impact statements and such through a lawyer. It was
partly to avoid further emotional distress, but mostly because by
(21:20):
that point we'd already moved away and attending the hearing
in person felt like taking a step backward. And there's
another updates called minor issues.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh no, we were doing so well. Everyone was getting
what they deserved.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
No. I thought it was like, oh, that's a nice,
even nicer postcript.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah. I was like, yay, but at least there's minor,
just minors, not major as she was just all like,
Layla's back, No, she's back.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah. Maybe it's just like she's annoying us on social
media or so yeah. Because there was so much ongoing drama,
I originally trimmed my post for brevity. But here a
few things that occurred. Engagement party crash. Leyla crashed our
small friends only in engagement party barbecue, which was to
announce and celebrate our engagement with them. Laylah showed up
at the house and dramatically burst into tears, claimed we
had purposely excluded her countless people pleasing ways and desire
(22:10):
not to cause a scene. Came to the forefront, resulting
in Leayla joining us. Oh, she spent the entire night
whining about the food, pouting and attempting to eat things
off his plate, h asking him for his jacket because
he was because she was cold.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, damn, Jackie, I can't control the weather.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
It wasn't cold, and he wasn't even wearing a jacket,
and various other small antics to be the center of attention.
I meanwhile, decided to punish him by keeping well away
from them, both so he could reap what he sewed
and letting her stay. My go to line was it's
your sister, not mine. You deal here there.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
If he's gonna let her say and be the people pleaser,
then he's got to deal with the consequences.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And then next job sabotage attempt I suspect, but I
have no real proof that Leyela and her friends tried
to sabotage my job by making false complaints to HR
alleging inappropriate behavior. Thankfully, my boss knew me well enough
to see through the claims, and we have cameras which
they reviewed. But it still led to an uncomfortable conversation
with a lot of anxiety over my job. I also
suspect it isn't the first time she has done this,
(23:11):
as I was let go from my previous employer from
complaints about my conduct with customer.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Oh my god, she is false claims to get you fired.
Nobody followed up on that.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Laila has successfully ruined everything successfully. I mean, as at
least the marriage wasn't broken up. But she's been pretty.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
But she canceled the she got the wedding canceled. She
got them to literally move countries.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I mean she uh. I mean, say what you will
about Laila, but dang is she effective? Hard worker? I
only a hard worker if only she applied that to
anything else. So fake illness. Leila pretended to have a
severe illness while her parents were away on holiday she
lives with them. Desperately demanding Callum to come over. She
sent him panic text claiming she could hardly breathe and
(23:57):
she thought she might die because she couldn't find her inhaler. Callum,
genuinely concerned and too nice for his own good, rushed
over with me along for the ride, and she opened
the door in a skimpy nightgown yea, throwing herself at him,
losing and coughing. She miraculously recovered after seeing I was
there For context. She has asthma and often uses it
(24:20):
as an excuse for attention. One more thing, On the
same note, she once accused me of trying to unlive
her because I'd worn some fororal perfume around her. I
didn't stop wearing it after this, but she continued to
accuse me of wearing strong perfumes afterward, even though I'd
long since stopped wearing them and only use minimally scented roll.
On next part of the story, social media, Oh my goodness, Layla.
(24:43):
Leila was rather active online, posting vague, get passive, aggressive
statuses about how the family betrays you and men are
scum who don't know what they have. And while I
have no proof, I suspect Leila and her friends were
the ones creating anonymous accounts to spam my social media
with hateful comments, insults about my appearance, and accusations about
being un faithful, a gold digger, and more. I did
lock down as best I could, but even my phone
(25:04):
would get spammed with messages and I had to change
my numbers several times. As she was I suspect using
my number on various websites for quotes and callbacks for salespeople, insurance,
et cetera. Then there's a wedding registry sabotage. Again. I
have no proof, but someone with access to our wedding
registries started marking nearly everything as purchased. This was found
out when a friend asked me what else we might
(25:26):
want as everything on the registry was taken. With everything
going on, I don't know who else to accuse, but Laila,
these smaller, those still wildly frustrating issues made the larger
events feel even more exhausting. Writing it all out makes
it even clearer that we should have set more boundaries
and enforced them way earlier. It wasn't that we weren't trying,
(25:46):
because we were. We made numerous attempts to set firm boundaries,
from directly confronting Layla about our behavior, to limiting contact
to explicitly laying out what was and wasn't acceptable. But
every single time we drew a line, family pushback, accusing
us of overfreacting and being cruel, and ask Callum to
be a good brother because his sister needed him.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Someone needs to pick what they want Callum to be
towards Tila. I'm just switching it up.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I just don't know how they see all this behavior
and are not trying to put some kind of line there,
Like what it felt like finding a constant, uphill battle
with Leila always cast as the victim and us made
out to be unreasonable villains standing up for ourselves. For me,
I'm out of people pleaser like Callum. I am more
roll my eyes and move on kind of person. So
I initially let a lot of things slide, thinking it
(26:35):
wasn't worth the energy or stress to fight every small battle.
I figured Leila would eventually get bored, which she did not.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, Layla finds ways to entertain herself.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I thought she'd grow out of it, or at least
redirect her obsession elsewhere. I even tried to set her
up on a date at one point while Calum and
I were just dating. God to help that guy. Oh
my goodness, watch out. Yeah. She wasn't as bad before
we got engaged, and back then most of her antics
were annoying but manageable. It was only after we announced
our engagement that Layla's behavior escalated dramatically. When we were dating,
(27:08):
it was things like Laylah constantly texting her, calling Calum
late at night, having small emergencies just to get his attention,
like having asthma attack. And now I'm writing this, I'm
wondering if her allergic reactions were her purposely eating sesame
or sesame products, or if they were legitimate mistakes.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Then Leyla, you never know.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Then there was her showing up unannounced to his apartment
and then our house after removed, whenever she knew we
had plans. She once let herself in very early in
her dating days and had a complete breakdown after finding
us in bed sleeping. This should have probably been a
red flag, but I was a bit love sick for
my husband back then. Who am I kidding? I still am?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
She broke Wait what happened?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Broke into the house and then went into the room,
went into their room and was like ah. She also
regularly tried to guilt trip him into canceling dates by
pretending to feel lonely or abandoned. When she even through
a tantrum because Calum spent Valentine's Day with me instead
of her claiming he was neglecting family. God now remember
that one. It really makes me cringe. But while annoying
(28:09):
and frustrating. These things felt more childish and cringe rather
than outright malicious, so I mistakenly thought she'd eventually grew
out of them. Clearly we underestimated how far she'd be
willing to go, By the way, should never underestimate how
many episodes we have the Okay story Time and you
can go listen to full episodes with stories just like this.
Go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app
(28:29):
and search Okay Storytime. There's another relevant updates and I'm
just going to go straight through it. Hey it's Sam.
We're gonna get back to the stories. But here's three
minutes bads from our sponsors. Truthfully writing this now, if
I was the person I am today and was back
at the start of dating Callum, I don't think we
would have made it past the first few months. Not
because Callum he's always been wonderful, but because the family
(28:49):
drama and like a Layla's obsession would have been an
immediate deal breaker. The older and wiser verse of myself
recognizes that love alone isn't always enough healthy boundaries, mutual respect,
in a motional safety it mattered just as much. Thankfully,
Callum eventually saw this too, but it was a long
journey to get there, and a really good therapist definitely helped,
as did some of the books on a meshment she
(29:11):
had us read. Honestly, it's eye opening now to see
just how much we tolerated slash overlooked in the name
of keeping the peace. And that is where that saga.
My goodness, Leila needs to learn some boundaries and maybe
maybe learn that in the confines a very small cell.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Wow, well we got one more story. I mean, it
sounds like she just never got therapy. Sounds like she
was never given boundaries that she respect. It's yeah, it's really.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Bad, but let's get into this next story.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Oh wait, that's a great Wait. Wait can I can
I dunk my head in cold water really quick? That's
we'll be back.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I'm gonna leave you to keyon now, all right, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I am ready.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
All right, let's do it. I'm s wearing a towel.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Now, how do you do the thing? What the ladies
do you throw?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
So you did it?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
You had it, but it wasn't quite there.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
So yeah, did you just twist it?
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I twisted twist it, twist it and then and then yeah,
and then to throw it behind you.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
My goddaughter's stepmother tried to replace our real mother and
got a dose of karma.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Karma needs to come to someone. I was tired and
I needed to dug my head in the ice bath.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
This is a story about my unofficial daughter, Ella. Ella
is the daughter of a dear friend of mine who
I will call Mary. Mary and I have been friends
since secondary school. Although we had less contact her in
college due to her studying abroad, we will remained close
by the way. This comes from Burner Account ninety ninety
eight seventy six, and if you want to submit your
own stories, go to our slash Okay story time suppred
(30:55):
it so. At Mary's and her husband's Tom's wedding, I
played an important role when Ella was born. I was
made godmother when my twins were born. Mary became godmother
to my daughter. We were part of each other's family
honorary aunts and uncles. Fourteen years ago, Mary got sick
with cancer. Hobby and I stepped into help where we could.
Ella was ten at the time of the diagnosis. It
(31:18):
seemed to go well at first, until it didn't. Mary
passed away when Ella was eleven, we were all devastated.
Mary's parents had left Mary with some family heirloom jewelry,
and when Mary was terminal, she made her will. I
will be honest. Tom is a good man at heart,
but has no backbone and does everything to avoid confrontation.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Noodle spine, Noodle Tom, Noodle time, Noodle spine.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Noodle Tom, Tom, the man is worse than me. I
know that I also lacked a backbone. Mary was very
afraid what would happen if he would marry again, and
that person wouldn't have Ella's interest at heart. In her
infinite wisdom, Mary made an iron clad will. The heirloom
jewelry was left with me as Mary wanted me to
give Ella everything when she would marry. Tom had documentation
(32:07):
and insurance papers of every piece, as did the attorney
who made Mary's will. After Mary's death and funeral, Tom
and Ella got our support. We helped Ella navigate a
life without her mother, standing in when she needed me
as a mother figure. He helped Tom with whatever support
he needed, and when Ella was twelve, Tom met Clarissa.
(32:29):
Clarissa couldn't have children of her own, and when she
and Ella were introduced to one another. She latched on
to Ella Wheersa, tried to erase Mary's memory in whatever
way she could, and inserted herself in every moment possible.
He introduced herself as Ella's mom and completely ignored every
boundary Ella put out.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
You could not know. God, get wait and this is
the mom passed away.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Mom just passed away, and now she's introducing me.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Kay, I forget about that that old thing. That's yesterday's news, yesterday's.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Mom, today's mom.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
We would improved mom two point zero.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
She became jealous of the bond between Ella and me
and tried many different things to separate us. Things took
a bad turn when Ella was four fourteen. I remember
this day very well. It was a Monday. I had
an appointment with a client at the venue they owned
at the time. This appointment was later in the day.
The venue itself was a nice one and often used
(33:28):
for reunions, birthdays, weddings, and the owner let the elderly
people use it twice a week for their hobbies and activities.
Mom's mother, Stacy, who was still alive then, was a
volunteer and helped in the organization. I was waiting in
the lobby when Stacy saw me, came up and we
started to chat. Eventually the owner came and greeted us
(33:49):
with the remark, eh, how wonderful to see you here.
I'm so excited for Tom and Claius, this wedding, this
upcoming Saturday. I'm sure you are as well. Stacy and
I were shocked. Wedding. What wedding? No clue? The owner
sensed something was wrong. When the shock had worn off,
the owner and I went to the office and conducted
the business that I came from. After this was done,
(34:11):
I asked some questions, wedding is this Saturday? What time?
How many people? I managed to gather everything. The owner
even showed me the contract with both signatures of Tom
and Clarissa. She gathered that we didn't know and was
somewhat shocked as she knew our history. Then I went
to find Stacy and told her everything. This woman was
(34:33):
a livid her son was getting remarried and she wasn't
informed nor invited. Yeah, now you look like you're in Greece, Marizonaona.
I also hadn't heard anything from Ella. She told me
that Tom and she would go away to have a
(34:54):
father daughter At this point, we had the growing suspicion
that Tom had been lying to Ella about that Saturday's
plan to Yeah, I mean, seems like there's a lot
of lies going around about this sweat to.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Keep track of Speaking of trying to keep track of things,
can you give me a TLDR?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Ah basically sorry, sorry?
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Could you give everyone else a TLDR?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah? Okay, So I believe what happened is Opie's Opie
is the god daughter to her her friend who passed
her daughter. Uh, and this daughter's like the friend's husband
remarried to this new stepmom who has kind of been
(35:39):
inserting herself in every way.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
And I believe way a friend's husband.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Or Opie's friend's husband, friend's husband, Uh, he remarried, and
the new stepmother of this daughter has been trying to
insert herself in every way. Yeah, and I think what's
happening now is that Tom who's the husband, and the
(36:07):
new stepmom. I guess this is when they got married. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, sorry,
So this is in the past, before they were married.
So now Opie is recounting the time when they found
out that they were getting married.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
They said, they're not married yet.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
They weren't married at the time in the past. Now
Tom is now getting married to Clarissa, and Opie found
out that Tom's mom, Stacy, didn't know that this wedding
was happening. Okay, I also hadn't heard anything from Ella.
You told me that Tom and she would go away
to have a father daughter day. At this point, we
(36:40):
had the growing suspicion that Tom had been lying to
Ella about the Saturday play. That is crazy. That is
crazy to be like the daughter and expecting a father
daughter day and you just get your father marrying this
terrible stepmom.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, you're literally marrying the evil step right wedding you
you are a Disney character.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
To unravel this growing mystery, she and I went to
pay Tom a visit. We had some time until Ella
came home, and we didn't want her to see or
hear any of this. Stacy went off the moment he
opened the door. She barged in and furiously told them
to explain himself. Clarissa came home and join in the fight.
Accusations flo left and right. In a quiet moment, I asked,
(37:26):
does Ella know about your wedding? We wedding. I don't
know about anything about a wedding. Ella had come home
earlier than expected, practice had finished sooner. Then the realization
hit poor Ella. She asked Tom if that was the
plan for Saturday, their wedding instead of some father daughter bonding.
Clarissa caught in and told her that she had been
motherless long enough and this wedding would give her a
(37:48):
new mother.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Oh my god, you can't replace my mom. Stop trying
to you're on.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
My mom Ooh boy. Ella didn't even get the chance
to say anything. Her beloved grandma Stacy did that for her.
Stacy tore Clarissa a new one. Blunley told her that
she would have that she had a wonderful daughter in law,
and that she would and could never replace her. A
wedding wouldn't change the fact that she disregarded Ella's wishes
(38:16):
from the get go, trying to erase the memory of
a good woman and mother and trying to destroy the
relationship between me and Ella. She also told her own
son that he was a weak willed man and that
is why he was never made the executor of Mary's will,
because she had always known deep down that she couldn't
trust him to protect their daughter.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh my God, she sounds like a lovely bowl of
soup that you just want to slurp on a cold day.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Uh yeah. To add insult injury, she told them she
disowned him and would make sure neither he nor the
Pispoor substitute would get anything from her. Props to Stacy Man.
Stacy did not hold back. She had something to say
and she said it you shot at it, and with
that she asked me to drive her. Ella was enraged
(39:06):
and wanted to live with her grandmother. Tom and Clarissa
said no, Ella came to us, but we couldn't do anything.
Tom tried to threaten us by saying that he would
forbid Ella to come to us if we did or
said anything. Ubby laughed in his face, asked if he
was Clarissa's lapdog now, and said that we didn't need
or say anything to dang him or Clarissa in Ella's eyes,
(39:28):
as we couldn't do a better job than they were
doing themselves. Ella became silent. In the next couple of days,
they became the talk of the town.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I mean, it's a big blot. I can't understand.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Why Stacy told a lot of people what was going on.
People do love drama. So Saturday rolls around. Our children
had their pre arranged sleepover with some relatives, something that
we saw as a blessing in disguise. We were nervous.
We decided to go to Stacy's as we figured, Oh,
she was just as anxious. At eleven thirty am, Tom
(39:59):
called us in a fe yuri, asking where Ella was.
We had no idea what he was talking about. After
some back and forth and us telling Tom to stop
the legal threats, we got the story. Apparently Clarissa had
bought Ella a dress for the wedding, absolutely not Ella's style,
but hey, it's not like Clarissa ever listened to what
Ella told her. Ella had taken it upon herself to
(40:20):
buy a black dress and shoes, as if in mourning. Yeah,
I mean celebrate your mom.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Over this, yeah, a statement.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
She had managed to sneak in the dress, and when
asked for privacy to get change, she spilled some drink
on the dress. Clarissa got her then put the black
dress on. Wow, but she didn't stop there.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I feel like that's like almost like art, you know.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, I mean this is like princess Princess die level
of Yeah, Glarisa hadn't put on her wedding dress yet.
She had booked a room that had something like a
sliding wall separating two rooms, each with her own beds, vanity,
et cetera. It stored her wedding dress in the front room,
and she was in the other room, where the hair
makeup stylist was busy doing the hair and makeup of
(41:07):
the blushing bride. Ella snuck in and put itching powder
in Clarissa's dress.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Oh wow oo, I mean she's fourteen. Wow, but yeah,
it's still yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Like it's a big move, but she is fourteen. I
can't say it's a mature move.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
But we won't. We all condone it. But it is
a nice little home alone prank.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Then she left the room as quietly as she had come.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Itching powder. What's itching powder?
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Uh? It's it's itching powder. What do you mean it
makes you itch?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Why do they have that?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Have you not seen like any movie with a bully
in it?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Itching powder? Yeah? No, I've never heard of itching.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
It's like, I don't know, I feel like it's super
common in like every high school movie with a bully.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Tom flipped his lid when he saw his daughter. Ella
didn't care less, showed him the dress Clarissa gave her
and sat at the front of the venue. When Clarissa
saw her, she seemed very angry, but focused on the ceremony.
She was visibly uncomfortable and kept pulling her dress and
scratching it.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Nita Nelson says, maturemercier.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah. When the famous line I've object now or forever
hold her peace was said, Ella made her speech. Oh wow,
Ella's pulling out all.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
The saws stops. Dude.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yeah, he was an impressive fourteen year old.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
The owner later called and told us what was said.
Ella spoke her mind about what Clarissa had done and
not done, how Tom had failed her as a father,
and that Clarissa would never be her mother, alongside some
other things. Then she left the venue.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Kind of just like poetic.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, yeah, I mean this is iconic. Tom tried to
call Ella, but she was ignoring his calls. Stacey managed
to contact Ella and picked her up. Afterwards. She called
Tom basically saying her would spend the rest of the
weekend at her house and she would bring Ella home
Sunday evening. Ella was silent but had a look of
satisfaction on her face. We hugged a lot and told
(43:11):
her she's always welcome at our house and that she
was loved. Sunday evening, Stacy takes Ella back home. According
to Stacy, Clarissa looked like a slice of raw steak
due to her scratching herself.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Oh wow wow.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Larissa started to freak out the moment they entered the house,
screeching at Ala, about you ruined our wedding. This was
out of line and my personal favorite, how could she
do this to her mother?
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Uh? Stop taking the girl.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
You can't catch a hints. Oh how I wish I
could have seen this myself. When those words left Clarissa's lips,
Stacy slapped her and told Clarissa that she would never
utter those words to Ella ever. Again. She wasn't her
mother and her spread in her legs for he son
wouldn't change that. Stacy read them the Riot Act, telling
(44:02):
them that if they even thought of barring her and
me and Hobby from Ella's life or making Ella's life
more difficult, she would make their lives a living Heck.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Again, we're not advocating for the slapping, no no, but
if you say these things you should expect to maybe
get slapped by someone. Yeah, you can't go out saying
these things not expecting consequences.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
But ideally you're not the one.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Ideally though, But we don't advise you whiles to be
the purpose No.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
No, one slap people not a good move.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yes, but also don't say crazy things. Expect not to
be slapped.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah, expect a slap, but don't be the slapper.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Uh. Then she left. Tom and Clarissa didn't try anything
until Stacey passed away. When Ella was sixteen. She kept
her word, disowning her own son. He only got what
the law allowed him. The rest went to Ella. Since
Ella was still a minor at the time of the
will change, Stacy named two executors to make sure Ella
got what Stacy left her. This included her apartment and
(45:01):
some savings. And you guess who those two were. Give
yourselves a cookie if you think it was me and Hobby.
Did we know, yes. Did we say anything to Tom
and Clarissa before Stacy's passing Nope? Did they lose their
minds yep, yep. Did we care, absolutely not. Did they
(45:21):
try to fight the will, of course it did. Did
it matter Nope? Stacy had made sure that several independent
doctors had declared her of sound mind before she made
the will. Since Stacy had also given Tom his rightful
inheritance by law, he couldn't do it ang thing. Tom
called us after the court's decision to try and get
us to give him the role of executor of the
(45:42):
will alongside Mary's belongings that she had given to me.
He tried, saying that Izola's father and Mary's widower he
had more right to that role. We just hung up
and he didn't try again. But we would love if
you could try and listen to more full episodes stories
just like this. Just go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or
iHeartRadio and search a booky story time. But there is
(46:04):
a little bit left to this story.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
You any dive into it. Okay, hey, it's Sam. We're
gonna get back to these stories. But here's three minutes
of ads from our sponsors.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
When Ella turned eighteen, everything was transferred to Ella left
the house and from there she slowly rebuilt somewhat of
a relationship with Tom and to an extent, Larissa. Clarissa
calmed down a bit after Stacy's slap, and Ella became
an expert in shutting them both down. Bubby and I
have stayed out of it. After Tom's attempt of getting
(46:34):
his hands on Ella's inheritance from both her and mother
and grandmother, we have had no contact. We never contacted
them and they never contacted us. We have always supported
Ella in the following years. She went to college, traveled abroad,
got a job, and got her life together. And that
is the end of that.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Story and the end of this episode.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
So if you love us, make sure to subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
We love you and see it.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Am Oh
Hey, this is Sam, this is John, and we are
the founding hosts of Okay Storytime Podcasts and we have
some foundational stories coming up for you. But the thing
is this foundation needs a little support from these sponsors,
So stick around two minutes and we'll get into the episode.
My husband's stepsister won't leave us alone, so we left
the country. Get out of there, Get out of that country.
(00:23):
Me twenty seven female and Callum twenty eight male, met
in college, fell in love, and decided to get married
once we both found stable jobs and a little life footing.
Callum is the nicest, weedest guy on the planet, but
also a bit of a people pleaser. He'll bend over backwards,
hold up to not hurt anyone's feelings that's relevant later
to explain why things went the way they did or
(00:45):
so long. By the way, this comes from Public Sense
fifteen oh three, and if you want to submit your
own stories, good to our slash Okay Storytime sr So.
A bit of info about me. I have dual citizenship.
My dad is Canadian, but I went to college in
the States in the same city. My maternal grandmother lives
family Looper Chill. Unless hockey's involved, then the gloves come off.
Callum's family not chill, They suck. His mom is actually fine,
(01:08):
she's the ex wife of his dad, But dad and
stepmom not so much. Enter Layla, which we love. Leila, yeah,
generally who at the time of this story was twenty
one female. She is Callum's stepsister from his dad's for marriage.
She's been in his life since she was a little kid.
(01:29):
But the critical detail here, Layla has had a crush
on Callum. Wait four years wait.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait the stepsister.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Don't go into the washing machine, step says the crush.
Layla has been a painfully obvious crush on Callum since
she was fourteen. At the time, everyone in his family
brushed it off as cute and puppy love. They make
comments like isn't it adorable how she follows him around,
which totally ignored how uncomfortable it made Callum. Once Callum
(01:58):
moved out, he went low contact with them, mostly to
escape Laila. She didn't take the hint, though, she kept
sending weirdly suggestive selfies, baking emergencies to guilt him into visiting,
and worst of all, making threat of self harm if
he didn't pay her enough attention.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Dude, why isn't this family do we anything to stop this?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
It was emotional blackmail, and Calum, being the nice guy
he is, felt torn between guilt and genuine unease over
her behavior. Throughout our time dating, Laylah was absolutely clingy.
She'd get furious if he ignored her calls, bombarred him
with text messages, and would show up at his apartment
and later our house, seemingly determined to insert herself into
(02:38):
every moment of our lives. Meanwhile, her mother, callum stepmom,
and Callum's dad did nothing more than coddle her, dismissing
her behavior as nothing more than harmless puppy love, rather
than stepping in to address the escalating boundary violation. That's
so frustrating now our engagement. I mean, Lailah's gonna go banana.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, Callum and
(02:59):
I Godden gave. She planned a sunset picnic and did
the cheesy ringing glass stunt, but with sparkling apple juice
as I don't drink. When we announced our happy news,
Leila immediately lost it. She posted sad, dramatic Tiktoks wrote
MOPI captions on her socials and repeatedly called me a
gold digger, which is wild because we're pretty much on
(03:21):
equal footing financially. Layo's parents suddenly decided it was Callum's
and my job to manage her feelings.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I'm sorry if I don't like usually encourage clapping back
on people's socials, but honestly, I would just go on
all of her posts and say you're into your step
brother question Mark and just leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
They insisted we post upon our wedding because it was
too distressing for Layla and that our mental health was fragile,
which is probably true, but it's not Op's job. I
maybe stand in and get her some help.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Sorry, yeah, there's some therapy. Health is fragile because you
guys did nothing.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
They even floated the idea that Callum should go to
couple's therapy with her to work out their relationship issues.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Why would you go to couple's.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Therapy, Yes, you read that right, couples therapy, not family
therapy couples. Suffice to say, that was a no from us,
But Callum did offer to attend family therapy, and we
were even willing to pay for it, they refused, and
the guilt tripping escalated. Relatives on that side of the
(04:27):
family started blowing up Callum's phone, telling him he was
being cruel by not taking Leila's emotional turmoil more seriously. Meanwhile,
Callum's biological mom, who's divorced from his dad, saw the
situation for what it was and encouraged him to cut
everyone from that side off and go no contact, just
like she did. But Callum wasn't quite ready to go
that extreme just yet. As I said, he is a
(04:47):
people pleaser, but we are working on it now. The
wedding dress, because of all the drama, I decided to
do dress shopping with only my mom, I made of honor,
and a couple of close friends who were honorary bridesmaids.
As I didn't plan on having a full wedding party,
I didn't even think to invite Layla or her mom
for obvious reasons. But that didn't stop Layla from showing
up unannounced to the dress shopping.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Who does that? She probably freaking showed up in a
white dress.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I'm here my own priest.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I have him on retainer.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
He's ready to stand in anytime. He can object to
he'll object to yours and then do mine.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
It's really quite easy.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
One stop shop. A friend posted a group picture in
front of the building to her Instagram, which is how
Leayla found out where we were. I was in the
middle of trying on a gorgeous a line gown when
who do I see in the mirrors reflection behind me? Layla? Dude,
It's like a horrible yeah, Hi, it's me Layla. Now
I don't remember everything that was said. Stress plus time
(05:44):
equals funny equals fuzzy memory. But some moments are burned
into my brain, like the way Laylah stormed right over
to me, looked me up and down, and sneered, Wow,
they actually have dresses in your size. Well, I'm not
a twig by any means. I love carbs way too much,
but I I do work out regularly and I'm proud
of my body. Yet hearing that while wearing what had
(06:05):
been and told that moment my yes dress was like
an ice cold got the old one too good hit.
My mom and friends were too stunned to respond right away,
as was I. But the boutique owner, an older, clearly
battle tested woman who must have seen every type of
bridal meltdown under the sun stepped in, forming Layla in
a stern and overly sweet tone that this was a
(06:27):
private appointment and she needed to leave. Layla's response, it's
probably gonna be measured and regularly.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, probably like oh, sorry, didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I'll see myself to declare that she was the groom's
sister and had a right to be there as this
was her brother's wedding. She then started pulling dresses off
racks at random, tossing them aside with nasty comments about
each one didn't suit.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Me or wouldn't fit baby girl. You can't have it
both way. He's either your brother or your lover.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, he can't come to the side. It took a
bit more back and forth and the thoughts of police
before Laila stormed out, And of course, Callum's dad and
stepmom tried to twist the situation into it being my fault.
Why didn't you invite her in the first place? You
know how sensitive she is. Just the same old tune
of Layla's fragile catered to whim the silver lining. I
(07:17):
still found my dream dress that day. It wasn't the
one I had been originally going to pick when Layla
showed up, but one that I personally think was far better.
That night, Calum and I had a long talk and
we agreed that Layla and by extension, that side of
his family would not be involved in any wedding events
outside of the actual wedding and would be on an
even stricter info diet. If they kept pushing, we'd have
(07:38):
no choice but to disinvite them entirely. We knew it
would stir up a hornet's nest, but we were out
of options. We did all the needed things to ensure
our wedding was drama and stress free. Passwords with all
our vendors, a day of coordinator who also recommended a
security company, and several other measures to be taken, no
plus ones unless we personally knew them, et cetera. Dude,
(08:00):
you know this kind of sounds like what the final.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Test you're You're like, Oh, you had to get through
Layla before you could have Callum. Yeah, we had to
know that you were strong.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
I mean, yeah, the love is strong if you can
get through all this mess. Well, meanwhile, Callum's dad and
stepmom kept pushing. They said we should be patient because
Leila's mental health was delicate, and Calum's dad even threatened
to not attend himself if we didn't let her come
to my bridle shower, which honestly felt like more of
a relief than a threat, which brings us to the
next arc in this drama, The bridal shower.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
The shower.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Oh wow, we're not even a quarter done. Dang man,
there's a chunker. My bridle shower was a Bridgertron themed
high tea, because your girl was deep in her bridgerstron are.
Picture a dozen of my closest friends in a few relatives, Mom, grandma,
and cousin, dressed to the nines, pinkies out, sipping from
delicate teacups and speaking in fake push accidental. It was
(08:55):
honestly perfect, loss of laughter and zero signs of drama.
But the moment we left that bubble of the Regency
inspired bliss, my happy mood absolutely tanked. We stepped out
into the parking lot, chattered about how wonderful the evening
had been, only to find my car had been vandalized.
Both side mirrors were broken, almost every panel, keyed, four
(09:18):
flat tires and scratched on the hood. Was one word salute.
When the police arrived, they asked me if I had
any idea who might have done it. I could think
of only one person, who do you think it is?
Using your powers of deduction?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Must be that retainer priest.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I never trusted him, never trusted him. It was Leila.
The officer said, they do what they could, but with
no security cameras in that particular lot, it was basically
a lost cause unless someone confessed or we had direct evidence.
My insurance ended up covering part of the damage, but
the timing and the emotional toll was brutal. I remember
sobbing on the curb he dressed, and all feelings so
(09:54):
utterly done At that moment, I even considered if staying
with Callum was even worth it. No, let her take it,
don't she's she's gonna win. Don't let her win.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Don't let her win.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
He was and still is. And of course, when we
told Callum's dad and stepmom about the incident, they said
there was no proof it was Leila, and that random
acts of vandalism happen all the time, right because random
vandals regularly right that particular insult on vehicles parked at
Bridal Showers and yet none of this prepared me for
what Layla did next, the break in. Oh man, do
(10:26):
we have a lot, Leilah.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I really think that you have to talk to Callum
and say, dude, I understand that you have people pleasing tendencies,
but like I feel like my life is in danger.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, I mean this is getting dangerous.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Leila is crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I mean she's just drying property with drying property. But
now we get into the break in. So, with the
wedding just a few months away, Callum and I took
a quick weekend trip to visit my parents because the
stress was real. While we were gone, Laila apparently got
a key somehow. I don't know how her goal. We
still aren't entirely sure, but my friends and I believe
she might have been looking for my dress, which I
(11:03):
hadn't picked up from the shop yet as it needed alterations.
What she did, however, was go room to room wreaking havoc.
She ripped our frame photos off walls, destroyed them. Then
she pulled clothes out of my closet, leaving a huge
mess and torn fabric and broken hangars. Poured belief into
(11:23):
our fish tank. We know this because she left a
bottle next to the tank. And worst of all, she
stole my engagement ring. Oh now, my question is like,
why would you take off her engagement ring? Which I
bet you she's about to dance now. To answer the
question that I know you'll be asking, I had two rings.
A simple band that I wear daily and has inset
diamonds in the band so they don't get snagged or damaged.
(11:44):
Then I have my engagement ring, which is the fancy
diamond ring that I usually only wear on special occasions.
I'm clumsy and worried about knocking out the stone. Both
three wings are part of a set with my wedding
band and can be worn as a ring stack if
I want. And no, I didn't get my engagement ring back.
We don't know what she did with it, but it
was insured, so I did to get a very nice
replacement and even a second proposal ring along with you.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
You have to deal with this crazy family, Yeah, like,
thanks you for thank you for putting up with me.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, oh my god, this is wild. If not for
the cameras across the street the neighbor had, we might
have thought we'd been burglar eyes by a random stranger.
But no, who did we see entering our house like
she owned the place? Layla to even park in our driveway,
the audacity still ranking. We called the police and she
(12:34):
was ultimately arrested, but of course her parents and the
monkeys came flying to the rescue, and she was out
on bail soon after, and of course we were to blame. Wow,
there was not one word of an apology, not one
drop of remorse, just gaslighting and blame shifting. According to them,
we were blowing things out of proportion, and that Layla
was just emotion.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
She broke into their house. How is that just emotional?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Every phone call or text from the to the family
left us exhausted, anxious, and even more determined to keep
them at distance. That was the final straw about darn.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Todd, Dude, I'm sorry, no more.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Straws to be given.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Arrest Laila. You have proof, I.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Mean she finally, Yeah, we have proof to Brianna Coppola,
But I mean she's on bail, so she can still
cause more ruckus.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
What is this?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'll never forget standing in the middle of my destroyed
living room, shaking with rage and heartbreak, knowing there was
no going back. We were done. Trying to compromise or
be polite about Laylah's behavior. If she'd proven anything is
that she'd escalate as far as she could if we
didn't draw a hard line, because we'd learned I was
pregnant while on our weekend get away, and if Lailah
was willing to go this far over a wedding, we
couldn't even imagine the length she might go if a
(13:45):
baby was in the picture. I laid it all out
for him that day. I was done, and either he
came with me or we were done too. Thankfully that
served as a wake up call that Callum needed. Now
we're getting to the next part of this story, canceling
the wedding.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
It's got to be an elopement.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Original plan was to power through and still have the wedding,
albeit with strict security, But after the break in and
now knowing I was pregnant, we decided enough was enough.
We were done putting up with Laila and her crazy
so we officially canceled the wedding. This was both out
of sheer exhaustion and because we honestly feared for my safety.
Layla was arrested for the break in, but let's be
real that doesn't magically fix her obsession. I guess we
could have gotten in a restraining order, but a piece
(14:22):
of paper don't stop crazy. We lost some of our deposits,
but honestly, that was the least of our worries. And
we're going to Operation Ghost, or some of my friends
jokingly called it. Our plan was dramatic and perhaps O
wee bits extreme, but my friends and I had a
lot of fun coming up with it. Step one, take
a breakup why to redirect Laylah's focus off me. Our
(14:43):
logic was that if Laila thought Calum and I were
no longer together, maybe should back up. The breakup story
was also to give me cover to move out of
our house and leave the country destination Canada, where my
parents live and I have support network of family and
friends that depend on That's crazy. That is so terrible
that you had to move to Canada but also.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Take a breakup, lie about leave under the cover of night,
and her parents still.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Cannot haven't held her accountable at all yet. That's crazy.
That's the craziest part. I feel so bad for op
tydaysha Powell says, I would have left to be honest, sorry,
but I've yet to find a man that makes me
want to allow my peace to be harmed.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well, I think I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
To say his fall. I mean like, if you really
love him.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I do think that you know. The things that I
will hold against him is that he's.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Not the people pleasing. I took all my things what
we could salvage after Layla's break in, that is, quit
my job and went to live with my parents. I
changed my phone number, blocked a bunch of suspicious accounts,
and basically went quiet on social media. If Laila or
her minions tried to stalk me, they'd hit a wall
of an activity. Meanwhile, Callum stayed in our old place
for the time being, as we had loose ends to
(15:56):
tie up the least on the house we were renting,
his job, et cetera. Thankfully, our landland was very understanding,
as we already discussed not renewing our lease, both because
we wanted a bigger place and because he wanted to sell.
After moving out and shipping me the few things I'd
left behind, Callum stayed with a friend, ignoring the offers
to stay with his dad and stepmom, and continued working
(16:16):
for another few weeks. Firstly because he wanted to leave
his employer on good terms and worked through the requested
notice period. And secondly because he had a particular date
in mind for his departure, which was about as petty
as I got in this entire song. Originally, we'd set
our wedding date for Midsummer, and after we canceled, Callum's
dads side of the family decided to turn that date
(16:37):
into a support Calum party. Leila was apparently in her element,
feeding them nonsense about how I was never good for
him in planning a party that would be far better
than what our wedding could have ever been.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Oh my gosh, it's going to be at the best
wedding I mean party, Yeah, the Callum.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Best engagement party for us, I mean just regular party.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
The priest, I mean, I mean the party planner.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
They're just there. They're not even going to do anything
unless unless something crazy happens, which I'm lazy makes crazy.
It's not like anything happened. No, no, no, no, it
wouldn't surprise me if she'd even bought herself a white
dress for the occasion. What they didn't know was I'd
booked Callum's fright for the morning of what would have
been our wedding day. He never would show up to
(17:19):
that party, didn't text or call to tell them he
wasn't coming. He just turned off his phone and ghosted them.
Happily ever after, minus the crazy in laws. That's the
next section of the story. To this day, Hallum and
I remained no contact with his dad's side of the family.
His mother, on the other hand, has been an amazing grandmother, loving, calm,
one hundred percent free of drama. He lived across the
country from us. I never really got involved with that
(17:41):
side of the family's antics. I'm so thankful we have
had at least one grandparent on Callum's side who can
shower our son with affection without bringing a tornado of
nonsense through the door. We've built a safe, stable, and
loving home. Callum's thriving in a new job. I'm soaking
up every moment of stay at home motherhood. I work
but remote, and our sweet boy is growing up surrounded
by loving, mentally stable grandparents, great grandparents and uncles. If
(18:04):
you made it this far, I salute you. I know
it was long, but trust me, before I polish it
up and trimmed down all the minor things that happened
in between, It was a lot longer, stay safe, set boundaries,
the toxic in laws and if all else fails, a
fake breakup and moving to another country, it might just
do the trick and we have an update. You thought
this was thought we wrapped it all alone. No, you thought, oh,
(18:26):
such a nice little bow. There's nothing crazy that's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Leila couldn't, could never, possibly.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
She can come to Canada. She doesn't know how to
fly now Leyla knows that to fly, and so do
her flying monkeys. Mmmmm M says, Yes, we love a
happy ending.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Wrong, wrong, We got an update and it might be happy,
but it might not be family reaction.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Sonny says, aren't they siblings? What the heck? There's step siblings,
step sibling, there's step siblings, and apparently Op and Callum
are the only people who find anything weird about that.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, we don't have a lot of details. We know
from some friends and former co workers that his family
went around asking about him, and they were informed he
moved away, but he didn't tell his coworkers where, and
those that didn't know new enough not to spill the
details to his family. Leila did get into a verbal
altercation with one of my friends at her work, trying
(19:17):
to demand if he was with me and where I was.
The police were recalled to remove her from the store.
While that much happened. Beyond that was another day in
the Walmart. She was banned from the store. As my
friend manages that Talum's family knows that my family lives
in Canada, though not exactly where. They know which city,
but it's a big one. There were some attempts to
contact my parents, but those were either ignored or met
(19:37):
with stonewalling, and my parents ended up changing their numbers.
I'm my god, they're after doing so much. Wow. I
believe they do know we have a baby and got married,
but they aren't privy to our exact location. We can't
completely cut them off from learning details since we still
have contact with his mom and her side, who posts online,
as well as friends and other family members. We do
ask that post contain no pictures of our son or us,
(19:58):
but I know we can't control everything. As for our wedding,
after all the stress and drama of our first attempt,
we decided to scale down our plans. We got married
in an intimate backyard wedding with only a very few
close family and friends. Well, I couldn't wear my original
dress because my baby bump made it a bit of
a tight fit. It's a dress that isn't overly wedding
one of those reasons I chose it, and I ended
(20:19):
up wearing it for our first anniversary while we recently celebrated.
And now next part of the story Leila's arrest and charges.
Maybe finally some karma beIN caught up. What finally some
some karma catching up with ba Karma?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Then you said, bin.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Kotta some kara karma's catching up? Okay, God, finally karma's
catching up. Because it was our first official offense and
her parents got her a good lawyer, she ended up
taking a plea deal. She didn't serve jail time, but
was sentenced to probation, mandatory counseling, and ordered to pay
restitution for damages, which was paid to our lawyer into
(20:58):
a trust and then allocated us good From the time
Layla was arrested to the court hearing, it took around
six months. There were multiple delays, mainly because her lawyer
requested extensions. According to what our lawyer told us, we
weren't there for the hearing itself, using instead to submit
victim impact statements and such through a lawyer. It was
partly to avoid further emotional distress, but mostly because by
(21:20):
that point we'd already moved away and attending the hearing
in person felt like taking a step backward. And there's
another updates called minor issues.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Oh no, we were doing so well. Everyone was getting
what they deserved.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
No. I thought it was like, oh, that's a nice,
even nicer postcript.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah. I was like, yay, but at least there's minor,
just minors, not major as she was just all like,
Layla's back, No, she's back.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah. Maybe it's just like she's annoying us on social
media or so yeah. Because there was so much ongoing drama,
I originally trimmed my post for brevity. But here a
few things that occurred. Engagement party crash. Leyla crashed our
small friends only in engagement party barbecue, which was to
announce and celebrate our engagement with them. Laylah showed up
at the house and dramatically burst into tears, claimed we
had purposely excluded her countless people pleasing ways and desire
(22:10):
not to cause a scene. Came to the forefront, resulting
in Leayla joining us. Oh, she spent the entire night
whining about the food, pouting and attempting to eat things
off his plate, h asking him for his jacket because
he was because she was cold.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Well, damn, Jackie, I can't control the weather.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
It wasn't cold, and he wasn't even wearing a jacket,
and various other small antics to be the center of attention.
I meanwhile, decided to punish him by keeping well away
from them, both so he could reap what he sewed
and letting her stay. My go to line was it's
your sister, not mine. You deal here there.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
If he's gonna let her say and be the people pleaser,
then he's got to deal with the consequences.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And then next job sabotage attempt I suspect, but I
have no real proof that Leyela and her friends tried
to sabotage my job by making false complaints to HR
alleging inappropriate behavior. Thankfully, my boss knew me well enough
to see through the claims, and we have cameras which
they reviewed. But it still led to an uncomfortable conversation
with a lot of anxiety over my job. I also
suspect it isn't the first time she has done this,
(23:11):
as I was let go from my previous employer from
complaints about my conduct with customer.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Oh my god, she is false claims to get you fired.
Nobody followed up on that.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Laila has successfully ruined everything successfully. I mean, as at
least the marriage wasn't broken up. But she's been pretty.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
But she canceled the she got the wedding canceled. She
got them to literally move countries.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I mean she uh. I mean, say what you will
about Laila, but dang is she effective? Hard worker? I
only a hard worker if only she applied that to
anything else. So fake illness. Leila pretended to have a
severe illness while her parents were away on holiday she
lives with them. Desperately demanding Callum to come over. She
sent him panic text claiming she could hardly breathe and
(23:57):
she thought she might die because she couldn't find her inhaler. Callum,
genuinely concerned and too nice for his own good, rushed
over with me along for the ride, and she opened
the door in a skimpy nightgown yea, throwing herself at him,
losing and coughing. She miraculously recovered after seeing I was
there For context. She has asthma and often uses it
(24:20):
as an excuse for attention. One more thing, On the
same note, she once accused me of trying to unlive
her because I'd worn some fororal perfume around her. I
didn't stop wearing it after this, but she continued to
accuse me of wearing strong perfumes afterward, even though I'd
long since stopped wearing them and only use minimally scented roll.
On next part of the story, social media, Oh my goodness, Layla.
(24:43):
Leila was rather active online, posting vague, get passive, aggressive
statuses about how the family betrays you and men are
scum who don't know what they have. And while I
have no proof, I suspect Leila and her friends were
the ones creating anonymous accounts to spam my social media
with hateful comments, insults about my appearance, and accusations about
being un faithful, a gold digger, and more. I did
lock down as best I could, but even my phone
(25:04):
would get spammed with messages and I had to change
my numbers several times. As she was I suspect using
my number on various websites for quotes and callbacks for salespeople, insurance,
et cetera. Then there's a wedding registry sabotage. Again. I
have no proof, but someone with access to our wedding
registries started marking nearly everything as purchased. This was found
out when a friend asked me what else we might
(25:26):
want as everything on the registry was taken. With everything
going on, I don't know who else to accuse, but Laila,
these smaller, those still wildly frustrating issues made the larger
events feel even more exhausting. Writing it all out makes
it even clearer that we should have set more boundaries
and enforced them way earlier. It wasn't that we weren't trying,
(25:46):
because we were. We made numerous attempts to set firm boundaries,
from directly confronting Layla about our behavior, to limiting contact
to explicitly laying out what was and wasn't acceptable. But
every single time we drew a line, family pushback, accusing
us of overfreacting and being cruel, and ask Callum to
be a good brother because his sister needed him.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Someone needs to pick what they want Callum to be
towards Tila. I'm just switching it up.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I just don't know how they see all this behavior
and are not trying to put some kind of line there,
Like what it felt like finding a constant, uphill battle
with Leila always cast as the victim and us made
out to be unreasonable villains standing up for ourselves. For me,
I'm out of people pleaser like Callum. I am more
roll my eyes and move on kind of person. So
I initially let a lot of things slide, thinking it
(26:35):
wasn't worth the energy or stress to fight every small battle.
I figured Leila would eventually get bored, which she did not.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, Layla finds ways to entertain herself.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I thought she'd grow out of it, or at least
redirect her obsession elsewhere. I even tried to set her
up on a date at one point while Calum and
I were just dating. God to help that guy. Oh
my goodness, watch out. Yeah. She wasn't as bad before
we got engaged, and back then most of her antics
were annoying but manageable. It was only after we announced
our engagement that Layla's behavior escalated dramatically. When we were dating,
(27:08):
it was things like Laylah constantly texting her, calling Calum
late at night, having small emergencies just to get his attention,
like having asthma attack. And now I'm writing this, I'm
wondering if her allergic reactions were her purposely eating sesame
or sesame products, or if they were legitimate mistakes.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Then Leyla, you never know.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Then there was her showing up unannounced to his apartment
and then our house after removed, whenever she knew we
had plans. She once let herself in very early in
her dating days and had a complete breakdown after finding
us in bed sleeping. This should have probably been a
red flag, but I was a bit love sick for
my husband back then. Who am I kidding? I still am?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
She broke Wait what happened?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Broke into the house and then went into the room,
went into their room and was like ah. She also
regularly tried to guilt trip him into canceling dates by
pretending to feel lonely or abandoned. When she even through
a tantrum because Calum spent Valentine's Day with me instead
of her claiming he was neglecting family. God now remember
that one. It really makes me cringe. But while annoying
(28:09):
and frustrating. These things felt more childish and cringe rather
than outright malicious, so I mistakenly thought she'd eventually grew
out of them. Clearly we underestimated how far she'd be
willing to go, By the way, should never underestimate how
many episodes we have the Okay story Time and you
can go listen to full episodes with stories just like this.
Go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app
(28:29):
and search Okay Storytime. There's another relevant updates and I'm
just going to go straight through it. Hey it's Sam.
We're gonna get back to the stories. But here's three
minutes bads from our sponsors. Truthfully writing this now, if
I was the person I am today and was back
at the start of dating Callum, I don't think we
would have made it past the first few months. Not
because Callum he's always been wonderful, but because the family
(28:49):
drama and like a Layla's obsession would have been an
immediate deal breaker. The older and wiser verse of myself
recognizes that love alone isn't always enough healthy boundaries, mutual respect,
in a motional safety it mattered just as much. Thankfully,
Callum eventually saw this too, but it was a long
journey to get there, and a really good therapist definitely helped,
as did some of the books on a meshment she
(29:11):
had us read. Honestly, it's eye opening now to see
just how much we tolerated slash overlooked in the name
of keeping the peace. And that is where that saga.
My goodness, Leila needs to learn some boundaries and maybe
maybe learn that in the confines a very small cell.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Wow, well we got one more story. I mean, it
sounds like she just never got therapy. Sounds like she
was never given boundaries that she respect. It's yeah, it's really.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Bad, but let's get into this next story.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Oh wait, that's a great Wait. Wait can I can
I dunk my head in cold water really quick? That's
we'll be back.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I'm gonna leave you to keyon now, all right, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I am ready.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
All right, let's do it. I'm s wearing a towel.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Now, how do you do the thing? What the ladies
do you throw?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
So you did it?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
You had it, but it wasn't quite there.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
So yeah, did you just twist it?
Speaker 4 (30:11):
I twisted twist it, twist it and then and then yeah,
and then to throw it behind you.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
My goddaughter's stepmother tried to replace our real mother and
got a dose of karma.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Karma needs to come to someone. I was tired and
I needed to dug my head in the ice bath.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
This is a story about my unofficial daughter, Ella. Ella
is the daughter of a dear friend of mine who
I will call Mary. Mary and I have been friends
since secondary school. Although we had less contact her in
college due to her studying abroad, we will remained close
by the way. This comes from Burner Account ninety ninety
eight seventy six, and if you want to submit your
own stories, go to our slash Okay story time suppred
(30:55):
it so. At Mary's and her husband's Tom's wedding, I
played an important role when Ella was born. I was
made godmother when my twins were born. Mary became godmother
to my daughter. We were part of each other's family
honorary aunts and uncles. Fourteen years ago, Mary got sick
with cancer. Hobby and I stepped into help where we could.
Ella was ten at the time of the diagnosis. It
(31:18):
seemed to go well at first, until it didn't. Mary
passed away when Ella was eleven, we were all devastated.
Mary's parents had left Mary with some family heirloom jewelry,
and when Mary was terminal, she made her will. I
will be honest. Tom is a good man at heart,
but has no backbone and does everything to avoid confrontation.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Noodle spine, Noodle Tom, Noodle time, Noodle spine.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Noodle Tom, Tom, the man is worse than me. I
know that I also lacked a backbone. Mary was very
afraid what would happen if he would marry again, and
that person wouldn't have Ella's interest at heart. In her
infinite wisdom, Mary made an iron clad will. The heirloom
jewelry was left with me as Mary wanted me to
give Ella everything when she would marry. Tom had documentation
(32:07):
and insurance papers of every piece, as did the attorney
who made Mary's will. After Mary's death and funeral, Tom
and Ella got our support. We helped Ella navigate a
life without her mother, standing in when she needed me
as a mother figure. He helped Tom with whatever support
he needed, and when Ella was twelve, Tom met Clarissa.
(32:29):
Clarissa couldn't have children of her own, and when she
and Ella were introduced to one another. She latched on
to Ella Wheersa, tried to erase Mary's memory in whatever
way she could, and inserted herself in every moment possible.
He introduced herself as Ella's mom and completely ignored every
boundary Ella put out.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
You could not know. God, get wait and this is
the mom passed away.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Mom just passed away, and now she's introducing me.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Kay, I forget about that that old thing. That's yesterday's news, yesterday's.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Mom, today's mom.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
We would improved mom two point zero.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
She became jealous of the bond between Ella and me
and tried many different things to separate us. Things took
a bad turn when Ella was four fourteen. I remember
this day very well. It was a Monday. I had
an appointment with a client at the venue they owned
at the time. This appointment was later in the day.
The venue itself was a nice one and often used
(33:28):
for reunions, birthdays, weddings, and the owner let the elderly
people use it twice a week for their hobbies and activities.
Mom's mother, Stacy, who was still alive then, was a
volunteer and helped in the organization. I was waiting in
the lobby when Stacy saw me, came up and we
started to chat. Eventually the owner came and greeted us
(33:49):
with the remark, eh, how wonderful to see you here.
I'm so excited for Tom and Claius, this wedding, this
upcoming Saturday. I'm sure you are as well. Stacy and
I were shocked. Wedding. What wedding? No clue? The owner
sensed something was wrong. When the shock had worn off,
the owner and I went to the office and conducted
the business that I came from. After this was done,
(34:11):
I asked some questions, wedding is this Saturday? What time?
How many people? I managed to gather everything. The owner
even showed me the contract with both signatures of Tom
and Clarissa. She gathered that we didn't know and was
somewhat shocked as she knew our history. Then I went
to find Stacy and told her everything. This woman was
(34:33):
a livid her son was getting remarried and she wasn't
informed nor invited. Yeah, now you look like you're in Greece, Marizonaona.
I also hadn't heard anything from Ella. She told me
that Tom and she would go away to have a
(34:54):
father daughter At this point, we had the growing suspicion
that Tom had been lying to Ella about that Saturday's
plan to Yeah, I mean, seems like there's a lot
of lies going around about this sweat to.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Keep track of Speaking of trying to keep track of things,
can you give me a TLDR?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Ah basically sorry, sorry?
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Could you give everyone else a TLDR?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yeah? Okay, So I believe what happened is Opie's Opie
is the god daughter to her her friend who passed
her daughter. Uh, and this daughter's like the friend's husband
remarried to this new stepmom who has kind of been
(35:39):
inserting herself in every way.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
And I believe way a friend's husband.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Or Opie's friend's husband, friend's husband, Uh, he remarried, and
the new stepmother of this daughter has been trying to
insert herself in every way. Yeah, and I think what's
happening now is that Tom who's the husband, and the
(36:07):
new stepmom. I guess this is when they got married. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, sorry,
So this is in the past, before they were married.
So now Opie is recounting the time when they found
out that they were getting married.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
They said, they're not married yet.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
They weren't married at the time in the past. Now
Tom is now getting married to Clarissa, and Opie found
out that Tom's mom, Stacy, didn't know that this wedding
was happening. Okay, I also hadn't heard anything from Ella.
You told me that Tom and she would go away
to have a father daughter day. At this point, we
(36:40):
had the growing suspicion that Tom had been lying to
Ella about the Saturday play. That is crazy. That is
crazy to be like the daughter and expecting a father
daughter day and you just get your father marrying this
terrible stepmom.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, you're literally marrying the evil step right wedding you
you are a Disney character.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
To unravel this growing mystery, she and I went to
pay Tom a visit. We had some time until Ella
came home, and we didn't want her to see or
hear any of this. Stacy went off the moment he
opened the door. She barged in and furiously told them
to explain himself. Clarissa came home and join in the fight.
Accusations flo left and right. In a quiet moment, I asked,
(37:26):
does Ella know about your wedding? We wedding. I don't
know about anything about a wedding. Ella had come home
earlier than expected, practice had finished sooner. Then the realization
hit poor Ella. She asked Tom if that was the
plan for Saturday, their wedding instead of some father daughter bonding.
Clarissa caught in and told her that she had been
motherless long enough and this wedding would give her a
(37:48):
new mother.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Oh my god, you can't replace my mom. Stop trying
to you're on.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
My mom Ooh boy. Ella didn't even get the chance
to say anything. Her beloved grandma Stacy did that for her.
Stacy tore Clarissa a new one. Blunley told her that
she would have that she had a wonderful daughter in law,
and that she would and could never replace her. A
wedding wouldn't change the fact that she disregarded Ella's wishes
(38:16):
from the get go, trying to erase the memory of
a good woman and mother and trying to destroy the
relationship between me and Ella. She also told her own
son that he was a weak willed man and that
is why he was never made the executor of Mary's will,
because she had always known deep down that she couldn't
trust him to protect their daughter.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Oh my God, she sounds like a lovely bowl of
soup that you just want to slurp on a cold day.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Uh yeah. To add insult injury, she told them she
disowned him and would make sure neither he nor the
Pispoor substitute would get anything from her. Props to Stacy Man.
Stacy did not hold back. She had something to say
and she said it you shot at it, and with
that she asked me to drive her. Ella was enraged
(39:06):
and wanted to live with her grandmother. Tom and Clarissa
said no, Ella came to us, but we couldn't do anything.
Tom tried to threaten us by saying that he would
forbid Ella to come to us if we did or
said anything. Ubby laughed in his face, asked if he
was Clarissa's lapdog now, and said that we didn't need
or say anything to dang him or Clarissa in Ella's eyes,
(39:28):
as we couldn't do a better job than they were
doing themselves. Ella became silent. In the next couple of days,
they became the talk of the town.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
I mean, it's a big blot. I can't understand.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Why Stacy told a lot of people what was going on.
People do love drama. So Saturday rolls around. Our children
had their pre arranged sleepover with some relatives, something that
we saw as a blessing in disguise. We were nervous.
We decided to go to Stacy's as we figured, Oh,
she was just as anxious. At eleven thirty am, Tom
(39:59):
called us in a fe yuri, asking where Ella was.
We had no idea what he was talking about. After
some back and forth and us telling Tom to stop
the legal threats, we got the story. Apparently Clarissa had
bought Ella a dress for the wedding, absolutely not Ella's style,
but hey, it's not like Clarissa ever listened to what
Ella told her. Ella had taken it upon herself to
(40:20):
buy a black dress and shoes, as if in mourning. Yeah,
I mean celebrate your mom.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Over this, yeah, a statement.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
She had managed to sneak in the dress, and when
asked for privacy to get change, she spilled some drink
on the dress. Clarissa got her then put the black
dress on. Wow, but she didn't stop there.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I feel like that's like almost like art, you know.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, I mean this is like princess Princess die level
of Yeah, Glarisa hadn't put on her wedding dress yet.
She had booked a room that had something like a
sliding wall separating two rooms, each with her own beds, vanity,
et cetera. It stored her wedding dress in the front room,
and she was in the other room, where the hair
makeup stylist was busy doing the hair and makeup of
(41:07):
the blushing bride. Ella snuck in and put itching powder
in Clarissa's dress.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Oh wow oo, I mean she's fourteen. Wow, but yeah,
it's still yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Like it's a big move, but she is fourteen. I
can't say it's a mature move.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
But we won't. We all condone it. But it is
a nice little home alone prank.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Then she left the room as quietly as she had come.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Itching powder. What's itching powder?
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Uh? It's it's itching powder. What do you mean it
makes you itch?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Why do they have that?
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Have you not seen like any movie with a bully
in it?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Itching powder? Yeah? No, I've never heard of itching.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
It's like, I don't know, I feel like it's super
common in like every high school movie with a bully.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Tom flipped his lid when he saw his daughter. Ella
didn't care less, showed him the dress Clarissa gave her
and sat at the front of the venue. When Clarissa
saw her, she seemed very angry, but focused on the ceremony.
She was visibly uncomfortable and kept pulling her dress and
scratching it.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Nita Nelson says, maturemercier.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Yeah. When the famous line I've object now or forever
hold her peace was said, Ella made her speech. Oh wow,
Ella's pulling out all.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
The saws stops. Dude.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yeah, he was an impressive fourteen year old.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
The owner later called and told us what was said.
Ella spoke her mind about what Clarissa had done and
not done, how Tom had failed her as a father,
and that Clarissa would never be her mother, alongside some
other things. Then she left the venue.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Kind of just like poetic.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, yeah, I mean this is iconic. Tom tried to
call Ella, but she was ignoring his calls. Stacey managed
to contact Ella and picked her up. Afterwards. She called
Tom basically saying her would spend the rest of the
weekend at her house and she would bring Ella home
Sunday evening. Ella was silent but had a look of
satisfaction on her face. We hugged a lot and told
(43:11):
her she's always welcome at our house and that she
was loved. Sunday evening, Stacy takes Ella back home. According
to Stacy, Clarissa looked like a slice of raw steak
due to her scratching herself.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Oh wow wow.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Larissa started to freak out the moment they entered the house,
screeching at Ala, about you ruined our wedding. This was
out of line and my personal favorite, how could she
do this to her mother?
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Uh? Stop taking the girl.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
You can't catch a hints. Oh how I wish I
could have seen this myself. When those words left Clarissa's lips,
Stacy slapped her and told Clarissa that she would never
utter those words to Ella ever. Again. She wasn't her
mother and her spread in her legs for he son
wouldn't change that. Stacy read them the Riot Act, telling
(44:02):
them that if they even thought of barring her and
me and Hobby from Ella's life or making Ella's life
more difficult, she would make their lives a living Heck.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Again, we're not advocating for the slapping, no no, but
if you say these things you should expect to maybe
get slapped by someone. Yeah, you can't go out saying
these things not expecting consequences.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
But ideally you're not the one.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
Ideally though, But we don't advise you whiles to be
the purpose No.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
No, one slap people not a good move.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yes, but also don't say crazy things. Expect not to
be slapped.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah, expect a slap, but don't be the slapper.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Uh. Then she left. Tom and Clarissa didn't try anything
until Stacey passed away. When Ella was sixteen. She kept
her word, disowning her own son. He only got what
the law allowed him. The rest went to Ella. Since
Ella was still a minor at the time of the
will change, Stacy named two executors to make sure Ella
got what Stacy left her. This included her apartment and
(45:01):
some savings. And you guess who those two were. Give
yourselves a cookie if you think it was me and Hobby.
Did we know, yes. Did we say anything to Tom
and Clarissa before Stacy's passing Nope? Did they lose their
minds yep, yep. Did we care, absolutely not. Did they
(45:21):
try to fight the will, of course it did. Did
it matter Nope? Stacy had made sure that several independent
doctors had declared her of sound mind before she made
the will. Since Stacy had also given Tom his rightful
inheritance by law, he couldn't do it ang thing. Tom
called us after the court's decision to try and get
us to give him the role of executor of the
(45:42):
will alongside Mary's belongings that she had given to me.
He tried, saying that Izola's father and Mary's widower he
had more right to that role. We just hung up
and he didn't try again. But we would love if
you could try and listen to more full episodes stories
just like this. Just go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or
iHeartRadio and search a booky story time. But there is
(46:04):
a little bit left to this story.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
You any dive into it. Okay, hey, it's Sam. We're
gonna get back to these stories. But here's three minutes
of ads from our sponsors.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
When Ella turned eighteen, everything was transferred to Ella left
the house and from there she slowly rebuilt somewhat of
a relationship with Tom and to an extent, Larissa. Clarissa
calmed down a bit after Stacy's slap, and Ella became
an expert in shutting them both down. Bubby and I
have stayed out of it. After Tom's attempt of getting
(46:34):
his hands on Ella's inheritance from both her and mother
and grandmother, we have had no contact. We never contacted
them and they never contacted us. We have always supported
Ella in the following years. She went to college, traveled abroad,
got a job, and got her life together. And that
is the end of that.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Story and the end of this episode.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
So if you love us, make sure to subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
We love you and see it.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Am Oh
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