August 1, 2025 • 36 mins
Will dives deeper into his obsession with “true” stories from Reddit, and this new installment takes things to an entirely new level.
In the latest chapter of “It Came From Reddit,” Will, Danielle and Rider transform into a man with some physical “limitations,” a wife-to-be who takes a joke too far and a gossipy coworker with a stinky reputation.
How will all play out? With a man getting revenge of course!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, listeners, it's once again time for it came from Reddit,
a special bonus podcast episode where I satisfy my own
niece fascination. Yes, that's what I said, with dramatic audio
retellings of one hundred percent honest stories I found on Reddit.
If you've heard one of these episodes before, you might
be asking yourself, wait, how does he know these clearly
fabricated and exaggerated stories anonymously posted on the Internet are true?
(00:24):
And to that, I say, good question. So, with the
help of my trustye co hosts, I have recorded yet
another new tale, a roller coaster explanation into human emotion
and the fragile yet complex ego that again proves I
have picked the perfect new hobby slash total waste of
my precious time. And now here's our third installment of
the series, titled My fiance mocked My manhood at her
(00:48):
engagement dinner, saying I had bargain bin equipment, so I
slipped the ring off her finger and walked out, And
now her family is falling apart. Oohoo boy. It's a
tale as old as time itself, isn't it. So to
start it off, I admit it was all a bit
petty of me. My name is Cecil, twenty nine Mail,
and i'd been with my girlfriend, Vivian for three years.
(01:10):
We're both in finance that it's some mind numbing corporate
conference where the biggest excitement was arguing about the quarterly
projections over stale bagels and weak coffee. We hit it
off and she quickly moved into my downtown apartment last year.
Then six months ago, I proposed with my grandmother's ring.
It's a beautiful vintage piece that had been in my
family for generations. About eighteen months into our relationship, during
(01:33):
one of those late night conversations where all the walls
coming down and you're just two people being completely honest
with each other, I told Vivian about something from my past,
a medical situation from when I was younger that left
me with certain physical realities. I'd never shared this with
any other woman, and I don't know why she wouldn't
know at this point, because I imagine we'd been naked together,
(01:54):
and I'm not comfortable sharing it online here either, even anonymously.
By the way, I said, my name Cecil and I'm
twenty nine. This wasn't something minor or trivial. It was
a source of deep personal insecurity that had affected my
confidence for years. The kind of thing that makes you
hesitate before getting intimate with someone new, makes you wonder
if you'll ever find someone who can truly accept you
(02:16):
as you are? Again, how are we not having sex
at this point? We lived together anyway. I've spent years
working through the psychological impact with therapists, learning to accept
myself despite my limitations. Vivian's reaction was everything I'd hoped
for and more. She was understanding, supportive, gentle, just in
all the right ways. She made me feel like I
didn't need to change anything between us.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This doesn't change anything between us.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
She held me that night and whispered that she loved
me exactly as I was.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I love you exactly as you are.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I have a hearing problems, so I didn't hear it.
I needler to say it a little bit louder.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I love you exactly as you are.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That was better. That vulnerability was what made our relationship real.
That moment sealed our bond in ways I'd never experienced before.
It was the foundation of trust that made me believe
we could build a life together. But her family was
an interesting dynamic to navigate. Her father, Theodore don't know
how old he was, was one of those deeply faithful
men who wore his religion like armor against the world
(03:16):
Church every Sunday and Wednesday and Tuesday and Monday, sometimes
in the evening, sometimes in the morning. I don't even
think he had a job. Grace before every meal, Biblical
quotes for every life situation. He seemed like a genuinely
good man with strong moral principles.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I'd give you the shirt off my back if you
needed it.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
But watching him interact with his wife was genuinely painful.
She controlled every aspect of his existence. What he wore
to work, how he spent his free time, which friends
he was allowed to see, and even what food he
ordered at restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
He'll have the cobb salad, no bacon bits. They make him.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Fart, Theodore, which is not along and then fart.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Whatever you think is best.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Dear, completely surrendered his backbone somewhere along the way, probably
worn down by decades of manipulation disguised as marriage. Carmen
herself was a piece of work, one of those women
who smiled sweetly while sliding knives between your ribs. She
had this way of making comments that sounded supportive on
the surface but left you feeling hm smaller.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Wow, ceciul, you look skinny today.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Thank you. I figured Vivian was different than her mom
because she'd always roll her eyes at her behavior, But
apparently I was wrong. I spent three weeks planning our
engagement dinner, down to every tiny detail. This wasn't just
gonna be some casual get together at the nearby Olive Garden.
We're sure your family, but I'd wanted something a little
more elegant. I reserved the private dining room at Meridians,
(04:48):
easily the most exclusive restaurant in the city. They once
rejected Danny Glover because he was wearing sneakers. Can you
imagine that Danny freaking Glover too for this? Anyway, flu
Theodore and Carmen in from Phoenix, which is strange because
that's not where they're from, and coordinated schedules with my
sister Riley and my best friend Marcus. I arranged transportation,
(05:10):
even had the restaurant prepare a special menu featuring Vivian's
favorite dishes. No bacon bits, insert fartin insert fun that's
me fardin. I bought a new tom Ford suit because
what I really wanted was a Harrison Ford suit, but
he doesn't make them. Everything had to be absolutely perfect.
(05:30):
The financial investment was significant. I probably spent close to
eight thousand dollars on one evening, but hey, it felt
worth it. This was supposed to be one of those
milestone moments you remember for the rest of your life.
I mean, it's my engagement party. And that night started
out exactly as I planned. Twenty people in private dining rooms,
everyone dressed up in good spirits. Theodore said grace before
(05:51):
we ate.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of this
meal and the blessing of being surrounded by loved ones tonight.
Please bless this gathering and this couple, and guide our
hearts with gratitude and joy. Speak up, Theodore, gratitude and joy.
Amen Amen.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Indeed, I looked at Vivian across the table, and all
I could think about was how lucky I was to
have met someone who really got me, who knew my
worst secret and love me. Anyway. When it came time
for toast, the mood in the room shifted to something
more formal and heartfelt. Theodore spoke again, and honestly, he
moved me to tears.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Cecil has become a member of our family. The love
between him and my daughter, it's palpable to anyone who
meets them. God's plan truly did bring them together at
the right time.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Theo for Christ's sake, speak up at the right time.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
My brother and sister spoke next. Riley talked about watching
me find happiness after my divorce. Apparently I've been divorced
before and never really mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And it wasn't his fault, you know, she was the
spawn of Satan herself. I told him not to trust
a woman who wears sunglasses indoors.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
My brother Marcus went next, and he kept his toast light.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
But sincere can't believe he finally found someone who can
put up with his obsessive spreadsheet organization to research every
major purchase before decided coming. Come on, Bud, It's a VCR,
not a goddamn solar powered calculator for sentient bitchets. I
made am I right? Am I right? Right? Right?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right? Then Vivian stood up and I leaned back in
my chair with what I'm sure was the biggest, most
contented grin on my face. I was expecting some sweet
story about our journey together, maybe something about how she
knew from our first conversation that I was different from
the other guy she dated. I knew I was in
for something special.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I remember the conference like it was yesterday. Cecil was
the only person there who actually seemed interested in discussing
something other than quarterly reports and market projections. Then we
had our first date at Olive Garden, you know where
your family. The waiter accidentally spilled red sauce on cecil
shirt mummy, and we just laughed and laughed and laughed
(08:09):
and laughed and laugh.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
She said that for like the next ten minutes. Back
at the dinner, I was nodding along, feeling that warm
glow of content me you get when everything in your
life feels exactly where it should be. But then something
shifted in her expression, That loving smile I'd been expecting
slowly twisting into something else, entirely, something cold and calculating
that I'd never seen before. She raised her glass higher,
(08:32):
and the room quieted as everyone prepared to hear what
they expected would be a touching declaration of love. She
looked directly at me and said.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Here's to marrying a man who worships me. It's proof
that love really does conquer all, even when the equipment
comes in travel size.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
There was dead silence in the room. Then she just
started laughing.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I mean, have you guys ever I've seen a baby millipede.
It's like that.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Her brother Nathan nearly spit out his drink, laughing.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Try again.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Her mom chuckled, and then Theodore nervously joined in. That
guy's so whipped. I don't even think he got the joke.
My brother and sisters. My brother and sisters sat frozen
in their chairs, their faces reflecting the complete horror and
disbelief I felt flooding through my system. The woman I
planned to marry, my trusted with the most vulnerable part
(09:42):
of my soul, had just weaponized that trust in front
of everyone I know in love. The cruelty was so calculated,
so deliberate, that I almost couldn't process it. The smirk
on her face told me everything I needed to know
about how much she was enjoying my pain. I slowly
pushed back my chair and stood up. I had sensed
the room watching my every move. I walked around the
table to where Vivian stood, her smirk starting to falter
(10:05):
as I got closer. I gently took her left hand
and slipped my grandmother's engagement ring off her finger in
one smooth, deliberate motion, while looking directly into her eyes,
and then broke the silence, speaking to her loud enough
for everyone in the room to hear.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You don't deserve this.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Then I turned and walked straight out of the dining
room without looking back, ignoring her voice behind me calling out, Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Come on, it was just a joke. Don't be so sensitive.
Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Oh? Did the salad have bacon bits?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
As I left, I was systematically dismantling every assumption I'd
made about our relationship and walking through a cloud of fart.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Cloud of theodor fart.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
A cloud, a cloud of theo fart? Had any of
it been real? How many of her friends already knew
my secret because she thought it was amusing. By the
time I pulled in my parking garage, I knew exactly
what I was gonna do. This wasn't gonna be some
mess he break up. He was gonna handle this like
a business transaction. I went straight to the closet and
started pulling out every piece of clothing that belonged to her. Dresses,
(11:08):
work clothes, that expensive coat, that shirt that said, don't
go bacon my heart, bacon.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I don't go back and ma huhh.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
That shirt that said these are less that's what this is. Dresses,
work close, that expensive coat, that shirt that said don't
go bacon my fart, that goes with my shirt that
(11:54):
said I couldn't even if I fried. Everything went into
trash bags. I went room by room, clearing out every
trace of her bathroom stuff, kitchen items, bedroom belongings, expensive, cheap,
meaningful or unimportant.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Gone. Took me about ninety minutes, twelve bags in total,
all tied up and ready to go. Then I sat
and waited. Vivian showed up exactly forty seven minutes after
I walked out of the restaurant. I could hear her
in the hallway fumbling with their key, then the confused
rattling when it wouldn't turn. Oh yeah, I called an
emergency locksmith while I was packing.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
They got there in forty seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, they did cost me double for after our service,
but it was worth every penny. If you ever in
the Greater Victorville area, and you need a key maid.
Call Asmir.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Hi, I'm Asmir. Give me call. Why we can't record
these together?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, if you're ever in the greater Victorville area, I
need a key maid. Call Asmir. Guys it pro and
he'll chat your ear off about keemtrails. Hey, it's Asmir.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Give me a call, real man.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
The frantic knocking started immediately. She thought she could break
down the door.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I know you're in there. Open the door. We need
to talk about this.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I let her bang for a full five minutes before
opening it just wide enough to see the makeup smeared
across her face from crying. She had that panic look
of someone who just torched their entire life in one
stupid moment.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Baby, please let me explain. It was just a stupid
joke that came out all wrong. You know I didn't
mean anything by it. I was nervous and trying to
be funny.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I kept my voice flat final and said we're done.
I started to close the door, but she stuck her
foot in the gap.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Wait. Wait, you can't just end three years over this.
I made a mistake. Okay, I admit it, but we
can work through this. We can go to counseling. I'll
apologize to everyone, whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I told her to move her foot, never come back.
She stared at me for a few seconds, probably hoping
to see some crack in my resolve, but when she
realized that was dead serious, she let me close the door.
She kept bounding though, bleeding and threatening me for twenty minutes,
everything from promising to make it up to me threats
about the lease. She even claimed she was having some
kind of mental breakdown and needed help.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Can you please look up what I'm supposed to do
if I'm having a panic attack, Look on doctor oz
dot com or something.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I just turned down the TV to doctor Oz and
ignored her. I'm doctor Rod and then finally silence. I
waited another hour to make sure she was really gone,
then started moving the bags twelve trips downstairs to the street.
I could have used the service elevator to make it easier,
but I wanted to take my time and feel the pain.
Ohso I needed my steps. Each bag felt like shredding
(14:38):
another piece of dead weight, and by two am I
had them all arranged neatly on the curb like some
kind of serial killer. Finally, ridding his fridge of body parts.
I went back upstairs, cracked up in a soda and
waited by the window, And like I predicted, she came
back around three thirty am, probably thinking she could catch
me when I was tired and emotional. Instead, she found
her entire life scattered across the sidewalk in garbage bags. Hefty, hefty, hefty.
(15:03):
Oh you bet, you bet, you bet ye. I watched
from the bed. I watched from the bedroom window as
she knelt on the concrete in a wrinkled engagement dress,
frantically digging through bags and trying to salvage your belongings.
She kept looking up at the window with this desperate expression,
probably hoping to see some sign that this is all
just a dramatic gesture that would blow over by morning.
(15:24):
But I just stood there watching, like a creepy version
of Norman Bates Dead Mom. She chosen to humiliate me
in front of twenty people, and now she has to
dig through her garbage bags in a designer dress at
three thirty am. It seemed fair to me. I eventually
(15:51):
went to bed, but my phone started buzzing at six am.
It didn't stop for the next five days. Vivian's messages
went through all the predictable stages.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Baby, just pick up, I love you, I love us.
Let's just meet it Olive Garden and get on the
same page. Say so, what are you doing. I'm the
one who should be mad. You humiliated me in front
of my entire family just because you couldn't take a
simple joke. You actually owe me an apology. Listen, little man,
(16:22):
I know all your dirty secrets. You can't just throw
me away in garbage bags. I'll destroy your reputation. Everyone
at the office, your friends, your family, they will all
know exactly what kind of pathetic excuse for a man
you really are. You have twenty four hours to call
me back and fix this.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The audacity was incredible, but it showed me exactly who
she really was underneath all that fake sweetness. I didn't respond,
so she switched to bargaining.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I'll never hurt you again. I was just nervous. We'll
go to couple's therapy anchor management. A doctor will make
you huge, whatever will help.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Then Carmen called, by the way, do you have the
name of that doctor? Three days after the dinner disaster,
I'd been expecting this, so I had to pick up.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Hello, you really embarrassed Vivian. She was just trying to
lighten the mood with a little humor. Married couples tease
each other all the time. It's perfectly normal and healthy.
I mean, Theodore is the size of a hot wheel.
You don't see him crying about it. Maybe you should
think about whether you're really ready for marriage if you're
(17:30):
going to run away at the first little bump in
the road.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I thought it was time to find out exactly how
deep this rabbit hole went, Carmen, How often do you
and Vivian discuss our private life?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, mothers and daughters talk about everything.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Meaning what exactly? She laughed in that same harsh tone
I'd heard at dinner.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Ha ha ha oh, honey, I know all about your challenges,
Vivian tells me everything. How else can I give her
proper guidance about managing a man like you?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
My stomach turned as the philoscope of this betrayal sunk
in what kind of guidance exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Men like you need a firm hand to keep you
in line and remind you of your place.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Ooh, the puppet master finally revealed herself. I could hear
decades of manipulation in her voice. It was the same
technique she'd probably used to break down Theodore until it
was nothing more than a nodding yes, man, Carmen, I said,
my voice, perfectly calm and controlled. I want you to
listen very carefully. Your daughter betrayed the most private, vulnerable
(18:35):
part of my life for your entertainment. You've been treating
my relationship like your personal soap opera, coaching her to
humiliate me publicly as some sick power play. I'm not
your husband to control. She quickly hung up, and then
Theodore called, I don't.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Know what to say. I didn't know. Vivian and Carmen
were likeless shear it intimate details about your life. We
raised her better than that, I promise. We raised her
to respect people, to honor confidences, to treat others with dignity.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I assured him that I genuinely like and respected the
man underneath all that learned helplessness, and then I asked,
did you think what she said was funny? There was
a long pause.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
God help me, Cecil. I laughed because everyone else was laughing,
and I thought it was some kind of inside joke
between you two. Baby, millipede. I mean, but what I
realized when had actually happened, what she'd really done. I've
been sick about it for three days. I haven't been
able to sleep.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I said, I appreciate you calling, but this isn't something
I can forgive.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Ah, I understand, son. I just wanted you to know
that's not who I raised her to be. I'm starting
to see a lot of things I was blind to
for too many years.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
That was the first time I realized Theodore was blind.
I respected him too much to probe any deeper, but
I could hear that the man was finally waking up
after decades of sleep. Good for him, but I was done.
After these calls, I began to rearrange my life. I
threw myself back into work and renewed focus, and started
hitting the gym. Even started dating again, nothing serious, just
(20:14):
testing the waters to see if I could trust someone new.
I thought the whole nightmare was finally behind me, but
then I started noticing the whispers at my office. It
was the kind of awkward energy that suggests everyone knows
something you don't. I chalked it up to paranoia at first,
but the science became impossible to ignore when people started
treating me differently. My buddy Jake from accounting don't know
how old he is either finally pulled me aside during lunch. Dude,
(20:38):
it's Jake.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Is it true what they're saying about you and your
your situation? Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
The words hit me like a ton of bricks. Where
did you hear that?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's all over the office? Bratt, the guy who pooped
his pants at the Christmas party. He's been toaling everyone
who will listen. His new girlfriend gave him all the
dirt on you would bbe Millet? What is the hell?
My god? Real personal stuff? I mean I didn't want
to believe it, but he's got details that seemed pretty specific.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Apparently this Brett guy was dating Vivian. Now this felt
even worse than the original betrayal. Hold on, his name
is Jake? Oh? Apparently this Jake guy was dating wait.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Talking about Brett.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Sorry I got sorry? Sorry anyway, and action. Apparently this
Brett guy, the pooping guy, was dating Vivian. Now this
felt even worse than the original betrayal. It was like
she'd studied how to inflict maximum damage and crafted a
plan specifically designed to destroy all aspects of my life,
and so I confronted Brett the next day. I courted
(21:44):
him by the office, but not too close because of
the smelling during his usual afternoon gossip session with the
other small minded parasites who fed on people's businesses. We
need to talk, I said, Ah, hey.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Man, I'm just sharing what I've been told. You know,
I've If you got issues with your junk, maybe you
shouldn't tell people about it.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
The casual cruelty in his voice was disgusting. Brett, I'm
gonna say this once, and I want you to listen carefully.
Stop spreading personal information about me or this will become
a legal problem.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
All Right, dude, relax. You can't blame me for sharing
funny stories with the guys. I mean, yeah, maybe if
you were more of a man, there wouldn't be so
much to laugh about.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
My hands clenched into fists, and I considered introducing his
face to the coffee machine like Danny Glover and lethal weapon.
Danny freaking Glover, you really are crazy, such a good collba,
But I knew that causing a scene would just give
him more ammunition and more poop. So I stepped back,
(22:50):
looked him dead in the eye and said, we'll see
who's laughing when my lawyer gets done playing with you.
I don't know why I added the playing with you part,
and I know it made it very weird, but I
didn't have much time to think about it, and honestly,
I was caught off guard. I called my lawyer, and
by Friday afternoon, Brett and Vivian were both served with
a straining order citing infliction of emotional distress and interference
with business relationships. Vivian called me that evening from a
(23:13):
new number, her voice a mixture of rage and panic.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
You're in my life. Brett dumped me because he doesn't
want legal drama. I could lose my job over this,
all because you can't take a joke.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I listened to a red for exactly thirty seconds and
cut her off. Stay away from me. Stop discussing my
private life with anyone, or I'll escalate the legal action.
This is your only warning. I hung up immediately blocked
that number two. Then a week later I received a
video message, this from an unknown number as well. While
eating my lunch at my desk. Think it might be
work related. I opened it and the first thing I
(23:47):
saw was Vivian's face. She was out of breath, flushed
even the camera pulled back to reveal what she was
doing with Brett in what looked like a cheaply furnished apartment.
And then what followed was two minutes of explicit footage
that made my stomach turn, not because of the visual
content itself, but because I knew the obvious intention behind
sending it to me. She was looking directly at the camera,
(24:08):
and at several points throughout the video it seemed like
she was recording and performing for my benefit. And at
the end, while still engaged with Brett, she looked straight
into the lens and.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Said, Cecil, this is a real man.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But malice was breathtaking. I sat there staring at my
phone screen, feeling a level of disgust and betrayal I'd
never experienced before. This was the woman I'd planned to marry,
who I'd share my dreams and fears with, who I
trusted with my heart and vulnerabilities. I felt a measurable pain.
I remembered Theodore's voice during our last conversation, the pain
(24:41):
of a father realizing his daughter had become someone he
didn't recognize. I thought about Carmen's smug attitude, her admission
that she'd orchestrated Vivian's public humiliation of me as some
twisted power play. I realized this video would destroy them both.
So I'm not sure if I went extreme here, but
I made.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Several c her Dad, this is horrible.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So I'm not sure if I went extreme here, But
I made several copies of strategic portions of the video.
Nothing explicitly graphic that could get me into legal trouble,
but enough to show what was happening in the audio
of Vivian's final cruel comment. Then I created anonymous email
accounts using public computers and sent clips to Theodore, Carmen, Nathan,
and several of Vivian's closest friends. And then I was
(25:26):
shocked to see Theodore was the first person to call
me at six am in the morning. I'd never heard
of human beings so completely broken. What should become?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
How did we raise someone capable of this kind of cruelty?
Where did we go wrong? I started to realize my
wife's toxic influence on our daughter. She has poisoned our
home for decades. I filed for divorce this morning, after
thirty two years. I can't live with someone who turned
our daughter into a monster. I'm cutting off Vivian's graduate
(25:57):
school funding too. She's got one semester left, but she's
about to learn what real consequences feel like by noon.
I also slashed her tires and now I'm doing whatever
I want, yes, eating bacon.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And I've kept getting updates from mutual friends and former colleagues.
Vivian had been frantically calling everyone in her contact list,
trying to explain the video theym it was fake or
somehow edited to make her look bad, but no one
was buying any of the desperate excuses. Also, Carmen was
in full panic mode because she'd never worked a legitimate
job in her adult life and had no idea how
(26:33):
to survive financially without Theodore's income. I guess she never
thought her husband would grow a spine one day, and
wood travels fast. In the world of finance, Vivian's restraining
order was public record, so someone at her firm did
their homework and she was quietly let go. Turns out
financial firms don't like legal drama following their employees around,
especially when it evolves harassment or harassment and defamation claims
(26:55):
or defamation clams. Without the internship, she had no chance
of landing it to job after graduation. She was stuck
trying to secure emergency student loans while working part time
at some coffee shop downtown, and Brett he got a
taste of his own car at our office. Management had
been looking for reasons to get rid of him, and
the restraining order finally gave them an excuse they needed.
He was called into HR on a Friday afternoon and
(27:17):
never came back. I already moved to Taiwan and changed
his name to Rainbow Sanders, which is an odd turn
of events I can't really explain. I mean, he wasn't
even really embarrassed when he pooped his pants. Then a
few weeks ago, Theodore called me one last time. His
voice was now strong, more confident than I'd ever heard.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Hey Muchacho, just wanted to thank you for helping me
see what my family had become. Man, I've been weak
for too many years, but I'm finding my strength again.
I'm an alpha now. I listened to Joe Rogan, I
only eat steak later on bro I have a cold plunge.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Dan. As for me, I've never been the workplace. Gossip
died when Brett disappeared, and I've been seeing someone new,
woman who understands that trust is sacred and secrets ared weapons.
She knows all about my condition and treated it with
the understanding I needed an acceptance, which technically is also
what I said Vivian was like at first, and also
my first wife, So I might be the problem anyway.
(28:20):
People ask if I feel guilty about what happened to
Vivian and her family. Simple answer, no. You don't get
to systematically destroy someone's trust and expect mercy when your
actions have consequences. Just made sure the right people saw
who she really was. I haven't even heard from her
in months, and oh I kept my grandmother's ring, said,
am I safe now? Waiting for someone who actually deserves it?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So party, what did you guys think?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Bacon bits? And I'm sweating.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Through my shirt?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Is that to do with the bacon?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I don't know if it's the.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Bacon or it's the betrayal.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Oh right, it might just my betrayal.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So he was.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Married before, but then the first person he ever tells
about his condition and expects to be okay with it
is Vivian.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
So didn't he say it was like because of a surgery.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
There was like some he leaves it vague. Okay, you know.
The point is he's not defined by yes, right, and
he's not to blame for it. But would he be
more to blame for it if he was just born
with them to be like a medical thing.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Maybe you're born with it. Maybe it's maybee, maybe it
could be. But it's one of those things I didn't.
It's like, I love they always do these where it's like, yeah,
you know, and then I told that, you know, Vivian,
I'm going to tell her all about it. It's like, haven't
you been living now?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Now?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Is there no never taking your pants?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
So I feel like all of these are fantasy projections
of like people imagine the worst case in her right,
Like they're imagining, like what if I was at my
engagement dinner and my turned out to me right like,
and then you just kind of go down this rabbit
hole of like, hold have imaginary revenge for that imaginary thing. Yeah,
(30:16):
And it's like it's like a fantasy fulfillment for a
fantasy situation to begin with. And I'm always kind of
like this is just so weird and layered and like
I'm not sure why.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, it's it's well, I mean they all the ones
that I tend to hear over and over that are
just in my algorithm are obviously AI for some little
little man who has a problem that gets to then
because it's never like and then I.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Do wrong with being a little man, be clear, But it's.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Like their I mean, I mean metaphorically a little man. Yes,
it's it's one of those things where it's like, not
only do I get to destroy her, but her family,
anybody who's looked at her. She they she ends up
back on my porch six months car for some reason,
(31:03):
that happens. I also contacted producer Jensen at one point
because for some reason, the AI has now decided that
in literally the last i'd say three or four stories
that I've listened to, the guy that gets cheated on,
the woman cheats with a guy named Jensen. Yes, so
(31:23):
Jensen has become the name that they picked. They always meet,
there's always the same thing, it's, yeah, what.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Have you been doing the AI? You mean Jenssen?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
That's a strange name. That's what I say, because I
always fel like, I mean, there's definitely like certain names
that become like the guy Chad.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah no, but this is they always meet. It's always
it starts the funniest. They're always like, Hi, I'm Jeff
thirty two male. And it's like, that's when I met
Carol at my friend's barbecue. It's always at a friend's
barbecue where he meets the person. And then it finds
out it's always the same thing. And then I started
noticing red flags. She started turning her phone over like
it was always always about the phone. She changed her password,
(32:05):
she did this, so, yeah, so I'm watching Susan like
a hawk.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, exactly changed the minute she changes her password.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Ye oh my god, mocks my manhood.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
So are there female versions of this, like, because I mean,
these are the ones that we've been doing are very
clearly driven by misogyny, and yeah, like they're fantasies of
like men revenge.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's like, yeah, not just about the revenge, about the
woman too. It's also like and her dad is whipped
by this awful mum.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, fine, I empowered everybody with my you know, standing
up by.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
My funny is there are plenty of them that also
on my algorithm from the woman's point of view where
she destroys the man's life and then regrets it in
her life has been destroyed. So even though she's talking
about all creating, I can't believe I did this and
now I'm living in my car.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Are there any that are male driven about another, like
a male friend, like a betrayal by a male for
at least it's man on man.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Crime families, though there's a lot of like my family
kicked me out of my house and they didn't realize
that I was paying their rent, so now I kicked
them out of this kind of like that. There's yeah,
it's you know, it's things like that. It's Oh, the
big one that you get a lot of is my
brother impregnated my fiance and my parents sided with them.
Those are like the story after story of those, and
(33:21):
it's like, you know, my then I had to go
to my parents and my parents are like, well, you know,
they're meant to be and now there's a baby in
the picture. So I left for five years and when
I came back, I bought their house and burned it
down and Pete USh It's like stuff like that where
it was just like oh my god.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah, and then I cooked them into a soup and
fed them to their parents and then told your child.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
God Reddit or the modern day Grim's fairy tale.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
They really it's like this weird subconscious release of like, yeah,
it kind of bummed me out. I'll be honest.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
They're they're awful.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, it's funny when I listened to like you doing
them and reading them. But I don't know, it really
kind of makes me sad for the American psyche.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, it's well, I think, to be fair, it's it's
a very niche. It's a very niche, okay, niece, very Yeah,
I don't I would say that. I think this is
a This is kind of what Reddit is a little
bit known for. Right, It's where Reddit gets its it's
bad connotation. It's like it's a little bit of a
place for kind of the worst thoughts of humanity to
(34:27):
come out in an anonymous.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So it's longer Twitter.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
But don't you think that there are people the same
way that, Like, you know, if you read Penthouse Forum
back in the day, which I think those are, it
was like, you know, they fed into the sort of
male fantasies of like their stewardess is out there to
have foursomes with me and you know whatever, and like
that probably wasn't great for a whole generation of men
(34:55):
to think was real.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Right?
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Is this good to feed?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Like?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Is this good for guys to be fantasizing about?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Like?
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Because it's one if there was ever a story where
it was like And then I took it in stride
and I decided to just move on with my life
and find a partner who was you know, it's always
like And then I sent the video of her having
sex to her dad and it's jus, dude likes right,
it's like the full I don't know's.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That's one of the reasons why I because they're so absurd,
it's so ridiculous where and that's why you get titles
like this where you'll see titles where it's like, my
girlfriend cheated on me at our bachelorette party, so I
spent the next five years destroying her life. It's like, dude,
move on, right. That's the point of it is you go,
all right, well, thank god that happened at the bachelotte party.
(35:40):
You didn't actually get married, right, now, go live your life,
get your ring back, live your life. Make sure she
gets fired, destroy your parents and move on and everyone
knows that.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Noone knows that's what you do.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Do well.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I mean this although made writer sad, this is the
first time we've done it all in the same room together.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I think we should keep it in eye.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I was gonna say I think so too. I think
can actually just keep it and Eric Eric the way
it was, it's it was so funny, so anyway, we
just get crazier here. Thank you all for listening to
this episode of Pod Meets World.
Hello, listeners, it's once again time for it came from Reddit,
a special bonus podcast episode where I satisfy my own
niece fascination. Yes, that's what I said, with dramatic audio
retellings of one hundred percent honest stories I found on Reddit.
If you've heard one of these episodes before, you might
be asking yourself, wait, how does he know these clearly
fabricated and exaggerated stories anonymously posted on the Internet are true?
(00:24):
And to that, I say, good question. So, with the
help of my trustye co hosts, I have recorded yet
another new tale, a roller coaster explanation into human emotion
and the fragile yet complex ego that again proves I
have picked the perfect new hobby slash total waste of
my precious time. And now here's our third installment of
the series, titled My fiance mocked My manhood at her
(00:48):
engagement dinner, saying I had bargain bin equipment, so I
slipped the ring off her finger and walked out, And
now her family is falling apart. Oohoo boy. It's a
tale as old as time itself, isn't it. So to
start it off, I admit it was all a bit
petty of me. My name is Cecil, twenty nine Mail,
and i'd been with my girlfriend, Vivian for three years.
(01:10):
We're both in finance that it's some mind numbing corporate
conference where the biggest excitement was arguing about the quarterly
projections over stale bagels and weak coffee. We hit it
off and she quickly moved into my downtown apartment last year.
Then six months ago, I proposed with my grandmother's ring.
It's a beautiful vintage piece that had been in my
family for generations. About eighteen months into our relationship, during
(01:33):
one of those late night conversations where all the walls
coming down and you're just two people being completely honest
with each other, I told Vivian about something from my past,
a medical situation from when I was younger that left
me with certain physical realities. I'd never shared this with
any other woman, and I don't know why she wouldn't
know at this point, because I imagine we'd been naked together,
(01:54):
and I'm not comfortable sharing it online here either, even anonymously.
By the way, I said, my name Cecil and I'm
twenty nine. This wasn't something minor or trivial. It was
a source of deep personal insecurity that had affected my
confidence for years. The kind of thing that makes you
hesitate before getting intimate with someone new, makes you wonder
if you'll ever find someone who can truly accept you
(02:16):
as you are? Again, how are we not having sex
at this point? We lived together anyway. I've spent years
working through the psychological impact with therapists, learning to accept
myself despite my limitations. Vivian's reaction was everything I'd hoped
for and more. She was understanding, supportive, gentle, just in
all the right ways. She made me feel like I
didn't need to change anything between us.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
This doesn't change anything between us.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
She held me that night and whispered that she loved
me exactly as I was.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I love you exactly as you are.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I have a hearing problems, so I didn't hear it.
I needler to say it a little bit louder.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I love you exactly as you are.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That was better. That vulnerability was what made our relationship real.
That moment sealed our bond in ways I'd never experienced before.
It was the foundation of trust that made me believe
we could build a life together. But her family was
an interesting dynamic to navigate. Her father, Theodore don't know
how old he was, was one of those deeply faithful
men who wore his religion like armor against the world
(03:16):
Church every Sunday and Wednesday and Tuesday and Monday, sometimes
in the evening, sometimes in the morning. I don't even
think he had a job. Grace before every meal, Biblical
quotes for every life situation. He seemed like a genuinely
good man with strong moral principles.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I'd give you the shirt off my back if you
needed it.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
But watching him interact with his wife was genuinely painful.
She controlled every aspect of his existence. What he wore
to work, how he spent his free time, which friends
he was allowed to see, and even what food he
ordered at restaurants.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
He'll have the cobb salad, no bacon bits. They make him.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Fart, Theodore, which is not along and then fart.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Whatever you think is best.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Dear, completely surrendered his backbone somewhere along the way, probably
worn down by decades of manipulation disguised as marriage. Carmen
herself was a piece of work, one of those women
who smiled sweetly while sliding knives between your ribs. She
had this way of making comments that sounded supportive on
the surface but left you feeling hm smaller.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Wow, ceciul, you look skinny today.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Thank you. I figured Vivian was different than her mom
because she'd always roll her eyes at her behavior, But
apparently I was wrong. I spent three weeks planning our
engagement dinner, down to every tiny detail. This wasn't just
gonna be some casual get together at the nearby Olive Garden.
We're sure your family, but I'd wanted something a little
more elegant. I reserved the private dining room at Meridians,
(04:48):
easily the most exclusive restaurant in the city. They once
rejected Danny Glover because he was wearing sneakers. Can you
imagine that Danny freaking Glover too for this? Anyway, flu
Theodore and Carmen in from Phoenix, which is strange because
that's not where they're from, and coordinated schedules with my
sister Riley and my best friend Marcus. I arranged transportation,
(05:10):
even had the restaurant prepare a special menu featuring Vivian's
favorite dishes. No bacon bits, insert fartin insert fun that's
me fardin. I bought a new tom Ford suit because
what I really wanted was a Harrison Ford suit, but
he doesn't make them. Everything had to be absolutely perfect.
(05:30):
The financial investment was significant. I probably spent close to
eight thousand dollars on one evening, but hey, it felt
worth it. This was supposed to be one of those
milestone moments you remember for the rest of your life.
I mean, it's my engagement party. And that night started
out exactly as I planned. Twenty people in private dining rooms,
everyone dressed up in good spirits. Theodore said grace before
(05:51):
we ate.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of this
meal and the blessing of being surrounded by loved ones tonight.
Please bless this gathering and this couple, and guide our
hearts with gratitude and joy. Speak up, Theodore, gratitude and joy.
Amen Amen.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Indeed, I looked at Vivian across the table, and all
I could think about was how lucky I was to
have met someone who really got me, who knew my
worst secret and love me. Anyway. When it came time
for toast, the mood in the room shifted to something
more formal and heartfelt. Theodore spoke again, and honestly, he
moved me to tears.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Cecil has become a member of our family. The love
between him and my daughter, it's palpable to anyone who
meets them. God's plan truly did bring them together at
the right time.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Theo for Christ's sake, speak up at the right time.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
My brother and sister spoke next. Riley talked about watching
me find happiness after my divorce. Apparently I've been divorced
before and never really mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And it wasn't his fault, you know, she was the
spawn of Satan herself. I told him not to trust
a woman who wears sunglasses indoors.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
My brother Marcus went next, and he kept his toast light.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
But sincere can't believe he finally found someone who can
put up with his obsessive spreadsheet organization to research every
major purchase before decided coming. Come on, Bud, It's a VCR,
not a goddamn solar powered calculator for sentient bitchets. I
made am I right? Am I right? Right? Right?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Right? Then Vivian stood up and I leaned back in
my chair with what I'm sure was the biggest, most
contented grin on my face. I was expecting some sweet
story about our journey together, maybe something about how she
knew from our first conversation that I was different from
the other guy she dated. I knew I was in
for something special.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I remember the conference like it was yesterday. Cecil was
the only person there who actually seemed interested in discussing
something other than quarterly reports and market projections. Then we
had our first date at Olive Garden, you know where
your family. The waiter accidentally spilled red sauce on cecil
shirt mummy, and we just laughed and laughed and laughed
(08:09):
and laughed and laugh.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
She said that for like the next ten minutes. Back
at the dinner, I was nodding along, feeling that warm
glow of content me you get when everything in your
life feels exactly where it should be. But then something
shifted in her expression, That loving smile I'd been expecting
slowly twisting into something else, entirely, something cold and calculating
that I'd never seen before. She raised her glass higher,
(08:32):
and the room quieted as everyone prepared to hear what
they expected would be a touching declaration of love. She
looked directly at me and said.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Here's to marrying a man who worships me. It's proof
that love really does conquer all, even when the equipment
comes in travel size.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
There was dead silence in the room. Then she just
started laughing.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I mean, have you guys ever I've seen a baby millipede.
It's like that.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Her brother Nathan nearly spit out his drink, laughing.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Try again.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Her mom chuckled, and then Theodore nervously joined in. That
guy's so whipped. I don't even think he got the joke.
My brother and sisters. My brother and sisters sat frozen
in their chairs, their faces reflecting the complete horror and
disbelief I felt flooding through my system. The woman I
planned to marry, my trusted with the most vulnerable part
(09:42):
of my soul, had just weaponized that trust in front
of everyone I know in love. The cruelty was so calculated,
so deliberate, that I almost couldn't process it. The smirk
on her face told me everything I needed to know
about how much she was enjoying my pain. I slowly
pushed back my chair and stood up. I had sensed
the room watching my every move. I walked around the
table to where Vivian stood, her smirk starting to falter
(10:05):
as I got closer. I gently took her left hand
and slipped my grandmother's engagement ring off her finger in
one smooth, deliberate motion, while looking directly into her eyes,
and then broke the silence, speaking to her loud enough
for everyone in the room to hear.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
You don't deserve this.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Then I turned and walked straight out of the dining
room without looking back, ignoring her voice behind me calling out, Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Come on, it was just a joke. Don't be so sensitive.
Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Oh? Did the salad have bacon bits?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
As I left, I was systematically dismantling every assumption I'd
made about our relationship and walking through a cloud of fart.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Cloud of theodor fart.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
A cloud, a cloud of theo fart? Had any of
it been real? How many of her friends already knew
my secret because she thought it was amusing. By the
time I pulled in my parking garage, I knew exactly
what I was gonna do. This wasn't gonna be some
mess he break up. He was gonna handle this like
a business transaction. I went straight to the closet and
started pulling out every piece of clothing that belonged to her. Dresses,
(11:08):
work clothes, that expensive coat, that shirt that said, don't
go bacon my heart, bacon.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
I don't go back and ma huhh.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
That shirt that said these are less that's what this is. Dresses,
work close, that expensive coat, that shirt that said don't
go bacon my fart, that goes with my shirt that
(11:54):
said I couldn't even if I fried. Everything went into
trash bags. I went room by room, clearing out every
trace of her bathroom stuff, kitchen items, bedroom belongings, expensive, cheap,
meaningful or unimportant.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Gone. Took me about ninety minutes, twelve bags in total,
all tied up and ready to go. Then I sat
and waited. Vivian showed up exactly forty seven minutes after
I walked out of the restaurant. I could hear her
in the hallway fumbling with their key, then the confused
rattling when it wouldn't turn. Oh yeah, I called an
emergency locksmith while I was packing.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
They got there in forty seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Yes, they did cost me double for after our service,
but it was worth every penny. If you ever in
the Greater Victorville area, and you need a key maid.
Call Asmir.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Hi, I'm Asmir. Give me call. Why we can't record
these together?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, if you're ever in the greater Victorville area, I
need a key maid. Call Asmir. Guys it pro and
he'll chat your ear off about keemtrails. Hey, it's Asmir.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Give me a call, real man.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
The frantic knocking started immediately. She thought she could break
down the door.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I know you're in there. Open the door. We need
to talk about this.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I let her bang for a full five minutes before
opening it just wide enough to see the makeup smeared
across her face from crying. She had that panic look
of someone who just torched their entire life in one
stupid moment.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Baby, please let me explain. It was just a stupid
joke that came out all wrong. You know I didn't
mean anything by it. I was nervous and trying to
be funny.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I kept my voice flat final and said we're done.
I started to close the door, but she stuck her
foot in the gap.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Wait. Wait, you can't just end three years over this.
I made a mistake. Okay, I admit it, but we
can work through this. We can go to counseling. I'll
apologize to everyone, whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I told her to move her foot, never come back.
She stared at me for a few seconds, probably hoping
to see some crack in my resolve, but when she
realized that was dead serious, she let me close the door.
She kept bounding though, bleeding and threatening me for twenty minutes,
everything from promising to make it up to me threats
about the lease. She even claimed she was having some
kind of mental breakdown and needed help.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Can you please look up what I'm supposed to do
if I'm having a panic attack, Look on doctor oz
dot com or something.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
I just turned down the TV to doctor Oz and
ignored her. I'm doctor Rod and then finally silence. I
waited another hour to make sure she was really gone,
then started moving the bags twelve trips downstairs to the street.
I could have used the service elevator to make it easier,
but I wanted to take my time and feel the pain.
Ohso I needed my steps. Each bag felt like shredding
(14:38):
another piece of dead weight, and by two am I
had them all arranged neatly on the curb like some
kind of serial killer. Finally, ridding his fridge of body parts.
I went back upstairs, cracked up in a soda and
waited by the window, And like I predicted, she came
back around three thirty am, probably thinking she could catch
me when I was tired and emotional. Instead, she found
her entire life scattered across the sidewalk in garbage bags. Hefty, hefty, hefty.
(15:03):
Oh you bet, you bet, you bet ye. I watched
from the bed. I watched from the bedroom window as
she knelt on the concrete in a wrinkled engagement dress,
frantically digging through bags and trying to salvage your belongings.
She kept looking up at the window with this desperate expression,
probably hoping to see some sign that this is all
just a dramatic gesture that would blow over by morning.
(15:24):
But I just stood there watching, like a creepy version
of Norman Bates Dead Mom. She chosen to humiliate me
in front of twenty people, and now she has to
dig through her garbage bags in a designer dress at
three thirty am. It seemed fair to me. I eventually
(15:51):
went to bed, but my phone started buzzing at six am.
It didn't stop for the next five days. Vivian's messages
went through all the predictable stages.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Baby, just pick up, I love you, I love us.
Let's just meet it Olive Garden and get on the
same page. Say so, what are you doing. I'm the
one who should be mad. You humiliated me in front
of my entire family just because you couldn't take a
simple joke. You actually owe me an apology. Listen, little man,
(16:22):
I know all your dirty secrets. You can't just throw
me away in garbage bags. I'll destroy your reputation. Everyone
at the office, your friends, your family, they will all
know exactly what kind of pathetic excuse for a man
you really are. You have twenty four hours to call
me back and fix this.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The audacity was incredible, but it showed me exactly who
she really was underneath all that fake sweetness. I didn't respond,
so she switched to bargaining.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I'll never hurt you again. I was just nervous. We'll
go to couple's therapy anchor management. A doctor will make
you huge, whatever will help.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Then Carmen called, by the way, do you have the
name of that doctor? Three days after the dinner disaster,
I'd been expecting this, so I had to pick up.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Hello, you really embarrassed Vivian. She was just trying to
lighten the mood with a little humor. Married couples tease
each other all the time. It's perfectly normal and healthy.
I mean, Theodore is the size of a hot wheel.
You don't see him crying about it. Maybe you should
think about whether you're really ready for marriage if you're
(17:30):
going to run away at the first little bump in
the road.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I thought it was time to find out exactly how
deep this rabbit hole went, Carmen, How often do you
and Vivian discuss our private life?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, mothers and daughters talk about everything.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Meaning what exactly? She laughed in that same harsh tone
I'd heard at dinner.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Ha ha ha oh, honey, I know all about your challenges,
Vivian tells me everything. How else can I give her
proper guidance about managing a man like you?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
My stomach turned as the philoscope of this betrayal sunk
in what kind of guidance exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Men like you need a firm hand to keep you
in line and remind you of your place.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Ooh, the puppet master finally revealed herself. I could hear
decades of manipulation in her voice. It was the same
technique she'd probably used to break down Theodore until it
was nothing more than a nodding yes, man, Carmen, I said,
my voice, perfectly calm and controlled. I want you to
listen very carefully. Your daughter betrayed the most private, vulnerable
(18:35):
part of my life for your entertainment. You've been treating
my relationship like your personal soap opera, coaching her to
humiliate me publicly as some sick power play. I'm not
your husband to control. She quickly hung up, and then
Theodore called, I don't.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Know what to say. I didn't know. Vivian and Carmen
were likeless shear it intimate details about your life. We
raised her better than that, I promise. We raised her
to respect people, to honor confidences, to treat others with dignity.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I assured him that I genuinely like and respected the
man underneath all that learned helplessness, and then I asked,
did you think what she said was funny? There was
a long pause.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
God help me, Cecil. I laughed because everyone else was laughing,
and I thought it was some kind of inside joke
between you two. Baby, millipede. I mean, but what I
realized when had actually happened, what she'd really done. I've
been sick about it for three days. I haven't been
able to sleep.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I said, I appreciate you calling, but this isn't something
I can forgive.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Ah, I understand, son. I just wanted you to know
that's not who I raised her to be. I'm starting
to see a lot of things I was blind to
for too many years.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
That was the first time I realized Theodore was blind.
I respected him too much to probe any deeper, but
I could hear that the man was finally waking up
after decades of sleep. Good for him, but I was done.
After these calls, I began to rearrange my life. I
threw myself back into work and renewed focus, and started
hitting the gym. Even started dating again, nothing serious, just
(20:14):
testing the waters to see if I could trust someone new.
I thought the whole nightmare was finally behind me, but
then I started noticing the whispers at my office. It
was the kind of awkward energy that suggests everyone knows
something you don't. I chalked it up to paranoia at first,
but the science became impossible to ignore when people started
treating me differently. My buddy Jake from accounting don't know
how old he is either finally pulled me aside during lunch. Dude,
(20:38):
it's Jake.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Is it true what they're saying about you and your
your situation? Oh?
Speaker 1 (20:45):
The words hit me like a ton of bricks. Where
did you hear that?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's all over the office? Bratt, the guy who pooped
his pants at the Christmas party. He's been toaling everyone
who will listen. His new girlfriend gave him all the
dirt on you would bbe Millet? What is the hell?
My god? Real personal stuff? I mean I didn't want
to believe it, but he's got details that seemed pretty specific.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Apparently this Brett guy was dating Vivian. Now this felt
even worse than the original betrayal. Hold on, his name
is Jake? Oh? Apparently this Jake guy was dating wait.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Talking about Brett.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Sorry I got sorry? Sorry anyway, and action. Apparently this
Brett guy, the pooping guy, was dating Vivian. Now this
felt even worse than the original betrayal. It was like
she'd studied how to inflict maximum damage and crafted a
plan specifically designed to destroy all aspects of my life,
and so I confronted Brett the next day. I courted
(21:44):
him by the office, but not too close because of
the smelling during his usual afternoon gossip session with the
other small minded parasites who fed on people's businesses. We
need to talk, I said, Ah, hey.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Man, I'm just sharing what I've been told. You know,
I've If you got issues with your junk, maybe you
shouldn't tell people about it.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
The casual cruelty in his voice was disgusting. Brett, I'm
gonna say this once, and I want you to listen carefully.
Stop spreading personal information about me or this will become
a legal problem.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
All Right, dude, relax. You can't blame me for sharing
funny stories with the guys. I mean, yeah, maybe if
you were more of a man, there wouldn't be so
much to laugh about.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
My hands clenched into fists, and I considered introducing his
face to the coffee machine like Danny Glover and lethal weapon.
Danny freaking Glover, you really are crazy, such a good collba,
But I knew that causing a scene would just give
him more ammunition and more poop. So I stepped back,
(22:50):
looked him dead in the eye and said, we'll see
who's laughing when my lawyer gets done playing with you.
I don't know why I added the playing with you part,
and I know it made it very weird, but I
didn't have much time to think about it, and honestly,
I was caught off guard. I called my lawyer, and
by Friday afternoon, Brett and Vivian were both served with
a straining order citing infliction of emotional distress and interference
with business relationships. Vivian called me that evening from a
(23:13):
new number, her voice a mixture of rage and panic.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
You're in my life. Brett dumped me because he doesn't
want legal drama. I could lose my job over this,
all because you can't take a joke.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I listened to a red for exactly thirty seconds and
cut her off. Stay away from me. Stop discussing my
private life with anyone, or I'll escalate the legal action.
This is your only warning. I hung up immediately blocked
that number two. Then a week later I received a
video message, this from an unknown number as well. While
eating my lunch at my desk. Think it might be
work related. I opened it and the first thing I
(23:47):
saw was Vivian's face. She was out of breath, flushed
even the camera pulled back to reveal what she was
doing with Brett in what looked like a cheaply furnished apartment.
And then what followed was two minutes of explicit footage
that made my stomach turn, not because of the visual
content itself, but because I knew the obvious intention behind
sending it to me. She was looking directly at the camera,
(24:08):
and at several points throughout the video it seemed like
she was recording and performing for my benefit. And at
the end, while still engaged with Brett, she looked straight
into the lens and.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Said, Cecil, this is a real man.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But malice was breathtaking. I sat there staring at my
phone screen, feeling a level of disgust and betrayal I'd
never experienced before. This was the woman I'd planned to marry,
who I'd share my dreams and fears with, who I
trusted with my heart and vulnerabilities. I felt a measurable pain.
I remembered Theodore's voice during our last conversation, the pain
(24:41):
of a father realizing his daughter had become someone he
didn't recognize. I thought about Carmen's smug attitude, her admission
that she'd orchestrated Vivian's public humiliation of me as some
twisted power play. I realized this video would destroy them both.
So I'm not sure if I went extreme here, but
I made.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Several c her Dad, this is horrible.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So I'm not sure if I went extreme here, But
I made several copies of strategic portions of the video.
Nothing explicitly graphic that could get me into legal trouble,
but enough to show what was happening in the audio
of Vivian's final cruel comment. Then I created anonymous email
accounts using public computers and sent clips to Theodore, Carmen, Nathan,
and several of Vivian's closest friends. And then I was
(25:26):
shocked to see Theodore was the first person to call
me at six am in the morning. I'd never heard
of human beings so completely broken. What should become?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
How did we raise someone capable of this kind of cruelty?
Where did we go wrong? I started to realize my
wife's toxic influence on our daughter. She has poisoned our
home for decades. I filed for divorce this morning, after
thirty two years. I can't live with someone who turned
our daughter into a monster. I'm cutting off Vivian's graduate
(25:57):
school funding too. She's got one semester left, but she's
about to learn what real consequences feel like by noon.
I also slashed her tires and now I'm doing whatever
I want, yes, eating bacon.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And I've kept getting updates from mutual friends and former colleagues.
Vivian had been frantically calling everyone in her contact list,
trying to explain the video theym it was fake or
somehow edited to make her look bad, but no one
was buying any of the desperate excuses. Also, Carmen was
in full panic mode because she'd never worked a legitimate
job in her adult life and had no idea how
(26:33):
to survive financially without Theodore's income. I guess she never
thought her husband would grow a spine one day, and
wood travels fast. In the world of finance, Vivian's restraining
order was public record, so someone at her firm did
their homework and she was quietly let go. Turns out
financial firms don't like legal drama following their employees around,
especially when it evolves harassment or harassment and defamation claims
(26:55):
or defamation clams. Without the internship, she had no chance
of landing it to job after graduation. She was stuck
trying to secure emergency student loans while working part time
at some coffee shop downtown, and Brett he got a
taste of his own car at our office. Management had
been looking for reasons to get rid of him, and
the restraining order finally gave them an excuse they needed.
He was called into HR on a Friday afternoon and
(27:17):
never came back. I already moved to Taiwan and changed
his name to Rainbow Sanders, which is an odd turn
of events I can't really explain. I mean, he wasn't
even really embarrassed when he pooped his pants. Then a
few weeks ago, Theodore called me one last time. His
voice was now strong, more confident than I'd ever heard.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Hey Muchacho, just wanted to thank you for helping me
see what my family had become. Man, I've been weak
for too many years, but I'm finding my strength again.
I'm an alpha now. I listened to Joe Rogan, I
only eat steak later on bro I have a cold plunge.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Dan. As for me, I've never been the workplace. Gossip
died when Brett disappeared, and I've been seeing someone new,
woman who understands that trust is sacred and secrets ared weapons.
She knows all about my condition and treated it with
the understanding I needed an acceptance, which technically is also
what I said Vivian was like at first, and also
my first wife, So I might be the problem anyway.
(28:20):
People ask if I feel guilty about what happened to
Vivian and her family. Simple answer, no. You don't get
to systematically destroy someone's trust and expect mercy when your
actions have consequences. Just made sure the right people saw
who she really was. I haven't even heard from her
in months, and oh I kept my grandmother's ring, said,
am I safe now? Waiting for someone who actually deserves it?
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So party, what did you guys think?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Bacon bits? And I'm sweating.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Through my shirt?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Is that to do with the bacon?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I don't know if it's the.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Bacon or it's the betrayal.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Oh right, it might just my betrayal.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So he was.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Married before, but then the first person he ever tells
about his condition and expects to be okay with it
is Vivian.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
So didn't he say it was like because of a surgery.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
There was like some he leaves it vague. Okay, you know.
The point is he's not defined by yes, right, and
he's not to blame for it. But would he be
more to blame for it if he was just born
with them to be like a medical thing.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Maybe you're born with it. Maybe it's maybee, maybe it
could be. But it's one of those things I didn't.
It's like, I love they always do these where it's like, yeah,
you know, and then I told that, you know, Vivian,
I'm going to tell her all about it. It's like, haven't
you been living now?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Now?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Is there no never taking your pants?
Speaker 3 (29:55):
So I feel like all of these are fantasy projections
of like people imagine the worst case in her right,
Like they're imagining, like what if I was at my
engagement dinner and my turned out to me right like,
and then you just kind of go down this rabbit
hole of like, hold have imaginary revenge for that imaginary thing. Yeah,
(30:16):
And it's like it's like a fantasy fulfillment for a
fantasy situation to begin with. And I'm always kind of
like this is just so weird and layered and like
I'm not sure why.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, it's it's well, I mean they all the ones
that I tend to hear over and over that are
just in my algorithm are obviously AI for some little
little man who has a problem that gets to then
because it's never like and then I.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Do wrong with being a little man, be clear, But it's.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Like their I mean, I mean metaphorically a little man. Yes,
it's it's one of those things where it's like, not
only do I get to destroy her, but her family,
anybody who's looked at her. She they she ends up
back on my porch six months car for some reason,
(31:03):
that happens. I also contacted producer Jensen at one point
because for some reason, the AI has now decided that
in literally the last i'd say three or four stories
that I've listened to, the guy that gets cheated on,
the woman cheats with a guy named Jensen. Yes, so
(31:23):
Jensen has become the name that they picked. They always meet,
there's always the same thing, it's, yeah, what.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Have you been doing the AI? You mean Jenssen?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
That's a strange name. That's what I say, because I
always fel like, I mean, there's definitely like certain names
that become like the guy Chad.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah no, but this is they always meet. It's always
it starts the funniest. They're always like, Hi, I'm Jeff
thirty two male. And it's like, that's when I met
Carol at my friend's barbecue. It's always at a friend's
barbecue where he meets the person. And then it finds
out it's always the same thing. And then I started
noticing red flags. She started turning her phone over like
it was always always about the phone. She changed her password,
(32:05):
she did this, so, yeah, so I'm watching Susan like
a hawk.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, exactly changed the minute she changes her password.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Ye oh my god, mocks my manhood.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
So are there female versions of this, like, because I mean,
these are the ones that we've been doing are very
clearly driven by misogyny, and yeah, like they're fantasies of
like men revenge.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's like, yeah, not just about the revenge, about the
woman too. It's also like and her dad is whipped
by this awful mum.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, fine, I empowered everybody with my you know, standing
up by.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
My funny is there are plenty of them that also
on my algorithm from the woman's point of view where
she destroys the man's life and then regrets it in
her life has been destroyed. So even though she's talking
about all creating, I can't believe I did this and
now I'm living in my car.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Are there any that are male driven about another, like
a male friend, like a betrayal by a male for
at least it's man on man.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Crime families, though there's a lot of like my family
kicked me out of my house and they didn't realize
that I was paying their rent, so now I kicked
them out of this kind of like that. There's yeah,
it's you know, it's things like that. It's Oh, the
big one that you get a lot of is my
brother impregnated my fiance and my parents sided with them.
Those are like the story after story of those, and
(33:21):
it's like, you know, my then I had to go
to my parents and my parents are like, well, you know,
they're meant to be and now there's a baby in
the picture. So I left for five years and when
I came back, I bought their house and burned it
down and Pete USh It's like stuff like that where
it was just like oh my god.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yeah, and then I cooked them into a soup and
fed them to their parents and then told your child.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
God Reddit or the modern day Grim's fairy tale.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
They really it's like this weird subconscious release of like, yeah,
it kind of bummed me out. I'll be honest.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
They're they're awful.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, it's funny when I listened to like you doing
them and reading them. But I don't know, it really
kind of makes me sad for the American psyche.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, it's well, I think, to be fair, it's it's
a very niche. It's a very niche, okay, niece, very Yeah,
I don't I would say that. I think this is
a This is kind of what Reddit is a little
bit known for. Right, It's where Reddit gets its it's
bad connotation. It's like it's a little bit of a
place for kind of the worst thoughts of humanity to
(34:27):
come out in an anonymous.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So it's longer Twitter.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
But don't you think that there are people the same
way that, Like, you know, if you read Penthouse Forum
back in the day, which I think those are, it
was like, you know, they fed into the sort of
male fantasies of like their stewardess is out there to
have foursomes with me and you know whatever, and like
that probably wasn't great for a whole generation of men
(34:55):
to think was real.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Right?
Speaker 3 (34:57):
Is this good to feed?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Like?
Speaker 3 (34:59):
Is this good for guys to be fantasizing about?
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Like?
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Because it's one if there was ever a story where
it was like And then I took it in stride
and I decided to just move on with my life
and find a partner who was you know, it's always
like And then I sent the video of her having
sex to her dad and it's jus, dude likes right,
it's like the full I don't know's.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That's one of the reasons why I because they're so absurd,
it's so ridiculous where and that's why you get titles
like this where you'll see titles where it's like, my
girlfriend cheated on me at our bachelorette party, so I
spent the next five years destroying her life. It's like, dude,
move on, right. That's the point of it is you go,
all right, well, thank god that happened at the bachelotte party.
(35:40):
You didn't actually get married, right, now, go live your life,
get your ring back, live your life. Make sure she
gets fired, destroy your parents and move on and everyone
knows that.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Noone knows that's what you do.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Do well.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I mean this although made writer sad, this is the
first time we've done it all in the same room together.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
I think we should keep it in eye.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
I was gonna say I think so too. I think
can actually just keep it and Eric Eric the way
it was, it's it was so funny, so anyway, we
just get crazier here. Thank you all for listening to
this episode of Pod Meets World.
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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