August 14, 2025 • 19 mins
Relationship Stories - OP, a new mom overwhelmed by sleep deprivation and emotional neglect, discovers her husband spent the day napping while she struggled alone. That quiet betrayal pushed her to question everything—even her entire marriage.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi everybody, and welcome back to Lost genre Reddit stories.
This post is from the subreddedam the a Hole, and
it's by user alternative site fourteen sixty eight am I
the a Hole for how I reacted when my niece
announced she was engaged. I thirty three male, have a
pretty big age difference with my brother forty four male.
(00:25):
He had a child at twenty five, which means that
I became an uncle at fourteen. Because we were pretty
close in age, I formed a special bond with my
niece Ella, now eighteen female, when she was sixteen. My
brother and his family moved away, so I've been seeing
them less recently, but we keep in touch and to
catch up at family events. Last year, at Christmas, my
(00:48):
niece told me that she had a boyfriend and told
me a bit about him, but I didn't know the guy.
He was invited for Easter and a couple of other events,
but he was never able to make it. When we
were planning our mother's birthday, my brother decided to invite
Ella's boyfriend so that we could all meet him. Yesterday
was the birthday. I was looking forward to meet him
(01:11):
Mark Ella's boyfriend, but was very confused when I saw
her walk in with a man that looked double her age.
Spoiler alert, he is. She introduced him to me and
I politely smiled, but was deep down very concerned. I
went to my brother to ask how old Mark was,
and he told me that Mark is thirty six, so
(01:32):
literally double Ella's age. She had told me that he
was a bit older, but he assumed like early the
mid twenties, not almost forty. That's when they called us
in the living room to share exciting news. Ella showed
us a ring and revealed that they were engaged. I
just said, what the f and everyone turned around and
(01:53):
looked at me like I was crazy. I told them
they were out of their minds if they thought this
this was normal, that there was no world in which
a thirty something should date an eighteen year old, and
that she shouldn't be getting married. All of them accused
me of ruining Ella's happiness. Some even said that I
was jealous of Mark, which is so effing disgusting.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I can't even explain it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I mean, I'm younger than Mark, but never in a
million years would I ever consider dating someone younger than
twenty five. They told me that it was perfectly legal
as they were both adults, which isn't true because they've
been dating for a year and Ella turned eighteen seven
months ago, and that if they were happy, that's all
(02:37):
that matters. I told them that they were sick for
allowing this and that he was a predator, but they
wouldn't listen. I know this isn't my business, but I
can't help but fear for Ella. She is young and
doesn't really know what she's getting into. I'm really scared
for her getting married and being unable to leave him
when she realizes how sick it was. I then left
(03:00):
and slammed the door and have been receiving pretty wild
messages and calls since then. I don't know if I
was wrong for this and I'm just overreacting, and if
I wasn't wrong, I don't know what I can do
to make them realize how wrong it is. Am I
the Ahle? Well it'll be in my opinion. No, you're
not the Ahle, and you are definitely not wrong. If
(03:21):
my daughter came home with a guy twice or age,
I would definitely freak out, but I think I would
handle that freak out internally and then talk to my
wife about how do we get her to stop seeing
that guy? Because freaking out and making a scene, I
believe the only thing it will do is just make
Ella want to stay with him even more. This guy
is sick and he is a predator, and I'm pretty
(03:43):
sure his next step is going to start isolating Ella.
If I was in your shoes, instead of being angry
right now or showing them how angry I am, I
would just try to keep an open line of communication
with Ella for at any point she needs you, she
can run away. And what do you guys think? Let
me know in the comment section, and now let's check
out the community comments. Ad Accomplished sixty eight seventy says
(04:05):
a thirty five year old going after a seventeen year
old is ick. They are just too far apart in life,
experience and station in life to have a relationship based
on mutual respect and equality. These types of relationships are
usually based on mutual exploitation. He gets a pretty young thing,
She gets access to material benefits not usually earned by
(04:26):
people in a age group, and that is not a
great thing to base a relationship on. I know I
am generalizing, and there are cases of true and healthy
love between people with this kind of age gap. But
my reaction is the same as yours. This likely puts
you on the outs with your family, but someone had
to say what you said. No addition fifty five forty
(04:49):
three says he's a predator.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
You're right.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
The most important thing you can do is get her
on birth control because he's going to destroy her life,
and Lady one says, not the ahole. Call your knees
and apologize for your outburst. Explain that you have never
known a good man of that age to go after
someone so young, and you reacted out of fear. Tell
her that you trust her to put herself first and
(05:14):
you are always there for her.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
This is important.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It's pretty much guaranteed that she is or will be
a victim of this man's abuse, So make it clear
your ride or die. This is part of your insurance
against isolation. Call your brother and apologize for your reaction.
Then act like he must be concerned. Act concerned for him.
How are you managing this? You must be so scared
(05:37):
for her, It must have been awful to realize you
couldn't protect her. Yep, lay on the shame by pretending
to be concerned and empathetic, find out how and where
they met, pretend to be interested in acute way, Ah, how.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Did you meet?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
If this man is in any sort of job that
brings him near miners, report him to a social media search,
is he recently etc? Additional information from Ope's comments. I
quickly went over his Facebook accounts, so it's not really
verified information. But I saw pictures of him with his
ex I think, and she looked twenty twenty four. Maybe
(06:15):
it's still better. But if the guy has a thing
for younger girls, that's even more wrong. And it seems
like he was still with his sex when he started
dating my knees, so even weirder. Also, from what I understood,
they met doing sports. Ella was in a tennis tournament
into her club and she played against adults. She played
against Mark and after he came to talk to her,
(06:38):
so they talked and that was basically it. I know
it doesn't mean anything, but he doesn't look rich, and
I've seen pictures of his house. It's pretty normal, I'd
say middle class, upper middle class at best. Well, the
community agrees that this is wrong and has given Opie
advice on how to deal with it. Now we've got
three updates to the story, So let's move on with
(06:59):
the first one. So I've taken the past twenty four
hours to really reflect on all of this. I tried
to take in most of the advice in the comments,
and here's what I have decided. I don't think that
me telling her and everyone that their relationship is weird
was wrong. I however, think that I did wrong and
it was pretty harsh because it was in the heat
(07:21):
of the moment. But I still find this very creepy
and don't think she should get married.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
What I've decided to do is one apologize to her.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I sent her a text saying I was sorry for
my outburst and that I should have thought it through beforehand.
I told her that I never wanted to make her
feel like I didn't want her to be happy, and
that I loved her very much and had her best
interest in mind. Two, ask her if we could talk
about this. I asked if she would be okay and
free to hang out and maybe get coffee this week
(07:52):
to talk about all of this with a clear head.
I really want to try and get her to see
why it's weird and that maybe marrying him is not
a great choice. Yes, and three explain myself to my brother.
I sent him a text saying that I was sorry
for the way I said it, but that I still
thought that it needed to be said. I explained to
him why I think Mark is a predator and this
(08:13):
relationship could have a very negative and damaging impact for Ella.
I'm still waiting on their replies. I'll update when they
reply or when I see Ella if she accepts, depending
on how long it would take. In the meantime, I
really want to thank everyone who gave me advice and
was constructive and really tried to help my niece out
in this situation. I also send my best to all
(08:36):
of the people in the comments sharing similar stories when
they were the teenager getting groomed. I'm so sorry this
happened to you, and I really hope you're doing better now. Okay,
it seems that it'll be got some really good advice
from the community, or at least he's following up on
that and has a plan moving forward. So now let's
move on to the next update. So, following my text,
(08:59):
Ella replied and told me she agreed to meet with
me and talk. I just came back from seeing her.
Here's how it went. She asked me what I wanted
to tell her, and I started explaining that I didn't
think her relationship was very healthy and that no older
guy should want to date a teenager. I told her
that she was an incredible woman, so I wasn't saying
(09:20):
it was weird that someone would want to marry her,
but the guys my age normally shouldn't even look at
a teenager. She wasn't convinced and said that sometimes it's true,
but sometimes it's okay. I asked her for how she
would feel if I told her that someone born today
could be her future partner, and she said it felt
(09:42):
really weird. I also asked her if she would consider
dating someone younger than fifteen, and she said no. I
could see her starting to realize that Mark maybe didn't
have the best intentions. I also asked her if she
knew about his previous relationship, and she said vaguely and
just told me the girl's name. I asked her if
(10:04):
she knew how old the girl was, and she said
she was twenty one.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I also asked her if she.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Knew that their relationships overlapped, and she said that Mark
always told her he was single since they met, but
she kind of felt like that wasn't true. I told
her that since his previous girlfriend was also significantly younger,
it seemed like he had a thing for younger girls,
which is kind of weird. After discussing that, she told
(10:31):
me a bit more about her relationship. She told me
she was starting to feel weird about it because of
Mark's recent behavior. I asked what she meant, and she
said that he had been flirting with a lot of
girls who were all also younger, including some of Ella's friends.
When she confronted him, he sort of gasled her into
thinking it wasn't flirting. He was also making a lot
(10:54):
of comments about having children with Ella and how cute
it would be to see her raise them.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
She told me she.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Was absolutely not ready for that, and also wanted to
go to college and work and not be a stay
at home mom. Because of all of that, she was
doubting her relationship, and I told her that I understood.
She said she was scared of breaking up with him
because he had become her whole life recently and she
didn't know what she would do without him. I told
(11:22):
her that she was surrounded by people who loved her
and would be there for her and that she was
a lot more than just Mark's girlfriend. I said that
she knew my opinion on it, but that ultimately the
choice was hers and that I just wanted her to
be happy. I also said I would be there for
her no matter what. She told me that she will
(11:43):
try to break up with him this week and she'll
let me know how it goes. Also, again, thank you
to everyone who gave advice and try to help us.
I really appreciated Opie's edit. Okay, so I just want
to say some people in the comments see to think
that this is fake, and you know what, I can understand,
(12:03):
and I don't really care. I'm not asking you to
believe that my life is real or fake, and it's
great that you don't just believe everything you see online.
But I just wanted to say this. There are hundreds
of people on here or elsewhere that share similar stories.
I'm not really affected by people thinking I'm lying, mainly
because I'm not the one in that situation, but some
(12:25):
people might be. Some people come on here to share
something that might have traumatized them, and the last thing
they want is for others to think they're lying. So
if you don't want to believe me, that's fine, but
the next time, keep that to yourself. It's fine to
not believe something, but you don't have to say it
because it might make other people feel really bad. All right, Well,
(12:47):
Op was able to meet up with Ella for coffee
and they add a really thorough conversation, and it seems
like Ope has been starting to get through to Ella.
So now let's move on to the final update to
see how this story ends. I know it's been a
while since I posted the last update and a lot
of people have been requesting updates on the whole situation,
(13:07):
but until now I hadn't really received any news, So
please forgive me if this update took a while to come.
Since my conversation with Ella, I would check in on
her once or twice a week and ask how things were,
and she'd always tell me pretty much the same as
what she told me a month ago. Basically, there were
many red flags and she was getting more and more
(13:30):
uncomfortable in her relationship, but she also didn't know how
to break up with him. I tried to give her
some advice, but eventually told her that I thought she
should do it when she felt comfortable yesterday, I called
her to know what she had planned for the holidays
and if she'd be coming to the family dinner that
I was hosting, and if Mark would be coming. That's
(13:50):
when she told me that she had broken up with
him the evening before. She was pretty shaken up, so
I didn't ask for too much details and asked if
she wanted to come to my house for a while.
She said that Mark had left to stay with his
family when she told him so, she was okay staying home.
This is maybe not a very detailed update, but here's
(14:13):
what I know. She told me that he had been
getting angry at her all week for small things, and
then they were talking about the holidays and he insisted
that they shouldn't go with Ella's family and instead spend
a week with his family because they see them less
often they live out of state. After that, he made
a comment about how he hoped that the next year,
(14:35):
as a present, they could give his mother a grand child,
and Ella said that's what really made her break up
with him, And she also told me that she would
be coming alone to the family dinner. I don't know
what she told him or how he reacted, and maybe
she'll tell me more in a while when she feels better,
and if not, I won't ask her to again. Thank
(14:56):
you to anyone who gave advice and to try to
help with this situation. Will it be good for Ella
and for you for being there for her to support
her and help her see that this was not a
good thing at least to plant the seed of doubt
and she took it from there. I would say, Ella
dodged a bullet. So here's wishing you and your family
the best in the future. Ope, thanks for sharing and
(15:18):
to take care. And now let's finish this video with
a mood booster post. This post is from the subreddit
malicious Compliance, and it's by user really fin tired. You
want me to wait until the last minute to book
my hotel deal? I work remotely for a small company
around one hundred employees, and based on my contract, I
(15:41):
have to return to the office for a week four
times a year. The last time I went back up
was in November. In the contract, it was laid out
that my employer pays one hundred percent of the hotel
and gas or airfare. Normally, this is an extreme and
eventful routine. It's a mid sized midwebt Eastern City, with
not much to do.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It is what it is.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
A few moments before I went back up, we had
our financial audit, and one thing that was pointed out
to our accounting department was a lack of controls on purchasing.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
The way it used to be was.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Every manager or supervisor had a company credit card with
a fifteen hundred dollars balance, and as long as we
stayed under that limit, we didn't have to do any
kind of purchase orders. After our audit, my accounting team
decided to make purchase orders one hundred percent of their
focus going forward. It doesn't matter what it was, what
(16:39):
the situation was. If you didn't have an approved purchase order,
you could not make the transaction. All of this happened
in early October and I was trying to book my
hotel for my on site week in November. Normally I
have freedom in choosing when I go on site, but
I was requested to go that specific week by my
CEO and CFO as we were launching some strategic planning
(17:02):
and they wanted me on site. So I put the
purchase order in for the hotel and I don't hear
anything back. I forget about it for a couple of weeks.
Then remember mid October that I still don't have a
hotel room booked. When I initially made the request, it
was about five hundred and fifty dollars for four nights.
Looking again in mid October, it was now up to
(17:25):
seven hundred dollars for four nights. I look around and
noticed that same week I'm supposed to go up there,
there's a concert in the same city, followed by a
big college sporting event in that town. I send an
email to my accountant folk that I need to book
a hotel. Rates are going up, room availability is going down, YadA, YadA, YadA.
(17:47):
I get a Thursday worded email back saying that everyone
has different priorities and my purchase order will be addressed
once all the ones before it are done. So I
sit back and wait, and keep checking every other day
and keep seeing prizes go up. I sent a weekly
email asking if it's approved yet, and I keep getting
absolute silence back. Finally, a week before I email my
(18:11):
accounting team with the CFO included saying if I don't
book a room that day, there wouldn't be any room
left and I wouldn't be able to make it up
for the strategic planning work. About thirty minutes later, I
get back an email that says, word for word, you
are authorized to reserve a hotel room for four nights.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Cool. I book it.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That five hundred and fifty dollars room is now twelve
hundred dollars. I book it and move on with my
life and don't think anything of it. Last week I
got around to uploading my credit card receipts and submitted
my expense report, which included a twelve hundred dollars hotel stay.
I got a call from my CFO today, just exploding
on me, furious about where the hell did I stay
(18:55):
that costs that much and what was I thinking? Very
calm just forwarded the original purchase order and all the
emails I sent saying that prices were raising. I had
dead silence on the phone as he read through the
email chains and just said, for f's sake, then hung up.
At the end of the day, all supervisors got an
(19:16):
email that the purchase order system was being shut down
until they could figure out how to manage it better
well Opie. They wanted to implement a system to keep
a close track on spending. I guess they just forgot
to factor in everything else. Thanks for sharing, OP, and
that's it for today's video. Thank you so much for
(19:37):
taking the time to watch it now. If you've gotten
to this point in the video, I assume that you
like these stories that I'm reading out, so here are
a couple more that you might enjoy. And if you
don't have any time to watch another story right now,
save it for later. And also, don't forget to hit
that subscribe button.
Hi everybody, and welcome back to Lost genre Reddit stories.
This post is from the subreddedam the a Hole, and
it's by user alternative site fourteen sixty eight am I
the a Hole for how I reacted when my niece
announced she was engaged. I thirty three male, have a
pretty big age difference with my brother forty four male.
(00:25):
He had a child at twenty five, which means that
I became an uncle at fourteen. Because we were pretty
close in age, I formed a special bond with my
niece Ella, now eighteen female, when she was sixteen. My
brother and his family moved away, so I've been seeing
them less recently, but we keep in touch and to
catch up at family events. Last year, at Christmas, my
(00:48):
niece told me that she had a boyfriend and told
me a bit about him, but I didn't know the guy.
He was invited for Easter and a couple of other events,
but he was never able to make it. When we
were planning our mother's birthday, my brother decided to invite
Ella's boyfriend so that we could all meet him. Yesterday
was the birthday. I was looking forward to meet him
(01:11):
Mark Ella's boyfriend, but was very confused when I saw
her walk in with a man that looked double her age.
Spoiler alert, he is. She introduced him to me and
I politely smiled, but was deep down very concerned. I
went to my brother to ask how old Mark was,
and he told me that Mark is thirty six, so
(01:32):
literally double Ella's age. She had told me that he
was a bit older, but he assumed like early the
mid twenties, not almost forty. That's when they called us
in the living room to share exciting news. Ella showed
us a ring and revealed that they were engaged. I
just said, what the f and everyone turned around and
(01:53):
looked at me like I was crazy. I told them
they were out of their minds if they thought this
this was normal, that there was no world in which
a thirty something should date an eighteen year old, and
that she shouldn't be getting married. All of them accused
me of ruining Ella's happiness. Some even said that I
was jealous of Mark, which is so effing disgusting.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I can't even explain it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I mean, I'm younger than Mark, but never in a
million years would I ever consider dating someone younger than
twenty five. They told me that it was perfectly legal
as they were both adults, which isn't true because they've
been dating for a year and Ella turned eighteen seven
months ago, and that if they were happy, that's all
(02:37):
that matters. I told them that they were sick for
allowing this and that he was a predator, but they
wouldn't listen. I know this isn't my business, but I
can't help but fear for Ella. She is young and
doesn't really know what she's getting into. I'm really scared
for her getting married and being unable to leave him
when she realizes how sick it was. I then left
(03:00):
and slammed the door and have been receiving pretty wild
messages and calls since then. I don't know if I
was wrong for this and I'm just overreacting, and if
I wasn't wrong, I don't know what I can do
to make them realize how wrong it is. Am I
the Ahle? Well it'll be in my opinion. No, you're
not the Ahle, and you are definitely not wrong. If
(03:21):
my daughter came home with a guy twice or age,
I would definitely freak out, but I think I would
handle that freak out internally and then talk to my
wife about how do we get her to stop seeing
that guy? Because freaking out and making a scene, I
believe the only thing it will do is just make
Ella want to stay with him even more. This guy
is sick and he is a predator, and I'm pretty
(03:43):
sure his next step is going to start isolating Ella.
If I was in your shoes, instead of being angry
right now or showing them how angry I am, I
would just try to keep an open line of communication
with Ella for at any point she needs you, she
can run away. And what do you guys think? Let
me know in the comment section, and now let's check
out the community comments. Ad Accomplished sixty eight seventy says
(04:05):
a thirty five year old going after a seventeen year
old is ick. They are just too far apart in life,
experience and station in life to have a relationship based
on mutual respect and equality. These types of relationships are
usually based on mutual exploitation. He gets a pretty young thing,
She gets access to material benefits not usually earned by
(04:26):
people in a age group, and that is not a
great thing to base a relationship on. I know I
am generalizing, and there are cases of true and healthy
love between people with this kind of age gap. But
my reaction is the same as yours. This likely puts
you on the outs with your family, but someone had
to say what you said. No addition fifty five forty
(04:49):
three says he's a predator.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
You're right.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
The most important thing you can do is get her
on birth control because he's going to destroy her life,
and Lady one says, not the ahole. Call your knees
and apologize for your outburst. Explain that you have never
known a good man of that age to go after
someone so young, and you reacted out of fear. Tell
her that you trust her to put herself first and
(05:14):
you are always there for her.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
This is important.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It's pretty much guaranteed that she is or will be
a victim of this man's abuse, So make it clear
your ride or die. This is part of your insurance
against isolation. Call your brother and apologize for your reaction.
Then act like he must be concerned. Act concerned for him.
How are you managing this? You must be so scared
(05:37):
for her, It must have been awful to realize you
couldn't protect her. Yep, lay on the shame by pretending
to be concerned and empathetic, find out how and where
they met, pretend to be interested in acute way, Ah, how.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Did you meet?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
If this man is in any sort of job that
brings him near miners, report him to a social media search,
is he recently etc? Additional information from Ope's comments. I
quickly went over his Facebook accounts, so it's not really
verified information. But I saw pictures of him with his
ex I think, and she looked twenty twenty four. Maybe
(06:15):
it's still better. But if the guy has a thing
for younger girls, that's even more wrong. And it seems
like he was still with his sex when he started
dating my knees, so even weirder. Also, from what I understood,
they met doing sports. Ella was in a tennis tournament
into her club and she played against adults. She played
against Mark and after he came to talk to her,
(06:38):
so they talked and that was basically it. I know
it doesn't mean anything, but he doesn't look rich, and
I've seen pictures of his house. It's pretty normal, I'd
say middle class, upper middle class at best. Well, the
community agrees that this is wrong and has given Opie
advice on how to deal with it. Now we've got
three updates to the story, So let's move on with
(06:59):
the first one. So I've taken the past twenty four
hours to really reflect on all of this. I tried
to take in most of the advice in the comments,
and here's what I have decided. I don't think that
me telling her and everyone that their relationship is weird
was wrong. I however, think that I did wrong and
it was pretty harsh because it was in the heat
(07:21):
of the moment. But I still find this very creepy
and don't think she should get married.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
What I've decided to do is one apologize to her.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I sent her a text saying I was sorry for
my outburst and that I should have thought it through beforehand.
I told her that I never wanted to make her
feel like I didn't want her to be happy, and
that I loved her very much and had her best
interest in mind. Two, ask her if we could talk
about this. I asked if she would be okay and
free to hang out and maybe get coffee this week
(07:52):
to talk about all of this with a clear head.
I really want to try and get her to see
why it's weird and that maybe marrying him is not
a great choice. Yes, and three explain myself to my brother.
I sent him a text saying that I was sorry
for the way I said it, but that I still
thought that it needed to be said. I explained to
him why I think Mark is a predator and this
(08:13):
relationship could have a very negative and damaging impact for Ella.
I'm still waiting on their replies. I'll update when they
reply or when I see Ella if she accepts, depending
on how long it would take. In the meantime, I
really want to thank everyone who gave me advice and
was constructive and really tried to help my niece out
in this situation. I also send my best to all
(08:36):
of the people in the comments sharing similar stories when
they were the teenager getting groomed. I'm so sorry this
happened to you, and I really hope you're doing better now. Okay,
it seems that it'll be got some really good advice
from the community, or at least he's following up on
that and has a plan moving forward. So now let's
move on to the next update. So, following my text,
(08:59):
Ella replied and told me she agreed to meet with
me and talk. I just came back from seeing her.
Here's how it went. She asked me what I wanted
to tell her, and I started explaining that I didn't
think her relationship was very healthy and that no older
guy should want to date a teenager. I told her
that she was an incredible woman, so I wasn't saying
(09:20):
it was weird that someone would want to marry her,
but the guys my age normally shouldn't even look at
a teenager. She wasn't convinced and said that sometimes it's true,
but sometimes it's okay. I asked her for how she
would feel if I told her that someone born today
could be her future partner, and she said it felt
(09:42):
really weird. I also asked her if she would consider
dating someone younger than fifteen, and she said no. I
could see her starting to realize that Mark maybe didn't
have the best intentions. I also asked her if she
knew about his previous relationship, and she said vaguely and
just told me the girl's name. I asked her if
(10:04):
she knew how old the girl was, and she said
she was twenty one.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I also asked her if she.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Knew that their relationships overlapped, and she said that Mark
always told her he was single since they met, but
she kind of felt like that wasn't true. I told
her that since his previous girlfriend was also significantly younger,
it seemed like he had a thing for younger girls,
which is kind of weird. After discussing that, she told
(10:31):
me a bit more about her relationship. She told me
she was starting to feel weird about it because of
Mark's recent behavior. I asked what she meant, and she
said that he had been flirting with a lot of
girls who were all also younger, including some of Ella's friends.
When she confronted him, he sort of gasled her into
thinking it wasn't flirting. He was also making a lot
(10:54):
of comments about having children with Ella and how cute
it would be to see her raise them.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
She told me she.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Was absolutely not ready for that, and also wanted to
go to college and work and not be a stay
at home mom. Because of all of that, she was
doubting her relationship, and I told her that I understood.
She said she was scared of breaking up with him
because he had become her whole life recently and she
didn't know what she would do without him. I told
(11:22):
her that she was surrounded by people who loved her
and would be there for her and that she was
a lot more than just Mark's girlfriend. I said that
she knew my opinion on it, but that ultimately the
choice was hers and that I just wanted her to
be happy. I also said I would be there for
her no matter what. She told me that she will
(11:43):
try to break up with him this week and she'll
let me know how it goes. Also, again, thank you
to everyone who gave advice and try to help us.
I really appreciated Opie's edit. Okay, so I just want
to say some people in the comments see to think
that this is fake, and you know what, I can understand,
(12:03):
and I don't really care. I'm not asking you to
believe that my life is real or fake, and it's
great that you don't just believe everything you see online.
But I just wanted to say this. There are hundreds
of people on here or elsewhere that share similar stories.
I'm not really affected by people thinking I'm lying, mainly
because I'm not the one in that situation, but some
(12:25):
people might be. Some people come on here to share
something that might have traumatized them, and the last thing
they want is for others to think they're lying. So
if you don't want to believe me, that's fine, but
the next time, keep that to yourself. It's fine to
not believe something, but you don't have to say it
because it might make other people feel really bad. All right, Well,
(12:47):
Op was able to meet up with Ella for coffee
and they add a really thorough conversation, and it seems
like Ope has been starting to get through to Ella.
So now let's move on to the final update to
see how this story ends. I know it's been a
while since I posted the last update and a lot
of people have been requesting updates on the whole situation,
(13:07):
but until now I hadn't really received any news, So
please forgive me if this update took a while to come.
Since my conversation with Ella, I would check in on
her once or twice a week and ask how things were,
and she'd always tell me pretty much the same as
what she told me a month ago. Basically, there were
many red flags and she was getting more and more
(13:30):
uncomfortable in her relationship, but she also didn't know how
to break up with him. I tried to give her
some advice, but eventually told her that I thought she
should do it when she felt comfortable yesterday, I called
her to know what she had planned for the holidays
and if she'd be coming to the family dinner that
I was hosting, and if Mark would be coming. That's
(13:50):
when she told me that she had broken up with
him the evening before. She was pretty shaken up, so
I didn't ask for too much details and asked if
she wanted to come to my house for a while.
She said that Mark had left to stay with his
family when she told him so, she was okay staying home.
This is maybe not a very detailed update, but here's
(14:13):
what I know. She told me that he had been
getting angry at her all week for small things, and
then they were talking about the holidays and he insisted
that they shouldn't go with Ella's family and instead spend
a week with his family because they see them less
often they live out of state. After that, he made
a comment about how he hoped that the next year,
(14:35):
as a present, they could give his mother a grand child,
and Ella said that's what really made her break up
with him, And she also told me that she would
be coming alone to the family dinner. I don't know
what she told him or how he reacted, and maybe
she'll tell me more in a while when she feels better,
and if not, I won't ask her to again. Thank
(14:56):
you to anyone who gave advice and to try to
help with this situation. Will it be good for Ella
and for you for being there for her to support
her and help her see that this was not a
good thing at least to plant the seed of doubt
and she took it from there. I would say, Ella
dodged a bullet. So here's wishing you and your family
the best in the future. Ope, thanks for sharing and
(15:18):
to take care. And now let's finish this video with
a mood booster post. This post is from the subreddit
malicious Compliance, and it's by user really fin tired. You
want me to wait until the last minute to book
my hotel deal? I work remotely for a small company
around one hundred employees, and based on my contract, I
(15:41):
have to return to the office for a week four
times a year. The last time I went back up
was in November. In the contract, it was laid out
that my employer pays one hundred percent of the hotel
and gas or airfare. Normally, this is an extreme and
eventful routine. It's a mid sized midwebt Eastern City, with
not much to do.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It is what it is.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
A few moments before I went back up, we had
our financial audit, and one thing that was pointed out
to our accounting department was a lack of controls on purchasing.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
The way it used to be was.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Every manager or supervisor had a company credit card with
a fifteen hundred dollars balance, and as long as we
stayed under that limit, we didn't have to do any
kind of purchase orders. After our audit, my accounting team
decided to make purchase orders one hundred percent of their
focus going forward. It doesn't matter what it was, what
(16:39):
the situation was. If you didn't have an approved purchase order,
you could not make the transaction. All of this happened
in early October and I was trying to book my
hotel for my on site week in November. Normally I
have freedom in choosing when I go on site, but
I was requested to go that specific week by my
CEO and CFO as we were launching some strategic planning
(17:02):
and they wanted me on site. So I put the
purchase order in for the hotel and I don't hear
anything back. I forget about it for a couple of weeks.
Then remember mid October that I still don't have a
hotel room booked. When I initially made the request, it
was about five hundred and fifty dollars for four nights.
Looking again in mid October, it was now up to
(17:25):
seven hundred dollars for four nights. I look around and
noticed that same week I'm supposed to go up there,
there's a concert in the same city, followed by a
big college sporting event in that town. I send an
email to my accountant folk that I need to book
a hotel. Rates are going up, room availability is going down, YadA, YadA, YadA.
(17:47):
I get a Thursday worded email back saying that everyone
has different priorities and my purchase order will be addressed
once all the ones before it are done. So I
sit back and wait, and keep checking every other day
and keep seeing prizes go up. I sent a weekly
email asking if it's approved yet, and I keep getting
absolute silence back. Finally, a week before I email my
(18:11):
accounting team with the CFO included saying if I don't
book a room that day, there wouldn't be any room
left and I wouldn't be able to make it up
for the strategic planning work. About thirty minutes later, I
get back an email that says, word for word, you
are authorized to reserve a hotel room for four nights.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Cool. I book it.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That five hundred and fifty dollars room is now twelve
hundred dollars. I book it and move on with my
life and don't think anything of it. Last week I
got around to uploading my credit card receipts and submitted
my expense report, which included a twelve hundred dollars hotel stay.
I got a call from my CFO today, just exploding
on me, furious about where the hell did I stay
(18:55):
that costs that much and what was I thinking? Very
calm just forwarded the original purchase order and all the
emails I sent saying that prices were raising. I had
dead silence on the phone as he read through the
email chains and just said, for f's sake, then hung up.
At the end of the day, all supervisors got an
(19:16):
email that the purchase order system was being shut down
until they could figure out how to manage it better
well Opie. They wanted to implement a system to keep
a close track on spending. I guess they just forgot
to factor in everything else. Thanks for sharing, OP, and
that's it for today's video. Thank you so much for
(19:37):
taking the time to watch it now. If you've gotten
to this point in the video, I assume that you
like these stories that I'm reading out, so here are
a couple more that you might enjoy. And if you
don't have any time to watch another story right now,
save it for later. And also, don't forget to hit
that subscribe button.
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