After My Brother And His GF Leaked My Pregnancy News To My Unstable Ex_ He... - Reddit Family Tales

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
After my brother and his girlfriend leaked my baby news
to my violin ex. He threatened to kidnap my son,
so I cut them off, but they still blamed me
when he died. My family is now divided after my
brother and his girlfriend leaked my baby news to my
violin ex. My name is Lauren, and a few years
ago I experienced something that altered the trajectory of my life.

(00:21):
I had been with Dylan, my ex boyfriend, for more
than five years. We were both twenty seven at the time,
and our relationship was progressing toward marriage and looking for
a home together, but everything came undone in our final
year together, Dlan experienced a sudden psychotic episode which turned
our world upside down. For his own protection, he was
sent to the hospital's mental health institution. When he returned home,

(00:44):
he looked completely different. His personality had totally altered. He
began to have acute delusions, hallucinations, and persistent paranoia. The
person I had fallen in love with had vanished, replaced
by someone who didn't recognize me as the one who
wanted to assist. He accused me of cheating, asserted that
I was influencing others around him, and often expressed his

(01:04):
hatred for me. It was heartbreaking. After some time, he
was released from the hospital, and I took responsibility for him,
hoping against hope that he would recover. I sat through
every mental health visit, and I stayed awake many nights
to ensure he didn't wander off during his psychotic episodes.
But as he grew angry, his paranoia became oppressive and
impossible to penetrate. He no longer trusted me. However, he

(01:28):
refused to let me leave his sight, believing that I
was betraying him. When I finally noticed a tiny improvement,
I made the most difficult decision I'd ever made. I
broke up with him. I waited until I believed he
was stable enough to be on his own before assisting
him in returning to his parents home. The shame struck
me like a tidal wave. I felt as if I
were abandoning him, but I had nothing left inside me

(01:50):
to contribute. I hadn't been loved for months. I was
merely the emotional punching bag, all the while weeping for
the man I once knew who would not return to
safeguard at his privacy. I will not disclose certain specifics
about his illness, but I've never blamed him. I needed
to save myself. I chose happiness, even if it meant
going through a messy, traumatic split. Despite everything, we attempted

(02:13):
to stay friends, at least for a while. Throughout this time,
I continued to assist him whenever possible. Dylan still hoped
we'd reconcile someday, but I was moving on. It wasn't
long before I met Ethan, an excellent person who is
now my partner and a few years older than me
At thirty. Dylan went into a major psychotic episode when
he discovered I was seeing Ethan. He threatened both of us,

(02:35):
believing that I had been dishonest to him with Ethan,
despite the fact that I had not met Ethan until
after Dylan and I had broken up. The threats and
messages were severe and unrelenting. My sole thoughts were about
our safety in Dylan's well being, so I contacted his
family and explained what had transpired. They were able to
get him help. I realized I could no longer communicate
with Dylan. Trying to hold on to the remnants of

(02:57):
our friendship was only making matters worse for both of
us US. The only connection I had to Dylan was Maya,
my brother's girlfriend. Maya is twenty nine, and she and
Dylan have been friends for many years. She was aware
of all the negative aspects of our relationship but never
took sides. I considered her a friend, and it soothed
me to know Dylan still had someone he could rely on,

(03:17):
even if it wasn't me. Then in March twenty twenty two,
my life took another shift. I found I was three
months pregnant with Ethan's baby and was still coming to
terms with it. I gently broke the news to my
family and a few close friends. I pleaded with everyone
to keep it private. I was not prepared for a
public announcement. I was a cranky, anxious mess, nauseated and

(03:37):
overwhelmed at the prospect of dealing with any additional stress.
But less than twenty four hours after informing my family,
my phone rang. It was Dylan. In a message, he
said he knew I was pregnant, and then, in a
bizarre twist, said he was suing for custody of the kid.
My heart sank. I could tell he was heading for
another episode. I did not answer, but instead notified his

(03:59):
family that he had attempted to contact me. I could
only pray they'd be able to keep him safe and
that the drama wouldn't jeopardize the fragile new life I
was just starting. By this point, Dylan and I had
not spoken in over a year. He had no idea
where I lived or worked, so I wasn't scared about
him showing up to physically confront me. He could only
have learned any details from Maya. I called her to

(04:20):
confront her, and she immediately admitted it. She apologized profusely,
stating that she had not considered the consequences. She thought
Dylan would be all right with the news and felt
he deserved to know. I was outraged, but since I
hadn't explicitly commanded her not to tell Dylan, perhaps she
made an honest mistake. I had told her to keep
the news to herself, but I suppressed my rage to
maintain the piece. I forgive her, but I made it

(04:42):
very clear that she was not to tell Dylan any
further information about me or the baby. She agreed, She
vowed it would not happen again. I hadn't heard from
Dylan in months, then last weekend, Ethan and I celebrated
our baby shower. We organized it as a party rather
than a traditional baby shower, with a booked function room
at a bar and eighty people we cared about coming
to celebrate. For a time, the night seemed ideal. Laughter, hugs,

(05:06):
and enthusiasm are all I wanted to remember about this
new chapter. Then, in the midst of it all, I
noticed Dylan standing near the bar, scanning the throng. My
stomach sank. I managed to get away before he noticed
me and alerted the security personnel. Our gathering location was
fenced off for us, so I just informed them that
he had not been invited. I watched heart racing as

(05:27):
security approached him. His face distorted in rage, and he
began ranting, asking to speak with me before leaving. Ethan
and some of our friends raced over to attempt to
calm him down, but the situation quickly deteriorated. He screamed
at Ethan, stating to everyone that he was the baby's
biological father and that Ethan and I had never truly
split up. At that time, I fled and hid in

(05:48):
the ladies room, scared, until my mother arrived and assured
me Dylan had departed. After more ranting, he departed. I
felt humiliated. The party finished early, I could not stop crying.
A couple days have passed, my emotions had not settled,
so I resolved to confront Maya. She was the only
person who could have told Dylan where and when the
baby shower was taking place. This time, I did not

(06:11):
hold back. Maya admitted it right away and apologized again.
But then she asked how could I keep this a
secret from him? That enraged me beyond words. I told
her in a voice I barely knew that she would
no longer receive any information about me or the baby,
and that I was removing her from my life. I'm
not proud of the way I screamed, but I was

(06:32):
in shock. How could she be so irresponsible? It was
not her news to share. My brother called me later
to seek forgiveness on Maya's behalf. He recognized she was wrong,
but he didn't think he should be punished alongside her,
Knowing that if I shut her out, I'd also cut
him off from baby updates, he even pleaded with me
to blame Dylan for his reaction rather than Maya, claiming

(06:54):
that she had no idea he would turn up and
that the damage had already been done. I honestly don't
blame Villen for what occurred. He is profoundly mentally sick
and needs assistance. It is not solely his fault, and
I know deep down that he will regret everything one
day when he is in a better place. After everything
that happened, I contacted his family. They informed me that

(07:14):
he had been readmitted to the mental health unit after
threatening to hurt himself if he was not permitted to
visit my kid. As much as my heart bleeds for
what he is going through, my emotions are clear. I
do not feel safe anymore. I have a child to protect,
and the idea that Dylan thinks this baby is his
scares me. I haven't spoken with Maya or my brother.
My family believes I'm being overly harsh and that my

(07:36):
brother has the right to meet his niece or nephew.
We still don't know the gender. But the truth is
that I can't trust Maya. She's already betrayed me once,
and my rage is still burning. I keep thinking what
if Dylan confronted me in the shower or something worse.
Something could have gone wrong now I'm stuck in the
anguish of not knowing what to do. My heart bleeds

(07:57):
at the thought of my brother not getting to meet
the kid for a long time. But I'm also worried
that Maya will leak something else to Dylan, putting us
in serious risk. My parents and the rest of my
family have all agreed not to tell Maya or my
brother anything about the baby, otherwise they would both be
shut out. Still, I'm not sure how long I can
keep doing this before I give up. Ethan thankfully is
absolutely on my side. Without him, I'd be a disaster.

(08:20):
I am desperate for guidance. It's becoming increasingly difficult for
me to stand firm and maintain these boundaries. I keep
fearing that news will get through to Maya or another
family member. My parents, in particular, appear reluctant to guarantee
that they will not notify my brother after the kid
is born. I feel like I am hanging on by
a thread. Update one. I knew I needed to provide

(08:41):
an update, especially since so many people had warned me
about Maya twenty nine female, and heartbreakingly they were correct.
My life changed quickly. My baby came earlier than expected.
I am delighted to announce that Ethan thirty million and
I now have a beautiful boy who is already ten
weeks old and was born at thirty eight weeks. Ethan
and I are completely in love with him and couldn't

(09:03):
be happier. Shortly after my initial encounter, Ethan and I
made a major decision. We relocated from our small, one
bedroom apartment to a larger house to accommodate our growing family.
Distance played an important role in our decision. Our apartment
was only five minutes away from my brother and Maya's
and I couldn't bear the thought of Dylan twenty seven
m showing there suddenly, especially since I felt Maya knew

(09:25):
our address. Our new location is now about a forty
five minute drive away, which adds another layer of safety.
We did not provide them with the address. We moved
into our new house and the first month was pleasantly calm.
Dylan's family informed me that he was still suffering from
a significant mental health crisis and was being held in
the hospital for an extended period of time due to

(09:45):
a psychotic episode that refused to go away. He was
refusing the medication I had also alerted his family about
the extent of his relationship with Maya, and they took
it seriously. They told the hospital that Maya should not
be permitted to visit my family. I finally ceased urging
me to forgive Maya. My mother in particular, had an
open discussion with me and finally realized why I had

(10:06):
to break off my brother. It crushed my heart to
distance myself from someone I had always cared deeply for,
but all of your advice reverberated in my ears, and
I understood I needed to take something to safeguard my baby.
Of course, things did not remain calm. A few months later,
Dylan called he had finally been freed from the hospital.
He was mortified, apologized for his unexpected behavior at the

(10:28):
baby shower, and stated he was aware the kid was
not his. He sobbed and asked if he could speak
with Ethan personally to apologize. Ethan refused. Still hurt, I
told Dylan I forgive him and that it wasn't his fault,
but I couldn't let him near me or the kid.
If he tried, I would not hesitate to inform the police.
He appeared to accept it, so we hung up, but

(10:49):
two weeks later, Dylan showed up at Ethan's workplace, asking
to meet him and pleading for forgiveness. Ethan explained the
experience to me. Dylan broke down, apologized, and rambled in
a way that made it evident he was still unstable, saying,
I'm so sorry for confronting you in public like that.
I should have spoken to you privately. Clearly you didn't
know the baby wasn't yours, and you were humiliated in

(11:11):
front of your friends. Ethan didn't want to aggravate the situation,
so he played it calm, stating he accepted Dylan's apologies
and asked him to leave. Ethan immediately contacted me to
explain what had transpired. Hearing this devastated me. Maya must
have told Dylan where Ethan worked. I contacted Dylan's family
again the next day. They informed me that Dylan had

(11:32):
not arrived home. He was not only not authorized to
drive because he had lost his license for speeding multiple times,
but he had also taken his mother's car without her consent.
Days later, authorities discovered him very bewildered inside a building
under construction twenty hours away from our house. He was
transferred to a local hospital and then admitted again. His
relatives flew up to get him. There has been no

(11:54):
fresh update as of today. His family vows to keep
me informed if he is ever released. After that, my
brother contacted me and asked if we could meet. He
seemed upset, so I agreed lunch at MacDonald's that day.
He poured everything out. Dylan had returned to their residence
to see Maya after being admitted to a psychiatric hospital
shortly after the baby shower. My brother was on high

(12:16):
alert seeing Dylan was manic and acting improperly with Maya,
way too touchy feely, to which Maya responded in a
flirtatious manner. My brother was so embarrassed that he made
up an excuse that he and Maya needed to go somewhere.
He approached her afterward, but Maya swore she was not
flirting and Dylan had not touched her. My brother dropped it.
Dylan arrived at Ethan's employment shortly thereafter. On the same day,

(12:40):
Dylan returned to their residence, but this time Maya was working.
My brother works at home. Dylan admitted everything right there.
He adored Maya. They'd been sleeping together, and then handed
my brother a plethora of texts to prove he wasn't lying.
My brother instantly requested him to leave. When Maya arrived home,
he confronted her. She initially denied it, but then broke

(13:02):
down and said it was all true. She pleaded my
brother's forgiveness and admitted that after the baby shower she
realized she didn't love Dylan, but my brother was furious
and urged her to go stay with her parents for
a time. I have not heard from Maya since it
has been months. Their relationship, as far as I know,
has ended. My brother feels terrible about what Maya did

(13:22):
to me, but as much as I want to accept
him back into my life, I can't trust that he'll
never rejoin with Maya because they haven't legally broken up.
I won't post our new address or images of our
son until I'm certain it's finished. So yet, my brother
has only met my son once at my parents home.
I still don't understand why Maya included Dylan in my pregnancy,
but I am so grateful to have them both out

(13:44):
of my life. I have not seen or heard from
Maya or Dylan since I live in continual worry that
Dylan may show up again. Their intrusion has left a mark.
I have developed obsessive tendencies. Before I can sleep, I
must check all of the doors and windows five times
to ensure that they are locked. Aside from that, life
has been more tranquil. Ethan and I are finally able

(14:05):
to settle in and enjoy our wonderful new lives as parents.
Update two. I figured i'd provide another update because so
much has happened and things have been on my mind. Unfortunately,
I do not have good news this time around. There
was one positive thing. My brother had finally broken up
with Maya. Things between us are still strained after all
that happened, but at least we can talk now, even

(14:27):
if it's only courteous. Life with Ethan and our new
baby has been great. Being a new parent is extremely difficult,
but I enjoy every moment. I haven't returned to work
since my maternity leave, and I'm grateful that Ethan makes
enough to allow me to stay at home until I'm
ready to go back. But then there's the Dylan story.
For a long time, I heard nothing from him or
his family. I learned shortly after the last explosion that

(14:50):
he was receiving long term mental health treatment, then came quiet.
I regarded that as a positive indication. Normally, Dylan's silence
signaled that things were not gett out of control. However,
around a month ago, at two am, I received a
strange text message from him. I hadn't noticed it immediately away,
but once I did, it didn't make sense. He talked

(15:12):
about encountering someone who had returned from the future, saying
he was being followed and needed to hide. He referenced
Christopher Nolan, the film director, and said that there were
secret messages in his films that would help him win
a million dollars using some sort of hidden numbers. Believe
it or not, communications like that were not new to me,
so I was not astonished or concerned. I just took
a screenshot and texted it to his sister to inform

(15:34):
her that he had reached out. Then I forgot about it.
His sister did not respond, which seemed weird. She is
frequently fast to answer. Two days later, she called me crying.
She wondered if I had heard anything else from Dylan
that evening. I told her no. That's when she told
me Dylan committed suicide just hours after sending that message
to me and twenty other people. I don't know all

(15:57):
of the details, but he supposedly stole his mother's car
again that night, despite the fact that she had properly
hid in her keys. He ransacked the house and discovered them.
Then he drove throughout the city and nobody knew what
was on his mind. What I do know is that
he hit another car and pushed it off the road.
They collided with a tree. Fortunately the young couple inside,

(16:17):
both aged seventeen, were not seriously injured. Later I discovered
that it was all caught on a dash cam. He
sped up behind them, struck them from behind, and drove away.
It was a hit and run. According to what we know,
Dylan sent his weird, anxious message only fifteen minutes after
the accident. Three hours later, he was gone. I won't
go into detail about how the funeral came and went.

(16:39):
I did not attend. It just didn't feel right given
our convoluted background. Strangely, Maya left. I only know because
she snapped a selfie of herself crying at the funeral
and put it on Instagram with a rambling statement about
the necessity of mental health care and caring for others.
I felt disgusted. It's been quite difficult to process what happened.

(17:00):
I feel awful even saying it, but I'm relieved that
my family no longer has to worry. I miss him,
but in some ways, I believe I had already grieved
for the Dylan I knew when he began to change
during our relationship. It hurts worse now that he is
no longer here. I can't fathom how his family feels.
It's very terrible for everyone, and it crushes my heart
that things ended this way. We all hoped he'd recover,

(17:23):
that the psychosis and mania would simply fade away. Dylan
was a decent person, but his life was irrevocably changed
by mental illness. Update three. I hadn't planned to write
another update so soon, but life has thrown me another
curveball that I'm still trying to figure out. It's been
three months after Dylan's death, and just when I thought
things were getting back to normal, everything fell apart again.

(17:45):
About two weeks ago, I received a call from Dylan's
sister Olivia. She was crying, which immediately set me on edge.
Every call from Dylan's family in recent years has delivered
awful news, but this time was different. She informed me
that they had been looking through Dylan's stuff, attempting to
sort out his affairs, when they discovered something that made
them sick to their stomachs. A box containing printed images

(18:07):
of me and Ethan was discovered hidden in his closet,
wrapped in an old sweater. Not just a few hundred
of them. Photos show us in the grocery store, walking
to our car, Ethan leaving for work, and me pushing
the baby stroller through our neighborhood. Some were taken from
across the street, while others appeared to be inside parked automobiles.
The time stamps on the back indicate that they were
taken across several months up until a few days before

(18:29):
his death. My blood became chilly our new residents, which
we'd relocated to, especially to escape the drama he discovered
us in He had been following us for months and
we had no idea. However, that wasn't the worst part.
The box contained a journal page as well as pages
of Dylan's handwritten notes. Olivia read me some portions over
the phone, and I needed to sit down. He had

(18:50):
developed comprehensive plans for stealing our baby. He was convinced
that if he could just get the kid alone, he'd
be able to show to everyone that it was his.
There were drawing of our house plan, notes about our
daily routines, and speculation about which window would be the
simplest to access the nursery through. The most disturbing entry
was dated only two days before his death. Lauren will understand. Eventually,

(19:13):
she will forgive me after she sees how happy the
baby is with his actual father. Ethan is simply bewildered.
I need to save my son from the lie they
are all living. I phoned the cops right away. Fortunately
they took it seriously. However, because Dylan is no longer alive,
they are only able to file a report. They increased
patrols in our neighborhood and made some security recommendations. Ethan

(19:36):
has been amazing throughout this. He promptly took time off
work to construct a complete security system that included cameras
and motion sensors. The really bizarre thing is that we
now believe we know how Dylan discovered our new address.
Remember when my brother met our baby at my parents' house.
My mother had scribbled our new address on a birthday
card she intended to send us later that week. On

(19:57):
the same day, she had left it sitting on the
kitchen counter when my brother was present. When I confronted
my brother about it, he broke down. He maintained he
didn't give Dylan our address on purpose, but he admitted
that seeing the kid made him feel horrible, and he
called Maya to tell her about seeing his nephew. During
that chat, he may have indicated that we had relocated
rather far away and made a statement about my parents

(20:18):
requiring the address to send mail. He believes Maya could
have gathered together facts and shared it with Dylan during
one of their covert encounters. My brother is heartbroken. He's
been pleading for forgiveness, but I've told him I need
time to comprehend everything. I don't know how to deal
with the knowledge that his ex girlfriend's romance with Dylan
partly led to Dylan pursuing us for months. The strangest

(20:38):
part of all this occurred yesterday. I was in the
park with the infant when a woman approached me. She
appeared familiar, but I didn't recognize her until she introduced herself.
She was the mother of one of the adolescents Dylan
injured in the vehicle accident. She recognized me from images
that the police had given her family during the investigation.
She sat next to me on the bench and told
me something I didn't expect to hear. Dyl and reportedly

(21:00):
contacted the hospital several times after the accident to talk
with her daughter while she was healing. The medical personnel
assumed he was phoning to apologize or inquire about her recuperation. However,
this woman had a different theory. She assumed Dylan was
attempting to determine whether her daughter had seen his face
during the accident and might identify him. He was planning
something bigger, she explained gently, watching her kid play on

(21:22):
the swings. I can feel it when I heard about
what they found in his room, about his obsession with
your family. I think that accident might have been practice
or a distraction. I'm not sure what to trust anymore.
The police said there is no proof that the vehicle
crash was anything more than reckless driving during a mental episode,
But this woman's remarks have haunted me. What if Dylan's

(21:43):
death wasn't only the tragic conclusion to his mental health issues.
What if he was preparing for something even worse. I've
been experiencing panic attacks again. When I hear a car
door bang or see an unusual vehicle in our neighborhood,
my heart races. Ethan recommended we consider moving again, possible
to a different city, but I'm really tired of running.

(22:03):
I just want to raise our son peacefully, without constantly
looking over my shoulder. The only silver lining in all
of this is that it has finally made my parents
realize how serious the situation is. They've ceased pressuring me
to reconcile with folks who have betrayed my trust. My
father even volunteered to assist us with the relocation if
we decided it was necessary. I keep thinking about Dylan's

(22:24):
diary entry, in which he claimed to be sparing our
son from a falsehood. It frightens me to think of
what could have occurred if he hadn't died that night.
Would he have attempted to break into our home. Would
he have harmed Ethan or me to get to the baby.
I will never know, and perhaps that is for the best.
For the time being, we are sticking out while remaining watchful.
The security system provides us some peace of mind, and

(22:47):
I've begun seeing a therapist to help me cope with
the trauma of the past three years. Some days are
more difficult than others, but I refuse to allow Dylan's
illness and obsession steal any more of my happiness. I
just never anticipated that, even in death, he'd find methods
to scare me. Update four. I honestly didn't expect to
write another post, but the last few weeks have been

(23:07):
completely chaotic, and I need to get it all out.
Just when I hoped Dylan's death would provide some closure,
things have gotten much more confusing. It began about a
month ago when I received a Facebook message from a
woman named Hannah, whom I did not recognize. Her profile
appeared legitimate, and she claimed to have been Dylan's girlfriend
for the past eight months up to his death. My

(23:28):
first thought was that this was a terrible joke or
another illusion from someone in Dylan's circle. But something about
her statement felt unusual. She was neither furious nor accusatory.
She just appeared bewildered and hurt. Hannah explained that she
spotted my name in Dylan's phone and wanted to know
more about their relationship. Dylan had informed her that he
was entirely unmarried and that his ex girlfriend Me had

(23:50):
moved away years ago and they had lost contact completely.
He hadn't mentioned the baby, the stalking, or anything to her.
They were in a committed relationship and were discussing moving
in together. I was skeptical, but curiosity got the best
of me. We decided to meet for coffee in a
public space. When I saw Hannah, I immediately understood why
Dylan was obsessed. She looked eerily similar to me, the

(24:13):
same height, hair color, and even style. It was weird,
like staring at a different version of myself. Hannah showed
me hundreds of text messages from her and Dylan, including
love notes, future plans, and images of them together appearing
really pleased. But here's the truly disturbing part. The time
stamps revealed that some of their most amorous talks occurred
on the same days he was following me and Ethan.

(24:35):
On the day he took those images of me with
the stroller, he texted Hannah that he couldn't wait to
have children with her some day. She had no notion
about his mental health problems. Dylan had supposedly been extremely
skilled at concealing his episodes from her, finding excuses whenever
he disappeared for hospital stays, she assumed he was going
on business travels or visiting ailing relatives. She had planned

(24:56):
to invite him over for dinner on the night he died.
She'd been phoning in messaging worried sick, until his sister
called her a few days later to explain what had occurred.
But this is where things get very weird. Hannah claimed
that about two months before Dylan died, he began acting
strangely about her job. She works at a day care center,
and Dylan began asking a lot of questions about security protocols,

(25:18):
daily routines, and which children belonged to which families. She
assumed he was simply expressing interest in her profession, perhaps
thinking about their own future family. Now that I know
what was in that journal, I'm afraid of what he
was preparing. After seeing Hannah, I couldn't stop thinking about
how little we knew about Dylan's final months. So I
did something stupid. I phoned his sister Olivia and asked

(25:40):
if we could look over some more of his items together.
I needed to know the entire breadth of what we
were dealing with. Olivia was apprehensive at first, but she
acknowledged having similar questions. We met at Dylan's previous apartment,
which his family hadn't completely cleaned up yet. What we
discovered made the photo collection seem mild in comparison, We
found another box by behind his bedroom dresser. This one

(26:01):
included detailed maps of our area, Ethan's office, and my
parents' house. There were printed Google Earth print outs with
roots highlighted in red marker, notes on nearby security cameras,
and times when specific sites were busiest or least busy. However,
the most terrifying revelation was a folder labeled Emergency Plans.
Dylan had drawn out various scenarios as if he were

(26:22):
planning a mission. Plan A convince Lauren to meet privately.
Plan B approach mutual friends. Plan C creates a crisis
that requires Lauren's assistance. Finally, at the bottom of the pile,
Plan D, direct action required. Under Plan D, he'd written
pages on the layout of our house, our daily schedule,
and most disturbingly comprehensive notes about our baby sleeping patterns,

(26:45):
feeding times, and which room he slept in. Dylan had
been watching us closely enough to know when our son
slept and when he was most likely alone in his
cot Olivia was sobbing by the time we were done
going over everything. She kept apologizing, claiming she never realized
it would be so horrible. But then she said something
that altered everything. Dylan made a phone call the night

(27:05):
he died, just before driving his mother's automobile. The phone
record stated that it lasted seventeen minutes. Olivia figured he
contacted a crisis line or Hannah, but she never checked
to see who it was. When we checked through his
call log that day, I recognized the number right away.
It was Maya. When I confronted my brother about this,
he turned white as a sheet. He confirmed that Maya

(27:26):
had received a call that night, but she assured him
it was the wrong number. She stated an insane individual called,
ranting about needing help, and she swiftly hung up. My
brother thought nothing of it at the time, but now
I'm wondering what if Dylan had phoned Maya with a
final plan. What if she knew more about what he
planned to do that night than she let on the
timing is quite convenient. Dylan calls Maya. Seventeen minutes later,

(27:50):
he steals the automobile, causes the accident, and commits suicide.
Hours later, I made a decision that Ethan first disagreed with.
I went out to Maya immediately. I needed to know
what Dylan had told her that night. She was hesitant
to meet, but I pressed the matter and she eventually
consented to speak on the phone. What she said left
me stunned. Dylan had contacted her in a great panic,

(28:12):
claiming he had botched everything up and needed her assistance
with something critical. He begged her to meet him somewhere
private because he needed to return something that belonged to me.
Maya explained that she had refused to advise him to
leave it with his family or ship it to me.
Dylan had gotten agitated and began ranting about how everyone
was against him and how no one understood what he
was trying to do. But this is the part that

(28:33):
haunts me. Maya claimed that shortly before hanging up, Dylan
muttered something like, if I can't make this right, I'll
make sure no one else gets hurt because of me.
At the time, she assumed it was simply more of
his usual dramatic ranting. But now that we know more
about Dylan's ambitions, I believe he knew that night that
he would never be able to carry them out. Perhaps
the automobile crash jolted him out of his fantasies long

(28:56):
enough to realize how far gone he was. Maybe his
death was more than simply a psychotic break. Perhaps it
was the only method he could think of to save
himself from doing something worse. I'm not sure if I
will ever have all the answers. Hannah has been instrumental
in filling in some blanks, and she has even become
an unexpected source of support for someone else whose life
has been radically upended by Dylan's illness. We've been chatting

(29:18):
on a daily basis, and it's unusual but comfortable to
talk to someone who cared about him, even if neither
of us had any idea who he'd become. In the end,
the security system is still active, and Ethan and I
have opted to remain in our home. Running away will
not change what has happened, and to be honest, I'm
tired of allowing Dylan's ghosts to influence our judgments. Our
son is prospering, ignorant to the drama that surrounds his

(29:40):
early months, and I want to keep it that way.
The therapy is helping, although some days are more difficult
than others. I still check the locks obsessively, and my
pulse races when I notice odd automobiles in our area.
But I'm learning to live with my anxiety rather than
allowing it to consume me. My brother and I are
steadily restoring our friendship. He has been exceeded tolerant with

(30:00):
my trust difficulties, and seeing him with our son and
watching him be such a dedicated uncle, reminds me why
I don't want to lose him either. Maya is now
entirely out of the picture, and I believe he is
relieved to be free of all the drama. I sometimes
wonder what might have happened if Dylan had sought assistance sooner,
if someone had seen how terrible his delusions were becoming. However,
I have learned that you cannot save someone who does

(30:22):
not want to be saved, and attempting to do so
may ruin you in the process. For the time being,
I'm focused on the future, on raising our boy in
a safe, loving atmosphere and creating the calm life that
Ethan and I envisioned before all of this madness began.
Dylan has already taken so much from us. I'm not
going to allow him to take away our pleasure.