I Just NUKED My Aunt In The Family Group Chat And I've Never Felt Better | r/BestOf

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_00] Hey Waffle Gang, I do hope you are well. My name is Mark and today we're checking out some more Reddit Stories. And if you do love a Reddit Story, why not consider it a like, subscribe, maybe that notification bell too. And let's crack on with today's first story. Much love guys.

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00] Now today's first story comes from InevitableBranch806 from the true off my chest subreddit. And it says, I, 21 male, just nuked my toxic family's group chat at 2am. I'm officially the black sheep and I've never felt better. For context, I come from a culture where family elders are basically treated like untouchable gods. You're expected to just lower your head and take their abuse to keep the peace.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00] I have an aunt who has a massive, bitter inferiority complex because I'm doing well at a top university and building a solid future. Today at a major family holiday gathering, she walked right up to me, physically kicked me out of nowhere, looked at my dad and asked, did you pick him up from the trash? In the moment, my brain totally froze. I didn't say anything and just took it. But tonight at 2am, I finally snapped. I typed out a message in our core family WhatsApp group, which includes all my

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00] aunts, uncles and my aunts, uncles and my grandmother. I called out exactly what she did, told her that I was done dealing with a pathetic jealousy and ended it by telling her to go fix your own fucking life instead of bothering me.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00] To give you an idea of how crazy this is, in my culture, swearing at an elder in front of the whole family is a literal unforgivable sin. My phone is going to explode with angry calls from relatives when the sun comes up. But the absolute best part, my dad congratulated me for finally standing up to her.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00] So the aunt isn't just a shitty person who said something cruel to OP. She physically kicked him at a family gathering and asked his dad if he'd been picked up from the trash in front of everyone. And I don't blame OP for freezing in that moment because that's pretty fucking shocking.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00] But what I found interesting in this is the 2am message. It wasn't impulsive. OP didn't just do it out of impulse. It might look impulsive, but OP has been sitting with that humiliation for hours, stewing on what happened in that moment and then finally thought, you know what, fuck this. And I don't blame OP one bit. Obviously, I can't talk from the culture side of things because I just don't know. But for me, I'm just like, yeah, fair play to you, you know.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00] But the dad congratulating him in the end in this is absolutely huge because it suggests that the family already knows that this aunt is a huge problem. It really does piss me off that the dad didn't do anything in that moment. Imagine watching someone kicking your son saying that shit. I'd lose my head. And we know and OP knows that this isn't going to be over. So this update should be pretty interesting.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00] But French says the best part about this is having your dad's support, him willing to break the culture that he grew up with and has been ingrained in him longer than you've been alive. Rather than freaking out and telling you to apologize is awesome. Usually these posts end in being abandoned by family. OP says, yeah, my parents were tired of her shit, too, and they were seeing what she was constantly doing with me. But to maintain the peace and all, they didn't do anything, which I was honestly disappointed. But I finally took matters into my own hands and sent that text.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00] Pro Protein says, just because someone is older than you doesn't mean they cannot be a shitty human. So you did the right thing. Now stand your ground and do not fall for people trying to manipulate you to apologize. Apologizing that too from my side. Not going to happen as long as I'm alive. Outrageous says update me, but why didn't your dad call her out? OP says this, and I'm really mad at my parents for this. Honestly, they should have supported me, but anyway, I did their job by calling her out.

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00] Alcove says, lol, sounds like your dad was tired of her shit, too. Good on you, man. OP says he was for a long time, but kept his mouth shut. The commenter says, is Psycho your mom's sister or dad's sister? OP says, my mom's sister. The commenter quoted my dad congratulated me for finally standing up to her and then says, why didn't he stand up to her? If someone physically kicked my son and called him trash, my head would explode on them. My son is 32 and I'm 68 and I don't care who it is or how old that kind of treatment is, unacceptable.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00] What was her endgame? What's the motivation? Are all of the elders in the family narcissistic? OP says, wish my dad would be more like you, but he isn't. I just don't know what her endgame is, but all I know is that she's humiliated me in one way or another every chance she got. So OP does come in with an update and says, first off, thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. Growing up in a culture where elders are treated with the utmost respect,

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00] I really needed to hear that I wasn't crazy for finally defending myself after my aunt physically kicked me and called me trash. So here is the update. Turns out I literally slept through the family war. To clarify, I sent the text from my mom's phone into the maternal family group chat. The absolute funniest part of this entire situation. The group chat was a raging war zone all that day, but my personal phone was completely silent. Not a single relative has had the guts to actually message me directly.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00] I don't know if they're terrified of confronting me one-on-one or if there is some other reason. Here is what went down while I was asleep. My mom sent a massive message listing out years of this aunt bullying me at different family events, making fun of my university, calling me names, etc. She explicitly told her siblings she doesn't care about having the good person label anymore and shut down my aunt's claim that I'm just complexed. She basically said, you broke my son's patience and I'm standing by him. Note.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00] Although my mother defended me and talked with multiple relatives all day long that day, literally everyone blamed me for the language that I used and my mom said to me, she is embarrassed of me for that language. That's why instead of properly taking my side on the call, she just, I don't know, acknowledged that I was wrong here and like I was hoping she would use strict tone and language on court, but her whole communication was mid. So yeah, although my parents showed that they supported me,

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00] I don't think they are truly happy and satisfied with what I did since I went way off their religious teaching. My parents are highly religious, whereas I am not. The aunt is panicking and lying. She's in full damage control. She's now lying to everyone claiming she apologized to me twice at the party. Spoiler, she didn't. My dad was right there when it happened. She also called my parents to try and play the victim. On the call though, she did apologize to my parents and me, but this is after the victim blaming, so I understood that's just a fake apology.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_00] To make it worse, her daughter started sending disgusting, trashy private texts to my mom. My mom just left her on read. One of my uncles sent a massive paragraph on the group chat lecturing me. Did he address the fact that a grown woman physically assaulted a 21-year-old? Nope. He completely ignored the kick and focused entirely on my abusive language, lecturing me about religion and demanding, I apologize because she is like a mother.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_00] Another aunt also jumped in to badmouth me in the group chat and demand an apology. The rest of my aunts and most importantly, my grandmother. Dead silent. Crickets. So what's my next move? Absolutely nothing. I'm not sending a single reply and I'm definitely not apologizing to someone who assaulted me just to make my uncle feel comfortable. I have a brutal university schedule, so I simply don't have the time or energy to entertain a middle-aged woman's high school drama. I'm officially the villain and bad guy of the family.

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_00] And honestly, the peace of mind is incredible. This is the price that I would have to pay for standing up for myself. Thank you guys for giving me the push I needed to realize my self-respect is worth more than their fake peace. For those wondering what the actual 2am text said, here is the translated version of what I dropped in the group chat. Greetings everyone. This is my name here. I'm only messaging here because I'm totally done ignoring this nonsense.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00] Today on the occasion, aunt, her name, actually walked up to me, kicked me out of nowhere and then looked at my dad and asked, did you pick him up from the trash? Like, seriously? I get it. It literally burns you that I go to a top university. It hurts your ego that I'm actually making something of my life. But getting physical and throwing cheap insults because of your own massive inferiority complex. That is just embarrassing for someone your age. I don't have time for this bitter jealousy.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00] I work way too hard for my future to let anyone disrespect me like this, just to make themselves feel better. Keep your jealousy to yourself and never try this pathetic behavior with me again. And if you dare fuck with me again, I'll show you your true value in front of every single person sitting there. So don't mess with me again. I could have said this to you privately, but I wanted you to show your disgusting reality in front of everyone. Instead of insulting others, go and fix your own fucking life. Yes, all this happened with me in real life in these past three days.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_00] And none of the above is AI. But now I'm going to turn this one straight to you guys. What do you guys make of this situation? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below. And let's move on to another story. Now our next story comes from apprehensivetai1931 from the Am I the Arsehole here subreddit. Titled, friend is having an affair. Plan to tell her husband. Am I the arsehole?

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_00] The editor, Garden Geo on this one, put that OP is in Australia. And it says, BFO, F-I-F-O, fly in, fly out. Refers to jobs where workers temporarily work in remote locations, industries such as mining, gas, and then come home for a period of rest. R&R. I've known Anna, female 38, since we're in high school. We're part of a group of five. Now, we hang out as families for Christmas, birthdays, Easter, etc. It's been like this for over 10 years.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00] My partner Greg, male 39, is good friends with Anna's husband Darren, male 39. Anna recently told me she's having an affair with one of their family friends, who is also Darren's sister's ex-partner. At the time, I remained non-judgmental and supportive. Once the information set in and I realized how disloyal and gross the whole situation is, my sense of justice and moral compass came into play. Darren is a good man.

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_00] Anna says he's a wonderful father and husband, but she just doesn't feel the connection with him anymore, despite faking it the last six months, to keep her secret under wraps. I know keeping this from Greg may backfire on me. If he found out, I also hid the secret. So, I told him. He's shattered for his mate, and it is eating at him. I've told Anna that Greg knows. She's pissed at me for the betrayal, expecting me to take it to my grave. She knows they're catching up soon and Greg plans to tell him.

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_00] Anna has not asked for a separation because they have an overseas trip coming up in October. She has told me financially that she can't leave. Keeping in mind, she regularly gets expensive treatments like Botox and taking roids to have her look her best. We want to tell Darren about her affair in two weeks. Will we be the arseholes? Now, I don't think there's much to say on this one apart from, of course, you wouldn't be the arseholes in this situation. Darren deserves to know for multiple reasons.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00] Obviously, the betrayal, but then you've got the, you know, potential STDs, all this kind of stuff. His health. And like always in these stories, this information will come out at some point. And like you said, if he finds out that you guys knew, he'd be absolutely devastated. Commodore says, why are you waiting? Obi says, because my partner who is good mates with Darren works away. He's back in two weeks. He feels like it's a conversation that needs to happen in person. Particularly if Darren gets angry or really upset. My partner wants to be there for him.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00] Commodore says, you're doing the right thing by waiting. It's not something that anyone should find out about via text. Commodore says, you shouldn't have told her that you told your partner. Now she can do damage control and make you both seem like liars. You do need to tell him sooner or you'll lose him as a friend potentially. Hopefully, Opie says, I have messages as evidence. Commodore says, she doesn't want to tell him because they have an overseas trip coming up. Likely a trip he's paying for and she wants to leech off him. Tell him. Opie says, we will.

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00] Commodore says, a lot can happen in a short amount of time. Do you think Anna would turn Darren against you and your husband during this week to two week period? I've seen crazier things happen overnight to be honest. I'm leaning more towards not the asshole because you intend on telling him. And I agree that this is more of an in-person conversation. However, I think it's important to consider that waiting that amount of time leaves too much room for the mess to start to spill over. Overall, this is going to be hard on Darren. And I'm sorry he'll be going through this and that you'll have been looped into a mess.

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_00] I'll be sending positive thoughts for guidance and honestly, peace of mind for everyone. Yeah, and I can't help but feel that commenter was right. I mean, doing it face to face is obviously the ideal situation. But like the commenter said, a lot can happen just in 24 hours alone, let alone two weeks. And I know this would be different for everyone. But I think if I was in Darren's position, I would want to know sort of ASAP more than anything. But an update says, some great advice here. Let's clear some things up.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_00] They've always had separate bank accounts. They do not join money and never have specifically because of how she spends money. They both work and put in a percentage of how much they earn into the home. She does not have access to his money and will not be able to clean it out in the two weeks. I know for a fact he keeps a very close eye on the credit cards. While we were away and she was buying unnecessary things like clothing, she made sure to only use her card, not the credit. She says he will question her about it since they're trying to pay off the house and save for the trip to Bali.

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_00] We're in Australia. And laws are different. Things will more than likely be 50-50 financially. Greg can't quickly fly or drive back from work. It's a 13-hour drive one way and a $600 plane fare. He is by foe. Fly in, fly out and cannot leave until R&R begins. While we all live in the same state, Australia is pretty damn big. She told me directly she wants the kids to be 50-50.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_00] Anna has never liked kids and while she loves her own, I think the thought of them having them full-time sounds like a walking nightmare to her. The person she's having an affair with has lunch with her locally sometimes while she is on lunch break from work. They've run into acquaintances multiple times. He comes for a family dinner twice a week. The kids have caught Anna sitting on his lap before while Darren is not home. He comes over when Darren is on night shift while the kids are in the home.

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00] Anna has apparently been able to cover up by telling the kids that she does his injections and that it's private. So she administered them behind locked doors. He's also on roids and she is a nurse. Darren did ask if I thought she was cheating back in January due to her sex drive suddenly becoming very heightened at the time. And I thought it was because of a recent surgery she had. I don't think it'd be too hard to convince him and I'd say he has an inkling already. As Anna has said over the past few months, he has become possessive and jealous for obvious reasons.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_00] The family trip planned in October is with another family friend and their family for the husband's 40th birthday. They've split activities, accommodation, etc. I think. We do need to keep in mind that Darren may choose to stay and work it out. In this case, Greg and I will be put in a very awkward position and possibly be removed from the group. Which I'm okay with. But a little bit disheartened at the thought of losing people I spent the last 20 years with. We have moved the meet up to the day Greg flies on Tuesday.

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_00] If he was flying home sooner, it would have been done sooner. While it's shit, I've had to sit on the info guys. By the time we confront him, I'll be told exactly two weeks and three days. Greg and I agree. In person, we'll be best for this particular friend. So then, Opie comes in with what they titled their final update and says, First and foremost, thank you for all the advice. I feel the general consensus is that we are not the arseholes. We were dreading catching up with our friend Darren as we really did not want to be breaking news of this magnitude to him.

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_00] If there was an option for him to either come to the realization himself or her to come clean. Darren texted me Sunday that he had caught her. Greg and I still saw him and offered as much support as possible. She definitely watered down her bullshit, but Greg and I have told Darren what we know. Which he has said he's extremely grateful for. She did not apologize or provide reasoning, but simply packed her bag and left. The kids stayed with him in the family home. The children were distraught and Darren seems a broken man.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_00] At least now the ball is in his court and he can see Anna for who she truly is. Darren is a mess, but has plenty of people surrounding him, including her family and friends. As for mine and Anna's friendship, I've decided I'll be removing myself from it and no longer in contact with her. Nor do I plan to be. I know plenty of people deem me the arsehole for betraying a friend's trust. But was she really a friend blaming and guilting me after making me complicit in her own deceit?

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_00] I did not mention in the post that Anna had told me the following morning and it was good, I knew, because now she could use me as an excuse. I don't owe loyalty to a friend like that. As for the group, I've messaged them about my stance and why I will be removing myself from Anna. Again, the ball is in their court. It's their decision if they choose to continue a relationship with her. However, who the bloody hell was saying to OP that there'd be the arsehole for betraying a friend's trust? Surely it worked the other way as well, right?

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_00] Because she'd be the arsehole for betraying Darren, who's also a friend in this situation. And that's the real betrayal there. I gotta say though, in the very first part of the post, my eyebrows were near on the roof when Anna told OP about the affair. And it said, at the time, I remained non-judgmental and supportive. It's like, what the fuck? But what do you guys make of this situation? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below. Let's move on to another story.

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_00] Now our next story comes from FirmShare3 from the Am I the Arsehole subreddit. And says, am I the arsehole for not helping brother buy a home? Oh yes, you read that right. For context, even when I, 44 male, was a child, I was incredibly into owning property and designing houses. I work as an architect and doing quite well for myself. Bought my first duplex here in Germany a long time ago, where I rent out both parts. Then I owned two houses in Italy and one in Spain.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00] Two of them are getting rented out as holiday homes, while the last one I use for vacations and rent out a room to a friend of mine. So I have a lot of passive income at the moment, but only after a lot of time and money investments and refurbishments of these houses. I rent in New York City at the moment as my job has made me move here temporarily. My brother, 48 male, does an apartment. He has a family with two kids and my wife and I are childless. They are currently looking to purchase a house that fits all of them nicely.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00] While they have found their dream house, it's out of budget for them. Meanwhile, my wife and I are about to buy our fifth house, this time in France. It's going to be one of our largest purchases yet. Significantly larger than anything else we have done. It's a great deal on the property, however, and ideally what my wife and I want to retire in. When having a family face time with my siblings and parents, I brought it up. Initially, very happy for me. My brother mentioned how he needs a larger home for his family,

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_00] and how I should give up on this opportunity to give him money for his house and spend the rest on refurbishing their new home. I just laughed and said flat out, no. Edit. I thought this was a joke. This was apparently the wrong move. My entire family turns against me and starts berating me. After 10 minutes of them taking turns telling me to buy my brother a house, I said I'd think about it and left. I'm a bit of a pushover, so after talking to my wife, we agreed we could wait and buy their house and rent it out to them at no profit.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_00] Apparently, this was insulting to him. Having his younger brother be his landlord, and my parents said I should just outright give him the money we had been saving. I got him to piss off and started moving forward with the paperwork on our house in France. After talking to my friends, they said I should put family first, and it's not like we're struggling for money. Now, I'm confused. Am I the arsehole? The first commenter said to OP, not the arsehole, you shouldn't have to pay for your brother's house. He should live within his means. Besides, money between family members can be a more dividing issue than most.

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_00] The commenter says, Absolutely not the arsehole, and on top of that, beggars can't be choosers. I find it insulting that they were insulted that you offered to buy their dream house and rent it to them for zero profit. Commenter says, Everyone sucks here. Your brother is clearly greedy, but you don't need five fucking houses. That really screws with the market. Commenter says, You're the arsehole. Your brother is embarrassed, asking for financial help, and you laughed at him. Offering to rent to someone looking to buy a family home is not a solution, as you'd just be trapping them in the rental market

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_00] instead of helping them get out of it. I understand buying and redesigning property is your passion, but then deciding to keep these properties as summer Airbnb rentals instead of reselling them is damaging to the European rental and property market. Opie came in with an edit after this and said, This edit is super late, but I want to clarify my brother does have money for a four-bedroom house. He isn't broke. Just not enough money for his dream house. The dream house is approximately double as expensive.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_00] Opie had some comments and details in there and says, I usually don't get upset about posts like this, but I just wanted to share. I grew up in East Germany. I did not grow up in a wealthy family. I had to work hard and insane hours to get where I am today. My wife grew up in an area not far from me, and she had to work incredibly hard too. He is by no means poor. He wants a house that's out of reach for him economically. I was willing to compromise. Opie says, Thank you for your comment. There are a couple of comments here I'd like to respond to,

[00:21:47] [SPEAKER_00] but yours seems best to me. It is a bit of an upsetting situation for me actually. They've used my holiday homes before free of charge and have college funds for his children and my sister's child. I bought his family an SUV when his second child was born. I think we're reaching the point where he thinks I'm more of a bank than a brother. Opie also says, I'm educated as an architect. I don't want to go into too much detail with my work life as I might get recognized, but at this point it's probably too much information anyway. I run a top to bottom housing company.

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_00] We draw up designs, figure out contractors, get interior designers, etc. Essentially someone comes to us with some thoughts, inspiration and ideas. We sort out the entire creation of designing their dream home. It's mostly logistics, but I still get to work my passion of designing. Worked as a full-time architect for many years before that though. Opie says, I'm upvoting this as it's a concern I've had a lot. My wife was the first to bring it up to me. The Spanish house is our vacation house, while the two in Italy are being rented out, but they aren't in big cities.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_00] They are run by an Italian charter company, mostly, unless we book it. Our duplex is being rented out by some students, and a young couple at the moment. We have stopped collecting rent from them, given the current situation. From the offers my Italian houses have gotten, it seems larger corporations are the biggest issue in this field. Perhaps not. I'm no subject matter expert. The way I see it is that my impact is probably minor in the grand scheme of things. It is a problem, but real estate and design is my passion and livelihood.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_00] I've personally designed and refurbished all of these properties. We try to source locally during these projects too. I was once told the road to success is paved with moral ambiguity. It's hard to live in a world where success is praised, but the actions to achieve success are not always morally good ones. So it was two months later that OP came in with her update and said, my wife and I discussed and thought you guys deserved an update, after the clarity I received from my initial post. It feels therapeutic for me.

[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00] It's been a bit of a wild month since then. We took in a lot of your advice regarding the situation, but it ended up even more chaotic than I expected. Shortly after the post, when the pandemic in New York got worse and worse, I ended up back in Spain. After having a conversation with my friend in this post, I decided I'd made the right choice. We're moving forward with a house in France currently. Furthermore, we're deciding to sell two Italian homes. We realized we haven't been there ourselves in a long time, and it was only being rented out. The decision was twofold.

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_00] Couldn't get some of the remarks from last post out of my head, and we wanted some liquidity given the economy. We also decided to only list with local real estate companies. On to my brother, who turned out to not be telling us the whole truth. A week after the post, his wife calls me asking to reconsider. Turns out there was a reason, but my brother didn't want to tell me. So I told her he either tells me himself, or I won't even consider anything. A week later, he ends up calling and tells me everything. It turns out he had developed a bit of a gambling problem

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_00] the last two years, and has taken a notable percentage out of their savings gambling. Less than 40%, but more than 15% according to him. The dream house was now a lot further out of reach than it was meant to be. Apparently, he's been going to therapy for it for months, but the financial damage, it did set them back far. My parents knew since the start, and I knew my brother was having marital problems a couple of years ago, but I never asked why, as he and his wife were very secretive about details. Turns out this was the problem. Apparently,

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_00] my parents had told him to ask me, but asked too much from me. So, when he rebutted with smaller ask, I would be more inclined to accept. Had an incredibly harsh conversation with my parents. They feel like I owe the family, and it's more their money than mine, since they raised me. That's a whole different problem. I told him about the post, and he was mad at first, but understood my position after reading through it. After a pretty difficult conversation with him, I offered the rent at cost, and once he has built up his savings, we will sell him the house,

[00:25:40] [SPEAKER_00] minus any rent he has paid over the time it takes. Some people mention this, rent to own. He happily accepted. Now is today. Hopefully, we can have a reunion after the pandemic is over, and laugh about this. Another edit. A lot of people are worried about the legalities. Have my lawyer drafted up. Everything will be in writing. Opie then adds some more comments, and says, they still have their jobs, and what's left of their savings. But perhaps not. But our father had a similar problem, when my brother and I were young boys.

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_00] We've experienced what a gambling addiction, can do to a family. His children need stability, so it's more a personal choice than financial. Opie also says, it is a requirement that he continues his therapy. It's his wife's requirement for their marriage too, so his wife and I agreed to keep in contact about it. Then Opie came in, two years later, with their final update. And said, for the most part, I think the last two years have been overall shit. Pandemic-related issues, but also due to my brother's actions.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_00] We ended up selling our business to a different firm in Germany. Pandemic made it difficult for us to set up our sourcing, and after not working on any projects for a couple of months, we decided to pull the plug, and we got an offer. Not really doing anything since that, but we sold it at a profit, so going to explore our options for a while. Before we sold it, my brother and his wife ended up divorcing, as did my mother and father. I mentioned prior that my father had a gambling addiction when we were younger, and that my parents' reaction to the whole mess confused me at the time.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_00] It turns out that my mother had forced my father to give his entire paycheck and some, so he had turned to gambling by her suggestion. She is a very holier-than-thou type of person, so to hear she suggested gambling was insane to me. But it turns out she is inherently very financially abusive. They almost divorced in the past, but she stopped pestering my father as much. He thought she had become better. But it turns out that good things never last, and when my brother started working, she started demanding similar things. Apparently later using me as reference,

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_00] I too had been sending her money, and my success was driven by the motivation to provide myself and her. I moved abroad quite early, so my one-to-one connection with my brother was limited. She later pushed him onto gambling, and he fell headfirst. After the house situation, he had stopped for a couple of months, but relapsed pretty quickly with local gambling machines, then switched to buying prepaid cards to gamble online again. My father claims to have had no idea it was occurring, but he was plenty happy with vacations paid by a stay-at-home wife.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_00] His pressure on me to buy him a house. He filed for divorce, but I blame him equally at this point. My brother's wife filed for divorce shortly after it all came to light. Only once he filed, did he tell her about what our mom was doing. I reached out to him to provide support, but he told me to fuck off and never speak to him again. He lives with his girlfriend now and still gambles according to his wife. His wife is still in the house. We've stopped payments, she already worked part-time, but I don't want to cut into her expenses. I guess the only good thing

[00:28:35] [SPEAKER_00] is cheap interest on that mortgage. I've cut contact with both my father and mother and I guess got contact cut by my mother. I feel like my father divorced my mom and hopes I would take him in. We have since moved into our house here in France. I'm still not a fan of French people, but I guess I call this upon myself. My wife is thriving here and with the retired and unemployed life, I've mostly been on Reddit or in my workshop. I think a combination of boredom, the pandemic and my lost faith in my family have disenfranchised me a bit.

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_00] I've been wanting to provide an update for about a year since we sold the company, but after the family news, I was always hoping for some good twist or good news here at the end. Reading my original post back, I feel like I had a tendency to focus on my own problems, how everything that happened to me was one of life's many trials. But I realize now that often you are just a side character in other people's trials and your success has more to do with right time, right place. Anywho, bit off tangent here, just providing an update for those who follow me on here.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_00] Thanks to those who provide support and thanks to those who help open my eyes. Bloody hell, what an absolute messy situation. But what do you guys make of this one? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below. Now, just a huge thank you for being here today, getting involved in the stories, your love, your support, your time. It always means the absolute world to me. So thank you so, so much. And hopefully I'll see you in the next one. Take care. Much love.