I Spotted A Picture Of My Partner And His "Work Spouse" On A Secret Weekend Trip

[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 the Like, Subscribe, maybe that notification bell too. And let's crack on with today's first story.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00] Now today we're focusing on the Am I Overreacting subreddit and we're starting with a deleted user that says, Am I Overreacting after seeing a picture of my partner and work spouse from when they probably booked a secret weekend trip. My partner 30 and I28 have been together for three years. Six months ago they befriended a co-worker, Jay. At first it was harmless. Jay is helping me with the project late into midnight.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_00] Then came the inside jokes, late night slack pings in our bed and Jay's emergency calls even during our dates. I voiced discomfort but my partner insisted that I'm just being paranoid and they're just work spouses. I always hated that term or it is just cultural difference. I'm from South Asia and my partner is from Western Europe.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00] Two weeks ago I noticed a picture in my partner's trash folder. My partner with Jay in a selfie half naked in a sauna during a work retreat. Metadata showed the location to be a secluded cabin for rent, two hours from where the work retreat was held. Confronted, my partner claimed the place where work retreat was scheduled was overbooked and it was the venue that booked the cabin for them. My partner again reiterated that I'm being paranoid, that this is common and it all comes down to cultural differences.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00] I am freaking the fuck out. I have no real way to verify my partner's claims. Am I overreacting? Edit 1. Thank you for the sympathetic comments. I feel like I am at the wake of my relationship. My English might not be good. Thank you for your understanding. Sorry if I haven't responded to your comments yet. I'm reading them and freaking out so bad and hyperventilating. Some contexts, my partner has been truthful and kind all the years I've known him right until now.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00] I moved to my partner's country two years ago after a year of dating in my country. There's a lot of cultural differences like night and day and my partner has been my guide through it all. So when I confronted them about the picture and they said it's cultural, I had to believe it. But tonight, it's 3am here. I couldn't sleep and I keep having this nagging feeling of what if.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_00] I'm going to call the venue as some of you suggested. Although the region we're in and where the retreat happened is remote enough that the nearest possible accommodation could be really two hours away. Edit 2. Just woke up after a bit of sleep. Still in panic mode. My partner has gone to office. I took the day off. To those calling this BS, I hope you never face this kind of situation ever. To those sending me chat requests, please don't. Even if you're doing this out of sympathy, you'll most likely end up deleting this account as this blew up.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00] I'll post an update before deletion. I'll be snooping around before I confront my partner again, but thanks again for the well wishes, advice and everything. You made this experience a bit less insufferable. Absolute bullshit and he's gaslighting OP all the way here. Instead of addressing why, you know, his partner's uncomfortable, he keeps changing it saying, OP's being paranoid or you're not understanding the culture here. That's textbook gaslighting.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00] Because most people, regardless of culture, would be uncomfortable with this intimacy that's going on with a co-worker here. The secret behavior. A half-naked sauna selfie at a secluded cabin, which he was bullshitting you about as well. And the sad part of all this is OP moved countries and trusted him to help navigate the actual cultural differences. And he's tried using this to his advantage and messed with OP. Creating this weird power imbalance at the same time. Which is just scummy behavior.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00] A very, very slim chance I'm going to say that this is innocent in some way, but I don't believe it. The commenter says, Not overreacting. Maybe it's just my marriage, but if his work retreat was overbooked and he had to stay in a private unit with a co-worker, the first thing he'd do is call me. Your gut is screaming at you for a reason. A lot of suspicious activity going on here. The commenter replies,

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00] The commenter says, Commodore says, Come on OP, you have nothing to verify. You know he slash she is cheating, so act accordingly and dump their sorry ass. Yes, it is that easy.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00] I divorced my wife quickly enough, they would have been together almost 25 years. Married over 15 and even though our children were only 4, 6 and 9. I moved out less than 2 weeks after confronting her. And 5 months after I moved out, a judge granted our divorce in court. You've been gaslit all along and you know that. Your partner isn't the only one deceiving you. You're deceiving yourself to OP. One more commenter says, Whether they fucked or not is inconsequential.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00] You deserve to have a partner who is transparent and puts your safety and security in the relationship first. I would never dream of hiding something like this from my husband. If my work booked a cabin for me and a co-worker, highly unlikely story by the way, I'd get a rental car and book my own hotel room. My husband would also know about it from start to finish. The good news here is, dude has only been in your life for 3 years. That's nothing in the grand scheme of things. Cut him loose and go be happy either alone or with someone else. You don't have to continue feeling this way.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00] So at some point later, OP does come in with her update and says a big thank you to all who answered the question if I was overreacting. Even though 99% of those responded thought I'm not overreacting, 1% of you and my partner thinks I'm overreacting. Nonetheless, thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond. Short update, I'm pretty sure my partner was cheating and I've decided to leave him. Left the house and staying overnight elsewhere. I'd like to respond to a few comments in the original post first. I'm not married to my partner, thankfully.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00] I'm not going to take his money and run. I'm sorry but I won't be able to live with myself if I did that. I'm still not confident about my English. When you learn the language as a second language, you translate from your mother tongue and you always wonder if you could have phrased something better. As per my edit on the original post, I woke up somewhere around 10am this morning. I was panicking but I called in sick to my work. My partner has already left for work by the time. I phoned up the original venue and explained myself and the person on the other end was sympathetic.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00] They informed me they were never overbooked in recent history and it would be quite surprising if it had happened at all in this season. They checked their list and informed me that no one by the name of my partner or Jay claimed a keycard along with the work retreat folks. Everyone had their own rooms allocated during the retreat. I was pretty sure by now what has happened. My only regret was that I did not make a copy of the picture when I had the chance. I decided to pretend like nothing happened because I needed more solid evidence before any confrontation.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00] I was waiting to hear back from someone else. Towards evening, my partner comes home all angry. The reason was that I asked for advice on Reddit in public. I would have usually justified my action but I decided to ask my partner's opinion over the responses. My partner said that Reddit is a cesspool and no one should be seeking advice on there. I told my partner that I'm a free-thinking individual and even if Reddit gave me bad advice, I can decide to take it or leave it. My partner was furious for some reason.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00] I was furious because there was no way my partner would have looked at Reddit by himself. I suspected Jay showed it to him. We said some things we shouldn't have said. Finally, in a moment of frustration, I blurted out that I knew all about their vacation and how I knew. My partner told me that they were appalled that I would contact the venue myself instead of trusting my partner and that there is no point in continuing like this. I said it's true that there's no point in continuing like this if we don't trust each other or tell each other the full truth. So more things were said.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00] messages. I haven't responded to any of them. What an absolute wanker. Gaslighting Opie right till the very end. Opie caught all the various inconsistencies that was going on and then he still tried to flip it at the very end. How dare you not trust me? Instead of tackling the actual issue of him cheating. And that's what it was like all the way through. There was no real explanation any moment through this. Not one moment of I understand why this looks bad. Just constant deflecting.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_00] Reddit is toxic. You're paranoid. It's cultural differences. You violated my trust by checking. Meanwhile, it all looks really shitty and he just didn't tackle it at all. I'm glad Opie left. Once you get to the point where someone has you questioning your own reality over a half naked sauna selfie in a secret cabin trip, the relationship is already deeply broken, right? But what do you guys make of this situation?

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00] Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below and let's move on to another story. Now our next story comes from Jessica Mosquito who says, Am I overreacting? I asked my husband for one night alone after giving birth and now he says, I'm unstable. I, 32 female and my husband, 33 male. I've been married for four years and last year we decided to finally try for a baby. When she was born, I felt like the happiest woman of all time.

[00:10:07] [SPEAKER_00] But at the same time, I was exhausted. Physically and especially mentally. And from here on out, it was only going to get worse. For these last three weeks, I've not slept more than two hours straight. Last night at 2am, Alice, our precious little girl, would not stop crying. I was pacing the hallway, bouncing in, whispering, please, please just sleep. While my husband was snoring like a bore on the couch because he said he had a long shift at the warehouse and needed real rest. Something in me snapped.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_00] I woke him up and said, I need one night. Just one. I want to book a cheap hotel downtown, sleep alone, order room service and not hear anyone scream for 12 hours. I was not yelling. I was shaking, practically begging him. He looked at me like I had just confessed to her crime. Said what kind of mother wants to leave a newborn? Immediately after he called his mom and put her on speaker. She told me hormones are not an excuse to abandon my responsibilities. That when she had babies, she did not run off to hotels.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00] That this is what I signed up for. I never said I was leaving forever. I wanted one night to feel like a human being instead of a walking milk machine. My husband says I embarrassed him by making it sound like he doesn't help. Which he does. I know, but I'm the one being the fault parent who deals with this every minute of the day. Part of me wonders if asking for space makes me a selfish bitch. Another part of me thinks if I do not get a break soon, I'm going to completely burn out.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_00] Am I overreacting or wanting one night away to sleep and breathe? Holy shit, did I read that right? That he got mummy to phone up. A grown man responded to his exhausted wife, postpartum wife, begging for one night of sleep. And he called his mom to put her on speakerphone and shame her. Holy shit. Imagine seeing your wife in such distress going through that and not wanting to help. Instead getting your mum to phone up and ask absolutely wild.

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_00] You've got bigger issues here. A commenter says to OP, you are not a bad mother. You're on the verge of a psychotic break if you do not get sleep. You need to pump and have bottles available for someone else to feed her while you rest. Do you have any woman on your side of the family you can trust? Even a best friend that could come stay the weekend with you. You need sleep. OP says I have a sister whom I trust but she's too far away to come stay. And even if she would, I'm terrified. It made me feel like asking for help is abandoning my responsibilities.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00] If I bring someone over, you're going to say I'm embarrassing him again or making him look like a bad dad. Commodore says he's embarrassing himself. His partner is asking for help and he ran into mummy rather than asking you what he could do to help you through this. He allowed his mother to insult you and tried to turn this into your fault. He's the embarrassing one. Please have him read this. I'll happily remind him of his responsibilities.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00] If overnight is not feasible, he needs to call in sick and give you 8 hours of uninterrupted time off from baby. Out of the house, away from you or at a hotel as planned. There are ways to give you a break. He's just being too much of a jackass to try. Commodore says get rid of helping from your lexicon. He's a parent just like you are. Not a friend or a distant relative visiting to help you out. Moreover, he didn't create a whole life and push it out of his body like you did.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00] Right after birth, he should be giving more than 50% to allow you to recover. Not be helping. Commodore says I would divorce him just for calling his mum to yell at you. And one more comment who says look up what South Korea does after a mother gives birth. There are literal getaways where everyone goes to after giving birth to recover. Your rest is literally more important than your husband's after a shift. You just pushed out a baby. He's a selfish arsehole. I just can't believe he phoned his mum in this.

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_00] But what do you guys make of that situation? Let us know your thoughts and let's have another story. Now our next story comes from Sunscreen Cobbler who says, Am I overreacting to my in-laws Disneyland ultimatum? Please let me know whether you agree this is a crazy ultimatum that I find myself in the middle of with my in-laws. Me, 29 male and my spouse, 30 female of 7 years have 3 kids all age 5 and under who have never been to a Disney park.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_00] Only other important preface to this post is that my parents and in-laws are not very friendly. They get along well enough but I would not say they're close. I grew up on the west coast and spent a ton of time at Disneyland growing up. My wife grew up on the east coast and same deal for Disney World obviously. We both have dear childhood memories at those separate parks. I have serious plans to go to Disney World in a couple of years with my in-laws. Dates and everything.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_00] That's their special park and my in-laws want to share that memory with my kids so they will join for that trip. I am all aboard for this. My parents will not be present for this trip because that place is special for my wife's side of the family. Now the issue and situation. My family of 5 will be in Southern California this summer vacationing on the beach with my Disneyland side of the family. My mom wants to take the kids to Disneyland and pay for the whole day. When my wife and in-laws got word of this, they said that if we decide to this,

[00:15:16] [SPEAKER_00] my in-laws plan to fly across the country to California to be there. They are dead set on being there for the kids first time experiencing Disney. Like I prefaced, my parents and my in-laws are not friendly with each other. If the above event happened, it would almost certainly be taken by my parents as intruding on a special day and core memory. My perspective. I'm seriously looking into Legoland instead to avoid this entire mess. I believe it is completely petty of my in-laws to put this ultimatum out there. I have been to both parks.

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00] I believe the two can be very separate core memories for my kids. But instead, it seems my hand is being forced to not let them experience Disneyland until after, and only after, they have been to Disney World with my in-laws. I'm curious whether I'm overreacting. Thanks for honest feedback. Open for questions on details I missed. The commenter says, Remind your wife and in-laws that this has stopped being about the kids at all. It's about their egos. And that isn't good enough for anyone's kids. It's not overreacting.

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_00] You are in fact underreacting. You need to sit down with your wife and get her on the same page with you. If she can't get on the same page with you about this, that the in-laws trip has to be cancelled, full stop. Using kids like that is repugnant. The commenter says,

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_00] The commenter says, Not overreacting. This is really weird. Had a similar situation happen where my in-laws took everyone to Disneyland as a surprise while we were visiting California. It really hurt my mom's feelings because she wanted to be there for the first experience, but she got over it. She went with my kids a few years later and I had just as much fun. Kids first time can be overwhelming anyway, so I think it's okay to not put too much stock in the first trip. The second, third, fourth, etc trips are just as magical because they are children and it still feels real.

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_00] Maybe also point out to your wife that her parents crashing another family's trip is very bizarre. They didn't plan the trip. They weren't invited. So common manners would suggest that they should absolutely not just show up. Given that kind of ultimatum is just fucking crazy. You know, we're flying across the country to insert ourselves into your other family's vacation because we don't like the order your children experience theme parks. That's such weird behavior. I think I'd be simply putting my foot down here and saying,

[00:17:52] [SPEAKER_00] no, that's just absolutely not happening. And I think that's simply it. But what do you guys make of this situation? How would you deal with it if it was you? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below and let's have another story. Now, our next story comes from PleasantMission63. It says, am I overreacting for calling off my engagement after my fiance admitted his family secretly tested me to see if I was a gold digger? Oof. Using a throwaway because my fiance is an occasional Redditor.

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_00] I really don't want him to find this. I, 24 female, have been with my fiance, 27 male, for almost four years. He has a really well-paying job in tech and I make pretty average money. We've always split things fair and I've never asked him for expensive stuff or trips or anything. I honestly thought money was a non-issue for us. I was never interested in him for money anyways. We genuinely clicked so well and I loved his personality. We're into the same nerdy things and his family seemed to really like me.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_00] I never thought I'd have to worry about our relationship going south until now. A few days ago, my fiance sat me down and said, it's something you wanted to tell me and he was smiling like it was good news. He basically told me that his family has been secretly testing me for the last 11 months to make sure I wasn't a gold digger. He said they were worried I only liked him for his income and wanted proof before we got married. The test was that they all made it seem like he was struggling financially and might lose his job. His mom would casually bring up layoffs.

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_00] His dad talked about how unstable tech is and slowly it turned into, he might actually lose his job and you guys might have to really downsize. At one point, his mom even told me I should be prepared to financially help him if it came to that. I never wanted to bring up the possibility of a layoff for him because I didn't want to stress him out. I wanted to be prepared to support him if needed, so I started budgeting more, saving money, cutting back on random spending, skipping stuff I wanted and just generally trying to prepare for the worst.

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_00] I constantly reassured my fiance, encouraged him, told him we'd be fine, that I didn't care about money, that I just wanted us. But this whole thing was fake. His job was never in danger. His income never changed. There were no layoffs. His family literally planned this whole thing together. They kept going for almost a year. Subtle comments made him passing to manipulate and test me. Apparently this all started because his older brother went through a really messy divorce.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_00] His brother now pays a ton in child support and his ex-wife got a lot of money in the divorce and his family fully blames her and thinks she was a gold digger. So now they're super paranoid about any woman who dates one of their sons. The thing is, I've actually met his brother's ex-wife before. She was dropping off his kids at a family night and seemed really nice and normal. I never once got gold digger vibes from her and honestly it makes me uncomfortable how much they demonize her. My fiance said his parents finally told him that I passed and that they're comfortable with

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_00] him marrying me now. He said he wanted to tell me because he thought I'd be relieved to know he actually isn't struggling financially and that it shows how much his family cares about protecting him. Then he tells me that to celebrate he upgraded our honeymoon to a nice luxury resort in Hawaii. I mentioned this resort when initially honeymoon planning but deemed it too expensive so settled for a more modest option. But I feel weird about it. I don't want to be rewarded for being manipulated really well. Like good job, we tricked you and you were so gullible you believed it.

[00:21:13] [SPEAKER_00] Here's a nicer vacation. I told him I felt manipulated, embarrassed and honestly humiliated that his whole family was watching my reactions and judging my character behind my back for almost a year. He said I'm looking at it wrong and that I proved I'm not with him for his money and that this should make me feel more secure in our relationship. I wish I could ask my family what they thought but unfortunately my mum passed away two years ago and I don't have a relationship with my father. I'm feeling sad and lost because I don't have a reliable second opinion to lean on.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_00] This family had become my family. That's what makes this even harder. This family is acting like this is totally normal and that I should be proud of myself. His mum literally said most girls wouldn't have handled that so gracefully. I told him I need space and I'm seriously considering calling off the engagement but I honestly don't know what to do. I love him and this is so out of left field that now everyone is acting like I'm blowing this out of proportion and being dramatic. Part of me wonders if I am but another part of me feels like my trust is completely broken.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_00] Am I overreacting? I'm not sure if tests are like this and normal. I feel weird about it. I don't know. Please help. Opie edits the poses as a couple of people are asking why he didn't just ask for a prenup. We actually did discuss this before we got engaged and I told him I'd be open to a prenup. I brought this up when he confessed and he said he wasn't necessarily worried about divorce. The whole thing was about testing my character and making sure I was a morally good person before he married me.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_00] It doesn't make much sense to me and feels like his whole family went out of their way to do some stupid morality test. I've never given the indication that I'm shallow so it really hurts. I just think they're suspicious of any outsiders who come into their family. Also, I misspoke when I said the Hawaii resort was all-inclusive. I guess I used that word interchangeably for describing a really nice resort. OP adds an update and says, I'm really sorry I never posted on Reddit before. I've always just lurked, never posted.

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_00] I wasn't sure how I'm supposed to give an update. I replied to a comment but didn't know if it was correct so here is the update here as well. Thank you for all your comments. It means a lot to have so much support and validation. I knew right away deep down that this was wrong but I needed validation, as bad as that sounds. I didn't have close family or many friends so hearing that my feelings are normal makes me feel less alone. This happened a couple of days ago. I'm still staying with my fiancé right now but things are tense and I feel anxious pretty much all the time.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_00] He knows I'm upset and knows I need space so he hasn't tried to talk about it since. He knows I'm considering calling off the engagement which is why I think he's been so sensitive around me the last few days. He hasn't been acting like it's a positive thing anymore and seems pretty remorseful since I told him how much it hurt me. This morning I asked him if he knew about it the whole time and he told me that his parents started making the comments without his knowledge and after he overheard a comment they made to me while over at his parents house, he asked them privately why they said that and they explained that they were testing me.

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_00] He decided to let them continue to just see what I would do. From past interactions with his parents, I also know he has a hard time standing up to them or disagreeing with them so it honestly makes sense that he didn't call them out and just started going along with it. They told him that they were offended when I suggested an expensive resort for the honeymoon and made a comment insinuating that his parents would be paying for it. They got it in their head that I just expected them to shoulder the cost of an expensive resort without question which isn't true.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_00] I happily accepted for a more modest option when they suggested it because I don't want to seem pushy or entitled. Plus typically the groom's family pays for the honeymoon so I didn't know they were offended by that. Maybe I really did come off as entitled but that was honestly never my intention. Regardless, I don't think that justifies testing me like this. He wasn't the mastermind but he never stopped them and didn't see why it was wrong or manipulative until I told him how upset I was. A part of me wonders if he was manipulated by his parents to think this was acceptable.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_00] I'm torn between calling it off or having a conversation with him and asking him to go to couples counseling plus set serious boundaries with his parents. I also see some suggestions recommended that I talk to his brother's ex-wife. I think that's a good idea but I'm honestly really nervous about it. I don't have her number but I follow her on Instagram so I'm considering DMing her and asking to call her. I'm pretty overwhelmed with the attention this post is getting but I'm super appreciative of everyone's support and love.

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_00] I think I've realized I have a people pleasing tendency and need to keep the peace. I'm trying to force myself to break out of that. It's all just really scary and I feel really lonely. My natural inclination is to forgive and forget so I can still have a family. I know that's not the best idea. I know change needs to happen. I'm still figuring out where to go from here. I'm sorry this post is so long. I tried to add my update to a new post but the model removed it. I don't know why.

[00:25:51] [SPEAKER_00] The OP comes in with another update and says well my fiance found this post. Honestly I feel pretty stupid for thinking he wouldn't find it. I didn't expect this post to get as much attention as it did so thank you all for that. But it was extremely detailed which was kind of dumb. He saw the post and immediately clocked that I wrote it. He came to me yesterday with the post and I was super afraid he'd be angry. He was actually very understanding. He said reading the comments was super eye opening to him on just how messed up the situation was.

[00:26:19] [SPEAKER_00] He feels bad that he ever tried to spin this in a positive light. We had a pretty deep conversation and he came to realize that he had been manipulated very heavily by his parents and family. When his parents justify something even if it's bad his brain will immediately try to justify it too because differing opinions were not allowed in his household growing up. This whole situation has started the realization for him that he grew up in a manipulative and emotionally abusive household. But was never given the space to realize it because he had an extreme us versus them mentality.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_00] So even when an extremely normal and well-intentioned person comes into the family, aka me and his brother's ex, they will do anything they can to invalidate their character because they're uncomfortable with outsiders. I've learned a lot about myself through this situation as well. First of all, I'm emotionally vulnerable and need therapy bad. My need to belong has caused me to stay in situations that are unhealthy for me just because I'm so desperate for a family. I know that's bad and I know it will be hard, but I want to change.

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_00] With that being said, even though my fiancé was very remorseful and apologetic, I told him I want to call off our wedding and take a break from our relationship. We both have issues we need to work on by ourselves before we consider joining in marriage. I want to figure out who I am without someone to lean on, as painful as that may be, and he needs to seriously evaluate his relationship with his family and how they have affected him. I told him that if in the future we find ourselves emotionally healthy and the timing works out, maybe we can be together again. But for right now, that's not the case.

[00:27:45] [SPEAKER_00] So we need to go our separate ways. We still live together and I don't exactly have anywhere to go. So my fiancé said, he'll move out and try to find another living arrangement. He will pay his portion of the lease until I find another roommate. Again, thank you for all the comments and support. They mean a lot to me. And that sounded like a pretty mature thing to do in this situation. Just going your separate ways for now and working on yourself. Because therapy and stepping back feels like the only healthy option right now.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_00] Because even if the boyfriend is genuinely remorseful, the bigger problem still exists, his entire family dynamic. Unless, you know, he was going to decide to cut them off. But if he doesn't, what happens at holidays now? Family dinners? Future kids? His OP is supposed to just smile politely at the people who spent nearly a year secretly testing her character. And if the parents decide she fails some future test, does he go along with it again? And look, clearly the boyfriend has issues himself.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_00] He may not be being malicious here, but he's clearly been deeply conditioned by them. And unless he's willing to set boundaries, and I mean serious boundaries, low or maybe even no contact, OP would always be waiting for the next manipulation disguised as protecting family. But what do you guys make of this situation? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below. And just a huge thank you for being here today, getting involved in the stories, your love, your support, your time.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_00] It always means the absolute world to me. So thank you so, so much. And hopefully, I'm going to see you in the next one. Take care and much love.