Speaker 1: Episode with two stories. First part, I.
Speaker 2: Hope you enjoy this story. Partner was covertly rendezvousing with
Speaker 2: my sibling at pubs. Then when I confronted them, they
Speaker 2: both deceived me to my face until I exposed that
Speaker 2: I was already aware of their illicit relationship. However, my
Speaker 2: mom still expects me to forgive her because she's going
Speaker 2: through a hard time. I twenty f and my boyfriend
Speaker 2: twenty nine m I will call him Ryan, have been
Speaker 2: together for about a year and a half now, and
Speaker 2: up until recently, I always trusted him, maybe blindly and naively.
Speaker 2: Looking back on it, I started losing that trust a
Speaker 2: few months ago when an ex of his I will
Speaker 2: call her Anna, found me on Instagram and d m
Speaker 2: me what was basically the dreaded hay girly text. I
Speaker 2: knew about Anna because they were pretty serious in college,
Speaker 2: and he and his mom had both told me stories
Speaker 2: about her. I was told by Ryan that they ended
Speaker 2: their long term relationship because they wanted different things with life.
Speaker 2: He said she wanted to settle down and he wasn't ready.
Speaker 2: I believed him, but Anna told me that they actually
Speaker 2: broke up because after four years together and talking about marriage.
Speaker 2: She found out he had been cheating on her almost
Speaker 2: the whole time, with no remorse. Apparently, they had rekindled
Speaker 2: some time about a year before, and Anna thought he
Speaker 2: had grown as a person, so they were considering meeting
Speaker 2: up and possibly getting back together until he randomly ghosted her.
Speaker 2: She found my account through his and piece together by
Speaker 2: our photos that I was the reason he ghosted her.
Speaker 2: She provided multiple screenshots, and the time stamps are all
Speaker 2: during the same time frame me and him started talking.
Speaker 2: He was talking to us both and entertaining us both
Speaker 2: up until the same day he asked me to make
Speaker 2: things official. I don't know why she didn't tell me sooner,
Speaker 2: or if she had just found out, but I never
Speaker 2: asked even now because I don't know if I even
Speaker 2: want to know more. I thanked her, and I did
Speaker 2: confront him with this almost immediately. He was honest, but
Speaker 2: I think that was only because I had the proof
Speaker 2: right there in front of us. He admitted that he
Speaker 2: was talking to both of us and another girl because
Speaker 2: he was single then and he had the right to.
Speaker 2: When I pointed out that I told him I wasn't
Speaker 2: talking to anyone else. Very early on in our talking stage,
Speaker 2: and he could have told me then, or better er yet,
Speaker 2: stop talking to these other women if he thought we
Speaker 2: were so serious. He got very defensive and said that
Speaker 2: I was making this out to be something it wasn't,
Speaker 2: and said I was acting like he was a cheater.
Speaker 2: The fact that he brought up cheating first is telling
Speaker 2: to me now, even though I didn't think of it
Speaker 2: in the moment. I know he did not technically cheat
Speaker 2: on me, but it still feels disrespectful that he not
Speaker 2: only did it, but didn't even think to tell me
Speaker 2: throughout our whole relationship. This opened my eyes to some
Speaker 2: massive red flags that just seemed to keep popping up,
Speaker 2: and eventually they were all I could see about. I
Speaker 2: still love him, despite how stupid that sounds. Even now
Speaker 2: as I am typing this, I still hope I am
Speaker 2: so very wrong, even though I do not think I am.
Speaker 2: But I need other opinions because I feel crazy. My
Speaker 2: sister twenty five f who I will call Jane, just
Speaker 2: went through a nasty break up three months ago and
Speaker 2: had to move back home with my parents to get
Speaker 2: back on her feet. Instead of hiring a moving company
Speaker 2: and wasting that money, she just asked our brother twenty
Speaker 2: three m to use his truck and have the family
Speaker 2: help remove. Of course we did, but I felt like
Speaker 2: we needed some more help, so I stupidly invited Ryan
Speaker 2: to come and help us. Ryan had never met my
Speaker 2: sister before then, but as soon as they started talking,
Speaker 2: I felt like a third wheel. They have more in common,
Speaker 2: which I should have expected with them being closer in
Speaker 2: age than me and him. I ignored it at first
Speaker 2: and tried to convince myself I was glad they were
Speaker 2: getting along, but the way he looked at her when
Speaker 2: we left later that night, and the way she said goodbye,
Speaker 2: like there was more behind the words, filled me with jealousy.
Speaker 2: It wasn't even a full week later that it started
Speaker 2: getting weirder. Ryan made a comment in the middle of
Speaker 2: a date night about how mature my sister is, which
Speaker 2: if you talk to this woman at all, anyone can
Speaker 2: tell she is the opposite of mature. So I know
Speaker 2: this was some type of dig because I have always
Speaker 2: been self conscious of our age gap. I have even
Speaker 2: said the words I wish I was more mature to
Speaker 2: him before. My mood was ruined after this because it
Speaker 2: made no sense to me why he was even thinking
Speaker 2: of Jane, and I was already upset and on edge,
Speaker 2: so I tried to end our night early, but he
Speaker 2: was following me around his apartment and yelling at me
Speaker 2: that I was acting insecure and didn't trust him. I
Speaker 2: let it slip that I hadn't try trusted him for
Speaker 2: a while, and he asked me what the point of
Speaker 2: our relationship was if I cannot trust him, And after
Speaker 2: some back and forth of me saying he needed to
Speaker 2: work to regain my trust in him saying I was
Speaker 2: blaming him for stuff he can't change, I ended up
Speaker 2: leaving because he would not stop, and I wanted to sleep.
Speaker 2: I went to my parents place because they were closer
Speaker 2: and it was late already, so I crashed there. My mom,
Speaker 2: of course, was curious why, and I broke down and
Speaker 2: explained everything to her, minus the Jane details, because I
Speaker 2: knew she would be listening, and she was. I was
Speaker 2: a crying mess by the end, but my mom said
Speaker 2: she thought I was being paranoid and jumping to conclusions
Speaker 2: based on his past. I called Ryan. Unto his credit,
Speaker 2: he did pick up quickly. I told him I was sorry,
Speaker 2: but now I feel like a pushover because looking back
Speaker 2: on it, I was not the one who needed to apologize.
Speaker 2: Jane even came down and comforted me herself, which is
Speaker 2: rare because she usually only cares for herself. I should
Speaker 2: have seen this as a sign, but I was too
Speaker 2: caught up on thinking my sister finally cared about me.
Speaker 2: For a while, everything was okay after When I got
Speaker 2: back to his place, he apologized for yelling and said
Speaker 2: he hated seeing me leave, and even asked me to
Speaker 2: move in with him. I hadn't decided yet, but I
Speaker 2: was stupidly considering saying yes. Everything felt too good to
Speaker 2: be true, and I was tired of feeling crazy, so
Speaker 2: I just started trying to accept that I may have
Speaker 2: paranoia issues. When everything was basically confirmed for me, in
Speaker 2: the middle of the night, like a month and a
Speaker 2: half after Jane moved back, almost four in the morning,
Speaker 2: Ryan was on the phone with her. I caught him
Speaker 2: in his living room basically whispering into his phone. I
Speaker 2: was already suspicious and angry before I even knew who
Speaker 2: it was, and asked him instead of doing the smart
Speaker 2: thing and listening into whatever they were talking about. Because
Speaker 2: I still do not know what their late night conversations
Speaker 2: were about. He didn't even try and hide it. He
Speaker 2: admitted to me that he and Jane had been talking
Speaker 2: for weeks and were becoming close friends. He said he
Speaker 2: didn't tell me because he knew how I would react
Speaker 2: and that he was worried I would think the worst.
Speaker 2: Hearing him say that felt so demeaning because it told
Speaker 2: me he knew how I would feel and what it
Speaker 2: would look. But did it anyway. I was too angry
Speaker 2: to even have a conversation with him, so I locked
Speaker 2: myself in the bedroom until it was light out, ignoring
Speaker 2: him and Jane, who spammed my phone with explanations. As
Speaker 2: soon as I could, I left his apartment with as
Speaker 2: much of my stuff as I could carry. I vented
Speaker 2: to my mom about this on the phone, just to
Speaker 2: find out that it was my own mother who gave
Speaker 2: Ryan's phone number to my sister. That night, I crashed
Speaker 2: at their house because she apparently wanted to get to
Speaker 2: know him better. My mom keeps saying that she is
Speaker 2: being a good sister and looking out for me by
Speaker 2: making sure he is good enough, but I do not
Speaker 2: believe it. The timing is too weird. She finds out
Speaker 2: my boyfriend has a history of cheating, and that's when
Speaker 2: she wants his number. If she truly was just trying
Speaker 2: to make sure he was good for me, she would
Speaker 2: not have felt the need to go behind my back
Speaker 2: to get Ryan's number, and would she not have done
Speaker 2: that in the beginning, And she did not do that
Speaker 2: with either of my previous relationships. For some context about
Speaker 2: how my mom acts towards Jane, my sister has always
Speaker 2: been spoiled rotten. She is my parents favorite and didn't
Speaker 2: hear the word know from them if they could help it.
Speaker 2: In my parents eyes, my my mom's especially, she can
Speaker 2: do no wrong. Even though Jane is one of the
Speaker 2: rudest people I know, my mom still sees her as
Speaker 2: her baby. My mom keeps trying to get me to
Speaker 2: accept that she is just going through a hard time
Speaker 2: and needs a good friend like Ryan who takes care
Speaker 2: of her. But that just makes me more livid, because
Speaker 2: why should my boyfriend be responsible for the heavy lifting
Speaker 2: of my sister's life. She is a grown adult who
Speaker 2: could go to therapy for her problems. She shouldn't need
Speaker 2: to call my boyfriend about them in the middle of
Speaker 2: the night. Last week was my final straw. I found
Speaker 2: out through my brother that Ryan and Jane had been
Speaker 2: regularly meeting up at bars for weeks now, even after
Speaker 2: the big fight about them calling in the night, going
Speaker 2: on what Jane calls friend dates. The cherry on top
Speaker 2: is that she specifically told my brother not to tell me.
Speaker 2: He told me almost immediately, and I finally broke There
Speaker 2: is no good excuse for my boyfriend to be regularly
Speaker 2: seeing my sister behind my back, so I finally confronted them.
Speaker 2: I waited at my apartment and called them both to come,
Speaker 2: and the looks on their faces when they realized they
Speaker 2: were both there maid my stomach churn. I didn't mention
Speaker 2: knowing about their little dates because I wanted to see
Speaker 2: if they would dig themselves into a hole, and that
Speaker 2: is exactly what they did. They both said they barely
Speaker 2: interact off the phone, and when they did it wasn't planned,
Speaker 2: It just happened. I let them say their whole spiel
Speaker 2: before simply dropping. So you ended up at the same
Speaker 2: bar multiple week ends in a row for friend dates
Speaker 2: on accident. When I used her own words, I saw
Speaker 2: on her face that she knew I knew. They tried
Speaker 2: to say it was nothing weird, and they both adamantly
Speaker 2: denied anything happening during those friend dates, but I feel
Speaker 2: it in my gut that they are lying about that too,
Speaker 2: since they can so easily lie to me about everything else.
Speaker 2: Ryan said they were just hanging out as friends, but
Speaker 2: once they lied to my face about them, I knew
Speaker 2: they were more than friendly hangouts. I have no hard
Speaker 2: evidence of anything going on past these dates, and even
Speaker 2: if nothing physical has happened, he is at least emotionally
Speaker 2: cheating on me with her. They let me feel like
Speaker 2: a crazy paranoid girl friend, trying to make me feel
Speaker 2: like I was seeing things while manipulating me, and am
Speaker 2: having the nerve to ask me to move in with
Speaker 2: him while doing this. I have not spoken to either
Speaker 2: of them or my mom since, because I can't help
Speaker 2: but think my mom knew. What I keep thinking of
Speaker 2: that hurts most is that had Anna not told me
Speaker 2: he had a past of being a cheater, I would
Speaker 2: probably be thinking he's such a nice guy helping and
Speaker 2: befriending my sister, and they all would have let me
Speaker 2: stay in the dark. They have not stopped trying to
Speaker 2: contact me, and I have gotten multiple voice mails from
Speaker 2: my mom that I am sure are defending them, so
Speaker 2: I can't even bring myself to listen to them. I
Speaker 2: have no idea what I am supposed to do now
Speaker 2: or how to go about this. I didn't technically break
Speaker 2: it off with Ryan, and I do not know how to.
Speaker 2: I fully believe he was trying to trap me in
Speaker 2: his life by asking me to move in, and now
Speaker 2: I am honestly a little scared of what else he
Speaker 2: could try to keep me around. My brother said he
Speaker 2: would gladly break it to him for me, but I
Speaker 2: don't know if that is the mature thing to do,
Speaker 2: and I keep having to beat myself up mentally from
Speaker 2: missing him. Am I jumping to conclusions like my mom thinks?
Speaker 2: Or does it seem like he is emotionally cheating with
Speaker 2: my own sister? Update one, I decided to cut ties
Speaker 2: with Ryan and I have gone no contact with my
Speaker 2: sister and my mom. The day after I posted my
Speaker 2: initial ada, I took some of you guys advice, and
Speaker 2: I broke it off with Ryan through a careful text
Speaker 2: that said more or less, I do not believe nothing
Speaker 2: happened between you and my sister, and I won't stay
Speaker 2: in a relationship with someone who would break my trust
Speaker 2: like that, even if nothing happened, You lied to me
Speaker 2: about seeing her, went behind my back to be with
Speaker 2: her and hurt me, all for someone you barely know,
Speaker 2: for someone I am supposed to be able to trust.
Speaker 2: I do not want you to text or call me,
Speaker 2: and I do not want to see you again. My
Speaker 2: brother will be coming to get anything of mine you
Speaker 2: still have when he can. I wanted the text to
Speaker 2: be direct and fast so he couldn't try to twist
Speaker 2: my words, but he still responded, saying he only wanted
Speaker 2: to be with me, was sorry he hurt me, and
Speaker 2: that he didn't mean to break my trust. So I
Speaker 2: silenced his contact and put my phone on dn D
Speaker 2: for now, but I know he has still been texting.
Speaker 2: I just refuse to even look at them. Some comments
Speaker 2: said not to block him fully, just in case he
Speaker 2: goes too far and I need documentation, so I am
Speaker 2: following that advice until I think I am in the clear.
Speaker 2: My sister showed up my apartment unannounced after this, and
Speaker 2: I am positive he told her about my text. I
Speaker 2: talked to her outside because I wanted to see if
Speaker 2: I could get more information out of her, but didn't
Speaker 2: want her in my apartment, So while she was begging
Speaker 2: me to forgive her, I said I would if she
Speaker 2: told me the truth, and I was pretty much right.
Speaker 2: She confessed that they both talked about being attracted to
Speaker 2: each other and about what they would do together if
Speaker 2: I wasn't in the picture on those late night phone calls.
Speaker 2: The farthest it went was talking about getting a hotel
Speaker 2: room for a weekend to act on this, which she
Speaker 2: claims Ryan shot down, but I do not believe that.
Speaker 2: She said nothing physical ever happened, and they went on
Speaker 2: those friend dates to live out a fantasy they were
Speaker 2: never going to act on, which I think is bullshit.
Speaker 2: She said she was the one pushing for them to
Speaker 2: go further, but he never crossed the line, but I
Speaker 2: do not care. They were leading up to cheating physically
Speaker 2: if they haven't already, and in my eyes, already did cheat.
Speaker 2: They were basically senjie or having phone segs or whatever. TF.
Speaker 2: While I was asleep in the next room and her
Speaker 2: trying to justify that me feel sick, I told her
Speaker 2: I was likely not going to talk to her ever again,
Speaker 2: and she went from begging to being angry and calling
Speaker 2: me a liar almost immediately. So I just went back
Speaker 2: up to my apartment to avoid doing something I would regret.
Speaker 2: I also finally listened to my mom's voicemails, and they
Speaker 2: were in fact offending Jane. I called her, told her
Speaker 2: what Jane admitted and asked if she knew. She said
Speaker 2: she didn't know and thought they really were just friends,
Speaker 2: but still thinks I am being too hard on Jane.
Speaker 2: She thinks I should be more angry at Ryan since
Speaker 2: he made the commitment to me and Jane will be
Speaker 2: my sister for life. I believe her that she didn't
Speaker 2: know about everything, but I can't even find the words
Speaker 2: to describe how I feel about her expecting me to
Speaker 2: just forgive Jane. I also do not believe she told
Speaker 2: the full story, but I have no idea how I
Speaker 2: would find out more while also avoiding them like the
Speaker 2: plague like I want to. I have not spoken to
Speaker 2: them since, but they have pretty much brought the whole
Speaker 2: family into this to try and convince me to reconsider.
Speaker 2: I could tell they were just repeating what my mom
Speaker 2: or Jane told them, but I still made it clear
Speaker 2: to them that I would also be going no contact
Speaker 2: with anyone who tried to convince me to talk to
Speaker 2: them before I am ready, and my brother helped back
Speaker 2: me up on this. My brother has been very supportive
Speaker 2: in all of this and is probably all that is
Speaker 2: going to get me through this. He plans to go
Speaker 2: to Ryan's tomorrow to get some stuff I left there,
Speaker 2: and he is actually going to be staying with me
Speaker 2: because I do have a spare key to my apartment
Speaker 2: at Ryan's place. We are also both ready to call
Speaker 2: the cops if he tries to do so much as
Speaker 2: keep one thing from me. My brother was ready to
Speaker 2: fight him, but I told him not to because I
Speaker 2: don't want him getting in trouble for my relationship problems,
Speaker 2: especially since I blame myself for not noticing this sooner.
Speaker 2: Some of these comments were the harsh kick I needed
Speaker 2: to realize I needed to stop doubting myself here and
Speaker 2: that I was acting into the exact parts of myself
Speaker 2: he manipulated and maybe sought out when getting with me
Speaker 2: in the first place. Other comments were some great advice
Speaker 2: that really helped me, and I really appreciate those, especially
Speaker 2: for those of you pointing out how great my brother is.
Speaker 2: He has always been one of the best people I
Speaker 2: know and is my best friend. He really is an
Speaker 2: amazing guy to everyone, not just me. Our sister has
Speaker 2: kind of always been our biggest bully, so he knows
Speaker 2: how she can be, and even he is surprised she
Speaker 2: went this far. He also agrees with me they might
Speaker 2: be more together than their saying he never liked or
Speaker 2: trusted Ryan and didn't like us dating because of the
Speaker 2: age gap, long before I realized he is a posse,
Speaker 2: and I should have considered that a while ago. I
Speaker 2: do not understand why or how I was so blind.
Speaker 2: I showed him this post earlier today because he frequents
Speaker 2: read it and was likely going to see it eventually.
Speaker 2: He read through the comments and I actually had to
Speaker 2: stop him from responding to some of the ruder ones
Speaker 2: he thought were uncalled for. But I am even grateful
Speaker 2: for a lot of the harsh comments too, because they
Speaker 2: definitely made me stop second guessing myself and made me
Speaker 2: realize I was letting this man make me act like
Speaker 2: an idiot. Before I wrap this up, I also wanted
Speaker 2: to say, just because a lot of the comments mentioned it,
Speaker 2: I do recognize how weird the age gap was. I
Speaker 2: know it does not make a big difference, but I
Speaker 2: will be twenty one in December and Ryan has only
Speaker 2: been twenty nine for almost two months now. Our relationship
Speaker 2: did not seem or feel creepy in the start, but
Speaker 2: I have only dated two people before Ryan, and they
Speaker 2: were both the same age as me, so I know
Speaker 2: I missed the signs. I never thought I would be
Speaker 2: in a relationship with that big of an age gap
Speaker 2: until it happened, and I didn't even expect it to
Speaker 2: last as long as it did in the beginning. I
Speaker 2: plan to not date for a while and just focus
Speaker 2: on getting past all the anger and everything I am
Speaker 2: still feeling. And whenever I do start dating, it will
Speaker 2: not be with someone that much older, and I will
Speaker 2: definitely be more cautious no matter the age. Comments where
Speaker 2: up has replied comment one, I am so so sorry.
Speaker 2: I read your first post and I could feel your pain.
Speaker 2: I feel it more deeply now. Your brother really is
Speaker 2: fucking amazing. Your mother really is fucking awful. There aren't
Speaker 2: words for how fucking awful Jane and Ryan are. Jane
Speaker 2: is far and away the biggest scumbag of the two.
Speaker 2: She was your sister. Stick to your brother. I love
Speaker 2: that man so much. Please tell him how fucking wonderful
Speaker 2: he is. I would never forgive your sister, and your
Speaker 2: mother have to change her tune massively before I would
Speaker 2: forgive her. As for the family, flying monkeys take control
Speaker 2: of the narrative. They've probably been sold a distorted version
Speaker 2: of what happened. Tell your truth and then state your
Speaker 2: boundaries and see how things fall. I bet you money
Speaker 2: it hasn't been unnoticed what your mom and sister have
Speaker 2: always been like.
Speaker 1: Boop.
Speaker 2: I am sure they were told some other story, but
Speaker 2: I did tell them my side of the story when
Speaker 2: I said I would go and see with them too
Speaker 2: if they pushed the idea, and I have not heard
Speaker 2: from them, so I don't know what side they're taking
Speaker 2: if either. My sister has always been a master of
Speaker 2: twisting pp L words, so I am honestly trying to
Speaker 2: talk as little about it with any one other than
Speaker 2: my brother and read it comment too. What you do
Speaker 2: now will affect your family for years. I honestly recommend
Speaker 2: you at least message each family member individually or as
Speaker 2: a group, reiterating what happened and asking them how they
Speaker 2: would react. Repeat your NC thread and then see what
Speaker 2: people say if they have any insight then they're hopefully
Speaker 2: already questioning what they've been told. But you are on
Speaker 2: a hill I would die on, Boop. Me and my
Speaker 2: brother texted the extended family. My mom and Jane brought
Speaker 2: into this about the situation, and they were told a
Speaker 2: watered down b S story. And when they told me
Speaker 2: to reconsider, it was because Jane had told them I
Speaker 2: was assuming what happened and wouldn't let her explain. I
Speaker 2: don't think my mom had anything to do with coming
Speaker 2: up with a lie, but she definitely let them believe it.
Speaker 2: Now there is a giant back and forth going on
Speaker 2: that I am doing my best to stay out of
Speaker 2: for my own sake, but my brother is making sure
Speaker 2: my feelings get hurt and that my sister can't lie more.
Speaker 2: Comment three about The only thing I can add to
Speaker 2: what others have said is the observation you don't mention
Speaker 2: your father is he alive. If so, from your silence,
Speaker 2: I would guess that he is either staying out of
Speaker 2: this or that he enables your mother and sister on
Speaker 2: a routine basis.
Speaker 1: Boop.
Speaker 2: My dad has always been on a short leash for
Speaker 2: my mom. I have never been close with my dad.
Speaker 2: And then I moved out practically on my eighteenth birthday
Speaker 2: b C. That is what he wanted, So it's a
Speaker 2: strained relationship. He hasn't said anything, but I am not
Speaker 2: surprised with that, b C. We never really talk past
Speaker 2: birthday texts and holidays. I am sure he is on
Speaker 2: their side, whether he thinks what they did was right
Speaker 2: or not. B C. He's worse at standing up for
Speaker 2: himself than I am. Update too. I am going to
Speaker 2: update this even though it is kind of anticlimactic. My
Speaker 2: brother was able to get my things from Ryan pretty easily,
Speaker 2: but he did try to keep my key by saying
Speaker 2: he didn't know where it was. It has been in
Speaker 2: the same place since I started staying over, but he
Speaker 2: got it from him after some threats that confirmed to
Speaker 2: me that I was right to be scared he would
Speaker 2: do something if I was alone. He tried to get
Speaker 2: my brother to pass on another apology that was basically
Speaker 2: the exact same bullshit he has said every other time.
Speaker 2: So nothing new there, and me and my brother finally
Speaker 2: had a good laugh at how dense he is, and
Speaker 2: we really needed that. My mom and Jane are both blocked.
Speaker 2: Ryan is not yet because I am still worried I
Speaker 2: will need to go to the cops with the texts
Speaker 2: he has sent after I told him to stay away.
Speaker 2: I explained this in a comment on my first update,
Speaker 2: but I want to say it here too. Intended family
Speaker 2: that tried to get me to talk to Jane relied too.
Speaker 2: Jane told them I was assuming and wouldn't let her
Speaker 2: explain herself, but me and my brother made sure they
Speaker 2: knew the truth, and now everything has blown up. They
Speaker 2: are not directly defending me, but I don't expect them to.
Speaker 2: I am just happy they know the truth. Jane texted
Speaker 2: my brother to tell me her and Ryan have not
Speaker 2: talked since then, and she deleted his number to get
Speaker 2: me back in her life. But if that is true,
Speaker 2: I think it is more because everyone accept my parents
Speaker 2: see her for who she is now. Also, that should
Speaker 2: have already happened if nothing was going on between them.
Speaker 2: They stayed in contact the whole week. I was trying
Speaker 2: to figure out if I was crazy, and that alone
Speaker 2: is disrespectful. My brother agreed to help me snoop for
Speaker 2: more evidence at some point when we are ready, but
Speaker 2: we are both going to be taking a giant step
Speaker 2: back from this whole thing for now, because I do
Speaker 2: not want my brother to be suffocated with them trying
Speaker 2: to contact me through him. We are going to ignore
Speaker 2: it all weekend as if it is not happening, and
Speaker 2: just do stuff that makes us happy, since it is
Speaker 2: clear we are all we've got. If there is more
Speaker 2: to add to this, I will come back to this
Speaker 2: account at it, but as of now, I have nothing more.
Speaker 1: That's the end of the first story. Let's begin the
Speaker 1: second one. I hope you enjoy this story. Husband's sibling
Speaker 1: donned the matching suit at our marriage ceremony. Then I
Speaker 1: witnessed him being unfaithful to his spows at a cafe
Speaker 1: and discovered that my spows was aware of the infidelity.
Speaker 1: I'm a forty two year old construction manager who married
Speaker 1: my wife, Rachel, four years ago. Rachel comes from what
Speaker 1: everyone in town calls the perfect family. Her parents have
Speaker 1: been married for forty five years and still hold hands
Speaker 1: when they walk. Rachel has two brothers who couldn't be
Speaker 1: more different from each other. The older brother is Marcus
Speaker 1: forty four. He's a high school football coach, married to
Speaker 1: Olivia forty for twelve years, with three daughters aged ten, eight,
Speaker 1: and six. Marcus is what most people would call a
Speaker 1: family man. Coaches his daughter's soccer teams on weekends, takes
Speaker 1: them camping during summer breaks, and puts an extra at
Speaker 1: school fundraisers to make sure his family has everything they need.
Speaker 1: The younger brother is Ethan, thirty five, who works as
Speaker 1: a freelance photographer. He travels a lot for work, taking
Speaker 1: pictures of wild life and landscapes for nature magazines. He's
Speaker 1: always been the free spirit of the family, with his
Speaker 1: long hair and stories about sleeping under the stars and
Speaker 1: remote mountain ranges. He recently got engaged to Lucia, a
Speaker 1: botanist he met during an assignment in Costa Rica. When
Speaker 1: I first started dating Rachel six years ago, I noticed
Speaker 1: something odd about her family's dynamics. On our third date,
Speaker 1: I took Rachel to a local brewery I discovered while
Speaker 1: we were sampling different beers, I spotted a man with
Speaker 1: sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low, sitting in a
Speaker 1: corner booth, constantly looking in our direction. I pointed him
Speaker 1: out to Rachel, suggesting we might want to leave if
Speaker 1: this person was following us. Rachel squinted, then burst out laughing.
Speaker 1: She waved at the person, who immediately ducked behind a menu.
Speaker 1: Rachel turned to me and said, there was nothing to
Speaker 1: worry about. We continued our date, but that mystery person
Speaker 1: stayed in my mind. It wasn't until months later, when
Speaker 1: I was officially introduced to her brother Marcus, that I
Speaker 1: recognized him as the stalker from the brewery. Apparently the
Speaker 1: siblings had a habit of checking out each other's dates
Speaker 1: without introducing themselves. This was just the first glimpse into
Speaker 1: the unusually tight relationship between the three siblings. Rachel, Marcus,
Speaker 1: and Ethan shared every detail of their lives with each other.
Speaker 1: Daily calls, group texts that never stopped buzzing, and weekly
Speaker 1: dinners that couldn't be missed for any reason. They knew
Speaker 1: each other's banking passwords, medical histories, and relationship problems before
Speaker 1: their own partners did. At first, I found this closeness charming,
Speaker 1: coming from a fractured family myself parents divorced when I
Speaker 1: was seven. Step siblings I rarely speak to. I admired
Speaker 1: their bond, but as my relationship with Rachel progressed, the
Speaker 1: charm wore off. Rachel would tell her brothers about our
Speaker 1: arguments before we'd even finished having them when I received
Speaker 1: a medical diagnosis for a minor condition. Marcus called me
Speaker 1: with advice before it even told my own father. I
Speaker 1: raised my concerns with Rachel several times. She dismissed them,
Speaker 1: saying I couldn't understand because I didn't have siblings who
Speaker 1: actually cared about each other. There was some truth to that.
Speaker 1: My own brother hadn't even responded to my wedding invitation,
Speaker 1: so I backed off, excepting that this was part of
Speaker 1: the package deal with Rachel. Then came our wedding planning.
Speaker 1: Unlike most couples who fight over venue choices and guest lists,
Speaker 1: Rachel and I worked together seamlessly. We both wanted a
Speaker 1: medium sized ceremony at a local vineyard, agreed on a
Speaker 1: reasonable budget, and even like the same style of decorations.
Speaker 1: The planning process actually brought us closer together. I thought
Speaker 1: I'd found someone who truly understood partnership. The wedding day
Speaker 1: arrived and everything was perfect until Marcus showed up in
Speaker 1: a tuxedo identical to mine, not similar, identical, same designer,
Speaker 1: same cut, same boutonniere. When I first saw him at
Speaker 1: the vineyard, I thought someone was playing a prank. Rachel
Speaker 1: beamed when she saw us standing together. During her vows,
Speaker 1: she included a special section thanking Marcus for always being
Speaker 1: the example of the kind of husband she wanted, and
Speaker 1: how fitting it was that the two most important men
Speaker 1: in her life should look like twins. To day, I
Speaker 1: stood there listening to my bride talk about another man.
Speaker 1: During our wedding vows. The guests shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Olivia,
Speaker 1: Marcus's wife, stared straight ahead with a fixed smile. My
Speaker 1: parents exchanged glances. Even Rachel's parents looked embarrassed. At the reception,
Speaker 1: I pulled rape aide and asked why she hadn't told
Speaker 1: me about the matching tuxedos. She looked genuinely confused by
Speaker 1: my question. In her mind, this was a wonderful surprise
Speaker 1: that I should appreciate. When I explained that I felt
Speaker 1: upstaged at my own wedding, she told me I was
Speaker 1: overreacting and that I didn't understand family traditions. The tuxedo
Speaker 1: incident cast a shadow over our honeymoon. We argued repeatedly
Speaker 1: about boundaries and family involvement. Rachel finally admitted that Marcus
Speaker 1: had always wanted a formal wedding, but when he married Olivia,
Speaker 1: they had eloped because they couldn't afford a big ceremony.
Speaker 1: Olivia had gotten pregnant shortly after they started dating, and
Speaker 1: they rushed to get married before the baby arrived. Marcus
Speaker 1: had always regretted not having wedding photos and a proper reception,
Speaker 1: so Rachel had decided to share our wedding day with
Speaker 1: her brother, giving him the experience he had missed. She
Speaker 1: couldn't understand why this bothered me, after all, she reasoned,
Speaker 1: it didn't take anything away from our marriage. Ethan reached
Speaker 1: out to me after the wedding, apologizing for his sister's behavior.
Speaker 1: He explained that while he loved his siblings, he recognized
Speaker 1: that their closeness sometimes crossed normal boundaries.