Have you ever been stabbed in the back by your own family
The $75,000 Betrayal and Conditional Forgiveness
My brother cleared out my savings account in order to pay back his gambling debts. My parents somehow convinced me to forgive him, but he did something even worse, so I exposed him in front of everyone at Thanksgiving dinner.
A few years ago, my brother asked for my credit card so he could order himself takeout, as his card was locked. Instead of takeout, he used my card to access my savings account and cleared out every dime to pay back his gambling debt.
These savings were meant to be used on a house, but now they were gone. When I found out what he did, I went insane.
I locked myself in my apartment and started drinking. Then I sent a text to my brother telling him, “I hate him and he can rot in hell”.
The very next morning, my parents showed up. They said what he did was forgivable because family is more important than money.
I stared in disbelief, then yelled, “Of course they say that, he’s their precious Golden Boy Who Could do no wrong!” My mother started crying crocodile tears.
But when she saw I wasn’t budging, she began screaming. At that moment, I kicked them out, telling them that, just like my brother, they could go to hell.
My brother had taken over $75,000 from me. Now I had to renew my lease in an apartment for another year when I should have been using that money on a down payment.
It had taken me years to build my bank account to that amount, and it was gone in an instant. My parents complained that they hadn’t seen me in a while.
I would remind them why I wasn’t going to visit them, which was my brother Jim. They would bring up how I would regret it when I’m old and gray.
They said I need to cherish the time we have with each other because it was limited. I agreed and told them that they always had the option to come visit me.
Truthfully, I didn’t want them to, but I knew the game they were trying to play and I wasn’t having it. My mom told me that Jim said he missed me.
She said he would always love “the little Sarah who we had to clean up up after she got spaghetti in her hair when I was a toddler”,.
My mom gave me spaghetti while I was sitting in my high chair. I hated spaghetti since I was young, and that day was the day she found out.
After I tasted it, I began throwing it, kicking and screaming. The kitchen was a mess by the time I got done with it; I pulled my hair with my tomato-stained fingers.
I was too young to remember, but Mom would always tell me this story and it was always funny to me. That was when Jim came to the rescue.
He took me out of the high chair and held me. He cleaned me up and helped Mom clean the kitchen; he was roughly 12 at this point.
Hearing my mom tell me that story again made me cherish our family a little bit more. In a moment of utter weakness, I decided that I would give Jim another chance, but with more boundaries set this time.
Forgiving him took time; as the days turned into weeks, it still pained me to think about him or see his face. I was reminded that the progress I had made for my first house was out of the window.
