Cheating & Betrayal·
THE HOUSE DIVIDED
A brain-tumor diagnosis collides with infidelity, tearing a family apart as a seventeen-year-old rages against his father's girlfriend and seeks to rewrite their fragile life.
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The family fell apart the day a brain tumor diagnosis landed alongside a cheating scandal.
When the poster was 10, his mom learned she had a brain tumor, and, on the same day, learned her husband was sleeping with her best friend, "Hayley." What followed was five brutal weeks of pleading, stress, and decline. The dad and Hayley tried to get the mom to forgive them while her health got worse. She began having seizures. Then, five weeks and two days after the diagnosis, she died.
That was the break that split the house in two.
After the funeral, the dad and Hayley moved in together and tried to raise the poster and his 8-year-old sister. The poster and his sister did not accept them. The poster, now 17, says he made that clear in every way he could: yelling at them, calling them names, refusing to listen, telling other people what they had done, interrupting their wedding, and refusing to help later when they had two children of their own. He even cut his dad out of photos and talks about changing his last name to his mom's.
But the fight that keeps coming back is with Hayley.
The poster says that whenever she acts like a parent or accepts praise for his behavior, he reminds her exactly who she is to him: she was supposed to be his mom's best friend, but instead was "a backstabber who cheated with my dad instead." He has done it in front of other people, and he says he will not stop.
The latest blowup started after Hayley's aunt died. Hayley asked him to help more around the house while she was away with her mother and cousins. He refused. When she told him that "the oldest sibling and oldest child does," he shot back that he wasn't hers. Then he brought up the affair again.
Hayley broke down. She told him he was making her feel guilty, driving her crazy, and forcing her to isolate so the whole world would not know "with the way I act." She said he was bullying her and should go after his dad instead.
He doubled down. "I'll go after both until I can cut them out of my life for good," he told her, adding that she didn't deserve a happy life after what she did.
Hayley called his aunt, who stepped in and asked him to stop. The aunt did not defend the parents, but she said shaming Hayley and making it hard for her to have relationships where people won't know and judge is not okay, especially because "the kids she and dad have together will suffer."
The poster, for his part, says bluntly: "I didn't feel sorry for her."