In a perfect world, family is there to lean on and support you when times are tough.

In the actual world, sometimes the people who are meant to be there for you can only think of themselves.

OP’s aunt came into money through marriage.

Players: Myself (M late 30s), Sister (3 year younger), Aunt (Older “Sister” to my Mother), Mother (Single Mom, adopted, no blood relation to my Aunt). Cousins (3 total, 1M, 2F. I have good relationships with them now, mostly).

My estranged father who had been living several counties over, is pretty much out of the picture by the time my parents got their divorce when I was 9.

Due to financial hardship, we were forced to live with my Aunt and the nightmare of a household we would soon find ourselves in.

My Aunt married into Georgia “Wealth” and you can figure out what that means on your own. She had 3 kids and eventually caught her husband having an affair.

It’s a huge scandal, she gets the house, the kids and a fat payout from the family attorney. This is important because my Aunt didn’t do a thing in her life to earn her money, her house, her lifestyle or basically anything. She was born poor along with my Mom.

OP, his mom, and his sister had to move in with their aunt during hard times.

Under her household, she was drunk with power. Years of therapy have allowed me to recognize that certain people when in a position of power, get a perverse pleasure in ordering others to do their bidding.

She was the strictest of authoritarians in every possible way you could imagine. Chores had to be completed by an exact specific time. Vacuuming by 3:45pm, Dishes by 3:55pm, Laundry days for my Mother us kids were Tues/Thurs 5:35pm-7:55pm. If it was still running, she would shut the power off for the two units.

As we grew older, her own kids opted to stay with their father for full time custody and she had them on Weekends. Even they couldn’t stand her when she was in charge and in the house.

As time passed, she got them less and less opting for alternating weekends as High School activities took precedence over time with Mother.

His aunt lorded “her” things over all of them for years.

For my sister and I, the large 6 bedroom house was not ours for the taking. My mom had to pay rent as well as rent for 1 bedroom as that was all she could afford on her salary. We had to share a bedroom until my second year of HS.

All the while there was 1 spare unused bedroom available at all times. My Aunt needed this for “Guests” when they stayed over. Not one guest stayed there in the 10 years I was under that roof.

Finally the church we attended told my Aunt to give up the spare bedroom so my sister can have her own room as it was “unhealthy” for two teenagers sharing a room together like that.

That infuriated my Aunt because someone told her what to do in her own household. My sister and I got the brunt of her wrath.

As my Mom’s salary was tapped out, my sister and I had do extra chores like mowing the lawn, trimming the shrubs, cleaning the pool which we could no longer use without her being outside watching us.

My Aunt’s behavior was becoming more and more outrageous and disconnected from society. For example, she had always snapped her fingers when she wanted to get someones attention, but it was getting far more frequent and she would blow up into a tirade if either my sister and I didn’t obey.

Her own kids tried repeatedly to tell her that what she was doing was wrong but she wouldn’t listen.Eventually they wanted nothing to do with her outside of the home.

She was a tyrant there and repeated intervention to get her to see the folly of her ways would fall on deaf ears.

She made life so hard that one day OP snapped.

All through HS I had no confidence as a person. I was weak willed and growing ever distant from friends and society. I say this in all truthfulness and fear, that had circumstances continued the way they had been going, I could very well had taken a gun to myself or worse, to others around me. I was that bad off.

I had just graduated HS and started my first semester of community college. I’m 2 weeks into my classes attending from home when my Aunt drops a bomb on me. “You owe me $$$ for this months rent, the same amount for next months rent as well. It is the 27th after all. You’re an Adult now. You’re out of HS and working now, so you need to pay rent”

The heck? I blew a gasket as I yelled back. “You can’t just suddenly decide to charge me rent just because you feel like it. I need 30 days notice, I have rights”.

My Aunt yelled at me some bull excuse that she had discussed this with my mother and it was decided that I needed to pay my own rent now.

In some miraculous backbone move, of which I still have no idea how I stood up to her, I yelled right back at her, “If I’m an Adult, then treat me like and talk to me about rental agreements. I’ll start paying you rent in 30 days starting the 1st.” I turned my back to her and walked away with my fists balled tight. I was furious with anger but I walked away.

My Aunt saw my fists from behind and screamed bloody murder that I was going to attack her. No, I wasn’t. She snapped her fingers at me repeatedly on my tail to get my attention but I didn’t turn around. I needed to cool off and clear my head.

As I turned the corner, she grabbed my wrist hard yelling “I’m not finished talking to you”. I threw my still balled up fist forward keeping with my stride to break her grip as I hadn’t stopped my momentum.

This caused her grabbing arm to slam hard into the corner of the wall that I had just turned into. She screamed in pain but I left the house and took off.

Since then, he’s realized how awful she really was.

The aftermath of that incident was that my Aunt called the cops on me in an attempt to press charges. She was taken to the hospital and suffered a fractured wrist and she was put in a cast/sling (don’t know as I never saw it and never inquired further).

Her story changed every time she told the cops what happened while my story was spot on every time. I can still recall that moment down to the smell in the house, where I was facing, the working and non-working lightbulbs etc. Forever ingrained in me.

I was kicked out of the house and I couldn’t visit my sister or my Mom there at the house again. Fine by me as I didn’t want to see my Aunt ever again.

I was happy to meet my Mother and sister at the local diner or outlet. We could be ourselves there and not hostages in our own home.

My Mom wised up and got out of that abusive relationship with her sister and moved out on her own. She got a temporary nice place, invested wisely and with the help from the church, got help getting a place of her own.

In 2009 after the housing crisis, she bought her own place that she could never have afforded on her own prior the Market crash. But some good came out of it. She wept knowing my Sister (and her family) and myself can come visit any time and stay.

Over the years I’ve been able to forgive my Aunt. Not forget, Forgive. I’ve let go a lot of my anger and hatred toward her that she put me through. When she has no leverage or control over us, she’s a somewhat decent person for being a total horrible person.

My Cousin’s have calmed down, heard my side of what happened those years ago and know what kind of person I am compared to what kind of person their Mother is.

They chose to believe me and know I didn’t hit her or strike her or beat her across the face like she continues to claim.

And when he had the opportunity to feed her some bad info, he jumped on it.

While I have been able to forgive my Aunt for what she has done to me, I cannot forgive her for what she did to my Mother. Kept her in financial hardship for a decade while she sat on a bank account full of cash and assets.

Or what she did to my Sister. Forced her to pay for damages because the water heater burst while my Aunt and Mother was away one weekend leaving my sister at home. She didn’t discover the flooded rooms for hours.

My Aunt’s reasoning, “It was her responsibility to watch the house.” Not the responsibility of the home owner to maintain/replace the water heater before it goes. Lets leave that Upfront $5000 financial burden before the Flood insurance kicks in on a 16 year old girl.

I’ve had little to no contact with my Aunt since I was kicked out of the house nearly 2 decades ago. But I do keep in constant contact with my cousins.

While I’m not going to divulge what I do for a living, I can say that I work with and for the Government. I’ve worked my ass off getting to where I’m at today.

I’m known for being truthful, wise and giving good advise when asked. Because of this, I often talk financially with my cousins. All of whom are money-smart and are doing well for themselves. They often then relay this information to their scheming mother who has no mind for business and investments.

All that money she got from her house sale, her divorce settlement, her previous investments is pretty much gone. I spent YEARS planning on the perfect trap and it took a long time to prepare everything to make sure everything appeared right.

IANAL and I don’t pretend to know the law but I do know the regulations and laws pertaining to insider information. This is not that. 100% certain of it and if I ever go to court, I know my lawyer has a solid case in my defense. But is this a grey area, most definitely.

I let slip to my Cousins about some future real estate plans near my Aunt’s new area of living. It “may” be worth a lot more because of future development taking place in the area. All of that was true and backed up by what was in the News paper and New Construction signs that newly appeared on Google Maps (at the time).

The rest was fabricated by myself backed up by actual information I looked up on real estate websites and on projects I was working on through my work.

The Telephone game takes place and a few weeks later I presume, my Aunt starts making phone calls to real estate agents trying to buy lots of Land in the undeveloped area of her new house.

Over the course of a few months to a half a year, she spends $300,000 of her last remaining savings on land hoping it will pay out when the area around it gets developed in the upcoming years.

Only, HUD/Government/City doesn’t have any plans to develop in those immediate areas. In fact, analysis showed that building in those areas was poor planning and would cost the tax payers twice to three times as much as the land was not environmentally sound. It was best to build 6 miles away.

Too bad for her.

This post was long overdue because it’s been over 2 years since my Aunt purchased Land that is basically worthless. See, she won’t sell the land unless she gets at least the same price she paid for it because she’s the OWNER of that land. Can’t tell her what to do on her own land.

Sweet Karma strikes in a way I couldn’t possibly have foreseen. My cousin informed me that the value of the land has decreased significantly because it’s not environmentally sound to build anything commercial there. But it’s zoned for commercial use.

Currently 3 of the 4 blocks of land she purchased are just weed farms next to eye sore abandoned buildings or industrial complexes. Nobody can build on it and nor does anyone want to buy it. Sucks to be her!

Best part is, my cousins have absolutely no idea that I set them up for their Mother to take the fall. These environmental results are relatively new and the perfect cover to say why the Project changed locations 6 miles away.

TL:DR Abusive Aunt torments my family and myself for a decade and more. Decades later, I am in a position to trick her buying worthless land. Icing on the cake, that land can’t be used for it’s intended purpose and has devalued significantly.

Should he feel badly? I bet Reddit will let him know!

The top comment suggests OP go a little bit further.

This person agrees that the aunt deserved worse.

But maybe this will be enough.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

And she’s honestly done it to herself.

This woman sounds awful.

I’m so sorry that kids were subjected to her horror.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.