When someone tells you something in confidence, but it concerns someone else, it’s hard to know what to do.

Inevitably someone will get mad and that’s what happened here.

Keep reading to see this story involving a young person, his dad and stepmom.

AITA for Telling My Stepmom She Can’t Blame Me for My Dad Cheating

A few months ago, my dad started started talking on his phone a lot, sneaking out late at night, and lying about where he was.

I also overheard him on the phone saying some pretty explicit things to someone who was definitely not my stepmom.

After a few days of agonizing over it, I decided to confront him. He admitted he was cheating on my stepmom and begged me not to tell her.

He said he’d end the affair and work on his marriage. I believed him and kept quiet, hoping he’d actually follow through.

Instead of things resolving, they got really hostile in an unexpected way.

Well, fast forward a month, and my stepmom finds out anyway.

She is staying with my dad, so things are good on that end, but somehow she is absolutely livid with me, saying I betrayed her trust by not telling her.

She keeps telling me I’m just as guilty as he is for not coming to her right away.

Since then my step mom has been giving me the cold shoulder, and when she does talk to me, it’s just to yell or blame me for everything.

My dad’s trying to smooth things over, but he’s not doing a great job.

He keeps telling me to just stay out of it and give my stepmom time to cool off and try to avoid her as much as possible.

The anger became intolerable and OP finally got some things out of his system.

A few nights ago, after yet another heated argument with my stepmom, I finally snapped and basically told her to stop blaming me for my dad’s mistakes.

I didn’t cheat on her, and I’m not the one who lied, so she needs to get off my back. She looked shocked and hurt, but I felt it needed to be said.

I feel awful about the whole thing and really wish I’d handled it differently. Maybe I should’ve told her at the start.

Here’s what people are saying.

This is what I want to know!

I hadn’t thought of that. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.

A lot of people made this point. The Dad shouldn’t let her put this heat on his daughter.

This explains a lot. So many perceptive commenters on this one.

“Punching bag” is right.

Never feel bad for defending yourself.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.