Many families include a chaotic mix of personalities that don’t always mesh well together.

In this story at a family dinner, one uncle’s power play went too far and when a protective stepbrother stepped in, the resolution was anything but peaceful.

Read on for the whole story!

AITA for turning a family argument into a massive situation that now involves theft?

I (20M) come from a s-show of a family.

One of my uncles is a raging narcissist, but everyone still talks to him unfortunately. I will call him Frank.

Frank has earned a very bad reputation.

Yesterday, we had a small family dinner since it’s my grandmother’s birthday.

Frank and his wife Sarah are awful to Frank’s daughter from his first marriage, Clara (18F).

I would never stop if I explained it all, but all you need to know is that Clara is innocent. They hate her for no reason.

He sets the scene.

Frank hosted a family dinner yesterday and they were trying to use Clara as a servant.

She had already cooked most of the food and they were trying to make her clean up.

She had enough and called her stepbrother (her stepdads son) to collect her.

I’ve met her stepbrother a few times and he’s a very nice guy, but he does not mess around about his sisters, Clara included.

He used to have major anger issues, but he’s calmer nowadays.

It wasn’t long before Frank started acting aggressively.

Her stepbrother arrived, and Frank said that he wasn’t going to let Clara leave until she washed all the dishes.

Other cousins offered to help, but he said that since she made all the dishes (because she did all the cooking) she had to wash them.

He then HID HER SHOES AND PHONE so she couldn’t leave.

The rest of the family tries to reason with Frank.

For the first time ever, my mother and other “elders” were standing up to him and demanding that he let her go home, but he wasn’t budging.

An argument started (you know the type where all the kids are cleared out of the room). Clara started crying, and was just going to do the dishes but I was like, nah no way.

The author knows just how to put an end to this argument.

I went outside to her stepbrother’s car, and turns out one of Clara’s cousins from her mom’s side was also there with him. They asked what was taking so long, and I informed them of the situation.

This is where I might be the AH since I knew these two would go in the house and get Clara out by any means necessary.

The tides quickly turn.

I let them in, and all I can say is that Clara’s shoes and phone were returned immediately.

I stayed outside, and I am not lying when I say that those men shouted so loudly the windows were shaking.

Her stepbrother and cousin also then took a pair of Franks shoes, TV remote and a few other things just because they could.

Now, everyone is mad at me.

My mother is saying I was an AH because they were trying to get the situation sorted, which is true – that was the first time I saw anyone stand up to Frank.

The stepbrother’s intervention lead to more conflict in the family.

She said now that I got Clara’s maternal family involved, things are a million times worse.

Clara’s older brother (not the stepbrother, who is also Frank’s son who couldn’t make it to the family dinner) has completely disowned his father and is refusing to return a car and lawnmower he borrowed.

They are demanding I apologize to Frank, and that I also ensure his belongings are returned to him.

I don’t think I am an AH because it’s his fault he refused to let Clara go but my sister told me to post here.

AITA?

It sounds like the author knew just how to stop his uncle’s mistreatment, although it may have just set off a chain reaction of even more conflict.

What did Reddit think?

Frank is luckily the police didn’t get involved.

Just talking it out clearly was not the right solution here.

There’s one villain in this story, and it isn’t Clara or the post author.

Standing up for Clara brought a long-overdue confrontation to a head, forcing the family to confront Frank’s harmful behavior.

It’s a necessary step forward to breaking the cycle of mistreatment.

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.