Closing a family business is never easy, especially when it stems from a betrayal.

What would you do if you found out your own mother had been taking financial advantage of you for years?

Would you keep quiet to protect your family’s reputation?

Or would you tell the truth, no matter the fallout?

In the following article, a business owner finds themselves in this exact situation. Here’s the whole story.

WIBTA for telling the truth about why I’m closing the family business?

I took over the family business from my mom 7 years ago.

It came as a nasty surprise to find out it came with $15,000+ of debt I was now responsible for.

This pretty much sums up how the financial aspect has gone.

It’s run out of her home, and I “rent” the ground floor.

The stress of paying her bills while my employees and I barely make minimum wage finally came to the breaking point 2 weeks ago when I found out she flat-out lied to me about the mortgage she took out last year.

The house was on a land contract, so she had to mortgage it to get a loan for a new garage.

She upped my rent, saying the mortgage covered the land contract, garage, an adjoining lot she owns, and escrow.

I argued that I don’t use the lot or garage and I’ve never paid the property taxes, but it didn’t help.

The truth always comes out eventually.

2 weeks ago, I found out that the mortgage actually covers the land contract, garage, my mom’s car, motorcycle, and 4 credit cards.

She rolled $32k of her debt into this mortgage she’s making me pay 60% of.

The land contract I originally agreed to pay is 40% of the mortgage.

That was the final straw, and I notified the customers that we’re closing in June.

She doesn’t know I found out about the mortgage.

I’ve had clients and people in my personal life asking what happened to make me close so abruptly.

I’ve been telling half-truths as I’m not comfortable putting this drama out there.

Here’s the dilemma.

I’ve told a handful of trusted friends and family, and nobody has been surprised, and they’re all supporting me in this.

But what if I threw caution to the wind and started telling the truth?

Not the full rundown with figures, but a simple “My mom has been taking advantage of the business financially, and I’m not putting up with it anymore.”

WIBTA?

Eek! That must be a hard pill to swallow.

Let’s take a look at what the folks over at Reddit had to say about this.

These are excellent points.

This person feels it’s just not worth it to share personal info.

According to this person, the only move is to hire a lawyer.

These are some harsh words about the mother.

This is a tricky situation. On the one hand, what she did is wrong, but it’s still your mother.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.