rSlash - r/Bestof I Found Hidden Secret in My House

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

0:00 Intro 0:10 Cleaning habits 9:23 Step siblings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a new day. How can you make the most of it with your membership rewards points? Earn points on everyday purchases. Use them for that long-awaited vacation. Points never expire, so use them how you want. That's the powerful backing of American Express. On eligible cards, terms apply. Learn more at mx.ca. Welcome to r slash best of redditor updates, where OP discovers a mysterious note hidden inside of her apartment. Our next Reddit post comes from r slash relationship advice. So I'm a 28 year old woman and my boyfriend Steve is 30.

We've been together for two years, lived together for eight months. I was cleaning our apartment when I found a note in the back of the cabinet. It read, Dear Steve's future girlfriend, I know it's you reading this because he would never clean back here. I'm putting this here because I'm leaving him soon and I want to warn you about him. 1. He will not clean. 2.

He will not listen. 3. He will make everything feel like it's your fault. It's not your fault. He's just an incompetent man. I'm leaving him and I suggest you do the same. Best wishes, Natalia." I read the note and then brought it to show Steve and hear his response. He immediately

ripped it up and said not to listen to it, that she was crazy and untrustworthy. I told him that the fact that he hasn't found this note in the five years since they broke up is a red flag to me. Because it does mean that he's never cleaned back there and that he's been cleaning less and less since I moved in. He told me that it wasn't a problem before the note that this is just his ex continuing to manipulate and ruin his life and I was letting it work. We continued to argue along the same lines and I eventually left to spend the night at a friend's place.

Steve's been a great boyfriend so far. He gets along with my family, he's given me gifts and flowers and always tells me how much he loves me. He's not wrong that the cleaning hasn't really been brought up before. The note made me realize that he has been cleaning less and less, and that we did need to have a full conversation about it. He texted me afterwards saying he's sorry that I felt like I had to leave, but that it's a butthole move to take a note over our two year relationship and leave him

and our pets alone. I don't know what to do or to believe right now. I'm contemplating trying to find and reach out to Natalia. Her name in real life is pretty unique, so I think I could find her. Steve thinks that I should just come back and let it go, that his past shouldn't affect our future. For context, when we moved in together 8 months ago, the cleaning was 50-50. Since then, he's been doing things less and less, and now it's like 70-30, maybe 60-40 if he listens to me right away, depending on the week.

Then, an indeterminate amount of time later, OP posted an update. I followed your advice from the last post and tried to have a calm discussion with Steve. When I apologized for confronting him with the note, he seemed to take that as an admission of guilt and refused to listen to anything else. I had come up with a list of specific instances of not cleaning like many of you suggested, and he said that I was using Liss just like his manipulative ex did. So yeah, the crazy ex thing you all said was a red flag was definitely true. When I realized the conversation wasn't going anywhere, he tried to block me from

leaving. That's when I knew that I was done and left immediately. Two years down the drain, but I'm glad that I had the wake-up call before it was too late. I'll let him cool off, and then I'll ask my brother to come with me to grab my things while he's not there. Steve has a strict work schedule, so it'll be easy. I'm planning on leaving behind another note. I'm leaving it in the exact same place.

So if he doesn't learn his lesson about cleaning, it'll come back to haunt him. All he has to do is clean. The biggest surprise out of all of this is that I didn't reach out to Natalia. She reached out to me. Apparently, he borrowed his friend's phone to call her, screaming that she's ruining his life still. The fact that she blocked him and yet still had her number memorized just further confirms that he was the crazy ex, not her. Natalia found me on social media and wanted to make sure that I was okay and was especially concerned that he would gaslight me like he tried to do with her.

I thanked her for leaving me the note and saving me time. We scheduled coffee for Thursday afternoon. I want to thank you all for the advice. You called out that he was weaning me into an unhealthy relationship so well. Then, one day later, OP posted an update. I wound up texting this Reddit post to Natalia last night, and she thought that it was great. She, like some of you, asked me about the pets. For context, one of the things that Steve and I connected on was our love for little creatures. It's why I thought that he was such a great guy, because if he could take such intricate

care of his lizard, he could do the same with me. I was very wrong. He has one lizard that he bought before me and we also bought two frogs together. I have a snake that I brought with me when I moved in. I was planning on waiting until Steve cooled down for me to grab my things and the frog and the snake, thinking that he would never hurt them, but Natalia changed my mind. She said that Steve could get destructive when he's mad and she was concerned about the safety of my little guys.

I immediately knew that I couldn't wait until later this week, and I reached out for a meeting with the landlord for early this morning. I wound up FaceTiming with Natalia last night, and we had a long discussion. Natalia is a lawyer and told me that in our state, landlords are required to let me exit the lease I signed in cases of domestic violence.

She also told me that his yelling, gaslighting, and refusing to let me leave are all types of abuse. Anyways, this morning Natalia volunteered to come talk to the landlord with me alongside my brother. As soon as the landlord heard the word lawyer, he was on top of it and said that I could break the lease, but that I would still have to pay for all of August, even though I'm leaving three days early. I felt like that was fair. He also messaged Steve to say that the apartment had to be kept empty all day for emergency maintenance, so that way I could pack my things. Steve messaged back that he was at work all day and that he wouldn't be home until 6pm. When I got to the apartment, it was a mess! He had broken my dishes that I had moved in with and left the shards laying about.

My clothes were ripped up and scattered around our room. It was disgusting and heartbreaking. He left his lizard alone, but he opened the tank doors for our frogs and my snake. Luckily, the frogs were still chilling in their enclosure, but my snake had gotten loose. This made me the most mad, as she could have gotten cut on the broken plates. I feel so fortunate that my snake was just hiding in the closet corner and I was able to pack her up safely in her enclosure again. All my things are packed up, and I'm writing this as my brother drives me back to my friend's house right now. Natalia told me that actually she left three notes.

One in the cabinet, one on the underside of the vacuum, and one in the crumb catcher of the toaster. While we were there, we checked to see if the notes were still there. The one in the vacuum was, but it looks like Steve did clean out the crumb catcher at least once in the past five years. He never told me that he had already found a note during our conversations, so it caught me by surprise. Natalia and I left the vacuum note as it was, and I replaced the cabinet one. Natalia said that if

he didn't find those notes during the past five years, especially after me moving in, he probably won't find them again. I'm inclined to agree, especially given that he did find one, but didn't even clean the rest of the house to see if there were more. Steve doesn't make sense to me, and seeing the state of the apartment really woke me up to the fact that I have no idea who he is. The Steve I knew would never put animals in danger, but I don't think that I ever really knew Steve. To the people wishing that Natalia and I would get together, we had a good laugh about that. Natalia is engaged to a wonderful man who cleans, listens, and reflects.

She said there's a phenomenon that when people break up with their awful ex, their soulmate can quickly follow. I'm hoping that's true. Regardless, I do think that I got a good friend out of this, especially since Natalia is a snake mom too. Also, down in the comments people are asking OP about the destroyed property and we have this interesting tidbit. Honestly, I just want to put this behind me. Most of the clothes were ones that he bought me. Originally, I thought that they were sweet gifts. But looking back on it, I'm realizing that he pushed my style out for the one that he prefers. He liked to dress me exactly the way he wanted

So I'm okay leaving the clothes behind. I can always get new dishes and new clothes I have my pets and that's all that matters to me. Okay. All right So this guy is clearly a long list of walking red flags but a really subtle red flag that I want to point out to you because it took me a second to catch is All right, so this guy is clearly a long list of walking red flags, but a really subtle red flag that I wanna point out to you because it took me a second to catch is that this guy destroys an apartment and lets a snake loose.

Then he gets a phone call that there has to be emergency maintenance on his apartment, and that doesn't bother him. He doesn't think, oh shoot, I need to clean up the destroyed apartment and capture the snake before random people come in to fix the plumbing or whatever. He's just like, yep, that's all good, totally cool. I don't care if random strangers know that I destroyed my girlfriend's property and

ripped up her clothes to leave all around the apartment. Sounds good to me. Our next Reddit post is from ExistingAttempt. I'm a 17 year old girl who's graduating and my friends and I have already planned a trip to a cabin for the summer before we start college. I've been a babysitter since I was 13, so I've saved up a considerable amount of money. When I was 15, my dad got remarried about a year and a half after my mom passed away. My dad's wife had a 13 year old daughter and as soon as we moved in together, they

started to push her off on me to force us to do everything together. I do not like my stepsister. She's always throwing tantrums if she doesn't get what she wants. She's spoiled to the point that on my 16th birthday, she got her own special cake so she wouldn't feel left out. And she also blew out the candles on my cake and when I complained, my dad told me, it's time to grow up. Being a sister is about sharing things. I told him I didn't have a sister and I guess she overheard me and she went on a rampage. The party was ruined. I distanced myself more from them after that. I am forced to either take her with me to places or stay home with her

if I can't take her or my parents can't watch her or don't want to either take her with me to places or stay home with her if I can't take her or my parents can't watch her or don't want to deal with her. One time I was forced to take her bowling with me and she would not stop trying to dig her hands into the part where the balls came out and she tried running down the lane. So I had to take her home and my night was ruined. This type of thing happens a lot, but they don't care. I've tried to keep this trip a secret from her, but when I was in my room on the phone talking about it, I found out that she snuck in and hid in the closet and was eavesdropping. She burst out asking if she could come and I told her no and to get out. She started stomping her feet and she ran out.

My friends begged me not to invite her. My dad called me downstairs and asked if she could go because she could use a vacation and I told him I am not taking her. They can take her on a vacation but I'm not watching her for almost 3 weeks alone. My dad's wife called me selfish and that my dad was paying for a portion of it anyways and if my sister Lily doesn't go then I don't get to go. I told her that she doesn't get a say in any of this, she's not my mom, and to stop forcing her child on me when she created what kind of kid she is. Lily started yelling at me about not being a big sister and that I don't want to spend

time with her. I snapped and told her that I don't. She ran away crying and my dad said that he won't pay for the rest of my trip if I don't want to spend time with her. I snapped and told her that I don't. She ran away crying and my dad said that he won't pay for the rest of my trip if I don't take her. So I told him that if he does that, I won't be talking to him anymore, nor will I forgive him for it. He said that I'm being dramatic and that she isn't bad. So I packed a bag and went to my aunt's house, my mom's sister.

And I told her what happened and she said that she would cover the payment that my dad pulled out of. Also, when I go to college, I can stay with her. I told my dad what I was doing and he blew up at me and said that I was being a brat and they're my family now and not my aunt. As far as I know, my sister doesn't have any disabilities. She's been to a doctor and therapy. She's just insanely spoiled and that's how she's always gotten her way when told no.

The first time I met her, everyone agreed on Mexican except her and then she yelled in the car for 10 minutes before she calmed down by her mom appeasing her. Then she just got on her phone and texted. Then 6 months later OP posted an update. The trip happened and I did not end up taking her, just like I said that I wasn't. From the time that I posted up until the time that I left, the household was very tense and awkward. I wasn't speaking to any of them. The only person I had to confide in and talk to was my aunt, and I'm so grateful for

her. My dad still thought that I was going to bring her on the trip, and I kept telling him that I'm not watching her and she is not coming with me. The morning of the trip, I left at like 6 in the morning. By the time my dad called me, I was already like 5 hours out, so he couldn't do anything. When I got back, it was a lot of yelling and crying from me and my dad and his wife. She said that I left them in a tough position and they had to stay home because they couldn't get anyone to watch Lily. My dad and I had a serious talk for hours and he agreed

that maybe we need to separate so that we can work on our relationship. Which hurt me because I would have liked for him to tell me that I can stay in my own home while we work on it. But I did end up going to my aunt's house with no issues. My dad and I started family therapy with just the two of us. His wife was pretty upset that he was actually listening to me and was seeing where I was coming from. Right when we were getting good and building a better relationship, I came over for dinner and he asked if we could integrate his wife and Lily into therapy. And I told him that I had no interest in having a relationship with them. My stepmom called me a selfish

grunt, and that I need to be grateful that she let me stay with them after she moved in. I waited for my dad to correct her, and he was pretty much silent, so I left and I haven't talked to him in almost a month. He keeps showing me that he will not be on my side. So to wrap things up, the cabin trip was so much fun. I've never felt so free from a burden. The trip was in June and we were there for almost a month. We extended it. When I was packing for school, my dad came to visit, and I guess his wife called him and he had to lie about where he was because I guess she doesn't want him to see me. So I told him that we don't need to have contact right now or continue therapy because

it's clear which part of his family he cares more about. I'm currently in my first week of college, and the amount of freedom I feel here is so new. I'm currently living on campus, and I've never been better mentally. I'm getting separate therapy to deal with my mom's death, which my dad never offered to me. My aunt has truly become a mother figure to me. Being two states away from her is really hard, but I can't wait for weekend visits and

holiday visits. states away from her is really hard, but I can't wait for weekend visits and holiday visits. It's super clear from this story that OP's dad doesn't view OP as a daughter, he views her as just a free babysitter. OP, enjoy your newfound freedom and don't look back. That was our slash best of redditor updates, and if you liked this content, be sure to follow my podcast, because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.