reddit storytimes

Подробнее о видео

Last month when Dad called begging me to bail out my perfect sister Emma from her gambling debts, I almost laughed at the bitter irony. The golden child who had spent decades making my life miserable was now desperate for help from the family scapegoat.
Growing up, Emma could do absolutely no wrong in our parents' eyes. She was the quintessential perfect daughter – honor student with a flawless 4.0 GPA, prom queen, destined for greatness. Her fairy-tale wedding cost more than most people's cars. Our parents beamed with pride as they introduced their successful daughter to anyone who would listen.
Meanwhile, I was branded the "weird one" for preferring the logical comfort of my bedroom computer to chaotic high school parties. While Emma collected friends like trophies, I collected programming languages and built digital worlds from lines of code. Each night, while she painted her nails and gossiped, I lost myself in the beautiful complexity of algorithms.
But Emma made my life hell with calculated precision. She would sneak into my room and delete my programming projects hours before deadlines, then sweetly tell our parents I was "just playing silly computer games instead of doing real homework." She convinced them I was becoming antisocial and potentially dangerous.
The final betrayal came when she wanted access to my college fund. She planted drugs in my backpack and called our parents crying hysterically about discovering my supposed "addiction problem." Her performance was Academy Award worthy – complete with trembling hands and crocodile tears.
They believed her instantly, completely, without asking for my side. They cut off my tuition money, kicked me out at seventeen with nothing but a garbage bag of clothes and twenty dollars. "We will not enable a drug addict," Mom said with ice-cold disappointment. "You're becoming a dangerous monster like your uncle Jerry."
I spent two brutal years sleeping in my Honda Civic, working double shifts at whatever jobs would hire a teenager, then teaching myself advanced programming at the public library until closing time. My neck ached constantly from hunching over outdated computers, but I persevered.
Then my productivity app unexpectedly took off. What started as a simple organizational tool became a multi-million dollar company within three years. Forbes featured me at twenty-five with the headline: "From Homeless to Millionaire: A True American Success Story." I bought a sleek downtown penthouse and never looked back.
Emma's carefully curated Instagram slowly revealed her perfect life cracking. Designer handbag posts were replaced by desperate MLM schemes. Exotic vacation photos stopped appearing entirely. Her husband David looked increasingly strained in the few pictures she still posted.
Three weeks ago Dad called in panic. "Emma owes very dangerous people exactly $180,000 from online poker addiction. They're making serious death threats against her family. You're honestly the only person with that kind of money available."
I said absolutely not.
"Please, I'm literally begging you," he pleaded. "She claims she's genuinely sorry about everything from childhood. She has two innocent kids who don't deserve this violence."
"Where was this family loyalty when you heartlessly threw me out?" I asked coldly.
"That situation was completely different. You were clearly struggling with addiction issues—"
"A dangerous monster? Yeah, I remember that assessment."
He actually sobbed into the phone. "They broke into her house last night, left a bloody threatening message on her kitchen wall. She's still your sister."
"Emma made sure I was never truly part of this family."
Two days later Emma called completely hysterical. "I know I was absolutely awful growing up. I was pathetically jealous and deliberately cruel to you. But my innocent kids don't deserve this nightmare. David's been severely beaten up. They said next time they'll target the children directly."
I hung up immediately.
Funny how those painful years of careful observation finally paid off completely.