After my parents divorced, I wasn’t sad. In fact, I was relieved. Their marriage had felt forced, like two people simply coexisting. So I started encouraging my mom to find someone new—someone who could make her happy and fill the quiet evenings with companionship.
I even helped set her up on a dating app, but no one ever seemed to click—until one day, she called sounding happier than I’d heard in years. She was dating someone named Aaron, a pastry chef, and she wanted me to meet him.
I was excited for her. I pictured someone warm, mature, stable. But when I arrived for dinner and stepped into the dining room, my heart sank. The man standing next to her wasn’t an older gentleman—he was my age.
Stunned, I asked if Aaron had a son. My mom smiled and corrected me—that was Aaron.
I couldn’t believe it. He was 25, just two years older than me. My shock turned to anger. I grilled him, accused him of being after her money, and stormed out when she revealed they were engaged.
I spent days trying to wrap my head around it. How could she not see the red flags I saw? Desperate, I decided to play nice and earn her trust back—so I could dig for the truth. I helped plan the wedding, watched Aaron like a hawk, but he was always polite, composed, and seemingly genuine.
Just when I started to doubt myself, fate handed me an opportunity.
The morning of the wedding, my mom left her phone at home. I offered to retrieve it. At the house, I stumbled upon a locked drawer. Inside were debt notices—all in Aaron’s name—and property papers signed in my mother’s name, but with a forged signature. My worst fears were confirmed.
I raced to the wedding and interrupted the ceremony.
Waving the documents in the air, I told everyone the truth. “Aaron’s in debt and using my mom for money,” I said.
The crowd gasped. My mother looked shaken—but then she quietly revealed the truth.
The debts weren’t for him. They were for me.
Aaron and my mom had been planning to use the wedding funds to buy me my dream—a restaurant. They’d kept it a secret to surprise me. The property in her name was going to be mine.
I was speechless. My anger had blinded me to the truth. Aaron wasn’t taking from her—he was giving to me.
And I almost ruined everything.
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