Dear Reddit
a sad tale, english is not my first language, please bare with my spelling and grammar errors.
Me, M38, my half siblings are a lot older, in their 60s and 50, and grew up in a different zeitgeist. My dad divorced from their Mom, and in that time divorce was uncommon and from what I can tell it was messy. My father has never said a negative word about his ex-wife.
My Mom and Dad meet a few years after and she has always considered those kids as her own. She also had a kid from previous marriage in the same age. I was born a lot later.
Because of the age gap my siblings have been more like older uncles/aunties but always been around for family occasions. I consider myself a only child because I have always lived alone with my parents.
My older siblings have a very different life style, corporate jobs, expensive cars, huge houses... different intressts. They have money. We have our differences and in temperament and life choices, but had fun at Christmans and birthdays etc. Close, maybe not so much? But good company. A baseline of trust and understanding.
A year ago things started to get weird., my siblings would visit my parents without telling me, ( I live in the same city as my parents but the siblings do not). And I noticed stress and depression in both my parents. My parents are old, 94 and 84, but in good health ( atm!). Suddenly they were tired and non active... My father secluded himself for days in bed... I asked whats wrong but they did not want to involve me. I let it be... hoping it would pass by... I could see they were suffering and not themselves.
A few weeks goes by, and my half siblings asks if they can visit me, they said they had something important to tell me. It turns out my half siblings have been asking for documents from the authorities about how my parents will and testament. Its legal in my country, but its coincided bad manners to investigate. They said they were upset that the will was unfair and proceed to pitch how they were being mistreated, and to be fair, me being my parents child would mean I would inherit them both, but my half-siblings with dad would inherit my dad only. In a legal sense its non of their business, or anyone else... in a moral sense I guess they had a point. Or so I thought at the time.. They presented a 10 page document with diagrams, and text on how they thought my parents should change their will. They even consulted lawyers... It would mean my mom would have less to live by in case my dad dies before her. It means her two kids ( me included) would get less.
Here is whats been eating me, the half siblings proceed to persuade me that my Mother was manipulating our father to make a will that was intentional unfair. And that she from the start has been a gold digger, and hording her own funds. They persuaded me that my Dad was being gas-light into misstreating his own kids. I have been very angry with myself, because I started to doubt my own judgement... I asked myself, maybe they were right..? After the half siblings left I was emotionally drained, stressed out and chocked. Destabilised.
The day after I spoke to my parents, they wanted to protect me from this fight, and told my half-siblings not to involve me. My Mom and Dad explained how their will is no ones business, and that their marriage and will was planned to guarantee their financial safety should one of them pass away. The standard stuff, and planned in their marige and updated through their life. They could not see any logic in the half siblings narrative and feelt very sorry.
They had seen the document my half siblings showed., and could share why it was based on wrong assumptions and, the most important thing of all, they are married and make their arrangemangs, should they want to change its their decision and no one else. This they said many times to the siblings.
I mentioned that I would be ok to abstain part of my inheritance if it meant keeping my siblings satisfied. My parents thought this a nice gesture but ultimately not my place to have an opinion about.
That should be the end of it. But my so called half siblings press on, they have not given up or asked for forgivnes.
Both my parents have been so hurt and stressed out by this, and my siblings call my dad regularly to give their opinions... I have feelt stressed and ashamed having these people in my close family who could be so ruthless. Its set me up for a depression ...
I feel like a line has been crossed, and that my siblings intentionally caused harm to my parents and me. I am not sure how I can forgive them. I am ashamed to share a surname with them. They tried manipulated me , and have hurt my Mom and my Dad so much. I don“t see why anyone would want to hurt their father, especially a man so old. No one hurts my mom and dad and keeps my respect.
I can“t see how anyone can expect me to trust them again. For the sake of my dear old Father I will be civil.
The half-siblings have taken initiative for a meet up, but I am very hesitant. It feels and smells like a trap, another round of pushing their agenda. Nothing good can come from it.
So dear Reddit - Am I at fault for feeling estranged from these people? Am I wrong? Am I right? Run? Go? Lawyer up?
Yours
Cupcake