12 Real Stories So Messed Up They Feel Like Fiction

Some moments in life are so strange, shocking, or surreal, they feel like scenes from a novel or a movie. This collection brings together real stories that sound entirely made up—yet every single one truly happened. And that’s exactly what makes them so compelling.

• In the first four months of our relationship, I was at his house. He went to the bathroom and left his laptop open, so I looked at it and saw he had daily messages with a woman.
  That woman was his best friend’s girlfriend. © Unknown author / Reddit

• 3 days after our wedding, my wife got a letter and turned pale. She refused to say what it was and quickly left for a walk. She forgot her phone. 2 hours passed. Her phone buzzed, and I froze when I saw a text message from someone called “Ben.”
  He was asking her, “When can I drop the kid off?” I was confused—who was Ben? What kid was he talking about? Then the phone rang. I froze when I heard a man’s voice saying that he can’t keep the baby secret any longer and that my wife needs to tell me about their existence.
  Turns out, my wife was divorced and had a 6-year-old daughter with Ben. She never brought up this subject. When I confronted her, she started crying and said that she was never able to tell me that she has a daughter because she knew I never wanted kids. So she was waiting for the right time to say it, and it never came.
  What hurts most is that I had been lied to, and that our marriage had started with a major lie.

• I had a best friend growing up who was also my neighbor. Siblings always said that I looked like him, and it would be funny if we did a DNA test. Years go by, and we are both in our late 20s when he, on a whim, does the Ancestry.com DNA swab.
  Turns out he matches with my family. He’s my half-brother, and dad had to explain a lot that day. © monstergoro87 / Reddit

• My father has a whole other family he refuses to acknowledge. Apparently, my dad’s first wife cheated on him multiple times. My dad found out and forgave her, but she left him anyway. They have a son together, but my father has absolutely no contact with them.
  It baffles me that my dad would leave his son forever and that, in all my life, he has never mentioned him even once. My mom told me about it when I was around seven because my half-brother came to the house looking for my dad. After that day, we never heard about him again. © catscarscalls / Reddit

• I was working from home during a rough patch in my life. I hadn’t slept in days. I joined a huge Zoom meeting with the exec team, thinking my mic and camera were off. They weren’t.
  I stared dead into the lens and whispered, “I hate every single one of you.” Then I burst into tears. Ten people just... watched. No one said a word.
  The meeting went on like nothing happened. Not even HR followed up. That silence still messes with me.

• I was on the train when a woman sat next to me and started chatting like we were old friends. Used my name, talked about my dog, my old apartment. I freaked out.
  Turns out she used to follow me on social media and I had my account public for years.
  She memorized details. Thought she “knew” me. I locked everything down that day. I still wonder how many others think they know me just from posts I barely remember making.

• I found a doctor’s diagnosis labeling my ex as a sociopath. I kept it and subtly hinted that I had it when he threatened me during the divorce. © redderhair / Reddit

• I once accidentally sent a diary entry to my entire department instead of my personal email. I’d written about how empty I felt, how fake everything seemed, and how I couldn’t remember the last time I looked forward to anything. 46 people read it.
  My manager replied with, “Please be more mindful of internal communications.” No one else said anything. But for months after, people looked at me differently — like I was already gone.

• Up until I was 9, I thought my stepdad was my real dad. They got a divorce, and I was pretty torn up. I wanted to live with my stepdad, but I couldn’t, and my mom wouldn’t tell me why.
  One day, I was going through my mom’s stuff and found a newspaper article for my father’s obituary. He died in a car crash when he was 24, and I was barely 18 months old when it happened.
  I still, to this day, don’t know why she lied to me about it, and I don’t even know if I should ask. © G0-Kart / Reddit

• A good friend of mine, whom I’d known for over 20 years, died in 2021. I noticed a bunch of children at the funeral, whom I didn’t know. I asked who they were, and I was told they were his children. He had told me he had no kids, but he actually had 10. Ten kids! © CascadeJ1980 / Reddit

• I got a framed family photo as a gift. It was supposed to be from a recent reunion, but I looked at it and realized I wasn’t there. Like, literally — I wasn’t in the picture, even though I’d been standing right next to my cousin when it was taken.
  Turns out, someone edited me out as a joke and forgot to put the original back. They said, “We just thought it was funny.” No one laughed when I didn’t speak to them for six months.

• My mother and father were happily married for 23 years. I always felt some amount of pride in their commitment, despite almost all of my friends’ parents being divorced.
  About 3 years ago, my mother became depressed. When she started coming off of her medication, she slowly shifted into a dangerous manic state. There were small signs this was happening, but it was pretty late when we acknowledged it.
  She spent 6 months in a psychiatric ward, divorced my father, never took medication, and fled the country to avoid hospitalization. © Arbawk / Reddit

We can be incredibly close to someone—whether a friend or a family member—and still have no idea what their true intentions are. These 12 stories show how people uncovered the real motives of those closest to them, sometimes only years down the line.