12 Times People Discovered Something They Weren’t Ready For

There are things you’d rather never know. Truths hidden under lock and key, family secrets buried on purpose, confessions that slip out by accident and change everything. On the Internet, a place where anonymity is refuge and catharsis, many users were encouraged to share the most devastating or disconcerting revelations they experienced. These stories not only broke the innocence of those who lived them, but they also turned their lives upside down. Some ended well, others not so well, but they all have one thing in common: nothing was ever the same again.

• In the 24 hours before my father died of stage 4 lung cancer, he was in the ER and then the ICU. Because of the hospital's rules, we were unable to be with him. My mother, sister, and I had been texting and calling him all day, but we didn't receive a response. My mother even called the hospital and spoke with one of his ICU nurses, who said he was awake and communicating fine. He passed away very quickly at 3:30 a.m. the next morning. We were allowed to be at his bedside, but he was no longer conscious by then, so we said our goodbyes, and he passed away. Later that morning, while my mom slept, I called cremation services to schedule the pickup at the hospital. I also went through the bag of his belongings that the hospital had returned to us. His phone was in there, and I wanted to read our texts and take comfort in my last words to him. When I opened his phone, I saw that none of our texts had been read—not mine, my mom's, or my sister's. I thought this was odd, but I figured that he must have been in so much pain that he couldn't find the strength.
  
  I began scrolling through his apps and noticed a chat app I'd vaguely heard of. I can't recall the name, but it essentially works like WhatsApp. I opened the app and saw a single contact with a woman's name. I started reading and realized that my dad had been chatting with this girl hourly for the last 24 hours, as far back as I could scroll. He was calling her "princess" and telling her he loved her. She was saying she was scared for him, asking what was going on and why he was in the ER. I scrolled back far enough to know that he was having, at the very least, an emotional affair with her. My grief was hijacked by hurt and anger. A week later, I tracked the girl down via DMs and found out she was 19 years old. She was 17 when they met. He was her high school bus driver, and she told me that they had been dating for almost two years. My dad was 66 years old when he died. He was dating someone younger than his grandchildren—someone he chose to spend his last moments with and say his final goodbyes to. I hope it made him happy, but it's a terrible secret to live with for the rest of my life. It will forever overshadow my entire relationship with my dad, and I'll never have the chance to speak to him about it. It's the one secret I wish I'd never found out. © Fuzzy_Central / Reddit
• I had a friend who had many friends outside of school. People would always call him and ask him to hang out every day. It turns out he had an app that would fake calls with the names you entered. He would have actual conversations on the phone (with no one on the other end, obviously). He felt embarrassed by the fact that he had no friends or girlfriends outside of school. © KingAltay / Reddit
• I was about to start high school when my mother took us back to the state where she grew up so we could meet her daughter from twenty years ago. © BrowniesNCheese / Reddit

• My childhood best friend visited me. She is in her mid-30s, single, and living alone in another country. She has a very good job. Whenever I forward her profiles of potential dates, she tells me she doesn’t want to date. One day, we were having lunch and she went to the bathroom. Her phone rang, and the caller ID showed a picture of a married guy from her old office back in our home country. When she returned, I bluntly asked her why he was calling her. About ten years ago, she told me that he—a colleague with a wife and two children—was flirting with her. I told her to stop giving him attention, thinking the matter was closed. But now, after hesitating, she told me that they are in a secret relationship. She helped him emigrate to her country, and they lived together for a few years until his family immigrated there. Now, he visits her under the pretext of work. His wife and children don’t know anything. I was shocked that she was capable of such deep deception. She kept all of this from her family and friends, which was easy to do since she moved abroad, seemingly to hide the relationship. © Unknown author / Reddit
• My grandmother pretended that my father never existed. He was a caring and loving person. He would fly up to visit her and help her whenever she needed it. She moved away from the whole family to live in a warmer climate. My mom took time off work to help care for my grandmother when she had cancer, along with my aunt. At the funeral, none of her friends where she lived knew my dad existed. They knew about my aunt and my cousins. They even knew about my uncle, a man who did nothing but siphon money from everyone. But not my dad. Obviously, they didn’t know about my mom, me, or my sister either. My dad was crushed. Seeing the sadness in his eyes was horrible. © CrabbiestAsp / Reddit
• When my grandfather passed away, we discovered that he didn’t exist. His name wasn’t listed in any government registry. He was a normal citizen who paid taxes and had a license. He lived a long life, was married to my grandmother for over 50 years, and had multiple children. Everything was normal. To this day, no one knows who he really was or why he had a false name. © daveypump / Reddit

• One of the funniest and most enjoyable guys in high school had a paraplegic brother who slowly died during our time together. I only found out after we graduated and lost contact that he had a brother, and that his brother had died a few nights before prom. It really changed my perspective on all the memories and fun times we had together, while he was quietly dealing with this by himself. It really hit me hard when I found out. © HangoutWanderer / Reddit
• When my so-called “best friend” died, I realized that I had never really known her. She was a pathological liar. She told me she was born in New Zealand and moved to the U.S. when she was two, but nope, she was actually born and raised in New Jersey. She told me her middle name was different from the one in her obituary. The craziest lie was that she had a younger sister who was hit by a car as a toddler and died. She had a tattoo of roses that she said was in memory of her sister. Every year on a specific day in November, she’d fall apart crying. She said it was her sister’s date of death. That sister never existed. © Unknown author / Reddit
• My grandfather always got very nervous during storms. We assumed it was due to experiences from his past or his job. As it turns out, it wasn’t because of that. When he was a teenager, he was struck by lightning! The crazy thing was that it happened the day before he started dating my grandmother. She had never heard that story! © kingsmen06 / Reddit

• I have a male friend who lives abroad but visits me and my husband a few times a year. During a visit last summer, something really unsettling happened. One night, I woke up with this weird feeling, like something was off. When I opened my eyes, I saw him standing right over me, just watching me sleep. I completely freaked out, and immediately woke my husband. As I was trying to kick him out, my husband asked what was going on. In just a second, he admitted he does this every time he visits—he watches me sleep. My husband told him to get a hotel, and I ended the friendship right then and there.
• I found out in my mother’s journal that she didn’t want me and couldn’t stand being around me. That really messed me up. © phoenixrising0711 / Reddit
• My grandmother, who has been estranged from my family for a long time now for a multitude of reasons, has this weird habit of sharing food with people. Are you ordering steak at the restaurant? Oh boy, she has to order the same thing, even if she doesn’t like steak! She’ll try your drink and say, “It’s really good!” Take the first bite of chicken to let her know if it’s “any good.” I always found this really annoying because I hate sharing food. One day, I mentioned this to my mom, and she said, “Oh, yeah. Grandma is afraid of being poisoned, so she wants other people to try the food first.” So let me get this straight: Grandma thinks someone is trying to poison her, so she has me try the food first? Looking back, it makes so much sense because she literally would not take a bite of anything she ordered until someone else had a bite first. Thanks, Grandma. © Starlined_ / Reddit

There are discoveries that cannot be undone, phrases that cannot be unheard, and truths that come as a sharp blow. Perhaps the most disturbing thing is that these stories are not scenes from a movie: they happened to real people, like you, like me. If you ever had a suspicion that you preferred not to investigate... after reading this, you may have done well. And if you’re interested in continuing to explore these types of stories that remind us how fragile normality can be, there’s another compilation you won’t want to miss.