16 People Who Had to Leave Their Innocence Behind

All the lies and betrayals we face throughout life help shape who we become, making us more resilient and wise, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time. Rather than letting these moments hold them back, people in this article courageously moved forward and shared their stories online.

• My best friend got pregnant and invited me to her baby shower. I came, but it turned out that my name wasn’t on the guest list. Later, she screamed at me for being a terrible friend who only got her a $90 stroller. That was almost ten years ago. I stopped talking to her, but 5 years ago she sent me an email. It was sent to the trash bin without being opened. © DSC-Fate / Reddit

• During the last year of my grandfather’s life, he had dementia and was having trouble keeping track of reality. Before he was placed into hospice, he kept complaining about a man in his house. He would say that this man would come around at night, take his things, and use his stuff. Grandma, of course, kept reassuring him that she was the only one there. His doctor increased his medications because he was losing touch with reality so badly.
  Fast forward to my grandfather’s funeral, and a man showed up who wasn’t known by more than a few people in the family. It turns out he was an old friend of my grandmother’s who showed up to give his support. In a small town like that, it wasn’t exactly unusual to have random people show up at the funeral home who had known the person at some point.
  Well, about a year later, my grandmother let slip that she was seeing someone—the guy from the funeral. At this point, nothing seemed too odd; they got to talking at church, and we thought it was sweet.
  Then, a bit later, sweet, innocent ol’ grandma mentioned that it was their third anniversary.
  Grandpa had died two years prior. This man was the person that Grandpa saw in his house every night. He was the reason everyone thought Grandpa was going crazy. He was the reason that my grandfather was medicated to the point of being a vegetable for the last horrible year of his life.. © turnsouthewasreal / Reddit

• I keep trying to be nice to my roommate’s teenage daughter. She’s super awkward and seems lonely because of her parents’ late hours. But every time I reach out to her, she lies about me. I feel so stupid and naive.
  This has happened about 5 times in 3 years. I’m flabbergasted by the betrayal. Everyone thinks she’s super nice and innocent, but my friend Sanford says, “You’re the idiot to keep falling for it.” He’s right. © moonkittiecat / Reddit

• It’s my birthday tomorrow, and my parents have left to go watch my sister play softball in another state instead of celebrating it. © sachipyon / Reddit

• Some kids at school liked how I played knockout on the basketball court and praised me for how good I was. But later on, they told me I couldn’t play basketball with them anymore. I guess I was just too good for them. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I had a very good friend of seven years tell me she needed help making rent because she lost her job. I lent her a fair amount of money, only to find out a month or two later that she was out partying on yachts in Spain (we live in the US) shortly after I gave her the money. I’m not on social media, but a friend of mine showed me her Instagram posts when I told him about the situation. © FrenchBowler / Reddit

• My girlfriend told me she’d never replace me with one of our mutual friends. I wasn’t sure about it, but it didn’t seem like she wanted to lose me, so I believed her. Even though I started to see that the only person I ever fell in love with and wanted to marry was losing interest in me.
  She broke up with me, saying she doesn’t feel that way anymore. My friend working with her said he couldn’t believe how carelessly she acted the same day she dumped me. © bartekbf10 / Reddit

• I told one of my friends I had a crush on someone at school. She gave my number to her friends, who wrote me lovey-dovey messages pretending to be my crush while laughing their heads off. © savageexplosive / Reddit

• When I was 17, my dad died, and my stepmom put everything I owned in trash bags on the curb, changed the locks, and kept every picture I ever had of my dad and me. © faileybee / Reddit

• My best friend got sick, and several others and I dropped everything to help care for him. I’m talking, like, I left my dream to come home and help manage his recovery.
  As soon as he’s better, he throws all of us under the bus. Acts like we exist solely to prop him up and just expects us to do whatever he wants. He ended up ghosting the whole crew. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Lied to and cheated on for 6 months. When I confronted her about my suspicions (more than once over those 6 months), she gaslighted me and kept saying I was overreacting. My heart and trust were broken for years over it. © Negation_ / Reddit

• My teacher told me I might need to go to another school because my grades were so bad. I had 3 grades that were below requirements. You’re allowed to have 1. I got them all up again and now have an 8.0 average. The teacher is still unsatisfied.
  The “hot girl” has 6 grades under requirements. She retook a test 3 times (failed all 3) on our most important subject. The teacher told her not to worry and that it was going to be fine. © mike-wkp / Reddit

• We rent our flat cheaply because the 80-year-old next-door woman is crazy. She starts making loud noises at 4 a.m. to annoy the neighbors. A young man came to rent. We told him about it, and he just smiled.
  A year passed, and we were stunned that he was still there—nobody lasted more than 8 weeks. Then, the lady died. They put her house on sale right away, so we entered to check it out.
  We were horrified to discover a photo on her nightstand of herself hugging the guy who was renting our flat. After some investigation, we discovered that he was her grandson and she had purposely made sure all our renters left so he could rent it out for cheap. The guy vanished a few days after her death, and we couldn’t do anything about it.

• Back in 7th grade, I had two “friends.” One day, while walking toward them in the library, I saw one of them look at the other and nod at me as if to say, “Oh, look, here he comes.” Then the other one looked at me and rolled his eyes.
  I was far enough away that they probably didn’t think I could see them. I ended the “friendship” soon after that. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I took my boyfriend to my friend’s wedding. He started cheating on me with a girl from the wedding who sat at our table. I didn’t find out for a couple of months. It turns out I was paying for his train tickets to visit her. © R**hampolicy / Reddit

• A new hire was brought into a former job. My supervisor (a close friend) and I were told she wasn’t replacing us but would assist in tackling the large workload. We were told to onboard her somewhat. Then more. And more.
  Still, we were told we were still slated to be employed. My friend saw his pay and responsibilities cut, and my pay was sometimes completely withheld. We realized that she was replacing us, and we bailed. © hunter15991 / Reddit

If you’re up for more jaw-dropping surprises, this article is just what you need. You’ll come across some truly shocking tales, including one about a family’s mashed potato recipe that hides a really weird secret ingredient.