Real Life Moments When People Burned Their Last Bridge

There are some people in life that will stick with you no matter what. Who can imagine a scenario where they’ll ever cut you off? But even those people have limits. Here are some real life stories of people who burned bridges that really should have been fireproof.

Either Way, They’re Down One Child

Friend was in her final year of uni. Had strong grades, and a really great internship lined up with a place she dreamed about working at, that almost certainly would have led to a great job.

Her parents faked her younger brother’s death on the day where she had three finals back to back to back. They wanted to test whether she cared more about her family or her career, supposedly.

She raced home in panic and grief, getting plane tickets and flying across the country, trying to get deferred exams on short notice. One of her profs, who helmed two of those classes, required a death certificate. Which she couldn’t get, since her brother was alive and well.

She didn’t get to graduate because of that, at least not in that semester, and she lost her dream internship. Thankfully, she got a good job after graduating half a year later (not nearly as good as the one she lost out on), and she’s largely cut her parents out of her life.

Story credit: Reddit / limelifesavers

Spitting on the Olive Branch

When I was in High School, my mom took an early retirement and then mysteriously ‘couldn’t find work’ after I got my first job. I had no social life, I worked to pay our utility bills and sometimes was called on to pay the full rent, on a 3-bedroom house.

I had misgivings, but every time I tried to say no she was like, “Oh but your younger sibling. Think of this poor kid who needs you.” Mom even tried to get me to open a checking account, you could only do that as a minor with an adult on your account. I was at least smart enough to refuse that.

When I went to college, which even getting there was a challenge, something happened with their housing. They ‘borrowed’ a deposit from me. Over $1k.

Again, “But you don’t want younger sib to end up on the street, do you!?”

I get back home that summer and they’ve rented a huge house, with extra bedrooms, near a body of water. Still, I felt like I was helping them and my sibling was still a minor. I felt like I was being a “good person” and I “had to” help my family.

Mysteriously, once younger sib was out of the house and Mom couldn’t use that on me? She found two jobs. One in retail, one with USPS. It was nothing exotic: she just hadn’t been trying to find work. It was too much fun to rob me. Now she makes too much money to collect social security.

But she couldn’t resist trying to ruin my life, I guess. She never, ever tried to pay any of that back, by the way. We have a strained relationship to say the least. One year, my friend’s mom advised me to go home for the holidays and try to patch things up.

I’m suspicious, but I set it up: I’ll stay there for Dec 31, leaving Jan 1. I get to the house, I’m like putting my bag down. Mom comes up to me. “You know, you’d pay $100 to stay in a hotel.

You should really be paying us to be here.” Like this was my olive branch to her and she spat on it.

Story credit: Reddit / Disastrous_Spite_349

The Voice of Reason

My sister set up a GoFundMe to help my mother with bills and the like while she was undergoing chemo for multiple myeloma. Pretty sweet right? They got about $10k when it was up.

So my sister got this direct deposited into her account, then took her daughter to Atlanta. Tried to get her on The Voice. That didn’t work out, but my sister partied her butt off the whole time.

Then she came back, and ‘realized’ that the money she had spent was my mom’s GoFundMe. So my mom is distraught, but they come to an agreement where my sister will pay her back this money over time, so long as my mom doesn’t press charges. She signed a contract to this effect.

So like 3 months go by, and my sister just stopped paying. My mom gives her 3 more months while practically begging, no money. Mom has sister arrested.

Sister reaches out to the entire family who then call and tell my mom how awful she is for having her daughter arrested, having her daughters call to beg their granny to drop the charges, yada yada yada.

So she drops the charges not wanting to be ostracized from her entire family for the rest of her (short) life.

Never saw a penny from my sister after that either. And this is why I will never acknowledge my sister’s existence, ever again.

Story credit: Reddit / kwarterz

Where’s the Beef?

My Aunt and Uncle are rather wealthy farmers. They have spent the last several decades building up new divisions of the business for their kids to run and eventually inherit.

One of the big expansions was going from simply raising beef cattle to handling the butchering and selling the meat themselves.

Anyway, for the butcher shop they built a beautiful million dollar shop and sent my cousin’s husband to butcher school to get all his licensing to be the operations manager while my cousin would be bookkeeper. They never did a thing to earn it and were essentially handed a golden ticket.

It’s a little complicated what happened next, but after a few years my Aunt/Uncle started getting negative feedback about how the place is run. When they spoke to my cousin’s husband they offered him more money thinking it was a motivation issue.

They were already overpaid and could afford their own million dollar home. The husband made a snarky retort that he already makes that much. That raised red flags, they ended up looking at the accounts and things seemed fishy.

They went to the business after hours and took the bookkeeping files, the husband found out and drove to their house to essentially scream at them in rage. In the end it turns out they had embezzled over a million dollars by cooking the books.

They got kicked out of the family business (with no legal repercussions and a fat buyout bonus) and generally have little to do with any of the family. My Aunt and Uncle have made attempts at reconciliation because they want to see their grandchildren, but have been thus far rejected.

It’s insane because they were handed everything and it still wasn’t good enough. They were going to inherit the business and they blew it.

Story credit: Reddit / Regnes