Man Cuts Off Stepmother After She Tries to Sabotage His Engagement to Push Her Own Son on His Fiancée

A man turned to the Reddit community after cutting his stepmother out of his life, a decision that may have even prompted his father to leave her. The conflict, he explains, stems from his stepmother’s attempts to sabotage his engagement in order to favor her own son.

The 24-year-old shared, “My stepmother is trying to sabotage my engagement to make her son happy.” He has been dating his girlfriend, Cara, for several years, after meeting her at an anime convention in New York City.

He recalls that they had crossed paths earlier while working at an ambulance company, though Cara didn’t initially remember him. “We clicked and have been good friends since; then during the pandemic I asked her out [on a] date, and we have been together since,” he writes.

He describes Cara as “amazing,” highlighting her love for anime, fantasy novels, science fiction, and other shared interests. Though she is passionate about true crime podcasts, which he doesn’t follow, he says, “it makes her happy.”

After they began dating, he introduced Cara to his father, stepmother Karen, and stepbrother Tom. “Everything was so cool, Cara was a hit amongst my family,” he recalls, though he noticed Tom’s interest in her seemed unusually strong.

“Tom during this time was becoming a little annoying, coming over to my apartment more frequently and texting Cara a lot,” he writes. Cara mentioned it, but they initially chose not to worry.

Things escalated when Tom moved into their home. “My stepmother asked if Tom could move in with us… we have an extra bedroom in the house we are renting, it was a guest bedroom,” he explains, noting that he and Cara agreed as long as it was temporary.

Once Tom moved in, boundaries quickly disappeared. “He wants to hang out with us every day,” the poster says. He adds that Tom would sit in on video games, interrupt Cara’s alone time, and even invite himself along on date nights.

The couple tried to push back, but Tom’s mother always sided with him. “He would cry to his mom, and she would say we are not being nice to Tom,” he recalls, explaining that Karen insisted her son was lonely.

A breaking point came when Tom inserted himself into a vacation. “Cara and I booked a vacation, and he just so happened to book the same cruise as us; that was a huge red flag,” he writes, noting the trip centered around Cara’s love of true crime.

After that experience, he told Tom it was time to move out. “Luckily my dad put his foot down and told Karen it’s been 14 months and he needs to find his own place,” he says, relieved that Tom returned to live with his parents.

Though Tom still tried to intrude, the couple regained some peace—until the poster asked his father for his late mother’s wedding ring to propose to Cara.

“My dad happily gave me the ring, no questions asked, and his wedding ring too for myself,” he shares. But Karen reacted critically, saying Cara was “an older woman and that is proper.”

Tom also objected. “He said I don’t understand Cara like he does,” the poster recalls. Tom even predicted the couple “will be divorced in a year of marriage.”

Despite the negativity, he planned several proposal moments, but each was ruined by last-minute emergencies involving Karen, from hospital visits to flat tires to a broken grill.

Frustrated, he took Cara on a secret trip to Japan. “I didn’t tell anyone, I had it all planned out and booked a spa day in Japan and asked her! She said yes,” he writes.

Not everyone celebrated the news. “[Karen] blew up my phone saying how could I do this to Tom!!!” he says. Karen reportedly claimed, “Tom is in love with Cara and she is his one and only.”

Karen even begged him to give Cara up. “She was calling and texting nonstop now, saying can I just let Tom have Cara,” he recalls. His response was firm: “Cara is a human and she isn’t something to be given away, and she doesn’t belong to anybody.”

He showed his father the voicemails and texts, prompting his dad to leave Karen and stay at his house. “My dad wasn’t shocked, but he is staying at my house because he doesn’t know what to do,” he explains.

Karen and Tom, however, haven’t given up. “They keep driving by the house and trying to call my dad,” he says. The couple has blocked both of them, though he admits, “I may get a restraining order, because this is making Cara really uncomfortable.”

One commenter reassured him, “You are not responsible for the actions of a man child and his bat s— crazy mother.” The poster replied, “Yeah, I’m just trying to keep Cara safe from this.”