“My brother had a relationship and a child with our first cousin (our dads are brothers). They kept it a secret (like, no one knew the child even existed) for almost eight years before my dad and uncle found out. ... I have known about the situation since they were pregnant.”

I'm a Senior Staff Writer based in New York City, where I've been covering classic BuzzFeed-style content since 2020.

*There are also some from the original Reddit thread.

Note: There are mentions of sexual assault and miscarriage.

"My mom kept the dagger in their bedroom, but threw the meal away. Years later after becoming a born-again Christian, my mom gave the dagger away and told me the story. I always know my dad would prefer my beautiful little sister than me, but I didn't expect he would be so indifferent to be willing to sacrifice me for wealth."

"I feel bad because my daughter is growing up in a single-family home with no father while her siblings are getting a two-parent home and have a really good life while I am financially struggling. I never shared my struggles with her father but he has to know children are expensive either way and now I’m thinking of finally ending it because I feel like my daughter is being slighted. This is unfair to her. He never wanted to be a father so I assumed this is why he never was a father but is now currently present for his two children. He is 40 years old. I assumed he would never have other children but now he’s a father of three."

"Me and new roomie go outside to smoke this joint. ... We start walking back into the club which is down a bunch of stairs and I see the women’s bathroom to my left and tell her I’m just going to use it real fast and I’ll find her. ... I’m standing, waiting for stall to open up and all of a sudden I feel like I’m being sucked into the floor. I feel like I’m looking up at people, like I’ve shrunk down and everyone is as tall as a building. I stumble out of the bathroom and I try to orient myself but it’s impossible. ... I find a bench against a wall and I slump down ... and then I projectile vomited into the dance floor of the club. ... Next thing I know some guy is asking me if I want to go home? Home? Yes, YES PLEASE! I’ve lost my purse. I’ve lost my coat. The only thing I have is my new address memorized and my apartment key in my back pocket. ...

This guy drags me out of the club and shoves me in the front seat of a beat-up red car and two other guys get in the back seat. I’m still mostly paralyzed. I see them in a haze doing coke off a CD case. I’ve never seen coke in my life…I keep repeating my address as if it’s some kind of mantra now. He just keeps saying 'okay.' He drops his friend off. And all of a sudden I realize I’m no longer in the city of Milan. I’m in the country somewhere. 

He pulls up to an apartment complex and he’s ... trying to push me to get out of the car. Something finally clicks in my brain. .... I start screaming at him ... He’s trying to get me to go for a coffee. I said, 'NO COFFEE! HOME!' He grabs my arm and says, very menacingly, 'no home.' This is when I properly lose my shit. I start banging everything in the car and demanding he take me home or back to the club. ... He finally gets scared and drops me back to the club. 

I went back inside still barely able to walk ... I tell the promoter that things have gone wrong and I needed to find my roommate and go home. ... Next day roomie ... calls guy we got [the weed] from. ... He tells us he laced it with PCP. WTF?!?!! All of my trust in people vanished that night. I have never been able to tell my family what happened because my mom was already so trusting of me and thinking I was there being responsible and working. It still haunts me to this day that I was in such a vulnerable position and that if that guy wanted to, he could have killed me and there would have been nothing I could do."

"Won't acknowledge him or speak to him, and the rest of the family who's embraced him are labeled 'traitors' who betrayed her. Dude, we were mega shocked, but happily so! No shame or shade from anyone of any generation. He's heartbroken she won't communicate at all and their part of the family is in a civil war over it. It's terribly sad to witness and feels like an ego thing on her side. But we can't support her or understand her feelings because she's declared us dead to her. I think: 

1. Life is far too short to torture people who love you. At least explain before writing them (us) off. 

2. It's 2023, kids, DNA and the interwebs is gonna find us all."

"I ... did an ancestry.com membership for awhile and while I was researching hopefully my dad's birth family I finally found records of this Jane Doe he was married to. .... I called her. She answered. We talked for an hour. We have also kept in touch lots. Her and my dad were high school sweethearts. He took great care of her and loved her. But she admitted she really knew deep down she wanted to be with women. They got their marriage annulled because they were good Catholic families who shouldn’t get divorced. And my dad moved on and met my mom. Also found out from her that after their separation somehow she had some of his belongings and wanted to get them back to him so she phoned his work. Turns out it was the day I was being born because they told her he was at the hospital for the birth of his kid. He ended up calling her back and told her about me. So she knew I existed this whole time. And then she told me my dad sent a Christmas card every year to her parents. And in 2004 they didn’t get one. And then that’s how she found out from obituary searching he passed away. And now it's 2023 and my mom has no idea I have ever talked to his first wife and have somewhat built a friendship, nor does she know he sent these Xmas cards or talked to her the day I was born.

"Sometimes on certain weekends/holidays, I'll tell my family that I am not free but really I am hanging out with my partner. My family thinks she is my 'very close friend.' The problem now is that I am having major issues with my partner, which I feel is heading towards a breakup and sadly the only people I can share my sadness with are a few of my selected closed friends. I am not ready to come out to my family."

"This was nearly 15 years ago now, and I’d say I’be healed now. I still think about it from time to time, think about how I’d have a teenager by now, and how different my life would be (I came out as gay about 5 years later, started dating a woman and moved across the country with her, later marrying her. We have no children). I’m grateful that I could heal and see a better life for myself after that."

"It's kind of funny that I've had these huge life changes and my parents are oblivious. I'm virtually no contact with my narcissistic father and severely reduced contact with my mom. They're oblivious."

"So from 13, I was convinced that I only had so many years to live. I think I told myself that I would be lucky to make it to 20, not that I was equipped with any kind of knowledge about cancer at the time, other than people regularly die because of it. This belief set me on a path of self-destruction through my teenage years which led to me breaking up with my childhood sweetheart, losing many friends, and moving out of my family home at 14. Fast forward to 17 years old when I finally gained the courage to tell a doctor and have them check. Turns out the lump is just a benign cyst and will have close to zero impact on my physical health. I wish I felt like I could have been open with my Mum to tell her at the time. My early life would have turned out very different if I had."

"I had come out of a relationship with a very abusive and dangerous person. He had completely embedded themselves in my family’s life and when I finally left them, I lost my family with it. I moved to the next town over and kept contact with my parents but all information about daily life was hidden. I built a life slowly, and part of that was a solo trip abroad, where I met someone.

I was far too terrified to tell them the truth about what had happened with my ex. I didn’t think they’d believe me and I didn’t want them to know. My parents eventually cut ties with him but my brother stayed friends with him after. I went to NC with my brother for four years in total.

I was so scared my ex would find out and come looking for me due to jealousy that the relationship was kept a secret from most people I knew, including my parents in case they let something slip to my brother.

I have left the country now for good, and I’m sure there’s people who I have some degree of connection to, that have no idea I ever left. I’ve always been someone that has kept their cards close to their chest, and life circumstances have contributed to that greatly."

Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.