Her Half-Brothers Threatened To Sue Her For 16k So She Costs Them Ten Times That

A word to the wise: don’t threaten to sue someone if you’re not prepared to go all the way AND you’re not sure that you’ll win.

Because it might just blow up in your face!

That’s what happened after a 25-year-old woman was pushed into a corner by some family members. So she decided to fight back.

The story started when she was only 3-years old…

“When I (25f) was 3, my grandparents passed away. They set up a savings account in my name. The account was meant to be accessed by me when I was 21. At that point it contained just over 300k.

My grandparents left me a letter saying they would like me to share the money fairly with any other “Smith-Jones” children, meaning my full siblings (dad’s a Smith, mum’s a Jones). By “fairly” they meant that they wanted me to assess the situation and judge for myself what was fair.

I never had full siblings, but I have 2 half brothers, “Mack and Joe Smith”, who are dad and stepmum’s kids. Due to the specific wording my grandparents used, I legally never had to give Mack or Joe any money.

She obviously has a big heart and she decided to throw quite a bit of money to her half-brothers, Mack and Joe.

However, I see Mack and Joe as my brothers, and as the money came from our grandparents, I felt that the fairest thing would be to assign each of us 100k, so we all got an equal sized lump sum, and I figured that when Mack (the youngest) turned 21 and took his 100k, we could split any remaining money.

When I turned 21, dad suggested I buy a house with my 100k. I found a place I loved but it was 130k and I couldn’t get a mortgage, so dad said I should borrow 30k from the account. I did, figuring I could pay it back before my brothers turned 21, and I have been repaying it. The account should be at 208k right now, but due to me withdrawing and then repaying that money it’s at 195k, so I still owe 13k.

But some people weren’t happy that all the cold, hard cash wasn’t there. And things started to get ugly and the brothers threatened to take her to court.

Joe turned 21 recently, and as I was giving him his 100k, Joe noticed that there was less in the account than there should be. I explained and said I was going to put it all back before Mack (now 19) turns 21.

Joe told Mack and both boys said I stole from them and owed them the full 13k back plus 3 grand of interest that they felt they would have gotten, and they wanted it all paid by this summer, which gave me less than 6 months to bring the account up to 211k. I said I’d do it, but over 2 years as planned.

The boys then wrote up a contract to that effect. I went to sign it, until I saw that it said 6 months to pay it all back. I wouldn’t sign as we agreed on 2 years. They said I should figure it out as they were entitled to that money and would be seeking legal advice. Later that day I got an email, clearly written by them, saying that they intend to sue me for the 16k, plus whatever is currently in the account, and additional “damages” and “emotional distress” on top of that.

But she knew where the law actually stood on this one and that she had given them money out of the kindness of her heart. Things escalated from there.

At this point in time, I’d given Joe about 50k of his 100k, because he wanted it in instalments. I responded that legally, they were never entitled to any of it, and given their attitudes, I’d say they’ve already received an amount I deem fair, so that 50k was all they were getting. I then got a barrage of texts, calls, and emails yelling at me for going back on our “deal”. I blocked them.

They then took to social media, saying that I was trying to screw them out of their inheritance and rallying our extended family into harassing me over this, and it mostly worked as a lot of people messaged me.

Then she got a message from a mystery man she had never met before…and that’s when things really took an unexpected twist.

However, I got a message from this guy called “Chris Smith”.

Chris said he was 27, and claimed to be my half brother. I had never met him before, but he sent me photos of him as a kid with our dad, grandparents, and me. He showed me that he also had an account with 150k in it, and a scan of a letter from our grandparents, saying this money was meant to be shared fairly among dad’s illegitimate children.

Chris also told me we have another half sibling, who is 18. He’d been looking for me for a while, but only found me when dad shared Joe’s post which had me tagged.

We checked with a solicitor to make sure, and as the boys are legitimate, they aren’t entitled to anything in Chris’ illegitimate kid fund, and as they are my half siblings, they aren’t entitled to anything in my Smith-Jones kids fund, either.

I sent the boys a letter formally telling them to back off, stop posting about me online, and enjoy the 50k because it’s all they’re getting. The day they received the letter, Chris got a PM from dad, asking if the boys can have some of Chris’ fund. Chris also said no, and told dad we’d met. I told Mack and Joe about Chris and our other half sibling, with Chris’ permission.

She explained what she learned after Chris appeared in her life and how, even though there are a lot of hard feelings among family members, she’s convinced that she did the right thing and she intends to stand her ground.

So it looks like my grandparents, knowing about Chris before they passed, set up 2 funds. One for the kids dad had with my mother, who was still his wife when they passed, and one for children born out of dad’s affairs, presumably to make sure no one tried to screw anyone else over out of hurt feelings.

I’m getting a lot of grief, but holding firm on my decision. The boys have realised that I won’t back down on this and it sounds like I’ve caused a schism at their house, as Joe has all the money and no intention of sharing so Mack is now feeling twice as screwed, plus stepmum apparently did not know about the other half siblings, or that my half sister was born after she and dad got married, and she’s made dad move into a hotel.

It sounds like dad is looking for a long term living arrangement outside of the family home, because it looks like she is not letting him move back in. Dad is begging me to reconsider, but honestly I’m done with all of them except Chris and my sister.”

Check out what people had to say about this.

This person talked about wanting to get an inheritance.

Another reader sounds like they got ripped off.

This Reddit user said this reminds them of their brother.

An individual talked about a petty dispute in their family.

And this Reddit user talked about how their dad’s will works.

Don’t threaten to sue if you don’t have all your ducks in a row.

It’ll probably come back and bite you!