Secrets are kept hidden for a reason, especially the ones that can ruin someone’s life. These poor souls have devastating secrets about their families, friends, and coworkers that were just too juicy to keep, they had to spill. Check out some of these shocking revelations—some of them may sound eerily familiar to you.
1. A Hot Mess Of Family Secrets
Two nights ago, my dad opened up to me about possibly the most messed-up thing to ever happen in my family, and that's saying a lot considering my dad's side is literally the messiest of them all. I can't stop thinking about it, and I obviously can't speak about it to other family members so let's overshare here.
My grandmother is the oldest of 10 siblings. She grew up under the care of my gambling-addicted great-grandmother, who also had 2 "marriages" and anywhere between four to five different baby-daddies. She often left for weeks at a time to go on promiscuous gambling excursions while leaving her children to fend for and feed themselves. Sometimes, she'd even come home pregnant.
My grandmother essentially raised herself and grew up in the poor neighborhoods of Detroit of all places. In the late '60s, she met my grandfather, and they eventually got married and had my dad and my aunt. Unfortunately, my grandfather decided to partake in a slew of illicit substances and grand theft auto. Eventually, he was run out of the state by the feds and went on all sorts of crazy adventures around the country.
My grandmother's second ex-husband, Harold, came into their lives in the late '70s when my dad was 10 and my aunt, Victoria, was 8. Together, they had my dad's younger half-brother, Harry. When Victoria was a teenager, she kept a deep, dark secret—she began having a relationship with her stepdad, Harold. However, I have known this for years already from my dad.
When my grandmother found out that they had been sleeping together for a few years, she immediately divorced Harold and my family cut Victoria out of their lives. I did not know about my aunt Victoria and her three sons until I was 10, the year my aunt and grandmother made up after over a decade of silence. Victoria had been cheating on her high school sweetheart and future husband the entire time, and while their relationship is turbulent, they are both still together.
Apparently, her oldest child, Carl, is actually the son of Harold. My aunt accidentally conceived a child with her stepdad, and my dad was the only person who knew about this secret besides my aunt. Carl does not know the truth and certainly has no notion of that being a reality. in fact, Carl is named after his presumed "father," Victoria's husband, and they are referred to as big Carl and little Carl.
Harold ended up passing away in 2011. As I've gotten older, my dad has begun opening up to me about dark family secrets. Take my word that my dad is an extremely private and secretive person—he detests the drama in his ginormous family and disassociates with the majority of them, actively avoiding family and social events. My dad wishes to live in solitude and peace, so he has no reason to say something untrue.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since. I have been comparing pictures of little Carl, big Carl...The resemblance between the two of them is both uncanny and shocking. They share facial, height, weight, and hair similarities. Even when I was a child and first met them, I remember telling my dad how Rico looked way more like big Carl than little Carl did.
I can only imagine what my dad thought and how hard it was for him to keep his mouth shut for a whole decade. This means that little Carl never knew or met his true father, Harold, nor his half-brothers with his uncle Harry. Worst of all, he, unfortunately, has the DNA of both of my grandmother's lousy ex-husbands.
Surprisingly, little Carl is actually a quiet, kind-hearted, and hard-working individual who heavily loves and respects our grandmother. I feel so bad that I know this and little Carl doesn't. I don’t think it's my place to tell him in any capacity and I have no idea how he would react or what would happen to their family.
I'm sure they all know that their mom slept with her stepdad since that's why she wasn't in contact with their grandmother for most of their life. Also, this is the cherry on top of the story. It gets more messed up. The youngest brother, Alex, is over 10 years younger than his brothers Carl and Rico. According to my dad, Alex is actually the son of big Carl's younger brother.
I don't know who big Carl's brother is or what he looks like though. Again, none of them except my aunt, my dad, and I know this now. Holy cow, I feel bad for my cousins for the fact that they will probably never know the truth.
2. Sloppy Seconds
My co-workers and I spotted the head of our department sloppily making out with a young intern at a work gathering. He had no idea we saw what they were up to. Here's the crazy part—he's in his mid-40s, married with two kids. A week later, he asked me to interview her for a position at our company—it made no sense since she was in a totally different discipline.
3. That’s Definitely To Go
Years ago, I was trawling sketchy personals listings and came across my Starbucks manager. He not only posted this face, but I could also see his lousy tattoos, so it was definitely him. Anyway, he was servicing men and women starting at $100. I never told anyone and I hated the fact that I'd seen more of him than I wanted.
4. Stifler’s Mom Strikes Again
My brother had an affair with my friend’s mom. She used to give him a lift to work when he was 18 years old, and one time, she started making inappropriate moves on him. That day, everything changed—they pulled over and did...well, you know what. This continued for a long time and she ended up getting obsessed with him. At one point, he blocked her on all social media and basically buried his head in the sand.
Her husband is a huge, scary guy who owns one of the pubs, and her son is a lifelong friend of mine. None of them know. It’s pretty weird having such a weighted secret.
5. Sister Act
My friend got with his wife's sister long before they got married. The wife has no idea When it happened, my friend and his wife had just started hooking up. I don't think he ever thought they would get married. It’s kind of a great secret to keep, but it makes me feel weird knowing something that could end their marriage.
6. One Step Away From Disaster
A while ago, my mom told me that my stepfather was not my stepsister’s biological father. My stepsister has no idea. But wait, it gets worse—my stepfather knows he isn't the biological father. He found out when my stepsister had some blood work done as a baby. She’s O-negative, and that isn’t possible based on his blood type.
He confronted his now ex-wife about it and she said it didn’t matter. She said my stepsister was the result of an affair that was a one-time thing and that my stepfather raised her as his own, so none of that shouldn’t change. Also, I will NEVER tell her. It’s not my secret to tell. Besides, my stepfather IS also her father, as far as I’m concerned.
She’s smart, kind, and a hard worker in large part due to him raising her, so I don’t care if they don’t share the same blood. He’s an amazing man and I consider him “one of my dads” too.
7. He Just Really Loves Golf
My girlfriend's grandfather emigrated to my country from the U.S. when he was younger. He is dating a woman here, who is the mother of a very prominent political figure in my country (in fact, he has a decent shot at being our next prime minister). The thing is, he has a HUGE secret, one that he can’t tell anyone: he has another family back in the U.S.
He travels back and forth from my country to the states, to visit "family" and play "golf" and the woman left behind has no idea. The one living in the US actually knows about the other one, but the one in my country is fairly religious and would probably not approve.
8. From Dealer To Vegan
I went to university with a guy who became a very successful dealer on the dark web. He made tens of millions, then quietly retired somewhere in Asia and opened a vegan restaurant. His wife and kids don’t have a clue. The last time we spoke, he said he still held most of the Bitcoin he collected back then and it's all worth in the nine figures now.
I don’t want to say anything more—he's a nice guy who just unwittingly stumbled into a dubious windfall.
9. Adopted Problems
My adopted daughter's biological mother had severe mental health issues. Her addiction to illicit substances ultimately ended her life. Her mental health problems stemmed from an extremely dark and disturbing fact—she found out that she was the product of an assault, and it was not kept secret. I don't ever want my daughter to find out because I'm afraid of what it could do to her psychologically.
10. Half His Age
I learned from my best friend that my cousin, who is in his 40s, had an affair with a 20-year-old girl. She just so happens to be one of my friend's friends. My cousin is engaged and has three kids with his fiancé. I'm from a small town, so if I told someone, it would not only ruin their lives, but EVERYONE would know. His mom is from a high-standing family in the area and it would just be a disaster.
11. It’s A Gay World After All
A good friend of mine is Indian and gay, which she knows her family won't accept. She’s about to have an arranged marriage to a man who is also gay. Neither of their families knows the truth and they are still excited about the upcoming wedding. The groom’s boyfriend is even part of the wedding party. But here's the kicker—they're both committed to the lie. In fact, they plan to have children via IVF at some point.
12. An Heir-Looming Secret
My dad gifted me a family heirloom that was special to him. My stepmom, who was always trying to sabotage my relationship with my father, did something truly awful. She threw the heirloom in the garbage. I didn't figure it out until many years later. She was never popular with any of my family or my dad's friends, to begin with, but when he passed away, things got even worse for her.
I guess I’ll take this secret to the grave.
13. Lies Heaped Upon More Lies
My ex-boss is a covert narcissist who loves to lie by omission. One thing he does often is dodge taxes—he deposits payments from roofing jobs directly into his personal bank account and refuses to report anything, so on paper, it looks as if the jobs were never ordered in the first place. He also deletes the invoices, even though the invoice numbers are sequential. Honestly, he would get exposed in a jiffy under an audit.
He lies to the union about how much work is being done and under-reports things so that he can pay them less. He also lies about the guys working on his roofs, thinking he can get away with it since they're no longer a part of the union, and refuses to tell his commercial roofing insurance the actual amount of work that he does, just so he can keep saving on insurance costs.
But the worst thing he's ever done doesn't even compare to those lies—he once dated an underage girl when he was in his late 20s and lied to her about his age for years. He also lied to his fiance (who he now has a kid with) about how much he used to deal with, which is horrible considering that he had been taken in for trafficking twice in his life (he was tried once as a minor and once as an adult).
Yeah, I can destroy his business with a couple of phone calls: one to the union, one to his insurance, one to the tax people, and one to his competitors about his lack of safety procedures at his operation. I can destroy his personal life too by exposing his secrets to his partner and son. They don't deserve the nonsense he brings into their lives.
14. People You May NOT Want To Know
I was hanging out with my brother and his army friends one night. I guess I drank a little too much and one of his army buddies started groping me under my clothing. I told my brother the very next day, so he definitely knows. Somehow, my father also found out about it. The dude who molested me is now married and has three kids.
Initially, my brother was furious and even talked about shooting the guy, but now they're friends again. He forgave him, then told me to get over it because "everybody cheats." The only thing is, none of it was consensual. The guy’s wife showed up on my "People You May Know" suggestions on Facebook and I've contemplated telling her. That would be a really big deal.
15. The Truth Will Drive Her Crazy
My boss and his wife are saving aggressively for a house. Every spare cent they have goes into a saving account and they hope to build up enough for a down payment. It’s really quite intense how they scrimp and save. The thing is, his wife doesn’t know that my boss is having an affair. That's not the worst part, either.
While they were saving and saving, my boss bought a car for his mistress. Now that’s good information for me to have.
16. A Flurry Of Furry
One day, I was looking on my friend’s computer for some old Call of Duty videos that he and I made in like 2009. I was just searching the old Gamertags, trying to figure out where they were when a page popped on his computer. It was for one of those creepy websites. I was really surprised. It had all his basic information on it, with an up-to-date age and everything.
I looked around the page and found a picture from his room that I recognized. I know I shouldn’t have, but I opened the page. What I saw totally shocked me. Turns out, my buddy is a furry—like a massive, full-on furry—and I had no idea. The page had almost eight years of daily uploads and interactions on it. I haven't told anyone.
I’m not going to be the guy that threatens him or tells our other friends because he's not hurting anyone. But I'm also not going to tell him that I know, because that would be mad awkward. I'm terrified I'm going to let it slip one day during a drinking binge. Yikes!
17. Good Girl Gone Bad
My friend's family is very religious; so much so that they only let her go out with people they approved. That said, I was the "good girl" with whom they allowed her to hang out. One time, during her rebellious stage, I was hanging out with her and she really went all out with the teenage angst thing.
She got piercings, drank too much, got freaky with random guys on camera, and even got a couple of tattoos done. Somehow, she did all of this without her family finding out, so up until now, they still think of her as their "golden" child who could do no wrong in their eyes. If only they knew the things she got up to...
She is now in a relationship with a boy from church whom they approve of. She always tells her parents that she has never had relations with him because they are waiting for marriage. If they ever found out the real truth, they would completely disown her. Her parents would kick her out of the house, stop giving her money, and all of her neighbors would stop talking to her because her father is the pastor of the church.
That’s the one huge secret I’ve got.
18. The Sour Sweetheart
I'm not sure if this is life-ruining, but it's an interesting situation nonetheless. Someone I know anonymously spammed another person online with horrible threats, then later abandoned the platform. She is now fairly successful on another social media app, but if her thousands of fans were ever to find out how much of a cyberbully she used to be, it would definitely destroy her internet fame.
I’d love to see someone "out" her, but it can't be me for one very important reason—I won't be able to deal with the drama. It would be like opening Pandora's box. If she was petty enough to do horrible things to someone before becoming internet famous, I don’t know what she’d do to me now that she has so much to lose. She's very unstable mentally, so if I exposed her, the consequences could be dire.
Also, her fan base sucks up to her big time, so I’m not even sure if people would believe me. I’m just hoping someone else comes forward so I can finally enjoy the app again.
19. Mission Not Impossible
I went to bed with my Mormon boyfriend before he went on his mission. Later on, I found out he was already engaged to another woman—he didn't think it was particularly important to tell me that he'd found a Mormon fiancé in another town already. Obviously, this is a big no-no in the Mormon church.
20. Terrible Tattoo Trauma
My mom is the most straight-laced, uptight person you can imagine. She works very high-level financial jobs for the government, so her personality may have something to do with that. If you looked up "professional woman" in the dictionary, it would probably just be a picture of her. But there's something no one else knows about her and it's totally mind-boggling—she has a tattoo on the back of her leg of a bear with male "appendages" instead of legs.
She wears tights or pants to cover it all the time, and as far as I know, I'm the only person who knows about it. She was a very wild teenager back in the day and on one fateful night, she met up with an "aspiring tattoo artist" in a hotel room. That's where she got the tattoo done. The guy got a little too creative during the session and she ended up with that odd interpretation of a bear.
It is so vulgar that if anyone saw it, I think there's a good chance she'd lose her job (or at least have some serious explaining to do). I once asked her why she doesn't get it removed and she says it's the "symbol to her stupid youth."
21. Robbing The Nest Egg
My father passed away two weeks ago and my uncle and his wife plundered his bank account. They kept telling me that I’m not next of kin, so I froze my father's account and shut them out. They were so mad at me for doing that. They had plans to keep his disability benefits going on for at least six more weeks. They had done this with other family members who passed away but during the pre-Internet era, so I guess they thought they could do it again.
They have two weeks to return all of the money they took or else I’m reporting them myself (although, I assume the bank is already on to them now).
22. He Was Just One Step Away
My mom had a secret affair with my stepdad. My dad got inebriated once and spilled the beans to me. My stepdad was, at that time, the next-door neighbor. This all happened when I was three years old and I’m in my 40s now. Everyone involved in that mess is either nearing their end or already long gone, so there's really no point in bringing it up. Still, it’s an interesting little family secret that I've kept for years without my mom and stepdad knowing.
23. He Depends On Depends
A popular guy in my high school has been hiding a huge secret, and I know what it is. It would spread like wildfire if I exposed him. You see, even though he’s in high school, he wears diapers because he still wets the bed. He doesn't know I know and that's the way I'll keep it.
24. It Was Thong-Tastic
This girl I know had a husband who was deployed overseas. For Valentine's Day, she put together a special box of goodies and sent it to him. Along with the usual stuff, she sent one of her thongs as a sexy teaser since they hadn’t been together for a long time. The husband decided to tie the thong onto the stuffed animal she gave him.
The next day, the guy noticed something weird. The thong, which was tied really well onto the stuffed animal, was missing. A couple of days went by and came across the thong in the most unexpected place—it was in his buddy’s bed, next to his. It turned out, his buddy was using it for his own “private pleasure”...if you know what I mean.
The guy is his best friend. Their wives are best friends. If they ever found out...
25. Paging Dr. Sleazebag
After I graduated from college, I worked in a hospital. While there, I discovered a shocking truth about some of my coworkers. A group of young male doctors pitched in to rent an apartment that they used as their spot for cheating on their wives with their side pieces. They seemed like such nice, normal guys too, not sleazebags. That was depressing news...but a great life-ruining secret.
26. There Are Witnesses
I know one guy who did something really bad a week before he got married. It was his bachelor party and I think maybe his girlfriend was out of town at that time. I knew the whole group, but I wasn't part of the bachelor party. They came into the bar I worked at and half of them were so messed up they couldn't even walk.
At some point in the night, the groom picked up a woman who we all called Nasty Amanda. I heard him say to his buddies, "I'm going to go do her in my bed," as if it was something to be proud of. In the 20 years that I've known him, he's always been an entitled dirtbag. There's been a few times when I've thought of telling his wife. I'm not the only one that knows.
Most of the bachelor party went back to his house after they left the bar. There are witnesses too.
27. Not Forgiving, Not Forgetting
After we broke up, my ex and I got into a terrible argument. Things escalated to a point that I thought it would never get to—he ended up physically assaulting me. He is now married, has a successful career, and lives in a big house with his wife and infant son. I wonder if he ever thinks about it. Unfortunately, campus officers didn’t do much at the time—it happened about eight years ago and I have since moved on.
I will never forgive, nor forget. I now live 1,900 miles away from that place and him.
28. Confidential Primary Caregiver
I happen to know that my neighbor is having an affair with his son’s primary school teacher. He's doing this behind his own wife's back, as well as the teacher’s husband’s back. It seems to me that it’s been going on for a little over four months now. We live in a small community and I often think to myself: how many lives could I ruin?
29. Baby Auntie
Years ago, a friend of mine had an unexpected pregnancy. It would have been terminated if not for one major reason—her sister and her husband had been trying to have a baby for years, but they both had infertility issues. She agreed to have the baby and my sister and her husband promised to adopt it. The kid doesn’t know that his aunt is his biological mother, but he’s still loved and happy. He turns 16 years old today...The truth would be close to life-ruining, I think.
30. Like A Virgin
A coworker of mine bragged at work about losing his virginity on the night of his bachelor party but his wife still doesn't know. She thinks they lost their virginity to each other on their wedding night. It's a VERY big deal to her and it would most likely end in their divorce if she ever found out.
31. A Vow Of Silence
There's a secret out there about my cousin that she doesn’t know about. I always wonder if she ever realized that her mom isn’t actually her biological parent and that she is the product of an affair between her dad and their house cleaner. She’s 42 now with kids and her mother passed away years ago, but there are few remaining people left in my family who know the truth. We all vowed to her real mom to keep it a secret from her.
32. Gave Up Three Years For Threesomes
A friend of mine has been cheating on his girlfriend of three years...with another guy! They have even been having threesomes on the regular. This would totally destroy his life because he both lives and works with his girlfriend (she's his manager). He'd be jobless and out on the streets if she ever found out.
I wouldn't be surprised if he gets burned at some point down the line. But here’s why I won’t tell his girlfriend—he needs to man up and admit it to her himself. Why should I do his dirty work for him? Part of being an adult is owning your mistakes and being openly communicative. Why should I do him the favor of biting the bullet?
He's the wrong-doer here and when the truth finally comes out, he will learn a very valuable lesson. It's not my dumpster fire to put out, so I'm not getting involved. If it was a closer friend, I absolutely would do the right thing, but as it stands, I wouldn't be able to come out from this situation unscathed.
33. Wiki-Lies
A co-worker of mine messed up the promotional posters of a well-known martial arts film by editing its Wikipedia article with incorrect character names before it came out. The company in charge of the posters was incompetent enough to use Wikipedia as its source for the names of the characters, so the posters are all wrong. Only I know it was my friend’s fault.
34. Baby Hospital Horror
I used to work at a huge hospital that just coasts on regional reputation and prestige. The story behind the scenes, however, is completely different. The company is so messed up. The worst secret I know about this hospital is that they once mislabeled a baby corpse. Because it was mislabeled, they lost it altogether. Only a few of us know the truth.
35. Not Love At First Sight
Here’s a secret I’ll never tell out loud. My sister just had a baby boy and everyone's so happy, but the truth is, I don't love my nephew. People seem to instantly fall in love with babies, but as I held her two-day-old baby, I felt absolutely nothing for him emotionally. I mean, I care for him and all; but I still feel nothing.
It was the same for my two nieces when they were born. I felt nothing for them until they were about three months old when they could actually remember my face and look for me. Now, I can't imagine my life without those two girls and I love them a lot. It kind of makes me feel like a lousy uncle for not instantly loving these kids from the moment I first meet them.
36. The Father Failed The Test
After my father passed away, I decided to do one of those DNA tests because I thought it would be fun to find out more about my dad's family. I didn’t really know that much about them. But what I found out wasn’t fun at all. Instead of getting more information about my father, I got a 50% match with a man I've never met. The test was suggesting that he is actually my real father.
I haven't yet contacted him or confronted my mom. I don't know what to do with this information.
37. The Truth Would Kill Them
My big secret is about my parents. You see, I don't like my parents and I am on the verge of leaving them for good. I'm scared of their obsession with me, especially since I'm an adult already. I'm terrified my future partner will be similar to them, and that I will end up with someone who wants to control me just as much as they do. I'm terrified that I will never have a healthy relationship because of the trauma I've experienced living under my parents' roof.
I feel guilty for "hating" them, I guess but I also feel bad for them. The truth would probably kill them.
38. I Made Grandma Happy
Not a deep secret or anything, but my grandma tore a few ligaments in her knee a few years ago and the pain meds didn't do too much to help. She was in so much pain and I felt so bad for her, so I did something I never thought I would ever do—I gave her a small piece of an edible. A half-hour later, she was laid out in the chair just grinning and watching Hallmark movies.
No one in the family knows this, and they never will.
39. Her Life Is Perfect—Not
My secret is that I'm not the person everyone thinks I am. You see, I was always the perfect girl. I got good grades, participated in sports, and even managed to become valedictorian for my graduating class. But now, for the first time in my life, I'm failing in school. Nobody knows. I'm falling so behind and it's getting harder and harder to catch up. I can't reach out to my counselors or teachers because I'm ashamed...I've always been the smart, diligent one, and I would hate for them to stop thinking of me that way.
I've always been the "golden child", but I've been put so high up on a pedestal that it’s just assumed I will always stay there. My parents can't see that I'm drowning; they just assume that I will always be fine. "You are always so responsible," they'd tell me. No, I'm not. "I know I can always count on you." No, you can't.
I'm still a teenager. I need guidance in life but they are too busy with my sister's issues to see mine. They drag me in and make me her third parent. Her issues are much more immediate than mine, and I hate that she gets all of the attention, but I can't resent her for that. She is the best thing in my life. I just hate that I feel so alone in my struggles.
My friends would never understand. They think my life is perfect. They say, "Oh my God, I love your dad. He is so funny," or "Haha, your sister is so cute," or "Wow, your mom is so cool." No. My family is falling apart at the seams. The fights are daily at this point. I feel so alone, and what's worse is that everyone else is moving on with their lives. I don't know where to go, so I'm just faking it 'til I make it.
I keep a smile on my face to let them all think I'm okay...but I'm really not.
40. Not So Random Shooting
A guy I know shot into someone's house a very, very long time ago. I don't think anyone got hit, but there were people home. The neighborhood doesn't even exist anymore. It was completely bulldozed and a strip mall was put up where it once was, so there isn't any evidence available.
41. A Woman’s Place Is In Your Face
Two days ago, I was at work when a senior coworker was cussing someone out. He usually did that sort of thing, so I wasn't taken by surprise by his behavior. Also, I was in no mood to deal with him that day, so I just focused on my work. But then he blurted out something that was so awful, I couldn't ignore it. In a loud voice, he said, "The world will be peaceful if women stay home. They should not be allowed to come out of the kitchen." He then turned to me and said some nasty things about the supervisors.
Being an intern, I was scared that I would lose my position if I complained about his behavior, so I just let it go. But everything he said really hurt, even though he didn't direct his words at me. As a woman, I've worked my butt off to get to where I am now. I've had to overcome so many obstacles just to be able to work at this company. His misogynistic comments stirred up so much anger in me, and what's worse is I felt like I couldn't do anything about it.
If the bosses knew the truth about this guy, he’d probably get fired.
42. Collection Company Corruption
My first “adult” job was at a very well-known credit card company that also offered student loans. I understood the business aspect of collections, but it felt very cold and callous as you can imagine. My deal-breaker with the company was when I called out to a co-signer inquiring about payment on her son’s student loan, which was a month or so past due.
I gave her the entire spiel and she was very patient. She apologized profusely and explained that her son had been deceased for four years and she was still making payments; she had just lost track of time. I was shocked because as an employee, I knew that anytime a borrower passed away, the loan could be forgiven.
So I, of course, give her that information and she was thrilled. She even complimented my service and ended the call on a really happy note. For the first time since working there, I felt like I had really made a difference in someone’s life. That's not why I got into collections in the first place, but it was a nice change to what I usually dealt with.
A day or so later, I was called into a meeting with my manager and the department head. They told me that they had monitored my call, which wasn’t out of the ordinary since we had our calls shopped frequently. I thought they were going to praise me, but I was so, so wrong. I was grilled about how much money I had lost the company for giving the customer the advice that I did.
Apparently, it wasn’t in the company’s “best interest” to be offering that information out. That was it for me. I was gone shortly after. I couldn’t stomach working for a company that preyed on people like that. But knowing this secret information, I’ve always wondered if I should tell someone and make trouble for the company.
43. Subscribing To Lies
One job I had as a teen entailed selling newspaper subscriptions. It was my first job and there was a lot of pressure for us to make sales, even though we were all mostly teenagers. I was quite young and didn’t really know how things worked in business, but I was pretty sure what the boss told us to do was a big company secret.
We were told to say that we were selling subscriptions to fund a youth trip to Washington DC, or so my mom could stay at the hospital with a sibling, stuff like that. They were basically telling us to lie. I couldn't stomach it, so I only did the job for two or three days before quit. I guess I could speak up and ruin that company forever if I wanted to.
44. I Hate The Night Shift
I work with two gay guys who are in a relationship together. Well, on one night shift, one of the guys (let's call him Richard) told me if he wasn't with the other guy (let's call him David), he would have me. The guy started to show me his boxer shorts and more, even when I never asked him to. He also started to sneak looks at me at the urinal, and would even touch me inappropriately.
One day, he took his bad behavior too far—he asked me a deeply personal question about my private parts. After the shift ended, he told me not to tell David about our little "chat"...Now I'm a bit worried about my workplace, especially when I'm working with Richard. I feel awkward when he and David are on the same shift together. I think I need a new job—either that or I let out Richard's secret and make them leave the company for good.
45. A Burning Secret
I work as an office manager in a crematory and I have noticed a few things in regard to the owner. Besides his temper, he is now texting the office ladies off the clock, and it's usually never about anything work-related. The situation has escalated a bit more with one of my coworkers. She's younger than I am, and one time she showed me some of his texts. What I saw was shocking and it made me deeply uncomfortable.
He didn't say anything descriptive or obscene, but he was being incredibly creepy to her. For example, she was out last week because she was sick, but he decided to text her saying something along the lines of: "You're out of sight but not out of mind." She hardly ever responds to any of these texts—she'll only message back if the texts are work-related—but I feel bad that she has to deal with his creepiness.
He also leaves random notes on the girls' desks and we never know what to do with them. The other day, I got a note from him saying that he was stocking up on booze. Yes, my boss drinks while he works...It's a major red flag. His daughter also works but she is on maternity leave and won’t be back for a while longer, so we, unfortunately, can't bring up his inappropriate behavior to her.
Besides, telling could end up backfiring on us, so it may be best that we just keep everything a secret.
46. She’s Playing It Safe
I work for a Mini Mart gas station and I have suspicions that my coworker cheats on her husband with her boss to keep her job. She has bought illicit substances from employees and has even borrowed money from the store safe, probably more than once. Every day, I have to constantly check the safe to see if it has been left unlocked. But I have a master plan.
I have a ton of pictures of it left open on random days, just in case I need to protect myself from false accusations. I typically am the one to close this gas station every night and I always fear that she would taint my record. I have been at this job for about four years now and I work hard every day. If I showed these pictures of the safe being left open and let out all the things I know, I could cause a lot of trouble.
47. Escaping is 50/50
I used to love going to escape rooms until I found out a surprising secret. They’re totally rigged. If you've ever been to an escape room, whether you win or not is up to the clue master. Some companies even keep ratios to set the odds at 50/50. Sometimes it's predetermined whether you win or lose. I guess this secret is out of the bag now.
48. Hunting For The Truth
My father passed away when I was young. He got into an accident while hunting that ended his life...at least, that’s what my mother had always told me. Fast forward 58 years later when my mother died—I finally learned the hard, cold truth. In her will, she requested that once I was old enough, I would be told that my father didn’t actually die in a hunting accident, but rather suicide. I guess she literally carried that secret to her grave.
49. Pipe Nightmares
One of my coworkers is always under the influence at work. In the last three months, I've found probably come across half a dozen pieces of "evidence" that she's left behind because she's too messed up to remember to hide them. I took some pictures and put them in a folder on my phone, just in case I needed something against her. Turns out, the folder would eventually come in handy.
About a month ago, she started leaving these passive-aggressive notes to my boss about how she was the only one who did her job. I showed her the folder on my phone and told her that if she left another stupid note, I'd call the boss, then HR. I don't care about that job, but I would never let some tweaker get me fired.
50. A Spy In The Family
I never liked my grandmother. She was really mean and said all sorts of hurtful things about my parents. At one point, I started to dislike her so much that I stopped hanging out with her entirely. I refused to talk to her on the phone and left all of her texts unanswered. What she did had me that mad at her.
After ten years, she left the state and went to live in the UK with her daughter. One day, my aunt called up my father and said that she wanted her mother to live there with her permanently. She asked my dad if he could pack up her things in the house and send them over. He said yes. Meanwhile, I'd just graduated and came back home for a break, so I tagged along.
The house was on the outskirts of the city, so it was a long drive. When we arrived, my dad and I headed straight for the basement. In all the years he lived there, my dad was not allowed to enter the basement, so had wanted to see what was there. I helped him break the lock as we couldn't find the key to the door. What we saw when we entered made our jaws drop.
There were large greenish, metal trunks everywhere. The room was surprisingly neat and there was some dust that had settled on them. My dad opened a couple of trunks and found old, brittle books. At some point, I noticed an odd-looking brown trunk and jumped across to it to see what was inside.
It contained old photos of my grandmother and my grandfather, both in some sort of a uniform. They looked like defense uniforms, but not Indian. I fished out more pictures that showed more people wearing the same uniform and standing in some hilly region. Behind every one of the photographs, there were numbers written down, which I assumed were to indicate the year they were taken.
I asked my dad about these pictures and he, from the other end of the basement, said that my grandfather was in the Indian army. I told him that the uniforms looked different, but he said that the uniforms had undergone many changes over the years and I just didn't recognize some of the earlier iterations.
I brought over the photos to him and pointed to a symbol on the lower right-hand corner of the photographs. When he saw it, his face went white. He asked me which trunk these photographs were in and I pointed to the brown trunk where I’d found them.
He made his way over and fished out the other pictures, studying each of them carefully. He then opened other nearby trunks. From one of them, he pulled out a small box that contained large envelopes sealed with wax. He tore them open and was immediately shocked by their contents. It was the birth certificates of my father and his three siblings.
The date on my father's 'Indian' birth certificate did not match the one listed on the document he had one file, but that wasn't what bothered us the most—the name that was written on the birth certificate was not my grandfather's. It turned out that none of them shared the same father except for the oldest sibling.
The locations of their births were also not the same—they were all born in different parts of the world and not in India as they had always thought. My father's document said he was born in Russia and I asked him if he remembered anything. He said he didn't. That night, we didn't go home...we opened all the trunks, uncovering different secrets from each one.
My father and I took the photos and visited his friend who worked as an archivist for the government. I will never forget the look on the man's face when he told my father that those uniforms were old Soviet uniforms. But that wasn't even the worst part—the uniform my grandmother was wearing was not Russian at all...It was Chinese.
My dad went back to the house to open the other trunks but didn't find anything on his mother's time in the army. He wanted to ask her directly, but I didn't let him because he seemed too agitated to talk calmly. I went back up to the master bedroom and was startled by my phone. It was my aunt—she asked me if everything was okay, as she'd not heard anything from us since she last called.
I told her everything was fine and that we just had some difficult clients to deal with at the office. At that point, I opened my grandma's cupboard and saw the locker. I asked my aunt if there was anything in the locker that had to be sent over to them, but she wasn't sure. I asked dad if we should open the locker and he said that he'd do it.
That evening, we broke it open and found even more mind-boggling documents. A lot of the files were about my grandfather's enlistments and tours. There were also some documents on certain high-ranking army officers, including my grandma. We now think that she was one of the many spies sent out by the KGB to India.
There was a code under her name: T.W.o.B. Unfortunately, we could not go through all of the files as my father sent everything to be examined by the archivist. We are still waiting for the news, but we did get an answer to one mystery that had been bothering us for weeks—my grandmother was never a teacher and her name isn't real. She is not even Indian by blood.
My grandmother has since been made aware of all of this. She recently had a massive heart attack and has still not gained consciousness.
51. Not So Great Uncle H
Great Uncle H wasn’t a particularly interesting or handsome man, yet he thought very highly of himself, as did his family. He never got into a serious relationship until he met his wife who was very wealthy. She had inherited some old German money and farmland from a previous marriage. Not being to handle her loneliness, she married Great Uncle H, and that's when things started going downhill for her.
When they married, Great Uncle H began to execute his plan. He slowly began to steal a great sum of money from her accounts, which he was given access to following the marriage. He robbed the woman blind, left her in serious debt, and then fled the country to Canada, where he met a new woman and created a new life for himself there until the day his first wife passed on.
Uncle H then returned to the U.S. and was welcomed by my grandparents and their children as if nothing ever happened. He now lives with them full-time and I don’t know that he’s ever worked a day in his life.
52. Cheerleading Charity Thief
I’ve got a secret: my family member of mine has stolen money from various charities. She was a hellion teen; just out of control. Super popular, but spoiled by her mother. Her parents were divorced and anytime her father tried to discipline her, her mom threatened to ruin him with lies if he did. She stopped multiple pregnancies in her teens (so she wouldn’t “embarrass” her mother) while being the head cheerleader.
She has never had an honest day of work in 50 years. Her first marriage (which included a wedding worth tens of thousands in the '80s) ended after a couple of years when she refused to work and help her husband pay for the bills she racked up from shopping. Her second marriage ended with the passing of her husband. During his illness, she ran several charity events to raise money for research, and the money disappeared before it reached the charities.
She married again very quickly after her second husband’s demise. This guy was a super health nut but he mysteriously suddenly developed an unknown illness that caused his kidneys and heart to fail. Again with the fundraisers. As soon as the new hubby got better, he ran for the hills. We are 90% sure he figured out she was feeding him poison.
She became her mother’s guardian and promised to take care of her for the rest of her life. She did this in return for her mother paying her bills with her scant savings and retirement. With all her shopping and spending, she ran through her mother’s life savings in less than a year. Once the money was mostly gone, she wanted to put her in a home.
She is now hopping from boyfriend to boyfriend, finding a new older rich dude to replace the ones that eventually run away from her People she has conned have tried to deposit money in her bank account and the tellers always warn them to not give her money. She posts pics of her overly tanned self in skimpy workout outfits weekly and still begs for people to pay her bills.
It’s become a joke between my husband and me. I’d show him her pic while saying, “Your girlfriend is posting pics for you again” and he'd gag and respond, “No thanks, she looks like a Slim Jim and I’m not drinking the poisoned Kool-Aid.”
53. Happy To Be Alive
My mom comes from a pretty large family. She is an identical twin, so they have been the family “favorites” for some time now; everyone being so mystified by twins and all. At some point, my mom and her twin gave birth to me and my cousin respectively by only six weeks apart. They have several other siblings, but for simplicity's sake, they are the second youngest of seven children.
The youngest of the seven is the aunt I want to discuss. We will call her Aunt Anne. Aunt Anne is a lot younger than my mom and she was probably 18 at the time of this story. When my cousin and I were both little, only a year or so out of diapers, my mom's twin became pregnant. Whilst out on a doctor's trip for a routine checkup, my cousin and me were left in the care of Aunt Anne.
I don’t remember what caused this, but the next events I remember VERY clearly. Aunt Anne had approached from the kitchen and had asked if we wanted cookies. We both said yes, so she left and came back moments later with her hands behind her back. She then grabbed my cousin and pulled him down on the ground, covering his head with a plastic grocery bag, and began to choke him.
I was super afraid and I began smacking her with my hands. She let my cousin go and grabbed me, doing the same to me. I remember kicking at her, unable to see anything other than that bag as she squeezed. I couldn’t breathe and I was extremely terrified, not fully understanding what was happening to me, until...I wet myself.
And I’m thankful I did because it’s what caused her to let me go. She got upset that I had gotten her pants wet and so she dragged us into the bathroom and locked us inside. Thankfully, shortly after this, my mother and her twin came home. Aunt Anne had said my cousin and I locked ourselves into the bathroom and been playing in the sink all day. No one ever knew the truth.
My cousin and I never discussed what happened to anyone but each other. We were never left alone with Aunt Anne again after that, thankfully. We moved to another state entirely. We don’t know why she did that to us, but it’s left a bad taste in my mouth even now as an adult. I’m just happy I’m alive today.
Sources: Reddit
