A Reddit post in r/BestofRedditorUpdates shared the story of a 27-year-old woman who is dating her ex-fiancé’s brother, Ethan. The woman shared multiple updates about her complicated relationship and how people around her perceived it. The first update was shared on Sept. 21.
In the first update, the woman shared that after she started dating her ex-fiancé’s 30-year-old brother, some people in her life thought she was an a-shole. She was engaged to Ethan’s brother, Jake, whom she had dated for four years. The Reddit user revealed that they were serious about each other and had even considered getting married.
Later, she wrote that she met Jake through Ethan, whom she had known for a while before she started dating his younger brother. “Ethan and I were friends first, and we'd always gotten along really well. We'd hang out occasionally, talk, and generally just had a good relationship. There was never anything romantic between us. He was my friend first, then my boyfriend's brother, and that was pretty much it,” she wrote.
The woman then recalled being invited to a destination wedding in Italy that she was supposed to attend with Jake, while Ethan was supposed to attend with Holly. However, neither the woman nor Ethan could attend for various reasons. The Reddit user said Holly was a little too touchy for her liking. After realizing that Jake would often dismiss her concerns, she stopped bringing them up.
The woman later wrote that, during the wedding, the bride called to inform her that Jake had insisted on sharing a room with Holly. When she shared her concerns with Jake over the phone, he told her she was making a big deal out of it. A week later, she received a picture of Jake and Holly k-ssing.
“I genuinely just stared at my phone for a while. I didn't even know what to say. I messaged Jake immediately, and after a lot of back and forth, he admitted that they'd kissed at the wedding. Apparently they'd both been drinking, things got out of hand, and they ended up sleeping together,” she wrote. The woman then ended the engagement, and Ethan ended his relationship with Holly.
What followed was the woman and Ethan growing closer as they shared their grief. “I don't know exactly when it happened. There wasn't some dramatic moment where we suddenly realised we were in love or anything. I just started noticing that I looked forward to seeing Ethan. We were talking more, spending more time together, and eventually I realised my feelings weren't exactly platonic anymore,” she wrote. Eventually, they started dating.
The woman wrote that many of her friends were unhappy with their relationship. “Ethan's parents are actually fine with us being together. They've been supportive, and they're both very disappointed in Jake and Holly. They don't blame me or Ethan for what happened, but they've also told us that they don't want the situation to completely tear the family apart. Which I understand. They're still Jake's parents, and I don't expect them to just stop loving him because he cheated,” she wrote.
The woman wanted advice from readers because she was about to attend a family get-together where both Jake and Holly would be present, and she had no idea how it would go.
One commenter wrote, “Absolutely wild for Jake and Holly to be playing the victims here. The sheer magnitude of their hypocrisy is mind-boggling.” Another wrote, “I'm also surprised Ethan had any kind of relationship with Jake too, mostly because the ‘how can I make this about me/make myself the victim here’ bs would have driven me insane if I had to deal with it. ‘My brother is betraying me by dating my ex!’ Sir... you f----d his fiancee? And then started dating her??”
The Daily Dot was unable to verify the claims made in the thread independently. The details above reflect the original poster's account as shared on r/BestofRedditorUpdates. The commenters' identities have not been confirmed.
