The story revolves around a family struggling with the aftermath of a sudden death of a stepson and stepbrother, and the resulting strained relationships. The nephew, who had a complicated relationship with the deceased stepbrother, moved in with his aunt after a fallout with his brother and his wife. The brother accuses the aunt of overstepping and taking his son away from him, while the nephew struggles with the pressure to grieve in a certain way.
Source: Reddit
My brother was a single dad for the first 6 years of his son’s life. Then my brother met his wife Emma and Emma’s son Logan. Logan and my nephew had a very oil and water relationship and were not close at all. They were stepbrothers for about 18 months and had known each other for about 3 years when Logan died suddenly. Emma fell apart, unsurprisingly. My nephew confided in me a few times that he felt like everyone expected him to be feeling and reacting differently than he did. He told me he wasn’t glad Logan was dead and it was sad. But he didn’t feel like he lost anyone. He said he thought Emma was beginning to notice more since he wasn’t crying and didn’t really have much trouble continuing with life as normal. I told him it was okay to feel that way, as long as he was compassionate of others, and if he needed to talk he could always come to me.
My nephew turned 17 three months ago and he begged to move in with my family. Things were bad with my brother and Emma. For about a year before Emma had been quizzing my nephew about Logan and all things connected. Then before Christmas she decided to spy on my nephew and his friend. His friend had lost his dad and sister in a car crash and my nephew was consoling him. She heard my nephew say he hadn’t ever experienced a personal loss before and wasn’t sure how it would go but he would always let his friend talk. Emma went nuts on the boys and chased the friend off, who was already upset. My nephew ended up yelling at her and the other boys’ mom and grandparents called my brother. My brother told my nephew he should be ashamed of himself for being so dismissive of his brother’s death.
This is when my nephew called. I was able to let him stay, mostly due to the police not wanting to drag him back to my brother’s house (he called them) and my having already contacted CPS in order to talk about what was going on and they sent someone to talk to my nephew and then my brother and Emma. So my nephew gets to stay with me.
My brother has accused me of taking his son away from him and told me I should be ashamed of myself. He said it wasn’t my place to get so involved. I told him I didn’t take his son, he chose to leave, and that if he didn’t want his son “taken away” he should have been a better father. This is when he told me I was overstepping and I should see his POV and how awful it is what my nephew has said and done…
Am I WRONG ?
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