My Stepmom Falsely Accused Me of Pushing Her Down the Stairs at Her Baby Shower—And Turned

My stepmom falsely accused me of pushing her down the stairs at her baby shower, turning my family against me. And now my dad wants my help for free. Hi, so I’m 24 years old, female, and I’m just starting out as a lawyer. My father recently asked me to help him out, but I had to decline.

And now my family is hating me because of that. The context is that my father had cut ties with me a couple of months ago after calling me, and I quote, mentally unstable and jealous for something that I didn’t even do. My stepmother, who is the worst person on earth, accused me of pushing her down the stairs when she was pregnant at her baby shower.

I don’t know why she did that. Probably just because she hates me and wants everyone to hate me along with her. Well, she succeeded in that plan and made my father hate me. Although, I can’t exactly say that I hadn’t already made it believable for him. My stepmom, Vicki, 40, female, and my dad, 48, male, got married 10 years ago after dating for 2 years.

So, I have known Vicki for almost 12 years now. She has always tried her best to make my life as miserable as she possibly can. I honestly don’t know why she hates me so much because right from the first time that we met each other, she didn’t like me. I hadn’t even given her a reason to dislike me at that point. I was literally just 12 years old.

But she always had a bit of an attitude problem and would be openly nasty to me when my dad was not around. So, I learned to hate her as well. Because I was just 12, I did not see any reason why a full-g grown adult was acting that way with me. I was used to being trusted by adults because I was actually a good kid.

I had good grades and behaved nicely with everyone. Even with Vicki, I tried my best to be nice to her for as long as I could. However, after one point, I realized that no matter how nice I was to her, she was never going to extend the same courtesy to me. So, I started to treat her the same way that she would treat me.

If she spoke to me rudely, I would make sure to retort in a much worse tone. If she said something that I did not like about my appearance or anything else, I would make it a point to comment on her appearance or personality as well. But whenever my father was around, he would only tell me to stop and he would never say a word to Vicki.

I was literally the only person who was reprimanded. And several times I had even been grounded because of what I had said to Vicki, only in response to what she had said to me. I never started the fights, but somehow it was always my fault. I found it very unfair, but I had to deal with it because I had nobody else to go to.

My mother was never in the picture. She had signed away her rights when I was little, and my father had been my only parent all my life. Even before Vicki had come along, he had a couple of girlfriends before her, but they had all been nice to me. Unfortunately, he was not serious about any of them, so he did not end up with them.

If I’m being honest, he was not serious about me either. I felt like a child was more like a side project for him because most of the time I would end up spending my time at home with babysitters or maybe my grandma. He was never around much as a child and even as I grew older, I was unable to develop a connection with my dad because either he was absent from my life or just not interested.

He never showed up to any of my events as a child and it would leave me disappointed every single time. But thankfully, I did have my grandma and she always tried to be there for me. I lost her a couple of years into high school and I was very upset about it for a very long time. It felt like I had lost my only family because at the time I was living with my dad and Vicki and it was a nightmare to be honest.

She had grown even more vicious after she got married to my father. Now that she knew that she was not going anywhere and my dad was always going to put her first. After she got married, she started coming after me even more. She would be rude to me and she would make all sorts of unwelcome comments about me and I was just expected to deal with her silently.

Every time I would try to argue with her or tell her to shut up, my dad would scold me and tell me that I was not allowed to speak to her. After my grandmother passed away, Vicki started making even worse comments. She would taunt me and say that now that I did not have anybody sticking up for me, I was going to be screwed. It was true.

That’s why it hurt even more. She told me that she was going to make sure of the fact that my dad kicked me out of the house before I even had a chance to leech off of him and demand that he pay my college tuition. She was going to take all that money and buy herself something nice because that would be more useful than sending me to college because I was an idiot.

That part was not even true because I was a straight A student and I knew that she was just trying to get me riled up. But it would always get on my nerves. It was a horrible cycle and she would say something really cruel to me. I would get all pissed off, then say something to try and get back at her. And then my dad would ground me.

Even when I would try to warn him that she was a gold digger, he would not believe me and tell me that I was just being territorial about him, and he did not appreciate it. It was just so frustrating. And one time, I just snapped. It had been about a year and a half since my grandmother had passed, and Vicki had been making the worst comments.

One day, I came back home from school, and I had already had a very bad day because somebody had spilled something on my clothes. It was not something that they had done on purpose, but it it had ruined my outfit. I also had a splitting headache that day. I was just very pissed off already from how my day was turning out to be.

When I got back home, instead of just leaving me alone, Vicki made some snarky comments. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but the next thing I knew, I was on top of her and trying to punch her. The only advantage I had was that I had caught her off guard. She had been completely blindsided, so I had been able to pounce on her and pin her to the ground.

But once she realized what was happening, she turned the tables and we got into a really bad physical fight. I’ll admit that it was really psycho and stupid of me to initiate that fight knowing that she was much bigger than me. I was very skinny at that point and there was no way that I would have been able to tackle it all on my own.

She managed to get me off of her, but I was still screaming my head off. So, she pushed me into the room and locked me in there for hours. I was only let out of that room after my dad came back home from work and she had not even bothered to call my dad to alert him earlier. He came back around the evening at his usual time, so I think I must have spent around 4 or 5 hours inside of the store room.

It had just one window and it was a really tiny, cramped room because of everything that was in there. I remember banging on the door periodically, begging her to let me out and promising her that I would not attack her again. Not now and not ever. I’m pretty claustrophobic, so that was a total nightmare for me.

but she just ignored me and I stayed inside there crying and begging her to let me out, but my please fell on deaf ears. After my dad came back home, they let me out and both of them were pretty pissed. My dad even told me that he was going to have me sent away and threatened to report me to the authorities because of what I had done.

I was miserable and I had to beg them not to do anything of the sort and let me stay with them. I promised them that I would never do anything like this and that I would always be on my best behavior. Vicki was pretty pleased with herself, even though she was the one who got attacked. But at least this gave her an excuse to mistreat me.

After that incident, I had to live up to my word and I had to stay on my best behavior. Even when Vicki would make remarks about me and try to piss me off, I just had to shut up and deal with it because I knew that if I tried to talk to her, there would be serious consequences. And I was not ready for that. I also really wanted my dad to pay for me to go to college.

I could not risk it because I did not have any other family who would do it for me. I had a couple of friends, but I was not going to beg anybody for money. And taking out a student loan would also require my parents to support me. That was the reason why I stayed with them and decided not to try and get back at Vicki no matter what she did.

It was very difficult given the circumstances, but I knew that I had to get through it somehow. I just kept consoling myself, reminding myself that I would be off to college in a couple of years and then I would not have to deal with her. So eventually after I graduated high school, I left home for college and all my hard work paid off.

My dad actually agreed to pay for me to go to college, which was definitely not something that Vicki had wanted. But my dad said that he was only paying for me to go to college because for him it was an investment and if I became successful, he would get back the money. He knew that I was going to study law and lawyers earned pretty well.

So he was not worried about me being able to get a job and pay him the money back at some point. I told him that I was going to return the money to him. But thankfully, he did not get it in writing. And if you don’t have it in writing, it’s not binding in any way, shape, or form. So, I’m free to do whatever I want, really.

Anyway, after I left for college, my life was completely different, and I was finally my own person. I was not constantly living in fear of Vicki and my father, and I felt like I could breathe freely for the first time in my life. I made a lot of friends during my time in college, and it will always be memorable for me.

I think they were the best years of my life. I would go back home for the holidays and then stay out of everybody’s way. I would mostly just keep to myself and I would not allow Vicki to ruin my vibe with her comments and negativity because I knew that I only had to tolerate her until it was time to go back to college again.

So, that was pretty great. Once I graduated from college, I moved into an apartment with a couple of my friends. Within months, I found a job at a law firm and I’m still working there. We specialize in matters relating to the family court, like divorces and custody arrangements. You know what I’m talking about.

and that’s why my father specifically asked for my help. However, after what happened a couple of months ago, I highly doubt that I would be willing to help him. So, earlier this year, my dad and Vicki announced that she was pregnant. I was a little surprised that she was getting pregnant so late and had even decided to keep the baby, but I thought it was a good thing.

Maybe my father would be more of an active presence in his child’s life this time around. I congratulated them when they announced that, and I even attended their pregnancy announcement party. It was more of a formality because if I did not attend, it would lead to a lot of questions and drama in the family. So, I decided to attend.

I have not exactly been in touch regularly with my dad or Vicki after I moved out, and we only speak to each other maybe once or twice a month. I only visit them on the holidays or on birthdays or events like these as long as they invite me. Dad does occasionally get in touch with me to ask how I’m doing, and I do the same for him.

It is more obligatory than something that either actually wants to do. Vicki and I don’t speak to each other at all. I’m honestly happy about that because I don’t have anything to say to her and I’m sure that she would not have anything nice to say to me either. Anyway, even at the pregnancy announcement party, I congratulated them and got them a gift.

Vicki did not thank me and neither did she look at me throughout the day. I was actually relieved because it just meant that she would not be making any comments or trying to rile me up like she usually does. So, that was how that day went. After that, I got really busy at work, so I did not visit them until it was time for the baby shower.

They had a huge event organized, and I think Vicki must have been in her third trimester, her seventh month of pregnancy. I’m not sure exactly, but I remember that she was really big and was waddling everywhere at the party. My dad was really busy socializing with the guests, so Vicki needed somebody to accompany her to the women’s room at some point.

I was the person sitting closest to her when she needed to go, so she asked me to walk with her. I was a little skeptical and asked her if she wanted me to get her mother or maybe her sister to accompany her, but she specifically told me that she wanted me and I was not going to say no to a pregnant woman.

So, I agreed. I did not think much of it and walked with her to the women’s room. After she was done, she was coming out when she tripped on the stairs that led to the floor. The women’s room had a tiny little staircase with five steps leading up to the door, and that’s where she tripped and almost fell. But I intervened just in time and prevented her from falling.

I thought that she was going to thank me, but instead of that, she started screaming at me and asked me if I was crazy. I knew that she was doing this on purpose because I was standing in front of her, and there was no way that I could have pushed her or caused her to trip, even if I had wanted to.

And the look on her face told me that she was doing this on purpose. She was screaming at me to draw attention to us. It worked. Everybody started looking at us in no time. And then my dad rushed over to her side. He asked her what was going on and why she was screaming at me. Instead of telling him the truth that she was walking down the stairs, tripped and I saved her.

She distorted the story and told him loud enough for everybody in the room to hear that I had pushed her down the stairs. I couldn’t even believe that this was happening and I tried to defend myself and told him that I had done nothing of the sort. I told him that he could check the security footage if he did not believe me, but unfortunately that area was a blind spot and there was no proof.

So, it was just her word against mine. And I already knew that I was screwed because if it came down to it, I knew that my dad would always pick Vicki over me. So, he chose to believe her and he started yelling at me as well. He called me psychotic and told me that he should have kicked me out the day that I tried to attack her.

He said that he never should have let me stay with him because he should have guessed I was mentally unstable. He even accused me of being jealous of Vicki because she was everything that I could never be since she was successful and beautiful and just overall better than me. He said that I was always just trying to turn him against her out of nothing but pure jealousy.

He called me a total psycho and told me that he did not want to see me lurking around anymore. So, I needed to get out before he called the cops. Everybody else at the party was also giving me really weird looks and it seemed like everybody was against me at that point. So, instead of trying to argue, I just accepted my fate and left.

I was already very humiliated and I did not want to draw that matter out by trying to fight with my dad. I knew there was no point in talking to him and he had already said a lot of things I did not want to hear more of. So I left and since then I have not been in touch with my father.

I blocked him and I have been trying to move on with my life. As a matter of fact, I have not been in touch with anybody else from my family either because I know exactly what they think of me now. It was difficult at first, but I had already detached myself from my father emotionally a long time ago, so I came to terms with it pretty quickly.

I have not heard from him for a couple of months and I never thought that he would reach out to me again. But a week ago, he called me from a different number and told me that he needed my help. I could not imagine what he would require my help for and I was curious to know. So I agreed to meet him for lunch one day. When we met, he seemed very upset about something and after I spoke to him, I understood.

Apparently, he had begun to suspect that the baby was not his soon after Vicki gave birth. It was the skin color and features that gave it away because the baby was slightly darker and did not look Caucasian. My dad is white and so is Vicki, so it was pretty unlikely that they would end up with a baby with a darker skin tone.

Vicki tried to convince him for weeks that the baby was his, but eventually she gave up and told him the truth instead because there was no point in lying to him anymore. He had already figured it out and just needed to hear it from her. But apparently Vicki had been hooking up with a coworker around the time that she got pregnant.

She had not anticipated that the baby would be his because they had only gotten together a couple of times and after that he moved away so she did not get to meet him again. She had just assumed that the baby would be my father’s. But now that it was not true, she could no longer lie about it. When my father found out the truth, he moved out of the house and started living away from her.

I was quite surprised because for everything I had always believed, at least they would be there for each other. A lot of things surprised me, but I had never taken her for a cheater. Although I can’t say that I’m surprised because a terrible person is always just an overall terrible person. My dad told me that she had not even bothered to try and reach out to talk to him after he left the house.

And he had finally come to the conclusion that since she was not going to reach out to him and he was not sure that he would be able to forgive her even if she did talk to him, the best thing for him to do was get a divorce. He said that he was not happy about it, but it was the only thing that he could do.

I felt bad for him, but was not sure any of this had anything to do with me. I thought maybe he was going to apologize for treating me badly all my life and try to be a better father, but I was wrong. Obviously, he was only talking to me because he wanted me to be his lawyer for free. I don’t even know why I had assumed that he would want to apologize to me.

He’s obviously not the type. He doesn’t even think that he did anything wrong. Anyway, I told him I would not do anything for him for free. And the best I could do for him was put him in touch with my co-workers and ask them to do this for him, but I was not going to do anything for him. I was not obligated to help him out.

And I was even offering to put him in touch with my co-workers as a favor. I was not even obliged to do that. The only reason I said that was because I did not want to get involved in this case myself. I told him that I was not willing to get involved and wished him luck, but he actually got upset with me.

He started fighting with me at the restaurant where we were having lunch that day and started accusing me of being ungrateful and told me that I was being a brat. I thought it was really unfair of him to accuse me of any of that because he had treated me really badly all my life and had never bothered to build a relationship with me.

He had even gone to the extent of calling me mentally unstable and jealous of Vicki. So, I had no reason to help him at this point. The only reason he approached me was because he thought I was going to do something for him for free. He then reminded me that he had been the one who had paid for me to get my degree. So, I owed this to him.

And then I decided to remind him that he had only agreed to do so because he thought that I was going to pay him back. So, it was not as if he was doing me a favor. He literally demanded that I help him out, but I just laughed in his face and walked out of the restaurant. Since then, he and my family have been relentlessly trying to get me to talk to him and keep trying to guilt trip me and manipulate me into helping him out.

I don’t even understand what to do right now. ITA for refusing to help my father for free after he cut me off and chose to believe my stepmom instead. Update one. Hey, so I have decided to cut my father off and also block all my relatives. It was getting way too toxic for me and they were constantly trying to pressure me into agreeing to help my father out.

I just told them that if they really want to help him out, maybe they should find him a lawyer instead of trying to bother me. And then I blocked all of them. I had only let them have access to me so far because they hadn’t exactly done anything wrong to me or so I believed. But not standing up for me even when I was a child was wrong enough.

Everybody let me get bullied and said nothing for ages. But now that my father is getting screwed over, everybody has something to say about it and they want to defend him. Double standards on another level altogether. But anyway, that’s none of my business now. And I just don’t care about any of this. I want to continue working peacefully and I just hope that they stay out of my life. Now, update two.

I heard from my cousin, who I’m still on good terms with, that my father has initiated a divorce, and he’s going with one of the top divorce lawyers in the country. I know it’s going to be expensive, so I can’t even understand why he would want to get it done for free. He has the money. He was just not willing to spend it and thought that if he could get my services for free, there would be nothing better than that.

He didn’t even apologize for anything, and he thought I would just let him walk all over me. Well, I earn my own money now and I don’t depend on him for anything. So, I am not going to be a doormat for him. Honestly, I’m kind of glad that this is happening to him and Vicki because after the way that they have been treating me my entire life, they totally deserve it.

In fact, I’m going to say it. They totally deserve each other as well. They’re a match made in heaven. Update three. Well, from what I have just heard, apparently the divorce is not happening anymore. My dad initiated a divorce about 2 weeks ago and suddenly my cousin just reached out to me to let me know that they have decided to work on their marriage and try to get through this.

They have canceled the divorce proceedings and are looking for a marriage counselor. I couldn’t even stop laughing when I heard that because oh my god that’s so ridiculous. I can’t imagine a self-respecting man who would stay with a woman like that. But I guess my dad doesn’t really have any self-respect. I’m just really happy that my cousin is on my side because otherwise I would not be getting any of the tea from my family.

Apparently, I am one of their favorite topics because they constantly keep talking about how ungrateful I am and how I did my father dirty. Nobody deserves a daughter like me. At least not somebody like my father. I agree with them. They certainly don’t deserve somebody like me. Update four. So, it has been almost a year since I last spoke to my father and I have not had any interaction with him since then.

From what I know, they have moved away and are raising their son with the help of Vicki and her family. They have relocated to Missouri to have a fresh start. And I’m really happy because this just means that they are far away from me. I recently received my first promotion and my life is going pretty well.

I have not been in touch with anybody from my family except for my cousin. I started dating one of my co-workers and things are going to develop with him. It has been 6 months and I feel like we are meant to be already. We have had a discussion about this and he also feels the same way towards me. So, I know that this is not one-sided.

This is the first time I actually felt loved by somebody and I feel giddy even talking about this, but I’m just really happy. It honestly feels like as soon as my dad and Vicki left the state, things started getting better for me. My career is going great. I have a steady boyfriend and I have friends who love me.

Maybe I don’t have a family, but my cousin is enough for me. Honestly, I’m doing really well. And that’s all I have to say. Thank you so much for showing so much concern about my situation and asking for updates even one year later. It just goes to show how sometimes people you don’t even know care more about you than your own family.

Thank you so much for all the support you guys have sent to me. I’ll never forget about any of this.