Unlike real gold, kids raised as “golden children” never turn out to be as pure as their parents see them. Growing up, my sister always got her way. No matter how nasty or irrational she acted towards me, she got away with it, because she was the golden, miracle child. It probably helped that my sister was stunningly beautiful. She had thick, curly hair and light eyes, and my mom spent a lifetime comparing our looks. I have dark eyes and straight hair, and I was never as pretty as my sister. My mom loved making comments comparing us, constantly telling me to try and dress like my sister or asking her to teach me makeup. But my sister would just bully me and make fun of me if I ever asked for help.
That’s how we grew up to be extremely resentful of each other. I think my sister just latched on to the worst traits we saw in our mother, while I rejected them. Being put on a pedestal her whole life for simply being beautiful turned her into a person who doesn’t care about anyone but herself. The way my mom compared us and put me down led to me having a lot of self-esteem issues. As an adult, I am very quiet and reserved, and some people describe me as a pushover. Recently, I have been going to therapy to try to grow a stronger spine.
The way my family treated me really messed me up. In her senior year of high school, my sister even pursued my boyfriend for no real reason. She never liked him and told me many times she thought he was unattractive. When my parents found out what had happened, they told me to “let bygones be bygones.” My sister wasn’t even reprimanded. That was a moment where I truly realized just how much they preferred her over me.
The one upside of being the “less attractive” sister meant that I had zero social life and spent all my time studying. I ended up graduating high school with a 4.0 and landed a full ride to my number one choice for university. This was great because my mom had told me she was paying for my sister’s college, but I would have to go to a community college and pay my own way. The day I landed my scholarship, I was so excited to tell my parents. I guess part of me was happy to have something my sister didn’t. When I rushed home and told them, all my dad said was, “Good job,” and my mom didn’t even look up from her phone. Then she ignored me for the entire week.
It was like she hated me for earning my scholarship when most parents would be excited. That’s when I started to understand just how alone I was. That night, I wrote in my journal until the sun rose. I was tired of being this sad little girl. I decided I was going to transform every ounce of rage I had into academic success. I was going to be stable, independent, intelligent, and educated. Even if I might never be loved.
And that’s exactly what I did. I graduated with honors, got a fantastic position at a company I interned for, and have been making six figures since I turned 23. Even as an adult, my mom still treated me like an unwanted guest. At Christmas dinner one year, when my uncle congratulated me on a promotion, my mom cut me off and said, “This is boring, can we change the conversation?” Then, under her breath, I heard her say, “It’s probably not even true, anyway.”
I ended up purchasing my house later that year. When I posted about it, everybody in my family liked the post except for my mom. I knew she was probably angry because my sister was having a completely opposite life experience. She had failed out of college and gotten pregnant by her first boyfriend. I had a sneaking suspicion my parents had asked her to terminate the pregnancy, but she kept the baby. That relationship didn’t last, and soon she had another child with another man in an equally toxic environment. My sister and I didn’t talk once we both moved out. The few times we would see each other, she would make nasty comments to me about my weight or the way I was dressing. She would even insult me right in front of her young kids.
I had just been relaxing in my house one weekend morning when my doorbell rang. I was completely shocked to see my sister’s ten and seven-year-old sons standing on my front porch, holding overnight bags. They said their mom was going on vacation for eight weeks and that she said I was watching them. I had no idea why she thought I would be her free babysitter for two months. My nephews were good, quiet kids who were obviously confused as well, so I let them inside while I started calling my sister.
She ignored my first ten calls, but I kept at it until she finally answered. As soon as she picked up, I said that there was no way I was watching her kids and that if she wasn’t here to pick them up, I would be calling Child Protective Services (CPS). I was literally googling the number while I had her on speaker when she dropped a bombshell on me. Her voice got incredibly deep and scary as she blackmailed me, saying that she would call my job and inform them that I was not taking my bipolar medication and get me fired.
My career was the most important thing to me, and I couldn’t risk anyone threatening my position there. I just hung up and tried to figure out what to do next. I had a trip planned in a month to go visit my long-distance boyfriend, Eric, all the way in Australia and meet his family for the first time. Now my life was thrown into chaos.
I had no idea who else to call other than my mom, and I shouldn’t have been surprised that she sided with my sister, just like she always had. She started guilting me, saying that my sister had done a lot for me and that I needed to be there for her. That made me lose my mind. I screamed at her, asking her to tell me one single time where my sister had been there for me. I demanded my mom visit me so that, worst-case scenario, I could leave her in my house as my nephews’ caretaker.
When my mom finally got to my place, she was as cold as ever. She lectured me about family being there in each other’s times of need. I demanded to know what kind of vacation was so important that my sister would abandon her kids. That’s when my mom’s face changed. Eventually, she admitted that my sister wasn’t just going on some vacation. She was actually being flown out by her sugar daddy.
I literally laughed when she said this, but her face was dead serious. I was so emotionally exhausted at that point. I told her that she had raised a complete loser of a daughter. My mom, of course, threw all my words back in my face and defended my sister. At one point, she even said that it didn’t matter how much money I had, I would always just be the ugly duckling compared to my sister.
After she said that, I screamed at my mom to get out of my house. She yelled back that she wasn’t going anywhere. When I tried directing her out of the room, she pushed me with all her strength into a coffee table. On it was one of my favorite vases, a gift from my boyfriend. It fell to the floor and broke into a bunch of little pieces. Looking at the shattered vase made me feel just as broken. I think I had a full-on mental breakdown and started screaming and crying at my mom to get out or I was calling the police on her.
After I finally managed to get my mom out, my nephews poked their heads out of their room and asked if everything was alright. Their eyes were so wide, and they looked so nervous and sad that it just broke my heart. They were just kids with a mess of a mother. I ordered food for all of us and let them watch movies and play video games in my living room until they passed out late.
When I finally got through to my sister again, I brought up CPS. She just gave me this sinister laugh and repeated her threat, hissing that she knew I was nothing without my job and that I would go back to being a loser without it. This stung me right in the heart. I was crying, asking her why she hated me so much and why she had abandoned her kids. She just said she was the type of woman who could make millions from a sugar daddy in two months, something I “never had to worry about.” We went back and forth until she literally hung up on me after a final threat.
My nephews were downstairs, so I had privacy upstairs and decided to call my boyfriend. I broke down, venting to him about all the details. Even though he is on the other side of the planet, Eric made me feel so loved and supported. He said that my sister was potentially committing multiple crimes and that I needed to get solid evidence of her actions. He suggested I contact her again and try to get her to repeat her threat, but this time, secretly record the conversation. He was 100% right.
I still wanted my nephews to feel comfortable and cared for. I knew what it felt like to be a child in a home where you weren’t wanted. I ended up going downstairs and playing a multiplayer video game with them for a little while, and it was really fun. I wasn’t expecting to bond with them after such a stressful weekend, but when we all ordered pizza together, I realized that I honestly loved the two little boys. They were nothing like their mom. They were both super polite, sweet, and funny.
As I was hanging out with them, I realized they both had holes in their socks and my older nephew’s clothes looked sort of small on him. I looked through the rest of the clothes my sister had packed and realized they were all either old or too small. I wasn’t surprised that my sister was a neglectful parent, and I decided to take my nephews to the mall for some new wardrobes.
I almost cried multiple times during that trip because my nephews completely came out of their shells and were so excited and happy. I just wanted them to feel like they could have anything they wanted. They left the mall that day with new clothes that looked great on them, and I had also bought them both Nintendo Switches. It was so hard not to spoil them. Both of them broke down crying and hugged me. I noticed the 10-year-old had started crying again during our ride home. I asked him if he was okay.
He looked at me through his tears and asked me why I was being so nice to them and why they deserved it. I told him that they deserved my kindness because they were my boys too, and that they were kids, and that alone meant they deserved to be happy. This only seemed to make him cry harder. He told me that he was feeling angry at his mom for keeping us apart. This broke my heart. My older and younger nephew both slowly started to open up to me about how much their mom poorly treated them at times. It was one thing to know it, but another to hear the pain in their voices.
When we got home, I cooked a big dinner for all of us. I left them alone in the living room to go call my sister again, ready to play out the plan my boyfriend had given me. This time, I tried my best to stay calm. It wasn’t difficult to steer the conversation towards the medical accusation. As soon as I brought up CPS again, my sister freaked out and threw the threat at my face, insisting I would be fired. She just kept telling me that nobody would believe a “crazy person” like me and that I didn’t deserve my job anyway. After I had gotten what I needed, I hung up. I had my sister recorded on audio, making false medical accusations to my employer.
The next morning, before they woke up, I called CPS as soon as the line opened and reported the entire situation. I explained how my sister had abandoned her children and how we were completely estranged. I even shared the recording. The agent I spoke to said that it was clear my sister was using blackmail to neglect her children and was certainly committing a litany of crimes. They would be opening an investigation immediately.
My mom ended up calling me the next day. I let it slip to her that I had called CPS and that my sister would finally pay. My mom hung up as soon as I said that. I was shaking. I knew that my mom would do anything to protect my sister and that she didn’t care about my nephews’ safety. There was absolutely no way that my mom wasn’t going to immediately contact my sister.
I had a sleepless night. The next morning, when I arrived at work, my receptionist informed me that my supervisor had scheduled an urgent meeting with me. I knew it was coming. I sat down in the meeting with my two supervisors and a higher-up I had never met before. Sure enough, they explained that they had been contacted by a “trusted source” within my family and had been informed that I was potentially unmedicated for a severe mental illness.
But neither they nor my sister knew how prepared I was. I took out my briefcase and gave all of the supervisors a copy of my doctor’s letter, as well as attached documentation that proved I had been diligently following my medication regimen. There was proof going back almost five years that I had never missed a prescription pickup date. I had verification from my primary care physician, my therapist, and my psychiatrist. I gave my supervisors a concise explanation of the issues within my family and informed them that the claims were completely unfounded.
As soon as they saw that I had medical evidence from multiple doctors, they seemed completely satisfied and even apologized to me for the inconvenience. One supervisor even took the opportunity to congratulate me on my successful quarter, which made me look excellent.
I called my sister as soon as I got back to my car. I almost cried laughing as I told her how her moronic plan had been a complete bust. My sister was enraged and accused me of lying. I told her that she had failed at trying to get me fired, just like she had failed at everything else in her life. She lost it all over again, calling me every name in the book, and said that she was hopping on the first plane back to make me regret everything.
I was still laughing after the call, but by the time I got home, I realized that this whole situation was far from over. My sister was completely out of her mind and now she was flying home from another country to get revenge. I started to fear for my safety.
The next day was a complete show. I was awoken by someone pounding on my door. When I opened it, there was my sister, next to a guy who had to be maybe 6’5″ and weighed almost 300 pounds. He was gigantic. I could barely see my mom standing right behind him. Before I could even open my mouth, the man put his hand on my shoulder and shoved me down with all his might. My sister, my mom, and the stranger all made their way inside my house.
I immediately started screaming at my sister for bringing a stranger to my house, but he seemed to speak only Russian. I realized that my sister had beat CPS to my house. They had been scheduled to come around 11:00 a.m. that day, but my sister had busted my door down at 8:00 a.m. My nephews had been woken up by all the commotion. I tried to get in between them and protect them from the stranger, but my sister barked at the man to go put my nephews in the car. It was complete chaos. Both my nephews started asking my sister to leave them with me. I tried again to pull my oldest nephew out of the huge stranger’s arms, but this time he grabbed my head and threw it into the wall. I saw stars as I sank to the floor and watched him carry my two little nephews out of my house. There was nothing I could do. My mom was crying too, but she left with them. Before they all walked out, my sister walked over to me, and when I looked up at her, she spit at me, square in the face. It was the most disgusting thing anyone’s ever done to me.
After I calmed down from my anxiety attack, I immediately called the police. It turned out they were already aware of the ongoing investigation. I gave them all the details of what had just transpired. My voice was shaking, but I racked my mind to try to remember the image of the license plate. Luckily, I managed to remember every single number and letter.
I spent the next hours in a daze. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I just kept seeing my little nephews’ faces. Finally, I got a call back from the police. They had found the Suburban. The officer told me that they had three different police cars on the scene. Sure enough, even with firearms drawn on him, the man ran forward to attack an officer and ended up getting hit in the thigh. He had punched two officers in the head and given a female officer a black eye. My sister had also physically attacked the officer who had tried to put handcuffs on her.
The officer then told me that my sister actually wanted to speak to me, to use her one call on me. I asked if he thought she was going to ask for bail money. He was honest and said yes. I told the officer that I wasn’t even going to take her call and that she could rot in there for all I cared.
Even though my sister was finally behind bars, my nephews were in CPS protection. I only had a week until my Australia trip. If I didn’t go, I would be losing thousands of dollars. And as I had mentioned, if I canceled, it would have looked extremely disrespectful to my boyfriend’s family. I called CPS to check on my nephews, but they wouldn’t let me speak with them.
My time in Australia ended up going amazingly. I hadn’t seen my boyfriend in months, and being back in his arms made me feel so healed. Meeting his family went excellently. We did a lot of sightseeing together. At one point, my boyfriend took me on a hike just the two of us to his favorite secret waterfall. It was one of the most romantic days of my life.
When I got home, the nightmare with my sister resumed. I went to the local police station to officially press charges against not only my sister but also my mom for breaking and entering. I learned that the CPS investigation into my sister was ongoing. I kept worrying about my nephews’ safety.
About a month after my sister’s arrest, CPS finally came to a conclusion. They had made a decision to officially remove both my nephews from my sister’s custody and put them in protective care. The agent told me that it now meant my sister would have to go to court if she ever wanted custody back. I asked if it was likely she would win. The agent told me it depends if any other, more fitting relatives would show up. I knew immediately that that was what I was going to do.
I opened a separate court case to try to win custody of my nephews. Before that even started, the case I had against my sister for breaking and entering was the first to begin. I know some people might judge me for taking my own sister to court, but I figured I should follow the law if I ever wanted custody of my nephews. That was my only goal.
On the first day of our trial, I saw my sister in court. Eventually, the judge mentioned that I had opened a custody case against her. I guess my sister’s public defender hadn’t informed her. After the judge let the news slip, my sister completely snapped. She screamed my name and then pounced on me like some sort of crazed hyena, clawing and scratching at my face. It didn’t take long for the bailiff to pull her off, but she managed to bite down extremely hard on my forearm.
It took almost two years for all of the criminal charges against my sister to pass and for her to finally get locked up for good. She was serving a long sentence, thanks to all of her crimes stacked on top of each other. The only way my mom managed to stay out of prison was by testifying against my sister in court and throwing her under the bus. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such sweet satisfaction as watching my mom blame my sister for everything that had happened, while sobbing her usual crocodile tears. Looking up at my mom on the stand that day, I knew it was the last time I ever wanted to see her.
The custody battle for my nephews dragged on. Their birthfather and his family began fighting me in court. But I didn’t care. It took almost two years of legal battles, but eventually, I won full custody over my boys and brought my nephews back home.
I will never forget how big they smiled and how tight they hugged me when they came home and found the bedrooms I had decorated for them. I walked into my youngest nephew’s bedroom, and he ran to me to show me his rediscovered Switch. I surprised him with his little plush doggy and caught him in a tight hug. The next thing I knew, my eldest nephew joined us, and both boys cried into my hair and told me how much they missed me. My eldest boy looked up at me, smiled with his big eyes full of tears, and just said, “I knew it, Auntie. I just knew you would come back for us one day.
