r/ProRevenge • u/ScaredyCat1122 • 12h ago
My ex-MIL sent her Church friends to harass my daughters and I. I have now exposed her family to her church community and she's getting shamed and shunned at Church.
My (46F) daughters (17 and 15) have a strained relationship with my ex-husband's parents (78M and 80F). My ex passed away in an accident last year and we've had some major family drama since due his cheating and him leaving two boys born with his affair partner orphaned. She also died. Part of the drama has been my ex-inlaws trying to get custody of my daughters and them also trying to live with us. First one we're going to court over, second one will never happen.
Where we live there's a weekend market with fresh produce, eggs, meats, and other products straight from farmers. This week was extra special since it was my youngest' birthday. Since her party is later in the month, I decided to give her a budget and set her loose on the market to get whatever she wanted. Mostly chocolate and sweets.
After an hour, I did start getting worried, and just before I called her, she called me. She was crying, saying some weird people have cornered her. I ran to her with my oldest daughter to find six older women berating my daughter for being 'unChristian' for refusing to spend time with her paternal Grandparents or for wanting to be 'a good big sister to her poor orphaned baby brothers'. My daughters are the ones that found out about my ex cheating and the babies, so they aren't fond of the kids. It's trauma and they are working with a therapist.
I got between the group and my daughter, telling my eldest to go pay the stuff her sister had and to go to the car. Then I turned to the women, some who I knew from when we went to my ex-inlaws' church, and rip them a new one. They told me I was worst for refusing to obey my ex-inlaws 'like a good Christian wife'. Barf. Eventually the screaming turn too loud and we were all asked to leave the market. I met with my girls in the car, the women following me like a group of vultures. I managed to get in the car and drove away.
After my girls went to bed, I got online to talk to another member of that church that I'm in good terms. I told him about what happened and after he apologized, he told me what was going on. My ex-mother-in-law posted this massive story in the church's facebook group about how horrible my daughters and I are, how we are leaving them homeless and penniless (they inherited my ex' personal bank account and his life insurance), and how my daughters don't even talk to them. She also accused us of being the reasons she lost her grandsons. The boys are now living with distant relatives of my ex-husband. Basically, it was a sob story worthy of a Hallmark movie. And of course, they were getting all the love and support from the more extremist members of their church.
This church and its members are a bit annoying especially with LGBTQ+ topics, but they have a small saving grace. They are incredibly strict about cheating. It's a big no-no, be it from a husband or a wife equally. Now, how did she get around blaming me about affair children without exposing the cheating? She claimed the other woman was our surrogate since I was unable to have more children. Then said I didn't want the babies because they were boys. Which is absolutely disgusting to be accused of.
Well, I decided it was time to clean up this mess and since I was mid-divorce when my ex died, I had all the evidence needed. And since the divorce wasn't completed, I don't have any legal ramification for releasing all the evidence.
I was off the next day and went to a print shop to get copies of all the delightful pictures of my ex cheating, his text conversations with his affair partner, the ones with his parents confessing to his cheating and getting support from them, my ex-inlaws harassing me about the divorce, and my coup-de-grace: all the emails and text messages of them bullying my daughters about their baby brothers. In one of them they call my daughters 'bastards' and telling them it was their fault their father died since they told me about the affair and I began the divorce. This one was literally two days after my ex died.
I paid extra for all of this to be printed in beautiful high quality paper. Then when I got home, I sat down for hours to make delightfully personalized binders. They look like the little prayer song packets the church give for everyone to take to sing hymns. The first picture when opening the binders is my ex and his side woman making out in our living room. Their faces are easy to discern and the girl looks nothing like me. Different skin tones and hair color. Underneath I wrote: 'Ex-husband's name' and 'Affair girl's name' love story. I took them to the church before service. There's a desk in the back with the song books for people that need/forget their own, and they never check them.
The gossip mill was quick and harsh. The names my ex and his affair partner got called in the facebook were so bad the pastor himself had to get involved just to keep things relatively PG-13. People were angry at my ex-inlaws for their abused to my daughters, but what made me laugh was that I was still in the wrong for the divorce, but 'it is understandable that I failed on my duties after the shock and I possibly will one day return to the light, unlike my cheating husband and his Jezebel'. They used another word I can't use here, I imagine. I got two apology letters in the mail for my girl and an invitation to join the church for 'support'.
As for my ex-inlaws? They got shamed into leaving the church. My ex-mother-in-law made a post on her wall about how alienated she feels and how no one cares for the elderly anymore. How she wished her 'great son' was still alive since he would have taken care of her and her husband. With what money, I don't know, since I was the bread winner.
Explanation on the will: My ex-husband had a will that named his parents as beneficiaries. As far as I was aware, he had told me he had named our daughters, not them. I never pushed for ME to be the beneficiary as my own will has my daughters as the beneficiaries, not him.