A woman has opened up about a frustrating family dilemma that has left her stuck in the middle of her husband and her younger brother.
Her 23-year-old brother, who is a college student, has a hearing disability, and she claims their parents spent $4,000 (£3,024) on a hearing aid device to make things easier for him.
During a visit to her parent's house, the woman's 32-year-old husband decided to play a cruel prank on the brother, hiding the hearing aid for hours before laughing as he eventually handed it back.
Unfortunately, she says the device got broken at some point during the 'joke', leaving the brother understandably distraught.
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Taking to Reddit, the woman explained that her husband hadn't been aware at the time "how delicate this type of device is and ended up breaking it while hiding it".
She continued: "My brother had a breakdown and started yelling at my husband and threatening him with court action if he doesn't pay up for a new hearing aid. My husband didn't think he was serious and laughed him off, I was mortified, to say the least".
"I told my brother to do it, sue my husband if he had to. My husband side-eyed me and said 'alright princess'".
Although her husband didn't initially take this threat seriously, he was in for a shock two days ago when it emerged that the brother was indeed intending to sue.
The poster - who goes by the username u/Dice-Rolls5537 - recalled how her husband had come home "full-on panicking" after realising the brother wasn't messing around, while she simply "shrugged and remained calm and collected".
He wasn't happy about this response at all.
She added: "He started yelling 'what the f**k' at my reaction then, urged me to call my brother and tell him to back down but I sad no, he did this to himself and deserves no sympathy or advocating from me".
"He was shocked, he yelled that it was just a prank with no intentions of hurting anyone then shamed me for not taking his side, moreover, he said that my brother only felt confident in suing him after I 'encouraged' him by telling him to go ahead and sue".
This resulted in an argument, after which the poster headed upstairs and remained in their room. She believes that it was at this point that he called her parents, as he later moaned about them choosing to stay out of the situation and allowing the brother to proceed with legal action.
The husband then went on to complain about how the court action would negatively affect them both, given that he doesn't have the sort of money her brother is claiming for. Things have only gotten more heated from this point on.
According to the poster: "This morning he blew up at me saying me and my family are a bunch of sad, pathetic a**hole who can't take a joke, and are willing to easily drag others to court and ruin their relationship with them over a couple of grand".
Many fellow Reddit users have shown support for the wife and her brother, with one commenter deadpanning: "I think you should prank your husband by hiding your vagina from him until he pays your brother the $4,000 he owes him".
Another wrote: "Deliberately hiding someone's hearing aid is not a prank. It's supposed to be fun for all parties, and this clearly was not. And to laugh at someone's face because they were freaked out about the fact that they couldn't hear? How cruel".
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