Abby Connolly
Sometimes, when a family member incredibly mistreats you, it can feel impossible to forgive them, no matter the circumstances.
One teenager’s stepsister was recently diagnosed with cancer, and her parents need help caring for her. However, she refuses to because of the way her stepsister treated her when they were kids.
When she was seven, her dad passed away, and her mom eventually met and married a new man named Mark two years later. Mark has a daughter named Olivia, who’s the same age as her.
“Olivia and I did not have a good start to our relationship,” she explained.
“I was grieving my dad [and] she was feeling abandoned by her mom who walked out of her life and was angry that her dad wanted to date someone else.”
She found out that Olivia had not taken her parents’ split well and would take it out on other people. For instance, Mark had a girlfriend with two young kids before marrying her mom, but that girlfriend ran off because Olivia wouldn’t stop bullying her kids.
Unfortunately, even though they became stepsisters, Olivia chose to bully her as well. Olivia teased her about her looks and once even fed a signed photo of her and her late dad to their dog.
As she got older, she began retaliating against Olivia, creating years of ugly sibling drama. Her mom encouraged her to go to therapy, so she eventually stopped trying to get revenge on Olivia and decided she would never see her as a sister.
Her mom tried to get her to keep an open heart, but Olivia had tormented her to the point where she saw their relationship unsalvageable.
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