My Pregnant Step Sister Tried To Destroy My Husband’s Career Because He Rejected Her.

The Discovery of the Old Phone

Update two. The situation has gotten even more complicated over the past few weeks.

Shannon is still living with us because of the constant pressure from my family. Last weekend, while helping her move some boxes in her room to make space for the baby furniture Clare bought her, I found her old phone tucked away in a shoe box.

It was an iPhone she used before upgrading last, and I remembered she had complained about losing it during her separation from Tobias. I know I shouldn’t have invaded her privacy, but after everything that happened, I felt I needed to know the whole truth.

The phone still had power and Shannon had never changed her password; it was still her birth year. What I found on that phone made me feel sick to my stomach.

There were dozens of inappropriate message threads with married men in our social circle spanning the last three years. She had explicit conversations with our neighbor John’s husband, Mike, my cousin Peter’s husband, James, and even my friend Sarah’s ex-husband, Tom.

The messages showed a clear pattern. She would start with friendly texts, then slowly make them more suggestive, eventually sending inappropriate photos and trying to arrange meetups.

The most shocking discovery was a series of messages with her previous roommate’s husband, Mark. This was from the period when she first separated from Tobias and was living with her friend Amy.

The messages showed Shannon had tried the exact same tactic she used with David. She flirted with Mark constantly, then when he firmly rejected her, she started telling Amy that Mark was making her uncomfortable.

The messages ended abruptly around the time Shannon had suddenly moved out of their place, claiming Amy and Mark were being mean to her. I spent hours taking photos of everything as evidence.

I found messages where Shannon bragged to her friend about how easy it was to manipulate people into believing her stories. She joked about: “How she could always play the victim card and everyone would take her side.”

Connecting the Victims

It was disturbing to see how calculated everything was. The most eye-opening conversation was with Sarah.

I hadn’t spoken to her much since her divorce two years ago. Sarah had always been vague about why she and Tom split up.

When I reached out to her with what I had found, she broke down and told me everything. Shannon had managed to cause serious problems in their marriage during a period when she was staying with them after a fight with Tobias.

Sarah had caught Shannon trying to kiss Tom, but when she confronted them, Shannon had turned it around and accused Tom of harassing her. Their marriage couldn’t survive the stress and trust issues that followed.

I also found messages proving that Shannon knew about Jake, Tobias’s coworker, long before the supposed cheating discovery. They had been planning their affair for months.

Shannon had even helped Jake create a fake email account to send anonymous tips to Tobias’s workplace about his supposed misconduct. It was all part of their plan to discredit Tobias before he could expose their affair.

The most recent messages on the phone were with Clare from just before Shannon moved in with us. They were discussing how Shannon could save money by staying with us, with Clare suggesting: “Shannon should play up the pregnancy angle to gain sympathy.”

There were even messages where they talked about: “How David seemed like an easy target because he was always trying to be nice to everyone.”

I showed everything to David and he was both relieved and horrified. Relieved because we finally had solid proof of Shannon’s pattern of behavior, but horrified at how long she had been manipulating everyone around us.

We’re documenting everything and have contacted our lawyer again. The evidence from the phone might help us fight back against her accusations.

I haven’t confronted Shannon about the phone yet. She hasn’t even noticed it’s missing from her old belongings.

I’m gathering more evidence and trying to contact other people she’s hurt before I make my next move. David thinks we should take everything directly to my dad, but I want to make sure we have the full picture first.

The Family Dinner Confrontation

Update three. I finally hit my breaking point last week.

After collecting all the evidence and speaking with several people Shannon had hurt over the years, I decided to confront everything head-on. My dad was hosting a family dinner to try to mediate the situation between all of us.

He still wasn’t talking to David directly, but he had started responding to my texts at least. I spent days organizing all the evidence I had.

Everything was printed out: the messages from Shannon’s old phone, Tobias’s security camera footage, statements from Sarah and her former roommate Amy, and even messages from other victims who had reached out to me after hearing what happened. I also had a signed statement from Tobias explaining everything about their divorce and Shannon’s affair with Jake.

When we arrived at my dad’s house, Shannon was already there with Clare. She was showing off her baby bump and talking about how stressful everything had been with David and me harassing her.

Clare was hovering around her protectively, shooting dirty looks at David whenever he moved. Even my dad seemed uncomfortable with the tension in the room.

I waited until everyone had finished eating. Shannon was in the middle of telling everyone how David and I were trying to force her to change her story when I stood up and placed the folder of evidence on the table.

I started by playing the recording of Shannon confessing to lying about David. The look on everyone’s faces as they heard her admit to making up the accusations because David rejected her was something I’ll never forget.

Then I showed them the messages from her old phone. The explicit conversations with married men, the plans she made with Jake while still married to Tobias, the messages where she bragged about manipulating people.

I had everything organized chronologically, showing her pattern of behavior over the years. I even had statements from Mike and James’s wives about how Shannon had tried to cause problems in their marriages.

Sarah was there too. I had asked her to come and share her story.

She told everyone how Shannon had systematically tried to destroy her marriage. She told how Shannon had twisted everything around to make herself look like the victim when Sarah caught her making advances on Tom.

Amy shared her story via video call, explaining how Shannon had tried the same tactics with her husband, Mark. Shannon started crying immediately, trying to play the victim again, but this time I had too much evidence.

When she tried to claim I was making everything up, I pulled out her old phone right there and showed everyone it was all real. She tried to grab the phone from me, which only made her look more guilty.