So I need to vent. This last year turned life upside down for my husband and I. And we are attempting to rebuild all we lost, and it’s been so so hard.

A mini backstory. My husband worked for his mom and steps dads company. It was a small company and he made good money. He was there 11 years. Until last January when his step dad out of nowhere left his mom. The insane drama that entangled us was something we’ve never expected. At first his step dad said my husband still had his job. But a few months in, his step dad stopped taking to my husband and and filed a lawsuit against us. It was a slap in the face and so confusing coming from a man my husband looked to as a father figure.

While we were dealing with ourselves my husbands mom was leaning on my husband in a scary way. We were helping her through suicidal thoughts, and having to take her step by step while her life was falling apart. She was hurting, but put so much on my husband that he was Incapable of helping with, but felt he had no choice but to try. Which ultimately made our own problems take a back seat.

My husband was ultimately fired and his step dad withheld his last paycheck and final sick pay and vacation days for three months claiming that my husband “stole” which wasn’t true. He also was supposed to get severance and we never got it. So we went from my husband being the bread winner to draining our saving and me pushing to work more hours myself all while needing to be tangled with his moms divorce.

To make matters more complicated, even though my husband was fired he was still a board member and owned a percentage of the company (even though his step dad said non of that was true) Everything became a mess. It was the ugliest darkest divorce ever. And I just had to take a back seat and be apart of the ride.

My husband was used by his mom to help her have the upper hand when it came to the business during the divorce. Plus needed him for every single decision she had to make. She lived with us off and on until she got her own place (picture a one bedroom apartment with the one bathroom in the bedroom, with mil sleeping in the living room) When she wasn’t with us she called my husband one to no joke 10 times a day in a panic. Often these calls would last hours. When I was overwhelmed I had to keep reminding myself that she was depressed, and the man who left her was manipulative and she has been emotionally abused. We pushed for 7 months for her to go to therapy because we were not capable of helping her. In any aspect. We did what we could, but if ultimately led to our downfall.

This divorce has been going on for over a year now and still isn’t finalized. We’ve drained or savings because my husband has been in and out of courts, lawyers offices, and helping his mom. We’ve lost our home and can barely cover bills. His mom is very unaware of just how much damage this has caused us. My husband and I have had some dark times due to the stress, and ultimately we are angry that this happened to us. Wasn’t even our divorce and we were used in the middle of it and drained financially.

To top it all off, the month his step dad left his mom was our first month of trying to get pregnant. We were ready to be parents. But the stress of that year never made that possible for us. Which is something I’m very bitter about.

I don’t know where we go from here. I feel like we need therapy because this experience has been traumatic. And it’s not even over. Anyway, I just needed to blab that out, get it off my chest.

EDIT: our money was drained because we were in personal lawsuits my husbands step dad filed on us and involved in multiple ones for the business since my husband was a board member and owned part of the company. So all our savings went to two lawyers retainers. My husband was in and out of court almost every day making it impossible for him to find work at the time. Just now he has work, but we are in debt because of all those lawyer bills and since we didn’t get our promised severance. No money was given to my MIL