Sometimes, we get caught up in the moment and allow our tempers to get the best of us when someone hurts us. It's only after the fact that we learn the true gravity of our revenge. The people in the following stories shared how they later learn to regret the actions they took when trying to get back at a friend, spouse, or family member.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
He Ended Up Losing More Than A Fiancée
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“During a rough patch with my (now ex) fiancé, he admitted to me that he had been cheating on me and was involved with someone else. At the time, he was the General Manager of a company that was being sold, but none of the employees knew, as the company needed to be up and operating through the sale, at which time everyone would be out of a job, including him. But he was getting some big money for his efforts.
When he came clean about the cheating, I went out and had drinks with a friend. I came home that night and called everyone’s voice mail and left a message with the details of what was happening to their jobs and the company. It was a complete mutiny the next day.”
You Have To Watch Out For Those Morality Clauses
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“I screen-capped photos from my wife’s lover’s Facebook and sent them to the school administration because he was a teacher, and posting pictures of your student’s test then making fun of them is not cool at all.
He was fired at the end of the year.
After his dismissal, I divorced my wife and got her removed from her position at a daycare because it was a church-based facility with morality clauses for employment. All it took was a conversation with the pastor and she was phased out at the first available opportunity.”
‘Where’s Your Dad?’
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“There was this kid I went to school with, let’s call him B, who used to be my friend when younger, but would pick on me every chance he could get after middle school. He became the typical bully that though he was better than anyone. B would do things like wait for me to leave my backpack unattended and empty it off the second-floor hallway, run by and stab me with pens or pencils, as well as insulting comments. B never knew his dad either which used to make me feel sorry for him.
So halfway through my junior year of high school, B started making fun of the fact that my grandmother recently passed away. ‘She died to get away from you,’ he would say. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I finally said, ‘At least her final words to me were that she loved me. Where’s your dad? Oh, that’s right, he purposefully left you.’
He got angry and jumped on my back. I tried to get him off of me, and a few of my friends even came in and tried to help, but he wouldn’t get off. Eventually, a huge crowd gathered and I was getting more embarrassed and more frustrated. I got an idea. I got up on top of these huge picnic tables the school had and just grabbed his hands around my neck to make sure he couldn’t get off and told him to have fun before I fell backward onto the ground. I’ve never heard those sounds before.
He ended up breaking ribs, bit part of his tongue off, broke his arm, and lost a bunch of teeth. I was fine except for a bruise around my neck.”
Don’t Handle Rejection Like This
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“I was interested in dating a guy in high school. We made out a few times at parties but he didn’t want to be my boyfriend. Apparently, he was more interested in my friend. I was really angry about this, so when his parents went out of town, and he threw a party, I decided it would be funny to teach him a lesson, and invite a bunch of random people to crash it. His house was totaled. Walls were smashed in, there was graffiti everywhere, carpets had paint thrown on them. Needless to say, this wasn’t what I had in mind. I thought a few groups of extra people rocking up would be a hassle for him, maybe the cops would get called, but not what happened.
Monday rolled around, and I saw him standing at the local shops carrying a suitcase and his skateboard. His parents kicked him out of the house.
I never told him what I did and I never found out who the people were that trashed the house, but I always remembered and always regretted putting out the open invite.”
From Best Friend To Jail Bird
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“My best friend slept with my son’s father while I was pregnant. I was in a relationship with my son’s father at the time and we had been dating for about three years before this. Obviously, that ended as soon as I found out.
Then she got hooked on speed and went to prison. I had been helping her mother care for her daughters, writing her each week, visiting her twice a week, putting money on her books… everything.
I wrote her and told her when I had found out and then cut all contact. The only thing I continued to do was help care for her daughters. I cut off all emotional support when she needed it the most. Even when she was transferred to the federal system and went states away. I returned all of her letters and refused all phone calls.
She was released a year or so ago, and I did not pick her up as originally planned. When she showed up at my house to collect her daughters, they were afraid of her. Now, I feel like I may have been too mean. She wasn’t thinking properly when she decided to sleep with my son’s father, and I wasn’t a very good friend when it counted. Either way, we are speaking terms again, but I keep her at arm’s length. We mostly just communicate for her children’s sake.”
When Red Hot Tempers Explode
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“I was 11, my older brother was 16. We would fight and argue, but one time I was running up the stairs away from him and he whipped the back of my legs with a long rubber chew toy. It left a pretty big, figure-8-shaped welt on my legs. I knew he was faster and stronger than me, and I knew if I tried to attack him he’d stop me. So, I grabbed a flathead screwdriver and held it over the stove until it was red hot. I ran up to him and very openly went to stab him, knowing he’d stop me. He grabbed my wrist to stop my thrust (as anticipated), and I pushed the red-hot head of it into his forearm as hard as I could.
He had a scar for years. I will never forget the sound of his scream; I felt terrible.
Man, I was a jerk as a kid.”
It Kind Of Snowballed Into A Disaster
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“My first serious long-term girlfriend cheated on me. We both knew her mom was cheating on her dad, but she was closer to her mother and never told him.
One day, I was angry and believed she only cheated on me because her mom was doing it, resulting in me texting her dad telling him that his wife was cheating on him. He didn’t tell her at first. He caught the guy and his wife together, almost killed the both of them, and went to jail.
I’m pretty sure they finished up their divorce recently and the husband still has some legal issues.”
“Why Don’t You Join Your Mom?”
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“In middle school, my good friend’s mom died. We lived in a very religious town, but her family was not particularly religious.
A few weeks after the funeral, my friend started acting strangely towards me. She would call me a see-you-next-Tuesday when she walked past me in the hallway at school. She’d give me the finger and she started turning everyone against me. I had no clue why.
One day, my best friend and I were walking home after school and this friend almost hit me with her bike, started calling me names and swore at me. Before I could even think, I blurted out, ‘Why don’t you go join your mom… IN HELL!’ As soon as I said it, I regretted it. Years later in high school, I had the opportunity to apologize to her and she accepted. I really shouldn’t have said that… I still feel bad more than 20 years later.”
A Little Payback After Years Of Abuse
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“My sister used to beat me up on the regular. She had major anger issues and would go berserk over the littlest things.
One time, I turned the light on while she was trying to sleep, she beat me up, and I ended up going to prom covered in bruises. All through the years, I never hit her back. I was a super sensitive kid.
After I graduated, she calmed down a bit, but still had issues. Coming back from a small party one night, she was back to her old games, just getting mad over something stupid and going totally crazy over it. We got home and got out of the car and I said that I was driving home. She kept saying that I drank too much even though I’d only had a few drinks. She grabbed the back of my shirt, and I so angry that I turned around really fast with my fist out to hit her. She immediately let out a blood-piercing scream and dropped to the ground. Blood was spurting everywhere. She left a trail as she ran inside and woke up our mom and dad.
I broke her nose pretty bad, but my mom and dad kept saying it couldn’t be that bad because I had done it, and that she must have really been messing with me for me to have done something like that. I felt awful. I cried and tried to say sorry, but she ended up going to the hospital.
I don’t feel too bad now because she purposely never paid the bill, thinking she could bully me into paying it, and she never let it go. She always says I’m the reason her credit is bad, and that she still has collections agencies calling her over the medical bills.”
He Totally Misjudged This Situation
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“A friend of mine joined this group of social justice warriors that made it their mission to make fun of anyone that never agreed with them; they saw everyone in town as a bunch of hillbilly rednecks. He always joined in with the taunting and verbal abuse when I met with them, which sucked even more as our lockers were together. He reasoned to me that because he came out of the closet, he should not be with a negative crowd and that he joined the new group because they accepted him for who he was. I have no idea what he meant with a negative crowd, but I think it was because we weren’t treating him like a hero for coming out, as we knew several gay classmates and we even had gay teachers.
I gave up talking to him, and a couple of months later, I got a job at this restaurant in a mall; the owner was a bit racist and a gigantic homophobe. I never cared about it; I just wanted money for an XBOX 360.
Summer came and the owner needed more employees because of increased customers. He was holding a resume of my former friend. I later noticed that there were also resumes of his new friends. The owner saw me looking and asked me if I knew any of them and I said yes. This is the moment I regret and I wished I could go back and redo differently, I hated myself for doing it and I always blamed my naivety and stupidity for being so malicious.
I told the owner that he was gay and his friends were also trying to apply. The owner immediately threw the resumes out. After going back to school, I learned that they were trying to raise money for a trip. It never happened and I always knew it was because of me. We never talked again and it pained me to have done to him.”