If you know someone's secret, by it's own definition, it's no longer a secret. So, wouldn't that mean the rest of the world can already know this piece of information? Thankfully, the internet is more than willing to provide outlets for people to log-on and divulge the one tidbit they imagined they would have died before sharing.
Reddit user, u/Raliuus, wanted to know what the secrets already out there when they asked:
Not Who They Think
Two of my cousins were conceived via sperm donor.
They think their dad is their biological father and they are adults now.
What I Do With My Own Money Is My Own Business
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I'm rich as f-ck.
Family thinks I'm not doing well and I want to keep it that way, as soon as they hear anything about money they come and leech it away and use it for drugs and sh-t. I dont live fancy, I bought a nice one bedroom apartment where I live with my 2 cats, Peanut and Pipsqueek. I have a nice computer and a normal car. I just save my money or donate it to random charities every now and then.
Just Be Honest?
A friend who is outwardly happily married pulled me aside before the wedding, at which I was a groomsman, to have a word. I thought he was just having cold feet, so I rather jocularly told asked him if staring down the barrel of a life sentence had got him looking for the door.
Well, he got extremely serious and said that I was right, because he's gay and can't ever truly love his soon-to-be wife the way he should. This was a confident, swaggering dude who I thought would punch a lion in the face if it looked at him the wrong way. The kind of dude who conveys with his posture that he means business, and his business is being awesome. I always thought of him as the man with a plan, who never got flustered and always had the right answer to our silly problems. And here he was in front of me, quaking and filled with terror because he knew that he had gotten himself into a real jam by being dishonest with himself and those he cared about. I hated it. It was like watching my dad get beat up.
My advice was to be honest with his fiancee, and to talk to her before the ceremony about it. That no one would blame him, that this happens, and that while it was painful now he would be respected in the long term for being upfront and preventing further hurt. He left me saying that he would do so.
He came back 30 minutes later pale and sweaty, and told us all the ceremony was still on. It was, and they got married and we all toasted their future while he shot me pained looks all night long–looks that gradually faded the more he drank and lost himself in the celebration.
They've been married for 5 years, and have a kid. They look happy. I hope they are. It's not for me to say anything, but I will be there for both of them when he spills the beans.
"Lost To Dementia"
My mother told me, and only me, about the fact that my dad cheated on her years ago. He traveled for his job and one day a letter came addressed to him that was mangled. My mother would never open mail or pry, but this letter started with "Dearest love" - she could only see it because the mail sorter had ripped it.
I don't know the full details, as my mom did not share them all. I don't know why she decided to tell me and not my other 4 siblings. She said she decided to stay with dad because she had 5 children and didn't think she could make it alone. She loves him still at age 83, but did also say about 20 years ago that she should never have stayed with him and should have left him after the first baby. I love both my parents and my family, so I will never share this. It will go to her grave with her as she probably no longer remembers it - lost to dementia as are so many of her memories. Dad takes care of her to the best of his ability and they still live together. Mom still has her house she loves.
One I've Never Known
My mother only told me when I was an adult, that I had an older half-brother who was given up for adoption.
I grew up with the identity of being the eldest sibling, and she asked me not to tell my other siblings. We had a very stable and loving childhood, but it's odd to view things through that lens and wonder who this person is. I now carry that weight (guilt?), because I'm torn between honoring her wish, and feeling like I'm deceiving my own siblings. What would you do?
How Often Does This Happen?
We may have intentionally sabotaged an asset worth more money than everyone that reads this thread's lifetime income combined, because it was malfunctioning and the contractor refused to acknowledge it needed replacement. We forced the issue.
They replaced it.
Guessing military crap.
I used to be one of the contractors.
Sabotage was such a common way to get upgrades I suspect it's damn near taught.
Want the computers replaced but you aren't due for 3 more years? No worries, ensure the pc is on, whip out the angle grinder and start grinding whatever metal crap you can find in front of the air intake.
Weird. Whole rack is dead. No idea how that happened... Guess it's time for a full refit....
We all knew. We just didn't care.
Haven't Done That Since I Was A Baby
When I was a teenager, I got really drunk and my friend dared me to take a sh-t in someone's front garden. I did. Months later my mother moved into the house and the sh-t was still in the garden, she went mad about people not cleaning up after their dogs.
My mother cleaned my sh-t out of her garden.
A Batch Of Letters For The Ages
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I know what my grandmother tossed into the well in her back yard before it was boarded up.
It was a box of "love letters" she discovered - written by my grandfather's girlfriend. (Since she never knew of his affair, I think it broke her heart. Part of her went down that well with those letters.)
She Was Already Gone
There's part of me that's always felt so guilty about this, but the other part of me thinks that I did the right thing. When my mother-in-law was in hospice and dying, we had gotten the call that her last rights were being read to her and we should come because it was very close. The family gathered in her room, my father in law(her husband of 42 years) had been by her side and hadn't left for days. We were there for hours, my sister in laws had to take there kids home at some point, so they had left and it was just my husband, me, and my FIL left.
The nurses were saying that they might have spoken to soon because she was still hanging on, it was awful to watch. My FIL looked ragged and tired and he said he was just going to go to the other floor for a cup of coffee, my husband went with him. I said I would call if something changed but he was only going to be gone for 15 minutes maybe. About 5 minutes after they left my MIL really started to have very labored breathing, I called the nurse to see what was happening and by the time she came to the room (maybe 2 minutes) she had past.
I asked the nurse to wait for me to get my FIL and husband back to the room to pronounce her dead. They rushed back and my FIL held her and after a minute the nurse and doctor pronounced. My FIL believes he made it back to the room and was holding her while she left this life, I have never told him or my husband. Only me and that sweet nurse know she was already gone. I have debated telling my husband this but he's always said he was comforted by watching his dad hold his mom when she died.
I know I will never tell my FIL this, when he talks about her he always mentions how he was there for that moment and I don't want to take that away from him. It would crush him. Part of me thinks she waited for everyone to leave the room so they didn't have to actually see her go, she was always worried about everybody else. I've never told anyone.
