The world is full of secrets. We live our lives surrounded by information that we aren't supposed to know; things that other people don't want us to be aware of. Perhaps we overhear a private conversation or read something on accident that wasn't meant for us. Or maybe we actively seek out a secret and are successful in uncovering it.
Some people even consider the act of revealing secrets a full-fledged addiction. The stories that follow are told by people who want to share the secret they learned with the world, to unburden themselves of carrying it alone.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Framed By Father
This was in the '90s. Remember having a family computer? My little sister got caught looking at sensitive content and my dad installed a tracker. The tracker caught a few websites and my sister got in trouble for them. But my sister was hanging out with me at all of the times listed by the tracker. and my dad was the only one who knew her password. So we concluded that our dad used her computer account to watch sensitive content and then framed her for it.
#2 Criminal Mother Dearest
My dad told me that my mom had embezzled a lot of money from the places she used to work. They both also indulged in illict substances. My dad claimed he did it for recreation and could stop any time. My mom was different, however, and he claimed that she could not live without it. Such explains her "fits of rage" growing up. I asked my dad how my mom never got caught and he wouldn't give any more details.
#3 Money Knowledge
HR once sent me a list of wages for everyone in my department right up to the VP. It included my boss, my boss’s boss, etc. At first glance, it looked harmless, but they had only filtered the list by job title so I wouldn’t see anyone above me. I told my boss and I’m pretty sure the person who sent it just got a “do better next time” talk.
#4 Not Something Mother Wants Public
I found out that my mother enjoys hooking up with random strangers. She's not the most tech-savvy person in the world and accidentally posted a request publicly on Facebook. She doesn't know that I have her as a friend on there, and I haven't been able to build the courage to call her out on what she's doing.
#5 Second String Friend
My "friend" who I hadn't seen in a long time invited me to get drinks after work, then canceled because she was too tired. I found the photos a few minutes later, after her and some mutual friends went out for drinks. So apparently, I wasn't invited and she found a better option. She didn't realize I'd see the pictures.
#6 Reasons Behind Reasons
My dad ended his own life almost 20 years ago. At the time, my mom told me it was because he was having secret gay affairs with people and he couldn't live in that "sinful" lifestyle anymore. It turned out, she cheated on him, and that was what sent him over the edge. I only know this because I was finally able to read a copy of his note last year.
#7 Letting The News Slip
My supervisor is really close to getting fired. Upper management isn't supposed to talk about it, but they do. Probably because we'd all quit if we thought she was staying. She sucks. I don't want to say anything because I don't want to be the source of drama. It could also put my job at risk if I throw her under the bus.
#8 Selfish Mothering
I know that my mom tried to have Child Protective Services take my daughter from me when she was born by claiming I used illicit substances while I was pregnant. I was nine years clean. She tried again when I was diagnosed with cancer. You would be amazed to see what the doctors actually put in your medical records.
#9 Closet Dweller
My boss would go on road trips with a crew of product installers. They'd spend the night sharing a couple of hotel rooms. The boss would take pictures of his employees while they slept. He is unhappily married with three grown children, but there is plenty of evidence that he is deep in the closet. We all wished he would just come out and make everyone's life easier.
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#10 Family Isn't All Blood
I just recently found out that my youngest brother is not actually my dad's biological son. My dad has known for 17 years. He's never told another soul because he loves him so much. He loves him more than he hates my mom. My parents were in court every other year or so because my mom wanted more money, or for him to see us less, or not see us at all.
There were times when she kept us from him for years at a time, crushing his soul to the point where my stepmom would have to drag him out of the closet. He cried for hours because he missed his kids. He continued to pay child support for five years after my other brother and I were over 19, and to this day he continues to pay for his college education.
#11 Bad Brother
I spent a day getting intoxicated with my father, who I'm not that close with. He hasn't really been involved in my life much even though he has always lived one street away from me. I found out that the true reason my parents split when I was two years old was due to my mother cheating with my father's brother while my father was in prison.
#12 Regrets Turned Out Alright
When my mother was pregnant with me, she admitted she never wanted me. She also planned on leaving my dad (which she did a year after she had me). She doesn't know that I know and I will never tell her. I didn't find out until well into my adulthood, but I hold no hate for her. Regardless of what she did when she was young, she raised me the best she could and gave me and my older sibling everything she could.
#13 Unknown Family Abroad
My Dad has another kid in Thailand, I think. I had someone message me on social media in broken English with his name, saying they were trying to reach their father. I was a freshman in high school and I panicked. I never corresponded with them and eight years later I still feel strange about that. I don't know if I'll ever confront my dad about it.
#14 Taking Advantage Of The Unknowing
The school I'm contracted to work for is being audited by the government because a lot of the administration staff have been using it as a way to make easy money while doing the bare minimum for the students. It's one of two deaf schools in the country, and it's an absolute shame that they would try to take advantage of the unknowing.
#15 Growth Outlaw
My dad runs an illegal operation. He has been for 50 years now, but I only found out recently. It all made sense after—that's how he made car payments when he was unemployed for a few years. He's got a lot of nice things that are above his employment level. Last I checked, years ago, he had the trust of numerous private landowners and the keys to the gates.
They let him build and maintain feed plots for deer and turkey, so he could have his own private hunting land and be out on his own, but I'm pretty sure I know how he actually makes money. It's a real countryside, this place. There are fenced-off gates to roads and you have to go on foot through thick foliage to get around the gate that's blocking the only road in.
#16 Liar Speaking Truth
When my dad died, the Associate Pastor of my mom’s church spoke about how devastating cancer is. That pastor used to attend a different church but had to leave after she faked cancer for two years. Her husband left her and her daughter disowned her after they found out. My mom was the secretary at that church, so she knew and had already told me.
#17 Making Do Or True Love?
My sister was trying to flirt with this guy at a bar but she lost him in the crowd. She went to the bar to have a drink to see if he'd come back. This other guy walked up and she chatted with him to have a reason to stay and look for the other guy. She shrugged and thought, "He'll do I guess." They just got back from their honeymoon.
#18 Undeserving Parental Disappointment
I overheard my dad saying that he thinks I'm a failure. That really hurt, even though I worked my butt off to get into an elite private school, volunteer, and make Honor Roll. I'm doing better than he ever did at my age. For the longest time, it made me angry that nothing I did could ever impress my dad, but at some point, I just stop trying to please him.
#19 Unable To Handle The Fame
I'm 60 years old, my girlfriend is 59. About 40 years ago, she wrote a book that became a bestseller. It was all about a celebrity who freaked her out. She changed her name, moved to a small town, ignored everyone from her past, and she doesn't know I know about it. I guess she felt she needed to keep it a secret because she didn't like the fame.
#20 Don't Ask What You Don't Want To Know
An older relative of mine was possibly a hit man in the mafia. To find out if it was true, I jokingly asked him if he ever ended a man and his face dropped. He just said, "We don't ask those questions." I'm almost sure he was living a double life, and I understood that we would all be in danger if he ever told anyone, so I just kept my mouth shut.
#21 Not My Secret To Tell
In high school, I overheard my mom talking with a friend of hers when I was getting my hair done. They thought I couldn’t hear. Turns out, their other friend’s daughter was a love child born out of an affair, and her daughter never knew the truth. Her husband knew the daughter wasn’t his but pretended everything was fine. Her daughter also went to high school with me and walking around, knowing I knew this total lie about her life but that she had no idea, was hard to deal with. I knew it was never my place to be the one to say something though.
#22 Keeping The Dead's Silence
I was doing a major renovation for this nice couple who had two little kids. I talked to the husband and wife every morning before he left for work about job stuff (how many high hats there were, the placement of the outside lights, etc.). She called me one night and told me her husband had an accident at work. He was a roofer and fell off a commercial building.
Poor lady. My job was only halfway done. I still had to go there and finish the house. It was freaking grim. At the end of the job, I was running one of the last circuits in the basement and on top of a duct, totally hidden, I found a pile of like, 12 raunchy. I made that stuff disappear and I’m the only one that knows, except for you guys of course.
#23 Number I Shouldn't Have
Long story short, during my time in radio, I interviewed Chris Jericho over the phone before the launch of a new Fozzy album. Normally, a handler calls the station, pairs you up with the talent, you record, etc., but this time, I was told in advance that I’d be calling Chris himself at a specific time... And oh, by the way, “This is his personal number, so delete it afterward.” I’m semi-ashamed to admit I didn’t.
#24 Early Release For Baby Behavior
My mother was in jail during her pregnancy with me and they let her out a month early because she was going to give birth to me. She has no idea that I know she is a felon. Court records are public record and I was curious as a teenager. I don't hold anything against her, though; she's a great mother and I would do anything for her.
#25 Sunny Dodgers
We conducted many dodgy solar installations across Australia. The customers had no clue and in many cases, they paid for expensive solar panels and we'd just install the cheap ones. When I asked my boss why he was cheating the customers, he said to me, "Once it's on the roof, they won't be checking them to see what's been installed. By the time they ever do, in 10 years time, I'll be long gone." I felt really bad and left that place. Oh, and by the way, they weren't even installed by qualified electricians, just general laborers.
#26 Using Company Property For Private Things
A coworker was taking personal photos with his work phone. He didn’t realize his photos were saving to the company-wide cloud image storage. My supervisor found them and texted me about it. I almost didn’t believe him at first. I saw them for myself when I got home. In addition to several "private" pictures, he had some of him with his kids, selfies, and screenshots of passwords for various cam sites. Our company has its own Gmail account for everyone to download apps, and I don’t think anyone realizes that it syncs and is available to anyone in the company.
#27 Told The Worst Possible Lie
I found out that my mom’s sister told Child Protective Services that my dad was abusing me and my siblings. She did it in an attempt to have him taken away after my mom died. My mom and her sisters act like nothing happened, even though they literally sued for custody and lost. And they still talk terribly about my dad whenever I’m with them.
#28 Burning What They Don't Like
When my grandmother’s cousin passed away, her children found her handwritten will. Upon finding out my side of the family would be receiving a significant portion, they burned it. I haven't told anyone this yet because I want to be smart about how I will approach this. I'm thinking of consulting with a lawyer very soon to discuss my legal options.
#29 Broken Religion
My sister is actually in a romantic relationship with her best friend. I know this because she left her phone on her desk once while she went to the bathroom and their conversation was left open. Keep in mind, my parents are extremely traditional Catholics. If they ever found out, best case scenario they would just disown her. I don’t want to imagine the worst case scenario.
#30 Two Strikes And Your Secrets Are Out
There are key loggers and screen capturing software on certain employees computers who have screwed up one too many times. I found this out when I was told to use admins computer and he left the program open and running, allowing me to see what people were doing. I work a high-security job and this is allowed per employment contracts, but we’ve been told numerous times that we can only look at our internet usage.
#31 Refusal To Break
I saw my mom's phone when she left it open once. There were texts to my dad detailing how she thought I would never make it because I was too much of an anxious mess. She kept saying how I would never move out of the house and how she didn't believe I would ever get better. Fast forward five years later: I have a Master's degree, a two-story condo and a loving family of my own.
#32 Not The One To Blame
My parents divorced because of me. They had me at a really young age and they had no clue how to properly take care of a kid, let alone an autistic one. I would hear them yelling at each other about what to do with me in the years before the divorce. I'm in college now and they still don't realize that I heard everything.
#33 Marital Secret, Family Peace
My sister is secretly married. She got married a couple of years ago to her boyfriend of seven years, however, never told anybody because he is not the same religion as us. I’m completely in support of it but my father definitely wouldn’t be, which is why she probably doesn’t want to tell me because she’s afraid I’ll spill. I found out because I came across a recently opened tab with her marital status and emergency contact information.
#34 No Thanks Where It's Due
I just found out recently that my grandma, who I have taken care of for the last seven years, doesn't want me to have a dime of the $100,000 life insurance policy. Even though she would have been on the streets without me. I don't want to cause her any stress, but at some point, I think I need to confront her about it. It'd just be unfair if I don't.
#35 Secret Ahead Of Surprise
I’m being paid four times less than a part-time coworker who works remote and never turns in projects on time. I know he talks behind my back and blames me for the bad work, and now the heads at the office think I don’t do anything. I also know that I’m being let go on Monday. The bookkeeper and I went out for dinner last night and she filled me in.
#36 Friendly Criminal
I know that the Pharmacist Intern at my pharmacy was fired and the company is now pursuing legal action against him for stealing thousands of dollars of prescription opioid painkillers over his three years of employment. The technicians aren't supposed to know because he's a charming, likable guy who made a point of being friendly with all of us and inserting himself into our personal lives. The company is worried that we might disclose information pertinent to the case against him.
#37 Motherly Thieving
I knew I was autistic for the last few years. When I went with my mom to the doctor for a health check-up, the doctor asked if I had any disabilities. I said I have autism. My mom looked at me with shock and said, "You knew?" The doctor then asked me if I had applied for or had been getting a disability allowance. Not long after, mom and I got home and I wanted to apply for the allowance. My mom then told me I couldn't apply. I was very confused by that, so she ended up explaining everything to me. Apparently, my mom had been stealing my disability allowance for years without me knowing.
#38 Office Politics And Company Selfishness
My boss is being pushed out of the company. I'm in line to take her spot. She fought hard for me to be on the team, but the higher-ups sat me down and told me, to my face, that she was going to try to fire me (which is absolutely not true). She has a kid in the hospital and another with OCD. They're firing her because she won't ever work overtime. I want to tell her so she can lodge a case but I also want to keep my head down.
#39 Secret For Security
My fiancé has always hidden her weight from me. We’ve both been dieting and I’m exercising to help encourage her. She never lets me see the scale when she weighs herself. A few weeks ago, I weighed myself for giggles and our digital scale showed her weight before it showed mine. She doesn’t know and I’ll never tell her because she’s so insecure about her weight. I love her, and her weight will never bother me, but if she knows that I know, she’ll probably get insecure.
#40 Secret Family Dynamics
I found out that my uncle's son is not his son. His then-wife was having relations with her cousin and boom, baby! To this day, my cousin doesn't know and treats his dad (who raised him as if he were his own and had never said a word about it to anyone but me) terribly because of the lies his mother spread about him. I kind of want to tell him to do a DNA test so that he'll know and maybe, just maybe, realize his mother isn't the saint she's made herself out to be.
#41 Sharing The Wealth
I know what's in my mom's will. My brother gets almost everything—90%. I once kind of confronted her without letting on that I knew I was going to get that much less than him. She said she would give him a "larger share" because he was weaker and not educated, whereas, since I am educated, I was going to be fine even if I got nothing.
#42 A Disaster In Potentia
A chemical plant I used to work at has been submitting inaccurate Catastrophic Loss estimates for decades. Emergency plans they submit estimate a few thousand casualties if everything went up and exploded. One of the old-timer supervisors (40+ years there at the time) pulled up an overhead view of the plant and circled an area about 1/4 of a mile in diameter.
"That'd be the crater. Everything about 3 miles of that will be dead, outright. Depending on the wind and what all got mixed together, another 10 to 20 miles would need SCBA within an hour. Probably 75,000, worst case." Everyone that retired from there got cancer. I got out of there as soon as I had another job lined up.
#43 Father Not My Father
I accidentally found out that my dad isn't my biological father. This all happened about three years ago when I turned 26. Well, a distant cousin I had just met at an anniversary party for the family really wanted to date me. When I kept telling her no and how freaking strange it would be, she said, "Well, your dad isn't even your real father, so we aren't even related." Sure enough, I asked a very close cousin and it was confirmed by them. I was sworn to not tell anyone they told me. Also, I never realized but my original birth certificate definitely does not have a father signature or name. Apparently, I'm oblivious.
#44 Secret Date Ruined
I am about to graduate college. My parents were teasing me about setting me up on a date with a "guy with black hair whose name starts with an M." I was irritated and kept asking for more details but wasn't given any. Yesterday, I was on social media stalking one of my cousins and saw she posted a video of a cute black puppy named Max. It was the same breed as the dog I had growing up.
I had been planning on getting one later this year. After thinking a while about why my cousin would get a dog exactly like the one I really wanted, I remembered what my parents said about setting me up with a guy with black hair and a name starting with M. I went back to the video and sure enough, it was recorded in my parents' living room. Guys, I'm pretty sure I'm getting a puppy next weekend. I actually feel really guilty for finding out.
#45 What A Difference A Year Makes
I might be a year older than I was made to believe. I was flipping through an old baby book of mine and found an ultrasound dated in August the year before I was born, with my name written above it. My birthday is in September and the baby in the picture was very developed, so there’s no possible way it was just an early ultrasound.
On one hand, my mom is mentally ill and always had attachment issues with me growing up. I know she had issues getting pregnant and treated me like she had to protect me with her life when I was little. It would make sense that she would want me in the house with her for an extra year. I also developed really early, learned to read and write months before everyone else my age, and got my period when I was 10 (not super uncommon but still on the early side). On the other hand, this seems like an extremely difficult and illegal thing to do. There are other possible explanations: maybe the ultrasound date was misprinted?
