Fury as Woman Tries to Extort Baby From Pregnant Teen: ‘Unstable’
Fury #Fury
A teen mom’s tale of fighting to keep her baby from a blackmailer has horrified commenters on Reddit.
Thirty years ago, u/HelpIHateTexas found out she was pregnant. An 18-year-old college freshman, she was terrified but was determined to keep the baby despite the struggles she would endure.
“My parents (who are strict conservatives except when it’s inconvenient) abandoned me and cut me off financially,” she wrote in a post on the r/pettyrevenge subreddit. “The father joined the Navy to escape responsibility.”
Along with being abandoned by her family, she was forced to leave her private college dorm. That’s when she was “befriended” by the sympathetic property manager, a woman named Donna.
“She swooped in like a hero and helped me get a place to stay at one of the other properties she managed,” the Redditor wrote. “She then helped me get a job at a gift shop at one of those properties.”
At first, she was grateful for Donna’s support, but it soon became clear that the woman wanted to adopt her baby. The teen said that Donna “launched a campaign” to convince her that she’d be an unfit mother, starting off with “subtle, passive-aggressive” remarks and progressing to threats and abuse.
“[She’d talk] about how she couldn’t have children herself. [She said] God brought her into my life because she was MEANT to have my baby,” u/HelpIHateTexas said.
However, as her pregnancy progressed, Donna became more forceful. She strong-armed herself into attending the sonogram, went on long rants about the mom-to-be’s unmarried status, and warned her she’d be “welfare trash forever.”
“I soon had coworkers telling me she was claiming that my baby’s adoption was a ‘done deal,'” she wrote. “She even told people she was decorating a nursery and buying baby girl clothes.”
After months of threatening to get her fired from the gift shop, Donna dismissed the Redditor from her job for taking her shoes off behind the counter. The mom-to-be quickly lost her apartment and ended up couch-surfing for a few months until she managed to get housing assistance.
She contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which helped her get a substantial pay-out from her former employer in exchange for “not full-out suing them.”
“This small cash windfall turned out to be a huge blessing that actually enabled me to survive financially until I had my baby and could get back in school,” she said. “Donna firing me was the best thing that could have ever happened. I saw her years later and she was still childless.”
Fellow Redditors applauded the poster, with the story receiving almost 13,000 upvotes.
‘She Knowingly Caused a Pregnant Teenager to Be Homeless’
Despite Donna’s comments, u/HelpIHateTexas knew she would be a good mother.
“I was missing purpose in my life, and she gave me purpose,” she told Newsweek of her daughter.
Although it was a roof over her head, she couldn’t escape Donna’s abuse while living in the apartment complex.
“She seemed to waiver between hating me and feeling guilty for what she had done,” she said. “I think she just couldn’t handle my pregnant presence when she wanted a child so much and couldn’t have one. [But] that doesn’t excuse her behavior—she knowingly caused a pregnant teenager to be homeless!”
The poster is shocked that her story went viral, but appreciates all of the positive comments it inspired on Reddit.
“If I were ever given a chance to do things over, I would do them exactly the same way,” she told Newsweek. “No regrets.”
‘That Could Have Ended in the Worst of Ways’
Redditors were disturbed by Donna’s behavior, with a user called PanaceaStark calling her behavior “straight up psycho.”
“Thank god Donna never had a kid,” commenter thr0awayitsnot wrote in response to the post. Another commenter, PublicThis was chilled by the story, writing: “I’ve seen that type of person so often in true crime documentaries.”
“You were in real danger there!” user Burgerg10 agreed. “Wow, that could have ended in the worst of ways.”
Lori2345 wondered if Donna “had some kind of mental illness, and that’s why she wasn’t trying to adopt through an agency.”
Redditor onegirlgamesyt commented: “You are incredible. I am just so so pleased to hear this worked out. Your daughter must be proud of having such a strong & fantastic mother.”
As for how u/HelpIHateTexas got the “best revenge” on Donna? She wrote on Reddit: “My daughter is now getting ready to graduate, full scholarship and magna cum laude, from a top law school. Turns out being raised by a single mom is not as awful as Donna thought!”
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