Teen Refuses to Forgive Mom After She Lets Half Sisters Steal and Break Necklace Gifted by Late Father

A teen sought support from the Reddit community after a deeply emotional fight with her mother and younger half siblings.

She explained in her post that her father died when she was 6 and that the necklace he gave her before his passing had become her most cherished possession.

“My dad bought me a heart necklace when I was 5 that had my name engraved on it,” she wrote, adding that she “refused to take it off unless I was showering, swimming or going to bed.” She said the keepsake made her “feel so grown up,” and after losing her father, she took “extra special care of it” because it was the last meaningful gift she had from him.

Her mother, who began dating shortly after her father died, often disapproved of how closely she and her brother held onto their dad’s memory. The teen recalled her mom saying she didn’t “let go enough to be healthy,” and tensions around the necklace grew once her stepfather entered the picture.

The teen said her mom began insisting she take the necklace off, telling her it was an “unhealthy attachment” and even criticizing her for not letting her stepfather hold it. When her half sisters wanted to borrow it, the mother said, “it wasn’t a grossly expensive necklace and it was pretty and if I could have it at 5, they could borrow it at their ages.”

Things took a turn when, on a day she had reluctantly removed the necklace, her younger half sisters took it “with mom’s permission.” When the teen realized it was missing and went searching for it, her sisters hid it. “I told [my mom] they had no business taking that necklace,” she wrote.

The teen said she warned her mother that if the necklace was damaged, she “would never forgive any of them.” The worst-case scenario quickly became real when the sisters continued hiding it, and it was returned broken. The heart charm had been chipped, some of the small diamond pieces were missing and the chain was broken in three places.

“I was furious,” she wrote, adding that her mom became angry when she refused to accept the apology from her half sisters. The teen told her mother she blamed her most of all. Her mother insisted that “accidents happen” and accused her of caring more about a necklace than her family. The teen responded that the necklace represented “one of the most important members of my family.”

Her stepfather later offered to buy a replacement and suggested it could “represent both dads,” but she rejected that idea immediately. “I told him I only have one and to leave me alone,” she wrote.

The teen’s grandparents stepped in and offered to have it repaired. Despite her mother insisting she “didn’t deserve it fixed,” they chose to take it anyway, though the teen explained it could “never be perfectly fixed.”

Her mother pressured her again to offer forgiveness, but the teen refused, saying her siblings needed to understand the impact of what happened. “I told her if any of them touch something dad got me again I would never speak to them,” she said, adding that she didn’t trust any of them anymore.

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Her mother was outraged, but commenters urged the teen to protect what she had left from her father. One user advised her to move her dad’s belongings to her grandparents’ home, writing, “Protect your peace.”

“A necklace given to you by your dead father is [a] treasure, not a trinket to be toyed with at the whim of others. NTA in any way,” another wrote. “Your mother is an AH for enabling and encouraging disrespect of your most treasured heirloom by your half sisters.”