Dear Emily,
My widowed father married his caregiver two years ago. She’s not much older than me and we never liked her. She’s a single mother with three kids from two men. My father begged us to allow him his last chance of happiness. My brother and I are his only children—all grown-up with our own families.
This woman has an only sister—an OFW who was dismissed from her job and had nowhere to go but home to my father’s generous hospitality.
Admittedly she’s attractive and sexy for her age. She has been here a few weeks when we noticed she was always asking the help of my married brother to do this, do that, accompany her here, there and everywhere. Even my father told us to give her as much help, as she was in a very vulnerable state.
It seemed very innocent at first. But my brother’s wife sensed something fishy was going on, though she didn’t want trouble in deference to my father. They have an adopted kid who’s now a teenager. I want to clobber my stupid brother because he is such a weak person and has a history of being ensnared by pretty useless women with hidden agendas. — Livid
Answer:
Your brother will not defer to your old father and do whatever suits him—if you say this is his nature. More so if this OFW is leading him on! How can his weak flesh refuse?
You can talk to your “stepmother” to put sense in her sister’s head if it’s still not too late, and plead not to destroy a family she’s already a part of. If you can, get her out of your father’s house. Help her find a job somewhere, if only to remove her from your brother’s line of sight.
Wicked women abound everywhere and some of their victims are always just innocently hanging in plain sight to be picked. It’s important to bring them out in the open because, oftentimes, putting shame in their hearts is the only way to douse a spark about to flare up.
There are also a million ways of skinning a cat and the simplest is always the best. Try the “out of sight, out of mind” method first. This might work for your gullible brother.
