My Brother’s New Girlfriend Wore My Wedding Dress To My Dad’s Birthday. She Claimed She Was Pregnant With My Husband’s Baby. How Do I Stop This Lunatic?

Recovery and Reality

Kyle started seeing a therapist the following week to process everything that had happened with Rachel. He came over to our house after his second session and told me he felt stupid for believing Rachel’s lies about Dean pursuing her, for not seeing through her manipulation sooner.

I reminded him that Rachel was clearly very good at lying and making people doubt their own perception of reality. But Kyle said his therapist was helping him understand that gaslighting works specifically because it’s designed to make victims question themselves. The therapist explained to Kyle that manipulative people are experts at creating confusion and making their targets feel responsible for the manipulator’s behavior.

Three days after the restraining order was finalized, Rachel’s parents contacted my parents directly to apologize for their daughter’s behavior. They offered to pay for any security measures we needed, like cameras or alarm systems, and they promised to make sure Rachel stayed in treatment and followed the court’s orders.

My mom accepted their apology on the phone but made it very clear that Rachel needed serious professional help before she hurt someone, that this pattern of obsessive behavior toward unavailable men was dangerous and couldn’t be ignored anymore.

My dad told them he appreciated their willingness to take responsibility, but that their daughter had caused real trauma to our family and particularly to Kyle, who’d been manipulated and used.

Dean changed his gym membership the next week and started varying his daily routine to avoid any possible accidental contact with Rachel. He switched to a gym across town, started getting coffee at different places each morning, and changed up his lunch spots so there was no predictable pattern Rachel could track.

It frustrated him to have to alter his entire life because of her behavior, to give up his favorite places and routines because someone couldn’t respect basic boundaries. But we both agreed that safety had to come first, that avoiding any chance encounter with Rachel was worth the inconvenience of changing habits.

I watched my husband restructure his whole daily schedule and felt angry that Rachel’s obsession was still affecting our lives, even with a restraining order in place.

A New Threat

Two weeks after the restraining order was finalized, Dean got a call from his coworker Mike during dinner. Mike asked if Dean knew someone named Jennifer Hayes because she’d sent him a friend request on social media with a message saying she was Dean’s cousin and wanted to connect with his work friends.

Dean pulled up the profile on his phone and his face went pale. The profile picture showed Rachel, but the hair was different and she was wearing glasses. The bio said Jennifer worked in marketing and loved hiking, but the photos were definitely Rachel in various disguises and angles.

Mike said something felt weird about the request, so he looked closer at the profile and noticed it was only created three days ago with very few friends. Dean told Mike it was Rachel using a fake identity and asked him to report the account and block it immediately. Mike did it right there on the phone and said he’d warned the other guys at work.

We called the police that same night and filed another report. The officer who came to take our statement said this was a clear violation of the restraining order because Rachel was attempting to contact Dean through his coworkers, even if the contact was indirect. He took screenshots of the fake profile and Mike’s friend request message as evidence.

The detective handling our case called us the next morning. He explained that Rachel’s pattern suggested she might eventually move on to a new fixation because obsessive personalities sometimes shift targets when one becomes too difficult to access.

But he warned us we needed to stay alert because these types of people are hard to predict and some never let go of their chosen target. He said the fake social media account showed Rachel was still actively trying to find ways around the restraining order, which meant she hadn’t accepted reality yet.

The detective added that he’d seen cases where stalkers gave up after a few months and cases where they persisted for years. He couldn’t tell us which type Rachel would turn out to be, so we needed to keep documenting everything and reporting every violation, no matter how small it seemed.

Dean forwarded the detective’s advice to all his coworkers in an email. He felt bad about dragging his work into this mess, but everyone was really understanding and supportive. His boss even offered to have security review their office access protocols to make sure Rachel couldn’t get into the building.

Healing and Moving On

A month after the restraining order, Kyle called me sounding nervous. He said he’d gone on a date the night before with someone he met through a friend. Her name was Sarah and they’d grabbed coffee and talked for two hours. He said it went well, but he kept second-guessing everything she said and looking for warning signs.

He asked me if it was too soon to be dating again or if he should wait longer. I told him there was no right timeline and he should do what felt comfortable. Kyle said his therapist encouraged him to start socializing again when he felt ready because avoiding relationships completely would let Rachel’s damage define his future.

But he admitted he was scared of missing red flags again and ending up with another person who seemed normal at first but turned out to be lying about everything. I reminded him that Rachel was an extreme case and most people don’t fabricate entire personalities and stalk their boyfriend’s brother.

Kyle laughed and said his therapist told him the same thing. He decided to keep seeing Sarah but take things really slow and trust his gut if anything felt off.

My mom organized a family dinner two weeks later specifically to talk about supporting Kyle. She invited me, Dean, my dad, and Kyle to her house for what she called a family meeting. When we all sat down, mom said she wanted to make sure Kyle knew we didn’t blame him for anything Rachel did.

Kyle tried to brush it off, but mom cut him off. She said Kyle had been beating himself up for months about not seeing Rachel’s manipulation sooner and she wanted him to hear from all of us that Rachel fooled everyone at first. Dad agreed and said Rachel was clearly very practiced at deception and Kyle shouldn’t feel stupid for believing someone he was dating.

I told Kyle that Rachel’s lies about Dean pursuing her were so convincing that even I had a moment of doubt before Dean showed me all the evidence. Dean said the fake pregnancy announcement proved Rachel had spent weeks or months planning her delusion and no reasonable person would suspect their girlfriend was capable of that level of fantasy.

Kyle got quiet and then admitted his therapist was helping him understand that manipulative people target kind, trusting individuals specifically because they’re easier to gaslight. He said he was learning to recognize the difference between being trusting and ignoring obvious problems. The solidarity from everyone helped Kyle relax and he actually smiled genuinely for the first time in weeks.

Our lawyer called me a few days later with surprising news. Rachel’s therapist had contacted him to confirm that Rachel was in intensive treatment and making progress on understanding boundaries. The therapist couldn’t share specific details because of privacy rules but wanted us to know that professional help was happening and Rachel was participating seriously in her treatment program.

The lawyer said this was unusual because therapists rarely reach out to victims. But in cases of severe obsessive behavior, some treatment teams believe it helps everyone involved to know intervention is occurring. I asked if this meant Rachel was getting better, and the lawyer said he couldn’t make that determination. But the therapist wouldn’t have contacted him unless there was meaningful progress happening.

He reminded me that mental health treatment takes a long time and Rachel’s issues were serious enough that recovery would be measured in years, not months.