Gr-niece got engaged to (and moved in with) a man with an elementary-school aged daughter. Everything was reportedly wonderful until the engagement, at which point the BM began acting up, for one making more demands on gr-niece's fiance and using the daughter to deliver demand messages, which were mostly related to spending/money. We know the drill. Note that gr-niece has a very good job. 

While my heart hurts for gr-niece and the family--their hopes/dreams dashed, the public embarrassment, the disappointment and heartbreak--I did say to her mother, "This is probably a blessing in disguise."  She agreed with me. Fiance called off the wedding less than a week before. Of course he is "allowed" his feelings and decisions, but the timing of this to me shows what a worm he is, and no one wants a cowardly worm with a kid for a husband. Bad combination. I say this only because of his choice of timing; certainly, his feelings did not just appear a week before the wedding, and I imagine it was somewhat easy for him because gr-niece and family were doing all the work while he was seemingly going along for the ride. Imagine the marriage then. 

Before officially becoming a SM, my gr-niece was apparently taking on quite a bit of responsibility for fiance's child, altering HER work schedule to be home more often, planning the child's birthday party and more. Fiance does not have full custody; I'm not sure of what the custody arrangement is. I was very clear with my niece (her mother) that gr-niece took on way too much way too early and this should be a learning experience. Her role--which she willingly stepped into like willingly stepping into a pile of dog crap--apparently caused friction (gr-niece feeling overwhelmed, BM feeling threatened, fiance being passive) and resulted in a blow-up (interestingly enough, the night of or after the child's party), at which time fiance called off the wedding. 

Of course, there is more to the story (which I don't need to know). My niece/bride's mother went dead silent when I said, very clearly, "She is welcome to come over here to hide out if she wants to, to decompress. I'm so sorry for the entire family. But, please, for the love of God, tell her--or I can--NOT to date a man with children in the future." Niece doesn't know all the details of my situation; she knows there were problems and that I have nothing to do with skids, that BM's toxic campaign began right after we got married. I reminded her that this is not so uncommon and it adds too much stress to what are sometimes already stressful situations. 

I feel for my gr-niece. I thought of sending her flowers, then realized she might initially think they're from ex-fiance. Thinking of a gift to send over to her. And I am so happy she dodged this bullet.