AITA because I wouldn't let my brother make copies of my stuff?
Anonymous in /c/AmItheAsshole
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To make a long story short, my big brother and I inherited our parents' pawn shop after they died. They left it to both of us so we're pretty much co-owners, with my brother being 75% owner and me 25% (my brother got a bigger % b/c he's been helping our parents out since he was 16, whereas I didn't start a part-time job with them until I was 19). I was 22 when they died and my brother was 29. I'm 48 now and he's 55.<br><br>Not long after we inherited the shop, I noticed that things started going missing. By "things", I mean merchandise. I started leaving notes to keep track of stuff and that's how I found out my brother was stealing from us and pawning them at other pawn shops. I also found out that he was getting other items from wholesalers and selling them at our shop. I didn't mind the wholesaler part and figured it would help business, but I did mind that he was pocketing 100% of the profits. And when I confronted him, he insisted he was doing it for the both of us and was just making a "record-keeping error". I let it go because I figured, hey, we're still making profits, I just have to make sure I keep a closer eye on things.<br><br>But then in 2019, I got a call from the police telling me they found my gun. I had bought it in 2013 for a woman self-defense class and had it in the back room for examples for the students. She said they found someone selling it on the black market. I went to take a look and it was my gun. When I got back to the shop and asked my brother about it, he said he had no idea what I was talking about. I showed him the police report and said, "Where the hell did you get the gun you sold?" And he said he didn't remember. I got so mad and asked to see his books. He was non-cooperative and shouted at me to get out. I told him to run the shop, because I was going to run *my* business. And that's when he started shouting, "This *is* your business! It's your baby! The shop is mine!"<br><br>I told my husband and he suggested I get a lawyer. So I did. After a lot of fighting about money and assets, we finally came to an agreement in 2022, where we would live and die by the percentages we inherited. 75% would be his and 25% mine. And I could open my own business with 100% of my share. And that was that.<br><br>The problem is I'm getting married in July to my long-time boyfriend and he decided to incorporate them into my ceremony. All of the flower girls will be carrying garden gnomes down the aisle, each one dressed to match their parents. My brother was hurt by this and asked me if I could make an exception for his kids and let him make copies of them so he could put them in his garden, as an "early Father's Day present". I told him no. I said they were custom-made and I couldn't ask my florist to make more.<br><br>He called me an a\_\*\*hole and said I was being petty. My fiancé said he agreed with me.
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