Anna can’t exactly pinpoint when her relationship with her sister-in-law started to sour. Rather, it was a slow unraveling.

When the two met over 20 years ago through their now-husbands, who are brothers, Anna actually preferred spending time with her future sister-in-law. “We would hang out all the time,” says Anna, who is being referred to by her middle name so she can speak freely about her family. “I would get through being with him just to hang out with her.”

Anna and her sister-in-law also had a common enemy: their husbands’ parents. At family gatherings, they’d steal away with a glass of wine and whisper, “Can you believe they said that?” The women could compare notes about their mother-in-law’s latest insult or how their father-in-law constantly belittled his wife.

Unlike Anna,

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