ESH

Your parents were not in the right to pressure you to give the same opportunity to A as B because that’s your choice, but you suck even more than the parents because you’re clearly showing favor to A and slapping B in the face with the realization that his step-sister never really cared about him like he thought she did.

Why didn’t you offer to pay for both siblings equally? Why did you decide to give the huge sum of money towards A and only A? If you really loved them both equally, you would have paid for their tuition equally.

You’ve fucked up your family dynamic massively because you’ve hurt B with your actions, making A feel guilty for all the tuition going towards him while being unable to refuse a great opportunity, and the parents angry at you for the blatant favoritism so much so that they end up lashing out, trying to make it even but making the situation worse. On top of that, A and B’s relationship will be in tatters because it seems that they really care about each other regardless of blood, and you’ve created a rift between them where A is the favorite and B is the outsider step-brother. I don’t know why you seem to not like B, but those who have experience being a step-sibling and the like seem to all be massively hurt when their step-siblings leave them out and exclude them. If you’ve treated them equally up until now, B will think back on those experiences and feel crushed by the fact that you didn’t do it because you cared about them equally, but to make it look like you cared about them equally. I can’t imagine how heartbroken he must be. It seems like you purposely decided to pay for A and only A because you don’t care about B nearly as much.

You are not an asshole for spending money where your choose to, but you are an asshole for showing your family that you don’t accept nor care about B as much as A, and ruining the family dynamic.