All I wanted for Christmas was Christmas.
I’m here, and I’m smoking a cigarette after two years. You know this month hasn’t been as bad as in the past and last December was even fine except for a small altercation that happened with my dog and neighbor, however this year everything seemed to be going okay. My husband took us to the cemetery on the 18th, we managed to get our shopping done even though we couldn’t afford to get everyone a lot; still everyone got a present from us. My PTSD has been at an all time low, depression and anxiety have been low, and I was actually excited for Christmas this year no matter what my stepdad has tried to enforce upon us.
WELL that went to complete shit yesterday when we went to visit my in-laws for the annual Christmas breakfast. Everything was going fine until Phillip and I decided to go sit outside with his dad, and he casually mentioned with a pity party tone; one of Phillip’s cousins was in jail for raping a woman. The things his father said about the woman when explaining were very nasty, and though at the time we did not know any details or picked a “side”, I was still digusted with how he described the women.
I am very objective and like to look at all facts before being told how I’m suppose to feel, obviously I had interacted with this cousin on holidays before but he lives in Washington. I did think it was ironic that when I had talked about my past traumas of rape, abuse, and being assaulted at gunpoint, this cousin decided his two cents were important and simply told me to “move on and stop living in the past, let it go”. I told him if it were his daughter he wouldn’t be saying such things, he’d probably go out and kill the man. So I put that together after hearing this news and thought “wow that’s even more fucked up he was going through court dealings and had the nerve to tell me that when he barely knows me”... Then I decided to do a little digging on the internet, I’m a master at finding legal info online without paying a dime. I’ve done it before with my dad, both exes, ex friends, and even Phillip’s brother.
Well well well, there it was in black and white, “Cousin charged with rape on tuesday night. Victim reported after refusing affections of kisses by cousin, cousin held victim down and forced vaginal intercourse. While being questioned, victim appeared distraught, weak, and trembling. Victim appeared with scratch marks on her arms and ripped/swelling of the ear, victim participated in a rape trauma kit. Protection order of sexual harassment filed against the cousin, cousin sent to jail with a 25k bond. Cousin set to appear before the court for official charging at a later date to be determined.
After finding out all this out, I immediately became sick for multiple reasons. This man has a young daughter, I’ve associated with this man a handful of times, I thought he was decent, he’s been around other women and children, his entire family is spreading a sob story lie that could NOT be further from the truth. And on Christmas to boot. I really tried to just deal with it and put it away to focus on the festivities but it came up again in front of the entire family, this is what put me into full disassociation and anxiety mode. They all said the typical “cousin just isn’t like that” and “I know cousin that isn’t right” “ I hope he gets all this done with” “I wish he was here instead of dealing with this”. Feeling sorry for this monster. I was on the other side of it this time and it brought back so much of what I tried to forget.
I had enough after a half hour and if I held it in any longer I would have hurt myself, my mother in law was the only one in the room with me and my husband at this time. I let it all out and told her everything they knew was a lie, where I find this info and what really happened. I told her how shitty it was for FIL to talk so vile about that woman, family or no family there is no excuse. She replied with “well we didn’t find out til last friday, and he’s family”. I also told her I’ve been on the other side of this before and it is awful so it’s disappointing all of them are being this way, at that point I started crying which I have never done before in front of my MIL. Her reaction said. it. all.
Phillip’s parents should know my history since I’ve talked to them about it multiple times in our first few years of dating. But whenever I did they always looked at me like they didn’t hear me, didn’t want to hear me, or just flat out didn’t believe me. My MIL just sat there and would not look at me, she carried on and chose to keep watching a Christmas story and laugh or make jokes during memorable scenes. I’ve never felt more hurt or destroyed by his parents before yesterday and there have been a few times some drama came into the mix we’ve had to deal with. Especially during her cries over Phillip’s criminal brother and we’ve always been so supportive to them, whenever they needed us during a health crisis, or his brother’s legal trouble, or they needed money. WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE, never to judge them, to sympathize with them. And then this all happened. Phillip was extremely disappointed in them, and he even said he was really upset because for the first time I had a December where I wasn’t in constant depression or anxiety mode; and they ruined it. That is putting it lightly, this is the first December he didn’t have to pick up the pieces of my mental anguish, and near psychotic paranoia.
This all brings into question whether I want to see them anymore or if they can be trusted. especially if we can ever find the miracle of having children. The answer is “that’s gonna be a huge hell fucking nah from me dawg”. This isn’t the first time they’ve been dismissive of a serious issue, they constantly defend and make excuses for whenever Phillip’s brother has done awful illegal things, or another cousin (that is actually a half brother to the rapist cousin) when he has stolen prescription drugs and money from both of us. There was even an incident where another of Phillip’s cousins accused her nephew of molesting her child. Swept under the rug and claimed said cousin was just “crazy”. Good to know my future children are in such good hands there.
It’s time to stop biting my tongue to these awful people, time to stop being polite. They can’t be trusted and I’m sick of going through the motions just to keep peace and not have to force my husband to pick sides. I don’t want to destroy his relationship with his parents but I refuse to act happy around these assholes anymore, I’ve had to do this with my medical issues for years because they don’t believe me about any of that either. I’m just sick of people, and sick of Christmas.
I really tried this year, and thought it’d be different but there is no peace with this family. The lack of care, consideration, and loyalty(or unbreakable loyalty in the wrong places) is appalling. The idea of us moving away for Phillip to find a better job is even more appealing to me now. I need to get out of Tennessee.