My Brother’s Behavior Toward My Girlfriend at a Wedding Went Too Far

For two hours, they all took turns attacking Victoria’s character while Samuel sat there looking smug. My mom went on this long rant about how Victoria was obviously jealous of Samuel’s good looks and success and had been flirting with him at dinner that first night.

She said Victoria was making up the harassment because she felt guilty about leading Samuel on and was trying to cover her tracks.

“That Victoria was probably used to getting attention from guys at work and had misinterpreted friendly behavior as stalking because she had a guilty conscience.”

My aunt suggested. Samuel played his part perfectly, acting all sad and confused about why Victoria would make up such horrible lies about him.

He kept saying things like how much he had looked forward to having a sister-in-law and how he was sad that she would try to turn me against him. Tyler and his friends backed him up, swearing they had only gone to the hospital because they were visiting Tyler’s sick grandmother who apparently moves between different floors and apartments every day.

The worst part was when they started questioning Victoria’s mental stability. They brought up how she sometimes works night shifts, suggesting that maybe sleep deprivation was making her paranoid.

They talked about how stressful it must be working with sick children, implying that maybe she was projecting her work stress onto innocent interactions with Samuel and his friends. My mom even had the audacity to recommend a therapist who could help Victoria work through her tendency to create drama.

Victoria tried to defend herself at first, calmly explaining the harassment and showing them the texts and voicemails again. However, they talked over her, dismissed her evidence as misunderstandings, or suggested she had somehow provoked everything.

When Tyler started describing in detail what Victoria had been wearing on specific days at work, proving he had been stalking her, my parents acted like this was evidence that Victoria had been trying to attract attention. It all became too much when they invited Tyler and his friends to join us for dessert, saying they wanted to show us what nice young men they really were.

Victoria started having trouble breathing and had to leave the room.

“It was time for me to choose between my real family and a girl who was obviously unstable and trying to cause problems.”

When I tried to go after her, my mom grabbed my arm and said. I chose Victoria.

We left immediately and I haven’t spoken to my family since that night. Samuel’s friends have gotten bolder with their harassment, now spreading rumors at Victoria’s workplace about her being mentally unstable and having a history of making false accusations.

Her supervisor called her in for a meeting yesterday to discuss concerns about workplace drama. Even though he seemed sympathetic, he warned her that all the disruption was starting to affect her job performance.

He suggested she might want to consider transferring to a different department or hospital. We’ve hired a lawyer who is helping us pursue restraining orders, but it’s a slow process.

Victoria has been looking into positions at other hospitals, and one of her former colleagues has offered to help her get a job at a hospital in a city about 300 miles away. I hate that we’re being forced to consider such drastic measures, but I can’t stand seeing Victoria so scared and stressed all the time.

She cries before every shift now and she’s lost weight because she’s too anxious to eat properly. I just don’t know what to do anymore.

Every attempt to handle this reasonably has backfired. My family is completely delusional, the police are useless, and it feels like Samuel is winning.

How do you fight back when everyone is determined to believe the worst about you and the best about your abuser?

Update 2: I wish I was posting with better news, but everything has completely fallen apart after what happened at my cousin Holly’s wedding last weekend. I’ve been trying to process everything for the past few days before writing this update.

What was supposed to be a happy family celebration turned into an absolute nightmare that ended with Samuel in handcuffs and our family permanently divided. Some context first: Holly has always been the only family member besides my grandfather who saw through Samuel’s act when we were kids.

She caught Samuel torturing her cat and told everyone, but my parents convinced the family that she was lying for attention. She’s never forgotten that, and she’s been firmly on my side through this whole situation with Victoria.

She even wrote a detailed statement for our lawyer about Samuel’s history of concerning behavior. When Holly sent us the wedding invitation, Victoria and I were hesitant to attend.

Holly called us personally and promised that she had only invited Samuel because her parents insisted and that she had hired extra security specifically to watch him. She also seated us at a table with her husband’s family far away from my parents and Samuel.

We thought with all the witnesses around and security present, Samuel wouldn’t try anything stupid. We were wrong.

The ceremony went fine, mainly because Samuel was busy being one of the groomsmen. Holly’s husband is our cousin on the other side of the family and didn’t know about any of the drama.