My Family is Taking the Side of My Rapist

This is something that weighs heavy on my mind every day and I felt like getting on here to vent about it maybe help me a bit.

Around two years ago I was raped by my best friend, also known as my cousin. After it happened I didn't tell anyone except a friend I had made at school. He began to notice how the situation was affecting me so he told the school counselor and long story short, I was basically forced into telling them what happened.

For the past two years, I have been through my own personal hell. When my cousin's side (my dad's side) of the family found out, everyone was in disbelief, which I can understand.

What I can't understand is how my dad's side of the family (excluding my dad who has been the most supportive person ever) have completely taken the side of my cousin in this situation. My grandparents are letting this twenty-three-year-old rapist stay with them free of rent. He is still invited to all the family events, whereas my brother, father, and I are invited to these events, but they give us a certain time to show up and a time limit for how long we can stay.

No one on that side of the family has even checked in on me, even taken one second out of their lives to see if I was okay. All they are worried about is keeping all of this quiet, keeping their precious little family name golden. Well, it's not golden. This is a family who is harboring a sixteen-year-old girl's rapist in their basement, giving him every single thing that he needs, paying for one of the best lawyers in our state just so he won't go to jail for a crime he damn well knows he has committed.

My family claims that they aren't taking sides, they say they wish I wouldn't have told the cops.

Well, I wish I wouldn't have told the cops either, but that was the right thing to do. He did something horrible to me. But he is my cousin, and he was my best friend, and I think out everyone in my family, I'm probably the one who doesn't want him to go to jail the most.

At this point in my post, I can tell I'm completely rambling, but it feels good to get a lot of this off of my chest.

Thanks for listening, everyone.