Any insight would be welcomed.
On my birthday this year, September 16th, my husband and I came home from work to find that we had been robbed, but only my things had been gone through and taken. The thief was very neat but I am OCD and noticed the small things out of order. The policeman told us right off the bat that it was a mature woman in our own family who did it. Of course, we had a hard time accepting that statement. As the story moved through the family grapevine, it evolved that the daughter next door had stolen "some stuff" back in June when we were away. I had never noticed anything missing. She came over and just cried and cried, saying she was sorry, but she needed money for drugs. Not for herself, but for her sister and her daughter, who were both addicted to prescription pain killers. She also stated that she had been addicted, too, but had kicked it. She was adamant about only taking certain gold items in June, not in September.
The total of missing jewelry was about $5000. She admitted to taking only two items. My husband decided to go to a pawn shop in the nearest town. They told him that she had been in their shop. We went to the local police who had a copy of a pawn shop receipt with her drivers license, date of transaction and pictures of the goods. Only one of our items was pictured, but the date on the slip was September 16th.
My husband's other three children, (all of these children are in their 40's)said that we should not prosecute her because it would break up her marriage. Her husband has no idea what she did. He knows about the drugs but nothing else. Her oldest daughter has sent me a horrible letter accusing me of taking all of grandmother's things when I married her grandfather.
We have been married 14 years. Nothing was ever said about this before. I don't know how to respond to her accusations. Everyone tells me that she's a kid and shouldn't be held responsible for her letter. She's 20 years old. How old do you have to be before you are responsible for your actions?
I am so upset by all this. My feelings for this step daughter and her daughter have drastically changed. We used to be so close. I just can't believe all this. My husband and I had a great relationship before all this, but now we seem to be on each other's cases about things all the time. This has been really hard on him, but it hasn't been easy for me either.
When does the hurt go away? I asked her if she would have done this to her own mother and she stated unequivocally "No!"