My great aunt's husband (my great uncle) is miserable. He's only been kept around all these years because by the time my aunt realized she hated him, they already had a child and she needed his money. He hates children and dogs and noise and probably sunshine, and all those things hate him too. He was hated even before anyone knew that he molested my mother and her sister as toddlers. They never said anything about it until it came out by accident, 25 years later, when I was a baby. I guess the women in my family have always had to protect abusers. I guess they were afraid that if they had said something, he'd be sent away and my great aunt (AKA the best person I know) wouldn't have the money to raise her kids. When it did come out, my mother and her sister told my great aunt they didn't want the law involved, they just wanted my great aunt to be sure that he'd never be alone with me or any child ever again.
I never knew about this. He's always made me uncomfortable, and it was always evident that he's a shit person, but I'd never snap back at him when he tried to make pathetic friendly conversation. I never felt bad for him, but I always thought he was just one of those "lost cause" types of people - not evil, just bitter and mean with no cure. I even noticed sometimes he seemed to be trying to be nicer. So I never spent any energy hating him, it was more of a neutral dislike.
Anyway, so we live in a trailer on my great aunt and great uncle's property, next to their house. There's a fence that splits us into two yards, but my great uncle has a shed in the yard behind our trailer. My bedroom is the one at the far end of the trailer, so I have the only window that faces their yard. When my mom told me a year ago (I'm 17) what had happened with my great uncle, I was very angry at first, then I started getting kinda paranoid but it died down after a few months. Fast forward to recently. I'm notorious for sleeping during the day and staying up at night. For a couple years I'd hear my great uncle out at night every once in a while, I'd get a little freaked out if he sounded close to my windows but it was always about bedtime so he was probably just out for a smoke. But in the past few months, I noticed I would hear him outside at 1, 2 in the morning. They have a covered patio, so I could never see him, but I'd hear his coughs since he has emphysema or something like that. Knowing what I know now it did creep me out a bit, especially because it soon turned into hearing him out there at least once every night, but I knew I was just being paranoid. I heard noises very close to my window a few times, and that made me think he could be watching me, but I knew that he couldn't see in my curtains because we had to have checked when we hung them all those months ago, right? So I decided I was being paranoid, he probably was just smoking in secret or something since his wife gets mad at him for smoking too much.
About two weeks ago, my mom's sister was visiting at night and she came in my house all pale-faced and said, "Anon, you can see right through your curtain." I checked and you could see right into my room if you were looking, even from 20+ feet away. I was crying, really scared because you know, that's my bedroom and I thought it was totally safe and private even with the lights on at night. We fixed the problem so you can't see in now, and everyone told me not to dwell on what could have happened because it's over now, but I couldn't stop thinking about those fears I had about my great uncle looking in. Later that night I went over to his house because my grandma was visiting, and he surely did say, "new curtains, huh?" I haven't heard him outside at night since. And usually he tries to make small talk with me when I'm outside with my dogs, but he has not said one word, not even hey. So that's how I know he was looking, but there's nothing I can do about it.
My family says he'll get his in Hell but that means nothing to me. His wife hates him, his daughter hates him, but that doesn't seem to bother him. Truly psychopathic, I guess. Prison probably wouldn't get to him either. I guess there's no punishment for him, just freedom for us when he finally dies
TL;DR: my great uncle molested my mom 40 years ago and has probably been watching me in my bedroom every night for at least a month. the women in my family have a history of protecting abusers because money. my great uncles so miserable that nothing would be a punishment for him. i dont know why i had to write such a long post when this tldr is much more effective but i dont see my therapisf anymore so i havent really talked about this with anyone. i hope he dies soon