Parents.

Sorry for the long post. It’s a lot, and my mind is all jumbled up, since this JUST happened.

My mother has been married to my stepfather for 3 years, but they’ve been together for almost 15 years. Currently living in our home is them two, my brother (13 & their child), myself (f20) and my brother in high school (18). The basement was renovated and a room was made for my stepdad’s nephew (28)We moved to our current city with him when we were all kids, and we have no one here.

They’re on and off usually, but they get back together eventually. Recently, they’ve been off for around 2 months, after my mother suspected of him cheating. He’s been coming home late and drunk alongside his nephew or sometimes he doesn’t even come home at all. She doesn’t wanted to leave the house because she owns it as well, but his biggest argument is that he pays the mortgage which is a little over $2k/m. My mother gives him a monthly sum of $500 + she pays all of the bills (gas, light, water, groceries.) When they bought the house, she invested her 20k in savings in order to renovate the house. For the last few months whenever they fight, he kicks us out. My mother said we would leave, as long as he paid her back her investment. But he said no. He also said that he wasn’t gonna give her share of the property value when he ultimately sells it.

Tonight, he came home drunk as usual. My youngest brother and I sat on the couch playing games and the other one was sleeping in his room. All of a sudden they started getting loud, and arguing. And it was really weird. Not like how he normally is when he’s drunk and they argue. He was huffing and puffing, puffing out his chest and beating on it like a gorilla. And then he started screaming. We heard a loud sound and we ran, thinking he hit our mom. Turns out he was ripping the kitchen cabinet doors (which my mom paid for) off their hinges, he smashed the bathroom mirror, he tried to punch through my bedroom door but by some miracle, the latch has been jamming and it wasn’t shut correctly, so it flew open and nothing happened. He kicked my brother’s door in, trying to go fight him. My mother stood between him and the door, trying to stop him from fighting my brother and in the adrenaline rush didn’t realized that when he was yanking on her sweater, that he hit her. (She has a bruise and swelling now) The doors of my room, my brother’s shared room, the bathroom and our floor were splattered with his blood. I called the cops, and had an asthma attack while doing so. But ultimately they said they couldn’t arrest him for anything since he was in his own home, ripping his own property. While the cops were here he was cussing like crazy, still kicking the pieces of broken cabinets. And he kept saying “tomorrow you all are going to be gone! I promise! Tomorrow all of you will be gone!” In front of the cops. He was off his rockers. And it was so weird. They ended up taking him to the station, where he was picked up by one of his family members, and another of his siblings came over to check up on us and see the status of the house.

My mom is weary, because the cops said he could come back in the morning. She’s thinking about divorce, but we’re unsure what would happen to the house since they bought got it less than two years ago. I’m terrified of him coming home. But we’re attained to this place because both my brothers graduate 8th and 12th grade this upcoming may, and I still have a year left in my degree. We are unsure what we could even fight in court. They’re also in an immigration case at the moment, (he was assaulted at gun point) and she was able to submit her application alongside him. So my mother feels like she’s stuck in here, because we think a divorce could jeopardize the case. Because of their marriage, my brothers lost their health insurance (the 18 yr old is missing a kidney, and his other kidney is failing), and we also lost our coverage and potential coverage for university. Our state also has a no fault divorce law, meaning that even if he is cheating on her, they won’t use it as a deriving factor in the divorce. Any advice? We’re stuck.