u/Master_Sundae3968

[23 M] I said some really wrong things today and I feel guilty.

My brother was beating his wife badly. it's clearly domestic violence. So I stepped in to stop it. His friend was there too. My intention was just to stop the violence and let them handle their issues later, but things got messy. My brother was also fighting with his friend at the same time. He had clearly lost control and was very angry. At one point, he was dragging his wife on the road, and I stopped him.

After that, my brother told me to call her mother, and then he locked himself in the bedroom. I didn’t know what else to do, so I called her. Meanwhile, his friend kept saying things like “you don’t know what’s going on between them,” even though he had been with my brother just minutes before, drinking with him.

When my sister-in-law’s parents arrived, they asked what happened. I didn’t fully know, so they asked the friend. Instead of saying he didn’t know, he started lecturing me, which offended me because he was involved earlier. I still stayed calm, but I said, "I don’t know what’s happening, people are so dirty here." (I said that because there were rumors recently that my brother’s friend and my sister-in-law had an affair.)

Then things escalated. My sister-in-law’s mother didn’t like my statement. I tried to explain, but she got angry and asked if I thought her daughter was “useless/ characterless” I said yes, (because my brother had said that to me before.) That made things worse.

Then I made a bigger mistake. I said that I had once seen my brother’s friend kiss my sister-in-law (this happened about a year ago, and the friend even admitted it to me at the time). I had never told anyone before because I respected her and didn’t want to create problems.

After I said this, everyone got shocked and angry at me. They started calling me cheap and said I was lying. I quickly realized it was the wrong time to say something like that, even if it was true. I tried to cover it by apologizing and saying I might have misunderstood, but the damage was already done.

Eventually, things calmed down and the situation didn’t escalate further, but I still feel really guilty. I was trying to do the right thing and stay calm, but everything went out of control.

I feel like I made a huge mistake. How should I handle this now?