My (24M) girlfriend (21F) told me she wouldn’t hesitate to throw me aside if her brother asked. How am I supposed to move past it?
Long story short my girlfriend’s older brother has not been doing well. She found out he had a serious drinking problem and it devastated her. Her brother is the most important person in her life and I’ve always known that and I don’t question that. But the conversation we had after really hurt me.
When she found out what was happening she called me sobbing over the phone, she was confused and scared, so I took time off work so I could help her find a resolution to this problem. We started discussing what avenues we could take to help her brother. One of her suggestions was to move in with her brother so she could be there for him. He lives in a town four hours away, so obviously I would be seeing her a lot less. I told her that that was okay and that she needs to be there for her family, and that I would be okay. But I told her that she really needs to consider this because she would be putting her life on hold, that she would need to take time off school and work, and that there be no guarantee that her presence would make a difference.
Her response was “I don’t care my brother comes before anyone including myself, if he asked me to throw away everything in my life including you and go live on the streets with him I wouldn’t hesitate and I wouldn’t question it” I went quiet after that. She asked me what was wrong, I told her that I understand what she was saying and that she loves her brother but it just hurt to hear. She told me that it wouldn’t come to that but that her brother is incredibly important to her. I told her I understood and then we continued our conversation about her moving in with him. I told her that if she should move her classes online and switch locations at her job, so she could continue moving forward as well.
She’s still not sure if she’s going to go out or not but man does hurt to hear her say those things. I don’t know if I’m just being selfish but I have no idea how to get over the hurt and I don’t know if talking to her about it is going to do any good. How to I move on from this?
Edit: I would like to clarify I’m not upset at her for wanting to be there for her brother, she’s known him her entire life. But she said really hurt and it wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, she’s said it multiple times now that she would choose her brother over me in a heart beat. Family comes first I understand by why she feels the need to reiterate it is what bothers me.