I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone

This is a very long story taking over the course of about 4 years. I am going to try and make it as short as possible.

My brother was addicted to prescription pills and sent to rehab and was away from my family for about 2-3 years between rehab and living in another state trying to get his life in order. This will tie into my story in the future...


During this time my brother was living away, I got involved with two partners for work, one of them was my brothers best friend during his highschool years we will call my brothers best friend BOB, the other guy was just an acquaintance and we call him JOE. They were partners and owned their own business and had two locations, both were fairly new, and they were building the foundation to their business. I linked up with them and helped them manage the stores, created marketing material, and came up with procedures to help regulate the stores. This is a privately owned business with no real procedures or handbook persay. I spent 2 years of my life working underpaid and long hours because I believed in their vision with the business and how to propel it further. I'm 24 yrs old, sacrificed much of my social life these past 2 years working 7x a week. I was supposed to be a partner and open up a third location with them, they gave me the rights to open up a store. The foundation of the store has been laid, we hired some new employees. Things have gotten less stressful and now we have more flexability out of the stores so we can focus on making money and grabbing clients.

I find out that my brother is in Debt with Joe and Bob... Bob, my brothers best friend claimed he gave him money because my brother was in serious debt and had a gambling and drug problem, and tried to help him get his head above water. JOE claimed that he was a loan shark and people came to him when they needed money and they would pay back with interest. Joe tells me my brother came to him one day seeking a loan and he gave it to him. While my brother was living away, they approached me and told me they felt like my brother is running away from his problems and he burned all bridges because hes not paying back any debt. They started to demonize my brother very subtly and actually persuaded me to hate my brother for quite a while.

My brother came back to the family because my parents could not afford to pay for his housing and bills while he was away. He got his life back on track at home and got a full time job with benefits, and he hasn't been paying back his debt to Bob and Joe. My brother approaches me and tells me that Bob and Joe actually have a bigger part in this then I know, and that they are not as innocent as they are claiming to be.

In this timeline... It is 3 years since my brothers entry to rehab, hes living at home with a full time job, and I am working with Bob and Joe for the past 3 years. My brother tells me that JOE was actually the supplier of the pills. He was the one with the illegal prescriptions and giving my brother THOUSANDS of dollars worth of pain killers and FREE pain killers as a bonus. and his best friend BOB was helping him turn a faster profit. So I now find out the people I have been working with and devoting all my time and energy to played a part in my brothers downfall and breakdown. I feel betrayed, they have lied straight to my face about this. My brother may have dug the hole and jumped in it, but i feel like Bob and Joe supplied my brother with the shovels to do it. I'm actually questioning reality at this point. I went through a mix of emotions last night between rage, depression, laughter, and being upset. I was in complete disbelief.

I dont know if this is a sign from the Universe to leave what I'm doing, not invest my money, and start to pursue my own path? Or is this just something I have to try and forgive and work with Bob and Joe? How could I work with Bob and Joe, invest thousands of dollars, and open up my own store with them knowing this? I have not approached Bob or Joe yet and its been 3 days since I found this out...

If I drop what Im doing with Bob and Joe I literally have NOTHING or NO CAREER to turn to... I am still young 24 yrs old. and I saved up a good amount of money. But where do I go? I have no college degree.... I dont know what the right decision is I feel like I am in a tug of war between my spiritual/moral side and my physical human side that needs to progress in life. Im literally at a fork in the road, I can leave and create my own path, or try and work things out.... But how can I trust them, when they USED my brother like a mule for his drug running? How do I know they arent using me just to open up another store? They also tried to get my brother to pay back his debt, by paying my paycheck every week, so they didn't have to pay me.

I am very confused, hurt, angry, upset. I feel like my whole life everybody has been lying to me. I am going to approach them soon but I need some advice. I am a very clam person normally, but when something like this happens and I talk about it in person, I blow up and cant control myself.

What do I do? Should i drop what I have invested so much into (TIME) these past 2-3 years and carve my own path? or should I try to reconcile this between my brother, bob, and joe? I feel like I need to leave bc there is too much history and demons in this triangle, and its just going to keep haunting me...

I am desperate for help, and feel like im losing my sanity almost.