My 22-year-old stepson is harrassing me and I'm afraid to tell my husband

Dear AmoMama,

I'm 41 years old and I've been happily married for 12 years to a lovely man. It was my first marriage, but his second. He has two kids by his first wife who have always lived with their mother.

Six months ago his oldest son dropped out of college, had a blow-up with his mother and moved in with us.

My husband is a truck driver, so he spends a lot of time on the road, so I was left alone with me stepson a good part of the week. At first, everything went well. My stepson is not a communicative boy, and he mostly sat in his room at his computer or went out with his friends, and he hardly ever sat down with me for meals.

A few weeks ago something changed. I was coming out of my shower and he walked in and stood there staring. I screamed at him to get out and he did.

I pretended it didn't happen, but I felt very uncomfortable. He started hanging around the kitchen, staring at me while I cooked, going out of his way to brush against me. Then he started touching me as if by accident.

I caught him stealing my underwear from the laundry hamper and I was too astounded to say anything. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I hear him outside my bedroom door at night breathing.

I know how frightened and violated I feel when it is happening, but when I start thinking of how I will explain what happens it sounds like nothing. There is nothing I can go to the police about if I wanted to, and I can't tell my husband.

I'm afraid this will escalate, I'm afraid this boy may hurt me. How can I tell my husband I'm not safe in my own house when he is away? How can I tell him I think his son is a predator?

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