You know how you think, after a certain point, that you’ve got your life figured out? That you know your marriage, your kids, your family dynamic well enough that nothing could really surprise you anymore? That’s where I was. Married over twenty years, two grown kids, same routines, same faces around the table. I truly thought we were past big surprises.
Then one random morning blew that illusion apart.
I came home early from work and I remember being in a good mood. But then I opened the front door and heard voices. My husband wasn’t alone. I had no idea who could that be at that time of the day, but then I realized it my son’s girlfriend’s voice.
The girl was crying while my husband tried to calm her down, saying things like, “You can’t tell him yet,” and “We need to be sure.”
I remember thinking, This does not look good. Not at all.
When I came in, they both stopped moving. My husband got up at once and my son’s girlfriend looked frightened, as if she’d been caught doing something she never intended to do.
I asked what was going on, and she was the one who broke the silence first. She said she needed to tell me something, and then she said, “I’m not who you think I am.”
We sat down and she took an old photo out of her bag. It was a photo of a mother holding a baby. Her mother died when she was still very young and she went to live with her grandparents. After her grandmother died, she came across a box of letters and papers. One of them had been written by her mother.
That letter said she’d given birth to twin girls but one of the babies was placed up for adoption.
I swear, in that moment, I already knew what this was going to be about, but I wasn’t ready for the truth. The adopted baby was my daughter.
My husband eventually confessed that my son’s girlfriend had approached him weeks before with a letter and various documents. He didn’t tell me because he wanted to be sure before blowing everything up. They checked records, but wanted to do a DNA test.
I helped them do that, and the results showed my son’s girlfriend and my adopted daughter were biological sister.
What it meant for her and my son was the hardest part. She loved him, but once she understood the situation, she realized she couldn’t be with him. She went to my husband because she didn’t know what else to do.
After a lot of crying and coming to terms with the situation, we decided our daughter should know first.
When we told her, she barely said a word. She just stood up and hugged her.
The weeks afterward were tough. My son was heartbroken, but eventually the truth came out. It hurt, but it was honest.
We are not heartbroken, but different. The girls are close and my son is healing. And I? I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that life works in mysterious ways.
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Bored Daddy
Love and Peace
