Off The Record
My SIL Went Behind My Back And DNA-Tested My Daughter—The Truth About Her Motives Broke My Heart
“You’re raising a dead woman’s affair baby.” A DNA test was thrust into my face by my sister-in-law. She had conducted a test without my permission, stolen my daughter’s DNA, and acted behind my back. But my daughter wasn’t the only one involved. It has to do with my brother feeding his fiancée a nasty falsehood.
Have you ever been in one of those situations where you can’t even react to what happened and simply sit there staring? My sister-in-law waved a DNA test in my face as if she had solved a murder case, and that was me, standing in my own freaking living room.
Isabel said, “She’s not yours,” just in front of my precious, naive six-year-old daughter. “You’re raising a dead woman’s affair baby.”
As I waited for my mind to catch up, I gazed at her. When it did, I laughed until my stomach ached.
Isabel’s face was crimson in the face. “What’s so funny?”
Still laughing, I wiped a tear from my eye. “Beyond my back, you tested my daughter’s DNA? Do you consider yourself a detective of some sort?”
Her gaze flicked to Ava, who was clutching to my thigh, her little brows pinched in perplexity, but her mouth snapped shut.
I stopped laughing at that point. “Get out of my house!” I yelled at Isabel.
She began, “Jake, you don’t understand —”
I gritted my teeth and put a protective arm around Ava. “No, YOU don’t understand,” I said. “What exactly do you expect when you walk into my house with accusations and DNA testing in front of my child? A medal? Leave right now.”
Ava’s voice was barely heard as her tiny fingers pushed into my leg. “Why is Aunt Isabel upset, Daddy? Did I make a mistake?”
Something inside of me broke as I heard the question. I stooped to see her in the eyes. “No, my love. There was nothing wrong with you. All Aunt Isabel did was make a mistake.”
Isabel’s expression fell flat. “Jake, please, if you’d just listen —”
I interrupted her by saying, “I think you’ve said enough,” getting to my feet and embracing Ava. “Leave my house before I say something I can’t take back.”
“Are you still my daddy?” Ava whispered against my neck as Isabel backed away.
I was hit hard by the question. I squeezed her closer, burying my face in her hair to conceal the tears that threatened to fall. “Always, sweetheart. Forever and eternally.”
I’ll back up.
My name is Jake. I have a daughter named Ava, and I am thirty years old. She has never been and never will be my biological daughter. It has never mattered, though.
Growing up, I was close friends with Ava’s parents. Just like siblings, we were never a thing. Hannah, her mother, married a wonderful man, had a child, and died in a car accident three months later. I was the only one without a family to take Ava in.
At 24, I had no intention of becoming a father. I wasn’t even positive that I loved children. I didn’t want to abandon her to the foster system, though. I took the initiative, signed the paperwork, and became her father in all respects.
Her adoption is known to my family. My daughter is aware of her adoption. No falsehoods, no secrets. However, it seems that my brother Ronaldo and his fiancée Isabel had a DIFFERENT account of what happened.
I still recall the evening I made the decision to parent Ava. As social services went over possibilities, I stood in the antiseptic hospital hallway cradling this small bundle.
“Sir,” the social worker replied gently, “I know you were close to the parents, but the burden of raising a child is huge. Some amazing foster families who—”
“No,” I interrupted, looking down at Ava’s face as she slept. “There’s a reason why Hannah and Daniel wanted me to be her godfather. I can’t leave her right now.”
My mom pleaded with me to change my mind. “You’re so young, Jake, honey. You have your entire life ahead of you. This is… it’s excessive.”
“What would you have done, Mom?” I questioned her. “What if it was me? What if your closest friends passed away and left their child alone? Would you have turned to leave?”
I can’t get her tears out of my head. “No,” she said in a whisper. “I wouldn’t have.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing, kiddo,” I vowed as I sat in a rocking chair that night with this little being sleeping on my chest. But I’ll figure it out, I swear. For you. For your parents. Together, we’ll figure it out.
As the years went by, Ava became my daughter, and I felt incredibly fortunate to be her father in every way.
However, one day, something unexpected upended my entire universe.
A few weeks ago was when it all began. Isabel was examining an old picture on the wall while we were at my parents’ house. It was a photo of Ava’s biological parents, Hannah, her husband, and me.
I said, “That’s Ava’s mom,” in response to her inquiry.
Isabel changed her face. She simply nodded and continued to look at the photo without saying anything. I should have realized then that something wasn’t quite right.
Isabel said, “They appear content,” as she traced the frame’s edge with her finger.
“They were,” I said, grinning at the recollection. Hannah’s laugh was so contagious that it made everyone else laugh as well. And Daniel—my goodness, he was the most trustworthy individual I had ever encountered. He was so anxious that he drove to the hospital while wearing his slippers when Hannah went into labor.
Isabel’s eyes glinted suspiciously as she turned to face me. “And… how did you feel when they had Ava?”
I thought the question was strange, but I gave an honest response. “Happy. As soon as the baby was born, they called me first. I stayed up all night with Daniel while Hannah slept, and I brought them awful hospital coffee. ‘I can’t believe I’m a parent,’ he said repeatedly. We both couldn’t stop smiling.”
Isabel insisted, “You must have been very close,” and I felt uneasy with the tone of her voice.
“They were related. The kind you pick, not by blood.”
Later that night, Isabel took out her phone to make a discreet call in the corridor, although I didn’t notice at the time how her eyes narrowed a little.
I ought to have anticipated it. I should have known that she would do everything in her power to secretly test my daughter’s paternity.
Isabel spat out, “I knew something was off,” when I later confronted her. “Ava doesn’t resemble you at all! I knew she wasn’t yours when I saw that image. She must have been a — if she wasn’t yours.”
I interrupted her. “Baby, an affair?” “Are you serious?”
With her chin up and her arms folded, she gave the impression that she was still certain she had everything all worked out. “You never said she wasn’t biologically yours.”
“I also didn’t say she was. Because you have no business worrying about it.”
That made her wince, but she quickly got over it. “I just didn’t want you raising another man’s child thinking she was yours.”
“And you thought the best way to handle that was a DNA test?”
Isabel paused. Then the truth was revealed.
“My brother told you to do it, didn’t he?”
She didn’t respond.
I laughed, dryly and without humor. “Obviously. Ronaldo was undoubtedly responsible for this.”
As it happens, she was unaware that Ava wasn’t my biological daughter. And it seems that she was sufficiently disturbed by that fact to surreptitiously conduct a goddamn DNA test behind my back.
“Do you have ANY idea what you’ve done?” I blew up. “Last night, Ava asked me if she was still my daughter. A six-year-old girl wonders if her father still loves her because of some CRUSADE that you two chose to go on.”
Tears filled Isabel’s eyes. “I promise, Jake, I never intended to cause Ava any harm. I had the thought—”
“Isabel, that’s the issue! You failed to think! Are you familiar with the experience of losing your closest friends? To hold their child and swear to provide her with the life they desired? To wonder daily whether you’re doing it correctly and whether they would be pleased?”
“And then for someone to show up and attempt to… what? Reveal a tremendous deception? As though biology and love were synonymous? As if I hadn’t centered my entire world around that young girl for six years?”
“Isabel drooped her shoulders. Ronaldo stated that you were confined. that you were compelled to. because you secretly hated being responsible for someone else’s child.”
“Is that his opinion of me? I’m some sort of martyr? That I don’t LOVE being her father every single moment?”
I was done with my brother by the time I addressed him. However, I had to hear it directly from him.
I crossed my arms and murmured, “So, let me get this straight,” Really, you believed that I was Ava’s biological father? That Hannah and I had an affair? lied for years about it?
The audacity to roll his eyes was displayed by Ronaldo. “Jake, you never wanted children. You hardly enjoyed their company. Then you suddenly decide to adopt a child? What should I have thought?”
“Perhaps I had feelings for her parents? That I wouldn’t allow strangers to raise their daughter? That, for the first time in my life, I did something altruistic?” I shot back.”
He clenched his jaw. “I just —”
“You simply WHAT? Have you made the decision to deceive your fiancée into confirming a wild theory you came up with on your own? When the test results were in, what were your plans?”
Ronaldo turned his head aside.
I sneered. “You didn’t think that far, did you?”
Ronaldo leaned forward and said, “Look,” in that condescending manner I’ve always detested. “I was trying to help you. My younger brother is you. I’ve seen you give up your whole twenties —”
“SACRIFICE?” I yelled because I could no longer control myself. Do you believe that’s what it means to me to be Ava’s father? A noble sacrifice, perhaps?
Ronaldo blinked, briefly taken aback by my tirade.
“Let me tell you something: I lost a piece of myself along with Hannah and Daniel when they passed away. I was unable to save them. I was unable to retrieve them. But I could give everything I had to their daughter. Ronaldo, that isn’t sacrifice. That is salvation.”
My brother’s expression changed as if comprehension had finally set in.
“You have no idea what it means to love someone more than yourself,” I said. You would move mountains, fight battles, and rewrite the stars for a young girl just by looking at her. That isn’t a duty. The best present I’ve ever gotten is that.
“Jake, I—”
“No! You’re not allowed to talk at this time. I have been Ava’s father for SIX YEARS. Six years of first days of school, fevers, and nightmares. Of tea parties and princess bandaids and macaroni art on the refrigerator. And you’re audacious enough to dismiss that as a hardship I’m bearing?”
Ronaldo’s gaze fell to the ground. “I thought I was looking out for you.”
No. You were searching for drama and scandal. What sort of person, you ask, would attempt to show that his brother is raising “another man’s child” as though that meant anything? As if family is determined by DNA?
His silence was sufficient response.
Isabel, to her credit, apologized when she visited my home the following day. She claimed she was unaware that Ronaldo had been lying to her for the past two years. It seems that she had a motive for her reaction.
She admitted, “My mom had an affair,” “For years, my dad believed that my younger brother was his. He was destroyed when he discovered the truth. destroyed us.”
I wiped my face with my hand. “Isabel…”
“Jake, I believed I was assisting you. I believed you had a right to know if you were being misled.”
I let out a sigh. “And when you found out I wasn’t?”
Her eyes glistened. “I was too embarrassed to admit I’d been wrong.”
“I shouldn’t have done the test,” she added still. And I should never have argued with you in front of Ava. That simply could not be forgiven.
I gazed at her. “Yeah,” I finally said. It was.
“I needed to say it, but I’m not sure whether you’ll ever forgive me. Additionally—” She inhaled nervously. “I think I’m leaving Ronaldo.”
I was surprised by that. “What?”
“If he could lie to ME for two years about something like this, what else is he capable of?”
That was a wise query.
“Isabel,” I said, “a family isn’t made of blood. Love does. Commitment does.”
Whispering, “I know that now,” she said. “I believe I’ve always known. However, fear is a strong force. She inhaled deeply and shuddered.” Jake, it’s always so lovely to see you with Ava. what you two have created. I really apologize for taking that chance.
I nodded but did not absolve her. “It’ll take time.”
What about Ronaldo? I informed him that we were done, at least for the time being. My parents concurred, and after this, none of us wanted to interact with him.
“You think I’m just gonna FORGET that you accused me of cheating with a married woman?” When he attempted to defend himself, I questioned him. “That you let your fiancée humiliate me in front of my daughter?”
“I wasn’t thinking straight,” he whispered to himself.
“I’m not joking. Ronaldo, have fun with your life. However, don’t count on me to be in it.”
Ava’s large eyes were filled with something I couldn’t quite identify as I tucked her into bed that night.
“Daddy?” she said in a whisper.
“Yeah, baby?”
She wrapped her tiny fingers into my sleeve. “I’m YOUR daughter, right?”
I bent over and gave her a forehead kiss. “Always.”
The only truth that has ever been significant is that.
I collected my thoughts while perched on the side of the bed. “Ava, do you remember the story about how you came to live with me?”
She gave a serious nod. “My first mommy and daddy went to heaven, and you promised to take care of me forever.”
“You’re right, my love. Family is more than just your origins. It’s about who supports you daily, who loves you, and who keeps you safe.”
Ava ran her finger across my face. “Do you believe they are able to see us? From heaven?”
“I do. They must be really proud of the wonderful lady you’re growing into, in my opinion.”
Her eyes gleamed as she gazed up at me. “I’m glad you’re my daddy.”
I drew her near to me, overcome by a love so intense it left me speechless. “Me too, baby… me too.”
Things had changed a few days later. Isabel had made a fresh start in a new city.
Ronaldo was receiving therapy, but his improvement was gradual. Ava was receiving the kind of unending grandparent love that filled my heart, and my parents had grown even more protective of her.
What about Ava and me? We did well. Better than good.
And I am positive that the calm times spent with my daughter’s heart pounding against mine are the epitome of home and love, regardless of the difficulties we may face and the storms we may endure.
Now Trending:
- My Neighbor Egged My Car Over His Halloween Display—So I Set Up A Surprise He’ll Never Forget
- He Yelled Until She Broke—Then She Finally Found Her Voice
- My ‘Perfect Christian Fiancé’ Had Strict Rules For Me—Until I Caught Him Kissing Another Woman
Please let us know your thoughts and SHARE this story with your Friends and Family!
