DNA - It's Complicated

We sat without speaking and sipped our coffee. Finally, she raised her gaze to mine, "What are we going to do?"

I looked into her red-rimmed eyes, "What do YOU think we should do? What does your heart tell you is the right thing to do? I need to know what you're feeling right now."

"God what a mess! No matter what my sister did, the bottom line is; I am Bryan's mother, and YOU are my husband and the only father he has ever known. We are a family! I don't want to change any of that! ... What about you, what do you want to do?"

"You're right, it is a mess. I love Bryan today just as much as I did before I saw the report. He is, and always will be, my son. None of this is your fault, I couldn't love you any more than I do right now. You are my wife and, hopefully, you will be my wife forever. I love my life with you and Bryan, I don't want it to change."

Amy let out a long breath and smiled as she reached for my hand. "Okay, now what do we do about Jill and Jimmy?"

"We need to talk with them to find out where they are. I know Jim has to be very angry with Jill. She gave away his only son. I have no idea how he will deal with that. As for Jill? Well, I hate her for what she did TO us, but I love her for what she did FOR us. ... Do you know what I mean?"

"Exactly! She did a terrible thing, but Bryan is a wonderful result. She did it out of love for me, but it has caused both of us great pain. Like you, I hate her and love her for what she did."

"We have to call them this morning and come to some agreement before the kids come home."

Jill and Jimmy looked like they had not slept much when they came shuffling in an hour later. I poured more coffee and we sat in my family room. I started us off.

"We are family, we love each other and we all love the kids. We need to decide what is best for everyone involved and how we deal with this going forward. Amy and I want to hear from you, Jimmy. We need to know what you think should be done."

"I'm so fucking angry with Jill right now! God, what a mess this is." He glared at Jill as she hid her tear-streaked face. "The truth is I don't know what the fuck to do! I mean, Bryan is my son, but you're his father. ... What the hell do I do with that? A part of me is so excited to know I have a son, but I could never take him away from you and he would hate me if I tried. Fuck, legally, in Ohio, the state says you're the father because he was born of your marriage and your name is on his birth certificate. They don't give a fuck about DNA. At least that's what I read online, for whatever that's worth."

"Jimmy, we're family, are you saying you want to get lawyers involved in this?"

"Oh hell no! This is a big mess, but we've got to work this out amongst ourselves. Look, I love you, you're my brother, I don't want to hurt you, but he is my son and I think he needs to know that."

"No!" Amy shouted, "He is my son, and telling him John is not his father will crush him. He's too young to understand the fucking biology! John is his father! End of story!"

I held a hand up to calm her. "Amy please, I agree with Jim, Bryan has to know the truth." Amy started to sputter and I quickly added, He needs to know the truth WHEN he's old enough to understand it!" I turned to Jim, "Is that what you meant?"

"God Yes!, Amy, I'm sorry, no, it would be a terrible thing to do to him now. ... BUT... At a time when we all agree, he should be told the complete truth."

Amy looked at me, I nodded my head. She sighed deeply, Ok, but not any time soon, he's only eight years old."

Jimmy nodded his agreement, "Yeah, I'm thinking 17 or 18, something like that."

"Okay, let's agree, we will do nothing to change anything until Bryan is 17. Then we will all decide, together, when and what exactly to tell him. ... Jimmy, are you sure you can live with that?"

"I hate it, but it's the best thing for him. I'm always going to do whatever is best for him."

I hugged my brother, "I knew you would say that because you love him, just like I love him."

"Jill, you've been very quiet. What do you have to say about all this?"

Jill sobbed louder. Amy went and put an arm around her. "Jill, you're my sister and I love you. I am not sure I can ever forgive you for what you've done to my family, ... but, without you, my beautiful boy would never have been born, so I can not hate you for what you did. I hope you will continue to be Bryan's favorite Aunt." Amy squeezed her shoulders and then kissed the top of her head.

"So, how are things with you two? Are you going to be able to live with what she did?"

My brother looked away from his sobbing wife and sighed. "She fucked us all, she could have told us her plan, but she decided to just do it and didn't give a shit about us."

"Jim, I think it's pretty clear that her motivation was her love for her sister. She simply didn't want to risk having one of us shoot down her plan. She had one chance, one shot and she took it. ... Oh yes, it was wrong, it was a terrible thing to do to us, but she's not terrible, she was desperate to help her suffering sister, and it gave us Bryan. I can't hate her for that."

Jim looked at the floor. He took a deep breath, got up, and walked to his wife. He wrapped his arms around her and she pressed into him, sobbing loudly. He moved his mouth to her ear, "Stop crying and kiss me, you crazy bitch."

Epilogue

Things gradually returned to normal. I made sure to include Jim in as much of Bryan's life as I could. As Bryan matured, he began to look a bit more like Jim, but no one thought it was odd to look like an aunt or uncle, that happens in lots of families. As a group, we decided to tell Bryan the story of his conception shortly before he turned eighteen. He thought it was a joke, at first, but when faced with the reality, he took it pretty well. At one point he turned to Jill and thanked her for making his life possible. She lost it and bawled like a baby. Then he asked us not to tell his cousins and asked us just continue as we had been doing. I think Jim was a little hurt by that, but he agreed.

Life can be complicated, but love will get you through it.

Thanks for Reading my story. As you may have guessed, I'm not a DNA expert, nor am I a lawyer. I'm sure I took some liberties with the DNA kit processing, so my apologies to those companies. Please take a moment to comment on, and rate, my story. Thank you.