You are raising the fruit of the infidelity of a dead woman.” My sister-in-law threw a DNA test in my face. He had gone behind my back, had stolen my daughter’s DNA and had done a test without my consent. But it wasn’t just about my daughter. It was a cruel lie that my brother had told his fiancée.
Have you ever had one of those moments when you sit there, staring, because what just happened is so disastrous that you can’t even react? That was me, standing in my damn living room while my sister-in-law waved a DNA test in my face as if she had just solved a murder case.
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs es acusado de un nuevo caso de agresión sexual
A woman with a suspicious face holding a document | Source: Midjourney
A woman with a suspicious face holding a document | Source: Midjourney
“It’s not yours,” Isabel said in front of my innocent and sweet six-year-old daughter. “You are raising the fruit of the infidelity of a dead woman.”
I stared at her, waiting for my brain to catch up. When he finally did it, I laughed so much that my stomach hurt.
Isabel’s face turned red. “What’s so funny?”
I wiped a tear, still laughing. “Have you done a DNA test on my daughter BEHIND MY BACK? Do you think you’re some kind of detective?”
He closed his mouth, but his eyes turned to Ava, who clung to my leg with furrowed eyebrows from the confusion.
That’s when I stopped laughing. “Get out of my house!” I spit Isabel.
An angry man | Source: Midjourney
An angry man | Source: Midjourney
“Jake, you don’t understand…” she began.
“No, YOU don’t understand,” I growled as I put my arm around Ava. “You enter MY house with accusations and DNA tests in front of MY DAUGHTER… and what exactly do you expect? A medal? Get out… NOW.”
Ava’s little fingers dug into my leg, her voice barely audible. “Dad, why is Aunt Isabel angry? Have I done something wrong?”
The question shattered something inside me. I knelt down and looked into her eyes. “No, honey. You haven’t done anything wrong. Aunt Isabel made a mistake, that’s all.”
Isabel’s face wrinkled. “Jake, please, if you would listen to me…”.
“I think you’ve already said enough,” I interrupted her, standing up and lifting Ava in my arms. “Get out of my house before I say something I can’t retract.”
A sad girl with a teddy bear in her hand | Source: Midjourney
A sad girl with a teddy bear in her hand | Source: Midjourney
As Isabel withdrew, Ava whispered against my neck: “Are you still my dad?”
The question hit me like a slap. I hugged her tighter, pressing my face against her hair to hide the tears that threatened to spill. “Always, little one. Always and forever.”
I’m Jake. I’m 30 years old and have a daughter, Ava. She is not my biological daughter, she has never been and never will be. But that has never mattered.
Ava’s parents were my best childhood friends. We were never anything, just intimate, like brothers. His mother, Hannah, married a great boy, had a son and, three months later, both died in a car accident. There was no family to take in Ava… no one but me.
Cutout of a man with a newborn baby in his arms | Source: Unsplash
Cutout of a man with a newborn baby in his arms | Source: Unsplash
I didn’t plan to be a father at 24. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I liked children. But leaving it in the hands of the reception system was something I didn’t want to do. So I decided, signed the papers and became his father in every way.
My family knows that it is adopted. My daughter knows she’s adopted. No secrets, no lies. But, apparently, my brother Ronaldo and his fiancée Isabel had a DIFFERENT version of the facts in their heads.
I remember the night I decided to become Ava’s father. She was standing in the sterile corridor of the hospital, holding the girl wrapped in blankets while social services discussed the options.
“Sir,” the social worker said softly, I understand that you were very good friends with parents, but raising a girl is a huge responsibility. There are wonderful host families that…”
“No,” I interrupted her, looking at Ava’s sleeping face. “Hannah and Daniel wanted me to be their godfather for a reason. I can’t leave her now.”
An emotionally overwhelmed man with a newborn baby in his arms | Source: Unsplash
An emotionally overwhelmed man with a newborn baby in his arms | Source: Unsplash
My mother begged me to reconsider. “Jake, honey, you’re very young. You have all your life ahead of you. This is… it’s too much.”
“What would you have done, mom?” I asked her. “If it had been me? If your best friends died and left their son with no one? Would you have left?”
The memory of his tears still torments me. “No,” he whispered. “I wouldn’t have done it.”
An emotional older woman | Source: Midjourney
An emotional older woman | Source: Midjourney
That night, sitting on a rocking chair with that little human being asleep on my chest, I made a promise: “I don’t know what I’m doing, little one. But I promise I’ll find out. For you. For your mother and your father. We’ll figure it out together.”
As the years passed, Ava grew up as my daughter, and I felt so blessed and lucky to be her father in every sense of the word.
But one day, something I never saw coming turned my world upside down.
Silhouette of a man walking with his little daughter | Source: Pexels
Silhouette of a man walking with his little daughter | Source: Pexels
It all started a few weeks ago. We were at my parents’ house and Isabel looked at an old photo on the wall. It was a photo of me, of Hannah and her husband, Ava’s real parents.
“That’s Ava’s mother,” I explained when she asked me.
Isabel’s expression changed. He didn’t say much, he just nodded and kept looking at the photo. I should have realized that something was not right.
“They seem happy,” Isabel said, while her finger traced the edge of the frame.
“They were,” I replied, smiling when I remembered. “Hannah had that kind of laugh that made others laugh too. And Daniel… damn, he was the most responsible person I’ve ever met. When Hannah went into labor, he was so nervous that he drove to the hospital with the slippers on.”
Isabel turned to me with a suspicious glow in her eyes. “And… how did you feel when they had Ava?”
A doubting woman looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
A doubting woman looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
The question seemed strange to me, but I answered honestly. “Happy. I was the first person they called when the baby was born. I brought them a terrible coffee from the hospital and stayed up all night with Daniel while Hannah slept. He neft to say: ‘I can’t believe I’m a dad’. Neither of them could stop smiling.”
“They must have been very close,” Isabel insisted, something in her tone made me uncomfortable.
“They were family. Not of blood, but of the one you choose.”
What I didn’t notice then was how Isabel’s eyes narrowed slightly when she took out the phone later that night to make a silent call in the hallway.
I should have seen it coming. I should have known that I would do everything possible to check my daughter’s paternity behind my back.
An anguished man running a hand through his hair | Source: Midjourney
An anguished man running a hand through his hair | Source: Midjourney
“I knew something wasn’t right,” Isabel said to me when I confronted her later. “Ava doesn’t look like you at all! Then I saw the photo and knew it wasn’t yours. And if it wasn’t yours, it had to be a…”.
I interrupted her. “The fruit of an infidelity? Are you serious?”
She crossed her arms, with her chin raised, as if she was still sure to have everything clear. “You never said I wasn’t biologically yours.”
“I never said it was either. Because it’s none of your business.”
He shivered, but recovered quickly. “I just didn’t want you to raise another man’s daughter thinking she was yours.”
“And you thought the best way to solve it was a DNA test?”
Isabel hesitated. Then, the truth came out.
A medical document on the table | Source: Midjourney
A medical document on the table | Source: Midjourney
“My brother told you to do it, didn’t he?”
I let out a dry and humorless laugh. “Of course. Of course Ronaldo was behind this.”
It turns out that she didn’t know that Ava wasn’t my biological daughter. And, apparently, that information bothered him enough to sneak behind my back and take a damn DNA test.
“Do you have the slightest idea of what you’ve done?” I exploded. “Ava asked me last night if she was still my daughter! A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl who wonders if her father still loves her because of a wrong CRUSADE that you decided to embark on.”
A furious man arguing with someone | Source: Midjourney
A furious man arguing with someone | Source: Midjourney
Isabel’s eyes filled with tears. “Jake, I swear I never wanted to hurt Ava. I thought…”
“That’s the problem, Isabel! You didn’t think! Do you know what it’s like to lose your best friends? Holding her baby in her arms and promising her that they would give her the life they wanted for her? Question yourself every day if you are doing well… and if they would be proud?”
“Y que luego venga alguien e intente… ¿qué? ¿Exponer un gran engaño? ¿Como si el amor y la biología fueran lo mismo? ¿Como si no hubiera pasado seis años construyendo todo mi mundo en torno a esa niña?”.
Isabel’s shoulders sank. “Ronaldo said… he said you were trapped. That you felt obliged. That deep down it bothered you to have to raise someone else’s daughter.”
“Is that what you think of me? That I’m a martyr? That I don’t LOVE every moment when I can be his father?”
An altered woman with her eyes down | Source: Midjourney
An altered woman with her eyes down | Source: Midjourney
When I faced my brother, I had already decided to get him out of my life. But he needed to hear it from his own mouth.
“Then if I understood it correctly,” I said, with my arms crossed. “Did you really think I was Ava’s biological father? That I had an affair with Hannah? That I lied about it for years?”
Ronaldo dared to roll his eyes. “You NEVER wanted to have children, Jake. You barely liked being near them. So, out of nowhere, do you adopt a baby? What was I supposed to think?”
“Maybe he loved his parents? That he wasn’t going to let some strangers raise his daughter? That I did something selfless for once in my life?” I replied.
A stunned and guilty man looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
A stunned and guilty man looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
His jaw tightened. “I just…”
“Simply WHAT? Did you decide to cheat on your fiancée to prove a ridiculous theory that you had invented? What was your plan when the test arrived?”
I mocked. “You didn’t think that far, did you?”
“Look,” Ronaldo said, leaning forward with that condescending tone that I’ve always hated, “I was trying to help you. You are my little brother. I’ve seen you sacrifice all your youth…”
“SACRICRIFY?” I screamed, unable to hold back any longer. “Is that what you think it’s for me to be Ava’s father? A noble SACRIFICE?”
Ronaldo blinked, momentarily stunned by my outburst.
A guilty man with a slooted look | Source: Midjourney
A guilty man with a slooted look | Source: Midjourney
“Let me tell you something… when Hannah and Daniel died, a part of me died with them. I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t bring them back. But I could love his daughter with everything I have. That’s not sacrifice, Ronaldo. That’s SALVATION.”
My brother’s face changed, and he finally understood something.
“You have no idea what it means to love someone other than yourself,” I said. “Looking at a girl and knowing that you would move mountains, fight in wars and rewrite the stars for her. That’s not an obligation. It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever received.”
Nostalgic photo of a man with a baby in his arms | Source: Pixabay
Nostalgic photo of a man with a baby in his arms | Source: Pixabay
“No! Now you can’t talk. For SIX YEARS I have been Ava’s father. SIX YEARS of nightmares and fevers and first days of school. Of stick art in the fridge and princess band-afts and tea parties. And do you have the AUDACITY to reduce that to a burden that I carry?”
Ronaldo’s eyes fell to the ground. “I tooking care of you.”
“No. You were looking for scandal and drama. Tell me, what kind of person is trying to prove that his brother is raising “another man’s son” as if that meant SOMETHING? As if DNA determined the family?”
His silence was a sufficient answer.
Side shot of an anguished man looking down | Source: Midjourney
Side shot of an anguished 
man looking down | Source: Midjourney
In his honor, Isabel came to my house the next day and apologized. He said he had no idea that Ronaldo had been telling him lies for two years. Apparently, he had a reason to react like he did.
“My mother had an affair,” he confessed. “My father thought my younger brother was his for years. When he discovered the truth, he destroyed it. He destroyed us…”.
I put a hand over my face. “Isabel…”
“I thooke I was helping you, Jake. I thought that if they were lying to you, you deserved to know.”
I sighed. “And when did you find out that it wasn’t like that?”
His eyes shone. “I was too embarrassed to admit that I had been wrong.”
Portrait of an emotional woman | Source: Midjourney
Portrait of an emotional woman | Source: Midjourney
“I shouldn’t have done the test,” he continued. “And I should NEVER have faced you in front of Ava. That was… unforgivable.”
I stared at her. Finally, I said, “Yes, it was.”
I don’t know if you’ll ever forgive me, but I needed to say it. And…”. He breathed shartly. “I think I’m going to leave Ronaldo.”
That caught me off guard. “What?”
“If he was able to lie to me for two years about something like that, what else is he capable of?”
A confused woman | Source: Midjourney
A confused woman | Source: Midjourney
“Isabel,” I said, “blood doesn’t form a family. Love, yes. Commitment, yes.”
“Now I know,” he whispered. “I think I’ve always known. But fear is something powerful.” She took a deep breath, trembling. “Whenever I see you with Ava, it’s… it’s beautiful, Jake. What they have built together. I’m very sorry I risked that.”
I didn’t absolve her, but I nodded. “It will take time.”
And Ronaldo? I told him that we had finished… for now, at least. My parents agreed, and none of us wanted to have anything to do with him after this.
A disgusted man | Source: Pixabay
A disgusted man | Source: Pixabay
“Do you think I’m going to FORGET that you accused me of cheating on you with a married woman?” I asked him when he tried to justify himself. “Did you let your fiancée humiliate me in front of my daughter?”
“I didn’t think clearly,” he muttered.
“Don’t tell me. Enjoy your life, Ronaldo. But don’t expect me to be in it.”
That night, while putting Ava in bed, she looked at me with her big eyes full of something I didn’t know how to identify.
His little fingers croled up on my sleeve. “I’m YOUR daughter, right?”
I leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Always.”
And that’s the only truth that has always mattered.
A girl hugging her teddy bear and lying on her bed | Source: Midjourney
A girl hugging her teddy bear and lying on her bed | Source: Midjourney
I sat on the edge of his bed, organizing my thoughts. “Ava, do you remember the story of how you came to live with me?”
He nodded solemnly. “My first mom and my first dad went to heaven, and you promised to take care of me forever.”
“That’s right, honey. Family doesn’t just consist of where you come from. It’s about who loves you, who protects you and who is there for you every day.”
Ava ran a finger over my face. “Do you think they can see us? From the sky?”
“Yes, I think so. And I think they are very proud of the incredible girl you are becoming.”
He looked at me with bright eyes. “I’m glad you’re my dad.”
I tool her to bring her closer, overwhelmed by a love so fierce that it left me breathless. “Me too, honey… me too.”
An excited man smiling | Source: Midjourney
An excited man smiling | Source: Midjourney
A few days later, things had changed. Isabel had moved to another city and was starting again.
Ronaldo was in therapy, progressing slowly. My parents had become even more protective of Ava, filling her with a limitless love of grandparents that filled my heart.
And Ava and I? We were fine. Better than good.
And I know, with absolute certainty, that whatever the challenges that are presented to us and the storms that we weather, the moments of tranquility with my daughter’s heart beating against mine are home and love in its pure state.
