Right Idea, Wrong Suspect

The DNA results bothered Kristin. She had suspected that her dad wasn’t her biological father for a year or so anyway. The DNA matches only added more fuel to the fire. None of them shared the last names that she knew from her dad’s side. She searched through distant matches even and couldn’t find a single last name that she recognized. Worst of all, she couldn’t even find her own last name.

She hadn’t had a reason to question paternity until a random night out a year prior caused her to. A drunken stranger claimed that she looked familiar and asked who her parents were. When Kristin said her mother’s name, the man’s face lit up. He excitedly mentioned dating her before Kristin was born. When he mentioned the timeframe in which they were dating, Kristin insisted that he must be mistaken. That was the year her mother had married Kristin’s father, and Kristin was conceived.

The man was certain of the time though. He knew the exact months because they coincided with the jobs that he had been doing in the area.

“You look just like her! How old are you?” The stranger at the bar asked.

“23.” Kristin answered.

“Oh…”

The man seemed to be adding the math in his head and making connections. Kristin excused herself from the conversation before things got weird and left the bar quickly. She called her brother on the way home, relaying the story and asking what he thought. He wasn’t moved by any of the details.

“Do you really need to be consoled over some confused drunk guy’s memories from twenty plus years ago? He’s definitely mistaken on this one, Kris.”

 “You’re probably right.” She said.

She didn’t truly believe that though. A lot of things started to come together in her mind. She shared no physical traits with any of her cousins, and there were a lot of them. She also had a disorder that was supposed to be genetic, but no one else on either side ever remembered anyone having the same symptoms. It all added up to the drunk guy becoming more believable.

The hardest part of learning such a thing was not knowing where to go with the information. Her mom wouldn’t admit anything. Her father wouldn’t take a paternity test. What else could she do? For whatever reason, taking a DNA test skipped her mind for almost a year until her husband brought it up after growing tired of her ranting over the issue. Why hadn’t she thought of that? It was so simple.

Six weeks after her husband’s suggestion, Kristin was reviewing her results online and striking out on finding any proof that her dad was her biological father. Everything pointed to the fact that he was not. It was heartbreaking, but she constantly reminded herself that her dad was still her dad. It still grated on her that her mom cheated and lied though.

A few months after receiving her results, Kristin’s brother received results from a test that he took. He called with the good news.

“We’re a match!” He said. “It’s online. It says, ‘Kristin is a full sibling.”

“Well, that is bizarre!” Kristin said, almost with a hint of disappointment. She was thrilled to know that her brother and her had the same parents, but pieces of the puzzle weren’t fitting. It bothered her not to have answers.

“Unless mom got pregnant by the same affair partner twice, I think we can say that dad is dad!” Kristin’s brother added.

“I guess. What about the last names though? Do you have grandpa’s mother’s maiden name on any matches? Or her mom’s maiden name?” She asked.

“I’m looking now. I don’t see any. These things are exact science, Kris. It could be a data entering error or something.”

Still filled with doubts and questions, Kristin assumed nothing more could be done with the situation and pushed it to the back burner of her life. Once a week or so, it would pop back into her mind, but she had no further actions to take on the matter. She had no choice but to move on with her life.

A year after the DNA tests confirmed that her brother and her were full siblings, Kristin received an email from a family tree website that she long ago signed up for. She received emails from the company pretty regularly regarding documents or pictures that might be applicable to her family. Most of the time she deleted the emails without looking into them, but for whatever reason, she opened the latest email.

The email contained a link to a wedding certificate for a relative, her father’s mother to be exact. Kristin clicked on the link, mostly out of boredom. She already knew the major details of her grandparents’ wedding.

The link opened to another site in which Kristin had to sign up for. Irritated, she entered her information and hit submit. The site finally opened the wedding certificate, only it had the wrong state seal. Kristin knew that her grandparents were married in Wyoming, but this certificate listed Oregon right on top.

Kristin thought it was weird and it made her look more closely into the other details. She realized that the line for the groom’s name did not have her grandfather listed but had another man’s name written.

“Oh! Grandma was married before grandpa?” Kristin thought to herself. “How scandalous!”

She considered it a funny little family secret until the ceremony date caught her attention. January 1957. Her father was born in October of that year. Now it was her turn to do the math and make the connections.

Kristin logged back onto the DNA site to search through the last names of matches once again. She entered the last name of the groom listed on the newly discovered marriage certificate. Instantly, more than 20 matches showed up with the same last name. The man listed on the marriage certificate was her biological grandfather.

It wasn’t her mom who kept secrets and told lies. It was her grandmother all along who was throwing the puzzle pieces off. Now, the puzzle was complete, and it was a dramatic scene.