Widower Does a DNA Test on Kid after Wife's Death, Later He Hides the Test Results from Family

The widower took a DNA test on his son and was relieved that the truth would remain between his dead wife and him. But things took a different turn when he had a casual chat with his brother.

Some secrets are best taken to the grave, but one man's wife decided to confess a long-hidden truth before passing on. Her revelation crushed him and compelled him to lie to his own family.

When Redditor nevertoldthem's girlfriend fell pregnant, his entire family was thrilled. The dad thought his little boy made his life better in every way possible. But fate had other plans when his partner unfolded a certain truth about their son on her deathbed.

The Original Poster (OP)'s son Josh meant the world to him. After the boy was born, OP was more enthusiastic. He graduated and got into his dream job. However, his wife had carried a disturbing secret for years until she died.

Before she passed on, she told OP she was scared he would abandon Josh once he discovered the truth. She claimed she wanted to plan an alternate accommodation for Josh before she died if OP were to desert him. OP was baffled as it didn't add up, but he kept listening.

Unsurprisingly, OP's brother was furious, and soon, the news spread like wildfire in the family. Everyone was upset with OP for hiding the truth from them.

Then she dropped the bomb on OP. She told him she saw someone else behind his back around the same time she got pregnant with Josh.

His wife's revelation was too painful to process. OP couldn't forgive her fully and doubted if he was Josh's birth father. Meanwhile, he feared his family's rigorous principles involving genetics.

Of all the other things, OP's family was strict about ancestry. They were the type that wouldn't think twice about ruining the relationship with a beloved relative if they married and introduced stepkids to the family.

For this precise reason, OP's dad's cousin distanced from OP's family after they expressed more interest in the person's biological daughter while sidelining the baby they'd adopted. OP felt hounded by these thoughts as he pursued a paternity test on his son.

The results arrived shortly, revealing OP was not the boy's father. He was devastated but didn't love Josh any less, so he decided not to give up his relationship with his son over a DNA test. However, he feared his family's reaction and decided to keep it a secret.

One day, OP was having a terrible day when his brother asked him what was wrong. OP was so disturbed that he thought it was time to unleash his emotional baggage. Without further thought, he opened up about Josh's paternity test.

Unsurprisingly, OP's brother was furious, and soon, the news spread like wildfire in the family. Everyone was upset with OP for hiding the truth from them. They accused him of playing with their emotions by making them love somebody unrelated to them.

Day by day, OP tackled his family's hurtful questions about Josh. At some point, they condemned him for tricking them into believing Josh was their grandson.

OP was too hurt to be able to handle the plight, so he asked the "AITA" moral judges if he was wrong for hiding his son's paternity from his family.

After reading his post, people flocked to share their thoughts and declared OP faultless. The post's top-voted commenter, Intelligent-Help8946, expressed how a family isn't built only on genetics, adding:

"Just because your son isn't your biological offspring doesn't make him any less family. Your family is disgusting for being bigoted towards non-biological children."

"This is why so many people refuse to share what's bothering them because it gets weaponized and used against them," user perry649 stated.

As the discussion heated up, more people flooded their opinions and praised OP for being a good father, although he didn't mean to hurt Josh by exposing the truth about his paternity to his family.

"You love your son wholeheartedly, and that's what makes him family. Give me your family's numbers, I just wanna talk," Redditor Substantial-Ice-7340 asserted.

"I've been crying nonstop most nights because I know this is what's gonna have to be done...When you're family, they are the sweetest, most caring people in the world. And then it was like a switch went off," OP expressed.

OP decided to put a brave fight for Josh and take him under his wing despite his family prompting him to leave the boy with his real family.

"It hurts because even though they're awful for telling me to leave him with his "real" family and suddenly not caring about him anymore, I still love them. And my son loves them...But I can't let them do that to my son," he stated.

Only time will tell if OP will manage to convince his family to accept Josh.

Questions to Ponder:

Would you go against your family if they told you to abandon your child after DNA tests reveal you're not the birth parent?

Despite the paternity test results revealing him as not Josh's biological father, OP hid the truth from his family and decided to continue raising Josh. When OP's family learned the truth, they demanded he leave the boy with his birth family, but OP refused. If this were to happen to you, would you go against your family and continue raising your child even if he/she isn't biologically yours?

Do you think OP's family should change their views about relationships and not confine them to genetics alone?

Several people who encouraged OP to keep fighting for Josh also said that love and relationships aren't born out of DNA. Some even expressed that genealogy doesn't make a family, and it's not that important to be genetically related to love someone. If you were a part of OP's family, would you support him, or would you go against his desire to father Josh?

If you liked reading this story, here's one about how a guilty husband breaks his wife's heart by revealing where he'd been the night after his bachelor party.

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