Reddit Stories - The DAUGHTER-IN-LAW attempted to sabotage my RELATIONSHIP by filing a FABRICATED CPS complaint

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #CPScomplaint #familydrama #toxicrelationships #daughterinlaw #relationshipadvice  Summary: A daughter-in-law maliciously filed a fabricated CPS complaint against her mother-in-law, aiming to sabotage their relationship. This deceitful act created tension and mistrust within the family, prompting the mother-in-law to seek advice on how to handle the situation and protect her relationship with her son and grandchildren.  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, familyconflict, relationshipissues, toxicfamily, motherinlaw, daughterinlaw, cps, drama, familydynamics, trustissues, advice, support, manipulation, parenting, conflictresolution, emotionalabuseBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6816713/support.This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode with two stories, first part. I hope you enjoy this story. The daughter-in-law attempted to sabotage my relationship by filing a fabricated CPS complaint against me in order to have her controlling grandmother reside with us. I, a 33-year-old male, have been married to my wife, Lana, 36F, for about a year and we were in a relationship for two years before that. Lana has a teenage daughter from a previous marriage Becca, 15F, and let's just say that Becca doesn't like me. Lana has been divorced for about six years from her ex-husband because he'd been in an affair with a co-worker of his and she'd caught them in her own bedroom red-handed. That effectively put an end to their seven years of marriage. They'd been together since college and even had a daughter together so that was a huge shock for Lana and she didn't date anyone for quite some time after her divorce until we met at a common number. friends party and got along really well. I asked her out and that was when she finally decided to

give Manum relationships another chance, which is something I'm really grateful for. So we began dating and then got into a serious relationship and after around seven or maybe eight months of being together, she introduced me to her daughter. I tried to be nice to Becca for the first few months, but it wasn't easy given how she absolutely seemed to loathe my very existence. She would be rude to me all the time whenever I tried to speak to her, she'd reject all my attempts to be her friend and she'd sometimes just leave the room when I'd enter. It got tiring after a while so I decided to talk to Lana about it and she told me that Becca hadn't been coping well with the divorce at all and still believed that she and her ex-husband could get back together. They shared joint

custody of their daughter but since her ex-husband had a busy work schedule, she could only spend the weekends with her dad, and for the rest of the week, she would stay with Lana and Lana's mom. Lana's dad passed away when she was little and after his demise, my mother-in-law moved here with Lana so her mother was the only family she had. My mother-in-law, Kathy, 58F, doesn't like me either and while her behavior has been less outrageous than Becca's, it's still unfair because I haven't been anything but nice to them. My only fault in this situation is that I married Lana and that's why they hate me because for whatever reason, both of them think that Lana should have given her ex-husband another chance and patched up, but instead, she chose to leave him and moved on

with her life. And I'm somehow the bad guy here because I was part of the process of moving on and prevented her from ever returning to her ex-husband. My mother-in-law and Becca are both quite fond of the guy and the longer Lana stayed with me, the worst their behavior towards me was because, according to them, I was the only obstacle standing in the way of Lana and her ex-husband's reconciliation. The fact that the guy had been cheating on my wife for God knows how long didn't matter to them. But after our first year together, I made my peace with it and accepted that Becca and Kathy were just never going to like me and that's just how it is. No matter what I did and how nice L was to them, they wouldn't accept me because, in their opinion,

I was the guy who was responsible for making sure that Lana didn't get back with her ex. Which is supposed to be a bad thing, for whatever reason. Eventually, despite Kathy and Becca's best efforts, Lana and I ended up moving in together and have stayed together against all the odds. I don't speak to Kathy at all and try not to visit her and when she visits us, I leave the room because I don't want to be in her presence at all. Of course, I can't do the same with Becca because we live under the same roof but I try to avoid interacting with her as much as I can because I don't want to be at the receiving end

of her rude remarks all the time. It's not ideal but it's peaceful. And before anyone starts blaming Lana for how she's raised Becca, L.D. just like to say that my wife has gone above and beyond and trying to discipline her daughter but sometimes some kids just don't care about anyone except for themselves and Becca unfortunately happens to be one of those kids. She's selfish and cruel and every time Lana tries to reprimand her and teach her to be more respectful towards me, Becca turns it around on her and brings up the divorce and blames her for whatever happened despite knowing fully well what really happened. Lana doesn't have it in her to continue fighting with her daughter when she says things like that because she just breaks down into tears and I have to end up consoling her, so it was better for us to just let Becca and I keep our distance. I couldn't watch Lana allow her daughter to walk all over her because she's told me how difficult it was for her to come to terms with her divorce, especially because she had no support from her family since Kathy wanted her to forgive her ex-husband and go back to him and had trained Becca to believe the same thing. And since they were all living together, she couldn't exactly. prevent them from sharing the same beliefs either. Funnily enough, her ex-husband never expressed any desire to get back with her after the divorce and was quite content with being separated

from his wife and daughter so I don't know why exactly Kathy and Becca were so sure that he'd love to have her back. Lana couldn't move out either because at the time she didn't earn as much as she did now and was counting on her mother to help her out. I can't say anything to Becca because I'm not her biological dad and I don't want to act like it either. Anyway, I really think that despite everything, Lana made the best of her situation and was able to rise above her problems. The least her daughter and I can do for her is to not constantly be hostile towards each other and that's what we've been trying to do ever since they moved and together. She didn't suddenly start being nice, but she toned down her behavior after a while and even that was a significant

improvement. Things were going all right until about a week ago when Becca came to me when her mother wasn't at home and asked me if she could speak to me about something important. That was really weird for me because, like I said, Becca and I avoided speaking to each other as much as we could, but nevertheless, I told her to go on. And she told me that since her grandmother, Kathy, was getting older and needed more help with her day-to-day activities, she wanted Kathy to move in with us. Other families might have agreed to this or arrangement in a heartbeat and even been proud of the thought behind it but not me. Because as far as I was concerned, Kathy was in perfect health and didn't need any help with anything at all and it was

painfully obvious that Becca was bluffing. She only wanted Kathy to move in with us so they would have more control over me and Lana because Lana was too sensitive to actually be able to stand up to them in one way or another, they'd try their best to separate me and Lana. There couldn't be any other reason for her to come up with this suggestion and I knew that for a fact. So I didn't think twice before rejecting her suggestion and told her that she was welcome to visit her grandmother as frequently as she wanted to, but I wasn't going to let Kathy move in with us and that was a non-negotiable. She gave me a nasty look but didn't pursue the matter further which was kind of weird, but I was relieved that she wasn't trying to make an issue out of this and throwing a tantrum about

it like she usually would have done so I didn't think about it much. The next day, however, she got back at me in the most psychotic way possible. In the evening, I had CPS show up at our house and go through Becca's room because apparently, she'd called them and claimed that I was trying to starve her and torture her mentally. None of it was true and it didn't take much time to prove otherwise because the stupid girl hadn't even bothered to throw away the food wrappers from her room to frame me correctly. Lana and I explained the situation to the officers and they gave Becca a stern talking and then they left us on our own but the damage was already done. I was furious and for the first time, I completely lost my cool and got into a horrible argument

with Becca. I'd had enough of her BS and couldn't continue putting up with this unreasonable behavior of hers. I don't think anyone else in my place would have even put up with her for so long at all but I did, out of love and respect for my wife. But now it was getting more and more ridiculous because clearly I was being penalized for trying to be a decent and accommodating guy. I tried my very best to understand Becca's behavior and treat her like a child and put up with Lana's inability to correct her daughter's behavior because she was too fragile but that incident was the limit. Lana was also really upset but yet again, she just had a mental breakdown and couldn't bring herself to even talk. I'm not trying to be insensitive or put her trauma down but

at that point in time, I really couldn't be selfless and try to comfort my wife when I was the victim in this situation. I needed someone to be there for me and have my back, but unfortunately, my wife was too emotionally fragile and Becca was obviously relishing this entire experience and was screaming at the top of her lungs about how she wished she'd planned this better so she'd finally be able to get rid of me and it'd be just her, her mother and grandmother once again. I was so disappointed and frustrated with that entire situation that instead of comforting Lana or wasting my time by continuing my argument with Becca, I just left the house with nothing but my phone and wallet and got into my car. I started driving and continued driving until I reached a bed

and breakfast a little out of town where I'm currently staying. It's been close to a week since the incident and since I left and Lana has called me several times since then to try and get me to come back so we can have a discussion about what to do next but I've refused. I think my reasons are pretty valid and I've told her that after what Becca did, I cannot trust her anymore and I definitely cannot be in the same house as her because there's just no telling how far she'll take things just to get rid of me. She's 14, I get that, but that's no excuse to pull off something as deranged and psychotic as this just so she'll be able to live with her grandmother again. I told Lana that I've put up with enough and while I really do respect her past and the hardships she's had to endure,

I cannot put up with this any longer for my own peace of mind. This time, she failed to get me in trouble because she hadn't thought things through but the next time, she might have a better plan and one that could end with me behind and my only concern right now was not to let there be a next time at all so now, she had to choose between Becca and me. I've told her very clearly that either her daughter stays in that house or I do. I can't go back to living with Becca anymore and I know I'm putting Lana in a difficult spot but I just cannot imagine any valid reason for me to continue living like this. I've done nothing wrong and yet I'm being punished time and again by her mother and her daughter while she breaks down over it and I end up having to comfort her.

This is not the life I'd envisioned for myself and I refused to go back to living like that again, so I gave her an ultimatum and told her that she could either send her daughter to live with her grandmother or father and live with me or all of them could move back in with Kathy like earlier and I'd file for divorce. It would be really difficult for both of us but that was the only solution to this problem. Now it's been a couple of days since we discussed this and she's still trying her best to convince me to come back and sort things out but I've been very firm about my conditions. We've been in touch regularly through phone calls and texts but I haven't told her where I'm exactly because if she cannot promise me that she'll send Becca away then I can't come

back. That's my only condition. She's free to talk to her daughter and even go live with her whenever she wants to but she cannot force us to live in the same house anymore. Last night, while we were on a call and were going through the same arguments once more, I tried to explain Becca's side as well by saying that neither of us wanted to live in the same house and for so long, both of us had been tolerating our living arrangement for her sake only. But now that Becca had crossed a line, it clearly meant that she wasn't willing to live this life either and that she had to let one of us go, for our own good. Once again, Lana started crying and told me that she couldn't do either of those things because she loved us both

and didn't want to lose either of us. She'd grown to love me more than her husband and couldn't imagine a life without me which was really touching to hear and made me feel better since I'd really begun to believe that our relationship was doomed now. But she also told me that she couldn't let her daughter go either because even though she was being a crappy human being right now, there was a time when Becca was the only person who could cheer her up and even through the divorce, she tried to be there for her despite her belief that Lodagh She should have gone back to her ex-husband, so she couldn't just pick one and let go of the other and told me that she feels completely lost since she's trying to hold her family together, but it's all falling apart. Becca has been trying to persuade Lana to leave me while I've given her this ultimatum to deal with, and she confessed that she has no idea what to do anymore and feels like she failed as both a mother and a wife.

I felt really awful when she was telling me what she was going through and felt like part of this was my fault for giving her an ultimatum. I can't imagine anyone who'd know whom to pick between their spouse and their child, especially in a situation like ours. I feel like a total jerk for demanding that she choose but at the same time, what else can I do anyway? I feel just as lost as she does and so I need help from the Reddit community right now. Ida for asking my wife to pick between living with me or living with her daughter after my stepdaughter made a false complaint to CPS against me. Update 1. Hi, everyone. Thanks a lot for the advice. Although I would like to touch on one subject and say that my wife is an emotionally fragile person and she is well aware of it, and so am I. So the hatred against her for being a bad mother or a bad wife is kind of harsh because she's

been through something really awful and in spite of that she's managed to build a life for herself and her daughter. Her family didn't support her emotionally when she needed it the most and she was literally cheated on by a man she'd known for half of her life. So of course she's easily triggered when it comes to her failed marriage and especially when she has to hear those same things again and again from her own loved ones. I'm not saying that it's okay for her to not teach Becca how to behave herself and be a better human being, but I do think everyone should cut her some slack because she's been through a lot. I know being fragile isn't something that excuses everything but at least it explains her behavior and I know she feels awful about

it but just didn't have the capacity to do anything about her situation. That being said, I also do think that I did the right thing by standing my ground and refusing to take back the ultimatum. The day after I read the comments on my original post, I called Lana up and told her that I was sorry that she was feeling upset about everything but there was real danger in store for me if I continue to live with Becca and I couldn't afford that. I told her that I'd always love and respect her but this was where I drew the line and she needed to make a decision for herself and for all because she can't just let Becca walk all over her time and again simply because she's her daughter. That's not going to end well for anyone involved, least of all me because

she's proven that she's capable of anything just to get her own way. I didn't say much, but I just told her to do whatever she thinks is the right thing to do in a situation like this and she said that she just needed some more time to think about it and I agreed. Finally, after almost two weeks of living separately, I received a call from Lana yesterday and she told me that I could come back home today because Becca has moved out and is living with Kathy now. So I went back home today and she really was gone which was a relief because, after several years, I finally felt like I could breathe freely in my own house once again. After some time, Lana and I sat down and she told me how her last discussion with Becca had

gone about two days ago. She'd sat her daughter down to at least get an apology out of her, in case that would change my mind and I'd give her one last chance but Becca refused and even said that if she had the opportunity to redo it, she'd execute her plan a lot better this time. Lana was shocked at the sheer audacity of a statement like that and the brazenness with which she said it so she tried to explain to Becca that her behavior was seriously messed up, but instead of hearing her out, Becca lashed out at her and said that if Lana wanted to stay married to me even now then she was free to do so, but she'd make sure that she separated us one way or another so she could reunite her parents. Then, Becca stormed out of the house and

left to spend the night at Kathy's place while Lana called her ex-husband up for the first time in ages to ask him if he'd be willing to extend Becca's stay at his place that weekend so she'd be able to buy some more time for herself so she could sort out this mess. But unfortunately, she received the shock of her life when her ex-husband informed her that he's moved to the suburbs and since it's a little far away from our current home, Becca hasn't visited him for a good few months. The last time he saw her had to be about four or five months back, which is around the time that he introduced her to his new girlfriend. Since then, she's barely been in touch with him and comes up with an excuse not to visit him every weekend. He wanted to discuss this with her

but didn't have the time to do so which is why Lana never found out. Despite the situation, she asked her ex-husband if he'd be willing to let her live with him for a couple of months until she was able to sort out this mess with me, but he refused because his new girlfriend wasn't comfortable with the idea of being a parent and she was relatively younger so he couldn't risk the relationship right now and told Lana that he hoped they'd understand where he was coming from. Yeah, mate, we sure do. You're coming from the land of jerks who think making sure your young hot girlfriend is comfortable with you is more important than taking care of your daughter who's well on her way to turning into a teenage delinquent. After that phone call, Lana called

Kathy and found out that instead of going to her father's place, Becca had been going to Kathy's place instead and it finally made sense as to why exactly she'd suddenly started acting out so randomly. Kathy proudly bragged about how it was her idea to call CPS on me and get me kicked out somehow so she could move in instead and they'd all be one happy family once more. The woman was so delusional that she said that the real reason Lana's ex-husband even had a new girlfriend now was because she'd remarried so the only solution was to break Lana's marriage first and then, her ex-husband would readily come running back to her as soon as she was single. It was a foolproof plan according to them and it really made me wonder how a woman like Kathy

had raised someone like Lana because clearly there was something wrong with her. Probably old age or too many soap operas but she was out of her head and was succeeding in her mission to turn Becca into a mini her as well. This is why Lana decided to cut her losses for the time being and deal with one problem at a time, the situation with our marriage being the first. To sum it up, she's decided to let Becca live with Kathy for a while instead of holding her here against her will because that approach is obviously not working anymore. In the meantime, we're going to work on our marriage and are planning to start marriage counseling by next week. Lana was afraid she was being a bad mother by letting her daughter go, but to be honest,

She tried and tried until she just couldn't anymore and I don't think she did anything wrong. The woman deserves a break. Update 2. Hey, so we just came back from our first session with our marriage counselor and it went okay. A couple of days have passed since I came back but Lana and I are building our relationship to last through all the tough times because I really do love her and I know she loves me. I just hope we're able to make this last because Kathy is very upset that I'm back and is threatening to kick Becca out if I don't leave but Beka. Becca refuses to come back home in spite of that. At the end of the day, she's just a poor kid who's had a messed up childhood and still can't see what's good for her. Update 3, We brought Becca back today. She's upset, but she knows she has nowhere else to go anymore.

Her dad won't take her in and Kathy kicked her out because she doesn't want Lana or anyone associated with her in her life anymore now that she knows for sure that she can't drive me out of the family. Lana is sad that Becca had to learn the truth the hard way but at least the kid apologized to me, even though it was short and brisk. Still counts. We're going to get her professional help and make sure she's all right because I think it's been overdue for all of us, quite frankly. Thanks to everyone for the support they've shown. That's the end of the first story. Let's begin the second one. I hope you enjoy this story. I blame my sibling for the loss of my other brother, but his kids want me to be

involved in their lives. One of my staff members mentioned that this may be a good place to get some advice for my current dilemma. I, 46m, am one of four kids, my older brother P. 48M, I think, who I no longer have any contact with, my younger brother J who is no longer with us, and my youngest sister K, 44F, recently P's children, two girls and one boy, all in their late teens and early twenties, reached out to me and expressed a desire to have a relationship. I have zero contact with their father and swore that I would beat him black and blue if I ever saw him again. A little background. My oldest brother P. was always the golden child, no matter what he did, my parents always had an excuse for why it was not his fault, bad grade, teacher had it out for him,

cheating on every single one of his relationships, good thing you did it to her before she did it to you, that one was my personal favorite, he also used to torment Jay and I constantly when we were smaller than him, until in high school, when I hit a growth spurt and sprung up to about six feet four inches and 230 pounds worth of. Muscle. After that I became the typical job type, played football, partied, bunch of friends, etc. Well, my younger brother, Jay, didn't get as lucky and stayed pretty small and scrawny throughout high school and college only getting up to about five feet eight inches and didn't have a super active social life. Despite the difference in our schooling experience, I was always very protective of Jay,

especially since we were always having to put up with P's bullshit, which stopped once he realized I could pound him into the ground and not break a sweat, as he was also a lot smaller than me at only 5 feet 10 inches, not much to say about K. She was a great younger sister and P didn't dare mess with her or he would incur the wrath of our mother. So, in the late 90s, J met his first real girlfriend, A, and was over the moon about her. He spent every spare moment with her, and when he wasn't with her, he would do nothing but gush about her. I had never seen him so happy, well, one day, he comes to us, all smiles, and announces that A is pregnant and they are expecting. The mood quickly turned, however, when a week later it came out that A had been cheating on Jay

for the duration of their relationship with our older brother P, this broke my brother, and of course P, being the golden shit that he is, didn't even get a disappointed glance from our parents. To this day I have never seen someone look so broken as Jay had looked the last time I saw him. I believe his heartache was only compounded by the fact that my parents basically told him to get over it and be happy. For our brother. Well about a week after this revelation came to light, Jay took his own life. I had never been so sad and angry at the same time in my entire life, sad that I would never

C and the pure rage of knowing that this was my brother and parents' fault. During the funeral, P walked in with A and I saw Red. Thankfully, I had other family there to stop me from doing anything stupid, but I told P that if I ever saw him again, I would kill him. Shortly after that, I cut contact with 90% of my family, with the exception of K and a cousin I had always been close with, because everyone except them wanted to make excuses for my parents and P. Fast forward to present, I never had any kids and truth be told, I never wanted any, I much prefer the role of the fun uncle, Kay met a great guy and had two daughters, who I absolutely adore, P had two more kids with A before cheating on her, shocker, and splitting and I've never met any of them, my parents have tried

to make contact a handful of times, but I always told them to kick rocks, so last week, I'm chatting with Kay's daughters, 19 and 17, and they mentioned that their cousins have wanted. To meet me for a long time and were hoping I would be willing to meet them as well, I don't believe they know everything that transpired between their dad and I, but I would be lying if I said I never had any desire to meet them. So everyone, I'm hoping to crowdsource any ideas slash suggestions on how I begin slash maintain a relationship with P's kids while also keeping him an A out of my life. Any suggestions are welcome.

Edit, one commenter just brought up a good point that kind of changes my question. The reason I wanted to meet with them soon is because they are all back in. town at once from college due to COVID, but someone gave me the idea that maybe meeting them one at a time once they returned to their college campuses slash old living arrangements is the better option, thoughts. Edit 2, I've had multiple people ask me why K still talks with the people I cut contact with, so I'll just copy slash paste one of my replies here. Even though my sister was just as crushed about Jay's death as I was and was angry for a long time, she and her then boyfriend, future husband, hit a financial rough patch after graduating college and were forced

to move in with our parents due to unrelated drama at the time, they couldn't stay with me. So my sister stayed with them for several years and over that time their relationship improved and even though I wasn't thrilled at the time, I understood, she still doesn't really have a relationship with P but is cordial if they meet. I don't blame her, because our parents did a lot for her and daughters love their cousins, so I didn't want put her in that kind of position of choosing. More information provided by the OP as much as I hate Pete and Anna and do still blame them for Jay's death. I'd like to think I have more class than to shit-talk Pete to his kids. My decision to split from the rest of my family outside of Pete and my parents was also a very pragmatic one.

As I started to make money, I kept getting more and more requests for handouts and favors, which was already weighing on my last nerve. After Jay's death it just kind of hit a boiling point and I burned every bridge on the way out. I had minimal contact with some of them over the year. Regarding my sister Kay, considering she was just as crushed about Jay's death as I was and was angry for a long time. She and her then boyfriend, future husband, hit a financial rough patch after graduating college and were forced to move in with our parents. Due to unrelated drama at the time, they couldn't stay with me. So my sister stayed with them for several years and over that time their relationship improved and even though I wasn't thrilled at the time, I understood, she still doesn't really have a relationship with Pete but is cordial if they meet.

I don't blame her, because our parents did a lot for her and her daughters love their cousins, so I didn't want to put her in that kind of position of choosing. Pete's kids haven't reached out to me personally yet. I was only told about their desire to meet me through Kay's daughters. That's why I think the reason they may be interested in meeting is that they have a close relationship with Kay's kids and I am a big part of their lives so maybe they just want to get to know me, at least, that's what I hope it is. If this were five years ago, this would be a different story. But according to Kay, all the kids are in college and are only back with Pete due to COVID, I've been thinking that I should hold off on meeting them until they all return back to college

and their dorm slash previous living arrangement, but by then they will be all over the country, now is the only time I would get to meet them all at once, but now that I type it out, maybe meeting them one at a time would be the better option. Update, how do I start a relationship with my nieces and nephew when their father was responsible for my brother's passing? Hello everyone, I'll start off thanking the community for all their comments and replies, it gave me a lot to think about and help me. Formulate a plan on how I was going to approach this, I had several people tell me I should not

meet up and just let sleeping dogs lie, but the what-if of it all would eat me alive if I didn't see them. Second, I wanted to answer a few questions slash concerns that people brought up in my previous post. One of them was why I used letters to represent the people in my story and not just make up fake names. I mostly did this because I didn't want to confuse myself with fake names and then accidentally put the wrong name to represent someone's role slash actions. I apologize if this makes it difficult to read. Another concern I saw a lot was that they were trying to get back in contact from my also a concern of mine, but I don't spoil my sister's children at all. I'm currently helping her oldest with financial aid and will be

assisting the youngest as well, but no money is coming out of my pocket. I'm simply teaching them responsible money management, along with putting them in contact with financial advisors and they are extremely grateful, so I hope they will not expect some kind of college loan that they're not going to get. Finally, I had several people ask if I ever went to therapy for this. I did go see a therapist pretty regularly for about six years after I made the initial break from my family and it did help significantly. She did counsel reconciliation for a very long time, but I told her that it was not up for discussion. She also helped me see who else in my life were big problems and helped me make a semi-clean break from them as well. One of the not-so-clean breaks

was the reason I was unable to take Kay in after she hit financial troubles and had to move back in with our parents. So, on to the update. I decided to hold off on meeting them as a group, especially since they were still living with their dad at the time, and just do one-on-one meetings. I also didn't want to be bombarded with questions or propositions for money if their intentions weren't good. So, the first one to go back to her college town, which was shortly after my first post, was the oldest of P's kids who I'll call C-21F. She went back to find a place to stay and get a part-time job in her college town so that she was ready for classes to start in the fall.

I got her personal email from K's kids, because I don't really have social media, and decided to reach out to her. She was pretty excited to hear from me and I flew to her city and we set up a time to meet on one of her days off. I got to the restaurant early so that I could have a few drinks and calm my nerves. I decided to reserve the most private table they had so that we could say anything we wanted without people listening in and her staring. Well, the moment she walked through the door, I immediately knew who she was.

She was the spitting of my mother, her grandmother, when she was that age. She even had the green eyes that Jay and I inherited from our mother. P. was always jealous he never inherited them, because we were always getting compliments from strangers when we were little about our eyes, and you could tell it would burn P.A. new asshole because people weren't paying attention to him. So, I kept it together and we said our greetings. After the typical small talk about school, life and work, we place our orders, then she finally says, I guess you're wondering why I wanted to meet you. She proceeds to tell me that last year, she decided to buy an ancestry DNA kit for her and her sister is something fun to do during

lockdown and, as many of you guessed, the kit came back as them being a half-sisters, see as Jay's daughter. She goes on to tell me that growing up, P had always treated his other kids better than her, and with the DNA results, it all finally made sense why and the reason they don't have the best relationship. Clearly P. is still just as big a piece of shit as he always was. Nice to know some things never change. I'm sure he harbored some kind of resentment with the chance of her being Jay's daughter. After going to her mom with the results, I surprisingly admitted to everything that happened. I guess after I found out that her daughter was Jay's child, the situation, and his suicide hit her like a ton of bricks and she has harbored a great deal of guilt regarding

it ever since. I went on to tell her all about the circumstances of her conception, Jay's suicide, my estrangement, the reason for their rocky relationship, etc. According to her, P. wanted to give her up for adoption after she was born, but my parents, who I guess finally grew a spine, told him no and that they would financially cut him off if he did. So once lockdown restrictions finally started to lift in California, she thought reaching out to me would be the best way to get to know what her bio father was like. Apparently, it was only her that really had the urge to meet me, as I was closest to Jay during his life and that was when she let Kay's daughters know that she wanted to meet me and ask them to contact me on her behalf. She was a

She knew we were close and that would be the best way to get in touch. After this, I couldn't hold back anymore. The waterworks began flowing. I couldn't help but apologize to see for all the things she had to go through with P. If I had known, I would have adopted C in a heartbeat. We spent the rest of the meal just talking about Jay, remembering old stories about him that I thought I had forgot. She is a great girl and smart as a whip,

telling me how she intends to pursue her master's in computer science, she has scholarships and grants to cover all her schooling, which put my mind at ease that I probably wasn't being taken for the long con. We ended the night with exchanging contact info and a big hug, feels like I got a little piece of J back. Now knowing that it was only C who really wished to meet, I asked her if she would reach out to her siblings on my behalf and see if they wanted to meet as well. Other than that, I am extremely happy with how this meeting turned out and feel like I have a lot of catching up to do with C in the future. Thankfully, she completely understood and respected my desire to still stay no contact with P and her mother. I'm sure I will do an update on each of my meetings with the other kids as well.