A woman found out that she was not the biological parent of her seven-year-old son, but that’s where it got confusing — the boy’s father was not either.
Peter and Victoria Myers were an adorable couple loved by people in their neighborhood. The two started out as playmates in kindergarten, and when they grew old enough to recognize love, they pledged themselves to one another.
Thus, the two best friends became husband and wife. Theirs was the best kind of relationship; there was no quarreling, and their minor disputes never saw the light of a new day. One of their rules was that all disagreements had to be resolved before they both went to bed that day.
Peter was an introvert with a very flexible nature, while his wife was a stubborn extrovert who mostly did all the talking in the relationship. They were a perfect match, and when they were both in their thirties, they welcomed their first child and named him Paul.
They seemed to grow even more closer to one another after the birth of their son, and people really just smiled whenever they witnessed how infatuated these two were about one another, and their child wasn’t left out.
They showered a lot of love upon him, but as the baby got older, they started to notice some things; their child had absolutely no physical resemblance to either of them.
They did not reach that conclusion immediately, of course. The pressure was on Peter at first. His friends started making fun of him about how his child seemed to have no physical resemblance to him.
“You must have really weak genes,” one of his friends jested one day.
Peter did not like it one bit; not only did they make him feel terrible, statements like that planted dirty thoughts in his head that had no business being there. Still, he could not deny to himself that his friends had a point. He would often look at his boy and see no trace of himself in him.
Peter’s relationship with his son was excellent; in fact, the boy loved him. However, each time they spent time together, which was often, Peter could not help but wonder if there could be truth to his friends’ sick jokes. But he never breathed a word of it to his wife for fear of how she might take it.
A few years down the line and it became even more apparent — Paul was not Peter’s child. The man would have let the jokes slide if his son looked a bit like his wife because it would mean he really did just have weak genes, but at four, the boy looked nothing like her either, which meant there was a third party.
Peter and Victoria’s other relatives who often visited them annually were the first to voice out the observation. They had also noticed that the child was very different from his parents.
“Well, you know kids grow up and change over time, I’m sure in a few years, he’ll look like his strapping father,” Victoria told them.
“Victoria is right,” Peter backed her up. If there was any truth to the possibility of Paul not being his child, he didn’t want his extended family finding out until he was ready for them to.
Seven years later, there was no question about it. Paul looked nothing like his parents or theirs. One night, Peter gathered his courage and asked his wife directly.
“I trust you with all my life Vic,” he began. “But I need to know the truth tonight. Is Paul mine?”
His wife had also been thinking about it, so when he asked, she felt caught. It made her respond with sarcasm. “Of course, he’s my child with another man, because I’ve not been loyal to you my entire adult life.”
Peter didn’t appreciate the sarcasm, so later that week, he took the liberty to carry out a DNA test secretly. The test confirmed that he was not the biological father of the boy they were raising, and it got him very angry.
I’ve been nothing but good to her and this is how she repays me, he fumed.
He returned home that day with every intention to confront his wife, but when he saw her helping their supposed child with homework, he had to calm himself down.
Peter did not want the boy to witness what was about to happen, so he sent him to go play with other kids in the yard. As soon as the boy left, he presented the test results and accused Victoria of infidelity.
She was shocked, first by his audacity to do such a thing, and second, by the fact that the child really did not belong to him. In truth, he was the only man she had ever been with — how could he not be her son’s father?
“Well, if you are not his father, then I am not his mother either! ” Victoria exclaimed.
Peter did not believe her, and they both went to bed angry. The following day, Victoria also took the DNA test, and when the results came in, it revealed that Paul was not her biological son either.
It confused her, and when she told her husband, he was baffled as well. They sat down for a lengthy discussion on the topic, after which they decided to return to the hospital where she delivered their son.
They were referred to
a man who promised to look into it after hearing their side of the story. He told them there was a possibility that one or both tests were wrong but that he would try to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Peter and Victoria returned home and worked hard to keep whatever was happening away from their child. They did not treat him any differently, and they still showered him with love — he was the boy they had raised for years, and that won’t change.
A week later, the man from the hospital reached out to them. He’d found two files — one for the boy they were raising and the second for another child born at the same time. Apparently, the children had been mistakenly switched at birth, and the other couple had unknowingly taken their biological child.
It was a shocking revelation, but Peter and Victoria were both glad that it had not been because of unfaithfulness from either of them. They decided to track down the family who was raising their real son, which was hard because it was such a long time ago.
It took them a few months, but they managed to find the family and told them all they had learned. The couple was shocked but when they saw Paul, they realized how much he looked like them.
Peter and Victoria saw their child as well. His name was Kevin, and he looked very much like his father. “Now I know I don’t have weak genes,” he muttered to himself when he first saw Kevin.
What did we learn from this story?
Communication is important. Peter suspected Victoria of stepping out of th
eir relationship. Still, he could not talk to her about it, and when he eventually did, she did not understand the severity of his words. That miscommunication led him to get a DNA test, and even though it helped them find the truth, it could have easily broken them apart.
Love should be unconditional. Even after Peter and Victoria found out that Paul was not their biological child, they could not stop loving him. It did not matter that he hardly looked like them; all they cared about was the child they had come to know while raising him. He saw them as his parents, and the fact that he looked like someone else did not change that.
