Chilling Encounter
The story goes like this: I got a message on Facebook from this teenage boy from up in Scotland. Its contents sent a chill right down my spine. It said “Hello, my name is Jordan and I think we may share the same dad. I know this sounds extremely weird and if you don’t want to talk I understand but I’d appreciate it if you could”. I wasn’t sure what to think at first.
I’d have thought my dad would have told us about a baby brother when we were younger or something, after all he and my mom have been separated for the past 20 years since I was three. I messaged back, he said he “thinks” we have the same dad so he could be wrong. I said hello and told him my name and asked him why he thought he was my brother.
He then proceeds to tell me that his whole life he thought his dad’s name was “David Smith,” but just found out it was “John Doe”, AKA my dad’s name. He then sent me photos of him as a baby and child…with a man who was in fact my dad. My world at this moment was starting to spiral. Turns out, when my dad was travelling for work he started sleeping with this woman in Scotland.
He had given her a fake name so she couldn’t try and find him as he was seeing my now-stepmother for about a couple weeks at a time. After a couple weeks going back and forth from London to Scotland, he had gotten this woman pregnant. And from then on, he took business trips there regularly for a few weeks for the next 15 years until one day he dropped contact with Jordan.
It wasn’t until Jordan got his own phone and got my dad’s number from his mom that he saw my dad’s Facebook profile under “people you may know” once his phone synced his contacts to his apps. He saw our dad with a name he didn’t recognize and looked through his profile to see the family he missed out on his whole life. He saw me tagged in a photo with my dad and brothers.
The caption said “me and my boys”. He saw me and saw that I was the youngest and figured I’d be easier to talk to. I was dumbfounded, absolutely dumbfounded. He asked if it could be possible to meet and that he would be visiting London within the next few weeks. I said sure and we met up. I got to know him a little and sort some things out.
I saw him in person. I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes. He looked like a mix between my brother, dad, and cousin. He was for sure my brother. We got talking about the family: the one he grew up with, and the one that he missed out on. I felt horrible for him that he missed out on everything from the birthday parties to the nieces and nephews he hasn’t met that are a huge part of my life.
He met my partner and they got along very well. We met up several more times that week that he was in London. I showed him pictures of the family and showed him texts from the family group chat. But then came the moment I was dreading. Now was the time to confront our dad. I let my dad know that I was coming to see him. My stepmother was in France at the time with her own daughter.
I knew I wasn’t going to upset her by showing up with my secret half-brother. My dad opens the door to see me standing there with Jordan and his face just dropped instantly. I ripped into him about how he could keep Jordan a secret and Jordan tore into him about how he could just grow up not knowing his real name, and that he was excluded from a family he had no idea existed.
This wasn’t the first time my dad disappointed me but it was the worst time he had. And for Jordan, he did worse. Jordan is now back in Scotland and I’ve gone to see him a few times. He’s going to come back soon I can reveal everything to the family and have him meet them all in person—all his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, niece, nephews, and finally my brothers, his brothers.
Sure, I’ll warn them first to get over the initial shock of it all and come around, but Jordan deserves to know his family. To know where he comes from. He is the little brother I’ve always wanted and he said he was so glad to have met me. I’m proud to say I have a little brother who I’m definitely going to make sure is in my life and a part of the family. But there was one more secret that had to come out.
Turns out the reason my dad cut contact with Jordan was that a couple years ago my stepmother got pregnant (nobody in the family knew this). She actually knew of Jordan’s existence and told my dad to abandon him or else he wouldn’t see his new baby. So he did just that and stayed with my stepmother. However, she ended up having a stillbirth that to this day nobody in the family knew about.
My dad decided to just not get back in contact with Jordan, as he figured it would be easier financially for him to not look after his son whom no one knew about. Jordan won’t forgive him and I don’t blame him. When my nan and grandad found out about Jordan’s existence and how he was excluded they were absolutely furious at my dad.
They would have loved and spoiled him growing up like they do with all their grandchildren and now great-grandchildren (my brother’s kids). They want to take him shopping for 17 years’ worth of birthday presents when he begins to visit much more regularly. I myself do want to take him to get things. He’s a comic book nerd like me so I got him a few comics when I last saw him. I’m happy he’s my brother.