Harry was shocked when medical tests revealed the twin boys he had raised as his sons weren’t his. Furious, he went home to confront his wife, only to learn a truth that would ruin their family forever.
Harry smiled as he watched his boys laughing at something at the pediatrician’s office. “Dr. Dennison,” Harry stood up nervously as the doctor entered.
“Mr. Campbell. Please have a seat,” the doctor shook Harry’s hands and sat across from him. “I actually wanted to talk to you in private, Mr. Campbell. The boys can wait outside.”
Harry’s heart raced, wondering if it was bad news. Although his boys were twins, Josh had severe anemia, so Dr. Dennison had advised running more tests and asked Harry to get a blood checkup in case a transfusion was needed. Thankfully, his other son, Andrew, was perfectly healthy.
“So, do we have a final clarity on how to proceed?” Harry asked the doctor restlessly as the boys left.
“Calm down, Mr. Campbell,” Dr. Dennison leaned back in his chair. “Right now, my primary concern isn’t Josh. Yes, he has an iron deficiency, but we’ll start with supplements, possibly intravenously. I wanted to talk to you about something else.”
Harry heaved a sigh of relief. His son’s condition wasn’t bad.
“Did you adopt the boys, Mr. Campbell?” the doctor asked, sending chills down Harry’s spine. “This is a little sensitive, but your blood type is incompatible with the boys.”
“Well, that isn’t very strange, right? I mean, in a lot of cases, biological parents can’t donate to their kids because they are a mix of two people,” Harry argued.
“Yes, sir. Some biological parents can’t donate,” the doctor agreed. “But what I mean is that you can’t be the boys’ father. Blood type isn’t the ultimate factor in determining paternity, but both your twins’ blood types are A. You and your wife are both B.”
“What…But this is impossible,” Harry muttered under his breath.
“I’m sorry, sir. I saw these results a couple of days ago, so I took the liberty of running a DNA test on your samples too. I understand this is hard to hear, but there’s more,” said the doctor, pushing a couple of documents toward Harry.
Harry stared at the doctor in disbelief as he grabbed papers to read. There were a lot of medical terms he didn’t understand, but the words “half-siblings” in the documents stared back at him.
Harry looked up at Dr. Dennison in shock. “That’s right, Mr. Campbell. Andrew and Josh and technically your half-siblings, not your sons.”
Harry couldn’t believe it. The kids he had raised for 12 years weren’t his. In fact, they had to be his father’s, which meant Nancy had been with him. But it didn’t make any sense. She was already pregnant when he introduced her to his parents.
Harry took longer to get out of the car once they were home. Suddenly, he heard his boys yelling, “Grandpa! We missed you!”
Harry balled his fists tightly, his eyes red. But he couldn’t storm into the house and confront his father and wife because Josh and Andrew would be there. So he forced a smile as he walked in.
“What are you doing here, Dad?” he asked tightly.
But he didn’t even wait for his father to respond. The anger he had contained all the way from the doctor’s made Harry’s blood boil. “Boys, weren’t you going to Bobby’s house for a game night?” He turned to the boys, forcing a grin.
“Right, Daddy! Andrew, let’s go!” As the boys collected their controllers and left the house, Harry lost his cool.
“Did you sleep with my father, Nancy?” he exploded at his wife.
Nancy’s face turned pale.
“Son, look, it’s not what you think,” his father, Robert, interjected. But Harry wasn’t listening to him.
“DNA doesn’t lie, Nancy!” He glared at his wife. “I want to know the truth!”
Nancy couldn’t look her husband in the eye. “Harry has every right to be angry,” she told herself as he recalled the fateful night 13 years ago…
Nancy was enjoying the beat of the music as she moved through the dance floor to reach the bar area. While she was waiting for her drinks, a whiff of expensive male perfume met her nostrils.
At her left, Nancy found a man with silver hair and a sharp jawline smiling at her. “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked brazenly, and Nancy was flattered by the attention. The man was twice her age, but he was attractive.
“I’m already getting something for my girlfriends!” she almost shouted at him over the loud music.
”Oh, you’re on a girls’ trip with your friends?” the man continued, smiling in the most charming way, and got closer to her.
When the bartender brought her shots, Nancy didn’t even notice. “I’m Nancy.”
“Robert,” he said.
The next thing they knew, they were making out in the elevator, and the following morning, Nacy woke up in his bed. They ordered breakfast and talked for a while before Robert said he had to leave.
Nancy knew she would never see him again, but that was fine. Her Las Vegas trip had been adventurous and passionate, exactly what she wanted. But three weeks later, Nancy regretted the one-night stand when she found out she was pregnant.
Nancy didn’t want to terminate the pregnancy because she was scared she would struggle to conceive later. So she left the gynecologist’s practice, not knowing where to go or what to do. But she desperately wanted to talk to someone. So feeling lost and heartbroken, Nancy confided in her friend, Anna.
“Don’t tell me you’re having this baby alone! I mean, c’mon, is there no way you can get in touch with that Vegas guy?”
“Nope,” Nancy sighed.
“Hey, ladies!” A male voice interrupted their serious conversation right then. “I’m Oliver, and this is my friend, Harry. We saw you two being overly serious here, and we thought we should come over and cheer you guys up.”
Nancy was too nice to shoo the guys away, and Anna noticed Oliver was kinda hot. She left for the dance floor with him, leaving Harry and Nancy to talk for hours alone.
“Hey, Nancy, let’s go to the lady’s room,” she suddenly insisted, interrupting their conversation. Nancy excused herself and joined Anna. “Sleep with him. He seems nice. Las Vegas was only three weeks ago. He will never know,” she told her in the restroom.
Initially, Nancy refused. She wouldn’t do something so despicable. She had a job and degree, and she could become a single mother. But then, the thought of her child having a father changed Nancy’s mind, and she ended up sleeping with Harry that night.
A few months later, Harry got down on one knee and said the three magical words. Nancy said yes almost immediately, and they kissed. Everything was perfect.
“They’re going to love you,” Harry told her as they stood on his parents’ front porch a few days later. He was finally introducing her to his parents.
“Oh, God. They’re going to be mad,” she said, rubbing her belly, but Harry insisted it would be fine.
The door opened, accompanied by a booming voice, and Harry’s mother, Miriam, hugged him with open arms. It was then Nancy smelled something…that intoxicating perfume that got her in trouble.
”Dad, this is my fiancée,” Harry said as he stepped back from his father only to reveal… Robert. “But as you can see, there’s another surprise in store,” Harry continued, pulling Nancy to his side as they entered the house. “We’re having twins!”
Harry’s mother, Miriam, was the picture of delight, pulling Nancy tightly into her embrace, being mindful of the belly.
“She should see your baby pictures, Harry!” Miriam said. She and Harry eventually went to fetch the baby album, leaving Nancy and Robert alone.
“Nancy is it—” Robert started, but she cut him off.
“They’re Harry’s. I had no idea he was your son. But these babies are his. Let’s do what they say, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.'”
And Robert and Nancy decided to keep the secret of the one-night stand between themselves.
Present-day…
“Tell me, Dad!” Harry exploded. “How is it that our pediatrician of several years had to tell MY SONS are my SIBLINGS? How did it happen?”
“It happened in Vegas,” Robert sighed, defected.
“Vegas…” Harry whispered. “The trip you took with Anna and your friends a few weeks before you met me, and we slept together?”
Nancy couldn’t utter a word but nodded.
“Did you know you were pregnant already?” he asked angrily.
“Yes,” she hung her head.
“You baby-trapped me, but not even with my own babies!” Harry shouted.
“Son, I’m sorry,” Robert interjected. “Although, in my defense, she told me they were yours.”
“You’re a monster!” Nancy yelled at him. “You knew! You can’t put the entire blame on me!”
They started bickering, and suddenly, Harry had a vision of other times when they weren’t so angry. And then he thought about the boys… his boys… who had his father’s brown eyes, although Harry and Nancy were both blue-eyed. He didn’t question it earlier, but he should’ve.
“They’ll never know you’re their real father!” Nancy yelled at Robert, and Harry rubbed his neck, thinking hard.
“Grandpa is our father?” Josh asked. They all turned in horror to the doorway, where the twins and their friend, Bobby, stood.
“Dad?” Andrew turned to Harry, who tried to smile but couldn’t. The poker face he had maintained after the meeting with Dr. Dennison somehow wouldn’t come out, and his sons saw the truth in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to the twins, having no more energy for anything else.