Startled, I swiped at my cheek and my hand came away wet with tears. What is wrong with me? Shaking my head, I wiped away the rest with the sleeve of my shirt. My emotions were all over the place and, what was worse, I felt like I couldn’t control them anymore. Taking a deep breath, I pulled out my keys and made my way into our building. As I slid the key into our front door, my iPhone dinged. Glancing at my email, I gasped when I saw I had a notification on 23andMe. I quickly opened the door and slammed it shut behind me. After jumping over the top of our low sofa and collapsing onto the cushions, I opened my laptop. The minute my messages loaded on the 23andMe page, I noticed it was a reply to one of the messages I’d sent over two weeks ago. I’d messaged about twenty of my closest matches, most predicting a first or second cousin relation. In my emails, I gave them my age for reference and said I’d been adopted out of New York City as a baby but only recently found out. I outlined what little information I had on my birth mother. Not one of them had replied until now. The message in my inbox was from a man named Cristian Dominio. I excitedly clicked on the message.

Dear Elizabeth,

I am sorry for the delay in responding. We’ve recently been dealing with a death in the family, so I haven’t been online very much. Our match is coming up as either a first or second cousin, but I don’t think that is possible. You see, I’m 65 years old. However, you mentioned your birth mother was incarcerated when she gave birth. My brother had a daughter who was in jail in New York City nearly 27 years ago, around the time when you would have been born. Given the information you provided and the fact that, from your photo, you do look a lot like Teresa, it seems likely that my niece was your birth mother. If so, we were never told she was pregnant, nor do I know if my brother was ever aware. He certainly never mentioned it to me or my wife. Teresa chose a rough path and for many years, she was estranged from the family. It would not shock me to learn that she had kept this from us. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to know more.

Sincerely,

Cristian