Steven Easton

Chance She's Mine

Saturday, May 4

In October of 2018, I spoke to my sister on the phone for the first time in years, and Ava has been begging me to speak with her ever since, but legally, I cannot let her speak with her until she's 18. 

Ava has never met her father, but he reached out to me about a year ago. Apparently, her father just happened to be scrolling through Facebook one day, and Facebook suggested me as a friend. He recognized the last name, started scrolling through my profile because he had this uneasy feeling about Ava being in my profile pictures because she looked too much like his daughter, and he knew that he had a few fun nights with my sister, so he friended me. We had four mutual friends from people in a few towns over.

When he friended me, I felt like he looked familiar, and I didn't know why, so I decided to friend him back, so I could try to figure out who he was. He had a significant other, it appeared, but I didn't know if he was married. He had two kids, one blonde girl who looked a lot like Ava when she was younger and a son who was probably about three or four. 

He sent me a message, saying, "Hey, may I ask a really weird question?"

What's up??

How are you related to the young girl in your profile picture?

I didn't respond for a few days because I didn't want to compromise Ava's safety, but I kept on looking at the picture of his daughter, and after a few days of praying, I told him that she is my niece.

Is your sister, Stacey?

Yes

Do you know who your niece's father is?

What are you getting at? 

I probably should've been kinder to the guy, but I also didn't want to give out any information that would compromise Ava's safety. Even on this blog, we aren't using anyone's real names. 

Facebook suggested you and I be friends, and I was kind of freaked out because the girl in the picture looks like my daughter. It's possible that I'm her bio father. I knew that Stacey had a child, but I had no idea when. When was Ava born?

2008

When in 2008?

April 1, 2008

Do you have custody?

Yes

There's a likely chance she's mine. I don't want to take her away from her environment or get in the way of anything, but I would like to know if I have another daughter. If she is my daughter, I would be more than willing to be a part of her life as much as you would want me to. I understand if you don't want to tell her or involve me, but I promise if I knew before, I would've been there for her. Would you be willing to do a DNA test?

As soon he asked that, I remember sitting at my desk during my open hour, reading this, having no idea what to do. If he was the father, how did Stacey not know? Did she really not know? That had been the story she had given us.

If you read the blog before, you probably remember me reuniting with my dad for the first time since I was little, and you probably remember how screwed up everything was for awhile. There was so much resentment towards him because he hadn't reached out to me as a kid, but the reality was my mother had a lot to do with it, too, because she didn't want us to have contact with him. Had I reunited with him with I was younger and more resilient in ways, we'd probably have a better relationship now.

Taking all this into account, I called my biological dad for advice, and that conversation is too long to write out today, so I'll go into it tomorrow.