You may not know that George Lucas was so afraid of plot leaks about the main spoiler of his movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back that even on the set, the actor who played Darth Vader had to say "Obi Wan betrayed your father!" instead of the now classic "I am your father!"
No, the story that we're going to tell you today has nothing to do with movies, and you are unlikely to find any Jedi here. But the user u/throwaway-in12312, the author of this tale, suspects, and not without reason, that his mom's old college friend was actually his bio dad. Otherwise, why would he leave him an inheritance of more than $2M, even bypassing his own son?
More info: Reddit
The author of the post is a 30-year-old man who recently received a letter about inheriting over $2M from his mom's deceased friend
Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)
At first the guy and his wife thought it was just a scam, but they got in touch with the attorney and found out it was real
Image credits: throwaway-in12312
Image credits: Sora Shimazaki (not the actual photo)
This man, Gary, was the author's mom's college friend and he used to visit their house with his son Jason, many years ago
Image credits: throwaway-in12312
Image credits: Nathan Cowley (not the actual photo)
In a Zoom call with Jason, the author found out that Gary divorced his wife years ago and they hadn't been in touch since then
Image credits: throwaway-in12312
The author now suspects that Gary was his biological dad, and is contemplating whether he should claim the inheritance
So, the story in a nutshell is this. The Original poster (OP) is 30 years old and he and his wife “Hannah” have a 2-year-old son. According to the author’s own words, they both have decent jobs and earn good money, but are still far from calling themselves wealthy.
And so, literally 2 months ago, our hero received a letter from an estate attorney, informing him that “Gary,” an old college friend of his mom, passed away at the age of 60, and left almost all of his fortune to him. For reference - a whole house (close to $1.5M in value) and around $800K in other assets!
At first, the couple thought, of course, that this was some kind of scam, but after contacting the attorney, they found out that it was true. Moreover, the OP’s mom confirmed that this is the same Gary with whom she was friends many years ago. And whose son, "Jason," is about the same age as the author, and they used to play video games together at their home as kids.
Some time later, Jason himself called on Zoom and confirmed that his father had indeed passed away, and that he was also mentioned in the will - but was set to only receive $100K. According to the guy, many years ago, Gary divorced his mother and gradually moved away from the son’s life.
Moreover, a couple of years later, he even moved to another town, and since then father and son have had almost no contact. So much so that the son only learned about Gary’s death from the same attorney’s letter.
Jason also asked why his father left almost all of his fortune to the OP, but our hero had no idea about it. He suspected that Gary could actually be his biological dad, or a sperm donor - but his mother flatly denied all these guesses.
According to the woman, she and Gary were just friends since college, and nothing more. The original poster couldn't learn anything from his dad either, since he passed away around three years ago...
And yet, the mom advised the author to refuse the inheritance, assuring that Gary had no reason to mention him in the will. And Jason, as far as the OP knows, plans to contest the will. But for our hero and his wife, this would be a real life-changing moment, allowing them and their child to have a new standard of living.
So the author wonders how ethical it would be for him to claim this inheritance, and whether it is somehow possible to do a DNA test to check whether Gary really was his father. And then everything would really fall into place.
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Well, if you're wondering about the DNA test, then from a purely scientific point of view, such a test can be done quite easily, even without the need to exhume Gary’s body. First, the old gentleman's house likely still contains enough of his biological material (such as hair) to perform the test.
Secondly, there's Jason, who may very well be the original poster's half-brother. If, of course, the guy actually agrees to do the test. In any case, confirmation of kinship by analyzing the DNA of a deceased person is quite common.
For example, in this way, in the 20th century, the affiliation of numerous self-proclaimed applicants for the status of the miraculously surviving daughters of Tsar Nicholas II, who was executed with his entire family, to the royal house of Romanov was checked more than once (if you remember the old cartoon Anastasia, that’s exactly what it’s about). So technically it's quite possible. The question is rather about the ethical component of the situation.
“In fact, we don’t know what happened to Gary with his son and ex-wife then, many years ago. And we’re unlikely to find out, because now only his biological son knows and remembers about it,” says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, whom Bored Panda contacted for a comment here. “And his version, which he told the author, is far from a fact that it's 100% truthful.”
“However, this doesn't change the situation. Whether the deceased was actually the author’s biological father or not - for some reason known only to him, he considered it necessary to mention him in the will. And at the same time he mentioned his official son too - so that we are talking specifically about a reasonable - in his opinion, distribution of wealth."
“Personally, I suspect that this man’s mother is still keeping something back, and Gary had more than one reason to bequeath his house and money to her son. In any case, in my opinion, the author should think about his family too, and respect the last will of the deceased. And if he wants to unravel the mystery of his birth, then a DNA test, I do believe, can shed light on this mystery," Irina summarizes.
Well, the commenters on the original post are almost sure that Gary was the author’s dad, and that it was not for nothing that he divided his fortune in such a way as to complicate Jason’s ability to challenge the will. "Something big happened between them and it was big enough for Gary to purposely leave you most of it and $100K to Jason to make it difficult to contest," one of the commenters reasonably wrote.
As for the moral side of the issue, here almost all the responders are pretty unanimous in their opinion - the OP has to claim it. “You’ll likely never know the reason, but clearly Gary wanted you to inherit his house and fortune. Honor his wishes and enjoy your life,” another person urges the author in the comments. And what would you, our dear readers, do in this situation?
However, people in the comments urge the author to claim it, saying he should respect the deceased man's will - and the DNA test could do the rest
