My Aunt Gifted My Baby A “Daddy’s Maybe” Onesie At Her First Birthday Party. I Responded By Revealing Her $22,000 Theft From My Dying Grandma. Am I The One Who Went Too Far?

The ‘Funny’ Joke

My aunt kept telling everyone at family gatherings that my baby wasn’t my husband’s child as a hilarious joke. She went pale when I made her remember her funny crime.

When our daughter Lily was born, she had bright red hair. Neither me nor my husband Daniel have red hair; I’m blonde, he’s brunette. But my grandmother had red hair, and Daniel’s grandfather did too.

The pediatrician said, “It’s completely normal. Happens all the time with recessive genes.”

Everyone understood this except my aunt Beverly. At Lily’s first family gathering, when she was 3 weeks old, Beverly took one look at her and said, “Well, we know what happened here,” while winking at everyone.

I asked what she meant. She laughed and said, “Red hair doesn’t come from nowhere. Maybe I had some explaining to do.”

Daniel’s face went tight, but he stayed quiet. My mom told Beverly to stop being ridiculous. Beverly said she was just joking, couldn’t anyone take a joke anymore? But she didn’t stop. Every single family event, Beverly would make comments.

Seeds of Doubt

At my nephew’s birthday, she asked Daniel if he wanted a paternity test for Christmas. At Easter, she told my cousin that Lily looked just like the mailman. At the Fourth of July barbecue, she asked me in front of 15 relatives if I wanted to confess anything.

Each time she’d laugh and say she was kidding, but Daniel stopped coming to family events after the third time. Said he couldn’t listen to it anymore.

My mother-in-law heard about Beverly’s jokes from my cousin. She started asking questions. Was Daniel sure? Had we considered testing? She never said these things to me, only to Daniel. He told me she was concerned about him being naive.

His brother started making comments too. Subtle at first, then more direct, asking Daniel if he noticed Lily didn’t have his nose, pointing out she was tall for her age when both Daniel and I were average height.

Daniel started looking at Lily differently. Not with suspicion exactly, but with questions. He’d stare at her features during feeding time, compare her baby pictures to his. One night I caught him looking up DNA testing websites on his phone. He said he was just curious about ancestry stuff.

The Thanksgiving Gift

Beverly thought she was being hilarious, so at Thanksgiving, she brought a 23andMe kit as a gift. Wrapped it in baby paper with a card that said, “For when you’re ready for the truth.”

She announced to the whole table what it was, said, “Every family needed honesty.”

Daniel walked out, left me there with our baby and 20 relatives staring at us. I followed him to the car. He was crying, said he hated himself for doubting, but the constant jokes were getting to him. That maybe we should do the test just to shut everyone up.

I said if he needed a test after 3 years together and a planned pregnancy, then we had bigger problems than Beverly. We went home without eating dinner. Beverly texted me that night saying Daniel was too sensitive and couldn’t handle a little teasing. That if I had nothing to hide, I wouldn’t be so defensive.

I didn’t respond, but she kept going. Posted old pictures on Facebook of redheaded actors with captions like, “Lily’s real daddy.” Tagged me in articles about recessive genes with laughing emojis and comments like, “Sure John.” Started a group chat with female relatives asking if anyone else thought it was suspicious.

My cousin told me Beverly was placing actual bets on when Daniel would leave me.