After years of waiting, trying, and praying, Elena and I were finally going to become parents. I couldn’t wait for the moment I would hold our baby in my arms, but when that day finally arrived, I was met with shock and disbelief.
“Honey,” Elena said one day, “I think I want to be all by myself in the delivery room.”
Her words weren’t something I expected to hear. Why wouldn’t she want me there, I wondered. But she said she needed to do it alone, so I agreed.
A couple of days later, we went to the hospital. I kissed Elena at the entrance to the maternity ward and all I could do was wait.
Finally, the doctor emerged, but the expression on his face said something was wrong. As I headed to Elena’s room, my heart plummeted.
I felt relieved when I saw Elena was fine.
She had our baby in her arms, but her usually bubbly demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
She looked at me straight in the eyes and showed me our baby girl. The little one had pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. My heart dropped. “YOU CHEATED!” I yelled.
“Marcus, I can explain,” Elena said as she tried to grab my hand.
My world spun. Both she and I are two black people, and our child was white.
She tried to convince me that baby was ours, but I couldn’t understand how that could be.
“Don’t lie to me, Elena, this couldn’t be my girl. I’m not an idiot,” I screamed from the top of my lungs.
The nurses around us tried to calm the situation, but I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest.
“Marcus, please take a look at this,” Elena said, pointing to the tiny birthmark on my daughter’s feet. It was the same birthmark my brother and I have – exactly the same.
“There’s something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you years ago,” Elena said, and that’s when I learned she carried a rare recessive gene that could cause a child to have pale skin and light features, regardless of the parents’ appearance.
She said she didn’t tell me before because she believed the chances of our baby being born white were slim.
I started at the baby girl. Her birthmark should have been proof enough she was mine, but I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions I struggled to juggle with.
Elena’s words sound genuine. I trusted her, and soon, my anger was replaced with feelings stronger that any other, that of love and trust.
When we brought our little bundle of joy home, we knew we would face the judgement of my part of the family, but we never assumed their criticism would be so harsh.
Both my mother and brother called me an idiot who was letting his wife fool him, telling me I should face the facts that that baby wasn’t mine.
What’s most, they laughed at the story of the gene Elena carried, saying it wasn’t something real but nonsense.
One night, I heard the door of my daughter’s room open, so I went to check what was going on. It was my mom, she had a damp washcloth in her hands, trying to rub off my baby’s birthmark in order to show me Elena was lying to me.
That’s when I realized I had it enough.
I told my mom to leave my home. “Mom, you either accept our baby or get out of our lives,” I yelled at her.
Elena was woken up by the screams. She started crying and I apologized for not standing up to her sooner.
“Marcus, for everyone’s peace of mind, I think we should do a DNA test,” Elena said.
I knew that we didn’t need to prove anything to anyone, but I agreed.
As expected, the results showed the little one was our baby. I was her biological father.
When we showed the test results to my family, they all apologized. Some of those apologies were heartfelt, and others were awkward.
At that moment, I felt a sense of peace settle over me. My family might be different, but it’s mine, and it’s perfect.