rible about it, but I had missed two promotions in the months that I had been looking after our mother.

I needed to know that I had the safety net of her money. I just needed to have something to my name…

I decided to demand a DNA test.

“What’s the point, Charlotte?” she scoffed. “You know what it’ll say, Lottie.

That you’re not family. I wonder where Mom found you. Do you think your birth mother misses you?”

I didn’t think anything other than the fact that our mother would be turning over in her grave at Barbara’s behavior.

“Just do it,” I demanded.

“Think of it this way. If I am really adopted and there’s proof, you’ll have more claim to everything.”

That did it. She moved her head slowly from side to side.

Suddenly, she got off the couch, martini in hand, and looked at me.

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

But the results?

Oh my goodness. They shocked everyone.

Because Barbara?

She was the one who wasn’t biologically related to our mother.

After the results came in, I went to my Aunt Helen, my mother’s younger sister. She had been tight-lipped about everything, but after I told her about the DNA results, she finally told me the truth.

“Your mother never wanted you both to know, Lottie,” Aunt Helen said, tears in her eyes. “Because she knew how much it would hurt you both.”

“Know what?” I asked, heart pounding, but I figured that it was about Barbara’s birth.

“Barbara wasn’t Mom’s biological daughter, Lottie.”

“So, you knew?”

Aunt Helen nodded.

“Your mother found Barbara at a train station when she was two years old.

She was abandoned. My sister took her in, raised her as her own. And she never, ever wanted Barbara to feel anything less than loved.

It helped that she had the same blonde hair and blue eyes.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, trying to fit all the puzzle pieces together. “But how did Barbara have an adoption decree? If she was found at a train station, I mean?”

Aunt Helen sighed and glanced out the window as if she was gathering her thoughts.

“Because your mother made it official, darling.

She went through the court system and legally adopted Barbara a year later. She wanted to make sure that no one could ever take her away.”

My stomach twisted. I didn’t know how to feel.

Or what to feel.

“So, Mom just didn’t tell her?”

Aunt Helen shook her head.

“She never told either of you, Lottie,” Aunt Helen said softly. “Because in her eyes, it didn’t matter. Barbara was her daughter, just like you were.

Blood or not, she loved you both the same, and nothing was going to change that.”

But Barbara had never seen it that way.

She had spent her entire life being treated like the golden child, like she was the one who belonged.

And yet, in the end?

Barbara was the adopted one. I was our mother’s real daughter…

The biological daughter.

When I told my sister the truth, she laughed at first. We were standing in the kitchen and I couldn’t wait to get it out.

She needed to know the truth, too.

“You’re lying now, Charlotte,” she said. “You probably got someone to doctor the results, didn’t you? Or you hacked into the system!

You’re the computer whiz…”

But when I showed her the DNA test and told her everything Aunt Helen had said?

Her face went pale.

“No. No, this can’t be right. Mom loved me.

She… she wouldn’t just take in some abandoned kid!”

But she did. She had.

“Barbara,” I said. “She loved you.

And you being adopted doesn’t change that. Our mother was wonderful. She probably saw you and couldn’t wait to love you.”

Barbara looked at me.

She was… I don’t know. I couldn’t read her face. I couldn’t understand what she was thinking.

I had no idea.

She was blank.

As for my mom, she had given Barbara everything. She had seen a little child and wanted to take her home and love her, to make that child her own.

And instead of spreading that love and joy… what did Barbara do in return?

She had tried to steal my inheritance.

She had tried to erase me from my own mother’s life.

And now?

She was the one who lost everything.

We went to see the lawyer again. Together, but in different cars.

Barbara couldn’t even look at me.

Alistair had confirmed that my mother’s will was valid. Despite Barbara’s cruel attempt to cut me out, I still got half of everything.

“But… wait!” Barbara said, her fingernails digging into her thigh. “I don’t want to share…”

“Barbara,” Alistair said.

“It’s clear. Your mother wanted the two of you to share everything. A straight 50-50.

Now, if you want to play this biological daughter game, I don’t know what to tell you… Charlotte could take everything.”

My sister thought she could rewrite history, but legally? She couldn’t touch a thing.

The will was still clear. We were supposed to split everything.

But after her stunt?

After trying to erase me from my own mother’s legacy? Barbara lost more than just her pride.

“Let’s go to court,” she said.

“I really don’t recommend that,” Alistair said.

“So, what?” Barbara blurted. “You just want us to split the money and then pretend that we’re family again?

I don’t want anything to do with Charlotte. I want my money and my house. And then I want to be done with this!”

“Barbara, come on…” I said.

“Just be quiet!” she bellowed, throwing one of Alistair’s pens onto the floor.

“I don’t want you around. You’ll just be here to remind me that I’m not biologically our mother’s daughter. So, no.

We’re doing this. And when I win, you’re going to get the hell out of my house.”

That was it. That did it.

I didn’t want to be nice. I didn’t want to share. I didn’t want Barbara around any more than she wanted me around.

So?

I hired Alistair on the spot.

For me this time, not on behalf of my mother’s deceased estate.

“Let’s do it,” I said. “Let’s go to court.”

“But I want Alistair!” Barbara said, standing up.

“Too late, sis,” I said.

Months later, Barbara fought it in court, desperate to take everything for herself. But she failed.

In the end, the judge ruled against her.

And I got it all.

She tried to destroy me, and in doing so, she destroyed herself and her future.

And do you know what?

I think she deserved every single bit of it.

What would you have done?

Source: amomama