DEAR ABBY: I was born 40 years ago and raised by my mother to believe that her husband was my birth father. She divorced him and raised me while receiving court-awarded child support, based on her insistence to all involved that she had not had an affair. As the years went on, it became increasingly evident this wasn’t true, so I took a genetic test. The result came back with a 99% likelihood that I had a different father. I soon made contact with the brother of the man I believed to be my birth father. He had personal knowledge of the affair and did a confirmational genetic test to show his genetic relationship to me.
My mother continues to insist on what is now certainly a lie, perhaps to save face with me and others, and to avoid perjury charges and support repayments that might follow. I have not had contact with her for many years and changed my last name to my biological father’s. He was a loving father figure to me in secret and is now deceased.
