When you got older, did you ever find out you had another sibling or half-sibling that your parents hid from you?

That happens to people sometimes, and it tends to change their life. Other times, people wish they had never known about their long-lost sibling.

One woman recently reached out to her half-sister against her father’s wishes, as he never wanted her to know about him.

She’s 24 and was raised by her father, who was a complicated man. 

Her father had a bad habit of entering relationships with married women throughout his adult life. So much so that he had children with some of these women but never stayed with them, as they wanted to return to their husbands.

One of those children was her half-brother, who didn’t realize he had a different Biological Father until the man who raised him passed away unexpectedly. She was raised in the care of her father her entire life, so she never had to worry about finding another parent.

But three years ago, she began unraveling information about a long-lost family member and couldn’t let it go.

“When I was in my teens, I noticed my father had many pictures of a young girl on his phone and thought it was very weird,” she said.

“I pressured, asked, and bothered him for months, but he never confessed until 2021. The girl I’ve seen pictures of on his phone is my half-sister, [who] I never knew about.”

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Her father eventually revealed that her half-sister’s mother was “happily married” when she had an affair with him and told her father she didn’t want him to have anything to do with the baby.

So, when their baby girl was born, she moved away with her and her husband, and her father never got to meet her. 

“I don’t know if my father ever got the chance to hold her when she was a child, and I never got to know my sister,” she explained.

“When I found out, I was told I could never say anything. I could not topple the sham marriage her mother had so that my sister could know the truth. I could never speak to my flesh and blood for the remainder of my life. It would ruin her family if I did.”

Over the last few years, she debated for the longest time whether or not she should try reaching out to her half-sister, who is now 26.

She figured that since she wasn’t a kid anymore, she’d be open to the possibility of getting to know more about her biological father and half-siblings.

Eventually, her curiosity got the best of her, and she found her half-sister on Facebook. Four months ago, she decided to message her half-sister, telling her about her father and everything she knew about her past.

Then, a few days ago, her half-sister opened the message but left it on read.

Eventually, her half-sister’s sibling responded to her message and was not happy about it. She told her there was no way their biological mom would ever cheat on their dad and told her she had to be mistaken.

“I showed her the proof I had [and] I offered to buy two [DNA] tests, [which was] a $300 investment [that’d be] for myself and her if she wanted to know,” she recalled.

“If they refused, I would leave them alone. [Now] I can’t shake this guilty feeling like I made a mistake.”

She’s beginning to realize that she may have destroyed her half-sister’s family and is unsure what to do.

Was she wrong to message her half-sister, or was it a good idea?

You can read the original post on Reddit here.