Noah was angry too.
His father had known he had an aunt and a cousin but had never told him. He couldn’t understand why Michael had kept the truth from him for so many years.
“I brought my boyfriend home to meet his mother,” Noah said, “and she turned out to be my aunt.”
Tyler and Noah ended their relationship immediately after learning they were cousins.
For a while, they avoided each other. Eventually, though, they began talking again—not as boyfriends, but as two people trying to understand the strange family story they’d suddenly inherited.
Michael and I also began rebuilding our relationship slowly.
There were phone calls, coffee, arguments, apologies, and sometimes silence.
Months later, we visited my mother’s grave together.
Michael stood in front of her headstone for a long time.
“I thought she’d hate me,” he whispered.
“She would’ve been angry,” I said. “But she would’ve wanted you home.”
