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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Kitchen_Bluebird9181 on 2025-05-16 13:38:35+00:00.

Hi. All of this happened last night and I’m still not able to process it. I haven’t told anyone about this (not even my friends).

So I (21M) have this cousin from my mom’s side who lives in Vancouver. Never met the guy before yesterday because our families just never really connected or whatever.

Anyway, cousin Jake (not his real name) is in town for some work conference and decided to stop by for dinner. Nice to finally meet extended family right? Well no

We’re all having this totally normal dinner, talking about Jake’s job, my college and stuff. My dad likes to gamble a lot and seems like Jake is on the same boat so they started to talk about it right until my mom busts out the old photo albums and we’re flipping through pics from before I was born.

I make some joke about how dad’s mullet was a crime against humanity and Jake laughs and says “well at least your biological dad didn’t give you the ginger gene like my side of the family”. He was a funny guy so I thought he was just trolling me.

I literally couldn’t breathe. My tension went so high and I got very very dizzy. The room literally froze. Jake looked confused and then horrified as he realized what he’d done. It was a fucking mess.

Turns out I’m fully adopted and everybody knows except me. I also felt really bad for the cousin because I know he didnt mean to say it because now my dad is very angry at him and I know its not my fault but it still kinda feels my fault I dont know why

I just don’t know what to do I’m not being able to process this at all and it’s a very hard thing. I’m thinking of trying to go and find out who my real parents are. I just don’t know what to do

TL;DR: accidentally discovered I’m adopted