He answered, “That’s what Gemma was trying to tell you.”
Gloria immediately said it wasn’t the same.
Spencer ended the call.
For 16 years, Gloria and Bruce had treated Sky like the granddaughter who naturally belonged in the center of everything.
Now they were discovering that closeness wasn’t guaranteed by the title they had given themselves.
They had lost easy access to Gemma first.
Then, without intending to, they lost Skye’s trust, too.
Their favorite had finally learned what conditional belonging felt like.
Not long after that, Gloria called me directly.
“I want this family to stop punishing each other,” she said.
Spencer was beside me, so I put the call on speaker.
Gloria talked about moving forward, forgiving mistakes, and getting back to normal.
She said she missed Gemma.
“The DNA situation got out of hand,” she said, as though it had wandered into our lives by itself.
Gemma happened to walk into the room.
She heard Gloria’s voice and stopped.
Gloria asked, “Is that her? Can I talk to her?”
I looked at Gemma.
She held out her hand for the phone.
“Hi, Grandma.”
Gloria’s voice softened instantly.
She said she wanted everyone together again.
Gemma listened for maybe 30 seconds.
Then she said, “I don’t want things to go back to normal.”
Gloria went quiet.
“Normal was Sky getting picked first. Normal was you making comments about Mom. Normal was me pretending I didn’t notice. The DNA test just made it impossible to pretend anymore.”
Gloria started saying she had never meant to hurt her.
Gemma answered, “You asked me to prove I was your family.”
She handed the phone back to me and walked upstairs.
Gloria called again later.
We didn’t answer.
Spencer and I discussed it once calmly and made the boundary together.
No more visits.
No more family dinners.
No more access to Gemma through us.
This time there was no argument left to have.
Six months later, our life is noticeably quieter.
Gemma’s $200,000 inheritance is being held for her until she can access it under the terms in place.
But the money isn’t the change I notice most.
She seems lighter.
She doesn’t ask what Gloria bought Sky.
She doesn’t prepare herself before family dinners.
She isn’t trying to earn approval from someone who spent years measuring her against somebody else.
Spencer and I remain no contact with Gloria and Bruce.
Spencer is still close to Jeremy, whose divorce from Monica is finalized.
Jeremy still considers Sky his daughter and stays involved in her life.
While Sky has cautiously begun getting to know her biological father, too.
Through Jeremy, we heard that Gloria and Bruce kept trying to win Sky back.
Gifts barely moved the needle, so eventually they created a trust for her using a substantial amount of their own money.
It didn’t replace everything she lost, but after that, Sky finally agreed to see them occasionally.
I can’t miss the irony.
Gloria once demanded DNA before Gemma could receive family money.
Now she is spending her own money trying to prove to Sky that DNA was never what made someone her granddaughter.
Do you think my husband did the right thing by demanding that everyone take a DNA test?
And were we right to go no contact with his parents after what they did?
Let me know in the comments and subscribe for more.
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Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction created for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.