I gave birth 5 weeks ago to a baby with blonde hair and blue eyes, while my husband and I both have brown hair and brown eyes. My husband freaked out at this, demanded a paternity test, and went to stay with his parents for weeks. My mother-in-law told me that if the test showed that the baby wasn’t her son’s, she would make sure I was “taken to the cleaners” during the divorce. Yesterday, we received the results. My husband, wide-eyed and shocked, stared at them as the truth sunk in.

In that moment, the tension in the room was so thick I could barely breathe. He cleared his throat and read the words on the report once more to be absolutely sure. Our little daughter was his. There was no doubt about it. Her blonde hair and blue eyes were simply recessive genes popping up—just a biological surprise that neither he nor I had expected.

Instead of feeling relief, I found myself grappling with a wave of anger. Ever since our daughter, Isla, was born, I’d had to tolerate suspicious looks and whispered phone calls, primarily led by my mother-in-law, Barbara. She had always been blunt, and sometimes harsh, but her threats of “taking me to the cleaners” if the baby wasn’t her son’s had left a mark. I was just a new mom trying to adjust to parenthood and healing from childbirth. The last thing I needed was to be accused of cheating.