Grown under the same roof, they always called themselves brother and sister. But no one thought they were.
In 2002, in Staten Island, a newborn was found in front of a Christian asylum. He was left in a diaper bag.
Angela and Dennis Laffin decided to adopt him and called him Frank.
The first months were difficult. He suffered from many allergies, slept very little and required continuous attention. Convinced that this would be their last adoption, after some time Angela called to the agency to finally close the practice.
That call, however, took an unexpected direction.
She was told by a newborn in a Staten Island hospital. A cardiology technique, Claudia, had discovered it wrapped in a blanket and hidden under a bathroom drain.
Angela didn't need to think about it.
He simply said that you and your husband would welcome that child.
Victoria called her.
Since then Frank and Victoria grew up together, with just eighteen months of difference. They shared the same house, the same parents, parties, discussions, laughter and everything that transforms a family into a place to call home.
When someone asked if they were blood brothers, Angela and Dennis always answered no.
They had no reason to believe otherwise.
Years passed.
Victoria knew that Claudia was a family friend, but only at the end of the eighteen years she discovered that she had found her on the day of her abandonment.
The curiosity of knowing your origins prompted you and Frank to undergo a DNA test.
Frank's result was no surprise.
Victoria's changed everything.
The analysis revealed that they shared a quantity of DNA compatible with that of two biological brothers.
Victoria phoned Angela immediately. She cried so much that her foster mother feared something very serious.
When he was able to speak, he only said:
" Frank and I are brother and sister... Really. »
Angela said:
"I think you are brother and sister. I raised you together. »
Just a moment later, Angela understood the true meaning of that sentence.
Without knowing it, she and her husband had adopted, about two years later, two children born of the same biological parents.
Life had separated them at birth.
The love of a family had brought them one by the other even before the truth came to afloat.
For Frank and Victoria, however, that discovery changed nothing.
He did not make their bond stronger, because he had always been.
The DNA test didn't tell them who they were.
He only confirmed what they had felt throughout their lives: before they even shared the same blood, they shared the love of a family that, without knowing it, had put together two brothers destined to find themselves.
Small Stories