u/Nesta_Manon

So yesterday I posted about how the book "If you tell" By Gregg Olson had me anxious thinking maybe I was related to one of the sisters. yesterday after the advice of several people I did some digging and found one of the sisters, not the one I thought was mine, on TikTok. and yes I am sure it was a verified account.

I sent her a message explaining that I had read the book and how some dots where definitely trying to connect and asked a few questions in regards to her sister and her dad such as if they ever reconnected, if she knew if he had passed away and if so where and was the sister present when he did?

To my actually surprise she wrote back over night!

The sister I thought I might be relateds dad was from pennsylvania, not Washington. he moved to Washington and married the mom, and after she passed me went home. after moving home he had no more children, and that is where he passed away NEVER reconnecting with his only child.

so turns out it was all just a fun coincidence, that according to one redditer that replied to my previous post, isn't that uncommon. But man was that a fun anxiety filled, genealogy searching 3 days. sorry its not a more movie type ending, I'm an NOT the sister of a girl in a true crime book.

ok so I honestly just don't know what to do with this, and I kinda don't have anyone to ask. So I'm in a book club and this month the group voted to read "IF YOU TELL" By Gregg Olson. I bought the audible on April 1st and by chapter 7 I was thinking it was an April fools joke on me. here is a not so much spoiler but some details of the book. Firstly I'm adopted but what I know of my natural parents is that my birth mom's name is Debbie, she raised me til being a teen. she lived in California and met a guy named Randy in a bar. they started dating and not long after I happened. I don't remember him much, but everyone told me he was a huge lier and hid his history as much as he could. what they knew about my natural dad was that he had come from the Oregon/Washington area, that he had traveled a bit. and that he had 3 other daughters and maybe a son, bit he didn't claim the son as he "couldn't make male children " whatever. the oldest of his other children was a daughter named Nikki, I forget the names of the others....I only remember this one because I actually spoke to her at 2 different points in life, the others where lost to the wind. when I was 17 I was sent to visit him, in Battle Ground Washington, and I remember having a conversation with him and him saying "yeah its beautiful here, thats why when I left your mom I came BACK". Now its only April 3rd and I have fully read the whole book, done an ancestry search, called my sister by my mother and she to thought the coincidence is to odd, she was able to line up details that made me feel more sure like the fact she knew Nikki was about her age, the age of my natural dad and the guy in the book was right, and that the last names being different wasn't a for sure way to know that it wasn't the same Randy as he was known to lie about who he was. Basically the last name is the only "maybe not your dad" thing she could say. while I'm sure its just a matter of coincidence it is still an odd feeling not knowing if this horrific book i just read is about a sister I never gets tortured life or not. I had hoped the end of the book would have said if Nikki ever reconnected with her actual dad and what had become of him, as i know what happened to mine, so that I would kinda know one way or another....again I'm sure its not, but tell me isn't that so odd that around the same time in about the same place 2 men with the same name had daughters with the same name.