I have four children, two biological and two stepchildren from my husband’s 1st marriage. I consider all of them my kids, but I have to differentiate them for clarity. When my stepchildren were 12 and 13, it came out that they were not biologically my husband’s.
It was very dramatic and rocked the entire family. There was a minute when they were suspicious of me, but since I had insisted on testing my biological children at birth due to issues from my childhood, this was over before it began.
My husband and I continued raising all four children until he passed away two years ago. His father just died six months ago. The kids are 17, 16, 10, and 9. His father decided only to leave money to his biological grandchildren in his will. This money is to be held in trust, so even I can’t access it. It’s not millions, but it is easy enough to pay for each grandkid to go to college and put a down payment on a house.
My stepkids viewed him as their grandfather, so they are furious about this, but on a practical level, they need money for college and now don’t have it. They’ve been blaming me and hounding me to fix this. I can’t and won’t. The will is airtight.