All families have secrets, some worse than others, but one woman has recently revealed a life-changing secret to her niece, causing a massive row in the family.

The anonymous aunt posted to Reddit asking if she made the right decision about telling her niece the real identity of her biological mother, without telling the girl’s dad and adopted mom. 

The woman writes: “I (35f) had two older sisters growing up, ‘Jane and “Kim.’ Kim got sick and died but not before giving birth to my niece ‘Laura’ (18f). 

“It had been a year after Kim’s passing when Jane and Laura’s dad ‘Tom’ (42m) confessed to dating and were now engaged. Everyone was surprised but no one was as vocally disgusted as me.”

She says she then accused Tom and Jane of having an affair, which they adamantly denied saying that Kim would want them to be happy.

After this reveal, they then further explained a decision they had made about raising Laura: “She was barely 2 when Kim died, and they decided it would be better if Laura thought Jane was her mother in every sense of the word after the adoption was finalized.

“Tom got rid of any items that would suggest he and Kim were ever in a relationship and made his family swear to never tell Laura the truth.”

They even went as far as changing Laura’s name to something that Jane preferred. 

While many of the family members went along with this plan, having been threatened they would have no contact with Laura if they didn’t, Jane and Kim’s younger sister refused to do so, adding that it would be disrespectful to the memory of Kim.

However, while she hasn’t been a part of Laura’s life, Laura recently reached out to her aunt through social media as she was interested in the same line of work and wanted some advice.

A while after they began talking, the writer video chatted with her niece, who asked why she’d never been around when she was younger.

“If we had been talking through DMs like before I probably wouldn’t have done it but we were video chatting and something about looking directly into her eyes broke me and I confessed to everything,” she says, continuing:

“Before Kim died she and I made a series of videos for Laura to watch at her big moments and I told her that if she ever wanted to watch any of them I’d send them. Laura asked me to send some and then I heard nothing from her for days.”

Not long after this, the aunt received a call from her sister accusing her of “ruining her family,” after Laura confronted her parents and they were forced to tell her the truth.

The majority of comments on the aunt’s post were in support of her decision, with one person writing: 

“Jane and Tom did Kim wrong. I don’t know how you could wrong your sister that way. I may not get along with my sister, but I would never hide her from her child, and how can you do that to your child, both Tom and Jane are horrible people.”

A second added: “That is so heartbreaking and cruel. I’m tearing up for Laura and Kim. I don’t think there’s any way you could have prepared Laura for the truth but glad someone finally told her”

Although some did suggest that perhaps it wasn’t her secret to tell, others defended this accusation saying that of course Laura has the right to know who her mother was.

This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.