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What happens when the biological father you expected to reject you never knew you existed?

In Part 1, Ashley learned through DNA testing that the man who raised her was not her biological father. After a two-year search, Search Squad found a name and contact information within 24 hours. Four months after giving birth to her daughter, Ashley ran a background check and mailed a cautious letter to a man she knew almost nothing about.

Two days later, he called and left a brief voicemail: “Now you have my number.” Their first exchanges involved selfies and pictures of a truck, a car, a cat, a dog and a motorcycle. When they finally spoke, Ashley learned that he had been told he could not have children and had spent 36 years with no idea that he had a daughter.

Then the story takes an almost unbelievable small-town turn. A friend of Ashley’s newly discovered father realizes she knows the parents who kept the truth from her, bringing the family secret directly back to the people who had refused to answer Ashley’s questions.

In Part 2, Ashley tells Kendall what happened when she confronted her parents, why finally having the truth ended their power over her and how her relationship with her biological father grew through weather warnings, family photographs and an unforgettable first Mother’s Day visit with her 87-year-old grandmother.

Ashley also shares what she told her therapist after receiving affection she did not have to work for: “I’m not doing anything to earn this.” Her therapist’s answer was simple: “You’re not supposed to.”

Listen to hear how a man who believed he could never have children celebrated his first Father’s Day at 66.

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