Man’s crush may be his sister - DNA test to reveal if office flirtation was with blood relative

The first time Sasha* saw Mark*, her chest tightened. There was something oddly familiar about him.

"He came in and mi couldn't stop staring. Mi seh to miself, 'No man, this look too much like mi family,'" Sasha recounted.

The encounter stirred memories of stories and whispers she had heard as a child. Through no fault of her own, she has been labelled a 'jacket' by persons who are convinced that her mother has committed paternity fraud by giving her to the 'wrong' father.

"The way him laugh, even the way him stand, it remind mi of people mi know. Mi whole body start feel funny, like mi standing in front of the answer mi search for all mi life," she recalled.

Mark, too, had noticed something about Sasha. He quickly told her he liked her, though he had reservations--she looked and sounded too much like his niece. To make his point, Mark showed Sasha photos of his niece and realised Sasha was a young lady he had crossed paths with in high school.

"At first mi brush it off, but after a while mi couldn't ignore it. Mi start wonder if a coincidence or if him was trying fi seh something mi mother hide," Sasha said.

"People always seh mi favour them niece. But when mi look pon him, mi feel like mi looking pon myself. It send mi inna a wonderland," Sasha said.

For 36 years, Sasha has lived with a question mark where her father's love should be.

"The man whose name mi carry, mi run behind him all mi life, and all him do is push mi away," Sasha told THE WEEKEND STAR. "Up to mi 36th birthday mi call him and ask, 'What have I done? You never help mi in school, you never deh deh fi mi.' Him seh, 'Is not you alone nuh have father, why you can't live with it?' That break mi," she said.

Her doubts trace back to childhood, as when she was younger, she always heard her mother call a certain man's name.

"She and one other woman did even have a disruption about him. That name stick inna mi head," she recalled. Years later, fate brought her face to face with that name again when she met Mark.

Sasha says her mother has slammed the door shut on the topic, refusing to discuss it. The situation is worsened by a lack of a mother-daughter bond, and Sasha believes her mother fears confronting the possibility that she may have committed paternity fraud.

"Mi believe she know the truth but hide it out of shame," Sasha said.

"The man she claim is mi father used to work pon ship. The other one was a taxi man. Maybe she neva want fi seh she get pregnant fi a taxi man, so she give mi to the ship man," she said.

That retired cabbie, Mark Sr*, now 69, admitted that he once had a fling with Sasha's mother as a teenager.

"Yes, mi did know her from back inna school days. We used to fool around," he told THE WEEKEND STAR. "But she did deh with other people too, including a man wid the same last name Sasha have. So mi really don't know. We were young," he added.

Although nervous, Mark Sr has agreed to help Sasha get the answers she's been seeking by submitting to a DNA test. The test will be conducted by Polygenics Consulting under a partnership with THE STAR.

"She seh her father don't act like her dad, and she want answers. Mi tell her, all mi can seh is, let the test talk. Deep down, mi nervous same way, because this could change a lot," he admitted.

Sasha said she does not want money or inheritance, only clarity.

"Mi just want to know who mi be. Mi tired of living with this question mark over mi head," she said.

"It not going to erase the hurt, but at least mi will know," she added, looking forward to the possibility of fully embracing Mark as her blood brother.

*Names changed to protect identities.