Svetlana + Belmont

I don’t know how to say this, but your Dad isn’t your biological Dad, even though he’s your real Dad.  He’s technically your adopted Dad, which is why you don’t look like him at all, not even a little bit.  He wanted to tell you the truth ever since you were a little girl, but your Mom forbade him.  She said you didn’t need to harp on the injustices of history (which is something only white people say, and only when they're not talking about confederate statues or historical revisionism).  She told me once after drinking two bottles of Sake I’d bought for you that you were adopted.  She said that learning you were a Syrian refugee would only make you hate yourself (which itself, was a racist implication).  So, you’re still white in case you’re curious, but you’re not actually Slavic at all, even though you’re a true Slavophile.  You’re racially Arab (and I think your parents might have died in a chemical attack.  I'm so sorry about that).  Another thing:  at least once while we were dating (twenty years ago, but still), you spoke in Arabic in your sleep.  Actually, sing is more like it.