Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

That's a really awful thing for your stepmother to do. I assume that this is about her trying to either keep your father's estate all for herself or to split it only between herself and her own kids? Why on earth would your stepmother have any knowledge of whether your father was actually your biological father or not? I assume she wasn't present for your conception, so I guess she's saying he told her this? Even if he did, that's probably not going to get her anywhere.

I don't know what the circumstances of all this are, and the various laws involved are too complicated for me to really go into here, but the upshot of it all is that there's a really good chance that there's absolutely no reason for you to have to get DNA testing done at all. The definitive answer on that would depend on things like whether your parents were married, how old you are now, whether there was ever a court order declaring him to be your father, etc., so anything's possible, but generally, DNA testing would only be ordered in a situation where there wasn't a will that specifically named you (I.e., not just "my children"), your parents weren't married, and there never had been any kind of legal determination or acknowledgement of paternity by your father.

If this is instead a situation where your parents were married at least at or soon after the point you were born, he was never found by a court NOT to be your biological father, and you're now an adult, neither your stepmother nor anyone else can force genetic testing to be done for you to be able to collect your inheritance. Under those circumstances, it would not matter at all at this point if it were to be true that he weren't your biological father--he would be what's called your "presumed father", based on the fact that your parents were married, he raised you as his own, and you're now an adult. His being your presumed father under those circumstances would be legally sufficient to allow you to inherit with no genetic proof of paternity, even without a will naming you as a beneficiary (so would you being specifically named in his will, for that matter). If all that is not the case, though, or if your stepmother doesn't have the sense to leave this alone soon, you really need to go ahead and consult an attorney. Good luck--I'm sorry you're having to go through this on top of your dad dying.