>> what's up with this basically? >> yeah, i think i actually told him i hated him. >> did he say, "okay, you're old enough now, i can tell you"-- >> unh-uh. >> "a more complete story"? >> unh-uh. he said, "you're not ready." >> "you're not ready," still? >> reporter: brittany wasn't sure her dad would ever tell her. he wasn't around much during her childhood. his parents were the ones who'd taken her in as a baby, raised her. they wouldn't talk about the past much either. >> so you're an angry teenage girl with your fists balled up, and you're still trying to find out the story of your mother, huh? >> right. >> what's making you go forward? why not just let it be? >> something inside of me just wouldn't -- i wouldn't stop. you know, i-- then i would start the hyperventilating, i'd wake up crying all the time, you know, "i want my mom, i want my mom." and they'd tell me, "you need to stop, you need to calm down." so then i started digging. >> reporter: sometimes when her grandmother slept, brittany says she rifled through her old photo albums. >> brittany, you're becoming kind of a detective in this thing. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: aunt deb says the