The people in the courtroom noticeably perked up when the little girl entered the room, hiding her eyes in embarrassment. Emily went to the judge and froze in anticipation of an important question. The fact was that her adoptive father, who had recently lost custody, was asking for another chance to adopt the girl.
Seeing the man in the courtroom, the girl burst into tears. After she calmed down, the judge asked her the question. The girl’s answer pulled at the heartstrings of every single person present at the hearing. People who witnessed this trial couldn’t come to their senses for a long time, feeling that after everything they saw, their life would never be the same again.
It all started when Thomas Clark, the owner of a regional chain of household appliance stores, met an 18-year-old student named Helen, whom he instantly liked. The young people met at one of the contemporary art exhibitions and immediately felt strong feelings for each other. At the time, the man was 33 years old and had been thinking for a while that it was time for him to get married and start a family.
The romance between Helen and Thomas developed rapidly, each day bringing them closer to the wedding. Despite the groom’s parents being against their son’s relationship with the young student, they still got married. However, Thomas’s mother kept insisting, “Son, she only wants your money,” but the man didn’t want to hear anything about it because he loved Helen very much and firmly believed that their feelings were mutual. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Mexico and upon returning home immediately moved into a new house. Thomas believed that it was true happiness at the time. Each day only made the man more certain that he made the right choice.
Having lived together for one happy year, Thomas suggested they should think about having a child, which he had dreamed of all his adult life. But to his surprise, Helen wasn’t all that excited about this idea. It turned out that she didn’t really want to become a mother at 19. Despite Helen’s reaction, Thomas was extremely persistent, and after much persuasion, the woman finally agreed.
Time went by, but the couple hadn’t been able to get pregnant. Sad about the situation, Thomas suggested that it was time for them to go see a doctor at one of the city clinics. When the young couple had their checkups, they were in for some unfortunate news. The reason why Helen couldn’t get pregnant was her husband’s cancer. Thomas took this shocking news very badly. From that point on, the man’s life got very difficult.
He didn’t even know if he would survive. Unfortunately, it was during this difficult period that Helen’s true nature came to light. She didn’t seem to care about her husband or his illness and treated the whole situation with outright indifference. Instead of providing Thomas with all kinds of help and support, the woman didn’t even take him to the hospital, spending all her time shopping and having fun with her friends.
Thanks to the effort of the medical staff and the doctor’s expertise, Thomas managed to beat cancer several months later. Unfortunately, his illness made it impossible for Thomas to ever have children. Deep down, Helen was relieved because she believed that it wasn’t really worth spending precious time, money, and youth on raising kids.
To be honest, Thomas was stunned by his wife’s attitude towards the situation. A shade of sadness immediately came onto his face, which didn’t go unnoticed by Helen. “Well, if you want to have children so badly, you can adopt a child from the orphanage,” Helen changed her tone. But deep down, she didn’t like the idea of having children at all.
Thomas saw this option as an excellent way out of the situation, even though he didn’t think that adopting a child would be as emotional as having a biological baby. Thomas still decided to go to the city’s adoption center. That’s where Thomas met little Emily. Despite her angelic appearance, the little girl was very sad all the time. As it turned out, she got to the center a few weeks earlier and hadn’t said a word since. But when Thomas learned the reason why the girl ended up at the center, tears welled up in his eyes, and he couldn’t speak.
As it turned out, before getting to the orphanage, Emily lived with her biological parents who weren’t good people. They didn’t work anywhere but instead forced the little girl to beg for money on the street. It was probably because of her difficult life and everything she had to go through that the little girl was so withdrawn and refused to speak. The story of little Emily touched Thomas so much that he started visiting her almost every day.
At first, the staff at the center didn’t believe that the man would agree to adopt a child with so many problems. Nevertheless, Thomas eventually managed to win Emily’s trust, thus earning the respect of the orphanage staff. The man spent a long time talking to the girl every day, playing with her on the playground, and bringing her gifts.
Ultimately, this unconventional therapy gave its results, and Emily finally began to communicate more with other children and even started treating them as her equal. The emotional connection between Thomas and the little girl turned out to be so strong that the man began to treat the girl as his own daughter. After collecting all the documents and getting all the approvals, the dreams of fatherhood soon became a reality for Thomas as he was finally allowed to take Emily home.
It should be said that as soon as Emily became part of Thomas’s life, he felt what parental happiness was. From the first day, the man did everything in his power to make sure Emily was comfortable and had everything she needed. Unfortunately, Helen didn’t share her husband’s joy and didn’t have any warm feelings for Emily. Of course, his wife didn’t flaunt her true feelings at first and skillfully pretended that she really liked the girl.
But time went on, and seeing how her husband pampered and took care of the little girl, Helen got jealous and aggressive towards her. Moreover, Helen realized that in case the question of divorce was ever to arise, the girl would ruin Helen’s plans to receive a share of her husband’s income. Fights between Thomas and Helen became a regular thing for the family, and every time, Helen repeated tirelessly, “Since you brought this little witch into our house, you’ve become completely different.
You never have any time to spend with me anymore.” In response to her accusations, Thomas simply shrugged his shoulders and made it perfectly clear that if Helen didn’t get a hold of herself, things would end in divorce. After this memorable conversation, Helen pretended to calm down, all the while coming up with a revenge plan. One night, she sneaked into Emily’s bedroom and tried to suffocate her with a pillow. Fortunately, the girl woke up in time and began to scream and cry.
When Thomas burst into the room, he saw his wife standing at Emily’s bed with the pillow in her hands. “What are you doing? Are you crazy?” the man screamed, shocked by what Helen was trying to do. In response, the sly woman started screaming, hoping to attract the attention of the neighbors so they would call the police. And that’s exactly what they ended up doing.
When the law enforcement officers arrived at their home, Helen accused her husband of attacking the girl. As expected, the spouses were immediately relieved of their custody rights, and Thomas got taken to the police station. Fortunately, Helen didn’t know that her husband installed a camera in Emily’s room in order to check up on her when she first got there. Thomas claimed that he did it because Emily was very agitated at first; she lived at the orphanage for quite some time, and she was having a hard time adapting to life at her new home.
It was the recording from this camera that helped exonerate Thomas and served as the evidence for a criminal case against his insidious wife. Unfortunately, even though justice was served, the man still lost custody of Emily. The inconsolable father spent his evenings crying quietly in the room of his adopted daughter.
During this time, Thomas went to court repeatedly, demanding for his adoption case to be reopened. However, all of his attempts were unsuccessful at first. But one day, having lost all hope, Thomas finally got to notice that his case would be reviewed. It felt like the most important day in Thomas’s life. The tension reached its breaking point when the judge invited Emily into the courtroom and pointing at Thomas asked her, “Tell me, please, is this your father?” After hearing the judge’s question, tears immediately began to flow down the girl’s face.
Finally having calmed down a little, Emily replied, “No, this isn’t my father.” A quiet murmur immediately swept through the hall. “Well then, tell me, do you want to go back to your adoptive father?” the judge asked. The girl was silent for a moment, but deep in their hearts, everyone knew what decision she was going to make.
Then Emily wiped her tears with a napkin and said, “This is my guardian angel who protected me and took care of me like his own daughter. He isn’t my father, but I love him with all my heart and see him as my dad. I want us to be together again. I was never as happy as when I lived with him.” I don’t think I need to tell you what reaction the girl’s words caused. Every single person in that courtroom burst into tears.
Thomas cried, the judge cried, her assistants, and all those present cried. They saw a real family drama unfold before their eyes, and they felt like they were a part of it. When Emily finished speaking, Thomas ran up to the girl and picked her up. That same evening, Thomas and his beloved daughter returned home where a long and happy life awaited them.
