A single man adopts an abandoned little girl with speech delay. One day, she steps up on a big stage and announces something that changes his life upside down.
Every child is born unique and special, but Dani’s parents refused to appreciate her arrival. When she was born, her parents decided she did not fit well into their family. They put Dani up for adoption two months later because they could not raise another girl baby in a family of six girls already.
Sadly, every family that visited the foster home where Dani was placed ignored her. Five years passed, but nobody wished to take her home.
Dani was such a lovely and smart kid, but the foster families who met her only worried about her inability to speak. She was five years old and had an unexplainable delay in speech development. Surprisingly, the little’s girl’s life changed overnight when 30-year-old Lucas stepped in to adopt her…
“Darling, I’m going to meet the girl today. Aren’t you happy?” Lucas said, looking at a photo of his wife, Sarah. “Won’t you wish me good luck? The girl is finally coming home!”
She mustered her courage, took a deep breath, and grabbed the mic.
When Sarah and Lucas visited the foster home a year ago, they were drawn toward Dani. They were curious why the girl kept to herself, and when the caretakers informed them about Dani’s condition, they decided that she was the one.
“I understand what she must be going through now. I was also delayed in speech when I was a child,” Lucas told Sarah that day.
“Why don’t we adopt her then?” replied Sarah.
The couple had been so excited to take Dani home when an unexpected heartbreak struck them. Sarah met with an accident a week later and was bedridden.
Lucas was a speech therapist in a private hospital. After he met Dani, he was determined to restore her speech. But Sarah’s bedridden state and mobility issues concerned him even more.
Although Sarah advised Lucas to proceed with the adoption, he refused, fearing it would be difficult to care for his wife and Dani.
“Honey, bring the girl home,” Sarah urged. But Lucas chose not to until she got well.
A few months later, he faced the biggest blow when Sarah’s condition worsened. While in the intensive care unit, Sarah held Lucas’s hand and asked him to make a promise before she died.
“Please promise me you will bring the girl home. I want you to be the best dad in the world and raise her,” she said in half-broken sentences as she struggled to breathe.
“I promise, darling,” Lucas assured before Sarah finally passed on, holding his hand.
After Sarah was laid to rest, Lucas began the legal procedures for Dani’s adoption to fulfill his wife’s last wish. Thankfully, Lucas proved his potential to raise the girl as a single father and was granted legal custody of her six months later.
Dani’s arrival brought a ray of sunshine to Lucas’ life. Although he was still grieving Sarah’s loss, the girl’s presence made him laugh and appreciate the good things in his life.
After taking Dani in, Lucas helped her with her speech. He devoted his time to help her speak, and in time, Dani showed progress. She started speaking in half-broken sentences, and Lucas was confident she would be speaking effortlessly in no time.
While Lucas, his mother Doris, and Dani lived a happy life in their little home, problems sparked when his chief doctor, Nicholas, grew jealous of his success.
Nicholas started his career as a budding speech therapist before becoming the top doctor in the field. It took him several years to achieve such a prestigious position.
Lucas had joined the hospital a year ago and showed impeccable growth, which irked Nicholas. He wanted to get rid of Lucas because he was jealous of the attention the man was getting due to his success.
He fired Lucas on the grounds of using hospital premises and equipment for Dani’s therapy for free. “It’s against our hospital policy to treat patients for free. You’re fired,” he declared, putting Lucas’ successful career at stake.
“Da—Daddy—Are you not going to work today?” Dani asked Lucas after finding him idling on the sofa.
Lucas did not know how to answer his daughter, so he remained silent. Later, Dani eavesdropped on her father’s conversation with Doris.
“But what are you going to do? Why did he fire you?” she heard her grandma’s faint voice from her dad’s bedroom.
“Nicholas fired me for treating Dani in the hospital. He said it was against hospital policy to treat patients for free. I’m serving my notice period. I took a day off today. I don’t feel like going to work anymore, but I have to or else I won’t be paid, and the other formalities are still pending—”
Five-year-old Dani understood that her dad was fired. It crushed her he had lost his job for helping her speak. She wanted to help but didn’t know how until she stumbled upon an invitation to an event at the hospital.
“Daddy, are we go-going to this par-party?”
Although Lucas did not feel like going, he had no choice. Some of the wealthiest A-listers and medical professionals were attending the event. Since he was still serving his notice period, he had to go.
“Yes, darling. We’re going this evening. Granny will help you get ready, okay?
When Dani arrived at the party with her father, she wondered how she could help him get his job back. Then she spotted the stage. She walked towards it, nervous and sweating. She did not want to make a clown of herself by stammering but realized it was her only chance to help her father. She mustered her courage, took a deep breath, and grabbed the mic.
“Ah, Lucas! It’s your last party as our most esteemed doctor, am I right?” Nicholas taunted.
Lucas was worried. He turned around and couldn’t find Dani. He searched for her through the faces in the crowd until her voice on the mic startled him and everyone around.
“Hell—Hello, everyone!” Dani addressed, taking some coins from her pocket. “Good evening! Doc-Doctor Nic-Nicholas, I brought some money from my piggy bank. Please take it. And please don’t f-fire my daddy for treating me in the hospital. Six ma-months ago, I couldn’t speak, but be-because my daddy is a great doctor, I can now talk, as you c-can see. Ta-take my money and give him his job back, please.”
Everybody was stunned, including the owners of the hospital who were in the crowd. They soon demanded an explanation from an embarrassed Nicholas.
“I…Argh!…I was just joking, Mr. Johnson. I did not fire Lucas. He still works with us,” he said, lying through his teeth. “It was a little prank, nothing else. Also, he was using our premises to treat his daughter for free. I was just safeguarding our policy, you see.”
“You have safeguarded enough, Nicholas. We will deal with you after the event,” his boss fumed.
Later, after the party, the owners learned about Nicholas’ grudge against Lucas and apologized to Lucas, canceling his dismissal order.
As for Nicholas, he was fired after some doctors and nurses complained about his overbearing attitude, bearing grudges not just with Lucas but with a few other staff.
Ultimately, Lucas got his job back and was grateful to his daughter for helping him!
What can we learn from this story?
You may never know how your kindness might reward you. After his wife’s death, Lucas adopted little Dani regardless of her speech delay, and Dani later proved to be an angel who came to her father’s defense and managed to get his job back after he was fired.
Children are not a burden or baggage you can abandon whenever you want. They deserve a peaceful and happy life. Dani’s parents neglected her and gave her up for adoption because they had six other girls and could not care for her. Unfortunately, they knew little about what a wonderful daughter she would turn out to be and a blessing to Lucas, who adopted her.
A widower adopts a girl with special needs abandoned near the church. Five years later, her birth mother shows up on his doorstep with a strange demand. Click here to read the full story.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only.