Single Man Adopts Poor Neighbor’s Girl, Week Later She Shows Him Vault in Her House – Story of the Day

A man decided to adopt his late neighbor's daughter but suddenly had trouble with the relatives who seemed more interested in the house than the little girl. When he legally adopted the girl, she showed him something he never expected.

"Mr. Barkin! Mr. Barkin!" a little voice outside his front door alerted Billy, and he rushed to open it. It was Jessica, his neighbor Agatha's daughter. She had a tear-streaked face and wild eyes.

"Jessica, what's going on?" he asked, confused.

"Mom! Something's wrong with my mom! I have no idea what to do! Please! Help!" she cried, pointing towards her house.

Billy didn't need any more information. He ran as fast as he could to Agatha's home, and his heart stopped when he saw her unconscious on the living room floor. He rushed to the phone and called 911 while checking her breathing and heartbeat. There was nothing.

"Open the house immediately if you have the keys!"

The paramedics came as quickly as they could, as well as the police, but there was nothing they could do. Agatha was gone… just like that. And poor Jessica was on Billy's shoulders for hours.

At the hospital, the police questioned him. "Sir, are you related to the deceased?" the officer wondered.

"No, sir. We've been neighbors and good friends for years, but we are technically not family," Billy responded solemnly. By then, Jessica was sleeping on his lap.

"The little girl seems to trust," the officer commented while nodding. "Do you know how to get in touch with the family?"

"I have no idea. Agatha's family was never around. She didn't tell me much, but it seemed like she cut contact with them. We used to spend Thanksgiving together working at the local homeless shelter," Billy continued quietly to avoid waking the little girl.

"Ok. Can you keep the little girl for now? A social worker can come to get her later," the officer requested. But Billy's eyes widened in shock.

"What? No! Jessica can't go into the system. Can I keep her? Please. I don't know if Agatha ever made arrangements in case something happened, but I'm sure she would be alright with this. As you said, she trusts me. Please, I can't let her be lost in foster care or a children's shelter," he begged.

"Alright. For now, you can take her home. But we'll have to look into the matter. If the deceased didn't leave a plan and relatives appeared, you might have to give her up," the officer explained carefully.

"I'll accept that, as it's the legal recourse, and it would be her family. But I won't accept abandoning her into the system," Billy said, his tone final.

"Good," the officer smiled and left.

Billy took Jessica home and put her in the guest room. When he was finally alone, he cried. He couldn't remember the last time he did. But Agatha was gone. He had had a crush on her for years, but he was always too afraid to tell her. Now, it was too late. But at the very least, he could ensure that Jessica was never alone.

***

A few days later, the police contacted Agatha's lawyer, Mr. Bernstein, after seeing his contact information at her house. She had actually made some emergency plans. In case of her death, Jessica would be the sole inheritor of everything she owned, including a savings account and the house. But additionally, she hoped Billy would take her.

He agreed happily and started the proceedings to become his legal guardian while taking Jessica to her mother's funeral and helping her cope with this mourning while he also dealt with his grief.

What neither of them expected was Agatha's long-lost relatives who appeared out of nowhere.

***

"I want to see Agatha's daughter! Agatha was my niece, and I deserve to watch her kid," an older woman, Christiane, demanded, looking at Billy disdainfully.

She and her sons had just shown up at Agatha's house, making a huge noise and activating the security alarms. When Billy went to check, they started making some outrageous requests.

"Open the house immediately if you have the keys! I'm sure cousin Agatha left me all kinds of stuff, and I need to get them quickly," Christiane's son, Burton, requested forcefully.

Her other son, Nathan, only nodded.

"I'm sorry. I can't do that. I could call Agatha's lawyer to see if she talked about you, but legally, this house belongs to Jessica," Billy said, raising his hands defensively.

"Who are you to tell us what to do? Jessica is a minor! She can't make these decisions!" Burton raised his lip at Billy and crossed his arms.

"Why do you have Jessica? I demand you bring her now. You have no authority other than that little girl! I'm taking her with me!" the older woman added.

Finally, Billy had enough. He called Mr. Bernstein and the police, who repeated the same information to Agatha's weird relatives.

"We're sorry that you don't like this news. But Mr. Barkin is now Jessica's legal guardian, and we'll start the adoption process soon. The house belongs to the little girl, and she can make decisions with the help of her guardian only," the lawyer explained to them on the phone before hanging up.

"Jessica would want us in the house," Christiane almost shouted, offended by the entire exchange and the presence of the police.

"I have been in Jessica's life since she was three, since the day Agatha bought this house," Billy retorted. "I have never seen or heard of any of you. If any of you dare go into that house or harass that little girl, I'll press charges and fill for a restraining order. Is that clear?"

The police corroborated that Billy would be entitled to do that, and the relatives finally left.

When he got home, he realized Jessica had spied on the entire exchange through the window. "Thank you, Mr. Barkin," she said.

"I think you could start calling me Billy. Also, I wanted to ask you something," Billy started, kneeling. "Did you want them to go into the house? Was there something Agatha could've left them?"

Jessica pursed her lips but shook her head. Billy tilted his head at her. Her look said that there was more to the story.

"What's going on, Jess?" he nudged.

"Let's wait a while," she said, pointing at the window. "I want them to go far, far away."

Billy looked outside and noticed a particular car driving slowly on their street. Jessica was way more intelligent than him. Her relatives had not left at all.

However, they got tired after a few days, and they finally went into the house, where the little girl guided him toward Agatha's library. She asked him to move the heavy desk in the corner. When Billy did, Jessica pulled an almost-invisible latch, opening a secret vault.

"Wow," Billy said, shocked.

"I think this is what they wanted," Jessica said as she started pulling things out, including jewelry, envelopes with cash, and a few gold bars. Billy was blown away.

He had no idea why Agatha didn't speak to her family or why she would make a vault like this in her house. But it explained why she didn't have to work and how her home was fully paid off at a young age.

"You did good hiding this, Jessica. Let's put it all back inside," Billy said, and they worked to get the valuables into the vault again. "I'm going to buy a better lock for this. Don't ever tell anyone about it. This all belongs to you now. No one else."

After that, Billy installed better security for Agatha's house, but they didn't live there. He would hire someone to clean it every other week while he and Jessica stayed at his house. The adoption process took a few years to complete, but it finally happened, and the girl eventually started calling him father.

When she turned 18, she moved into her house as she got accepted into the local college.

They never saw her relatives again, but Billy could've sworn that they drove by every so often, although they never tried anything.

They knew Jessica had someone to always protect her.

What can we learn from this story?

• Always have a plan for your estate and your children. You never know what can happen, and you must ensure that your children and property fall into the right hands.
• Don't wait too long to confess your feelings. Billy never told Agatha how he felt; she was gone too soon. However, he decided always to protect her daughter to make up for it.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a single dad who adopted his niece and learned she came with a $2 million inheritance later.

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. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.