Woman Who Is Certain Her Husband Only Has One Child Meets Her Stepson’s Carbon And She Was Left In Stun

Helen took her stepson, Eric, to a party at Chuck E. Cheese and discovered another boy who looked exactly like him. Then she spotted an older woman with the kid and decided to approach them. When the woman saw Eric, she began to cry and explained a horrific truth Helen had never imagined.

“Dad! We’re going to Chuck E. Cheese today!” Eric cheered in delight while eating his cereal. Helen looked at her stepson with an adoring smile and then glanced at her husband, who was focused on his phone during breakfast. Unfortunately, Adam barely acknowledged Eric’s words. He grunted a “hmmm” and continued scrolling.

“It’s going to be so exciting, honey. And you get to wear the wolf hoodie I bought you. Isn’t that cool?” Helen chimed in so that Eric wouldn’t feel bad about being ignored. Her stepson looked up at her, smiled, and started chatting about everything he wanted to do at Chuck E. Cheese.

Helen always tried to diffuse those situations because she loved her stepson so much. If she was honest with herself, she married Adam because of Eric and not because they felt romantic love for each other. They met shortly after his first wife died in childbirth and started dating immediately, so Helen bonded with the motherless baby quickly.

Years went by, and she saw how awful Adam was as a father. Whenever Eric tried to get his father’s attention, her husband mostly ignored him and returned to his books, cigars, or phone. It was heartbreaking to see. But Helen never divorced him because the matter of Eric’s adoption was not settled yet.

Everything would be ready in a few months, and she would finally be known as Eric’s mother. In the meantime, she had to ensure that her boy didn’t notice how awful his father treated him. But he was already ten. It was not easy. Kids are more intelligent than most adults believe.

It was going to be a perfect day. Adam had work all day, but Helen and Eric had been invited to his schoolmate’s birthday party at the kiddie pizza spot, which families frequented in San Jose, California. In a few hours, her stepson would be playing with other kids, and she would be talking to other caring parents.

The party was in full swing when they arrived. Eric spotted the birthday boy and went off to play with him. Meanwhile, Helen carried the gift she had bought over to the boy’s mother who was sitting with other parents at one of the tables. Helen smiled, took her purse off her shoulder, and sat down with the group.

There were others at the pizza place aside from the birthday party, but Helen suddenly spotted Eric alone in one corner. His hoodie was up, and Helen frowned. There was a lot of noise, and she didn’t want to yell, so she stood up and walked towards him. “Eric, honey, what are you doing here alone?” she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and turning him around.

However, Eric looked up at her in confusion and said, “Who are you?”

Helen released her hand from his shoulder and as she focused on him, she realized this boy was not her stepson. Eric was wearing a green shirt under his wolf hoodie, but this kid had a blue shirt. “I’m sorry, kid. I thought you were my son,” Helen apologized and walked away, her thoughts still on the young boy who looked so much like Eric.

She looked back at the boy just as an older woman exited the woman’s restroom and grinned at him. They started walking towards the entrance slowly. That’s when Helen noticed that the kid had a slight limp. She hesitated for less than a second then approached them. “Excuse me! Excuse me!” she called out to them before they left.

The older woman turned around and raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry to bother you. I’m Helen, and it’s just that your kid looks so much like my son. It’s amazing. They’re even wearing the same hoodie. Isn’t that a cool coincidence?” Helen explained with a tentative smile on her face.

“Oh, that’s funny. This is Eli, and I’m Veronica. Where is your son?” the older woman wondered, looking around the restaurant. Helen spotted Eric nearby and called him over. The boy obeyed reluctantly and walked sluggishly towards them.

“What? We’re playing, Mom,” Eric whined.

“Eric, let me introduce you to this nice lady and…?” Helen started but stopped abruptly when she saw the woman’s expression. Her grin had faltered completely as Eric stood before them. She raised a hand to her mouth and looked at Helen with visible pain in her eyes.

“You know what, Eric? Why don’t you and Eli go off and keep playing with your friends?” Helen suggested. Eric shrugged his shoulder and invited Eli along. The boy followed.

Finally, Helen could focus on the older woman. “Please, do you want to sit down? What’s going on?” she questioned gently, extending a hand toward a nearby table. Both women sat down, and Veronica took a deep breath.

“Where do I begin? You must be Adam’s wife, right? I should’ve known the moment you said your son looked like Eli, but it completely slipped my mind. I just thought it was funny,” Veronica began hesitantly. She had a nervous habit of rubbing her chin with her hands.

“I’m sorry. I’m so confused. How do you know Adam?”

“Adam’s late wife, Grace, was my daughter,” Veronica revealed, and Helen gasped softly. “She died in childbirth after some complications. You can probably guess where this is going. Eric and Eli are twins, except poor Eli was born with one leg shorter than the other.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Helen expressed, placing a hand over the older woman’s tight fist on the table. “But I don’t understand why Eli doesn’t live with Adam. Why didn’t he tell me anything?”

“Adam disowned Eli. At first, I thought it was grief. But then, it was clear that Adam just didn’t want a child with special needs. He wanted a perfect son. That was Eric. He refused to even look at Eli after the doctors told us about his leg. He didn’t even sign Eli’s birth certificate. We couldn’t just abandon our grandson at the hospital, so my husband and I have been raising him since.”

“That’s horrible! I can’t believe…well…,” Helen commented as her eyes glistened. She could try to deny it, but Adam was precisely the type to do something like this.

“Tell me, Helen. Is Adam good to Eric, at least? He cut us off as soon as he learned that we took Eli home. We couldn’t do anything, so we tried to move on. But Eric is my grandson too,” Veronica sniveled, turning her head and glancing at both kids playing with the others.

“If I’m honest… no. Adam is a terrible father. He doesn’t mistreat or hurt him physically. But he is negligent, to say the least. I married him because I fell in love with Eric. I have loved being his mother since the beginning,” Helen explained.

“I heard he got married a few months after Grace died. My husband was mad, but I thought it was great that Eric would grow up with a mother. Did you adopt him?” Veronica wondered.

“Almost. The paperwork is being settled. Honestly, I was planning to leave Adam once I could call Eric mine,” Helen confessed, looking at the table. Suddenly, Veronica grabbed her hands and offered her a place to stay.

“Our house is huge. You can stay as long as you like, and we’ll help with everything. I want Eli and Eric to have a close relationship. It was an impossible dream with dreadful Adam around, but now…,” Veronica contemplated.

Helen smiled sadly and thanked the older woman. They talked for several more minutes until Veronica had to leave. But they promised to stay in touch after exchanging phone numbers.

Over the next few months, Helen planned ahead and made contact with Veronica as much as she could. When the adoption paperwork came in, she took Eric and went to stay at a hotel, leaving a note for Adam, asking for a divorce. She decided not to go directly to Veronica’s house, fearing that Adam might go there and cause a scene.

But Adam didn’t even call to ask where they were, so after a few days at the hotel, Helen went to Veronica and her husband’s house. They sat the boys down and explained as much as possible, without the terrible details of Adam’s attitude. The twins took it all in stride and bonded immediately.

Veronica invited Helen to live with them permanently, so she and her husband could enjoy both grandchildren at last. Although Helen was hesitant, Eric and Eli’s grandparents became her family too, so she stayed in their home for many years until she moved with her fiancé, who loved the twins like a real father.

Their family thrived, and eventually, Helen adopted Eli too. Luckily, none of them ever heard from Adam again.

What can we learn from this story?

Being a parent goes beyond your DNA. Eric’s only real parent was Helen, who was not related to him by blood at all.

Love is what makes a family. Family comes in many forms. Helen and Eric found the family they never knew existed at Chuck E. Cheese and never looked back.