After a divorce, many women strive to obtain custody of their children, even if it means enduring significant hardships, provided they have the financial means to do so. However, when Yani divorced her husband, she chose not to fight for custody of their children due to her limited financial resources. Having been a homemaker for many years, Yani anticipated difficulty in securing a high-paying job and decided it was best to focus on her own subsistence.

During the marriage, Yani endured repeated physical abuse from her husband. After each incident, she quietly went to a public hospital to obtain medical reports documenting her injuries. Eventually, she resolved to leave the abusive relationship. With multiple injury reports as evidence, she successfully obtained a protective order and filed for divorce, which was granted. As part of the divorce proceedings, Yani’s husband insisted she relinquish all custody and parenting responsibilities. Under financial constraints, Yani reluctantly signed a legal agreement at the civil registry, consenting to her ex-husband assuming full guardianship and caregiving duties for their minor children.

Unfortunately, Yani’s ex-husband began obstructing her visitation rights. He prohibited her from seeing their two children under any circumstances. Desperate to maintain contact, Yani took leave from work and secretly followed her children to their school. From then on, she resorted to watching them from a distance after school. This unusual behavior caught the attention of the school’s security staff, who questioned her actions. After learning about her plight, the school staff sympathized with Yani and allowed her to meet her children briefly after classes. The children were overjoyed to see their mother, and their teachers supported these visits.

This arrangement continued for several years. As the children entered middle school, the frequency of Yani’s visits decreased. By this time, the children had their own mobile phones, which their father provided to facilitate communication. They began contacting their mother directly to arrange meetings, often during Yani’s days off. Although their father suspected these interactions, he gradually stopped intervening as the children matured.

However, Yani’s ex-husband faced challenges disciplining the children, particularly their daughter. To prevent her from associating with bad influences, he confiscated both children’s phones and restricted contact with friends and their mother. He also resorted to physical punishment for misbehavior. While the son tolerated this treatment, dismissing it as “building resilience,” the daughter’s mental and physical health suffered significantly, even to the point of contemplating self-harm.

One day, after being punished severely, the daughter skipped school and traveled by train from Taichung to her grandmother’s home in Hsinchu. Yani was at work, so the daughter confided in her grandmother, showing her injured knees and recounting the abuse. Deeply concerned, the grandmother called Yani’s workplace to inform her of the situation and urged her to intervene. Before Yani could return home, her ex-husband, alerted by the school about his daughter’s absence, arrived at the grandmother’s house. He berated both the grandmother and Yani, accusing them of abduction and threatening legal action.

Yani consulted an attorney to explore changing custody arrangements. However, her lack of financial support for the children over the years and the absence of formal complaints against her ex-husband’s visitation obstruction posed significant challenges. The attorney advised Yani to gather evidence of the father’s excessive discipline and prove his unfitness as a guardian.

Collecting such evidence proved difficult, as the punishments occurred in the privacy of the daughter’s bedroom. Determined to protect her child, Yani sought assistance from Lex Solution Investigations. The agency provided a micro-recording device and trained the daughter on its use. They also collaborated with neighbors to install long-range cameras to capture potential instances of abuse. The agency emphasized recording not just physical actions but also verbal statements during punishments.

In a breakthrough, the daughter captured audio evidence of her father’s verbal abuse, including a particularly damning statement: “You look just like your mother, and the more I see you, the more I despise you.” Additionally, her school counselor discovered entries in the daughter’s diary expressing suicidal thoughts and reported these findings to the Department of Education and social services. With this compelling evidence, Yani successfully petitioned for a custody change.

The court granted Yani custody of her daughter, allowing her to move to Hsinchu and enroll in a Catholic girls’ school. Free from her father’s harmful discipline, the daughter began to heal both emotionally and physically. The experience also served as a wake-up call for the father, who adopted a more communicative approach in raising his son, abandoning physical punishment altogether.

Yani’s relentless efforts and strategic use of investigative resources ensured her daughter’s well-being and marked a turning point for their family.