by Dina Silver
“What do you mean?” Ethan asked and looked at me.
I scootched Grace up onto my left thigh. “Not sure, there’s a letter here for me from The Law Offices of Field & McBride.”
“What does it say?” he asked.
“I haven’t opened it yet.”
Ethan stood and took Grace from me so I could open the letter. The paper for both the envelope and the letter were ivory, and had a soft, scaly texture to them. As I read the letter, my face went pale.
“What is it, Syd?”
“Oh, my God,” I gasped, and dropped the paper on the floor.
Ethan was deliberately calm and placed Grace in front of her toys about two feet away from us. My throat was tightening and I couldn’t breathe properly. He led me to the couch and retrieved the letter. He read aloud:
Dear Sydney Shephard,
My client, Kevin Hansen, has filed a petition to establish paternity, and seek joint custody of his daughter, Ms. Grace Kendra Shephard. This letter serves as a request for you to submit a DNA test on behalf of Ms. Grace Shephard by April 15th, of this year. Please have the test submitted to the DNA testing center at the Cook County courthouse. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please contact me at the number below.
Sincerely,
Tom Field
Partner
Field & McBride
Ethan looked up slowly from the paper and jumped right into damage control. He knelt on the floor in front of me. “Sydney, don’t you worry, we’ll take care of this bastard. I don’t know how he thinks he has any right to a relationship with Grace, let alone joint custody, but we are not going to let any of this happen.”
I was comatose. The blood had drained from my head and left me feeling faint, my limbs frozen. My tongue felt like a raw filet mignon, sitting cold and heavy in my mouth, preventing air from getting to my lungs. I stared blankly into Ethan’s eyes.
“Syd, don’t do this to yourself, its going to be okay,” he tried to reach me, but I was gone inside my head.
What in the hell was Kevin doing? After all I’d been through, after every time I extended an olive branch to him with no response, this was how he chose to handle himself. Why now, why at all? He must’ve known I had no money for attorneys. Why?!
I tried to focus on Ethan. He held my hand and looked at me, trying to determine whether I was going to pass out or freak out.
“How could he?” I asked quietly, like a woman on the verge of a breakdown. I begged Ethan for an answer with my expression.
“Let’s not dwell on why and instead deal with making him go away, for good.”
“He said repeatedly that he wanted nothing to do with her,” I kept talking, without absorbing anything Ethan was saying. “He has no right to do this to me or to Grace. Does he honestly think he’s entitled to joint custody?” I hollered and drew Grace’s attention away from her alphabet wagon.
Ethan read the letter again, shaking his head. “I hate to say it, but first thing you’re going to need to do is get yourself a lawyer.”
I sat motionless and then reached for the phone.
“Who are you calling?” Ethan asked.
“I’m calling Kevin’s mother,” I said, like he should’ve known.
“Kevin’s mother?” he questioned me, and snatched the phone from me.
“Yes,” I extended my hand, attempting to get the phone back.
“You know his mother’s number?”
I wasn’t in the mood to be challenged, or to fill him in on my relationship with Kevin’s mom, but it looked as though that was the only way I was going to get my phone back. “She called me a while back, and came here to meet Grace,” I said. “She came with his three sisters for a visit, and said she wanted to be involved in Grace’s life to whatever extent I was comfortable.”
He looked confused and deceived. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“How the hell would that hurt my feelings?” he shook his head in dismay and stood. “Sydney, I know this isn’t the time to get into this, but if you and I are going to have a relationship, you are going to have to be honest with me about everything.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
He handed me the phone.
“She’s a very nice woman, and she was crying and apologizing for Kevin’s behavior,” I told Ethan. “Not making excuses for him, but you could see that she truly cared about Grace, and was shameful of how her son had abandoned his responsibilities where Grace and I were concerned.” I waived the legal notice at him. “I have to believe that she must have some insight into what is going on here.”
“Then you should call her,” he nodded and sat back down. “I mean it. The most important thing right now is to find out as much as you can,” he said. “Maybe you should just call Kevin?”
I rolled my thumb over the number pad on my cordless phone as I held it in my hand. “He’s never taken my call before, I’m guessing this time wouldn’t be any different.”
“When have you called him before?”
“Not very often. I’ve actually just left him messages a couple times over the last two years. Once to let him know I was having a girl, and once when she was born.”
Ethan looked sorry for me. “And no response, ever?”
“Nope,” I confirmed.
“I don’t know, Syd, maybe you should talk to a lawyer before calling anyone.”
We nodded in agreement and called our parents instead. Ethan had to leave the room because my mother was screaming profanities so loudly he could hear them through the phone. My father eventually got on the line and tried to convince me that Kevin didn’t have a leg to stand on, and that his lawyer should be embarrassed to have even agreed to take the case.
“Everything is going to be fine, sweetheart, I promise,” my dad reassured me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Ethan is here, and he’s going to call his dad right now,” I told him. Ethan’s dad was a tax attorney, and one of the biggest in the city. Not exactly family law, but he had a tight circle of colleagues and golf buddies who included the best legal minds in every field. I felt confident that he could refer me to someone, yet not confident that I could afford that person.
Ethan hung up the phone and sat next to me on the couch.
Grace began to scream, just as Ethan was about to speak.
“Well, well, well,” I said to her, nervously. “Look at all the drama you are causing tonight,” I scooped her up off the floor. “I better get her down.”
After putting Grace to bed, Ethan told me his dad was going to make some calls and that he should have someone for me to talk to in the morning.
“Thank you,” I said to him.
“Don’t thank me, I am in this with you, I’m not going to let any of this come to fruition, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed, and was beginning to believe him. After talking to my father, and seeing the confidence on Ethan’s face, I felt good about winning this legal battle with Kevin. It was the personal fight that I was more insecure about. I still, for the life of me, could not fathom how he could have done that to us. He’d shown nothing but complete disregard for both Grace and I over the years. How could he expect me to take him seriously on this? I agreed to talk to a lawyer before calling Kevin’s mom, but it was hard, I wanted answers.
My mom drove down to my apartment in the morning to sit with Grace while Ethan and I went to see the lawyer his father recommended. It was a Saturday, but I learned that most lawyers work eight days a week. We took the elevators to the fourteenth floor of the John Hancock building, and Ethan opened a large glass door that had Rosenberg, Levin & Slater LLP etched across the front. I was surprised to see Ethan’s mother sitting in the reception area when we arrived.
“Mrs. Reynolds?”
“Hello, Sydney,” she stood. “Hello dear,” she said to Ethan and he gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“What are you doing here, Mom?”
“Your father told me about the letter that was sent to Sydney, and I was appalled. I have no intention of letting this go any further, and I want to make sure that Greg Rosenberg knows exactly how I feel.”
Greg Rosenberg was senior partner at the firm, and married to Mrs. Reynolds’ best childhood girlfriend, Marcy. She and Marcy grew up together, went to the same college and married fraternity brothers from University of Pennsylvania.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said, and felt very small. “Thank you so much, you didn’t have to give up your Saturday to deal with this mess.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I have never heard of such an entitled and heartless person as this Kevin Hansen…”
“Mother, please,” Ethan interrupted.
She shot him a look. “Sydney, I am here to support you and do everything in my power to make this go away,” she looked at Ethan again, and then back at me. “If you are uncomfortable with me being here, I understand, and I will leave.”
Standing before me was a woman who I’d been intimidated by since high school. Yet despite everything, she never made me feel uncomfortable on purpose. It was always me who had invested so much in getting her approval, when I should have invested more time in just getting to know her. Her support meant more to me than I could express at that moment.
“I would be honored to have you sit in on the meeting with us. I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” She readjusted her tote bag on the crook of her arm and unbuttoned the top button on her double-breasted wool blazer. “If there’s one good thing about having friends in high places, it’s knowing when to call on them.”
The three of us were ushered into Greg Rosenberg’s office, and asked to take a seat on the leather couch in the center of the room.
“Good morning,” he said as he strolled in five minutes after us, and tossed a briefcase on his desk. “Caroline, you’re looking way too good for a Saturday morning.”
Mrs. Reynolds smiled. “Don’t flirt unless you’re holding a glass a chardonnay for me,” she answered sharply.
“I never flirt at the office,” he announced and winked at Ethan and I as he extended his hand. “Greg Rosenberg, of the Mayflower Rosenbergs.”
Mrs. Reynolds rolled her eyes.
“Sydney Shephard. Nice to meet you; thank you for seeing me this morning.”
“No trouble at all. I’d be here anyway, and this way I get to see an old friend.”
“Careful,” Mrs. Reynolds warned him.
He rummaged though his briefcase while the girl from the front desk brought in a tray of water bottles and coffee mugs. “I read the letter that was sent to you from the fine folks at Field and McBride,” he began. “I actually studied with Tom Field at the University of Chicago,” he inserted. “Anyway, I have some questions for you, but I was hoping you could first fill me in…you know, catch me up to speed on your relationship with,” he paused to glance at the letter. “Mr. Kevin Hansen.”
His tone was business-like, but I was feeling less than professional at that moment. The thought of recounting my relationship with Kevin in front of Ethan was enough stress to bear, but the thought of telling the painful details in front of his mother was making me regret having her in the meeting with us.
“Do you want my mom and I to leave?” Ethan asked, sensing my discomfort.
“No, it’s fine, I’m glad to have you both here,” I said as convincingly as I could, and sat on my hands. “Kevin and I were good friends in college, never dated, but went to a couple fraternity and sorority dances with each other. On one such occasion, we spent the night together, and a few weeks later I discovered I was pregnant.” I finished my sentence with my head hanging so low, it was nearly resting on Greg Rosenberg’s Berber carpet.
“I know this is hard, but please get me to where we are today,” he said and pointed to the letter resting on the coffee table.
I took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Once I decided to keep the baby, her name is Grace, I knew I had to tell him about it. It was the night before we were both set to leave Purdue, and I asked him to come over to my apartment. He showed up acting very distant and uninterested in why I’d invited him over, and when I told him that I was carrying his baby, well…he told me that he wanted nothing to do with either of us.” I paused and noticed Mrs. Reynolds shaking her head, and Ethan sitting very still. “So that was pretty much it, as far as I thought. I knew going in that I was on my own, and really the only reason I told him was because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. I have reached out to him twice since then. Once when I found out I was having a girl, and once after she was born. I never received a call back from him either time. Then when Grace was a year old, I got a call from Kevin’s mother, asking if she and her daughters could come and meet Grace and me.” Mrs. Reynolds cocked her head to the side and widened her eyes when she heard me say that. “I told her that she could come, and we met at my apartment – she and Kevin’s three sisters. They were very kind, brought gifts, stayed for a few hours, apologized for Kevin’s behavior, and even thanked me for keeping the baby.”
“How did they find you?” Greg asked.
“I assume Kevin gave her my name, and possibly my phone number. I had left it on one of my two messages. Maybe he wrote it down at some point.”
Greg was taking notes. “Did his mother mention anything about Kevin? Whether he had gotten married or anything like that?”
“No, we really didn’t talk about him at all, and I didn’t ask. I tried to respect her visit, and make it about Grace, not me.”
He lifted his fax copy of my letter off the table. “So this obviously comes as a surprise to you?”
“Very much so,” I said.
“Honestly, Greg, what sort of legal leg does this boy have to stand on?” Mrs. Reynolds asked.
“Well, not much really. I mean, is he legally entitled to see the baby? Yes. Is he entitled to establish paternity? Yes. Can he and his lawyer reasonably assume that he’d get joint custody? I can’t imagine. But the question is, why go about it this way? You said you were friends, and he knows you’ve extended courtesy calls to him in the past, so why take this approach?”
His question lingered in the air while we all shook our head in dismay.
“Have you tried contacting him?” he asked me.
“No.”
Ethan spoke up. “She wanted to call his mother.”
I looked at my lawyer for a reaction.
“Why?” Greg asked me curiously.
“Because I thought she’d have some explanation, or some information about this whole thing. When we met, I really felt that she truly wanted what was best for Grace.”
“She cares more for her son, I’m sure,” Mrs. Reynolds added.
Greg nodded. “Then you should call her.”
“Really?” I confirmed.
“Yes, you’re probably right, I would be surprised if she couldn’t provide some insight for you. It might not help me in any way, but you have every right to talk with her if you’d like.”
“I’d like to call her.”
“Let me know what she says.”
“I will.”
Greg Rosenberg stretched his arms over his head. “Well, I will contact Kevin’s lawyers on Monday, and we will draft our own letter stating your desire to maintain sole custody of Grace. I will warn you, however, you may still have to cooperate in his request to establish paternity by submitting Grace to a blood test. But it’s pretty routine, and something you should do anyway if you ever want to seek any sort of child support from him.”
“I don’t.”
“Well, it’s a simple blood test, and typically in the best interest of everyone involved to have it on record.”
Ethan put his arm around me for a quick squeeze.
Mrs. Reynolds had a confident smile on her face, one I’d wished I could replicate myself. “Thank you, Greg,” she said and reached for her purse. “I have
no doubt you will take care of everything.”
“Thank you for your vote of confidence, Caroline.”
“Sydney, how do you feel?” she asked me.
“I feel…grateful to have you all here, and sorry to have to drag everyone down with me.”
“You’re in good hands, Syd, nothing to worry about,” Greg said.
“Thank you.”
We all stood, shook hands and gathered our respective belongings. As Ethan and I headed for the door to Greg’s office, I saw Mrs. Reynolds whispering something to him.
Ethan noticed me staring at them.
“I’m sure she’s planning on footing the bill,” he said softly in my ear.
“What!”
He pulled me into the hallway. “I’m sure she’s offering to pay his fees, Sydney, and don’t you dare tell her not to.”
“I can’t have her do that. Are you crazy? This is not her burden… at all!”
“She and Greg are good friends, and either he’ll trade his services for a round of golf and drinks at the club, or she’ll pay the nominal fee.”
Being in her debt was not a place I was comfortable, but the truth was, I had no money to hire anyone, let alone someone of Greg Rosenberg’s caliber. “What should I say?”
“Don’t say anything, I’m sure she doesn’t want to discuss it with you,” he told me.
Caroline Reynolds left Greg’s office and met up with us near the reception desk. “I think that went well, and he told me in confidence that he believes Kevin doesn’t have a chance at securing anything other than a paternity test.”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Reynolds, I would never be able to fight this without your help.”
“Don’t mention it,” she smiled. “You can thank me by bringing Grace for a visit.”
“I would love to.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Ethan embraced her.
When we got back to my apartment I filled my mom in on everything. She was very pleased to hear that Mrs. Reynolds had accompanied us to the appointment, and said she would call her later that afternoon.
“Mom,” I said. “I’m going to call Kevin’s mother, the lawyer said I could.”
My mom looked skeptical, but would never have argued with me in front of Ethan. “I think if you’re comfortable with asking her about it, then you should call,” she said diplomatically.
