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She doesn’t mention our father at all.
“That’s it?” I ask when Ethan stops talking.
“That’s it.”
A whole life contained in several short paragraphs. It takes my breath away.
“So we need to talk about Leia,” I say when I can finally gather my scrambled thoughts. “I don’t know if the police told you, but Maddie called Bruce Clarke—Leia’s father—the morning that she died.”
His eyebrows rise. “I didn’t know, no.”
“She didn’t name him on Leia’s birth certificate, and as far as I know they didn’t have any contact from the moment he left, before Maddie found out she was pregnant. She was very scathing about him to me. He broke her heart, she said, and she didn’t want him anywhere near Leia. But, of course, he is her father. He says that Maddie called him and told him she’d had his baby, and they arranged to meet that afternoon, but she never turned up.”
“The police are saying her death was accidental, right?”
“Yes, there’s no talk of foul play, and they seem to think it wasn’t suicide.”
“Why do you think she contacted Mr. Clarke?”
“I don’t know. She could have felt guilty for not telling him he had a daughter. She could have done it because she thought Leia should know her real father. Or she could have been angry and thought that he should contribute financially to Leia’s upbringing.”
“Did Mr. Clarke give any indication which it was?”
“He said he’d used a condom and he wanted a paternity test, and that was why they were meeting. It implies to me that their conversation wasn’t friendly.”
“Hmm.” Ethan jots down some notes. “Is Mr. Clarke saying he wants to take over care of Leia?”
“He said something along the lines of, ‘You want me to take her off your hands, I’ll do it if the price is right.’ He asked for half a million dollars up front and a hundred thousand every year after that.”
Ethan’s eyebrows rise, and he gives a short, humorless laugh. “Jesus.”
“Yeah. Fucking arsehole. Look, I need to know where I stand legally. Do I have custody of Leia?”
“No. Guardianship and custody are different things. A child’s birth mother is automatically a guardian. The father will only be a guardian if he’s named on the birth certificate, or if he was married to or lived with the mother, otherwise he has to apply to the court. Maddie named you Leia’s testamentary guardian. A testamentary guardian acts as an overseer and is only involved in big decisions. Their role is to provide input into all the important decisions about a child’s upbringing. These would include where they go to school, any religious preferences, major decisions involving health, and where they live. These responsibilities end when the child is eighteen.”
“Right.”
“Custody—what we now call day-to-day care—cannot be provided for in a will. A guardian needs to apply to the court for a Parenting Order to get day-to-day care of the child. The court will assume that Leia’s family will take care of her until her fate has been decided. But whoever wants to look after her permanently will need that Parenting Order.”
“It sounds as if Blue is going to apply for one. What are his chances of getting it?”
“If I were his lawyer, I’d ask him to take a paternity test to prove he is Leia’s birth father. Then I’d ask for the court to appoint him as a guardian. The court has to do that unless it would be against the welfare and best interests of the child, which is obviously what we’d argue. But as his lawyer I’d explain to the court that he had no knowledge that Maddie was pregnant, and it wasn’t his fault he played no role in the pregnancy or birth. Does he have a partner?”
“He got married the day after Leia was born.”
“Then I think he stands a good chance of getting the Parenting Order.”
“Even against my wishes?”
“If the court thought it was best for Leia.” He leans forward. “Look, having a child is a huge responsibility. Giving her over to her birth father would be easier all ways round. I wouldn’t blame you for doing it.”
“Ethan… The two of them stunk of marijuana, and I’m pretty sure I saw needle marks in his wife’s arm.”
He leans back and gives a humorless laugh. “Christ.”
“Yeah. I don’t want him to have her. But I’m guessing there’s a slim chance that even if I accuse him of taking drugs, the court might still choose him over giving her to strangers.”
“There’s always a chance. A clever lawyer can always find ways around anything, like say you were mistaken, or put him into rehab, say he’s given it up for Leia, he’s a reformed character…”
