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“Hello?” I asked.
“Hawk? This is Desiree, Dee’s friend,” a voice came from the other end. She sounded young but professional. There was also a thick accent that I placed as being New York-ish but couldn’t define any further than that.
“Oh, hey. Thank you for calling me so quickly.”
“Not a problem,” she said. “I heard about your situation from Dee, and I want you to know I will do everything I can to help you. I don’t work for CPS directly, but I do have a lot of resources that can help work with them and hopefully keep the child with you. There are some legal things we will need to do to establish you as the legal guardian as soon as possible.”
“Okay. How much of that requires my sister’s involvement?”
“Well, she will need to sign over the rights to you,” she said. “So, she will need to be present at some point to do so, preferably with an attorney present or at least a representative from my office. Do you have a current address for your sister?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t know where she is. I only have a burner phone number that I bought her. It’s pretty much the only thing she took with her when she left. I don’t even know if she’ll answer it since I tried calling her the day she left and it went right to voicemail.”
“Have you tried to contact her since then?” she asked.
“I sent her a text. It went unanswered. She just vanished.”
“Well, hopefully she just needed a few days to separate herself from the situation,” Desiree said. “It isn’t the first time I’ve heard a story similar to this one. I don’t want to make assumptions about your sister…”
“I know,” I said. “I don’t think she’s on drugs, but I can’t tell for sure. But the baby is healthy, so that’s all that matters to me.”
“That is a blessing. Perhaps she just relapsed now that she no longer has to stay clean for the baby? If so, she might pop back up once she’s scratched the itch, so to speak,” Desiree said.
“Maybe. I think it’s more likely that she’s chasing after her boyfriend. But I will try to track her down.”
“That would be best. However, if you are unable to find her, she would be considered an abandoned child and the courts will choose a guardian for her. Even though you are her uncle and considered close family, if the child’s grandparents are around and want to take custody, the courts would usually side with them.”
A feeling of cold dread dropped like a weight in my stomach. “Well my parents are deceased and I don’t know anything about the father’s parents. But seeing as he is in jail and he didn’t even want the baby, I doubt they’d be suitable guardians for her.”
Desiree sighed. “That may be true, but we can’t be sure of that. The apple could’ve fallen far from the tree in his family. I know it did in mine. It really would be much easier if you could find your sister and she could sign her rights over to you. I understand how difficult this is for you,” Desiree said. “I empathize with you, and I promise you I will do what I can to help you. But I have to let you know, there is a ticking clock. When that is done, I will have to follow the law, and the state of Tennessee will have to act in what they believe is the child’s best interests.”
“I understand,” I said. “I will do everything in my power to find my sister and get her to sign whatever you need for her to sign. If you could just email me the paperwork, I can print it out here and sign it. I’ll send you a copy of them with my signature, and then I’ll try to find my sister to get her to sign as well.”
“That sounds great,” she said.
She confirmed the email address that Dee had given her, and I thanked her for her help. As she said goodbye, I could hear the emotion in her voice. She really did seem like she wanted to help me. Whoever she was, Dee had put me in touch with the right kind of person. I was glad Dee associated herself with people like her.
After getting off the phone, I checked the baby monitor again, seeing Rose peacefully sleeping in her crib, and pulled the blanket back up over my head. For about twenty minutes, I dozed off, sleeping soundly and waking up feeling like I had slept an entire night. Hopping up, I grabbed the monitor and took it with me into the kitchen.
As I finished doing some dishes and microwaving something for myself to eat, my phone beeped, letting me know I had a message. Figuring it was Desiree sending me the files, I picked it up and swiped the phone open. It wasn’t Desiree, though. It was Dee.
