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He explained exactly how he ended up with Max. He brought the documentation with him that he had. Max’s amended birth certificate, Rachelle’s death certificate, his paternity test results and the letter that had been in with the other papers that had been addressed to him but never mailed.
He was thankful he’d thought to scan all of those documents to have them electronic and now it came in handy.
“Legally, Michele has no right to custody of Max. He’s your child. You have everything in line. Can I ask why you aren’t getting social security for Max?”
“What?” he asked. “I don’t need it. I make more than enough money.”
“Survivor’s benefit. Rachelle worked, right?” Thomas asked.
“Yes. She had a job. She worked in an office. Not sure I remember what she did exactly, but she had a decent enough job that I can remember. She lived alone in a nice apartment.”
Of course that meant nothing. It seemed as if his kid had little to nothing when he was dropped off. But his guess was Rachelle’s drug use was where the bulk of her money might have been going.
“Did you receive a life insurance policy for Max after Rachelle’s death?”
“No,” he said. “She probably had one. Maybe a family member or parent was listed. Not everyone changes those things right away.”
It was the first thing he did though. Put everything in Max’s name. He even drew up a will and had his mother as Max’s guardian. He’d told her that months ago and she’d cried. He was tempted to put Colin and Dee, but he couldn’t do that. Not at this point in his life.
He lined everything up that he could to make sure his son was taken care of if something happened to him but prayed to God it didn’t.
“Very true. I would think your attorney would have looked into that with her place of employment. Or that her place of employment would have reached out to the beneficiaries. That may be how Michele found out about Max and her daughter.”
“Max is nine months old. It makes no sense to me this is all happening now,” he said.
“Not everything works fast. It’s possible that it had taken time to locate Michele to pay the policy out if she didn’t have a good relationship with her daughter. Do you know anything in regards to that?”
“No,” he said. “It didn’t come up. I knew she wasn’t from around here. We weren’t that close. We dated a few months but didn’t spend all that much time together getting to know each other.”
He didn’t want to say it was only sex. That made him feel like shit thinking it, but he and Rachelle went out on a handful of dates. They’d only had sex a few times. Her party scene wasn’t what he was into and they went their own way.
“I can look into that if you remember the name of the company she worked for. If not, I can figure it out with some legwork. But back to social security. Max is entitled to survivor benefits until he is eighteen. It could be up to nine hundred dollars a month. They will backdate it to the date of Rachelle’s death.”
“I had no idea,” he said. “It’s not one of those things I thought of or would know.”
“It’s a large amount of money over eighteen years,” Thomas said. “Invested it would give your son one heck of a nest egg. Pay for his college and then some.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It also makes me wonder if that is where Michele is coming from? She’d get the money if she had custody of Max, right?”
Not that there was any way he was going to let that happen.
“Yes, she would,” Thomas said. “Again, not sure why your other attorney didn’t do any of this work for you.”
He snorted. “No clue. It might be the same reason why it took so long to get Max’s name changed. I felt like they were dragging their feet.”
“It happens. I won’t do that. I will get you the information to get in contact with social security. You’ve got all the documents you will need to the best of my knowledge. It might take time to process, but you should start that soon too. The sooner you do the better. Get your ducks in a row before we reach out to Michele.”
“I’ll do that tomorrow,” he said. “Or I’ll call today if I can to figure out the next step. Do we contact Michele? Sit back and wait for her to come to us? If that letter came on Monday I wouldn’t have gotten it for two weeks.”
“I say we sit back and wait for her next move. Let me look into Michele more and see what I can find out about Rachelle too. Her mother’s letter doesn’t state she has an attorney, just that she wants her grandson. Maybe she thinks you’ll hand him over?”
“Not likely,” he said. “What I’m more worried about is her wanting to see him or get visitations. I don’t know this woman. If Rachelle had no relationship with her there must be a reason. I don’t have to let her see Max, do I?”
“No. Not by law. Michele will have to petition the court for visitations. Once I find out the relationship between Michele and Rachelle, that might make things easier or harder. It depends what I find out.”
“How so?” he asked. He didn’t want to even think of subjecting Max to this.
“Did they have a falling out? Maybe Michele is a great person and tried to help her daughter with her addictions? You don’t know that. She doesn’t know you either. She might think you are some drug addict like her daughter and want to make sure her grandson is well taken care of.”
