Claiming Noah (34 page)

‘I request of the court that Noah Edmond Simmons should be able to live with me for the duration of the custody hearing and I hope for the outcome of the final hearing to be that full custody of Noah is awarded to me, his rightful mother.'

Still without looking at Diana, the woman sat back in her seat, her submission finished. The man behind her put his hand on her shoulder, which she covered with her own and nodded in agreement to something he said.

‘Mrs Simmons?' the judge said. ‘I believe you're delivering the responding submission on behalf of yourself and your husband.'

‘I am, Your Honour,' Diana said as she rose from her chair. She hoped her hands weren't shaking as she held her submission in front of her. She took a few seconds to calm her breathing before she started to speak, as Jerry had instructed her to do.

‘My husband and I were thrilled when we found out we were pregnant,' she said. ‘And even though the pregnancy was a result of an embryo donation rather than a natural conception we never felt that the baby was any less our own child than if we had been able to fall pregnant naturally. We fell in love with Noah well before he was born and then even more so once he arrived.'

She tried to control her emotions as she prepared to talk about Noah's kidnapping. No matter how much time passed and how many people she spoke to about it, it didn't make it any easier to talk about what she went through that day.

‘The day Noah was kidnapped was the worst day of my life,' she said. ‘He was only two months old when he was taken from me and I felt like someone had ripped the heart out of my chest. I can't explain to you the incredible anguish my husband and I felt in losing the most important person in our lives.'

She looked at Liam who nodded with encouragement. Feeling strengthened by his response, she went on.

‘In the twenty-one months that passed between Noah's kidnapping and his return to us, my husband and I never stopped loving Noah and never gave up hope that we would eventually be a family again. When Sergeant Thomas called me to tell me he had Noah it felt like finally everything was right in the world again. I had my son back.'

Diana paused and looked at the woman on the other side of the courtroom, but she was looking down at the table and didn't return Diana's gaze.

‘
I
am Noah's mother,' Diana continued. ‘I legally adopted him as an embryo, I carried him inside me, I gave birth to him and I love him more than I can possibly describe to you. My husband and I are good people, and good parents, and we deserve to be able to live the happy family life that we were denied for so long.'

Diana put the piece of paper down on the table and prepared herself to deliver her final statement. She no longer felt nervous or upset, but she wanted to make sure the judge understood how much she loved her child and what he would be doing to her if he took her son away from her.

‘Noah is only two years old and he has already been exposed to more drama and uncertainty than anyone deserves to have in their lifetime. My sole purpose in life is to make sure I give Noah the most wonderful life possible – and that life is with me, and my husband. I can't imagine a life in which I have to live without Noah again, and I hope with all my heart that I never have to. My husband and I ask that Noah remain living with us during the custody hearing. He is happy, and settled, and we don't want anything to change that. Our submission is to retain full custody of Noah and we look forward to Your Honour's decision in the final hearing, which we are sure will be in our favour.'

After she sat back down in her chair Jerry, who had been seated to her left throughout the hearing, squeezed her arm. ‘You were amazing, Di,' he said to her. ‘Well done.'

Liam didn't say anything, but he did smile at her and she could see the gratitude in his eyes, which she took to mean he also thought she had done well.

The judge deliberated for a few minutes, re-reading the affidavits, before he spoke.

‘I thank both parties for their submissions on what is obviously an emotional topic for all concerned,' he said. ‘I will consult with the legal representatives involved for setting a date for the final hearing in which we will determine which party will have final custody of Noah Edmond Simmons.'

Jerry took hold of Diana's hand underneath the table and she was surprised that his hand was sweaty. He must have been just as nervous as she was.

‘Between today and the date the final custody hearing commences, Noah Edmond Simmons will continue to live with his adoptive parents, Diana and Liam Simmons. I believe this is the least disruptive living situation for Noah, and that is my primary concern at the moment.'

Jerry squeezed Diana's hand as she felt a rush of relief.

‘I will organise for a court-appointed psychologist to interview both parties and supervise the child in question,' the judge continued. ‘We will try to arrange for that to occur within the next month. Other than that, I will converse with your legal representatives on any other information I require between now and the final hearing.'

The judge stood up and nodded to both sides of the courtroom. ‘Thank you for your submissions and I will see you back in court again soon.'

The judge left the courtroom and straightaway Catriona Sinclair, her lawyer and the other man collected their belongings and walked out. Diana tried to catch her gaze as she left, but Catriona Sinclair didn't look at her.

Liam put his arm around Di's shoulders and pulled her towards him. ‘First hurdle down, he's still ours.'

Diana tried to smile, but her eyes were blank. She was picturing the day she had lost Noah in the supermarket, and the day on the beach with Richard when she thought she had lost him again. She couldn't face that a third time. Her heart couldn't take it. And after seeing Catriona Sinclair in person, Diana no longer felt assured that she was the one who was going to raise Noah.

She allowed Liam to tug her to her feet and lead her from the courtroom, already dreading the day she would have to return there.

Sunday, 22 June 2014

C
atriona heard the front door open and close and then Spencer's footsteps as he walked towards the bedroom. When the footsteps stopped she opened her eyes to find him standing at the foot of the bed.

‘How are you feeling?' he asked.

‘The same.'

‘Do you think you'll get out of bed today?'

‘Probably not.' The interim hearing was five days ago and so far Catriona had only left the bed to go to the bathroom or the kitchen.

Spencer sat on the bed, which sagged under his weight. He had a newspaper under his arm and held two coffees in a cardboard tray. ‘I know how upset you are, but staying in bed isn't going to solve anything. I thought you were stronger than this.'

Catriona had thought so too, but her disappointment was so thick she couldn't get past it. She had wanted so much to see Noah again, to hug him, to tell him that she loved him, but now there wasn't a chance of that until the final hearing.

‘Maybe I'm not as strong as you thought,' she said.

‘That's rubbish. You're the strongest person I know.'

‘I couldn't even look at them. It was bad enough seeing their photo in that magazine. I knew if I looked at that woman all I would see was her kissing and hugging Noah.'

‘It was awful, I know. But you need to move past this. At least sit up and have the coffee I brought you.' He handed her one of the cups.

Catriona sighed and sat up. She was parched and her teeth felt gritty. She wondered if Spencer regretted moving in with her. Just before the interim hearing his landlord had tried to increase his rent and when he told Catriona it was more than he could afford, she suggested he stay with her.

‘When did you last see James?' she asked Spencer.

‘Last week. Why?'

‘Does he know I'm trying to get custody of Noah?'

‘Yes. I told him.'

‘What did he say?'

Spencer kicked off his shoes and took a sip of coffee. ‘He didn't really say anything. He just cried.'

Catriona sat up straighter. ‘He cried? Why?'

‘Why do you think? He's concerned for you, and grateful that you're trying to get Noah back.'

‘Oh.' She turned the coffee cup around in her hands. The heat was burning her through the cardboard, but she didn't put the cup down. ‘Have you told him about us?'

‘No. You told me not to.'

‘Since when do you listen to anything I say?'

Spencer laughed. ‘Was that an attempt at a joke? You must be feeling better.' He stood up and put the newspaper on the bed next to Catriona. ‘Maybe you should come with me next time I go to see him.'

‘I don't have anything to say to him,' she said.

That wasn't really true. There was plenty she wanted to say to James, but she knew if she went to see him he would work out that she was in a relationship with Spencer, and he would consider it a betrayal. But he had betrayed her first. He had kept her son's death from her and deceived her by replacing Sebastian with another child. That was far worse than what she was doing with Spencer.

‘When's that psychologist coming to assess you?' he asked.

‘Next Wednesday.'

He leaned over the bed to kiss her, and then walked to the bedroom door. ‘I'm not an expert on parenting, but I'm guessing you won't come across as being a capable parent if you can't get out of bed. You've been through worse than this and you managed to survive it; you'll get through this as well.'

After he left the room Catriona thought about what Spencer had said. She knew he was right; she needed to pull herself together. She had to get both herself and the house ready so she could prove to the judge that she could provide the best home for Noah.

•  •  •

When the psychologist, Mrs Collins, arrived ten days later, Catriona struggled to guess her age. She was dressed like a woman in her sixties, but her face was relatively unlined and her hair had only the slightest hint of grey, so perhaps she was much younger than her clothing suggested.

At her request, Catriona showed her around the house. She had unpacked Noah's bedroom the day before, pulling his clothes and toys out of the boxes she had stored them in. She hung his clothes on hangers in the wardrobe and stacked his T-shirts and shorts in neat piles in the chest of drawers. She placed his toys around the room, trying to replicate the way it had looked the day he left; she washed his sheets and blankets and made up the cot. When she was finished, it looked as if he had never left.

Catriona wished she had thought to pay the same amount of attention to her own bedroom. She noticed that when Mrs Collins glanced into the room she stared straight at a pair of Spencer's pants draped over the back of a chair. Catriona mentally kicked herself for not putting them away. She had told Spencer it would be better if the psychologist didn't know they were living together, so he had gone out for the day. She had removed his shoes from the hallway, his jacket from its customary spot on the back of one of the dining chairs and his car magazines, which were scattered over the coffee table. But she hadn't thought to remove traces of him from her bedroom.

Catriona opened her mouth to explain, but then she thought better of it. Surely the psychologist would just think they were James's pants. But did that make it any better? It made it look as if Catriona was pining for her husband and couldn't bring herself to put his things away. But Mrs Collins didn't say anything. She just jotted a note in her pad and let Catriona lead her back downstairs.

Over the next hour the psychologist questioned Catriona on where Noah had attended day care, whether he had any friends, what her family network was like, what plans she had for his schooling. She asked about Catriona's financial situation, her salary, assets and expenses, and how she would deal with any unexpected expenditures that came up. She even asked if there was a history of violence or drug addiction in Catriona's family. Catriona answered all of her questions truthfully and as she reflected on the interview later, after Mrs Collins left, she decided it had gone well. But whether it was good enough, she didn't know.

•  •  •

The date for the final hearing was set for the thirteenth of November, five months after the interim hearing and eight months after Catriona had filed the initial application. Even though she longed for the date to arrive, she dreaded it just as much. She knew if she didn't win the hearing she would never see her son again, and the thought of that outcome was too much for her to bear.

Catriona's biggest concern was that she knew that the opposition's lawyer would ask her questions about James and how he kidnapped Noah. She didn't know how she could disassociate herself from his crime so it didn't reflect badly on her capability as a parent. James's trial was supposed to start in August but it had been adjourned and would be rescheduled for a date later in the year – something about an issue with the court's capacity. She tried not to think about James but often found herself worrying about him and wondering how he was coping with his imprisonment.

The Sunday morning before the final hearing, Catriona and Spencer were lying in bed. Spencer was reading and Catriona was dozing in the dappled light that reached through the shutters. It had only taken a couple of weeks after Spencer moved in for him to bring his belongings into the bedroom. Catriona had left James's bedside table untouched since his arrest, even though she had packed his clothes into boxes and placed them in the attic months ago. Before Spencer moved in, each morning for the first few seconds after she woke up, she had stared across at James's book, iPod and clock radio and allowed herself to forget all that had happened. Sometimes she found herself straining for the sound of Sebastian's voice until her mind cleared. It pained her every morning once she remembered, but she cherished those few seconds. Then one day she walked into the bedroom and noticed that all of James's things had been removed and replaced with Spencer's book and a photo of Catriona in a silver frame. They didn't talk about it, but she found herself foraging for the missing items when Spencer was out of the house. She eventually found them in the back of the wardrobe, behind a pile of his clothes, and she moved the items to a drawer where she knew Spencer wouldn't see them.