Claiming Noah (27 page)

‘Of course,' Liam said. ‘It was a very harrowing ordeal for us, not knowing where he was. My wife and I prayed every night for his safe return.'

Diana couldn't prevent one of her eyebrows from rising in response to Liam's comment. He hadn't prayed a day in his life. And certainly not with her. She could hear the sound of running water in the kitchen: her mother washing dishes. Liam had asked her to stay out of the house for the interview, but Eleanor had insisted on being nearby in case Diana needed her. They had compromised by having her stay in the kitchen for the interview instead. In earshot, but out of sight.

‘I'm sorry,' Leigha said, craning her head towards the sounds coming from the kitchen. ‘Is there someone else here?'

‘Just my mother-in-law. She won't be participating in the interview. Please continue, Leigha.'

Diana shot him a sideways look. She could barely get a grunt out of him these days and now here he was eagerly inviting questions like an ambitious graduate student at a job interview.

Leigha flashed Liam a smile of perfectly straight, dazzlingly white teeth. ‘Can you walk me through the day Noah was kidnapped? How did that feel?'

‘Well, I wasn't there, but my wife can elaborate on that for you . . .' He gestured to Diana and nodded to encourage her to speak.

‘It was horrible,' Diana said to Leigha, suddenly feeling like they were on a cheesy talk show. ‘How would
you
feel if someone stole your son from you?'

‘Well, I don't have any children of my own, but I can imagine your heartache when you noticed your son was missing.'

Diana watched Leigha's mouth as she spoke. She had never seen teeth that white or straight before and she wondered whether they were fake.

‘Diana?' Leigha prompted. ‘Can you tell me more about how it actually happened? When did you notice Noah was gone?'

‘It was in the car park. He wasn't in the pram . . .' Diana recalled the moment she had lifted the wrap off Noah's pram. The fear and anguish she had felt at the time began to grab hold of her again and she twisted the chain of her locket tightly around her neck. ‘Look, I know you're just doing your job, but I really don't want to go into all of that again. It's too painful. Can we change the question?'

‘She's here to interview us, Diana, what questions did you expect her to ask?'

Diana.
Liam hadn't called her Diana since they first met. It felt like he had just sworn at her.

‘Oh no, it's fine.' Leigha flashed another one of her dazzling smiles. ‘We have the details of the kidnapping from the police report, so we can just move on to the day you heard your son was safe. Can you tell me about that?'

Diana let Liam answer the question. She could hear him speaking beside her, but later she wouldn't be able to recall a single word he said. Who was this stranger? When did he become like this? They had been so in love once. Now he was just a person who shared her house and her bed, and whether or not he was there made little difference to her. She would have felt guilty about her lack of feelings towards him, but she knew Liam felt exactly the same way about her.

‘Diana?' Leigha had asked her a question.

‘I'm sorry, I missed that. What was your question?'

‘I asked if you could tell me about your participation in James Sinclair's committal hearing. I understand you were called on as a witness?'

‘Oh, right.'

Diana thought back to the day she had spent in court at the hearing. At the time she was glad she had seen the news story on television before the hearing, because when James Sinclair's lawyer referred to him as Noah's father it didn't shock her. What had shocked her was the way he glared at Diana as she spoke, with no hint of remorse or any evidence that he believed he had done wrong. Despite the heat she felt under his scrutiny she forced herself to stay calm and return James Sinclair's glare. She didn't want to reward his provocation by letting him see her cry.

‘Well, it was difficult, of course,' Diana said. ‘But I'm glad it's going to trial and I'm sure he'll be sentenced appropriately for what he did. I just want it all to be over so we can start getting on with our lives.'

‘I understand the police had been looking into James Sinclair after a hospital reported some concerns about a child's medical records? Are you able to tell me more about that?'

Diana vaguely remembered Sergeant Thomas mentioning something about hospital records over the phone when he called to say they had found Noah, but it wasn't until later that she found out the details.

‘Apparently James Sinclair's wife had taken Noah to hospital for a blood test and the blood type didn't match what the hospital had on record for that child. The police had asked all the hospitals in the area to alert them of any discrepancies with children around that age, so after the hospital called them they started looking into it.'

Leigha nodded, a smile still fixed on her face. ‘And did they discuss what happened to the other child. Sebastian, was it?'

When Sergeant Thomas had told Diana that James Sinclair's three-month-old son had died from SIDS, and he had kept it from his wife, Diana couldn't help but feel sorry for her. How must she have felt when she found out that her own child had died and the child she thought was her son had been taken from another woman? At the hearing Diana hadn't seen anyone in the courtroom who appeared to be James Sinclair's wife, and she guessed that was the reason why. How could any woman forgive her husband for such deception? Apparently James Sinclair had gone to great pains to remove their son's death certificate from the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and remove the references to his death from the hospital records, but he hadn't thought to change the blood type and he hadn't realised that the medical certificate outlining the cause of death had been given in hard copy to the funeral director. When the police starting looking into Sebastian Sinclair they managed to track down the funeral director who had a copy of the medical certificate on file. That's how they realised that the child living with James Sinclair and his wife wasn't the child they claimed him to be.

But she didn't say any of this to the journalist. She hadn't even told Liam about the hearing yet, and she wasn't going to tell him now, in front of a woman who seemed as deep as a glass of water.

‘I don't think it's my place to discuss that,' Diana said.

‘Of course, I understand.' Leigha looked down at her notebook and then back at Diana. ‘I understand James Sinclair obtained confidential information about your family from the embryo donor register. How do you feel about that? Do you plan to sue for breach of privacy?'

Initially Diana had been horrified when she learned that James had been able to find details about Noah and their contact information from the register. The clinic had assured them that their details were confidential, accessed only by the New South Wales Ministry of Health, and that the only information donor parents could apply to find out was the sex and year of birth of their embryos. She felt their privacy had been violated, but suing the Ministry of Health for not having better security controls didn't seem like the right response. James Sinclair had obviously been determined to find their details and had resorted to illegal means to do it.

‘No,' Diana said. ‘We're not going to sue.'

‘But if he hadn't gained access to the register then he couldn't have found Noah,' Liam said.

Diana glared at him. ‘I'm sure he would have found our details some other way.'

Leigha watched the exchange between Diana and Liam with interest. When neither of them elaborated further she directed her next question to Diana. ‘And how do you feel about the fact that the clinic ignored the recommended waiting period for implanting a donated embryo?'

‘What do you mean?' Diana asked, shuffling on the couch. Her dress was uncomfortable and she wanted Leigha to leave so she could change back into shorts and a T-shirt.

‘Most clinics wait at least three months before implanting an embryo after the donating couple provides consent. It's referred to as a cooling-off period. In your case the time between consent and implantation was only one month. And in fact, other clinics I've spoken to said they don't generally allow couples to donate their excess embryos until they've successfully finished having families of their own. So, if the children hadn't been so close in age, perhaps James Sinclair wouldn't have kidnapped Noah. I mean, allegedly kidnapped Noah,' she added with a smile.

That was the first Diana had heard about the cooling-off period. Would another two months have made a difference? Would it have meant that Noah would not have been taken from her? As she considered this, she felt no anger towards Doctor Malapi. He had done what he thought was best at the time. No-one could have foreseen what had happened.

‘I don't really have anything to say about that,' Diana said.

Leigha looked down at her notebook with more than a hint of annoyance. It was obvious to Diana that she wasn't giving the journalist much to work with.

‘Can you describe to me what you felt when you heard about James Sinclair's arrest?' she asked.

Diana had expected to feel jubilation when she knew that the man who had caused her and her family so much anguish would be put in prison, but all she had felt was a dull anger. No prison sentence would repair the damage this man had caused her. She hoped he received a sentence befitting his crime, and that he spent every day of his imprisonment picturing her and feeling remorse for the woman he had so thoroughly wronged. Even more so, she hoped his heart ached every day for the little boy he had taken from her; the little boy he would never see again.

‘I was glad that he had finally been found and would have to face up to what he did to my family,' Diana said to the journalist.

After the interview finished, the photographer asked them to pose close together on the couch, with Liam's arm around Diana and Noah sitting between them. It felt contrived. Even Noah seemed bemused by the situation.

After the photographer finished and packed up his equipment, Leigha beamed one last smile at Diana before shaking her hand and picking up her handbag. ‘We'll be off now. Thank you again for your time.'

‘I'll walk you out,' Liam said.

Diana stayed seated on the couch, craning her neck to watch as her husband walked the journalist to the front door. They paused by the door and spoke for a moment in low voices, their heads close together. She couldn't hear their exchange, but she did see Leigha hand Liam a business card, which he received with a wide smile. After the door closed behind Leigha and the photographer, Liam turned around with the smile still on his face. When he saw Diana watching him the smile disappeared, but he made no attempt to hide the business card. He kept it in his hand as he walked past Diana and up the stairs. She heard the door to the study close behind him.

•  •  •

Later that morning, the doorbell rang. Diana approached the door hesitantly, but when she opened it, relief flooded through her.

‘Tom!' Diana pulled her older brother into a tight embrace. His beard felt rough against her cheek but she pressed even closer against him.

‘I'm so glad to see you,' she said as she pulled back to look at him. ‘How are you?'

‘How am I? How are
you
is the question.' He followed Diana into the house and was met by his mother, who greeted him with a hug and kiss before returning to the kitchen. Diana stared after her, wondering why she didn't seem more excited to see her son, but then she realised that Eleanor must have already known he was coming to visit them.

‘Mum told me there were a lot of reporters around, but this is ridiculous. Have you left the house?'

‘Barely. I wish they'd go bother someone else.'

‘They've been calling me, probably because they're not getting anything from you, but I haven't said anything.'

‘Why are you here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, of course . . .'

‘I figured you probably needed a bit of extra support. And when I called you the other day you sounded down in the dumps. I thought you might need your brother. So, here I am.'

Tom spied Noah peeking at him from his hiding spot behind the couch. ‘Hey, little man.' He reached into the plastic shopping bag he had brought with him and pulled out a toy fire engine. ‘Look what Uncle Tom brought for you.'

‘Wow!' Noah hurried out from behind the couch and took the engine from Tom, his eyes wide. He rewarded Tom with a shy smile and then sat on the floor with his back to them, silently driving the engine up and down the edge of the rug.

‘How's he going being back here?' Tom asked. ‘Is he better with you and Liam now?'

‘It's been hard,' Diana said. ‘But I think it's getting better. It feels like he's more comfortable with me now than he was when he first got here. He's talking more, and he's affectionate towards me.' After a few seconds she added, ‘I haven't the foggiest idea how Liam is feeling.'

Tom raised an eyebrow, but didn't query her further.

‘So, I have an ulterior motive in coming here,' he said. ‘I've decided to take you all up the coast for a couple of weeks. Get you away from all this craziness.' He waved a hand towards the window, indicating the reporters outside. ‘I'm sure it would do you a world of good.'

‘I'm sure you're right about that,' Diana said as she glanced upstairs towards the closed study door. Liam hadn't emerged from the room since the journalist had left, not even to find out who was at the door. ‘But what about Noah? We can't take him somewhere else when he's barely used to our home.'

‘Are you kidding me? He'll love it at the beach. He'll get some fresh air, run along the beach, kick a ball around. It's the best thing for him.'