Claiming Noah (33 page)

‘Jerry called to say he'll be over soon,' Liam said to Diana after he had hugged Noah and greeted the rest of them. Diana noticed that Noah still seemed wary around him, and she wondered whether that bothered Liam.

She started to walk towards the kitchen to clean up the mess, but when she was halfway there she thought better of it and sat down at the dining table.

‘Is there any food in the house?' she asked Liam. ‘And are there any clean dishes left or have you resorted to plastic plates already?'

Liam looked up at her in surprise and then glanced towards the kitchen. He started to say something, but then he stopped himself.

‘I'll clean it up now,' he said as he stood up from the dining table and pushed back his chair.

‘Good idea.'

Diana slid one of the documents across the table towards her so she could read its contents. It was a copy of the application form for custody of Noah. Diana read the name listed in the applicant field: Catriona Sinclair. That was her. That was the woman who was trying to take her son away from her. Diana and Liam were listed on the form as respondents.

‘When did you get all these?' she called out to Liam in the kitchen.

‘This morning. Someone delivered them when I was about to go play a round of golf before work.'

Diana looked across at his golf clubs in the living room and wondered if he had left them there just to prove a point that he was inconvenienced because she hadn't been home. She felt someone's hand touch her shoulder and squeeze it reassuringly, releasing a wave of tension from around her shoulders and neck.

‘I'll give Noah his bath so you can concentrate on this,' Eleanor said, gesturing to the papers in front of Diana.

‘Thanks, Mum.'

Diana kissed Noah and then returned to the documents. She was so absorbed in them that the sound of the doorbell ringing startled her, causing her to jerk upright in her chair. Tom answered the door; she could hear him talking to Jerry in the hallway, but they were speaking too quietly for her to hear what they were saying. Diana wondered if they had been able to resolve their issues while Tom was away. He hadn't mentioned Jerry again to her since that morning at the beach, and Diana felt suddenly guilty that she hadn't asked him about it again. She had been such a burden on her family over the past two years. Everything had revolved around her, Liam and Noah: their pregnancy, Noah's birth, Noah's kidnapping – and now there would be a custody hearing. Nobody else's issues had any chance for airtime while she was around.

Jerry walked into the living room, trailed by Tom. He must have come straight from work because he was still wearing a suit – grey with a fine white pinstripe – and a lilac tie. His shoes shone to a mirror shine and despite the hour his hair was as neat as if he had just combed it. Standing next to him, Tom looked bedraggled. His beard had graduated from contained to bushranger in the weeks they had been away, and there was a hole in the collar of his T-shirt where the fabric had thinned and pulled away. His shorts had a stain near the cuff on one of the legs, and his pale feet were velcroed into fraying sandals.

‘Diana.' Jerry took hold of both of her arms and pulled her towards him. She gratefully returned the embrace as Tom watched them from over Jerry's shoulder.

‘Can I get you anything?' she asked Jerry. ‘We haven't had dinner yet, we'll probably just order some takeaway. Have you eaten?'

‘No, I'm fine, I had a late lunch. Thanks anyway.'

Liam greeted Jerry and directed him to the papers on the table. He gathered the scattered court documents into a neat pile and then proceeded to carefully read through each page. When he was finished he asked the others to join him at the table.

‘So, this all looks pretty standard for a custody application,' Jerry said once Diana, Liam and Tom were all seated. ‘These papers are copies of the documents that have been filed with the family court to start the proceedings for custody of Noah.'

‘So, what do we do?' Liam asked Jerry. ‘How do we respond?'

‘I'll tell you a bit about how custody hearings work,' Jerry said. He spoke slowly, carefully, as if he were addressing a class of children with learning difficulties. Rather than being offended, Diana appreciated him trying to make sure they understood everything they were about to go through. She wouldn't have cared if he communicated to her with stick-figure drawings if it made it easier for her.

‘There are normally two parts to a custody hearing,' he said. ‘First, there's the interim hearing, which is usually held a few months after the application is filed. So, that was . . .' He shuffled through the papers and then continued. ‘The nineteenth of March. Okay, so the interim hearing should be some time in June.'

‘What do we have to do for the interim hearing?' Diana asked.
Interim hearing
. It sounded so formal when she said it out loud. Formal and intimidating.

‘The judge will want to hear your submission. There won't be any cross-examinations and they don't make the final custody decision then, but they do decide who Noah will live with until the final hearing.'

‘What do you mean?' Diana asked, her chest tightening. ‘Wouldn't Noah stay with us?'

She could tell that Jerry was trying to find the right words to say to her. ‘That's the most likely outcome, given that you're his legal parents and also because he's already in your care. It would be too disruptive for him to change that. But you do have to prepare yourself for the small chance that that won't be the case.'

A small chance, what did that mean? Two per cent? Ten per cent? More? Before she had a chance to ask Jerry, Liam asked his own question. ‘What's the submission?'

‘You'll be asked before the interim hearing to prepare your affidavit, which is your sworn statement detailing why you believe you should retain custody of Noah. That will be read out to the judge and then one of you will have to make a statement reiterating what was in your affidavit.'

Diana and Liam looked at each other.

‘I'll do it,' Liam said.

‘Shouldn't it be Diana?' Tom said. They were the first words he had spoken since they sat at the dining table. ‘Obviously the other woman will be speaking, so wouldn't it be more compelling if Di spoke as well?'

‘Probably,' Jerry said. He looked at Diana. ‘Would you be comfortable delivering the submission in court?'

‘Di doesn't like speaking in public,' Liam said before she had a chance to respond. ‘She'd be too nervous.'

‘I'll be fine,' she said to Jerry, but she looked at Liam while she spoke. ‘I'm happy to do it.'

Liam raised his eyebrows at her, but didn't say anything. Diana felt an urge to pull a face at him, but instead she turned back to Jerry. ‘So, we won't be asked any questions at the interim hearing?'

‘No, that all happens in the final hearing,' Jerry said. ‘And it may take a while for that hearing to be scheduled. Sometimes it's up to a year after the interim hearing.'

‘A year?' Liam said. ‘That's ridiculous. How can it possibly take that long?'

Jerry shrugged. ‘That's just the way it is, unfortunately. I'll try to get it sped up for you, but it's not always possible.'

‘I'm sure you can,' Liam said. ‘We can't wait a year until this garbage is all sorted.'

‘He's trying to help us,' Diana said. ‘Don't be so ungrateful. And don't refer to our son as
this garbage.
What's wrong with you?'

Jerry exchanged a glance with Tom and then looked at his watch. ‘It's getting late and you've probably got a lot to talk about. Why don't I come back tomorrow night and we can start work on your affidavit and the wording for your submission?'

Tom and Jerry went upstairs to say goodbye to Eleanor and Noah and then Diana walked them to the front door.

‘Thank you, both of you, for everything,' she said.

Tom smiled and kissed her cheek. ‘Everything will be fine, I promise.' He nodded towards Liam and spoke quietly. ‘You need to talk to him. Don't let him boss you around like that. Remember everything we spoke about while we were away.'

‘I will,' Diana said. She waved goodnight to Jerry as he walked out to the car. ‘You remember what we spoke about as well.'

Tom smiled. ‘I will. Night, sis. Love you.'

‘I love you too. Thanks for the holiday. We're lucky to have you.'

After Diana shut the front door behind Tom she closed her eyes and let her head tip forward until her forehead was resting against the door. Pressure had been building up in her head since she arrived home and now she felt she couldn't even support the weight of it any more. How was she going to get through all of this? The tension with Liam, the custody hearing, all the waiting they would have to do before it was resolved. She wasn't sure she had enough strength to survive it. She stayed with her head bowed against the front door for a few minutes, hoping the coolness of the wood on her forehead would help to alleviate the bonfire of problems that threatened to consume her.

•  •  •

As Jerry had predicted the interim hearing was scheduled for a date in mid June, nearly three months after they had been served with a copy of the application for custody. During the wait, Diana and Liam's lives took on a strange new purpose. They didn't return to being a loving husband and wife but they were no longer warring spouses either. The fear of losing Noah again united them because for once they both wanted the same thing. But even though their lives seemed calm, trepidation was a presence as tangible and constant as a fourth member of their household, replacing the space Diana's mother left when she moved back to her own house. Noah seemed to sense it as well, even though Diana tried her hardest to keep him feeling happy and loved. She wanted his memories of her and Liam to be positive ones, just in case they were the last ones he had.

Before James Sinclair's committal hearing, Diana had never been inside a courtroom. This room was much smaller than that one had been, with only a few rows of seats on either side of an aisle facing an elevated platform at the front. There was an unpleasant musty smell, presumably from the carpet, which looked as if it had seen thousands of people come and go judging by the worn track down the aisle. One of the fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered on and off sporadically, giving Diana the beginnings of a headache.

The proceeding began with the judge reading out the affidavits both parties had prepared, but Diana couldn't concentrate on anything other than the woman who was seated on the opposite side of the aisle to her and Liam: Catriona Sinclair. Diana was sure it was the same woman she had seen in the department store nearly a year ago. The similarities were too numerous for it to be a coincidence. She was an attractive woman, with blonde hair in a sleek style that just met the shoulders of her navy-and-white pinstriped suit jacket. She wore minimal make-up, but even from Diana's vantage point across the aisle she could tell that she was the type of woman who didn't really need make-up and merely used it to accentuate her features, rather than having to cover up imperfections. Diana looked down at her own outfit, a white business shirt and green skirt she hadn't worn since her days as a school teacher, and wondered what the woman would think of her. Judging from appearances alone, Diana and Liam certainly weren't as sophisticated or successful as Catriona Sinclair, but surely the judge would award custody to the party he felt could best support and care for Noah. Was that her, or them?

Though Diana barely took her eyes from the woman throughout the hearing, she didn't look at Diana once. She kept her eyes fixed on the judge as he read out the affidavits, only occasionally glancing over her shoulder at a man seated in the row of chairs behind her. Diana knew it wasn't her husband, because she knew what James Sinclair looked like – and of course he was still in prison – and she wondered if the man was a relative, although they didn't look at all similar.

Liam poked Diana in the ribs with his elbow, which made her jump. She turned to him in question.

‘Pay attention,' he said, not diverting his gaze from the front of the courtroom. ‘You'll need to give your submission soon.'

But it was the other woman who was asked to speak first. At the judge's request she stood up, took some papers from a leather satchel she had with her, and cleared her throat. Her delivery was controlled and her voice didn't waver. She seemed comfortable addressing an audience and confident in what she was saying. It only served to make Diana even more nervous.

‘My name is Catriona Sinclair. I filed the application for custody of Noah Edmond Simmons because I feel I'm the best person to provide him with the love and care he deserves. I'm his biological mother, and my husband is his biological father. Despite the wrongdoings of my husband – for which he has been charged accordingly – the fact is that he is our son, in every sense of the word.'

Diana forced herself to look from the woman to the judge, but when she couldn't read any emotion or response on the judge's face, she looked back at the woman.

‘I have a successful and stable career that provides me with the means to be able to provide Noah with a comfortable life, and I have the support of my family and friends to help me raise him in a loving environment.'

Diana saw the man who was sitting behind Catriona Sinclair's table nod and she deduced that he must be one of the family members she was speaking about.

‘I raised Noah as my son,' she continued, ‘from when he was a baby up until his second birthday. I loved him and he loved me, and we had an ideal family life until he was taken from me. I admit what my husband did was wrong, but that shouldn't change the fact that I am Noah's mother, and the most appropriate home for him is with me.'

As she spoke that last sentence her voice cracked in her first show of emotion. She tucked her hair behind her ears, took a deep breath and continued.