Page 4 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 9-12
“She left before I started school. I can’t give exact years. Don’t really remember her.”
Welwick pulled a pen out of his pocket and played with it between his fingers. His eyes stayed on the pen. “Armada reported her grandfather as the reason for her pregnancy.”
Well, fuck. The old man couldn’t stop cursing those around him.
“You don’t seem to doubt her,” Welwick said.
“My father is a selfish man. He didn’t observe the boundaries of those in his house for other things. Why would he observe that boundary?”
Welwick’s lips thinned. “Armada said you were alienated from the family.”
“My father had a restraining order against me because I stood up against him when I was seventeen.”
“Is that still in place?”
“It ran out seven years ago.”
“Did he ever…go further than violence?”
Damian tilted his head to the side. “I can send you my testimony at the time. And you should have the report I filed on Armada’s behalf.”
Welwick rubbed his head again. “Armada is alleging that she’s not the first daughter Mr. Kramer has used. She thinks you and her are full siblings. Same mother. Same father.”
The blood in Damian’s veins chilled further. “Dalia is eleven years older than me.”
“It wouldn’t be the youngest pregnancy I’ve seen.”
“She think’s Dalia is my sister and my mother?”
Welwick nodded.
There…he… His thoughts stuttered around, trying to restructure a lifetime of history.
He stood and took the two steps he could away from the table. “Does she have any evidence?”
“She says her mother talks when she’s drunk. And that your father has implied…things. There were a few suspicious phrases that the video of the assault caught. Armada says that Dalia is jealous.”
Jealous? It made no sense.
Except that it did, in a sick, twisted way. Dalia had always sided with their father, no matter what it was. Even when the murder charges had been laid down against him, she’d said whatever their father had told her to, claiming Damian’s story was fake and Armada had never been in any danger. If their father had preyed on her when they were young but then cast her aside for her own daughter, he could almost see the jealousy. What did that say about him, that he could almost understand? Did that make him sick, too? He shuddered, trying to shake off the twisted psychology of his childhood.
“How long until you have an answer? I can pay to rush a legally valid DNA test.”
“Armada is asking for DNA testing. Dalia is refusing the test. As is Mr. Kramer. But if you are willing to be tested, that would go far toward fast-tracking a court order to override their consent sooner rather than later. If you are full siblings, it would mean you share a father. Armada doesn’t have a father listed on her records.”
“And he is listed as my father.” Damian nodded, mind racing ahead down the branches of possibilities and potential outcomes.
Welwick nodded. “That would be solid grounds to force a test.” He went back to rubbing his head. Clearly, the meds had not started working yet.
“If Armada is correct, what would your agency then recommend to the court?”
“Dalia can make the case she didn’t know. It will depend on the judge. She could retain parental rights with counseling, anger management and parenting classes, as well as some supervision. Mr. Kramer may or may not be offered bail if he is arrested.”
“Dalia will likely be offered pretrial release.” Damian forced himself to breathe deep and slow. “She’ll go back to the house, meaning the children may or may not be able to be there during that time.”
“A full DNA test proving predatory behavior on the part of Mr. Kramer could take a month to process, so Mr. Kramer would also be at the house.”
“Which he owns. He could mortgage it to pay his legal fees, leaving the kids nowhere to live.” Damian ran his palm over his head. “You want me to take the kids indefinitely, not knowing if I’m going to have to give them back to an abuser.”
