Page 90 of Drawing Home
He sat at the table and leafed through a pile of papers for a minute. When he looked up at Emma and Kyle, his expression was serious. “So I want to give you a sense of what to expect in this process. In a few weeks we’ll have a court date. The judge will give you and your ex the chance to work out an amicable compromise. I will be talking to the opposing attorney to help facilitate that. If we cannot come to an agreement on that date, the court will most likely order a psychological evaluation of Penny to assess her needs. That costs a few thousand dollars and is usually paid by the petitioner. We have an adjournment for a few months while any court-ordered evaluations take place. Then we’ll get a trial date.”
“And if it goes to trial, then the judge just…decides? Then and there? He or she could just take my daughter away from me?”
“Emma, I’m going to do everything I can to prevent that from happening.”
“Okay,” she said, fighting tears. Kyle reached over and patted her leg.
“I reviewed your original divorce stip. Penny’s father was granted a standard visitation schedule—every other weekend, alternating holidays, et cetera. But you said he rarely sees her?”
Emma nodded. “That’s right.” She told him that Mark had visited Penny fairly frequently in the early days of their divorce, but then his appearances slowed steadily, and eventually they stopped altogether.
“And his child-support payments?”
“Erratic. He’ll pay it, and then four months will go by before he pays again. He usually catches up. It’s just not regular.”
“And you never considered going to court over this?”
“It would cost me more to go to court, so I just wait for him to catch up.”
Andrew nodded and wrote something on a legal pad. “So when did he reestablish contact with your daughter?”
“At the beginning of this summer.”
“And prior to that, he hadn’t seen her in over a year?”
She nodded.
“Emma, I think you should tell him that Mark didn’t even call you. He just showed up,” Kyle said.
“Oh, that’s a good point.” She explained about Mark turning up at the house unannounced, expecting to take Penny to the beach. Again, Andrew Port wrote on his pad. “Like I said on the phone,” Emma added, “Mark’s appearance coincided with Penny inheriting the Henry Wyatt estate. He claims he didn’t know about it, that it has nothing to do with him suddenly wanting to be more involved in Penny’s life. But I don’t believe it.”
“Either way, that doesn’t change the grounds of his petition. A judge won’t carewhyhe came back if it appears he’s acting in the best interests of his child. If this goes to trial, we’ll have to answer to his claims that she’s unsupervised and that this lack of supervision resulted in injury. There’s also the question of whether or not her psychological health is being adequately taken care of, but that will be in part decided by the psych eval if this goes that far.”
“My God,” Emma said. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know this is very upsetting,” Andrew said in the understatement of the year. Emma looked at Kyle.
“I’m wondering,” Kyle said, “does Emma have to allow her ex to see Penny during all of this?”
“That’s a good question, and the answer is yes; you can’t act punitively toward your ex because he filed this motion. Remember, he’s saying he’s acting in the best interests of the child. This isn’t a personal attack against you.”
“Of course it is!”
Andrew nodded. “I know it is. And I certainly know it feels that way. But it’s important that you not act defensively or punitively. If you want to deny him extra time that he requests, that’s fine. But his visitation weekends stand.”
“Doesn’t the fact that he’s been absent for so long count against him in any way?” Kyle said.
“You mean if this goes to trial?” Andrew said.
“I mean now. Why does he even have visitation rights still?”
Emma was touched to see Kyle so worked up on her behalf. She looked at Andrew expectantly.
“Again, everything in family court comes down to the best interests of the child. A child benefits from having a relationship with both parents unless one parent is proven to be a danger or unfit. Mark Mapson’s absence might not be ideal, but in cases like this the father usually says he was traveling for work, he had financial hardship, that sort of thing.”
“It sounds like Mark gets the endless benefit of the doubt while Emma is being vilified,” Kyle said.
“I’m just playing the devil’s advocate here. I want you to have a realistic understanding of what we’re dealing with.”
