Chapter 23 (iii)

His words faded into the background, appearing as little more than garbled mutterings too far away for me to hear as my eyes scanned document after document. Scepticism gave way to uncertainty then chagrin as the truth laid itself out before me. There were documents that dated back to as early as my 7^th birthday…the year after he’d left. Many were stamped, some contained stains and other evidence of their paper aging.

There were motions to move forward with hearings and other motions to suspend stemming from ‘an inability to locate mother and children’.

My head swung from the revelation, my mind scrambling to make sense of the complicated court jargon that sought to further scramble my thoughts.

“I’ve already got schools lined up for you and your brother. I—I know about Emily, too. She can come with us, of course, there’s no question about that. I started looking for daycares but wanted you having a final say in where she spends her