Chapter 9: The Filing and the Fall
The emergency protective order was granted by eleven that morning.
Robert called Claire while she was in the parking lot outside the courthouse, Maya's drawing from the previous night folded in her jacket pocket — a penguin, slightly lopsided, with a very large smile.
"The order is in place," he said.
"Neither Paul nor Renee may have unsupervised contact with Maya pending the investigation.
Process servers are on their way to the house and to Paul's office now."
Claire leaned against the car.
"How did he take it?"
"His attorney called me twenty minutes ago.
Paul is claiming the document was given to him in good faith and that he was deceived about its authenticity."
"He's blaming the forger."
"He's attempting to.
The problem for him is the email chain, which shows him directing the content of the document in specific detail.
He didn't receive a fabricated test.
He commissioned one." Robert paused.
"His attorney is a competent man.
He'll know within the hour that the case is not survivable.
My expectation is that Paul will be advised to consider his options."
"What options does he have?"
"Cooperation.
Full disclosure regarding Sophie and the payments to Lydia.
Withdrawal of any custody claims.
And depending on what the document examiner confirms, he may be looking at a referral to the district attorney's office for the fraud."
Claire was quiet for a moment.
"What happens to Sophie?"
"That's a separate matter.
Lydia will need her own representation.
But if Paul is cooperating, acknowledging Sophie becomes part of that cooperation.
It's likely." A pause.
"Claire.
That little girl isn't your responsibility.
But she also didn't do anything wrong."
"I know," Claire said.
"I know that."
She drove back to Diane's house.
Maya was in the garden with Diane, crouched over something in the flower bed — a beetle, it turned out, which Maya had named Gerald and was very concerned about relocating safely.
Claire sat on the back step and watched them.
Her phone buzzed.
A message from Paul.
*My attorney says I need to cooperate.
I want you to know I'm sorry.
I know that doesn't fix anything.*
She read it once.
Set the phone down on the step beside her.
Diane looked over from the garden.
"Everything okay?"
"Getting there."
Three days later, Paul's attorney formally withdrew the prospective custody filing — it had never been submitted to the court, only prepared.
The document examiner confirmed the fabrication.
The findings were forwarded to the district attorney's office.
Renee was interviewed by police.
Her account of the incident at the yard contradicted itself twice.
The investigating officer noted in the report that her behavior after Maya's fall — her failure to render aid, her deliberate positioning, her conduct when Claire arrived — warranted further review.
A formal complaint was filed.
Dennis gave his witness statement to Robert Fenn.
All of it.
He left nothing out.
Paul met with his attorney and Claire's attorney together one week after the parking garage.
He acknowledged Sophie.
He acknowledged the document.
He acknowledged the payments to Lydia.
He did not contest the protective order.
He sat across the table from Robert Fenn and did not once look at Claire directly.
At the end of the meeting, as the attorneys were gathering papers, Paul finally looked up.
"I told myself I was doing it for Maya," he said.
"That she deserved to know the truth about her family."
Claire looked at him.
"The truth," she said, "is that she was in a pit in the ground while your cousin stood over her and smiled.
That's the truth about her family that she's going to carry."
May you like
Paul looked back at the table.
He had nothing left to say.
