CHAPTER 125

As we talk, it is established that Jared has adoptive family scattered all over the country, but his Uncle Philip was picked by the authorities as the best option on the basis that he was located closest to Jared living in the same city. Jared has told us that his father originally comes from Connecticut but he has lived in Illinois as long as he can remember and it appears that his family were located in an affluent neighbourhood in Chicago. But he also has another aunt and uncle on his adopted father's side in Seattle and another in Los Angeles and then an aunt on his adopted mother's side in Oregon. He has said he is closest with his Uncle Peter and Aunt Suzanne, they had immediately offered to take him when his adoptive parents died and he had expressed a desire to go to them, so that gives me a point of reference to argue his case, that he had wanted to go to them but the authorities had seen fit to ignore his wishes.

"Jared if I might interrupt" I say and he looks up at me.

"Your Aunt and Uncle, Peter and Suzanne, where are they located? You have mentioned a few places and I just want to be clear. He unconsciously smiles as their names are mentioned and from that reaction alone I know immediately that he is clearly very fond of them.

"Seattle" he replies.

I nod, and I realise that actually works for me as my primary concern is his safety and happiness and it is obvious that he will be safest and happiest placed with these people. If I can facilitate him going to them then I can ask Christian to keep a discreet eye on Jared for me and it will be easier for me to stay in contact with him as Seattle is a regular destination for me now with Eva visiting Ana. I put my offer to help to him to gauge his reaction.

"So, when the authorities arrive, would you like me to try to arrange for you to be relocated to Seattle to be with them? As I am going to argue that you are not returned to your Uncle Philip. Also, would you like me to contact them and have them flown here now to be with you today?" I ask.

Jared nods enthusiastically, and his eyes shine at the thought of his aunt and uncle coming here "Oh yes please! Can you do that?" he asks incredulously.

I push down the unwelcome and not to mention unwarranted surge of jealousy I feel at his reaction to his aunt and uncle and I grin at him, "Jared you will discover that I can do a lot of things," I say somewhat arrogantly. "Do you have a contact number for your aunt and uncle?" I ask as I pull out my phone, Jared immediately pulls out his own phone and calls up their number and pushes his phone towards me. I accept it and place the call.

Almost immediately the call is answered by an anxious sounding man. "Jared? Are you ok? How did it go?" he asks by way of greeting and I feel a sense of relief that this man clearly loves my son.

"This is Gideon Cross speaking, am I speaking with Peter Martin?" I ask.

There is a stunned silence for a moment and then the man replies, "Yes… yes I'm Peter Martin, what's going on? Where is Jared? Is he ok?" he asks anxiously.

I quickly move to reassure him, "Jared is here with me and he is absolutely fine. Our initial meeting has been successful. We have talked and he understands I had no knowledge of him and had I done so, things would've been very different. However, during the course of our talk he has divulged some disturbing information about his uncle – Philip and so I have taken the liberty to intervene and I am now arranging for that particular uncle to be arrested for his actions. I am calling you because Jared has also told me that you were willing to take guardianship of him when his… parents died" I briefly hesitate over the word parents, but quickly continue. "Is that still the case? I am not prepared to allow my son to remain in the care of his uncle, given what I have been told. I need to know he will be loved and cared for and supported while he is still grieving. He has expressed a desire to be relocated with you".

Peter Martin quickly and eagerly confirms this, "Yes, we wanted to take him before, we flew to Chicago when my brother died to try and get him and bring him home with us, but child services decided it was in his best interests to remain in Chicago where everything was familiar to him so Phil was chosen as his guardian… none of us were happy about it, as he really isn't parent material but he seemed to satisfy the authorities that he was suitable despite our reservation but we were concerned and expressed those reservations that we didn't think Jared's emotional needs would be fully met. We all argued – even Phil but nobody listened to us. What's happened what has he done to him?"

That surprises me, and I wonder what exactly happened for the wishes of everyone concerned to be so comprehensively ignored. "I think it is up to Jared to tell you what has happened, but suffice to say, it was bad enough for me to take immediate action, even though I don't really have the right to do so. If I send a plane to SeaTac now, can you make your way there and it will bring you to Chicago? I will make arrangements for you to be met and brought here to the Finding Family offices and as it is getting fairly late now I will also make arrangements for you to stay here overnight. I am not prepared for Jared to leave this office with his uncle, so I need to know there is someone he knows and is comfortable with to take him and someone who I can be reassured that Jared is going to be safe with?"

"Yes, yes of course. I'll call my wife and we will make our way there right now… how will we know where to go?" he asks.

"I will arrange for someone to call you with the details of where to go and who to ask for. You will be boarding one of my jets. It will have the Cross Industries logo on it" I explain.

"Right, thank you Mr Cross, I'll call my wife right now and await the call". Peter replies.

"No problem, the man who will be contacting you will be called Raul Huerta, he is a member of my security team" I explain.

With that I hang up and after handing Jared his phone back I pull out my own and contact Raul to outline what I want and to start making arrangements. That done I look at Jared who is staring at me wide eyed.

"Your aunt and uncle are on their way from Seattle" I say.

I hear more raised voices outside the room and I sigh in irritation. "Right, I think it's time for me to go and introduce myself to your uncle. Please stay in here with Caroline and continue to talk to her" I ask.

Jared nods, "I will… and thank you Gideon" he says gratefully.

With that I take a deep breath and stride out of the room, down the corridor and towards the raised voices. As I enter the room I see Angus, three police officers and a couple of men in smart but casual clothing. Everyone turns to look at me as I enter.

"Aah Mr Cross, we have been made aware of a complaint of abuse" one of the police officers says.

I nod, "Yes that is correct, Jared Martin who is the adopted nephew of this man Philip Martin has informed me of his actions towards him". I walk up to Martin and glare at him, he stills and looks warily at me, before turning his head away.

I look him up and down and he lowers his head, trying to avoid my gaze. "Not such the big man now are you? What's the matter, not so brave when you are not threatening children with firearms?"

There are a number of gasps as I say this and I look around towards the police officer. "Mr Martin and his wife were witnessed by Jared talking with another man at their home. Jared has no idea what they were doing or who the other man was but when he saw Jared he panicked and as Jared put it freaked out. This resulted in this man threatening him to keep his mouth shut. He told him he would kill him if he told anyone what he had seen, and he confirmed that threat by pointing a gun at Jared's forehead between his eyes, naturally terrifying and traumatising him so I can only assume that whatever he was doing was something not entirely legal".

Eva's lip curls in disgust, Christian curses and Ana just gasps in shock at my words. Angus glares at the man but doesn't give any reaction to what I have just said. The three police officers are writing rapid notes and all look shocked at what I have just revealed.

"Mr Cross would it be possible for us to interview Jared Martin to confirm these allegations?" the police officer who previously addressed me asks and I nod.

"I would assume so, but you would have to ask him, and please bear in mind he is a minor - he is only thirteen years old. At this moment he is talking with my therapist who travelled here today with us".

At this the two men step forward and introduce themselves as Child Protection Services officers, and one of them tells me that he was involved in placing Jared with his uncle as he holds out his hand to me. I accept the handshake but stare at him coldly.

"You placed the boy with an uncle who has traumatised him, you disregarded his wishes to be placed under the guardianship of other more suitable relatives. Relatives who had made the journey to Chicago to claim him at the time?" I ask coldly.

The man flushes slightly, "Let me assure you we had the best interests of the boy at heart, he was traumatised by the death of his parents, and dealing with that loss. He was clearly grieving and so we didn't want to uproot him and send him across the country, we wanted him to feel settled and secure as quickly as possible" he says somewhat defensively.

I stare at him, "So, you disregarded his wishes, you disregarded the wishes of the aunt and uncle who had made the effort to fly from Seattle to claim him and instead gave him to a relative who also argued against taking him, can you explain how exactly that is making him feel settled and secure? Then let's not forget that in placing him with a man who didn't want him, you placed him in danger".

"Allegedly" the man says curtly.

I hold up my hand, my anger and irritation rising dramatically at his attitude. "I do apologise" I say sarcastically. "You allegedly placed him in danger as you put him with a man who had argued against taking him, who drinks to excess and who has subsequently physically abused him, while drunk. A man who then went on to threaten him with a gun when it appears he was doing something illegal. I would suggest taking all that into consideration that you did not have the boy's best interests at heart and you just wanted to close the case as quickly as possible and with the least possible effort. However, I have taken the liberty of flying the aunt and uncle he originally wanted to live with to Chicago and they should be arriving in a few hours or so. So, there is now ample time for you to put right your previous monumental mistake and if you fail that boy again be sure to know that I will intervene and I will make sure that I am not subtle about it".

The child protection officer stares at me in stunned silence but to my satisfaction just nods. "May I ask what your interest in this case is Mr Cross?" the other man asks looking at me curiously.

I glare coldly at him, "I think the fact where we are standing should give you some idea of that. We are in the offices of Finding Family" I say gesturing around me.

The man stares blankly at me, and I can see he is trying to figure out what my link is to Jared.

I sigh, "I am Jared's biological father. A fact which I was only made aware of this morning. I didn't even know Jared existed until four days ago. I will say at this point that this is privileged information so the only people aware of this are all in this room. I have complete trust in the people who arrived with me so I will know exactly where the leak has come from should this information appear in the media any time soon, and let me be clear that should that happen I will not be happy".

"Gideon calm down" Eva whispers as she places her hand on my arm.

I turn my attention towards her, "I think I'm being remarkably civilised all things considered, Angel. In the space of…" I pause and look at my watch, and am surprised to see it is nearly 4.30 in the afternoon. "…nearly nine hours I have learnt that I am a father to a teenage boy who only days ago I didn't know existed. I have met that boy and heard that he was disregarded by the authorities whose job it is to protect children and they placed him in the care of him… and then we have what Jared has just told me about him" I say pointing towards Martin, who is now being held by one of the police officers.

I go to speak again when my phone starts to ring, "Excuse me" I say as I pull out my phone. I see it is Raul and I quickly answer it.

"Yes Raul" I say.

"Sir, Mr and Mrs Martin have just boarded your plane to Chicago, they are due to take off at 3pm Seattle time, their flight time is estimated to be about four hours so ETA in Chicago is 8pm Chicago time. I've arranged a car to pick them up and I've also organised accommodation overnight for them in the same hotel you and Mrs Cross is booked in at, Angus has the details" he says efficiently.

"Thank you, Raul," I say gratefully.

"No problem, sir, anything else?" he asks.

"Yes, inform Mr and Mrs Martin that we will meet them at the hotel as it will be too late to meet at the Finding Family offices by then, and take them straight there upon their arrival in Chicago. Make sure accommodation is also booked for my son at the same hotel" I say.

"Yes sir, is that all?" he asks again.

"Yes, that's all for now, thank you" I say and I end the call.

oooOOOooo

Four hours later…

We are all at the hotel waiting for Jared's aunt and uncle to arrive. I have secured a private room for us and we are all sitting just waiting. I watch Jared closely; he had been so brave telling the police everything that had happened to him since he had been placed with his uncle. The child protection services employees grew more and more uncomfortable as they heard what Jared had been through. More so considering that I had insisted on being present and I had organised Arash to be present via video link from New York. I had also made it clear that Arash would be representing Jared should any court case arise. It had the desired effect that they agreed that Jared was not to go home with Philip Martin, who was arrested and taken away by the police officers and that arrangements would be made for him to be placed in the guardianship of Peter Martin instead.

"Are you ok Jared?" I ask carefully.

He looks up at me and smiles, "I'm fine" he says simply and returns his attention back to his phone.

Eva reaches for me and squeezes my hand, but doesn't say anything.

Jared looks up again a moment later and looks towards Christian, and clearing his throat he goes to speak, "Erm… Christian?" he begins.

Christian immediately gives him his full attention and smiles kindly at him.

"Yes Jared" he replies.

"You're from Seattle aren't you?" he asks.

Christian nods, "I live there, yes".

Jared nods and then glances at me before returning his gaze back to Christian, then he looks at me once more, almost as though he is working things out. "I really hope that I get to go and live with Uncle Pete… but I was also hoping, if it's ok… to stay in contact with you Gideon… please?"

I smile at him, and I feel a strange sensation in my chest at his words, he wants to know me. "You can count on it. I was hoping that you would want to see me again, as this wasn't how I envisaged meeting you for the first time but circumstances seem to have overtaken us".

Jared nods, "Yeah, just a bit… but you live in New York so logistically that makes things a bit difficult" he says glancing at Christian again and I can see he is probably wondering if Christian will be involved in our relationship.

Christian smiles kindly at him, "I can be a sort of intermediary for you if you want. You will have all our contact details whatever happens so reaching either of us won't be any problem and I will be located in the same city as you. But let's be clear here, if you need Gideon all you will have to do is call him and he will do everything humanly possible to assist you".

Jared snorts at that, "I kind of figured that out already, after everything you did today" he says looking at me.

Before I can answer there is a knock at the door and then Angus pokes his head around it.

"Mr and Mrs Martin are here" he says. He opens the door wider and two obviously tired worried people make their way in, they quickly scan the room and I see the evident relief on their faces as they see Jared.

"Jared" Peter Martin says and he opens his arms.

Jared's reaction to the man is instant, his face lights up and he is on his feet and runs straight into the man's arms and clings to him. I feel slightly awkward as though I am intruding on this moment. I also feel a distinct surge of jealousy as I see this man hugging my son. I push it down and wait, this isn't about me and I realise that I've done the right thing flying these people here as I watch this reunion.

Peter Martin seems to remember everyone else and looks up, he smiles nervously at me and steps towards me holding out his hand. I immediately stand up and accept the handshake.

"I don't know how to thank you for everything you've done" he says gratefully.

"It was nothing" I say brushing aside his thanks. "It was a challenge persuading the child protection officers to allow Jared into our care earlier, but I think the fact you were clearly coming here swayed their decision. However, they will be coming here tomorrow morning to finalise the details, but from what was said they are agreeable for Jared to be released into your guardianship. Arrangements have also been made for Jared to retrieve his belongings from his uncle's home tomorrow morning, and he will be accompanied by me and my security".

The man nods in understanding, "I'll go with you as well Jared" he says and Jared nods.

"The police took Uncle Phil away and they assured me that he wouldn't be there tomorrow when I get my stuff" he says.

His wife comes up to me and hugs me tightly which surprises me somewhat but I return the hug somewhat stiffly.

"Thank you so much for everything you have done, I can see now I was totally wrong about you" she says.

I frown at that, "I don't understand?" I say.

"Suzy" Peter says warningly.

She shakes her head, "No he has a right to know, we all thought he didn't care" she insists.

Jared immediately steps forward at this, "Aunty Suzy, he didn't know about me… we talked about it, Corrine never told him about me. She had me and then dumped me and went off with a French guy, she told everyone that Gideon didn't want me, but the truth was he didn't know about me. That is what she told the French guy and that is what he always believed, Gideon called him when he found out about me and that is what he told him but it's not true. He… the French guy is here in the States at the moment and Gideon is going to arrange for him to see me so I can ask him stuff, because he knew what happened when I was born" Jared says.

Peter sighs and rubs his face, "I knew it!" he says almost with a sense of resignation.

I look at the people in the room, Jared is staring at his uncle and I am willing him to continue, in the hope that he can offer some sort of clarity to what actually happened when Jared was born.

"Let's all sit down" Christian says.

Everyone sits down and Peter looks at me apologetically. "I always believed there was more to it than what was said at the time. Things just didn't ring true, but my brother just wanted Angie – that was his wife to have the child she desperately wanted. They were so desperate for a baby and nothing ever happened for them, it almost consumed them. They tried everything and I mean everything. They did four rounds of IVF and they all failed so they started to look into adoption. It was heart breaking to see them struggle. We all lived in Connecticut originally as that was where we all came from… there were four of us, Will was the eldest brother then there was me, then my brother Patrick and finally Phil. Phil was the first to leave and he moved to Chicago and slowly we all moved away, but at that time I was still fairly local I was living in New York and Will worked with Nick Hamilton, they were buddies you know. Well, he confided in Nick how they wanted a kid and how it wasn't happening for them. Nick told him that his daughter was pregnant and that she was looking to have the child adopted and he said he would love it if he could help them out, as he knew the baby would have a brilliant home with Will and Angela. It was talked about more and more, Will and Angie met Corrine and she told them the story that she was engaged – to you, but that since she told you she was pregnant you had pretty much dropped her. When we met her though there was this French guy always hanging around, it just all seemed odd and I couldn't work out what was going on and why he was there. She introduced him as Jean and said that he was an old friend, but just something about her story didn't ring true. I mean I saw her a few times when I went with Will to see her and he - Jean was always there and while he was reserved, bordering on aloof there seemed to be something significant between them. I wondered at one point if he could be Jared's dad, in fact I did also wonder at one point if you really did know about the baby. You see, we were all forced to sign NDA's and we were told under no circumstances were we to approach you or discuss the baby with you and that if we did the deal would be off. That fact alone raised more than a few red flags for me but I kept my mouth shut about my reservations as I could see just how happy this had made Will and Angie and they were willing to go along with any conditions if it meant they got a baby. So, I did what any good brother does, I supported their decisions.

Alarm bells started ringing again when all the legalities for the adoption were put in place, I mean I get they wanted to put everything on a legal footing so there was no come back, but again something felt off about it all. Corrine was making what – to me seemed like bizarre demands, she insisted that she was never contacted once it all went through, which was fair enough but she insisted that Jared was never told who his biological father was. She agreed that Jared could know her name, on the condition he never asked about her or tried to contact her, but he was to be told her name only once and he was never allowed to research that name in any way at all. Also, we were not allowed to mention, discuss or speak of her in any way to Jared after we had told him her name. It just seemed… odd. Nick wanted access to Jared, he wanted an open adoption so he could see Jared… I think that was because Will was his buddy as much as Jared being his grandson, but Corrine said no right up to the last minute when she suddenly relented, but she only relented on the condition that Jared wasn't allowed to speak of her to them or allowed to ask them any questions. I thought that was a little excessive, but again I kept my mouth shut. I was there when she came and handed him over. She had Jared, and informed Will and Angie he'd been born. I was there at the time when she called them, they were getting ready to go and see Jared in the hospital, but Corrine came to them. She left the hospital, literally the same day within hours of giving birth she just turned up at their home, handed him over and left without looking back. It was so cold, so… heartless. The French guy was with her and I wondered at the time if he had forced her to do it, but that theory didn't really gel with how he was with her as he never came across as controlling, more the opposite he almost seemed indifferent".

Peter pauses and I look at Jared who is hanging on his every word, "Why didn't you tell me all this?" Jared asks.

Peter looks kindly at him, "For a couple of reasons, we signed to say we would never speak of her to you and I didn't want to cause Will any problems by breaking that. Plus, I was shocked and I didn't want you to ever know how unfeeling your birth mom had been".

"This all seems weird" Eva says, "What the hell was she hiding?" she adds.

I snort, "The fact that she didn't want me ever finding out I had a son" I say.

Peter nods, "I'm inclined to agree with you" he says, "But for what purpose?" he adds.

I shrug, "None of it makes any sense" I say.

Eva looks at me, "Possibly but I have a theory" she says.

"Go on" I say.

"Well, when we were trying to figure out things before, and went through how things were between you two I think that theory still stands to some degree" she begins.

"Corrine asked you to marry her – right?" she says and I nod.

"So, I think she asked you to marry her when she discovered she was pregnant. But it was then after that you started pulling away from her. I think she thought – probably through her own guilt that you had found out about her messing around with Giroux and that is why you were being distant because she had been messing around with Giroux. Then because she had been with him, she also had an element of doubt as to whether or not you were Jared's dad – hence the reason she didn't tell you about him, just in case you weren't. As she figured if you had found out she was screwing around she could perhaps get you to forgive her but not if she were carrying another man's child, that would ruin everything but that was warring with the fact that she still wanted you. So, she went off to her parents, and Giroux followed. She fed him lies about you not giving a damn about the pregnancy which you inadvertently confirmed by the fact you didn't stay in contact. But she didn't love him, she loved you and she decided that he was now her best bet to possibly get you back, her plan was to use him to make you jealous and so finally she reaches out one final time to try and make you feel jealous and see if you try and fight for her, you don't so she realises it's over and there is no going back for her and Giroux is her only option so, what does she do then, she dumps Jared" she pauses and looks at Jared sympathetically, "Sorry Jared, and she goes off with Giroux. But she still loves you, and I reckon he sensed that which is why he acted so indifferent towards her as he felt like second best".

"And also why he wouldn't take me on" Jared says, "Like I said to you why did he make her give up her son and make her choose, but if he sensed she loved you more than him, while she had been screwing around with him it doesn't make him feel so good about himself and she told him I was definitely yours so that resentment also spread to me and there was no way he'd take on the kid of a man he was playing second fiddle to" he adds.

"But why did he stay with her if he knew this, does he have no self respect?" Ana asks.

Eva shrugs, "Because he loved her and probably thought that once he got her to France all to himself that she would forget about Gideon and love him more".

"It was all a complete mess, why couldn't she just be honest with everyone and not play stupid immature games? This is people's lives she was messing with" Suzanne asks.

Eva gives her a sympathetic look, "Because Corrine is a very manipulative person, she tried to drive a wedge between me and Gideon, she tried to make me believe she had slept with him when she hadn't. Then when it came out about Ana being my sister, she reappeared and started playing games again, she approached her to try and publish a book she was writing which turned out to be a rose-tinted version of what she hoped would happen between her and Gideon under the guise of a fictional story but anyone who knew what had gone on could recognise who the characters were". She stops and her eyes widen. "That's it!" she says.

"What?" I ask.

Eva turns to Ana, "Do you remember the book Corrine wrote?" she asks and Ana nods.

"Sadly yes… it wasn't good" she says sardonically.

"The synopsis, what was it something about the two men fighting over the woman?" Eva asks.

Ana nods, "If I recall correctly… as it was a few months ago now, it was a love story but it was a love triangle story. The main female protagonist is in love and engaged to be married to a business man but he cheats on her with another woman and in her jealousy, she cheats on him with one of his business associates – a European businessman who falls in love with her and she breaks off her engagement to teach her fiancé a lesson and leaves him for the European businessman. However, in this story her fiancé comes to his senses and flies to Europe to beg her to return to him only to find that she has married the European businessman who loves her, but she still loves her fiancé despite the fact that he cheated on her and so she quickly dumps her husband and returns to the States with him. The European businessman is set on revenge and comes to the States to reclaim his wife and the situation escalates and there is a showdown between the two men who are essentially fighting over her".

I remember when Ana outlined Corrine's story to us previously, and now with this new development it all seems so clear.

"So, in that fictional story she was essentially admitting her relationship with Giroux while she was with me. We said at the time it was the delusional fantasy she held of how she hoped things would pan out – that is having two men fighting over her" I say "But the thing is, I wasn't cheating on her" I add.

Eva smiles sympathetically at me, "Yeah you were… not with a person, but you admitted that you were building Cross Industries at that time and it took most of your time and attention. In her mind you were focussing attention which should've been on her on your company and she didn't like it. But this all makes sense now, she wanted the fantasy, she was playing you off against each other hoping to get the two men fighting over her, but that fantasy all fell apart when you just let her go and didn't go after her when she went to France".

"And she didn't want an inconvenient kid to get in the way of that fantasy" Jared says bitterly.

I am immediately concerned by Jared's tone and I don't want him feeling bad about this. "Jared" I turn towards him and wrap my arm around him, "This is why I didn't explain too much about Corrine when we spoke earlier as I didn't want to poison your mind towards her. This is all assumption, we don't know for sure what happened, but with her previous behaviour towards us it naturally leads us to assume the worst about her and I'm sorry you have now heard our prejudice towards her".

He shakes his head, "No, putting it together with what Uncle Pete has said, it's all pretty clear she was hoping for what she wrote in that book to happen but she didn't want a kid getting in the way and ruining her plan, and as you said if she was seeing two men at the same time she probably wasn't sure who my dad was and if it was you she was aiming to get back with, she didn't want to ruin the chances of that if I wasn't yours… so she had to get me out of the way".

"But that doesn't explain her behaviour towards the adoption" Peter says in confusion but Jared interrupts.

"Yes, it does, I wasn't allowed to ask anything. Uncle Phil put two and two together that Gideon was linked with her. She made it clear that you were not to be contacted or anything because she knew her house of cards would come crashing down the minute you found out about me and then it would all come out about her sleeping with two men and she would never get the chance to play out her fantasy of getting you back and have her moment of two men fighting over her – I mean why would they if they both realised, they had been played?"

A long silence spreads out as everything really does make sense, and it also makes me realise just how manipulative and selfish Corrine really is.