Part 51

Jackie Baldwin had worked at her cousin's firm since she had been admitted to the bar. She had specialized in domestic relations. She liked talking to clients about their problems, and you had to like to listen to people talk about their problems if you were a domestic relations lawyer. She had been at it for twenty years now. She'd handled all the firm's grandparent visitation cases, and was considered the guru on the subject in the hallways of the firm. That was why the case of Cameron Lewis really intrigued her. She'd never run into the paternity issue coming up in the grandparent context, or the adult-child context.

"Grand-paternity," she said to her cousin, with mock solemnity. "Can you imagine them ordering grand-paternity tests?"

"If it comes to that, I'll have to run away to an island in the Pacific," he answered. "Clients! How do they get themselves mixed up like this! And it will only increase in the future. The generation coming up to be grandparents will be so mixed up!"

When Cameron Lewis came in to talk to Jackie about the subject, saying he didn't want to sue or threaten anything, but that he wanted to know a little more, because his son had said something to him that gave him the idea his son had contacted a lawyer and knew something about the subject.

"That's a good attitude," Jackie said, encouragingly. "In these cases, especially, that you avoid court actions and try to deal with the parent and adult child relationship first. You wouldn't have the case going unless that relationship were non-existent or poor. Usually, one is going against the other parent, not your own child, but your grandchild's other parent. But where it's your own son in opposition, that factor is a lot stronger."

"I'm not going to get anywhere until I can get along with him, and that's been a lifelong struggle I haven't made much headway in. His life long. I only want to know as much as he seems to know. Do you think my lack of a biological relationship means I'm not a member of the family, period?"

"I doubt it," Jackie said. "At least, it's an issue. With the facts you've given me, it can at least be argued that you are the child's grandfather. There are some cases of third party visitation for aunts or uncles or grandparents who became like parents. You'd have the argument you were like a parent. Really like an adoptive parent, which is treated the same for most purposes. I'd hate to argue the other side. They would look like real jerks claiming that you can raise the child, support him, he's got your name all these years, and oh, by the way, you aren't a DNA match and so you aren't my father. I don't think the courts would go along with that. It's just gut instinct, but in domestic relations they are not going to get technical, and the presumption of legitimacy applies, that is to say, he is conclusively presumed to be your son because he was born and conceived during the marriage. It would have gone the other way, too. When he was a minor, this would not necessarily have gotten you out of supporting him, for example."

"OK."

"Now the fact you have trouble getting along with your son could hurt you, even without that issue."

"Nothing I've ever tried works on this kid. I have another one, and he's fine. So I don't get it, even yet. This paternity thing only adds another layer of difficulty. I consider it a case of ex-wife revenge."

"There's a lot of that going around," Jackie said. "This is so long ago, to come out, though. Really different. You really didn't know about it?"

"No, I should have, but I was in the earlier years of my practice and what went on at home got by me, I guess. Plus the biological father is a colleague from back then, who I would have thought was at the hospital as much as I was."

"I guess it's really floored you."

"The thing that amazes me most is my ex-wife having an affair at all. Not that we were story-book happy, but her personality. I would never have thought she'd have enough personality for him. And he couldn't have done it just to get at me, or he'd have seen to it they got caught. Besides, we had nothing against each other. Even when he must have been actually fooling around with her, between he and I it was all a friendly colleague relationship. He's got to be the best liar in the world."

"How long was he around?"

"Not long at all! He was in another state soon after that. He came over once, when the boys were young, and there was nothing odd about it. He did ask to see the boys, but why not? He'd been a friend of ours. He knew my older son. I had no idea he just wanted to check out the younger."

"So it's the younger of your two sons? Did you and your ex have any other children?"

"No, those two are it."

"Does your older son have children?"

"No."

"Is he married?"

"No. He's only twenty-four, and he's still in college, because he was injured seriously when he was nineteen."

"What about the younger son? Is he married, how old is how?"

"He's not married and never was. He's twenty-two. He has only this one child. He's no longer with the child's mother, but somebody else yet."

"All this and only twenty-two?"

"All that, and some more."

"Some more, like what?"

"He ran away from home after the accident. The accident his older brother was injured in was a hunting accident. We were out hunting and Alexander shot his brother."

"Oh my. He must be a real mess."

"He ended up here – we're from Florida – where he dealt drugs until the crime lord he was working for fired him, had him beaten up for doing something wrong. Wrong as far as that system is concerned. Oh, the mother of the child is the crime lord's wife. This mobster seems to be out of town on a long sabbatical, because he's not causing any trouble right now, and Alexander is actually getting along with the mother of the child pretty well."

"OK. Where's your ex-wife?"

"Hanging around her with her ex-lover, the sperm donor for Alexander. Alexander had an attack and ended up in the hospital. It turned out he had an inherited heart condition. His biological father came; his family's medical history explained the problem. We have it treated. Well, my ex-wife does whatever she can to promote this biological father and son relationship."

"Make it into something more than biological."

"Exactly. And she really lucked out. He has been married three times and never had other children. He's divorced. Really, the timing couldn't be more perfect for her."

"You think they're involved again?"

"Who knows? She said it was over way back by the time Alex was born, but for all I know he could have flown in to see her often. I guess it's not that likely, or I'd have run into him more. And if she was involved with him now, I guess, she'd make sure I knew it. They'd have no reason to hide it from me now. They'd prefer the opposite. I see him with her, but also, I see him with Alexander."

"Without her."

"Yes. At least, the last time."

"Did you son say you can't see your grandchild because you're not his biological father?"

"No, that's the strange thing. He must have talked to a lawyer, who must have told him something like what you've told me. What I remember is him saying the relationship between he and I - he meant the not-biological – our not getting along - would come out, and he seemed to think that was his trump card."

"It could be, but it depends why."

"If I could answer that, I might not have these problems. My father was strict. With Peter I could be reasonably strict. Then with Alexander, it doesn't work. You try something else. It doesn't work. Then you try something else. It doesn't work. He's mad from before and that compounds it."

"Did you get a divorce over this?"

"No, I'm not sure of the reason for the divorce; she could tell you, I think. She was almost no help raising them, so everything I did had a multiplied effect."

"I see. She didn't disagree with how you handled Alexander?"

"Nope. And she didn't have any better ideas, either. Recently she has taken to complaining I prefer Peter. I don't prefer him, it's just that I never had to try as hard with him and he never started hating me. Well, with Alexander everything spirals out of control before you know it."

"How dead set against you is he?"

"Not completely, but I don't understand perfectly what he wants. He wants me to change, he says. I criticize him too much, and he says I think he's stupid. I have a hard time with the accident. Everybody else in the family has forgotten it. Even Peter, my older son, he was the one who got shot. At first it looked like he's be a paraplegic, and never walk again. But he overcame all that."

"Is he in college here, or somewhere else?"

"Over in Switzerland, near the clinic where he got his treatment. It's one of the top places in the world for that kind of thing. He wants to go into it, after his experience. Become a physical therapist."

"Does he get along with Alexander?"

"Yes."

"Maybe he can help you."

"I'd hate to burden him with that."

"See if he thinks it's a burden."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. I can't talk directly to Alex, because my ex-wife and her sperm donor are always in the way. See, the attack he had. I happened to be there. It's the type of thing stress brings on, and he and I were arguing as usual. But it was his heart, and it turned out that it was actually really lucky I was the one who was there. I'm said to be the cause of his stress, though. I may be, but I didn't know he was vulnerable to stress then. I've tried to be more careful with him now, but an old pattern will come back into play, and I really have to watch out. And neither my ex-wife or her sperm donor are any help. Peter could be, though. It's something he might like to do for his brother."

"Maybe you can find a way to get along with Alexander."

"It's be a miracle. It was already to the point where I could barely talk to him. The years on the run didn't help like I thought they might. I thought it couldn't get worse, but along comes this biological father thing and it did."

"Does that have to make it worse? Does it change your attitude towards him?"

"It hasn't, that I can figure. No, I don't see that it has. Strange, isn't it, but the only difference to me is this former lover of my ex-wife's suddenly thinks he has some claim to take up for Alexander, who of course can't resist that."

"Sounds like a tough situation. But in some ways, it's not too bad. It could have been worse. If it had come out when Alexander was a minor, and if you had gotten divorced then, it would have made a messy custody or visitation case."

"Yes. I can give my ex-wife credit for waiting until they were grown, at least."

"Well, if you can give your ex credit for anything, you're farther along than a lot of people," Jackie said. "I see it every day."

"You really must. How can you stand this type of law, anyway?"