Finding a Family

Chapter 26

Freddie's POV
These past 24 hours didn't feel real. It felt like I was in a nightmare, a horrible nightmare. I kept replaying the whole event over and over in my head. The social worker coming to our door, Hannah crying and clinging to me for dear life, and the police officer carrying her away while she screamed for Alan and I. As soon as they drove off with her Alan was a man on a mission. He called a lawyer and arranged for us to meet the next day. He told me all the steps we would likely have to take get her back. I faintly remember him telling me that this had something to do with Sandy. To be honest was in a complete daze, the only way I knew how to cope was to go numb. I just went through the motions, nodding or shaking my head when Alan asked me a question. Agreeing to to see a lawyer the next day. Holding Alan as he cried as we laid in bed. The next morning, out of habit, I went to go wake up Hannah but was reminded of what happened when I found her empty bed. I went downstairs to make some coffee and Juliet was meowing and looking for Hannah, even Samson kept looking around for her. As I sat with my coffee my mind was tormented wondering where she was, thinking how scared she must be, wondering who was taking care of her. Alan came downstairs already showered and dressed, "Freddie, get ready we have to go see the lawyer in a couple of hours. What are you doing just sitting here?" he said. "Sorry darling, I just lost track of the time," I said before I went upstairs to get showered and dressed.

On the way to the lawyers office Alan went on about everything we needed to do. "I'm hoping the judge will drop the claims once they see how ridiculous they are. I mean all they have to do is look at Hannah to know we aren't unfit parents," he said. I just sat there and said the occasional, "yes, darling." Once we got the office we were introduced to our lawyer, Jim. He looked about mid 40s and had the look of confidence in him while still being humble. He introduced himself to us and led us to his office. Once we sat down, he went over the the paper work. "First off I want to say that I know this is a difficult time for everyone and I'm sorry you're going through this," Jim said. "Thank you, we just want this resolved as quickly as possible and get our daughter home," Alan said. "I understand. Now this might be difficult but we need to discuss the claims against you. According to the formal complaint, it appears that you two are being accused of failure to tend to Hannah's mental health needs and child abuse," Jim said. "Those claims are preposterous. We take Hannah to therapy and she is in a school that best meets her needs. We would never hurt Hannah. All they have to do is look at Hannah to know she is well taken care of," Alan said. "Look the woman who made these claims is a former graduate student, Sandy, who used to study at the hospital and work with Hannah. She was going to use Hannah as the focus of her dissertation. After we got custody of Hannah we wouldn't allow it because of the way she treated Hannah. I found out that after we wouldn't let her near Hannah she had no material for her dissertation and was subsequently asked to leave. I think this is a ploy both to get her hands on Hannah and to get revenge on Freddie and I," Alan said. "I see. The report from the social worker says that there were no current signs of abuse, but the complaint says that Hannah had cuts and bruises when she was in the hospital," Jim said. "Of course she had cuts and bruises she had just come out of an abusive home! We would never lay a finger on Hannah, we love her. We were hoping these charges could be dropped once the judge sees how untrue they are," Alan said. "Unfortunately don't think the judge will drop the claim. Because of Hannah's history and the fact that the adoption hasn't been finalized yet they are going to take Hannah's case more seriously than others. It's not a judgment on you but they will go the extra mile to ensure that Hannah doesn't end up in an abusive situation again. You two could be Mike and Carol Brady and the judge would still move forward with the court proceedings," Jim said. "Is there any way we can check on her, just make sure she's okay? Let her know we are fighting for her?" I said. "The first thing that's going to happen is that our case is going to be presented to the judge during a pretrial. The judge will say why we are here and set the day for when the trial will being. But on that day we can ask for visitation. That will allow you to keep some contact with Hannah while the court proceedings go on," Jim said. "Now we're going to need as much people to testify as possible as to why Hannah belongs with you. I'm going to need the contacts of teachers, her doctor, her therapist, anyone who can speak to how good of parents you are," Jim went on. "Okay we can do that," Alan said. "This is going to be a very emotionally difficult process. It's not easy to hear other people making claims of you being bad parents let alone be away from your child. But if we just go up there and tell the full truth we will get Hannah back," Jim said. I couldn't help but notice that Alan had a slight look of panic on his face when Jim said "full truth," but I just wrote it off as stress and fear due to everything that was happening. "Now you two go home and get some rest, you'll need your strength for the pretrial tomorrow," Jim said.

Alan and I drove home in silence, both of us thinking about the road we had ahead of us. Once we got home Alan had to head to work and I was left alone in the house. It was painful feeling how empty the house was. Every where I looked I was reminded of Hannah. I had thoughts of us eating breakfast together at the table, her playing with Juliet in the living room, me singing her to sleep in her room. I decided to try to distract myself and get some writing done in my office. I sat at the piano trying to get any tune out but nothing was working no matter how hard I tried. I kept thinking of Hannah sitting next to me as I played. Just last week she was asking me to show her how to play. She was so proud of herself when I showed her how to play a scale. The more I thought about it the more angry I got that this happened. How could anyone think that we would hurt her? How could they take her away while she was screaming and crying for us? The next thing I knew I was destroying my office. Throwing books off my shelf, breaking glasses, throwing chairs. In a matter of minutes my office was destroyed. I looked around at the wreck and then broke down in tears. They had taken my little girl away, my joy. Where was she? Was she okay? Did she blame us? I wanted to drown my sorrows in alcohol but I knew I had to stay sober for our court hearing tomorrow. I needed to be strong so we could get Hannah back and end this nightmare.