Chapter 7 - The Hearing
The motion was heard four days later, in a small courtroom with buzzing fluorescent lights — the kind of room where important things happen with no ceremony at all.
Paula sat next to me. Across the aisle, Dylan sat with his attorney, Douglas Krane, a man with the practiced stillness of someone used to walking out of rooms like this a winner. Alyssa wasn't there. Paula had told me that morning that Krane had wisely left her home.
The reviewing judge was a woman named Judge Harmon. She'd read the filings. You could tell by the look she gave Douglas Krane before anyone had said a word.
"Mr. Krane," she said, before he'd even settled. "I've read the original petition and the order signed by Judge Brandt. I've also read the oversight complaint and the affidavit from Ms. Gable. I have questions."
"Of course, Your Honor."
"The emergency petition was filed on a Thursday. The order was signed Friday morning. No notice to the mother. No guardian ad litem for the child." She folded her hands on the bench. "Walk me through the emergency."
Krane opened his folder. "Your Honor, the petitioner had documented concerns regarding the child's home environment, including—"
"One report," Judge Harmon said. "Filed eleven days earlier. By the petitioner's fiancée."
"Corroborated by a character statement from—"
"The petitioner himself." She closed her folder. "Mr. Krane. What is the relationship between your client and Judge Brandt?"
A pause. "They're related by marriage, Your Honor. Distantly."
"Judge Brandt is the petitioner's uncle by marriage. That was not disclosed anywhere in the filing."
"An oversight—"
"A disqualifying conflict of interest." Her voice didn't rise. It didn't have to. "The order is vacated."
Krane leaned forward. "Your Honor, if I may—"
"The order is vacated, Mr. Krane. The child is returned to his mother's custody today." She turned to our side of the room. "Ms. Reyes."
Paula stood. "Yes, Your Honor."
"I'm ordering a full custody evaluation. Both parents. Sixty days. The child stays with his mother pending the result." She looked back at Dylan. "Mr. Brandt, you will have no contact with your son outside of supervised visitation until that evaluation is finished. Understood?"
Dylan's jaw worked. "Yes. Your Honor."
"I'm also referring this filing to the state bar for a review of Mr. Krane's conduct." She gathered her papers. "And I'm forwarding the matter of Judge Brandt's undisclosed conflict to the judicial conduct commission."
Krane said nothing. Dylan stared at the table.
Paula touched my arm. I looked down at my hands folded in my lap. They were completely still. First time in a month.
In the hallway, Dylan caught up to me before I reached the doors.
"Erin."
I stopped. Paula stopped beside me.
He looked like a man who had rehearsed something and lost it somewhere between the courtroom and the hall.
"I thought—" He started over. "I thought it was the right thing. For Caleb."
"You told our son I gave him away," I said. "You took his phone so he couldn't call me. You filed false reports and used your uncle to skip a hearing." I held his eyes. "That wasn't for Caleb. That was for you."
His mouth opened.
"The evaluation starts next week," I said. "Be honest in it. For once."
I walked out through the courthouse doors into the afternoon light. Paula came out beside me and didn't say anything for a moment.
Then: "I'll call you when the paperwork clears. Couple of hours."
"Thank you."
She turned toward the lot. I stood on the courthouse steps and called Denise's house.
Caleb picked up on the first ring. "Mom? What happened?"
"You're coming home today," I said. "For good. I'm getting in the car right now."
A pause. Then a sound I hadn't heard from him in weeks — a long, shaky breath that broke halfway into something almost like a laugh.
"Okay," he said. "Okay. I'll get my stuff."
"You don't have stuff there, baby."
"I know." Another breath. "I just didn't know what else to say."
May you like
"Me neither," I said. "I'm already walking to the car."
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