Saving Meghan(53)

“They have the ability to pursue permanent custody and also termination of your parental rights.”

Becky gasped. “Just make her not ours? They can’t do that!”

“I’m afraid they can,” said the attorney. “But we have our opportunity to present our case tomorrow, which I feel is very strong. This is a fluid process, and the hearing of the initial petition on parental unfitness will take time. But we have to cooperate. We have to play by the rules. If we lose the seventy-two-hour hearing, we’ll have other chances to get Meghan back. We can’t look at any defeat as a final blow. Is that understood?”

Everyone nodded. To himself, Zach pondered the significance of losing the hearing. Meghan would remain at White, a prisoner of the Behavioral Health Unit, and a clock would be set for the permanent termination of the Gerards’ parental rights.

“How do we win this case?” Becky asked.

Leers turned to Zach.

He cleared his throat. “This is a matter of ‘he said, she said,’” he began. “We’re trying to prove Meghan has a disease that we haven’t yet confirmed.”

“How do you confirm it, Dr. Fisher?” Carl asked. Zach detected more than a trickle of exasperation in his voice. “Because we’ve been down this road before. And there’s never an answer. There’s never just one test. There are lots more tests, followed by more guessing, like my daughter is some fucking science experiment.”

“She’s hardly that!” Zach felt his blood surge. “There are other tests. There are things we can do that we haven’t done, that we should have done.”

“Well, why didn’t you!” Carl demanded.

“Because your daughter is terrified of needles!” Zach tossed his hands in the air. “I couldn’t do the tests I wanted. She had a panic attack in my office, or do you not remember? We need to do that muscle biopsy and maybe an EMG, but both involve a lot of needles.”

“Well, if she hadn’t made her so afraid of them, maybe we’d get that done.” Carl sent Becky a look that put a quick end to reunification hopes. “But that needle you showed us was the size of her damn arm. She’ll be scarred forever if you try to put that in her.”

“Better that than she doesn’t come home?” said Becky through gritted teeth.

Carl’s shoulders slumped forward. “So that’s what it’s come to. That’s our only hope to get her back. My God, Becky, what have you done?”

Becky looked stunned. “I’ve been trying to help her!”

“Next time, don’t do her any favors.”

“Please, please,” Leers said, pleading for calm. “This would be a disaster for us tomorrow. Okay? A disaster. The seventy-two-hour hearing is always rushed. We don’t have proper time to prepare a big defense as it is. Dr. Fisher is our star witness. He’s the best hope we have for getting Meghan back where she belongs. Is that understood?”

Carl gave a reluctant nod, but only after Becky sent him a scathing sideways glance.

“When we go before the judge, Zach will present medical evidence to show that Meghan has mitochondrial disease,” the attorney continued.

“How’s that going to work when you haven’t proved it yet?” Carl asked. “You couldn’t convince Dr. Nash; how are you going to convince a judge?”

“Let’s let Dr. Fisher handle that,” Leers said.

Carl threw his hands up. “Well, then, I guess I’ll prepare myself for the worst.”

“You need to do more than that,” Leers advised, somewhat forebodingly.

“How so?” Carl asked, nonplussed.

Leers scanned the room as her expression turned increasingly tense. “These cases, from my experience, tend to get very emotional. Oftentimes it’s difficult to maintain a unified front.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

Zach sensed the attorney’s reluctance to answer.

“Meaning that while I represent your interests as a couple, I strongly suggest that you each retain your own counsel individually.”

“Why would we need that?” Becky asked.

“Don’t be dim, Becky,” Carl said in a dark voice that made Zach wonder if he’d ever been violent with her before. “We need it because we might be forced to go up against each other,” he said. “A judge may have to decide if one of us is fit to parent Meghan, but not the other.”

“Oh my God.” Becky looked the way the parents of Zach’s patients did when he had to deliver bad news. For the remainder of the meeting, Becky did not say another word.





CHAPTER 25


The courtroom was nothing special. The judge sat at an imposing wood desk bracketed by two American flags in heavy-duty stands. To one side was the witness box, and on the other stood a smaller desk for a court clerk. A bailiff in a brown uniform, gun holstered around his waist, hovered near the table reserved for the Gerards’ attorney, Andrea Leers. The opposing attorney, representing the Department of Children and Families, sat directly across from Leers. A wood partition separated the lawyers from the section reserved for the public, but there was no jury box. This was a civil matter, and Meghan’s fate rested solely with the judge.

The room was divided like a wedding, with those supporting White on one side of the aisle and the Gerards on the other. Zach sat in the row behind Becky and Carl. Across from him sat Nash, Knox Singer, a very nervous Dr. Levine, and the people from DCF, including someone named Annabel Hope, whom Becky had pointed out with contempt. Jill Mendoza, Meghan’s new decision maker, was in attendance as well. Nash would not meet Zach’s gaze, though he noticed she seemed to have no trouble glancing over at the Gerards.