Chapter 7: What Was in the Second Envelope
Patricia called at eight the following morning.
"I need you to come in," she said.
"There's been a development."
She didn't say what it was on the phone.
Daniel drove to her office alone, leaving Thomas with Cal.
Patricia was standing when he arrived.
That was the first sign.
"Sit down, Daniel."
He sat.
She placed a document on the desk in front of him.
It was a legal filing — a response to a motion he hadn't known had been made.
He read the header.
*Emergency Motion for Temporary Sole Custody — Petitioner: Renee Calloway.*
"They filed this yesterday afternoon," Patricia said.
"After your phone call with Hale."
"On what grounds?"
"They're claiming you represent an unstable presence in Thomas's life.
Erratic return, no fixed address since your return, emotional confrontation in the family home." She paused.
"They've also submitted a declaration from a therapist stating that Thomas has expressed fear of his father."
The room was very still.
"That's not true," Daniel said.
"I know."
"He came to me in that backyard.
He leaned into me.
He said my name."
"I know, Daniel.
But the declaration exists.
A judge will see it." Patricia sat down across from him.
"This is Hale's move.
He's trying to get temporary sole custody established before we can build our case.
If he gets it, the burden shifts.
You become the party trying to restore contact rather than the party defending existing rights."
"Can he get it?"
"The motion will be heard in four days.
The judge will want to speak with Thomas's current therapist — if he has one — and review the declaration." She looked at him steadily.
"Does Thomas have a therapist?"
"Not that I know of.
Not one I arranged."
"The therapist who submitted the declaration — her name is Dr.
Sylvia Crane.
She's based in Carver County."
Daniel looked up.
"Same county as the property," Patricia said.
"Yes."
He sat back.
"She's connected to Hale."
"I can't prove that yet.
But I intend to find out." Patricia opened a second folder.
"There's something else.
My investigator pulled the full title history on the Carver County property.
It was purchased fourteen months ago, as we established.
But there's a second name on the deed."
She slid a page across the desk.
Daniel read it.
The second name was not Marcus Hale.
It was Thomas Calloway.
His son's name was on the deed.
His seven-year-old son, listed as a secondary beneficiary of a property Daniel had never seen, purchased one month after he left the country.
"They put Thomas's name on it," Daniel said.
"It creates a legal tie," Patricia said.
"It makes Hale appear to have Thomas's long-term interests at heart.
It also complicates any attempt to challenge the property as purely a personal financial arrangement between Hale and Renee."
"He planned this before I even landed overseas."
"It appears so."
Daniel stared at the page.
His son's name, in a legal document, in a county he'd never visited, tied to a man he'd trusted.
"What do we do?" he asked.
"We fight the emergency motion first.
I need the independent psychologist to see Thomas before that hearing — ideally in the next forty-eight hours.
I also need you to gather every piece of communication you have from the past fourteen months.
Every call log, every video call record, every message." She leaned forward.
"And I need you to think very carefully.
Is there anyone — a colleague, a neighbor, a family friend — who saw Thomas during the past year and can speak to his condition?"
Daniel thought.
Then he thought of something else.
Something he hadn't considered until this moment.
"The research station had a communication log," he said slowly.
"Every call I made was timestamped and recorded for administrative purposes.
It would show every time I tried to contact Thomas.
Including the times I called and no one answered."
Patricia was very still.
"How many times did you call and get no answer?"
Daniel looked at her.
"Dozens," he said.
"Over the last six months.
I thought it was the time difference.
I thought Thomas was at school, or asleep, or—" He stopped.
"They were blocking my calls."
Patricia picked up her pen.
May you like
"I need that log," she said.
"Get it today."
