He set his things down before finally offering his hand to James. “Trevor Nelan, at your service. To my understanding, we’re here for a child custody agreement outside of court?”
My stomach dropped through the floor and my eyes went wide. Child custody agreement?”
“I managed to draw up a few different agreements, all with different stipulations, and we can mix and match whatever you find important. The one thing is all of them cover until the child is eighteen years old, so once these are signed by both parties, it will take a court case and a judge to change the terms.”
I looked to James, feeling the corner of my eyes water. “Are you sure about this?” I asked, voice week. “You want to take care of this kid for eighteen years?”
James nodded, looking as cool as a cucumber. “Yes. I figured it’s my responsibility as much as yours, and since you’ll be dealing with the day to day troubles, I can at least do my part to relieve your burden.”
I couldn’t believe it. Despite everything I had thought, this strange man and millionaire was willing to take care of the beautiful life inside of me. How was that possible? I wasn’t the type of girl that these things happened to. I was the kind of girl who worked hard but still always came out on the bottom.
And yet… this seemed very much not bottom.
“Oh, and Tevor,” James continued, looking to the lawyer. “I need you to add a housing stipend to whatever we choose, unless you have it already.”
“Do we have an amount?” The lawyer asked, sitting behind his desk and looking quite professional despite the fact that he had obviously been surprise-dragged here on the weekend.
“That I might need your help on. I’m not aware of the cost of living around here and I want to make sure the child is secure.”
“Fair enough. So, let’s get into it, shall we?” He handed one packet to me and then the other to James, looking at us expectantly. “Reading is fundamental, after all.”
***
I had never been much for terms and conditions or other legalese, so when we finally finished reading, re-reading and rewording everything we wanted, it was well into the evening and time for dinner. I didn’t even want to guess at how much money this meeting was costing James, but like with everything else, money didn’t seem to be an object with him.
In fact, I didn’t want to think at all. My mind was chock full of insurance responsibilities, education clauses, standards of care of judiciary revision. I never knew there was so much involved in a custody agreement, but apparently it was a lot more than ‘you watch the kid for x amount of time and I’ll watch them for y’.
In the end, I felt like we had a solid arrangement drafted. And by solid, I meant absolutely phenomenal. To think I had been so stressed for so many months thinking about how I was going to survive and provide for my baby how I wanted, when in reality it just took a lawyer with a great knowledge of family court.
We decided I would have full time custody, but James would have unlimited visitation. If he wanted to take our child out of the state, he needed to give me twenty-four-hour notice, and if he wanted to take them out of the country, I required a week’s notice as well as a proof of return ticket. That last part had seemed absolutely silly to me, but the lawyer said that it was a standard clause to insure no child napping considering that 8 times out of 10 a missing child was taken by one of their parents.
If either of us was suspicious of the other not providing the care level that the child deserved, or otherwise abusing them, there was a mandatory procedure for what to do with a family psychologist and someone would come do interview with both parents. Hopefully that would never be an issue, but I was glad it was there nonetheless.
Then there was all the money. It was a lot of money. I had never once thought to look at James as a meal ticket, but I was sure that most of the people that he knew would.
There was a two thousand a month college payment that was going into a trust that neither the child or I could touch until they were eighteen. There was a hundred dollar a month food stipend, a hundred-dollar clothing stipend, a five hundred dollar back-to-school stipend in September, a thousand dollar birthday and Christmas stipend, complete insurance coverage, and -perhaps most importantly- a clause stating that James would cover all of my rent while I was living in a place of his choosing, and half rent if I moved into somewhere I liked.