Chapter 25 Magnolia
MAGNOLIA
It was Erik. Of course. It had to be him. I received a call one morning from a lawyer based in Jakarta. I was so confused that it took me a while to understand what he was saying.
“Who are you again?” I said, distracted by Hazel, who was in her high chair, eating oatmeal with her bare hands.
“I’m Hendrik Tjoeng, a lawyer representing Bapak Erik Sanjaya.”
“Okay…” It hit me then that this must have something to do with the legalities of Iris’s death. “How can I help you?”
“Ibu Magnolia, I’m very sorry for your loss, but I’m afraid there has been some confusion regarding the guardianship of Bapak Erik’s daughter, Hazel Sanjaya.”
I froze. “What do you mean?” I hated the way he’d referred to Hazel as Erik’s daughter.
“I see that you have filed for guardianship for Hazel in the state of California, but you don’t have the right to do that. Her legal guardian is her biological father, Bapak Erik.”
A startled laugh choked out of me. “You have got to be kidding. Erik hasn’t even seen her. They have no relationship.”
Ellery, who had been in the shower, came out then, toweling her hair dry. She walked toward me with a cautious look on her face. I could only shake my head at her.
“That was not by choice. Ibu Iris had taken the child without his consent and run away—”
“Yeah, because he was beating the shit out of her!” I snapped.
Hazel paused mid-bite and stared at me. “It’s okay, I’ve got her,” Ellery said, and gestured for me to go out onto the patio.
I did so, closing the glass door behind me. “Sorry, can you repeat that?”
“I said, there are no records of domestic violence. Did Ibu Iris file a formal report?”
“No. She didn’t want things to get ugly. She just wanted to get away from him.”
There was a pause. “Then there are no records, like I said. And Bapak Erik is well within his rights to claim guardianship of his child.”
“She’s not a thing!” I hissed. “She’s a child who just lost her mother. He can’t just take her away from everything she’s known and claim her.”
“I understand this is a very tough situation for all of you, but the legalities of the matter are quite clear. And since Ibu Iris and Bapak Erik never filed for divorce, they were technically married up until she died. Hazel is very much Bapak Erik’s responsibility in every sense of the word.”
“He was an abusive husband who beat my sister up while she was pregnant. Please, please don’t do this.”
The lawyer sounded genuinely empathetic when he said, “I am so sorry to hear that. But this is a matter of law.”
“I’m not taking her to Indonesia. We’re staying here, in LA.”
“I would highly advise against doing that. If you refuse to comply, this could turn into a criminal case. You could be charged with kidnapping.”
“Kidnapping?” It was so utterly ridiculous that I laughed. A mirthless, shrill sound I barely recognized.
“Yes. I highly advise you against doing anything brash. Please, Ibu Magnolia, let us do things peacefully. Bapak Erik is being generous; he has purchased airplane tickets for both you and Hazel to return to Jakarta, and he is prepared to reimburse you for all of the costs of looking after Hazel since her mother’s passing,” he said.
“I don’t need his money!” How stupid and petty I sounded then, even to my own ears. “I’m going to fight this. I’m going to take him to court. He can’t do this.”
“When you do find legal counsel, please have them contact me. This is an urgent matter, Ibu Magnolia. I suggest you find a lawyer within the next twenty-four hours.” With that, he ended the call.
I stared at the phone until Ellery knocked on the glass door, making me jump. I went inside and told her what just happened, and her face turned pale. We both looked at Hazel, who was done with her oatmeal and was now on to blueberries.
“What can I do?” I said. I could feel the edges of a panic attack starting, but I reminded myself to keep breathing. I didn’t have the luxury of falling apart right now, not when there was a real possibility that Hazel could be taken away from us.
Ellery took my hand. Her face was so tight with fear, but her voice somehow remained even.
“Call your parents. They run a business back in Jakarta, so they’ll have contacts for good lawyers.
You need an Indonesian lawyer, I think, since Iris and Erik were married in Jakarta and had Hazel in Jakarta. ”
I nodded. “Right. Okay.” I went outside again and dialed Mama’s number.
I had no idea if she would even pick up.
Ever since Parker and I moved here, my relationship with my parents had withered into nearly nothing.
The last time I spoke to them was when Iris passed away, and what they had said was, “Oh god,” before hanging up the phone.
I wasn’t sure if they’d had to go and process their own grief; truth be told, I was too wrapped up in my own grief to reach back out to them.
And now I was realizing what a selfish thing it was for me to leave them to their own devices.
“Hello?” Mama said, picking up after the fourth ring.
“Mama.” My voice came out high and tight, so close to breaking.
“Magnolia.” She sounded tired. “When are you coming home?” There was zero hope in her voice, only resignation, and my heart twisted. Had she been waiting for me and Parker to go back all this time?
“I don’t know. Listen, I need your help.” I quickly filled her in on the situation. “I need a good lawyer, Ma. The best one you know of.”
“I’ll ask the other doctors.” Mama paused, and I could sense her hesitation. “I…have always wanted to apologize to you. And Iris. For the way I reacted when she left Erik.”
A tear slipped out of my eyes. “It’s okay, Mama.”
“I should’ve been there for her. For both of you. I shouldn’t have cared about anything else other than her well-being. I failed you both as a mother.” She started crying then. “Please, Magnolia, will you come home?”
“I…I don’t know. I need to do what’s best for Hazel.”
Mama sniffed, swallowing her sobs. Finally, she said, “I understand that. She’s your baby now. I’ll call up the other doctors now. One of them will know of a good lawyer.”
“Thank you.”
“Magnolia?”
“Yes?”
“Give Hazel a kiss for me.”
She called back within the hour with four names for me to try.
I thanked her and started going down the list. The first two lawyers I called were unavailable.
The third put me on hold for fifteen minutes before the line suddenly went dead.
I was on the fourth and last lawyer. It turned out to be a woman, which took me aback, because I knew just how impossible it was to be a woman and stay in such a competitive profession in Indonesia.
I recovered quickly and introduced myself.
“What can I help you with, Ibu Magnolia?” the lawyer, Andika, said.
She sounded young, and I second-guessed the wisdom of consulting with her, then hated myself for doubting her.
If she were a man, I would spill everything without even a second thought.
I filled her in as best as I could, stumbling over details and feeling like I was making a meal of it.
I was so nervous, and there was so much on the line.
Andika listened quietly, only saying, “I see,” and “Right,” once in a while, until I was done speaking.
Then she said, “Just to clarify: You would like to put yourself forward as your niece’s legal guardian, even though her biological father, who was still legally married to her biological mother up until her death, is still in the picture and making a claim for the return of his daughter? ”
God. When she put it like that, it sounded so hopeless. “Yes,” I said in a small voice.
Andika took a deep breath. “It’s going to be very tough. I don’t know if—”
“He used to beat her up. Even when she was pregnant.”
There was a pause. “Did she ever file charges?”
My stomach sank. “No.”
“Were there any witnesses?”
“Me. And my husband. And my parents. Well, we didn’t actually see him beating her, we saw the wounds.”
“Did you document these wounds?”
“Document?”
“Did you take any photos?”
I started to shake my head, then stopped. “Yes. Yes! We did. Iris didn’t want to press charges, but we took pictures in case Erik tried to make life difficult for her.”
“Do you still have those photos?”
“Yeah. I’ll need to look for them, but they’ll be on my laptop somewhere.”
“Good.” She made a hmm sound for a moment, and I could almost see her sitting there, thinking. “We may have a case. If we could show the judge that Bapak Erik has a history of violence, we could argue that he would make an unfit parent to Hazel.”
I wanted to leap up into the air. My stomach was flip-flopping inside me. “Yes! Exactly.”
“And her legal guardian would be you,” Andika mused.
“Yes.”
“You are married, correct?”
“Yes.”
“What do you and your husband do?”
“My husband is the head of an OBGYN family clinic, and I…” I hesitated. “Well, actually, I just finished a master’s degree in social work.”
“Oh, good. Very impressive. We would make a good case to show that the two of you would be far more appropriate guardians to Hazel.”
“We would…” My voice trailed off.
“Why do you sound unsure?”
“Ah…” I gritted my teeth and grimaced at the wall, cringing at what I was about to ask. “Would it be possible to prove that I would be a more appropriate guardian to Hazel? Not me and my husband, but me as an individual.”
Another long pause. “Are you and your husband planning on separating?”
“It is…a possibility?”
There was a hiss, like Andika was sucking in her breath through her teeth. After a while, she said, “Do you have a stable income?”
I closed my eyes. “No.”
“Any assets? Annual dividend payouts? Stakes in the clinic?”
“No.” The clinic was as good as Parker’s, because of course it couldn’t possibly be passed down to a woman.
“Where would you reside after separating from your husband?”
“I—here. In LA. Probably at my sister’s old place.”
“Oh.” Andika sounded taken aback. “In LA? The US?”