Chapter 22

For the next few weeks Brian was busy with meetings with his lawyer. After the initial contact with Stephen Watson had been established by Ted, Brian had met with the man and had liked him immediately. Watson had been honest and straight to the point, not hiding in excuses or long and winding explanations.

He had informed Brian that he thought they had a really good case, especially since Melanie wasn't Gus' biological mother. He had been honest and had said that the situation would have been a lot harder if she had been as courts often tend to favour the mother, but with Lindsay being in prison and out of the question for the foreseeable future Brian was the only biological parent available to take care of Gus and that gave him a huge advantage over Melanie.

As they had talked over their options, the lawyer had pointed out that these kind of three-way-custody issues were still a rather new thing in court so there weren't a lot of precedents they could rely on. He had also pointed out that Brian being a father to Luke would also play in his favour as he would thereby already be established as a parent who would know how to take care of a child. If Luke hadn't existed and it had just been Brian's scheduled visits with his son so far it would have been a lot harder to convince a judge that Brian, the CEO of Kinnetik Inc. and owner of a gay night club would be able to raise a child.

Brian had felt it necessary to point out his recent investigation by Child Protective Services at that point, knowing that he needed to be honest with his lawyer if he wanted to have any chance of seeing Gus again. The lawyer had listened to Brian's explanations and had demanded the files of the investigation to be sent to his office. During their next meeting he had told Brian that Brian had nothing to be afraid of and that the investigation would even work in their favour. At Brian's confused frown he had continued on and had pointed out how the investigation had cleared Brian of any suspicions of child neglect and endangerment and had basically proven that he was a good father. That could work in their favour as every judge knew how thorough Child Protective Services were and if they hadn't found anything amiss, that meant that Brian was not a danger to Luke or Gus.

The meetings with the lawyer had made Brian feel slightly better, especially since he hadn't talked to Gus ever since the night before Luke's abduction. Ever since Lindsay had been incarcerated, he hadn't been able to see Gus, have him over for a visit or even as much as speak to him and it tore at his heartstrings that he didn't know how his son was doing. He knew that Gus had to be suffering. The boy loved Lindsay and her being gone had to be a huge change for him and he only hoped that Melanie took good care of him and made up for Lindsay's absence and his own. Every time he had tried calling her, she had hung up and had refused to let him talk to Gus. In the end she had even gone as far as block his number.

Thankfully Watson had proven that he was worth the money Brian was paying him as he had filed papers for a custody hearing within a week of Brian meeting him for the first time.

He had warned Brian that it might take several weeks until they would get a date for a hearing as now the ball was in Melanie's court and her side had the chance to file papers as well or to agree to a mediation meeting.

Only a week after Brian's lawyer had filed the papers, Brian had received word from him that Melanie had refused the offer of a mediation meeting and wanted to go to court. Apparently she thought she had a strong case which Brian's lawyer couldn't quite see himself.

So over the course of the next few weeks preparations for a custody battle began and Brian's lawyer interviewed Ted, Blake and Jennifer, asking them for statements in support of Brian. Cynthia also offered to give a statement, after all she had seen several times how Brian would drop everything to be there for his sons, but in the end Watson had decided against using her, not wanting to give the impression that Brian might have paid his employee to say good things about him. Cynthia had been miffed about that decision to say the least, but in the end she had understood and accepted it, promising Brian that she would be there for moral support.

Brian appreciated all the help he got from his friends and despite the pain of not being able to speak to Gus at the moment, he started to feel slightly optimistic that soon a visitation schedule would be in place and he would see his son again regularly.

At the same time as preparing for the custody battle, the preparations for the abduction trial also took place and Brian had weekly meetings with the DA to prepare for that trial. At times Brian felt like all he did was meet with lawyers and take care of his son.

A week after Luke's abduction by Lindsay the results of the DNA test had come back and had proven once and for all that Brian was Luke's father and that Lindsay had lied. In light of the DNA results proving Brian's fatherhood, perjury charges were added to Lindsay's and Michael's list of already existing charges.

Debbie hadn't been happy when she had been informed and had stormed into Kinnetik, demanding to talk to Brian, but Brian had simply refused to see her. He had Ted inform her that she was not welcome at Kinnetik anymore if all she wanted to do was accuse him of being an asshole and not helping her son when he owed him. Debbie hadn't taken too kindly to Ted's words, but he couldn't have cared less. After he had seen how she had treated Brian after the abduction, he had pretty much stopped caring about her feelings.

Ever since that day Brian had thankfully been spared from any visits by her. At times he missed her, but if all she wanted was to tell him what an ungrateful bastard he was, he could very well do without her.

After a month of not having seen Gus, the judge had finally set a hearing and after being presented with the copies of the money Brian had paid for Gus' support, the judge had agreed that Brian would have the right to visitation with his son.

It took two more weeks to work out the details between Melanie, who refused to come down to Pittsburgh and bring Gus to Pittsburgh and Brian, who because of Luke would be unable to fly to Toronto every second weekend. In the end all parties agreed that Ted would fly to Toronto, would pick up Gus for his weekends with his daddy and would bring him back on Sundays when the weekend was over. This involved a lot of back and forth flying, but Ted knew that Brian didn't want to leave Luke on his own for whole weekends and wouldn't have much other chance to see his older son. This was the only option where Brian could spend the weekend with both his boys, not wanting to put Luke on planes every second weekend and Ted was only too glad to be of help.

If he was honest, he also hoped that he would be able to talk some sense into Melanie while he was up in Toronto picking up Gus. He had always been her friend, even before she had started dating Lindsay and he could only assume that she would be in need of a friend as well what with her marriage being over and her being alone in a foreign country with two small children.

On his visits to Toronto Ted had been shocked by what he had seen there. The Melanie he had known had all but disappeared and had been replaced by a cold, uncaring woman instead. To him it felt as if he didn't know her at all anymore. He didn't doubt that she was a good mother to JR and Gus and could only hope that she showed more emotion to them than in her short conversations with Ted.

In the end Ted had accepted that they had obviously drifted apart and Melanie wasn't interested in any more contact than his short visits every two weeks when he picked up Gus and brought him back two days later.

Life went on like that without any further big interruptions until the trial against Lindsay and Michael was supposed to start. It had taken about six months to prepare the trial and Brian couldn't wait for it to start. He hoped that once the trial was over, he could finally forget about what had happened and could move on.

He sat on the bench behind the DA, who was just about to present his case to the jury. Ted and Blake and Jennifer were sitting with him in the first row and Brian was glad for their support. Every once in a while he glanced over at Michael and Lindsay who were sitting at the desk of the defense, their lawyer busily taking notes as the DA was outlining how Lindsay with Michael's help had distracted Brian and taken Luke away from his father in an attempt to abduct the child to Canada so she could raise him there as her own son. The DA explained the sinister plan in detail and took quite some time to point out Michael's role in it, while the two defendants seemed to be bored by what the DA was saying. Every once in a while either of them would turn around and look at Brian, but he would only glare at them until they lowered their gazes and turned away.

Brian saw Debbie sitting behind the defense table and saw her shake her head furiously every time the DA mentioned Michael's involvement in what had happened. Thankfully she had stayed clear of Brian earlier and hadn't talked to him. For that he had been eternally grateful. Brian had a feeling that he probably had Carl to thank for that, who was sitting next to Debbie, but had come over earlier to greet everyone in Brian's row and had talked to them quietly, asking them how they were doing and holding up. He had pretty much ignored the death glares Debbie had thrown at him and when he had sat down next to her again, he had ignored her angry muttering.

After about two hours the DA was finished and it was the defense attorney's turn to present his defense. Since neither Lindsay nor Michael had access to a lot of money and Lindsay's parents had clearly refused to pay for a lawyer for her, they couldn't afford a very expensive lawyer and had hired a very young one. By the looks of it, he had barely finished law school and this was probably one of his first big cases. The poor guy seemed slightly stressed out, but did the best under the circumstances, outlining how his clients were only misunderstood and hadn't planned on abducting the baby, but had only wanted to do what was right for the baby and its father, giving him a bit of time to relax.

Relax, as if, Brian thought to himself and could only shake his head in astonishment when he heard that lame attempt at a defense. He wondered if the lawyer himself even believed what he was saying.

Another two hours later the defense attorney was done as well and it was time to start the trial. Brian knew that he was the first witness and when his name was called, he walked over to the witness stand, gave his name and address and swore to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

As the DA had prepared him well for this interrogation, Brian felt like it passed in mere minutes. He answered all the questions the DA asked him, gave details where needed and described the events of that day in a clear, concise manner.

Once he was done, the DA gave Brian a nod in acknowledgment to let him know that he had done a good job.

Now it was the defense attorney's turn and Brian wondered what he might have in store for him. Of course the DA had also gone over a couple of questions the defense might ask him, had prepared him for possible traps they might want him to fall into, but in the end no one but the defense attorney would really know where this interrogation was going.

“Mr Kinney, you are a single parent, is that true?” The lawyer began and Brian wondered what he would ask next.

“Yes, I am.”

“The father of Luke is not involved in raising the child?”

“No, he's not.”

“Can you explain to us why he's not involved?”

“Objection!” the DA immediately interrupted. “Relevance.”

“Sustained.”

“Is it true that you never informed the father that he has a son?” The attorney asked instead and Brian wondered if this was all the defense had.

“Objection! Once again relevance. Mr Kinney's relationship with the baby's second father has nothing to do with this trial,” the DA argued and once again the judge agreed with him.

In the end the defense attorney stopped that line of questioning when he felt that he wasn't getting anywhere and instead focused on how Brian had obtained the recording of Michael's confession.

“Is it true Mr Kinney, that you didn't make my client aware that the call was being recorded?”

“That is true.”

“Why didn't you make him aware?”

“When I called him, I didn't know what your client was about to say. Once he started confessing to a federal crime, my CFO Theodore Schmidt started the recording as we knew that it would be a crime itself if we didn't report the confession we had just heard.”

“Is it true that you and Mr Novotny have been friends for more than 20 years.”

“We met when we were fourteen and have been friends until last year.”

“Why did your friendship end?”

“Mr Novotny didn't seem able to accept that I was now a father and had a child that needed me to take care of him. He insisted on me continuing to drink and party and it just became obvious that we had moved apart.”

“And Mrs Peterson? You are the father to her son, aren't you?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Why did you agree to have a son with her?”

“She and her partner at the time, Melanie Marcus, wanted a child and asked me for my sperm. At first I didn't want to, but in the end I didn't see the harm in it and gave them my sperm.”

“So you were just the sperm donor?” The defense attorney asked and once again Brian could only wonder why he was talking about things from way back in their past instead of the reason for why they were there.

“That was the plan, yes.”

“What do you mean it was the plan?”

“The plan was for Mrs Peterson and Mrs Marcus to raise our son, Gus and for me to not be a part of his life, but with time I became a part of his life and became his father. I now have regular visitation with him.”

That seemed to surprise Lindsay as her eyes widened comically. Brian wasn't sure if that was because she hadn't expected him to stay a part of Gus' life after she was out of it or because she had expected Melanie to stop him from seeing his son.

“Mr. Kinney, is it true that you had up to 30 different sex partners a month?” The lawyer asked next and Brian wondered where that had come from. His questions seemed to be all over the place and none of them seemed to be really related to the case so far. Brian wondered if the lawyer knew what he was doing and if there was any plan behind his questions. As he was still pondering that in his head, he heard the DA object once more.

“Objection! Relevance. This line of questioning has nothing to do with the abduction of Luke Victor Kinney-Taylor.”

The judge agreed once more and reprimanded the defense attorney to only ask questions in relation to the abduction case they were hearing.

Nodding in reply the defense attorney then announced that he was done with his questions.

As it was already late afternoon the judge adjourned the trial to the next day when they would continue with the testimonies of Lindsay and Michael.

The group quietly gathered their things and after a quick conversation with the DA left the court building. Brian couldn't wait to get back home to Luke who had been in Cynthia's care for the day.