Chapter 7 - Claire Bell Calls
Claire called me herself.
Not because I found her number.
Because Amanda contacted her first.
Amanda told Claire:
Daniel knows about Ruby.
That sentence apparently frightened Claire enough to obtain my lawyer’s contact information.
The first call included counsel.
Claire was thirty-eight.
Steady voice.
Not dramatic.
“I don’t want Ruby involved.”
“I agree.”
“She’s eleven now.”
“I will not contact her.”
“Good.”
“I need to understand Amanda’s history.”
Claire paused.
“I understand why.”
Then:
“But you need to understand that my worst year is not public property because your wedding ended badly.”
That stopped me.
“You’re right.”
Claire had struggled with prescription-opioid dependence after a serious work injury and eventually entered court-supervised treatment after a DUI with Ruby in the car.
No crash.
No physical injury.
Child protection intervened.
Claire entered residential treatment.
Ruby, then three, needed placement.
No relatives initially passed emergency screening.
Amanda and her boyfriend at the time, Eric Dalton, were licensed foster parents hoping eventually to adopt.
Ruby went to them.
The official plan was reunification.
Amanda knew that.
At first, according to Claire:
“Amanda was wonderful.”
Photos.
Updates.
Video calls.
Ruby looked clean.
Safe.
Happy enough.
Amanda bought her shoes.
Took her to preschool.
Made a bedtime chart.
Claire was grateful.
Then, as reunification approached, things changed.
“Visits started being canceled.”
“By the agency?”
“Sometimes. But Amanda would report Ruby was sick or dysregulated.”
“Was she?”
“Sometimes.”
Children in foster care can have difficult transitions around visits.
That is real.
Amanda began saying contact with Claire:
“set Ruby back.”
She proposed fewer visits.
The caseworker disagreed.
Then Ruby’s pendant disappeared.
The one Sophie found years later.
Inside:
Claire’s portrait.
Ruby used to hold it during visits.
Amanda said it had been lost at preschool.
Claire believed her.
For seven years.
May you like
Until Amanda called after the canceled wedding and confessed she still had it.
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