The paper contained a court order issued twelve years earlier by a family judge in Providence County, terminating the parental rights of Patrick Cole and Tracy Cole due to abandonment and transferring guardianship to Margaret Dawson.
My father’s expression collapsed from confidence into disbelief while my mother whispered that they had never received such a document, and Andrew replied politely that the court had attempted service several times before discovering that they had moved without providing any forwarding address.
He then placed another document on the table explaining that the court had ordered them to provide child support during my teenage years, an order they had never paid because they had conveniently disappeared from every official record.
My father sputtered angrily while insisting this entire situation was a misunderstanding, yet Andrew calmly explained that they had already attempted two lawsuits during the past decade and both had been dismissed because the law had recognized their abandonment long ago.