Twenty-five year old Adira Thompson finds herself in a position where she's single and pregnant, with dreams of becoming a plastic surgeon.
She and her family have a love for basketball, particularly their home team in Los Angeles. Her world someho...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
We were back at my house, seated at the dining room table. I had my legal team stop by. They were educating us on the family court system. How things work with absent fathers and their rights or lack thereof.
Julia was laying in her glider swing next to Diri, with some soft white noise playing. She was calm as usual, looking around the room, moving her tiny fingers in a motion like grabbing air.
"I wouldn't want him not to be able to see her, but it would have to be on my terms. —For instance, him having a problem with me taking my daughter on a trip with us. That's a problem because primarily she will always be in my care. —He doesn't make any real efforts to be in her life. Then he just popped up at my condo. —What if I was alone?" Dira expressed her concern. We had a little bit of a talk before they came. She made it clear about wanting to take legal action but wasn't sure to what extent. This could be an easy case, but she's not ready to go all the way with it. Which is a little frustrating to me. But what gives me the right to feel that way? I don't know.
"Yeah, what are we looking at? Could he in any way possible get any rights after not putting his name on the birth certificate? Can he go to court?" I questioned because I needed some clarity.
"These things could get tricky. Let me run a few scenarios by you,—just a few possibilities." My lawyers' good friend he recommended spoke. He's known to be the best of the best. We nodded, waiting for him to proceed.
"The first option for him would be to go and try to establish paternity. He'll sign an affidavit filing it with the court. Which is he stating that he believes he's the father. —It would require Adiras signature. If she were to refuse, he could get a court request for a DNA testing."
Diri and I looked at each other. She's worried, and I am too.
He went on to say further, "—but he would still have to be deemed fit by the court. At the end of the day, it's the best interest of the child. We could build a case against him if it comes down to that. —Make no mistake. He will try to do the same. It could get messy, drug out, and very costly."
"I don't care about the cost," I added.
"So what if he establishes paternity, that means he gets parental rights? Does his name get added to her birth certificate, even if I don't agree?" Adira finally spoke, she's been a little uneasy with this entire conversation.
"Ms. Thompson, there are ways you can play this. I'm not going to beat around the bush. If this were to get to court, —it could get out of your hands. Once the court establishes him as the father, he can fill out a Certificate correction form and have his name added. That's with your objection." He leaned into us, folding clasping his hands together on the table.
We both sighed.
"Then after that, we'd get into the whole custody war, that's if you two don't agree." He paused, raising his brows and released his clasped hand as if he had an idea. "You said Mr. Kenzo Martin's like a father figure right?"
