Can Openers by Mal Jones

Author:Mal Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RowanVale Books

Chapter 20

Tuesday soon came around and, as the couple ate what little breakfast they could manage, Lidia wanted to discuss their future, or lack of one. Somehow she managed to keep herself calm.

Lidia felt their relationship had been strained for a long time; that it only slightly improved over the two weeks before the children were removed. Ironically, it was because of the children that she had stayed with him. For her children to be taken off them felt like a death.

‘I’m not a stupid person, Frederick. I’ve read up about the dependency system. I know that when the system gets to a number 3 there is unlikely to be any turning back.’ She paused. Frederick said nothing. ‘My life is finished without my children and I know in my heart that I will never be able to see them again.’ Lidia took a deep breath to stop herself from crying. ‘I don’t want to be with you, Frederick, and I can’t live a lie. Without the children we’re nothing.’

‘What about the meeting?’ asked Frederick, quietly.

Lidia said that at the meeting she would show unity. The meeting was the most serious meeting of their lives.

‘If that’s what you want,’ was Frederick’s only response.

She was worried about Frederick’s reaction. She would have preferred not to have said anything to him until after the meeting but the tension had been unbearable and she couldn’t take it anymore.

Frederick was surprisingly calm, almost spaced out. He thought about what Lidia had said to him. In some respects they hadn’t been honest with each other for years. They would have to tell the department that they were separating, they would find out everything anyway and honesty, he thought, was the best policy. For them, as parents, losing their children was their worst nightmare.

There was a loud bang at the front door like it was going to explode. ‘Open the door, we have a warrant. It’s the police,’ demanded a voice through a loudhailer.

Frederick rushed to the door and opened it. In came a large uniformed officer who immediately started directing other officers. ‘You take the upstairs and you the downstairs,’ he ordered two officers. ‘You two, sit down,’ he ordered Lidia and Frederick. A small camera was attached to the officer’s lapel. Everything was being recorded and watched by risk assessors who were sitting outside in a van.

Frederick asked what they were looking for and why were the police going out to the back garden.

The police officer, who was a sergeant, looked straight at Frederick and leaned in close. ‘Mr Smyth, you know the truth. You and your wife should know that a level three assessment is the most serious level of child abuse. Either you, your wife, or both know why you’re on a number 3.’

The police officer was right. The latest evidence, backed by research, showed that when there is abuse or harm in the family, the family, or someone close to it, know why the children are removed. It is up to them to work it out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.