Dark Guardian (Black Hoods MC #3) - Avelyn Paige

Grace

“You don’t understand, ma’am. I’ve filled out every single sheet of paperwork this office has asked me to provide. Why won’t you release the information to me?” the man sitting on the other side of my desk pleads, his story the same as so many others.

And ma’am? Really? Am I so old now that a man, no more than ten years my junior, thinks of me as ma’am? Is forty the new fifty? I don’t dare think of what my clients will call me when I hit that milestone. Granny? Old Bitty? The thought makes me shudder.

“Mr. Jackson, I’m sorry, but my hands are tied. There are rules we have to follow.” I straighten in my chair. “You need to wait for your court date. That’s all there is to it. Your attorney should have informed you of that.”

“I’m tired of waiting. I tried to do this without the courts. I submitted my DNA to some online database for kids looking for family and got nothing. This my only option, and you won’t give me what I came for?”

“I’m sorry,” I force out, trying to keep my voice calm. “I know you’ve been looking for your parents for a long time, but there’s only so much I can do.”

I notice his hands balling into fists on top of my desk. He’s angry. Furious, actually, but it changes nothing. He’d have more luck pulling a white rabbit out of a magic hat than getting the answers he so desperately wants from me. Answers I don’t have authority or permission to share.

“You don’t want to help me,” he hisses through clenched teeth. “I have a right to know.”

“Whether it’s your right or not, I can’t help you without a court order to release the information. The records were sealed. I can’t unseal them without approval.”

“This is bullshit!” His eyes, pleading with my compassionate side just moments ago, now flash with fury. I myself have questioned over the last few years if compassion still exists after seeing so many families torn apart in some form or another. This place hardens even the gentlest of people. Social work is not for the faint of heart, and boy, have I learned that the hard way.

“Please, watch your language. This is a place of business,” I admonish him quietly. He goes to argue with me, but I quickly raise my hand to cut off his tirade. “As I explained to you the last time you scheduled an appointment with my office, this is in the court's hands. Wait for your court date, then we’ll proceed from there.”

“All I’ve done is wait.”

“I understand that. Believe me, I do. But there’s nothing more I can do. It’s in the hands of the judge. Your attorney should have notified you of that.”

“My attorney assured me this would be an easy process, though it’s been far from it. Is there anyone else I can speak to?”

“You can take this up with the supervisor, but he’s not going to bend the rules for you, either. Stay the course and wait until your court date.”

Defeated, he slides his hands off the desk and slumps back into his chair. If I had the ability to help him with his query, I’d remove the file from the locked records room and hand it over without batting an eye, but I have to follow the rules set forth by the courts or risk losing my job, which is something I cannot do. Jeopardizing it for one person affects the dozens of children in the case files scattered across my desk. Our department has always been understaffed, and with opioid use on the rise, more and more children are becoming wards of the state, so we’re stretching ourselves even thinner. It’s a dangerous game of chance when a child’s life is at stake in an abusive home.

In Mr. Jackson’s case, the names of his birth parents don't fall into the “emergency” category. He’s an adult. If he were a child, it would be a different story, but he’s not. There’s nothing I can do except offer my sympathy and pray it will be enough until the court makes a decision.

He’s silent, but I can see the wheels turning in his head. He wants to beg me, offer me something that could tempt me into breaking the rules, but it’s not going to work. He knows that from the last time he tried it.

“Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

His eyes harden, turning cold, dark.