“It’s a pretty big deal. God explains in the Bible that—”
“This is a yes or no question, Mr. Baxter. Is that the only negative thing you have to say about Zoe’s ability to be a good mother?”
“Yes,” I say quietly.
“Isn’t it true, Mr. Baxter, that you still have sperm with which to create more embryos?”
“I don’t know. I have male pattern infertility—which means, if I do, it won’t be easy.”
“Yet you don’t want these embryos. You want to give them away.”
“I want these children to have the best life possible,” I say. “And I know that means having a mother and a father.”
“In fact you were raised by a mother and a father, isn’t that right, Mr. Baxter?”
“Yes.”
“And yet, you still ended up a drunk, divorced loser living in your brother’s guest room.”
I can’t help it, I come halfway out of my witness chair.
“Objection!” Wade says. “Prejudicial!”
“Withdrawn. If this court gives your brother and sister-in-law the embryos,” Angela Moretti asks, “where do you fit in?”
“I . . . I’m going to be an uncle.”
“Ah. How are you going to be the uncle if you’re the biological father?”
“It’s like an adoption,” I say, flustered. “I mean, itisan adoption. Reid becomes the father and I’m the uncle.”
“So you’re going to give up your parental rights to these children at birth?”
Ben Benjamin said that, no matter what you sign, at any point, grown children might come find you. Confused, I look at him, sitting at our table. “I thought you said I couldn’t ever really do that?”
“You want these embryos to go to a traditional Christian family?” the lawyer says.
“Yes.”
“But instead you’re suggesting that the court give them to a biological father who is called the uncle and is living in the basement of the home of the parents who are raising him. Does that sound like a traditional Christian family, Mr. Baxter?”
“No! I mean, yes . . .”
“Which is it?”
Her words are like bullets. I wish she’d talk more slowly. I wish she’d give me time to think. “It’s . . . it’s a family—”
“When you created these embryos with Zoe, you intended at the time to raise these children with her, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Yet Zoe is still ready, willing, and able to take these embryos and raise them as her children. On the other hand, you left.”
“I didn’t leave—”
“Did she file for divorce, or did you?”
“I did. But I left my marriage, not my children—”
