“The grievance is nullified if legal guardianship or parental rights have been formally severed prior to the calendar year of the competition,” she read.

Claire looked up from the paper and stared at the thick frost forming on the edges of the windshield.

Daniel had signed the abandonment papers thirteen years ago in a sterile municipal office.

He gave up all legal rights to the boys before they could even walk.

He had paid a private lawyer four hundred dollars to draft the paperwork and make sure the state courts released him from every future financial obligation.

A judge in Cook County had stamped the final decree ending his status as a father in exchange for a completely clean break.