Toni Worthington underwent a hysterectomy. But as she healed and years passed free of cancer, the Salt Lake County couple hoped to adopt, and 3-month-old Anthony entered their lives.

Now 2 years old, the toddler with long, straight hair in a bowl cut likes basketball and playing with the Worthingtons' nieces and nephews. He knows the couple as Mommy and Daddy, and quickly names their extended family as grandparents, aunts and uncles.

While Anthony's attachments are clear, his future is not.

The Utah Supreme Court is deciding who will raise him. The Worthingtons? His father, who negotiated his birth under a surrogacy agreement? Or the boy's mother, who conceived and carried him for about $20,000?

The Worthingtons, put under court and public scrutiny by the unusual legal battle, say their love for Anthony and desire to protect him propel them forward. They have decided to speak out publicly for the first time.

"[The courts] look at it and say the father's rights, the mother's rights," said Matt Worthington, 30. "Where's Anthony's rights?"

Adds Toni Worthington, 37: "I don't want to hate anyone, I don't want anyone to hate me. Someone is going to get hurt and that's the way it is."

"This will probably work out": In the fall of 2004, Sharol Taylor was worried about a baby boy. His mother was considering placing him for adoption, but Taylor said she felt she couldn't take him in because he was so close in age to her own twins.

She confided in her manicurist, Tori Ashby - Toni Worthington's sister.

The Worthingtons met the mother, Rachel Sullivan, at a restaurant in October 2004 and learned the unusual details of Anthony's birth. Sullivan had agreed to conceive him for a Canadian man who was living in Las Vegas. But two months after Anthony was born, the father - in the country illegally - was arrested and facing a prison sentence for fraud.

Nevada officials had returned Anthony to Sullivan, a single mother of two. The couple say she wanted a break and asked them to take Anthony that night.

The couple ran to Target for baby supplies, and slept with Anthony between them.

"We had every different emotion, plus going, 'Wow, there's a little kid in my house,' " Toni Worthington said.

The next day, Sullivan called to say she wanted them to adopt.

"To me, there was never an attachment with her and him," Ashby said. "I thought, this will probably work out."

The Worthingtons encouraged Sullivan's occasional visits, and filed a petition to adopt Anthony on Nov. 9. Two weeks later, she signed papers relinquishing her rights. The couple knew his father's rights hadn't been terminated, but were reassured they would have Sullivan's support.

"We were so hopeful," said Toni Worthington's mother, Patsy. "Sometimes we overlook the danger."

"What was I thinking?": Yet Arturo Nuosci didn't waver in his determination to be Anthony's father.

His sister, Delores Rizzi, said he arranged on the day he was arrested for her to come from Canada to care for Anthony. When the boy instead went to Sullivan, Rizzi found an attorney to fight for his return.

In December, Sullivan decided she wanted Anthony back, too.

Today, Sullivan claims she was overwhelmed, working two jobs, moving and enduring post-partum hormonal swings. She hadn't told her family she had given birth. She said she had been trying to distance herself, placing Anthony in the care of others and thinking it would be best.

"I acted like a child, and I look back and say, 'What was I thinking?' " she said.

The Worthingtons say Anthony had been underweight but was blossoming in their care. Early in the case, the couple sent Sullivan and Nuosci's relatives photographs and updates. Rizzi and her daughters visited Anthony, even sharing an Easter gathering.

"We thought that we could all be friends," Toni Worthington said, "and whoever got him, we would remain in contact."

Closing the door to visitors: In June 2005, 3rd District Judge Bruce Lubeck made a ruling that has since puzzled Utah's Supreme Court justices.

He found the relinquishment Sullivan signed legally flawed. And Utah law makes clear a conviction alone isn't grounds to keep a parent from a child. Lubeck decided he could not terminate the rights of Anthony's parents.

He dismissed the Worthingtons' adoption petition. But he left Anthony in their care, with control over who would see him. The couple had already ended visits with the boy's relatives, a decision questioned during arguments in the appeal by Justice Michael Wilkins, and attacked by the boy's parents.

The Worthingtons "are not ever going to be in a position to adopt him, which means at least Arturo is going to be a part of his life," said attorney David Dolowitz, who is representing the 45-year-old Nuosci. "By denying contact, they are going to have to explain who is this person popping up, and have imposed a horrible shock on [Anthony]."

Sullivan, 27, argues Anthony should see her, too, until it is clear where he will live.

"If they had allowed contact with him this whole time, [moving] wouldn't be the scary event that they have predicted for him," she said.

The couple said they cut off contact with Sullivan after she changed her mind, and felt her eventual request to see Anthony more than 20 times a year was too much. They ended communication with Rizzi, they said, after she made a secret recording and used it in court to object that Anthony was sleeping in a playpen, rather than a crib.

Rizzi retorts the video was filmed in plain view. She points to a May 2005 e-mail from Matt Worthington, which said in part the decision was made "to protect the mental, emotional and physical well-being of my family."

The couple also said they had become frightened of Nuosci. In a letter to the federal judge overseeing his fraud case, Nuosci said he was hearing voices telling him to kill himself and others.

Matt Worthington and his wife say Nuosci hasn't been a good father and shouldn't get Anthony back.

"You can't sit here and say, 'protect me,' when you're not a law-abiding citizen," he said. "I'm a huge believer in accountability."

"Everybody makes mistakes": Lubeck's ruling was devastating for Nuosci's close-knit family, who live within minutes of each other in Canada, Rizzi said. "For us, it was a funeral," she said.

She has a nursery and an apartment in her home for her brother, and wants Anthony there.

"Both my daughters are grade-school teachers . . .," she said. "I honestly don't believe Anthony will have any problems with us because we know the help to get him, how to love him, how to make him feel he has a life with us."

Rizzi claims an evaluation of her brother found no mental illness, and argued in court that Matt Worthington has faced mental health issues.

Worthington said he was diagnosed in his teens with a mild bipolar disorder, which he said he learned to deal with in therapy.

Between 1990 and 1999, Nuosci had been convicted in Canada of forgery, fabricating evidence, fraud, and uttering threats. In the Nevada case, a judge sentenced him to 33 months in prison for fraud-related crimes. His release is expected in February.

"Everybody makes mistakes," Rizzi argues. "That's not a reason to lose your child."

The Worthingtons are considering allowing visits again by Rizzi and Sullivan. The Supreme Court has no deadline for issuing its ruling, which could send the case back for further hearings. Anthony, unknowing, awaits.

eneff@sltrib.com

Anthony's journey

A deal is struck: Arturo Nuosci, a Canadian citizen living in Las Vegas under a false identity, meets Rachel Sullivan on the Internet in 2003. She agrees to carry his child for money.

It's a boy: In July 2004, Anthony is born. A day later, Sullivan signs a document purporting to give up her parental rights. The surrogacy contract and consent are invalid under Nevada and Utah law.

Back to Utah: When Nuosci is arrested in September, Nevada officials return Anthony to Sullivan. She places him with Salt Lake City couple Toni and Matt Worthington, and again signs a document waiving her rights.

In court: Sullivan changes her mind in December. A judge rejects the Worthingtons' petition to adopt in July 2005, but leaves Anthony with them.

On appeal: Sullivan and Nuosci have appealed to the Utah Supreme Court. Nuosci pleaded guilty to mail fraud, identity theft, bank fraud and other crimes, and is slated for release in February.