Page 41 of Wicked Brutal

Arthur gives me a look. “I’m answering her honestly.”

“Then answer better.”

“Ryan,” Dad says, hand landing on my shoulder, and I shut up.

Arthur sighs. “We need a legal basis to remove Tobias from Roman and Jane’s care and place him somewhere safe.”

“With me.”

“That’s one option.”

Ally sits up. “It's the only option, Arthur.”

Arthur studies her for a second. “Then that’s what we work toward. What do you need from me to get there — that’s the question, and the answer is proof.”

“I have proof,” I cut in.

“You have pieces.”

“Same thing.”

“It is emphatically not the same thing.” He turns back to Ally before I can argue. “I need documentation establishing you as Tobias’s primary caregiver. School records, emergency contacts, medical records, text messages, teachers, coaches — anything that shows that although Roman and Jane are his legal parents, you are functionally raising him.”

“I can get all of that,” Ally says immediately.

“Good. And documentation of Roman’s threats.” Her face changes, and Arthur catches it. “Does he use Tobias to control you?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

Ally takes a breath. “He reminds me Tobias is his. If I don’t cooperate.” Nobody moves. “If I argue about Tremblay.” Mom’s jaw locks. “If I bring up leaving.” Callum swears under his breath. “He tells me I can go whenever I want.” Arthur’s pen stops. Ally’s voice gets smaller. “But Tobias stays.”

There it is. The whole cage. Not locked doors — a six-year-old boy who catches frogs at the lake.

Arthur writes something down. “Have any of those threats been in writing? Texts, emails, anything?”

“Maybe. I’d have to look.”

“Don’t search tonight if there’s any chance he notices.”

“I can do it safely. I know his patterns better than he does.”

Arthur glances between us. “Good. Slowly. Carefully. Nothing that leaves a trace.”

Then Darla speaks up. “What about Jane?”

Ally shuts down instantly. “No.”

“I’m not asking you to turn on your mother,” Darla says gently.

“She’s not like him. She drinks…” Nobody reacts, not visibly, and Ally keeps going, the words coming out flat and careful. “She’s depressed. She’s just... gone, most of the time.”

Saoirse’s expression changes — not to anger now, to something older and sadder. “Survival can look like disappearing,” she says.

“But Tobias still needs a parent,” Arthur says, quiet. “And if Jane can’t safely be that parent, we need to know it. That’s not a betrayal. That’s just information.”

Ally’s eyes fill. “I don’t want to hurt her.”