Page 329 of Wicked Brutal

Ryan sees them. “Hey.”

“Mom knew.” I press my face into his chest. “She knew about the baby. She knew about us. She was supposed to come too.” His arm comes around me. “She was supposed to fucking come too.”

“I know, baby.”

I cry into his shirt until I hear it. A little voice down the hall. My whole body locks. Ryan’s hand moves slowly over my back. “Toby.”

I nod. Last night, Walter told us he didn’t know. They kept him away from everything after Danny brought him back here. He knows something happened. He knows Mom didn’t come. But he doesn’t know.

I pull back from Ryan. “I have to tell him.”

“You don’t have to do it alone.”

“I know.”

“You want Mom and Dad there?”

“Yes.” He wipes beneath my eyes. “And you.”

His face changes. “Obviously.”

“No.” I grab his hand. “I mean it. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Ally.” He threads our fingers together. “You’re gonna have to pry me off you at this point.”

My mouth trembles. “I don’t want to.”

“Good.” He kisses my forehead. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”

We walk down the hall together, his hand around mine the whole way, Walter and Cassandra falling in behind us. Tobias’s door is already open.

Tobias is sitting in the middle of his bed, the leprechaun trap beside him, Walter perched on the edge of the mattress while he fixes something that apparently required immediate attention this morning. Cassandra stands near his dresser. They both look up when we come in.

I can hear everyone else downstairs. Quiet voices. A lot of them. Everyone came back. But nobody came up here. Not yet.

Ryan’s hand stays locked around mine as I sit on the bed. “Toby?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you come here?”

He looks up. His eyes move from me to Ryan. Then Walter. Then Cassandra.

His little forehead wrinkles. “Why is everybody being weird?” My throat closes. He drops the piece of the trap and crawls across the mattress. “Is Mommy back? Did she come back?”

I shake my head. “Come here, bug.”

He climbs into my lap. Ryan immediately shifts closer, one arm behind me so I don’t take all of Tobias’s weight.

“Is she still with the doctors?”

I wrap my arms around him. “Mom got hurt yesterday.”

His little body stiffens. “By Daddy?”

I hate that he knows to ask. “Yes.”

His eyes get big. “Is she okay? Did Darla fix her?”