Page 357 of Wicked Brutal

“Does he have his own bedroom in your home? Does he sleep there?”

“He starts there.” My breath catches. “But that’s not usually where I find him in the morning.”

“Where do you find him?”

Her mouth trembles. “In Ally and Ryan’s bed.”

Ryan’s hand comes back to my chair.

“Tell the court what you’ve seen.”

Cassandra wipes under one eye. “I go up in the morning, and their door is cracked — Ally doesn’t close it all the way anymore.”

I didn’t even realize I stopped closing it.

“Tobias will be between them. Sometimes sideways. Sometimes curled into Ally. Sometimes Ryan’s got an arm over both of them. But Tobias almost always has a hand on Ally. Her sleeve. Her arm. Her hand.” She has to breathe. “A few mornings ago, he had two fingers hooked into the bottom of her shirt. I think he needs to know she’s still there when he wakes up.”

Ryan’s hand closes around my shoulder.

“What does Alison do when he comes in?”

“She moves over.”

Three words. They wreck me anyway.

Cassandra is crying now too. “She doesn’t send him back. She doesn’t complain that she’s tired. She doesn’t make him explain. She wakes up and makes room.”

I cover my mouth.

“Because that’s what mothers do.”

The words hit so hard I bend forward. Arthur waits. Nobody rushes me. Eventually, I breathe again.

“What role does Ryan play in Tobias’s care?”

Cassandra looks toward her son. “He loves him. He plays with him, feeds him, takes him places, sits with him. But when it comes to Tobias, Ryan follows Ally’s lead. If Tobias asks him something that matters, half the time Ryan looks at Ally before he answers.”

“Does that concern you?”

“No. Because Ryan understands whose person Tobias is.”

I look back. Ryan meets my eyes.

Arthur gives me a second, then continues gently. “Before Jane died, did Tobias spend time in your home without Alison?”

“Yes. Jane started calling me. She’d ask if I could keep Tobias for a few hours.”

“Did she say why?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes she just said she needed help. And I never asked, because I’d known Jane for years, and I’d known Tobias since the day he was born. If Jane said she needed me to take him, I took him.”

“Did it happen more than once? More often as time went on?”

Cassandra hesitates. “Yes. To both.”

“Did that strike you as unusual?”

“Eventually.” She looks toward Walter. “I thought she trusted us. I wish she’d told me why. I knew Roman was controlling. I knew things weren’t good. I didn’t know everything.” Her voice cracks. “If I’d known…”