18. Ryan #3
Victor goes still. Ally’s breathing is too fast — I can see her hand shaking from across the yard. But she doesn’t take it back. She stands there in the doorway with her chin up and her whole body trembling and she does not take it back.
Victor points at her. “Come here.”
“No.”
“I have put up with enough of this fucking attitude. I’ve let you run your mouth. I let you play your little games because I thought it was cute.” His voice drops into something colder. “It’s not fucking cute anymore.”
“I don’t care.” The fear flashes across her face the second she says it.
Victor sees it too. His mouth twists. “You will.”
I move. Arthur catches my arm. “Don’t.”
“He just fucking threatened her.”
“I heard him.”
“Then get the fuck off me.”
“Ryan.” His grip doesn’t move. I could break it. He knows I could break it. That’s not what’s holding me.
Behind him, Roman crowds Jane farther backward. “You’ve been lying to me.”
“Get away from us.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t have it.”
“WHERE IS IT?”
“Leave her alone!” Ally yells.
Roman turns on her so fast she flinches back into the doorframe.
Jane immediately steps between them. “Don’t you fucking touch her again.”
Roman stares at his wife. Jane is shaking so badly I can see it from the middle of the yard. But she stays there. She plants herself between him and both kids and she stays.
His voice drops. “You did this.”
Victor looks at Jane. Then Ally. Then the phone Ally’s clutching against her chest. “Give me your phone.”
Arthur’s head turns. So does mine. Because that — right there — is the tell.
Ally shakes her head. “No.”
“Give me the fucking phone.”
“No.”
Roman looks at Victor. “You know what’s on it?”
And Victor realizes what he just did. Too late. Arthur goes completely still beside me. I feel him go still.
“What exactly do you think is on Alison’s phone, Victor?”
Victor’s eyes hit his. “Fuck you.”
Arthur doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need to. Victor just handed him something in front of a dozen witnesses, and he fucking knows it. His face twists with the knowing.
“Give me the goddamn phone, Alison.”
“No.”
“GIVE IT TO ME!”
“STOP FUCKING YELLING AT HER!”
Victor wheels on me. “You think you’re taking her from me?”
“She isn’t fucking yours!”
“She will be in two fucking days!”
“No, I won’t!” Ally’s voice cuts through everything.
Victor turns. So does Roman. Everyone does.
She’s crying now. Not hard. Tears just sliding down her face while she stands there with Tobias’s hand in hers and her phone clutched to her chest. She’s terrified — I can see it in every fucking inch of her. But she’s standing. She’s standing, and she’s looking Victor dead in the eye.
Victor stares at her. “What did you say?”
She swallows. “I said I’m not going with you.”
His face twists. “Don’t do this.”
“I won’t leave Tobias.”
“Fuck Tobias.”
Dad fucking erupts. “The FUCK did you just say?”
Tobias starts sobbing. Ally pulls him closer, curling her whole body around him. “Don’t talk about him like that.”
Victor points at her. “Then stop using him as an excuse and COME HERE.”
“He isn’t an excuse!”
“Alison!”
“I said NO!” The word cracks across the yard like something breaking.
Victor goes still. Ally’s chest is rising too fast. She’s scared.
She’s furious. She’s done. Every ounce of the eighteen years this man and her father spent building a quiet, obedient thing to hand off between them — it’s gone, burned up right there in the doorway, and I can see on Victor’s face that he’s watching it burn.
Victor takes another step. “Do you have any fucking idea what happens if you walk away from me?”
Ally goes pale.
“You don’t threaten her,” I say.
He doesn’t even look at me. “I’m talking to my fiancée.”
“No,” Ally says, and her voice is quieter now. Steadier. Worse for him, because it isn’t hysterical — it’s certain. “You’re threatening my family.”
Victor’s eyes narrow. “Then make the smart choice.”
Ally looks down. Tobias’s fist is twisted into her clothes. Jane has one arm around him and keeps herself between Roman and both kids. Ally looks back at Victor. And she doesn’t hesitate.
“No.”
Victor starts toward her and at the same time, Roman looks at Jane.
And something in his face just — goes. I’ve seen him angry.
Thursday showed me exactly what he does when he’s angry.
This isn’t that. Thursday had heat in it.
This is cold. This is a man who’s just understood he’s already lost everything and has decided somebody is going to pay for it before it’s gone.
Dad sees it too. “Toby,” he says. Low. Urgent.
Arthur turns. Victor starts toward Ally. I move. Jane pulls Tobias behind her.
Roman looks at his wife. “You.”
Jane backs up. Ally goes with her.
“Roman,” Arthur warns.
He doesn’t hear him. Or doesn’t care. Jane’s eyes find Dad.
Then me. And she’s terrified — but she isn’t surprised.
That’s the part that guts me in the half-second I have to see it.
She’s terrified like she’s known this exact moment was coming for years.
Like she always knew the box would cost this.
Like she decided a long time ago it was worth it anyway.
Dad moves for Tobias. I move for Ally. Victor reaches for her. Roman lunges.
And everything goes to hell.