"I'm, um, not okay, in a way that—makes my answer to the second question unreliable."

"How are you not okay, lovely?"

"I missed you, so much, Tobias," he spits the name like a curse, "told me I should break up with you, he had all these arguments, and all I could hear was how he was threatening that either I'd give you my collar back or or he'd withdraw me from school, and, and there was the possibility that I would never see you again and that was the worst-"

"Oh, oh pet," she breathes. "You could've given it back and explained I would've understood -"

He shudders at the thought. "No, ma'am, I couldn't. For one thing, if I didn't have you to look forward to, I wouldn't really be able to, to survive him, with my sanity intact. It may be unfair to lay this on your lap, but you... were my lifeline." He notices his pauses going away—how come he acted less submissively around his dom? Probably because he acted like himself around her. "And beyond that, it wouldn't really be just that. This would be the first thing, and eventually he'd want more, he was already threatening dropping in unannounced at school just to 'see how I was doing,' and..."

"I don't know how to keep you away from him."

"I don't know either, I just—no matter what I just needed to at least tell you. There isn't any plan, here, I don't know what to do or whether a lawyer can help, but even if it turns out I have to live with him again, I needed you to know."

"I tried emailing him. All very politely. I didn't know how to get ahold of you -"

"...he never mentioned."

"Yeah, I didn't think I was going to get through to you that way."

"Fuck it's good to hear your voice," he says, running his hand through his hair.

"You too. I'm so sorry I can't just whisk you away, I just want to ensconce you someplace he can never ever touch you again and I don't have one -"

"That would be so good. I don't—I mean, I don't know what kind of legal powers he actually has, like, whether I can be forcibly dragged to his place or, or something. We should—probably wait until your mom talks to the lawyer—maybe I should talk to the lawyer, it doesn't seem fair to her that she's having this work because of me..."

"Let her, pet, she'll tell you if she has to put you on the phone."

"Yeah, I suppose," he sighs. "Okay. Well, worst-case scenario, um, I've lived two years and change in the wilderness, I could do it for another year and two months."

"...yes, you could. It would probably be dangerous for anybody to go see you, you could be tracked down like that..."

"Would anyone even do that, spend that much energy on tracking me down...?"

"He might. And he could pull the 'missing child' thing, have a fucking Amber alert out..."

"He totally would do that. I'm almost seventeen, I lived alone out of nuts and berries for two years when I was ten, I'm not some—I'm not a child."

"I know, I know lovely -"

"I could—could get a different face—does Selene take orphans, I could pretend to be one—"

"You would need a legal identity."

"Right. There's that. I could try to emancipate, I don't know if I strictly need his consent for that, maybe it varies by state..."

"Renée's bringing that up with the lawyer first thing."

"Okay. Thank you. I—you didn't need to do this, nor did she."