"I'm still kicking myself. I didn't even check with Bella. I'm so sorry, dear, I wish we could have had a better first impression than that."

"It's fine," he reassures her. "I was a bit worried about first impressions, but for the more mundane reason that I didn't leave Alex with a very good one."

"Well, I heard only good things."

"What did you hear?"

"That you make Bella very happy and you're very cute. Mind, I did have to interpret some to come to the understanding that it was 'cute' he meant."

He grins. "Well, thank you, Alex."

"No problem."

"Anyway, uh, we had a few, um, questions," he tells Renée.

"Yes?"

"Supposing my father wants to pull me out of school, and supposing I would rather set myself on fire than that, do you know if there's a way for me to not have to, given that he has had me heal every injury pretty thoroughly and it's only my word against his on the abuse?"

"...The situation isn't what it should be. With a sufficiently rabid prosecutor you could get it to trial, and if you did you might win, but there's nothing guaranteeing you'd be able to employ one of those. I can put you in touch with a social worker if you want a more expert opinion."

"This is idiotic. They made me talk to a lie-detector to make sure you weren't hitting me, and Sadde can't get that?"

"They have a particular interest in making sure kindergarten teachers aren't knocking around little children. It's very difficult to get a lie detector in for any more routine case."

"...a teenager claiming their parent has physically and emotionally abused and role-pressured them for years is a routine case?" He looks at Isabella. "Can we take over the world faster?"

"Please tell me how if you think of a way to speed it up."

"It's not uncommon," says Renée, shaking her head. "Not uncommon enough. Do you have grandparents or aunts or uncles who'd want to take you in, who'd do the legwork for you...?"

"Mom's parents were in Tobias' congregation, but they're both dead now, and she was an only child. Tobias' family isn't any more likely to help," he sighs.

"And your stepmother?"

"She might be able to take care of a goldfish, if someone told her to and showed her what kind of food to give it and how often."

"It's possible she's being mistreated too, in which case you may not have a full picture of what she'd be like if she weren't."

"I suppose you're right," he says doubtfully. "My mom never told me about Tobias mistreating her, but then she died when I was just shy of eleven, she might not've wanted to talk about it... But as far as I can tell, my father's perfectly fine to people he believes are following whatever natural order of things's in his head."

"I did notice he seemed to assume I was a sub."

"Yeah, and seemed to assume Alex was my dom, that in spite of my holding Isabella's hand, and the way she presents, I mean how can you look at her and it not even occur to you that she's a dom?"

"I was assuming he knew exactly what was going and said that to set expectations for the conversation."

"...yeah, that's, that actually makes a lot of sense."