Page 161 of Wicked Brutal

“I know.”

“I mean from Roman’s perspective.”

Saoirse has been staring at one page for the last few minutes. Now she pulls it free. “Then this doesn’t make sense.”

She places it in the center of the table. At the top is the intake date.

APRIL 6, 2026.

“Alison is eighteen,” she says. Nobody answers. “She is months away from graduating from Edgewood. She’s already halfway through her final semester. If Sainte-Catherine itself isn’t significant, what educational purpose is served by transferring her there now?”

Delilah pops her gum. “Because something happened.” She gestures toward the paperwork. “That’s when families use places like Sainte-Catherine unexpectedly. If you’re planning boarding school for your kid, you do it normally. Tours. Applications. Beginning of the school year. Maybe January.” She points at April sixth. “You don’t yank a senior out of school in the spring and send her across the Atlantic unless the education isn’t the point.”

Mom’s gaze finds me. “She isn’t being sent there to finish high school.”

“No,” Saoirse says quietly. “She’s being removed.”

The word sits heavily between us. Removed. From Edgewood. From us. From anyone Roman doesn’t control.

My phone is sitting facedown beside my hand. I think about Ally being a few houses away. Tobias arguing about broccoli. Roman walking through his own front door tonight like he didn’t spend his morning arranging to send his daughter to another country.

Dad leans forward. “Removal from what?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to determine,” Arthur says.

I think about yesterday. About the warning Roman gave Ally. “She changed.” Everyone looks at me. I lean back. “Not suddenly. But she has.”

“How?” Saoirse asks.

“She stopped being invisible.” Cat’s expression tightens. I keep going. “She has friends now. She leaves the house more. She pushes back sometimes. She has opinions she actually says out loud. She isn’t doing anything fucking crazy. She’s just…”

“Becoming independent,” Alice says.

“Yeah.”

Mom’s mouth tightens. “And Roman notices.”

“He noticed enough to say something yesterday.”

Arthur’s attention sharpens. “What exactly?”

“He told her she needed to be careful about who she associated with.”

“Who?”

“Catherine. Penelope. Rebecca.”

Cat looks up. Penny turns toward her. Becca stops playing with Danny’s fingers. Arthur goes completely still.

Callum is the first one to speak. “He used their full names?”

“Ally said Catherine, Penelope, and Rebecca.”

Mom’s eyes move slowly between the three girls. “So Roman isn’t concerned that Alison suddenly has a large social group. He’s concerned about those three.”

Cat understands first. I see it happen across her face. “The Penningtons, Lucian, Valentina, and Veronica."

Becca’s voice is quieter. “And Hartley.”