"Put the glass down, Kai," I said, keeping my spine pressed hard against the back of the floral armchair.
The supervised visit protocols required exactly two meters of distance between us. I couldn't cross the living room rug. I couldn't take the drink from his hands.
Kai froze, his fingers wrapped around a tall glass of fruit punch on the kitchen island.
"Dr. Silva's post-fever orders strictly limit high-sugar beverages," I reminded him, keeping my voice steady.
Sophie sat by the fireplace, her pen hovering over a yellow legal pad. "Notice that, Kai?" she asked, her tone light but pointed. "She decides what you consume, even in your own home."
Kai bit his lower lip. He gave a slow, hesitant nod.
Ronan stepped out of the hallway. He crossed the kitchen tiles, picked up the glass of punch, and handed it directly to our son.
"Drink it," Ronan said.
He didn't look at me. He looked at Kai, offering a small nod of encouragement, as if handing over a cup of sugar was a profound act of liberation.
I didn't lunge for the cup. I didn't raise my voice. "I want the original medical directives added to the evaluation file," I said to Sophie. "The restriction isn't a preference. It's a clinical requirement."
"Old history does not justify long-term control, Aria," Sophie replied, writing a quick line on her pad.
"The supervision order stays in place," Ronan added, leaning against the marble counter.
Every basic act of mothering now required their permission. I watched Kai take a sip of the red liquid, his eyes darting nervously toward me.
"Let's move to the next piece of footage," Sophie said. She tapped the matte-black tablet resting on the coffee table.
Audio crackled through the speakers. It was the noisy background of the pack's elementary school gate.
"You cannot participate in shift drills today," my recorded voice snapped.
The video showed me yanking a heavy canvas gym bag out of Kai's hands. Kai stared at the pavement, entirely silent. Then, the clip abruptly ended, fading to a black screen.
"He had just broken a fever," I said, gripping the armrests of my chair. "The clinic forbade intense physical stress."
"The footage shows aggression, not medical care," Sophie countered, setting her tablet down. "You confiscated his belongings in a public setting."
"Pull up the school hallway cameras," I demanded. "Show the ten minutes before this interaction. Show him stumbling against the lockers. Show the sweat pouring down his neck."
"This is an exported copy," Sophie said, adjusting her silver-rimmed glasses. "The original family cloud files from that afternoon are missing."
"Missing?" I looked straight at Ronan. "Someone deleted fifteen minutes of footage from our private server."
"Missing minutes don't make the rest of the video fake, Aria," Ronan said. He crossed his arms over his chest. "You still grabbed his bag. You still humiliated him."
I stopped trying to explain the terror I felt that day. I stopped trying to make him understand how close Kai had come to a relapse. I pulled a small notebook from my pocket and grabbed a pen.
"Note this," I said, writing down the exact date and time of the school incident. "I require original files and server timestamps for all future submissions. I will not answer to edited clips again."
Sophie's practiced, professional smile vanished for a fraction of a second. She quickly recovered, clearing her throat, but I had seen the break in her armor.
Two hours later, the sterile scent of rubbing alcohol and bleached cotton hit my nose.
I walked up to the front desk of the Pack infirmary. I hadn't been back since Kai's fever crisis four years ago.
"Aria?" Nurse Elena squinted at me from behind the tall reception counter. "It's been a long time."
"I need Kai's old medical files," I said.
Elena pulled up a glowing terminal, her fingers tapping across the keyboard. "How is your health? The doctors ordered long-term checkups after your third Moonblood donation. You never came back for your scans."
"I'm fine," I said, brushing off the question. "Just get me the boy's records."
"The full four-year-old paper archive is in the basement vault," Elena explained, frowning at her screen. "It takes three days to retrieve them. I can print a temporary summary right now."
"Do it."
The printer whirred to life. Elena handed me a single sheet of paper.
I carried it straight back to the Pack House and walked into Ronan's study. I slid the paper across his mahogany desk.
Ronan picked it up, his brow furrowing as he scanned the brief text. His eyes snagged on one specific line near the bottom of the page.
Matched donor: Aria Grey.
Emergency stabilization completed.
His broad shoulders stiffened. He stared at the letters for a long, quiet moment. The silence in the room stretched until it felt heavy enough to snap.
"This proves the severity of the fever," I told him. "It proves I am not inventing his health risks."
Ronan set the paper down. He refused to meet my gaze. "This changes nothing about the current supervision order," he finally said, sliding the summary into a manila folder.
That night, the guest bedroom felt colder than usual.
Ronan walked through the door without knocking. He tossed a thick, stapled document onto the mattress.
"Voluntary temporary care arrangement," he announced. "Sign it."
I picked up the heavy packet. "What is this?"
"You grant me sole decision-making over Kai's living and medical needs before the formal evaluation concludes," Ronan said, pacing the length of the floorboards. "The Council will see it as cooperation. It might keep us out of a public hearing."
I flipped past the first two pages. My eyes locked onto a specific clause in the appendix.
Auxiliary psychological caregiver: Sophie Hart.
I pushed the packet back across the bedspread. "No."
"Aria, be reasonable," Ronan snapped.
"I will accept supervision," I said, standing up to face him. "I will not hand my maternal rights over to a woman who uses leading questions to manipulate a nine-year-old."
Ronan stopped pacing. A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. "If you refuse this, the Council will initiate a formal custody hearing in forty-eight hours. They will tear your life apart on the stand."
"Then let them," I said. I grabbed my pen from the nightstand and capped it with a sharp snap.
Before Ronan could shout again, the communicator on his belt vibrated aggressively. The screen illuminated the dark space between us.
He unclipped the device. I watched his expression shift from raw anger to absolute shock. His jaw slacked.
"What is it?" I asked.
Ronan slowly turned the screen toward me, revealing an urgent message from the Council's chief evaluator.
Kai has completed his first independent interview and formally requests that his mother be permanently barred from all future sessions.
