Immaculate

Dr Roberts

Sang's POV

I was sitting on Nathan's lap playing cards with Gabriel. It was after tea and we were waiting for Dr Roberts to come in. Kota was reading, North and Silas were playing on the Xbox with the sound down. Sean was on the laptop with Luke and Victor was sat at the piano playing random tunes and scales. Owen was in the dining room back on the phone with his lawyer. Nerves showed when Victor hit a wrong note and grunted under his breath.

The door opened and Owen came in, sliding his phone into his suit trouser pocket. He left the door open and came to perch on the edge of the sofa. We all looked at him, North switched off the xbox mid game and turned to face him.

"First things first," Owen started, seeing we were all listening. "Mr Bishop doesn't think emancipation will work. He thinks that with your background of abuse, the fact that you have no stable job and no proof of handling your own financial affairs that a judge will go with desertion and abandonment and contact the Department of Social Services. He has strongly advised us not to go down that route."

"Wouldn't her abuse be enough evidence for emancipation?" Sean asked and Owen shook his head.

"Sang would be interviewed by the judge, she'd need to present a clear case, and that she understand the ramifications of emancipation, plus each parent needs to consent. He thinks with everything that has happened it's not worth the risk; that most judges will not think it's in Sang's best interests. It's not often they grant full emancipation, most case are partial emancipation anyway, but he thinks he'd move for foster care."

"Oh, fucking hell," Gabriel threw his cards down. "So what do we do?"

"He has told me that there is a provision called living on your own with the informal consent of your parents. It's a tricky one and he thinks that with you being sixteen it might not be the best way to go either, I don't think Dr Roberts or the Academy would be happy with it. There is one more option that we can go through, Sang; your father puts it into writing that either Sean or myself or possibly both of us are given caregiver rights, it's similar to being a guardian, but it's not brought before the courts. It would still be a legal contract and my lawyer would write up exactly what your father would need to put. He and your mother would need to sign it and it would give us written consent on making medical and educational decisions. Ordinarily the parents are still responsible for the financial support unless otherwise indicated in writing, and in this case, we would be more than prepared to waiver financial support. All we would insist on is that the college fund he set up for you remains with you. I think he'll jump at it because it basically absolves him of any responsibility to you, while ensuring he is not discovered by the authorities."

"That sounds good," North spoke up and I nodded.

"It would appear to be the answer to our problem," Owen said carefully. "I would need to get in touch with your father and my lawyer will sort the rest out. Ordinarily this form of consent is for a limited time, for example if a single parent is going to be unable to care for their child for some reason.. But we can have it written up that it will last until your eighteenth birthday."

"I still think he needs to be seen by a psych team, Owen, his actions were dangerous and unbalanced," Sean spoke up, but I could see the pluses already.

"I think he'd leave me alone if he thought he was safe from being found out. I only think he wanted to control me," I said to Sean.

"Maybe, but I'm not happy with the aspect of transference," he said, and I saw Owen nod in agreement.

"We can make it one our conditions," he said.

"What transference?" I asked, not sure what he meant by that.