Ryan wasn't really sure what he had been expecting. His mind had told him over and over again to not even ask. Maybe Sandy was just trying to keep him on his toes. Maybe there was no problem and the older man was trying to punish him somehow. Maybe he just didn't want him anymore. But Ryan had asked and Ryan had gotten exactly what he probably deserved, nothing. He was stupid for even expecting anything else. He had reasoned with himself that maybe Sandy would beat him or yell at him or just tell him straight that he was going to kick him out. If he had done any of those things, at least Ryan would know where he stood. But maybe the best punishment Sandy could give was more uncertainty.

Sandy knew he couldn't wait any longer. He had to find out exactly what was going on. He couldn't keep betting on the fact that Frank Atwood was going to fail at whatever he was doing, not with Ryan involved. There was no way he could fill Ryan in on everything he knew without scaring him half to death. That meant he needed more information.

As much as it made him cringe, he knew the easiest way would just be to meet with him and his lawyer. In an ideal situation, Sandy would just be able to tell him and his lawyer what terrible people they both were and that there was no way in hell that Frank would be getting his son—not Frank's son, Sandy's son. But Sandy knew that there was no conceivable way that he could sit in the same room as Frank without at least trying to attack him.

What kind of disgusting piece of shit would treat another human being like that? Nevertheless a defenseless child? A person like that wasn't a real person. A thing like that deserved to rot in jail for the rest of his life, or worse. Sandy tried to take a deep breath and looked down at the phone. It would really be easiest to just hire someone to kill Frank in prison. He couldn't even think the thought without laughing at how much of a joke it was, but thinking it did make him feel a little bit better. But he couldn't think like that.

It was ridiculous and a waste of time. He didn't need to spend his time focusing on how much Frank may have deserved a fate worse than sitting in prison. He needed to focus on Ryan. He needed to focus on giving Ryan the life and the future that he deserved.

Ryan lay in bed. A bed. Not his bed. His bed was somewhere else. Or was it? What had his mother done with his bed? With the rest of the furniture? With the house? Had she just up and left it? Was she still there? Would she go back once his dad and Trey were out of jail? Would they go back to being a family? Ryan's mind shifted back and forth to what the members of his real family were doing. Were his dad and Trey going through the same type of torture Ryan had? Surely they hadn't. They were both bigger than him, tougher.

If Ryan had actually thought it through, he would have realized that he wasn't much smaller than either of the other two men in his family but it wasn't the way that he thought. They both seemed so much larger on every level. Would they be put in the same prison? Did his father know that his mother had abandoned him? Where was his mother? And why had she even left him with some strangers? Everything was so frustrating for Ryan. He was used to never having any answers, but it sucked so much worse to not have any clue as to what was going on.

He didn't even know if he would ever see any of his family ever again. Maybe when the Cohens kicked him out he would just go back into foster care. Or maybe he would just end up on the street. Spending time with Seth had kept him distracted but that was fading. He had never been this alone and it terrified him.

Sandy arranged an in person meeting with Frank Atwood's lawyer. He knew it would be too much to be in the same room as Frank and he didn't want to risk anything. Should he tell the kids he was going? Rosie was at daycare and Seth and Ryan could take care of themselves for a few hours… It would be so much easier to just sneak out of the house unnoticed. But there were very few things that went on in the house unnoticed and so Sandy should have been able to predict Seth walking down to the kitchen just as he was about to leave.

"Hey. You going out?" All Sandy could think about was how much he wished he had left minutes earlier. And thinking that made him feel, and probably look, incredibly guilty.

"Yeah. I just have a meeting. I'll be back soon. Mom's gonna pick up Rosie from daycare on her way home." Seth stared at him and Sandy knew he was caught. Caught doing what, he wasn't sure. He had wanted to sneak out of the house without having to explain where he was going. Of course he could have still done that. If he hadn't looked so guilty.

"What's wrong?"

"What? Nothing. Nothing." Seth stared on. Sandy hated the idea of lying to his kids but he couldn't tell Seth the full truth. Especially since Ryan didn't even know what was going on.

"You guys aren't… kicking Ryan out or anything, right? Cuz I know he was in jail or whatever but you said you were gonna sign him up for school and he's so chill I…"

"Seth. Seth, we wouldn't dare kick Ryan out. He's here for good. I promise." Seth looked at him skeptically, but didn't question it further. Sandy just hoped what he was telling his boys wasn't a lie.