So, Mr. Devlin has been so jaded by the worst of what his son has done that Liam seemed mild, eh? Reasonable enough. I like it.

I also have to give you kudos on the "things could get complicated under the circumstances" speech. My folks took in one of Dad's Boy Scouts after his mother told him she'd kill him if he ever fell asleep in her house again. (She'd never done anything physical, but she was mentally unstable.) So, I got a foster brother. His mother signed a release making my folks his legal guardians or some such, so that they could get him medical care, but they never actually adopted him.

You are doing a really good job with all this stuff! Are you researching, or is this all coming from your noggin? Either way, I gotta say...WOW!