Salem is rocked as the adults call it mediation, but the kids feel it like a courtroom execution.

One conversation about custody doesn’t stay civil for long, because beneath every “reasonable” sentence is a threat: who gets to keep the children, who gets pushed out, and who gets blamed when the dust settles.

The shockwaves hit every family line, because once guardianship becomes a battlefield, nobody stays untouched.

Thomas is the emotional collapse — and it’s brutal.

A child admitting fear isn’t just sadness, it’s a world falling apart. He’s terrified his dad will choose Cat Greene, terrified his home will shift again, terrified he’ll be abandoned with a smile and a promise. That kind of confession doesn’t land like drama — it lands like devastation, because it shows the damage already happened. The betrayal isn’t even from one person… it’s from the entire situation that made a kid feel responsible for adult chaos.

And the lies keep stacking behind closed doors. Who is pretending this is “for the best” while chasing control? Who is hiding their real motives under polite words? Who is using the children’s fear as leverage? This wasn’t just a custody dispute — it detonated into a chain reaction of grief, suspicion, and power plays, rewriting everything they thought they knew, with consequences that will linger for years, changing lives in ways that can’t be undone. Because once a kid starts blaming himself, the scar doesn’t disappear when the meeting ends.