“Who are you texting?” Cara asked, her voice tentative and shaky.

After hitting Send, Molly started a second text as she hurried through the living room. “Felicity and Norah. Charlie’s car’s gone, and I know that Norah walked, but I just need to make sure that neither of them have mine before I report it.”

Cara followed her to the window, where they both looked out at the empty driveway and street in front of the house. “Report it…stolen?”

Tearing her glare away from the spot where Jane’s car had sat yesterday evening, Molly narrowed her eyes at Cara. “Yes. I’m reporting it stolen because she stole it. I told her I’d call it in if she took my car last night, and that’s what I’m about to do. I’m done babying her. She’s our parent, Cara. We’ve given her too many chances as it is.”

She would’ve continued, but Cara held up her hands, palms out, as if blocking Molly’s words from hitting her. “You’re right.” Cara didn’t sound happy about it, but she didn’t sound angry—at Molly, at least. “You should report it stolen. I’m just so used to covering for her, which doesn’t help anything. It’s just… Could it have been someone else?”

Her sister sounded so miserable that Molly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, but she didn’t soften her next words. “Yeah, it probably was someone else—one of her shady buddies she convinced to take it.” Molly’s phone beeped with two incoming texts, and she checked the messages, her rage bubbling up again when both Felicity and Norah confirmed that they hadn’t taken her car. With an angry flick of her thumb, she scrolled through her contacts until she reached Sergeant Taylor Blake’s name.

After several rings, Molly was preparing to leave a voicemail when the sergeant finally answered brusquely. “Blake.”

“Sergeant, it’s Molly Pax.”

“Pax.” Blake’s tone softened ever so slightly. For the hard-edged cop, that was the equivalent of anyone else gushing with sympathy. “Heard your mom fell off the straight and narrow again.”

Hearing the blunt statement felt like a punch to the gut, but it was nothing if not true. “She has—in a big way. She’s been in jail since very early this morning, but she’s still managed to somehow steal my car.”

There was the tiniest pause before the sergeant spoke again, her voice impartial and matter-of-fact. “You’re sure it was her?”

“Positive.” There was no doubt in Molly’s mind that Jane had been the one behind her car’s disappearance. “If it wasn’t her, then she talked one of her friends into taking it and told them where I keep my keys. She tried to convince me to lend it to her last night, but I refused. Everyone was out of the house for a little over an hour this morning, from about quarter to six until seven. Otherwise, at least two people have been home since I last saw my car parked in the garage.”

As she spoke, Molly examined the outside of the front door, looking for signs that the lock had been tampered with. There was nothing she could see that showed anyone had tried to break in. Closing and locking the front door behind her, she moved to check the garage door as well. Cara trailed after her like an apprehensive ghost.