I know Emily was trying to break any tension. It’s how she’s always been. She wants to make peace, but for the first time, I’d wanted her to stop talking. Then maybe Molly might have spoken. The girl barely said anything. With how she wouldn’t meet my eyes, I know she heard a lot of what my father and I were talking about in his office. I was pissed. At whom, I’m not sure.

The second I hear a sound in the hallway, I pull my door open to see Grace standing there. “Morning.” She gives me a smile that doesn’t quite meet her eyes. Molly and Grace don’t look anything alike.

“Morning,” I say back.

Molly’s bedroom door opens. She freezes in the doorway when she sees her mom and me standing there.

“Hey.” She flicks her eyes between us. I can’t help but take every inch of her in. She’s in that stupid fucking uniform again. I swear to Christ none of the girls looked the way she does in that thing when I went there. I would have remembered that. My cock starts to harden.

“What’s up?” she asks her mom.

“I was coming to check on you. Normally you’re down at breakfast by now.” She fidgets with her bag hanging over her shoulder.

“Running late,” she lies. Grace’s lips purse, and I know she’s thinking the same thing I am. She didn’t want to come out of her room until she had to. There is only one reason for that. Me.

“Let’s get you fed.” She tucks her arm into Molly’s to guide her down the hallway and away from me. I follow behind, watching them. I can tell that they’re close. It’s in their body language.

I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been wrong about Grace. Maybe I jumped to conclusions about her. Because it’s one thing to put on a face to my father or lure in Emily, a girl who never had a mother worth a shit, but I can tell she’s genuine in her love for Molly. That she truly cares about her. And it’s apparent that Molly loves her mother. I recall my father saying they were close. But I guess I’ve never really experienced this level of closeness between a mother and her child. God knows Emily and I never saw an ounce of that from our own mother.

As a young girl, Emily avoided our mother. With me, our mother would be dismissive, but with Emily there was this jealousy she had which was mind-boggling to me. It was because she hated my father for the most part. He could never do anything right. When she’d see him with Emily, though, the jealousy would pour from her. It’s why I knew she had to go.