When I told Mom that I was done that night, I'd meant it.

I still meant it.

The one upside to the shit-turn my life had taken was that I'd managed to scope out a part-time job that Wren didn’t have the power to take away from me. Mercy had called in a favor and snagged me four evening shifts per week at the same café she worked at.

"Yo, King!" Mason swaggered down the school hallway proudly in his Letterman jacket, his championship ring on full display. "How the hell are you, man?" he said when he reached me at my locker. "I feel like I haven't seen you since school finished."

Because he hadn’t.

"You know me, Mase," I replied, closing the door of my locker and slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I'm the same as always."

"Yeah, listen, I heard about the break up." Wincing, he fell into step beside me as I walked for my next class. "That's too bad, man. I thought you and little Molly were endgame."

"We didn’t break up," I bit out, tensing. "There's been no damn break up, Mason."

"You didn’t?"

"No," I growled. "We didn’t."

"No? Well shit, man," he chuckled. "You might wanna make that known because I just overheard Ashley Thomas talking to the other cheerleaders about how she was planning on mending your broken heart," he winked devilishly, "if you know what I mean…"

"Like I've said a million times before, I wouldn’t touch that girl with your dick," I told him. "So you can tell Ashley to go fuck herself."

"Whoa, dude, what's with the attitude?"

"Later, Mase." Brushing past him before he could darken my mood even further, I stalked into my intended classroom earlier than I'd ever been for class in my life.

Not stopping until I had parked my ass in the back row of Mrs. Kilmore's calculus class, I ignored everyone around me and focused my attention on glaring out the window.

I continued to stare out the window long after the bell rang and Mrs. Kilmore began teaching the class all about shit that sounded the same to my ears as I assumed Double Dutch would.

It wasn’t until the class was disturbed by a student late for class, and Mrs. Kilmore had to stop teaching to check over their slip, that I flicked my attention to the front of the room.

The minute that I did, the air was sucked clean out of my lungs.

"Holy shit."

Her wary brown eyes landed on me and every muscle in my body seized up.

She was back.

56 Molly

It had taken more than a month to work through my issues, and even now, I still felt overwhelmed. During that month of soul-searching, I had to go through the process of grieving my mother and Bobby all over again, but it was so much worse the second time around because now I knew the truth.

The woman who had given me life had planned to take it away that night.