"Our family?" I bit out, nostrils flaring. "You call this a family? This ain't no goddamn family, Mama. This house is a warzone, there's a battle line drawn right here in this very kitchen, and I'm the enemy – at least that's how you've allowed him to treat me."

"We are a family, Daryl." Tears streamed down Mom's cheeks as she sank onto a chair at the table. "I am doing my best to hold us together, and you piss all over that by taking up with that homewrecker's daughter!"

"You're blaming me?" I threw my head back and laughed humorlessly. "You're actually blaming me for the mess y'all are in."

"You're trying to bring her back into our lives," Mom sobbed. "I can't have that girl in my life."

"Well, I can't not have her in mine!" I roared, stepping around Wren before I put my damn fist down his throat. "I. Love. Her. Do you get that? I'm in love with Molly, I always have been, and there ain't a damn thing you or Wren or Nick fucking Peterson can do about it."

"You're crossing a line, boy," Wren snarled, stalking towards me. "Back off. Now."

Ignoring my stepfather, I focused on my mother. "You call Molly's mother a homewrecker, but the only home she wrecked was her own. This piece of shit you call your husband? He's the one who wrecked your home, Mama. Not Mrs. Peterson. Wren! He ruined our home!"

"I suppose you're going to blame your stepfather for the fire, too?" Mom wailed.

"Jesus Christ, Mama," I snapped, losing my head. "He got her pregnant, broke up her marriage, and had her leave her husband! And for what? A goddamn empty promise, that's what. The minute he got caught, he dropped Molly's mom and that baby like neither one of them was worth the dirt on his shoes. So, no, your precious Wren might not have been the one to spark the match that night, but he sure as shit poured the gasoline by pushing that woman beyond her breaking point!"

"Y'all are lying!" I heard Molly scream from the doorway of the kitchen and my heart all but stopped dead in my chest.

Oh no.

No, Jesus, no.

Not like this…

Looking more terrified and confused than I'd ever seen another human look, she cried out loudly. "Y'all are nothing but a bunch of liars!" Pulling on the ends of her hair, she screamed, "Stop telling lies about my mother!"

She heard me.

She fucking heard every word.

I froze, having no fucking clue what to do. I didn’t know how to stop this avalanche of pain from caving in on top of her. "Molly," I choked out, tone pleading. "Wait, you've gotta let me –"

"Don’t you dare come near me, Daryl King!" she warned, holding a hand up when I moved to go to her. "I mean it. Stay away from me!"

46 Molly

Confused and reeling, I stood alone in the hallway, staring after Daryl's baby sister as she disappeared upstairs.