Sean lambasted Molly with valid questions, sure, but they ripped into her harder than he seemed to understand. Michael could see the breakdown happening in her face, the tears flowing down her reddened cheeks. Each word Sean yelled seemed to reach into her soul, exposing something that was once protected and safe but now was left raw and vulnerable. He couldn’t watch. She had made a mistake, for whatever reason, but she didn’t deserve to have her father tear her to pieces.
“Where’s the food?”
“I don’t know,” she screamed.
“Is it under the bed?”
Sean dropped to his knees and lifted the bed skirt. He paused for a second, Michael watching, his view blocked but knowing Sean had found the stash. Sean tossed a can of beans backward followed by another.
Molly laced her fingers behind her head. There was something missing from the equation. She was a smart girl, and everyone understood her father’s propensity to treat the food like a sacred cow. She was skin and bones, not any bigger than Kelly, so she had no reason to steal food.
Her denial only made Sean angrier. The veins in his temples popped. His face, already a fierce red, grew stormier. Michael was sure that if this line of questioning persisted, his head might explode like a ripe watermelon stuffed with dynamite.
Elise wasn’t handling it any better. Michael put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked back at him with a helpless expression. She turned to Sean and yelled, “Stop it. Sean, stop it. Please. Take the cans and we can talk about this later.”
“Will everyone stop telling me what I can do in my own house?” Sean yelled back.
There it was again.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m sorry,” Molly said.
“Do you have more?”
More? Michael had watched the same video Sean did. She didn’t take more than a few cans and jars. But Sean moved toward the closet, and Molly stepped in the way. Michael half-expected Sean to backhand her, his temper flaring so hot. Instead, he stared her down and pointed a finger in her face.
“Get out of the way,” Sean said.
“I gave you all the food, I swear,” Molly said.
“I won’t ask you again.”
“Daddy, please. There’s no more.”
Sean grabbed her shoulders and moved her like it was nothing. Her feet skipped as she tried to hold her ground, but she couldn’t stop him. He grabbed the closet door and yanked at it, but it just popped up in its track and crashed back down.
“What’s wrong with this thing?” Sean asked.
He tried again. Another crash. Sean turned to the other door, but Molly stood in the way, practically falling in front of him, her hands clasped together, shaking. He threatened her one more time, pressed his forearm against her chest, and nudged her aside.
“Please don’t hurt him,” Molly yelled.
The words felt like that dynamite going off, so loud Michael swore he had a ringing in his ears from the blast. Sean stood with his shoulders heaving up and down, an almost primal stance. Elise looked back at her brother. Her eyes asked him a question he didn’t know the answer to.
“Don’t hurt who?” Sean asked.
The puzzle piece clicked into place, though not for Sean. It made little sense for Molly to take food from her dad and to always take her food back to her room after meals—unless there was someone else. Someone she was hiding.
Shit. Sean wasn’t going to be happy about it.
Sean threw the closet door open and popped his head inside. Michael primed himself to wrestle him off the poor boy. A man could not shack up with Sean’s perfect, pure daughter without consequence. If a little food got him this wound up, discovering his little girl was a woman would send him off the rails.
Sean paused, pulled his head back, and looked at his daughter. From his angle, Michael couldn’t see Sean’s face, but he saw the shame in Molly’s. Sean said nothing for a few seconds. Tears dripped from Molly’s eyes with each blink, her face wincing every second like she was being stabbed. She grabbed onto his arms. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, trying to pull herself toward him.
But Sean pushed her touch away.
It was painful to watch. Michael understood how easy it was to wound someone you loved. When someone shared their deepest secrets and insecurities—when they were close, it was a small thing to use that to stomp their heart into pieces. In only a few words he had the ability to make Kelly feel like utter shit when she had done something wrong. And now he watched Sean dismantle his daughter right there, without words.
Molly bowed her head toward the ground, shaking. Elise said, “What’s happening?”
Andrew stepped out from behind the closet door, his arms pressed against his sides, eyes trained on the ground. Elise covered her mouth.
Sean whipped his head back toward Andrew, and the room became still. Michael readied himself. Andrew met the man’s eyes, his jaw chattering and whole body shaking, but holding his gaze. Sean looked back at Molly, her eyes a deep red and cheeks so inflamed it was as if she was having an allergic reaction, and then he turned toward the door.
The color had faded from his face, leaving a kind of shell-shocked stare. Elise tried to reach out to him, but he just brushed by her as he left the room.
Elise stared down the hallway for a long while before she approached Molly and pulled her close, allowing her to weep into her shoulder. Andrew bent down and lowered himself. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said.
Elise, with tears resting at the edges of her eyes, looked up at Andrew and then pressed her cheek against Molly’s. Michael leaned against the doorframe and wished he wasn’t stuck in this damn house.
Chapter 13
SEAN SET THE clipboard down and rubbed his eyes. Math was a bitter, merciless thing. It didn’t care about his feelings. It didn’t care about the diminishing supply that would mean the death of everyone in his home.
He sat against the side of the concrete steps with his LED flashlight shining toward the ceiling, thinking about the food. About Molly and back to the food. About his reaction. Still angry but now ashamed. God, so ashamed.
But then there were thoughts of Andrew—that son of a bitch. He always knew what that boy was after. He liked to put on that respectable facade, but he was a boy nonetheless. Not a man. A boy. And boys were always after the same thing. Sean clenched his jaw.
The door to the reserves squeaked, someone starting down the stairs. Didn’t have to look to see who it was. Nobody but his wife would want to speak to him after what had happened upstairs. He bowed his head.
“Hey,” Elise said, standing over him.
He said nothing for a long while. “I’m sorry, Elise.”
She brushed off a spot on the floor and plopped down next to him. She reached around his back and rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that angry.”
“I’m so sorry.”
She pulled him closer, said, “It’s okay,” in such a way that he knew she didn’t mean it.
He smiled, but it drained from his face immediately. “When I saw that food gone, it was like I—”
“You want to provide for us. I get that,” she said. “But Molly—our family—is not a threat. Even if she was stealing half the food, she’s your daughter.”
“I know.” She joined him looking at the food, breathing a sigh. Maybe she had expected a fight from him, and now wasn’t getting one. So, they sat quietly for a moment before Sean said, “A month ago we had enough food for you, me, Molly, and Aidan to last for two-and-a-half years. We’re now down to one year and one month with Andrew around.”