It was half way through their shift the next day, Connie had done a good job of snapping at everyone who crossed paths with her but she had yet to speak to Zoe, and had carefully avoided her.
"She's okay by the way, not that you seem to care." Zoe hissed at her boss as she entered her office without knocking, knowing that she'd be told to go and crawl back into whatever hole she came out of.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Connie spat back.

"Well I've had Grace all night and today and you haven't tried to contact me to ask how she is."

"I'm sure you're perfectly capable of looking after my daughter." Connie spoke, trying to appear unfazed about the situation.

"I am but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be bothered, if I was you then I'd be fighting tooth and nail to get my little girl to forgive me and to be the mother that she so desperately craves."

"Well you aren't me." Came the curt response. "Where is she anyway, if you're here?" She asked, realising that Zoe was in but her daughter wasn't.

"She's with Max, he is on the night shift so he's watching her."

"Oh so you left my daughter with an idiot who can barely look after himself."

"He's brilliant with her actually, you'd know if you bothered to open your eyes and learn a little more about your staff members."

"Well I don't go around making a habit of sleeping with my colleagues."

"At least if I had children they wouldn't hate me, even your child favours me over you." Zoe spoke harshly before leaving the office.

Connie stared into space for a few minutes, trying to process all that Zoe had thrown at her. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes, Connie didn't do failing. When Grace was born she'd made a promise to herself, and her newborn daughter, that Grace would come before anyone or anything else. She hadn't even been able to manage what every other mother in the world seemed to manage, and yet again work had seemed to come first. When Grace was a toddler she was difficult, she was stubborn, she refused to sleep or eat and frequently threw tantrums. That's why at 4, Connie found herself putting her daughter into boarding school, that way she couldn't mess her up. It seemed that not even the best education that money could buy, could defeat genetics and now she was faced with a daughter who had been kicked out of two schools and no longer wanted to see her mother.

Zoe seemed to have it all, she had Max, or so it appeared considering he was looking after Grace. She had her daughter, they were all playing happy families, something that Connie had craved but never seemed to manage. Zoe was happy, a feeling that seemed foreign to Connie. For her her aim in life was professional perfection, there was no personal life for her, her life centred around work, and now with a lawsuit hanging over her and the loss of respect from her staff meant that even her working life was in disarray. Since the accident, her life had been on a continuous downwards spiral, one that didn't seem to be ending anytime soon.


"Zoe? You're early." Max asked and then commented as Zoe entered her living room.

"Well I couldn't stand the wicked witch."

"What's she done now?" Max asked.

"Same old. Where's Grace?" Zoe asked.

"Upstairs, she's been going on all day about how she wants you to give her a makeover."

"Well I think I can manage that. Why don't you go and have a nap? I'll take over looking after her, you must be exhausted."

"Let me go and get the blanket out for the sofa then." Max spoke, having put the bedding away from being on the sofa all night.

"Let me get my makeup and hair stuff out of my bathroom and you can take my bed."

"Are you sure?" Max asked, knowing that this was the pair becoming closer again.

"It's not as if you haven't slept their before, anyway I don't want you putting your back out." Zoe explained. "Give me five minutes to get everything and the rooms all yours."