The following day, Molly quietly went about her duties in the clinic. She busied herself with as many tasks as Christopher would allow her, to get her mind off of things. She knew her father would stop by later that day, and the thought of that made her stomach churn. The one thing she had to hand to him, he always had been a man of his word. He would be at the cabin not a hair later than he had been the day before. She scurried about in the clinic, barely talking to either Thomas or Christopher as she worked.
She chewed on her lip every time she passed by the clock and looked at it, seeing as the time just seemed to fly right by. Her nerves were eating at her so badly she was afraid that Christopher or Thomas would notice. She cursed at herself for worrying so much, and for being so afraid of this man, but she couldn't help it. Ever since she had been a child, she'd been afraid of him. Afraid of what he would do to her or her brothers whenever he had been in a bad mood. Afraid of what he would do to her friends if she'd told them what was going. Afraid of what he would to her mother if she tried to tell her to leave him. Even now, she wasn't afraid for herself or what he would do to her. She was afraid of what he would do to her child, or to Nathan.
She continued being pleasant with the patients she had, but her mind was other places. She walked around like a zombie, watching the minutes tick by. Waiting until she'd have to go home and face him. Usually by the end of the day, she was weary, dead on her feet. But as the clock struck out, Molly wished she could stay longer. But as patients left the building, and only she, Thomas, and Christopher remained, she knew she had to face the music sooner or later. Hopefully the money she had would be enough for him, and he'd just leave them alone.
"Molly, you mind coming over here for a minute?" Christopher asked her, as she was pulling on her coat to head home.
Molly nodded and walked over to where he was standing. "Yes?"
"I've been meaning to ask you this all day, but you've just been so busy that I haven't had a chance."
Molly swallowed. "What's that?"
"Yesterday, I saw this man walking down away from you and Nathan's cabin. I've never seen him around here before, and I was just curious who he was. Seeing as he was leaving your house."
Molly shrugged, licking her lips. "Just some door-to-door salesman. Came up to the door to try to sell me something, but I sent him away."
Christopher nodded. "Oh, alright. He just didn't look all too friendly, and I was just worried he was up there giving you a hard time or something. You know how some of these sales people can be."
Molly laughed nervously. "Yeah I know what you mean. Well, I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." He said, waving at her as she headed out the door.
Her breath fogged in front of her face, as she stepped out into the cold. Bundling her clothes against her body, she made her way up to the cabin. The baby began kicking at her belly as she trudged through the snow, and she rubbed a hand over it. So as not to work herself into a tizzy, she began thinking of baby names. She and Nathan had just started discussing it, but they hadn't really settled on any. Nathan was still set that it was a girl, but was still completely unhelpful in the name department. She began mulling over some names for both boys and girls, just in case. She liked Lea or Michelle for a girl, but she also liked Ryder or Alex for a boy. Before she knew it, as she continued to mull names over in her head, she was at the front door.
Kicking the snow off her boots, she unlocked the door and walked inside. It was still quite cold inside, as the cold had finally settled in the area. She quickly went over to the fireplace and lit a fire. That should warm the house up a bit. As the flames began to slowly flicker before her, she rubbed her hands in front of her towards the growing fire, warming her. She walked back over to the door and took off her coat and scarf, placing the items in their usual places. Meandering to the couch, she began kicking off her boots, listening to the crackle of the fire.
Looking up at the clock, she knew that if he did come, he wouldn't be there for another twenty or thirty minutes. She began to hope that he wouldn't come, that he'd forget about the whole thing and just wouldn't show up. But she knew better. She knew he would. He always did. She recollected a time when she was younger, and he was in a similar situation with some people he'd borrowed money from. He'd come crawling to her mother for the money. She didn't have it, she struggled just to make ends meet with Molly and her brothers. But that wasn't what he'd wanted to hear. He'd been all syrupy sweet, like he had yesterday, when he'd asked her. But the minute she said no, his temper flared. He'd set into beating her, and Molly had stepped in to break the fight up, which in turn meant that she got the brunt end of it.
Molly closed her eyes and sighed at the memory. Her poor mother, god rest her soul. She'd passed away a few years ago, not too terribly long after she and Nathan had wed. Nathan had been there at the funeral with her. Her brothers hadn't shown, not that it had surprised her. As soon as they'd been old enough, they'd done the same thing Molly had done, and got as far from that place as they could get. They still wrote her on a regular occasion, and had even visited her and Nathan once or twice, but they hadn't wanted to attend their mother's funeral. They'd been afraid their father would show up, and they hadn't wanted to deal with him. Molly had been afraid at first that he would too, but she knew he wouldn't. If it didn't make a profit for him, he wouldn't bother.
Molly shook her head, trying to push away the memories. Nathan would be working late again that night, which would mean that he would likely be starving by the time he got home. Molly decided, as she headed to the kitchen, that she would start preparing dinner for the two of them. She, herself, was craving something cheesy once again, so she decided that she would make them a nice lasagna. Grabbing ingredients from the cabinets, she began tossing things into the mixing bowl, and set about making one. Nathan had given her a really good recipe for an extra cheesy cheese lasagna, and she drooled slightly at the thought, pulling out a baking pan. Nathan really was the excellent cook, and he'd taught Molly a thing or two about cooking. She'd even fancy to say that she had gotten quite good. She was still nowhere near Nathan's level, but she was getting better by the day.
Once she was satisfied with her work, she delicately placed her lasagna in the baking pan, and set it in the oven. Setting the oven temperature and timer, she sighed and went about cleaning up the mess she'd made in the kitchen. Nathan had seemed to master the art of cooking in the kitchen without making a mess, while Molly hadn't quite gotten there yet. Nathan would always joke with her, saying that her food should be spectacular from the amount of mess she would seem to create while making it.
As she tossed some of the trash into the trash bin, she heard the front door shut loudly and jumped in surprise. The automatic first thought that came into her mind was that she had forgotten to lock the door when she'd come in. It had completely slipped her mind. And she now immensely regretted forgetting the small task as she turned around to see her father standing before her, the front door shut firmly behind him.