A/N: I guess this chapter is kind of creepy... It starts the night that Phoenix goes to the hospital, in case you're not sure when "one week ago" was.
One Week Ago
Molly hadn't planned on kissing him, but when on her way back from the bathroom, Molly saw that stupid little Maya Fey heading towards Phoenix's hospital room, the opportunity seemed too perfect. Besides, it was something she'd been wanting to do since first meeting him. Maya hadn't seen her, she was too busy looking back and forth at the numbers of each room, and all Molly had to do was leave the door open behind her after the doctor left, knowing that if she hurried, Maya would catch sight of them just in time to see their embrace. And if she could make Maya think that Phoenix had kissed her willingly, she could break them up and she could finally have Phoenix to herself. After all, without Maya in the way, what would be stopping him from finding solace in her arms instead?
Phoenix wasn't happy about it, which in a way almost makes her even more attracted to him. Most men find it hard to resist her charms, whether they're already in relationships or not, and the fact that Phoenix still remained loyal to Maya even after kissing her is admirable.
Molly sips at the glass of wine on the table in her room as she keeps her eyes trained on the building across the street. She'd read the files about that case all those years ago, when defense attorney Mia Fey (apparently Maya's older sister and most likely how Maya and Phoenix met) had been murdered, so she knows all about the good vantage point this particular suite of the Gatewater Hotel provides.
After what happened all those years ago she would have thought Phoenix would be better at closing blinds, but her good fortune hasn't run out yet. The window on the office balcony is wide open, giving her a perfect view of the messy inside of Phoenix's law office, and directly above that room is another window where the blinds, though closed, have a gap between two of the shades. She can see the end of a bed and clean carpet flooring, and a door with a long vertical mirror hanging from it. Thanks to that mirror, more of the room is visible in its reflection. She can see a dresser and a nightstand stacked with books, and the rest of the bed with, oddly enough, a teddy bear sat at the head near the pillows.
Unfortunately it does seem that she's too late to see Maya's departure, as the only person she's been able to glimpse so far inside the office is a young girl in a blue dress, who she recognizes as Phoenix's daughter. It hadn't been difficult to find out her name or what she looks like. Her extensive Google searches for "Phoenix Wright" only brought up newspaper articles about old cases, but at one point she did find an article about a Trucy Wright, which mentioned Phoenix in it. From there, she was able to find multiple social media accounts, as well as a website for some sort of magic show. She was never able to find any sort of social media presence for Phoenix himself, but Trucy's accounts all have multiple photos of him on them, so they came in useful anyway.
She glances back to the office when the lights finally flicker on. She can spy two red couches and an assortment of other things. It looked like junk before, but with the lights on they appear to be toys or some such. Perhaps they're Trucy's things. Still, for a law office it doesn't look very well put together or professional. She knows defense attorneys always complain about their meagre payments, but she hadn't realized they were legitimate complaints. If the inside of Phoenix's office is any indication, she's glad she went into prosecuting.
She sits forward slightly when she finally sees what she's been waiting all night for. Phoenix. Still dressed in that bloody white shirt. She can see him talking to someone and then his daughter is there again, hugging him around the waist. Molly watches them speak some more before Trucy waves goodnight to him. It is rather late now, almost 11:30 at night. She was probably waiting for him to get home before going to bed.
Molly's eyes flick back and forth between the bedroom window and the office when Phoenix disappears from sight for a few minutes, and to her delight he appears again in the upstairs room, flicking the light on. The light in her own room is off, so she's not worried about him spying her across the way.
She had been disappointed when Phoenix shooed her from the room at the hospital the moment the doctor told him to take his shirt off. She would have loved to have seen what he looked like under all those layers. A man in a well tailored suit is always attractive, and as soon as she met him it was impossible to miss how his waist coat tapers in at his sides, and how the pants he wears give nice shape to his ass. And when she'd rolled up his sleeve at the bank, she'd gotten a glimpse of strong forearms. Plus he's tall and broad and she can only imagine how good he looks once he's shed it all.
She leans forward intently when he starts to remove his shirt, wishing she'd had the foresight to bring binoculars or something similar, but the view she does have isn't bad at all. He slides the bloodied shirt from his shoulders and throws it off to the side somewhere she can't see, and she smiles to herself. Just as she thought. Though she would have preferred an up close and personal view, even from this distance she can see how strong his back looks and when he turns around to face the window she's treated to firm pectorals and a faint adonis belt that disappears beneath his waistband. Even better than she was expecting, really.
How someone like Maya Fey, in all her plain, weird clothes, weird hair, flat chested-ness, managed to snag a man like Phoenix Wright, Molly has no idea. She's leagues better than Maya, if what her extensive Google searches have shown her are true. Maya Fey, Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique. It sounds impressive, but looking at images of the little village she claims to be the leader of makes it clear it's nothing that special. The place looks like a dump, filled with old maids who can't find husbands, and no men in sight. What a way to live. Not to mention the whole spirit channeling thing. To Molly it sounds like a load of bull, and most likely just a way for that pathetic village to make enough money from tourism to actually stay afloat.
Her eyes stay on Phoenix, watching intently as he takes his pants off as well. He even has nice legs, and she does remember that he didn't have a car during the bank robbery. Perhaps he walks or rides a bike everywhere. When he leans over his bed, he pauses, and reaches towards the teddy bear sat at the head of his bed.
He observes it for a few seconds before leaving his room with it. Molly watches quietly, and eventually he comes back, bear still in hand. He sets it on the nightstand and finally crawls into bed. She watches for a few more minutes, but she can't see much now that Phoenix has pulled the blankets up so high they're practically covering his entire head. It's getting late anyway, so she finishes off her glass of wine and stands up to stretch. She closes her own blinds and then turns the lamp on the bedside table on, and begins to get ready for bed herself.
Before she crawls into her bed, she goes to her bag to remove one of her now prized possessions. Given it's a little gross thanks to the dried blood on the sleeve, the blue suit jacket she'd managed to snag from the ambulance before driving Phoenix to the hospital is wonderful otherwise. It still smells like him, a slight scent of some sort of cologne… It's delicious. She crawls into her bed with it, keeping it clenched in her hands and close to her chest as she closes her eyes to sleep.
She knows she'll have to give it a few days before she attempts to contact him. If Maya has left for good she's sure Phoenix will be hurting from it, though she knows he's better off. Best to let him get through the first few days of the break up on his own, then she can swoop in and be there as a comforting friend. Knowing Maya left him without so much as a word will surely break his trust in her.
She just needs to keep an eye on the office to make sure he doesn't do anything unexpected until that time comes.
The next three days pass by uneventfully. From her limited view into Phoenix's apartment Molly can't exactly tell what's going on at all times. She knows he sleeps a lot, and she sees him talking to his daughter one night before they both head upstairs together, out of her view. He doesn't appear in his room until hours later, when he finally goes to bed. The next day she can see his junior attorney, who Molly now knows is called Athena Cykes, enter the office in the morning, but from what she can see in the reflection of the mirror in his room, Phoenix is still asleep. The younger attorney takes care of the office for a while, but even Molly can see how busy it's getting. It's then that she notices Phoenix stirring again, and checking his phone. He's up in a hurry after that and Molly smiles as she watches him hurry out of his room, only to reappear downstairs in the office to help his younger protege.
Eventually they both leave the office, and Molly sits at the table, picking at the breakfast she'd ordered from room service, debating. She knows his daughter is gone to school for the day, and the law office is just there, completely empty. The temptation to make a little visit is strong, but she can't risk it. She doesn't know when he and Athena will be back, and she can't risk getting caught.
She finishes her eggs and calls down for another bottle of wine to sip on while she waits for them to return.
It takes a few hours, during which Molly only leaves her seat at the window a few times for only a few minutes at a time, but eventually Phoenix returns with Athena. It doesn't take them long to get into some sort of deep discussion about something, and when Athena picks up one of the photo frames from Phoenix's desk, Molly once again wishes she'd had the foresight to bring binoculars. She can't see the picture, but she's willing to bet it's one of Phoenix and Maya.
The thought makes her angry. If he still has photos of her on his desk then he's not moving on. He still has some sort of hope that Maya will come back. He still trusts her. That's not what was supposed to happen. Maya was supposed to break his heart, and he was supposed to give up on her.
She has no idea what Athena has said to him, but she watches on as Phoenix gets up from his desk and hurries upstairs, where he starts to pack.
Molly clenches her fist around her wine glass as she watches him throw clothing into a duffel bag. Where does he think he's going? To see Maya? No, no, no. That's not how it was supposed to go!
She's can't do anything but watch as he finally bids Athena goodbye and heads out. She can't see the road from this high up, but she knows in her gut that he's going to that little out of the way village to try and win Maya back, and the thought makes her blood boil.
Sadly, there's nothing she can do about it right now without making it known that she's been watching him, so all she can do is sit and seethe as she watches Athena finish her work for the day. When she leaves, and Trucy comes home, and Phoenix still has yet to come back, Molly knows for sure he's gone to see Maya.
The next two days pass excruciatingly slow. The longer Molly spends in her hotel room the more stir crazy she gets, but she can't leave. She needs to keep an eye on the apartment in case Phoenix comes back with Maya. If he does, she'll need another plan. One that will get rid of Maya for good.
It isn't until Thursday afternoon that she realizes she'll soon have a chance to leave the hotel, after she sees Athena conversing with Trucy about something in the office. She wishes she had some sort of wire tap, something she'd also read about in the case from all those years ago, but alas she can only guess what their conversation is about. It's not hard to guess once she sees Trucy go upstairs and come back down a few minutes later with her own packed bag. She leaves with Athena, and doesn't come back the whole night.
Molly gives it a few nights, wanting to be sure that Trucy is staying with Athena until Phoenix comes back. She knows it's still risky, after all she has no idea when Phoenix will be back from seeing Maya, but the urge to go to the office while it's empty is too strong to ignore, especially now that it's been so long since Phoenix has been home. Whatever happened in Kurain, Molly is positive he and Maya have made up. There would be no reason for him to still be gone otherwise.
When Trucy doesn't come back Friday night either, Molly throws on a hoodie and some jeans to wear, leaving her hair plain and her make up off. It's not enough to look suspicious, but given her usual attire of form fitting dresses, curled hair and plenty of make up, it's enough to make her almost unrecognizable to many who know of her. If Phoenix has any sort of cameras set up, the hoodie over her hair to cover her face in shadow will surely be enough to hide her identity. Still, given the look of his office from what she could see through the window, she doubts he can afford any sort of security.
Afterwards, she finally leaves the comfort of her hotel room, takes the elevator down, and crosses the road to the building where the Wright Anything Agency is located.
When she finds the correct floor and the door labelled Wright Anything Agency, she tries the doorknob. Unfortunately it's locked, but thankfully she had the foresight to watch a few videos on opening locked doors before making the trip over, not to mention she's been to her share of robbery and theft related crime scenes, and has spoken to many a petty thief thanks to her job as a prosecutor. It's not hard to pick up a few tips and tricks along the way. Her luck only improves when she sees what an old lock the door has. It's one of the easiest types to jimmy open with a credit card, so she takes out the one she'd brought with her for this very reason and slides it between the door and the frame. With a few wiggles of the card, the door opens for her, leaving no damage behind whatsoever.
She steps into the darkened office and looks around. Everything is old and worn. The two red leather couches in the room are worn and cracked, there's junk everywhere, and a bookcase behind a large desk that's filled with dusty old law books, which look like they haven't been opened for years. She approaches the desk slowly in the dark and slips behind it. There's a computer on it, some notepads and a cup full of pens and pencils, and a few picture frames.
She picks up one of them and holds it up to squint at it in the light of the Gatewater Hotel across the street. It's a photo of two young girls, one with dark brown hair and one with light, with arms slung across each other's shoulders. One of them she recognizes as a slightly younger Trucy, but the other one doesn't look familiar at all.
She sets it down and grabs the next frame, the one she recognizes as the frame Athena was looking at the other day, and lifts it into the light as well. When she sees what it is, a picture of Phoenix and that awful Maya together, he staring down at her with a soft smile as she grins into the camera, and her hand on his chest. Molly slams it face down on the desk. She hears the glass crack beneath it, and smiles. Picking it up again, the shattered glass stays on the desk, and she peels the picture out of the frame to inspect it closer. It's printed on cheap printer paper, which makes it easy enough to tear in half.
She lets the pieces flutter to the floor and sits back, attempting to take a deep breath, but that picture has sent her blood boiling. Looking around, she swivels in the office chair and reaches back to a filing cabinet placed behind the desk. It's unlocked, and she begins to pull files out of the cabinet, throwing them over her shoulder to let them scatter. She doesn't care to read them, all she wants now is to ruin whatever she can. If Phoenix doesn't want her, if he can't realize how much better she is than Maya, then she wants to at least leave him a little something to come home to.
Once she's thoroughly gone through the filing cabinets and there's a layer of paper covering the floor around the desk, she stands up, carelessly stepping on and tearing the papers as she walks over them. There's a plant sitting near the window in a pot. It looks old and fragile and the soil is a little dry. She knocks that over on her way past, spilling the soil onto the floor and causing some of the leaves to drop from the branches.
She spots a strange looking shelf across the room with a trophy on it, and a blue knit hat on that. She heads that way and slips the hat off, turning it to view the pink writing. "Papa" is written on it. She sets it back on the trophy messily.
Aside from the desk and filing cabinets there's not much in the office, but she spots the hallway she assumes leads to the stairs to the apartment above. Smiling to herself, she heads in that direction.
The stairs lead up to a hallway that she follows to a living room. She passes by pictures hung on the walls as she goes. There are mostly pictures of Trucy and the other girl, but a few of a much younger Maya (even more plain and boring looking) and a younger Phoenix, and even a few of Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth, Athena Cykes, and another young man with brown hair and two little hair antennas that Molly also doesn't recognize. It seems Phoenix has quite the group of friends outside of his tiny two family unit with Trucy.
Entering the living room, she's glad to see that it's mostly clean, bar a few knick knacks and things sitting around haphazardly. It proves that Phoenix isn't a typical bachelor type with a messy home, and he's a responsible father. Both attractive qualities.
She wanders the living room a bit, but aside from all the photos there's not much of interest. Still, she takes the time to open any picture frames she finds with photos that include Maya, and tears them apart, or at least tears Maya from them, leaving the rest intact if possible. There are two more doors that she can see, and when she opens the first it's obviously Trucy's room. It's a bit messier than the rest of the apartment, but looks mostly like a typical teenaged girl's room. It's not what she's interested in.
She stops outside the next door for a brief moment, but can't wait very long before she opens it gingerly. She steps inside, looking around, breathing in deeply. Most families seem to have a unique scent to their homes, and Phoenix and Trucy's apartment is no different, but stepping into Phoenix's room seems so much more intimate and personal. That unique apartment scent is there, but it's mixed with the cologne smell from his jacket, making it different and so much more Phoenix.
When she flicks the light on in his room the first thing she spots is that teddy bear back at the head of his bed. Moving towards it, she picks it up. It has Get Well Soon written on the heart it's holding, and Molly finally recognizes it. Maya had been holding it when she saw her at the hospital looking for Phoenix's room. She must have left it here for him before leaving.
She throws it back onto the bed and glances down into the empty laundry basket. Shame, it seems Phoenix or Trucy actually keep up with their laundry so there's nothing… fresh. She goes to his dresser drawers instead and begins opening them, pulling out clothing and throwing it to the floor. At the bottom of one of the drawers she finds a very pink sweater with a big red heart on it, the P in the centre coloured yellow. It's clearly hand knitted and old and worn now. Molly looks at it with disgust. Was this something Maya gave to him? As much as she doesn't like Maya, Molly doesn't think that even her fashion sense is this terrible. Perhaps it's something from his younger days that he, for some reason, felt the need to keep.
She throws it on his bed and continues digging through the dresser. She finds another sweater, even more worn, but much more normal looking, and multiple other articles of clothing. She finds the same in his closet, though the clothing there is dressier. To her disappointment, it's all clean. None if it has that distinct scent the way the bloody suit jacket she has at her hotel room does.
Looking over to the bed again, she gets an idea. Moving to the side of it, she picks up the teddy bear and tears the heart from its hands, angrily throwing it to the floor, and watching as it bounces across the room.
She sits down on the edge of the bed, her fingers running across the blankets. Even the tidiest people aren't known to change their bedsheets every single night. She stops to reconsider only for a few moments, before the urge gets too strong. She stands up again and moves to close the door. Turning back around, she slips her hoodie and t-shirt off, and her pants come next. She leaves her clothing in a pile on the floor, and clad in only her underwear and bra, she flips the covers back and crawls into Phoenix's bed.
Molly curls the sheets and blanket around her, pulling them up and inhaling deeply. She can almost imagine Phoenix is there with her, beside her, sharing his warmth with her.
She slinks her hand down her stomach to toy with the edge of her underwear, smiling to herself. She only has a fleeting thought about the risk she's taking, that someone could come home and catch her any minute, before her fingers slip just a little lower, beneath the satin fabric of her panties.
A/N: I was going to have Molly go through a dirty laundry hamper or something but I couldn't bring myself to write it, lol. Still, I think the ending is sufficiently gross.