Look East | A Hozier Fanfiction |

23

Molly cursed loudly as she spilled her coffee on a file. Today hadn't been her day. She had woken up late, gotten stuck behind an accident on her way to court, and then had to track her client down after he'd gone to the wrong court room. And now, she had to deal with a mess on her notes for her next case.

To say today hadn't been her day was an understatement. The last two weeks hadn't been winners for her. Ever since ending things with Andrew the month beforehand, things had been rough for her. Sam's guess was correct that her mother had about a week left to live and she received a text from him confirming her death five days after Andrew had left. It had only gone downhill from there.

Her mood soured by the day and no amount of work would fix it. Andrew had done his best to accept her decision, but Molly limited contact with him to eliminate any potential begging. It was better this way, even if he wanted to still be friends. Work was all she had, but no matter how much she threw herself into it, she still felt an emptiness inside.

The worst part was that she couldn't tell if it was because she'd pushed Andrew away or if she was mourning her mother. To say their relationship had been complicated would also be an understatement, but it was true. Manipulation had been her father's game, and he'd played it on all of them. Her mother may not have been the best player, but she still had her moments.

Molly would oscillate between anger and depression, frustration and sadness. Oscar knew what had happened and did his best to try to cheer her up with relaxing nights in front of the TV, but even The Golden Girls had their limits. She was running on a short fuse already and her disastrous day was making it even shorter.

"Case SB30657, Steele versus Yeardley, court room five!" a bailiff called from the end of the hall.

"Fuck-fuck-fuckity-fuck," Molly cursed under her breath as she rushed to put things away, tossing her coffee cup into the bin.

"Are you okay?" Nora Steele asked, looking at the mess.

"Yeah, that's us. Court room five," Molly replied, shaking the liquid off the file and thanking God she hadn't stained her clothes.

"I only ask if you're okay because these are my kids and I can't risk not having them for Christmas. And you seem...distracted," Nora said apprehensively.

"I'm fine, Ms. Steele. I promise," Molly assured her, hoping that saying it out loud would actually convince herself to believe it too.

She had taken one of Oscar's family law cases to help him out, and so far things had gone well. Nora Steele was a recently-divorced mother of two seeking to renegotiate her custody arrangement. It was a simple, cut-and-dry case and all Molly had to do was prove that the children's father wasn't holding up his end of the bargain.

"Come on, we'd better go in," she told her client, standing.

She inspected the file in her hands as they walked and was dismayed to find one of the documents had a large coffee stain across the top. Oh well, there wasn't anything else to be done about it.

"Are you sure everything is fine?" Nora asked. "Oscar told me you were the best...but...," she looked at Molly in concern.

"Nora, Oscar is right. I have a ninety-seven percent success rate," Molly said. "He wouldn't have given your case to me if he didn't trust me."

They walked into the court room and headed to their seats. Nora's ex-husband was sitting opposite them with his own counsel. Molly recognized the other lawyer as Harry Jensen, a long-time family law attorney who was well-known as a shark. She swallowed thickly as he looked over at her and nodded politely. She returned the gesture before turning back to her file.