Her Little Helper

Chapter 23

*Savannah's POV*

It's been a strange couple of weeks having Molly staying with us. Her and I haven't really talked much so Dina has handled most of the interactions with her. I can tell Molly is really not in a good place right now. She keeps to herself mostly, and has been picking up a lot of extra shifts at the local market that she works at. There's a lot of pain between us, but acknowledging it is a lot easier said than done, never mind processing it.

Dina and I haven't talked with her yet about finding her a new family. Since Samuel's abandonment of her, she's seemed lost, as though she's living in a dazed trance. As much as I feel the animosity between Molly and I, my caregiving instincts are screaming at me to do something to help her. I was not the perfect mommy for her. Far from it. Any kind of caregiver-little relationship like what we had is too far beyond repair, not that either of us want that back anyways. 

The least I can do for Molly is to find her a new family. One that will treat her far better than I or Samuel ever did. She deserves that.

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The elevator dinged as it reached the top floor of my office building. It startled Abigail, who I was carrying on my hip with her face nuzzled into my neck. She looked up at me with tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh baby, don't cry!" I cooed softly with a bit of a chuckle. "It was just the elevator saying we're here!" 

She dug her head back into my neck, sniffling away the tears that were teasing their way from her eyes. This is how she was in her baby headspace. It was easy to startle her, which often resulted in a complete meltdown. Thankfully, this time seemed to be going a bit smoother than that, and she was able to soothe herself. She latched onto my bare collarbone with her mouth, suckling while she watched the surroundings of the office as we stepped out of the elevator. 

"Well I wasn't expecting a surprise visitor!" Erin cheered from her desk as we entered the top floor. She stood up and walked around to meet us.

"Yes, Ms. Abigail here was feeling a bit too little to join Dina at school today. I figured I could keep a closer eye on her here." I responded as Erin walked over and gave a welcoming rub to Abigail's back. "Her and Molly had gotten into a bit of an argument this morning after Abigail was accidentally borrowing some of her colored pencils without permission." I said with an exasperate huff.

"Oh, so it's going that well, huh?" Erin asked sarcastically, still cooing at baby Abigail. I rolled my eyes with an exhausted smile.

I had told Erin all about the debacle with Molly, and how she's been living with us for nearly a month now. She had known Molly from when her and I were together, though they never really had the chance to get to know each other much at all.

"Last week you had said you were having that conversation with Molly. How did that go?" Erin asked, referring to the conversation about finding Molly a new caregiver. 

"Um," I hesitated. "I may have panicked a bit and... forgot." I said sheepishly. 

Erin's eyes widened in semi-sarcastic annoyance. 

"What?! It's hard to just bring up something like that to someone who's so... down." I admitted. "Why do you care so much anyways?"

"I'm just... curious. I don't know." Erin mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck.

I raised an eyebrow at my assistant, smirking slightly.

"Curious, huh?" I asked, my face commanding her to elaborate.

"What?" She asked like a deer in headlights.

"Oh nothing." I said, my smirk widening as I walked into my office.