FISHER HOME

"What was it?" Jason asks. He moves to the edge of the bed. "What happened with Brent?"

"It wasn't so much Brent and me," Molly says. "I just sort of happened to be there. I went over to talk to him."

"And? It must be something significant if it has you so exhausted."

Molly's eyes move away from him, looking to the wall, the desk, anything to avoid eye contact. But finally they come back and, with a light sigh, she says, "Sarah came over while I was there."

"I take it she wasn't too happy to see you there."

"Not quite. It turned out to be really bad timing -- she had just gotten notification of the divorce."

Shock warps Jason's features. "Brent is divorcing her?"

"Yeah. It's been a long time coming, Jay."

"I know ... It's just weird that it's actually happening."

"Yeah." Molly folds her arms in front of her. "Anyway, she went completely nuts when she saw me. She started screaming at both of us and trying to blame me for everything."

"What?" A note of alarm rings sharply in Jason's voice.

"She was ranting and raving about how this is all my fault, and how I must have Brent under some kind of spell. And--" She pauses, reliving the heated confrontation in her mind. "It got really ugly."

Jason springs to his feet. "You didn't say anything about--about your feelings for Brent, did you? 'Cause that's the last thing she needs to hear right now."

"No. Of course not. But -- jeez ..." She puts a hand to her forehead.

"What?"

"Something happened to make her even more angry."

He urges her on with a roll of his hand.

"Brent jumped in," Molly says. "He tried to stop her. And ... he said it."

"Said what?"

"That ... the way I feel about him ..."

Jason's eyes go wide with realization. "Are you serious?"

Molly nods somberly.

"Oh my God. This is insane, Molly."

"I know. And there was something else." She inhales, stretching the breath out as far as she can. "Sarah told us that she--she saw us kiss on the night that she talked Brent into eloping."

Jason is stunned into silence, and when he does speak, all he says is, "Whoa."

"My thoughts exactly. Jason, do you realize what this means? She's known all along -- or at least, she's suspected. After the whole blowout when Victoria was born, I knew that she had an idea, but ... this means that she knew before she and Brent even got married. For all we know, the reason she even wanted him to marry her that night was because she saw the kiss and panicked."

"Can you really blame her? You know how in love with Brent she was."

"She wasn't in love with him," Molly says. "Not in the way you need to make a marriage work. She was in love with the idea of him, with the idea of having such a terrific husband. Maybe it could've worked, who knows? But the whole basis of their marriage was so fake."

Jason runs a hand over the back of his neck awkwardly.

Molly keeps going. "If anyone's to blame, it could just as well be her, couldn't it? She knew this--this issue was there and she just kept trying to ignore it and force it back down. She brought this on herself."

"That's not fair."

"But it's true. Maybe her intention wasn't to be devious, but she sure set up one hell of a mess here. And now she's going completely loony."

"It's not like she hasn't had reason to! This is a lot for someone to deal with, Mol. Not that I agree with everything Sarah's done, but I can definitely understand why she's done it. Can you imagine how badly all of this must've hurt her?"

Molly raises a hand to her face. It covers her mouth, as if trying to absorb some of the pain that is dancing so wildly inside her, drying out her mouth and making her lips quiver. "I didn't want any of this to happen. I didn't want to hurt Sarah."

"I'm sure you didn't," Jason says, wrapping an arm around his big sister. "But it's a little late for 'sorry's now."

Molly closes her eyes.

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