Greyson 9 am Monday morning came and went with no sign of Zoe. I paced the floor in front of Mabel's desk glancing at my watch and back at the unmoving private elevator. I should have never given Zoe a chance. I should have known this would happen. Zoe was a mess, incapable of organising a party in a brewery. She blamed everything on her kids, on being a single parent. It was all bullshit. My mom was a single parent. She held down a job and studied while raising Stella and me and we were never late for school. We were always pushed to do our best. Zoe appeared to be raising a future felon, a mild-mannered mute and a kid who thinks the world owes him a living and shoes. My mother would never allow anything like that to happen. "She'll be here, Sir," Mabel said. "This job is important to her." "Yeah, it looks like it," I scoffed. The Zoe I remembered from school was never late but then the Zoe I remembered from school would never have had three kids before the age of thirty with n

Zoe's POV "I'm hungry," Bella moaned as I slipped my key into the front door lock. "Me too, I'm starving," Harry joined in. Isaac said nothing. He hadn't uttered a word the whole way home. I left all three kids on the sofa in front of the TV, leaving Isaac in charge of the TV remote and made my way to the kitchen. Smoke still lingered in the air. The blackened casserole sat on top of the stove. I grabbed a knife from the sink and poked at the charred remains. It was black the whole way through, even if the kids wouldn't accuse me of trying to poison them if I served it, it was utterly inedible. Ash the whole way through. I sighed throwing the knife back into the sink and headed to the fridge. Four lonely eggs sat on the middle shelf next to a carton of expired yoghurt and half a gallon of milk. An inch of hardened cheddar cheese nestled on the shelf in the door. My stomach rumbled as I tossed the eggs and some grated cheese and milk into a pan, already guessing Bella's reaction.