“Thank you.”

Kyle squeezed Shane’s arm and followed Maggie into the house. “Maggie? If you won’t stay at my house, let me stay here. I promise my intentions are purely to help, no ulterior motives. Please? I’ll be worried about you if you stay here alone.”

Before she could answer, Polly Chase came through the door and pulled Maggie into her arms. Even at eleven on a Wednesday night, her hair was in its usual bouffant and her spiky heels were on those tiny feet. “Honey, you’re coming over to my house right now. No arguments!”

Maggie looked at all of them—Shane talking to her neighbors across the street, Matt and Marc who had just finished scrubbing her front door and had boarded her windows, Kyle who stood there looking worried for her and now Polly. In the last half an hour she’d gotten more comfort and love from the Chase family than she’d had from her own over her entire life. It hit her like a blow to the chest and she began to sob in earnest.

Polly smoothed a hand over her hair, crooning motherly soft words. Kyle looked worried and helpless. His mother locked eyes with him. “Kyle, go upstairs and pack a bag for Margaret.”

“I can’t impose on you,” Maggie choked out, shaking her head. “I’ll be all right.” She’d always been. She’d taken care of herself most of her life.

“Kyle, do as I say. Margaret, you aren’t imposing. I’m a mother, it’s my job. Let me help, sugar. Let us help.” She didn’t ask if Maggie wanted to stay with her parents. Polly had seen the way Cecelia Wright treated her youngest daughter and the father seemed pretty disinterested. She knew that Maggie had no one to help her other than her girlfriends and the Chases. “On second thought, Kyle, come take over for me. I’ll go grab some clothes for Maggie. Goodness knows what you’d pick for the girl to wear to work tomorrow.”

Kyle looked at his mother thankfully and pulled Maggie into his arms, rocking her slightly while his mother click clacked up the stairs.

“It’s the last door on the left,” Maggie called out.

“You see how useless it is to oppose her will?” Kyle asked with a smile on his face and was relieved to see Maggie smile back at him. “Resistance is futile, Maggie. My mother is tougher than any Borg.”

Polly came back downstairs and led them all out the door. “Kyle, why don’t you drive Maggie over to our house? I’ll meet you all there.”

Kyle nodded and helped Maggie into his car. He watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye on the way to his parents’ house. “I won’t ask if you’re all right, I can see how not all right you are. I know my family is a bit overwhelming but we mean well. Let us in, let us help.”

“I…” don’t know how. “I’ll do my best,” she said instead.

He pulled up in front of the house and helped Maggie inside. “Come on, baby. I’ll get you settled in the guest room. Which by the way, is my old room.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively and she allowed herself a laugh.

He put her overnight bag on the bed. “Why don’t you take a shower and get changed? Come down afterwards. There’ll be hot cocoa and there’s no saying no. My mother will only come and drag you down.”

She nodded and walked into the bathroom at the end of the hall a dazed look on her face. He stayed there in the doorway until he heard the shower turn on.

“Did you tell her to come down for cocoa?” Polly asked as he entered the kitchen, throwing himself in a chair with a heavy sigh. He watched his mother rattling around starting to heat the milk and took comfort from it.

Kyle grinned at Matt and Marc, already sitting at the table. “Yes, Momma. She’s taking a shower first. I told her to come down and that you wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Standing quickly, he hugged her and kissed the top of her head. “Thanks for taking her in. She needed a momma tonight. I don’t think the one she has fits the bill.”

“Cecelia Wright is a cold fish to that girl. I never understood it,” Polly said with heat.

Shane walked in as Maggie came down the stairs wearing sweats and a tee shirt. Polly saw her bare feet. “Oh no! Honey, I forgot to get you some slippers. Matthew, go and get her a pair of socks to keep her feet warm.”

“It’s okay, I’m fine.” Maggie held out a hand to stay Matt.

Matt just laughed at her and jogged out of the room. He returned in less than two minutes. “Here, sugar, put ‘em on or she’ll do it for you.”

“Thanks.” Maggie looked up at Shane as she pulled the socks on. “Well? Any news?”

“We’ve arrested Alex Parsons. He had a bucket of red paint sitting on his back steps. The fool still had it under his fingernails.”

Nausea roiled through her and she felt lightheaded in disbelief of the situation. “Why? I only went out with him three times! We never got more serious than a kiss. I don’t understand why he hates me so much.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s hate. It gets worse.”

Kyle moved his chair closer to Maggie’s, reaching out to grab her hand.

Maggie paled. “What?”

Shane sighed. “He had pictures of you. Hundreds of pictures of you. Some of them were taken of you at the school, working in your yard, some were of you in the house. And there are ones he clearly used a telephoto lens with. You’re, um, naked in some.”

She put her head down on the table, rage, shame, and mortification fought within her. She wasn’t sure she could even begin to process it all right then. “I’ve seen him in my neighborhood a lot. I just tried to ignore him.”