Where's Molly

Cage Everhart is a professional document forger, and like Molly, he works for Legion. Cage enters the novel in his thirties already in love with Molly and cemented in his occupation. Working through the Black Portal, a store he opened when he turned 18, he helps Legion’s clients escape their lives with new identities and homes. Cage helped Molly to achieve this task nine years before the present of the text, at which time he fell in love with her. Cage is notably violent and controlling, but he displays equal measures of kindness and care regarding Molly, threatening to kill anyone who touches her and making small gestures like bringing flowers and a movie to her home. Nevertheless, his movie of choice, The Silence of the Lambs, a violent film, suggests an undercurrent of threat. Cage tends to overstep Molly’s boundaries, both physically and emotionally, such as barging into her home unannounced, disrespecting her requests for him to leave or stop carrying her, and trapping Molly in conversations with his mother. However, these actions are framed in the text as evidence of Cage’s obsessive love for Molly, rather than indicating Cage as a threat to Molly’s well-being.

Cage is the deuteragonist, or secondary protagonist, of the text, and he is also Molly’s romantic interest following the conventions of the dark romance genre. Cage is largely static, meaning that his character does not develop over the course of the text; instead, Cage begins the narrative balancing violence and compassion in his love for Molly, and he ends the narrative both supporting Molly’s efforts to meet Layla and killing her last abuser, Kenny Mathers. Cage’s role in the novel is primarily to support Molly and provide an outlet for Molly’s need for intimacy in discovering her path to overcoming her trauma, but Cage presents his own trauma and healing process, as well. His origin story is rooted in the death of his sister, Olivia, who was sexually assaulted and murdered by a police officer. After Olivia’s death, Cage discovered the dangers that vulnerable people face in society, and he developed his role with Legion to help such people escape their abusers. This life path identifies Cage as a reliable ally in Molly’s journey toward recovery, and it also highlights Cage as a character who has dealt with and recovered from trauma himself.

Layla Devereaux is Molly’s younger sister who was less than one year old when Molly’s parents sold Molly into human trafficking. Following Molly’s escape from Francesca’s house, Molly took care of Layla for four years before leaving her with Margot and Colin. In the present, Layla is a happy teenager living a normal life in Montana. She is a soccer player, and Molly attends all of Layla’s games. When Layla meets Molly as a teenager, she asks for Molly’s name, indicating her sincere interest in learning more about Molly and her biological family, and her ultimate decision to meet with Molly implies a resolution to her feelings of conflicted identity.

Layla is only a tertiary character in the text, functioning more often as an object regarding Molly’s feelings of love and need to protect. In this role, Layla takes on a symbolic meaning of innocence and purity; Molly’s initial focus is on keeping Layla safe from the sexual and physical harm posed by Raymond, and later, her focus is on preventing Layla from enduring the same internal conflicts as Molly. Molly distances herself from Layla, at first, to keep Layla safe from the people who threaten to hurt or kidnap Molly; then, when Molly returns, Layla is firmly rooted with Margot and Colin, unaware of the traumatic past from which Molly saved her. Even in the end of the novel, as Molly and Layla begin to form a new connection, Molly is no longer plagued by her feelings of fear and danger, allowing her to form a relationship with Layla without exposing Layla to the traumas of their shared past. Margot and Colin emphasize to Molly that Layla’s relationship with Molly will be entirely dependent on Layla’s comfort, but Layla’s interest in Molly indicates that she is both happy and comfortable getting to know her sister.

Legion is both the name of an underground organization that kills people who commit specific crimes against vulnerable people and the name of the man running that organization. Legion is a protective character, stepping into Molly’s life when she most needs assistance, then providing the tools and funds needed to save Molly from her situation in Montana. When Molly returns from Alaska, Legion provides a job and personal security for Molly, often implying that anyone who tries to hurt Molly will face the full wrath of the Legion organization. Legion also serves as a jester character, as he intentionally withholds information from both Molly and Cage during their budding relationship, provoking the intensity and fierceness of the romance through subtle manipulation. As such, Legion serves as an overseeing entity with interpersonal involvement in the narrative, acting as an omnipotent protector for Molly and a facetious antagonist for Cage.

Legion is a parallel organization to Z in the Cat & Mouse Duet series. Additionally, Eli mentions a third organization, the Basilisk Brotherhood, near the end of the text, which is trying to connect with Legion and Z. These organizations are part of Carlton’s worldbuilding, in which underground organizations fight criminal organizations to protect vulnerable people. Legion’s role in this system is the assassination of criminals, whereas Z disrupts criminal activities, and the Basilisk Brotherhood is implied to be an organization providing medical care to victims.