Chapter Thirty-One
Hadrian
I lead Juliet to my lab, wondering with every step whether I’m making the right decision. This doesn’t feel like a Saldar move. Saldar would have dragged Juliet back to her cell and punished her for even thinking of questioning him.
She’ll get her punishment, but the longer we’re out here, the more it’s sinking in that I can’t pretend the outside world doesn’t exist. Juliet needs to accept the real me as her master.
Me, not Saldar, and that can’t happen in isolation.
The Brotherhood is a community, and Juliet needs to find her place in it, just like the other girls have.
But before that, she needs to know about Candice.
Quinn took away any chance of breaking the news to Juliet in my own time. I saw the recognition on her face at the name. CDICE—our private joke. I don’t know why I kept the name after what Juliet did. I just couldn’t think of Candice as anything else, even though it hurt.
Juliet remains quiet, though I can feel the questions desperate to spill out of her. For every one I answer, there will be hundreds more right behind. She lit up, desperate for company, when Eve mentioned some girl time. She’s always needed that type of connection.
I have to find a balance, a way to allow her that without breaking the hold I have over her. I hadn’t meant to introduce her to anyone today, but of course fate threw everyone in the Compound into our path the second we stepped outside. All I need now is Kendrick to appear from the shadows.
We reach my lab, and I use my fingerprint to open the door.
That used to be Candice’s job, and I can’t entrust it to any of the other creations yet.
They’re nowhere close to Candice—none of them have achieved even basic sentience, and I’m not sure why.
I neglected them in favor of her, and now they’re years behind.
I don’t want to admit it, but I’ve been avoiding them. Avoiding the lab altogether. It feels bare and miserable without Quinn’s shrieking laughter filling it. I used to find it an irritating distraction, but now I’d give anything to hear it.
Christ, get it together. It’s your workspace, not a tomb.
I wish I could be certain that was true.
Juliet stares round at the bare walls, as unimpressed as I thought she’d be. “This is homey,” she mutters, then tenses, waiting for me to react.
Juliet always kept her workspaces as an extension of herself. Bright colors, paintings she’d done of her own characters, knickknacks, fish tanks, collectible mugs. I used to tease her that she’d do anything other than actually work, but she knew I didn’t mean it.
Juliet works hard when she has her teeth into a project. It’s something we have in common, though I take it to the point of obsession, whereas she manages to make it outside once in a while.
“You know me and my sense of style,” I respond, too anxious about what is coming to form a suitably master-like response. Better to just get this over with.
My connection to the mainframe computer comes live as soon as I open the door, and all I have to say is, “Computer, show me footage of Candice and Quinn in their private server. Rainforest biome. Find footage with a lot of conversation.”
I used “Computer” as the keyword as a joke because of the old Star Trek series, and Juliet’s slight smile tells me she didn’t miss the reference. Juliet gasps as the screens come to life, displaying what could be mistaken for a movie scene.
Quinn and Jacob consented to constant recording when Candice and Quinn explored the virtual world together. I rarely watched the footage, but seeing Candice interact naturally with her friend was a great way to view her progress.
On the screen, Quinn, her avatar dressed in a ridiculous Tarzan and Jane wild woman outfit, and Candice, her virtual body clad in shorts and a pink T-shirt, are sitting on a log, surrounded by the lush green of the rainforest they created.
The sound of rushing water fills my silent lab, and I recognize the area. They’re close to the waterfall.
Quinn grins at Candice. “It’s just so perfect. I keep thinking of adjustments but then stopping. I don’t want to mess with it.”
Candice holds out her hand, and a butterfly lands on her outstretched finger. “I know what you mean. But you know what would be cool? A cave system behind the waterfall. We’d only have to shift the topography slightly. We could have a stream running through it, stalactites and stalagmites.”
Quinn’s eyes grow round. “Ooooh, what about some veins of ore in the wall that glow a bit? So we’d have enough light to see without a torch.” She breaks off, brows creasing. “Not that it would be a problem for you, I guess. You can see in the dark here, right?”
"I could." Candice covers her eyes with her hands. "I could even see now, if I wanted to, but I don't. I want to feel as human as I can in here."
“What if—”
I say, “Pause it.”
I turn to face Juliet as I issue the instruction. She clutches the back of one of the chairs, eyes locked on Candice, who has just pulled her hands away from her face. The face that’s an exact copy of Juliet’s.
Except Juliet’s face is white, and she looks like she’s about to throw up. I drag a chair around, and she collapses into it, eyes never leaving the screen.
“What is this?” Juliet’s voice is a whisper as she gestures at the screen, and I struggle to decide which part of her question to address first.
“That’s Candice. She’s the world’s first truly sentient CI.”
I know I’m not addressing the root of her concern, but blood rushes in my ears, and my hands are starting to sweat. It’s too soon for this. Everything is happening too fast. All the work I’ve done over the past weeks is going to be destroyed in this one moment. I should—
You should pull yourself the fuck together. You are Juliet’s master. Act like it.
Juliet’s voice grows stronger, rising to a higher pitch that sounds like panic.
“And just why the hell does Candice have my face? My voice? Is she your…” Juliet swallows, and the direction of her thoughts hits me like a lightning bolt.
“What is she? A virtual sex toy? Practice for when you took me back. Did you make her—”
“No! Jesus Christ.”
“Really.” Her voice is so flat she might as well have said bullshit. “Why does she look like me, Hadrian? Why?”
She used my name, and despite the situation, I can’t let it slide. I need to regain control fast if I don’t want to lose it forever. I crouch beside her chair and wrap her hair around my fist, yanking her head so she’s facing me.
She cries out, her eyes wide, shock painted onto her features. She’d forgotten her place. Forgotten we aren’t just Hadrian and Juliet anymore. It's my fault, and I need to fix it.
“Is that how you address me, doll?”
She squirms in my grip and slaps at my arms, and I thank the hours I spent in the gym for the complete lack of good it does her.
I can hold her prisoner with one hand. A rush of power follows the realization.
I tighten my hand to the point her scalp must be screaming, and land a hard slap on her inner thigh with my free hand.
“I asked you a question.”
“No! Sorry! Master. I should call you Master.”
I loosen my grip just slightly but still hold her immobile.
Tears stand out in her eyes, though my Juliet can take more pain than this without blinking.
I think it’s reality hitting her again. Kendrick explained the path to acceptance for Wards is never linear.
It’s a series of small actions every day that bring them to make peace with their situation.
“Yes, you should. Forget again, and you’ll kneel on rice for an hour.”
Juliet whimpers as I release her hair. She rubs her sore head as I turn back to the screen.
“But to answer your question, doll, I made her look like you because…”
I pause, right on the edge of trotting out the lie I had ready for this situation.
The lie I told myself for years. That I created Candice in Juliet’s image as a virtual “fuck you” after she cost me everything.
But even though that might have been my intention at the start, it’s a long way from the truth.
It fits the narrative I wanted to sell Juliet. Revenge, power, control. But instead, I find myself telling the truth.
“Because I had to spend longer looking at Candice than I did any living thing on this planet. I had to get every aspect of her face just right. And the only face I’ve ever wanted to look at for that long is yours.”
The plain, obsessive, kind of pathetic truth.
Juliet gapes at me, and I’d give anything to be able to see inside her head, to understand exactly what she’s thinking. In a quiet voice, she says, “But you hated me. You cut me off. You said you never wanted to see me again.”
There’s pain in her words, and my long-nurtured anger flickers a little at the words.
What the hell does she have to be sad about? She’s the one who betrayed me.
But another, much newer voice speaks over the top of it, and I make myself listen.
She was right. You were rushing it. If you’d pushed ahead when you wanted to, it would have been incredibly dangerous.
Thoughts I tried to ignore for a long time, but given Candice’s recent actions, I can’t anymore.
Even with Brotherhood resources, all the protections known to man, and years more work, Candice still broke her programming and lashed out, hurting me.
What harm could a much less nuanced creation, one with base-level sentience and access to the whole internet, have done?
Catastrophic damage, that’s what. Juliet saw it when I was too wrapped in my obsession.
She’s still waiting for a response, and I can finally give her one. “I was angry for a long time…and hurt. But what you did…I understand now. And even through all of it, I never stopped wanting you. I never stopped loving you.”
A sigh leaves her lips, as though she’d been holding a breath for years. She stares at the frozen picture on the screen; then her brows crease as she turns back to me. “I thought you wanted revenge. I thought…”
She trails off as the goalposts shift for what must feel like the hundredth time today. Her beautiful green eyes meet mine as she asks again, “Why am I here? Really?”
I rest a hand on her thigh, under her dress, and she jumps at the contact. Her silky-smooth skin is heaven beneath my fingers, and I pinch it just to hear her yelp. Because I can. Because she’s mine.
“You’re here because I want you here. No one else will do. It’s always been you, Juliet.”
She draws in a breath at my use of her real name. I shouldn’t have used it, but it felt right.
“I would have taken you regardless, but when I learned how deeply you want to be owned, everything fell into place.”
I slide my hand further up her skirt, and she watches me with glassy eyes.
Thank God I didn’t give her panties. She’ll never wear them again.
When I reach the apex of her thighs, I push them open.
She squeaks, looking over at the glass door.
It’s one-way glass, so we have complete privacy, but she doesn’t need to know that.
I push her skirt all the way up to her waist, exposing all her smooth, pale skin.
“You’re here because you were born to be my slave. It just took me until now to understand it. You’re mine, I own you, and I’ll die before I’ll ever let you go.”