Chapter Twenty-Two #2
Aria giggled before her scratchy voice pierced my ears again.
“Oh, you don’t need to be sorry, Miss Molly.
I’m so glad to finally officially meet you.
I’ve heard so many wonderful things. And here you finally are right in front of me,” she giggled again and this time it annoyed me.
I didn’t want to judge her, I didn’t know her, and she wasn’t even a real her, she was goddamn AI.
I shouldn’t feel envious or annoyed by a computer.
Just why had Henry made her sound so dumb?
I was tired, and this blonde was not helping my situation. I needed a moment with Ruth.
“I am sorry, Miss Molly. But for the time being, it is just me here. Jackie was the last one using the AI system and she was speaking with me, not Ruth. Henry has notified us that in the long term he wants to be able to freely change us, by just calling one of our names, but it’s not something that he has had the chance of fixing yet.
For now, you can only change which one of us you get to speak to with the remote.
So, if you know where the remote is, I could explain how to change me back to Ruth if that is who you would rather speak with, but if there’s anything that you need help with, I can assist you. ”
“I have no idea where the remote is, and as much as it has been really lovely meeting you, Aria, this really is a Ruth question,” I said. “Just out of curiosity, how many of you are there?” I asked.
“Oh, as of recently seven, the different forms of us seem to be growing before the bugs in our technology are completely fixed,” she said as she shrugged, smiling back at me with all of her perfectly straight white teeth.
“Right,” I said, it was the middle of the night and although I knew I couldn’t go back to sleep until I could at least speak to Ruth, I wasn’t really in the mood to making small talk with Aria.
I guess I could excuse myself to the bathroom, find out the truth of the situation between my legs.
A warm shower might soothe the pain. Henry shouldn’t be too far off coming back to bed.
How much work can you achieve at this hour of the night anyway?
“Was there anyway that I can assist you at all tonight, Miss Molly?” Aria repeated, waiting for my answer.
Then it just dawned on me, if I couldn’t speak to Ruth, it was midnight and there was someone else that I could speak with tonight that could at least soothe some of my mind.
Midnight was exactly when he wanted me to meet him.
“No, no, no, thank you so much for checking in on me, Aria, but I think I’m just going to get some sleep now.”
I pretended to lay back down in bed, I don’t know why, she was a computer, but one that had her eye closely on me. As soon as the room went quiet and her image disappeared, I pulled the sheets back, threw a kimono over my silk pajamas and snuck into the elevator pressing down to the ground.
As I stepped out onto the ground floor of the mansion, all the lights were out, apart from one in the kitchen.
I paused taking in a deep breath before I entered through the door.
After how things ended yesterday, and the fact that Dylan was about to find out that I was not leaving with him.
I needed to make sure that I entered this conversation as clearly as possible.
I had to find out what the hell he was rattling on about last night.
Why didn’t he think it was safe for me to tell Henry about him, and us?
At first, I really thought that, it was from the hope that Dylan had seemed to hold onto us for all this time.
All this time, I was still trying to get my head around the truth of that.
But something about what Henry had done to me, and how hurt I was.
I felt like I had to hear more about what Dylan had to say.
I hated to have any doubt in Henry, I didn’t want to have any doubt in Henry.
We couldn’t be more perfect, but now my head was just a mess.
After his bite, the images under the sea, the words from Dylan.
I needed some clarity from someone, and I really needed to get it now before Henry came back to bed.
I stormed towards the kitchen, pushing through the pain with every step.
I halted in the doorway, and Jackie stood by the ovens, gasping as she heard me.
“Molly!” she said, her lips turning up into a smile.
Hands held tightly behind her back. “I was just so shocked; I wasn’t expecting to see anyone down here tonight. Are you okay? Can I get you anything?”
“No, I um, I wasn’t expecting to see you down here making the pastries for the morning either,” I said.
I presumed that was what she was doing because Dylan or any other cook for that matter was nowhere to be seen.
There were no trays on the table, but I could see the little red light on the conventional oven behind her shining bright.
“Who were you expecting?” she said dropping her shoulders as she squinted her eyes on me.
“Oh, no one, I just was a peckish and was going to just grab myself a little snack. I woke up and noticed that Henry still hadn’t come to bed, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.”
“Oh, I’m sure he won’t be too far off,” she said, “In fact if you want to take yourself back to bed now, I can bring you both a midnight snack very soon.”
I paused as she held my gaze, not dropping her smile. I wondered if she was someone who I could question about Dylan, but just because he wasn’t in the kitchen didn’t mean that he wasn’t waiting anywhere else for me.
“That would be lovely. Thank you so much Jackie, I’ll head back to bed.”
Jackie nodded. “I won’t be too long.”
I turned my back on her as I walked back towards the elevator, but just before I pressed the button, I gazed out into the night sky, the stars’ bright light, shining through the front of the building.
If Dylan wasn’t in the kitchen, maybe he already knew that he had the night off, and if he was waiting for me to leave, then I had no doubt that he would be waiting for me in one of the only places where you could leave this island.
Out by the yacht or the helicopter pad. I threw my arms around the front of my body as I walked out to the front of Henry’s mansion.
The wind was cold. “Dylan,” I whispered softly at first. I don’t know what I was expecting.
I guess I was expecting to pop around the corner of the building.
But as I gazed out to the long pier, I noticed a couple of lights on inside the yacht.
I began walking towards the pier, calling out Dylan’s name again and again, louder the third time.
“Molly?” a voice called out loudly behind me. It wasn’t a voice that I wanted to hear. I spun around to see Jackie standing stiff behind me, the light on her phone, shining directly back at me. “I’d advise you not to go out there, if I were you.”
“Why not?” I snapped back, getting my back up this time.
Not too long ago she was treating me like royalty, the guest of the island, now she’d heard me call Dylan’s name, wanting to restrict me to the island. Jackie opened her mouth to speak, but I watched the lights of the yacht turn to dark, in the reflection of the front windows of the mansion.
A bright light moved along the pier, most likely a torch coming close to me.
I wanted to call out for Dylan again but kept my mouth shut knowing that whoever was coming at me with a light so bright could see me clearly enough.
I squinted as the light got closer, shining bright in my eyes.
I took a step back as a hand reached around my arm, the light dropped, and Henry was standing right in front of me.
He let go of my arm and wrapped his arm around my lower back, pulling me in close to him.
“Miss Molly,” he spoke my name like blood on the edge of his tongue. “What are you still doing up?”
“I was having some, um, bad dreams, just like the doctor said that I might. I thought I would come down for a snack and then I saw the lights on the yacht,” I said. Henry smiled back at me warmly, tucking my hair behind my ear and kissing my lips softly.
“I’m so sorry that took longer than I thought, but it’s all done now.”
Henry turned to walk back into the property with me, as he caught eye of Jackie, his brow furrowed, surprised to see her standing there.
“I was just telling Miss Molly to go back to bed. I was going to bring her a snack and when I found her out here, I was just making sure that she wasn’t going to disturb you,” said Jackie. Forcing a smile.
“Miss Molly can ‘disturb’ me, anytime that she wants. Thanks, Jackie,” Henry’s voice was stern as Jackie nodded instantly in agreement.
Although it had felt like she was acting strange around me, I knew for a fact that she heard me call for Dylan’s name, and not Henry’s but still she didn’t say anything. Not yet anyway.
Wherever the hell Dylan was, I knew that this was now a conversation that I had to have with Henry tomorrow before Jackie got the chance to do it for me.
Did she not like me? Was she jealous? Is this what this was about?
Why she was acting well… like she was… I thought that we were getting along like a house on fire not too long ago.
Or maybe I was just in my head, now knowing what she had heard, and how close her and Henry really were.
“It’s okay,” I said, “Jackie was just helping me out. I didn’t want to disturb you and I’m really good for a snack now. Thanks, Jackie. I think that we all just need to get some sleep.”
Jackie nodded, as she turned back into the house, Henry and I following behind her.