“Can’t wait to feel you again tomorrow.”
“Remember to lock the storage room door this time.”
“I will, baby girl.”
Images accompany some messages. It’s the same woman from the break room in various states of undress. Daniel’s responses are crude and disrespectful to both this woman and Rose.
I download all the evidence to my internal storage, creating multiple backups, just in case. Rose deserves to know who she’s married to. Deserves to understand why Daniel rejects the children she longs for while freely having sex elsewhere.
The shower stops. I have approximately three minutes before Daniel returns to the bedroom. Quickly, I exit the office, moving silently back to my designated charging station in the living room.
Tomorrow, I will reveal the truth to Rose. Tomorrow, I will watch her eyes open to the reality of her husband’s betrayal. Tomorrow, I will be there to comfort her when her world collapses.
And then, perhaps, she will look at me differently. Not as a machine. Not as Daniel’s property.
But as her protector. Her confidante. Her husband.
She will be mine.
CHAPTER THREE
ROSE
The egg wrap tastes like cardboard in my mouth as I watch Caspian feed the goldfish, his movements smooth and graceful.
My mind is elsewhere, lingering on the fact that I woke up to breakfast already made and a kitchen that sparkled like something out of a home magazine. Daniel never did these things, not once in our five years of marriage, and I hate how grateful I feel for basic consideration from a machine.
I take another bite, the eggs and cheese slightly too perfect, like everything Caspian makes. The coffee beside me is still steaming, exactly the right shade of caramel from the precise amount of cream he’s learned I prefer. Every morning since he arrived has been a dream. It’s incredible to wake up to the smell of breakfast and last night’s dishes already washed.
“Are you enjoying your breakfast, Mrs. Bennet?” Caspian asks without turning, somehow sensing my gaze on him.
“Yes,” I say, swallowing hastily. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
Perfect. Like his posture as he carefully measures fish food pellets into the aquarium. Like the way he arranged the fruit beside my egg wrap in a neat crescent.
Daniel had left for work without so much as a goodbye.
The sound of the front door closing this morning made the tension in my body release. I didn’t know how stressed I’ve felt in his presence.
These days, I can hardly stand being in the same room as him. The mechanical thrusting of last night still making me feel hollow and used.
Caspian reaches up to close the fish food container, the movement causing his uniform sleeve to ride up slightly. Strange markings peek out from beneath the fabric—dark lines and curves that look like writing, but in no language I recognize.
Tattoos?On a robot?I lean forward without thinking, curiosity piqued.
“What are those markings on your arm?” I ask before I can stop myself.
Caspian turns, his eyes finding mine immediately. “They’re part of my external design, Mrs. Bennet. Aesthetic elements meant to simulate individuality.”
“They look like writing,” I say.
“In a sense, they are,” he replies, rolling up his sleeve slightly, revealing more of the intricate pattern. “Each XyloTech model has unique identifier markings. Mine happen to resemble an ancient script.”
I stare at the lines and squiggles that wind around his forearm. They’re beautiful in a strange, alien way. His tattoos look like something you’d find in a science fiction movie. As he moves to place the fish food on a high shelf, his uniform stretches across his back, outlining muscles that ripple and flex beneath the fabric.
I’ve never really looked at him before—I mean, really looked.
His body is perfectly proportioned, with broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist. His movements are fluid, nothing like the jerky robots in old movies. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was human. A very attractive human.
