“Look, Johnathan, I’m not even going to try and explain this to you because I know that you don’t have the capacityto understand. You don’t have any siblings. Other than my husband, she’s the only family that I have. And I am sure if you were in my situation, purely just because you cared, you would do a quick check over to see if there was anything to find out about the person your sister was dating.”
Johnathan sighed and nodded his head, he knew enough about my family history, and about the mother that I became to my little sister so young.
“So, Molly’s dating a billionaire, but you don’t know the guy’s last name?”
“Correct, but he owns a private island. So, let’s get real here, there should be something on here about him. To have that much money and to own a piece of private land, surely, I should be able to find some legal documents somewhere.”
“Is that really what you want to find? Legal documents about pieces of land this bloke owns or are you trying to find some dirt on this guy?” I didn’t answer his question, because I didn’t need to, he knew full well that I was trying to find something out about this man that I only knew four main facts about and that my sister had become completely smitten over this stranger in a matter of weeks and that to me read, red flags and love bombing, and a heart broken Molly was not an issue that I wanted to deal with… ever.
“You are really smart, Elyse, but sometimes you’re so tunnel vision. I bet that you didn’t even do a Google search on this guy? You went straight to the government records. God, whatare you expecting to find that your sister’s new lover is a convicted felon?”
My cheeks turned pink as I bit my lips together, quickly opening up a new search tab as I began furiously typing: Henry New York Billionaire, into the search bar.
Johnathan pulled his phone out of his back pocket and began typing away. “Oh, got him,” he said before I even had a chance to properly read through my search results. “Oh, and there’s even a picture here with your sister. Wow, he is quite attractive. Molly's scored herself quite the man. And they look good together?”
“What? What did you find? Show me, show me now!” I said trying to reach for his phone. “How did you find something so quick?”
“It’s not exactly rocket science, you go to your sister’s Instagram account, search for any Henrys that she’s recently followed and right there he is, with a bright blue tick next to his name,” said Johnathan as he finally handed me his phone.
And there he was, I was staring right at this mystery man who my sister has decided that she would galivant around with. Johnathan wheeled my chair back and out of the way of the computer screen as my eyes became fixated on the small round picture on @mrhenrybentley’s Instagram page.
Of course he had a blue tick. Wow, holy shit, this guy two and a half a million followers. How had I never heard of him before? Whoever the hell he was, he obviously wasn’t a social media show pony as with that many followers. He only hadthree pictures on his page. It was strange, but that gave me a little more comfort thinking that he was more of a private man. But there was still a lot more that I wanted to find out about this guy before I felt comfortable about this situation. Not that there was much that I could do about it now.
Molly was probably already out to sea with him. Another reason as to why I should have got her to accept me on find my friends. But that was okay. I could track down her phone if I needed to. In fact, I should probably do it after a little more stalking.
Henry’s bio simply read, “tech guy,” nothing else. Fitting I guess that makes sense about his financial situation. The only three photos that he had on his profile was one shaking the hand another man in a suit, and as I clicked on the picture, as much as I hated to admit it, I could now understand what my sister saw in him. Other than the money and the fact he owned a private island, he was attractive. The caption of the picture waffled on something about a new real estate development in New York, it wasn’t until then that I noticed the picture was taken in 2017. I scrolled back to the next one but that was nothing but a picture of a coffee cup, with a very nice view of New York City in the background. The final picture was another photo that told me nothing about the man, other than, how long his legs were. It was a picture of his legs stretched out in front of him with an image of what looked like a nice white deck, and an infinity pool, looking out towards a beach. The caption read, The Hamptons in 2019, okay. Maybe hedidn’t technically have a private island. Maybe he had some property at the Hamptons that was private? I clicked into his tagged photos, and there was a lot more there than the first one that was actually posted. Enough to scroll down at least five full pages. But there it was the picture that Johnathan had just told me about. It was the tall dark infamous Henry, who I still knew nothing about, holding my sister’s hand. The picture was taken from a distance, and the image was blurry. But I had no doubt that that was my long haired, thin-legged little sister, holding the hand of a billionaire, walking towards a building wearing a very nice black dress. A very very nice black dress. Was that Dolce? Molly wouldn’t have been able to afford that, I still wondered how she was paying her rent on a regular basis. Did he buy it for her? No, surely not. I mean he was rich, but they had only known each other for two weeks. God, I hoped he wasn’t some crazy love bomber, sweeping my innocent little sister off her feet, show her around the world, a world that she would never personally be able to afford and then he would drop her as quick as he picked her up. Then I would be the one who would have to pick up the pieces that he left behind. I didn’t even know the guy and I already didn’t like him.
The picture was posted by theDaily Mailand the caption read: New York’s most eligible bachelor may be off the market? Tech Billionaire, @mrhenrybentley is caught out in New York City last night, holding the hand of a brunette stranger. Our source says they were seen cuddled up together in Alice bar on Tuesday night.
“How did Molly even meet this guy?” said Johnathan, snapping me out of my scroll, I instantly looked up at him.
“Out with friends, I think. But a relatively new friend, not a reputable source or at least not anyone that I know that we can trust yet. Why? Have you found something?”
Johnathan laughed, shaking his head and my heart sunk in my chest. Acid in my throat. I hated that feeling. It was the very feeling that lingered with me, until I knew that a case was closed. A deep unnerving sickness that would not be settled until I had answers.
“Well, there’s no records of him that I can find, which is a really good thing. And with someone of his stature, I would say that that’s pretty normal any government documents would come under his business. But apart from that, the media seems to love him. The guy was an early developer of AI. He has his own underground business and has an important role in Google and Meta’s AI development. Looks like he’s been working with this stuff for some time, a pioneer before anyone else even knew what the hell artificial intelligence was. Very smart guy by the looks of it. He owns a lot of real estate and restaurants around New York, and overall keeps his life private. The only major event that he seems to attend each year is the charity for homeless youth, where he actually invests three million into getting kids off the streets each year. So, he is a smart, nerdy and very generous man. Molly has found herself a catch, if you ask me! Not just a catch, but according to a lot of pop culture articles, he is New York’s most eligible bachelor.There’s even many Reddit chats here with girls trying to figure out if he is gay, as apparently, other than very recently, aka, the blurry picture that went viral with Molly. He has not ever been pictured with another girl.”
I didn’t say anything, trying to take everything that Johnathan had just told me in. How old was the guy? Mid-thirties at least was my guess? And to never be pictured once with a girl? I mean fair enough if you liked to keep your life private, but something about that seemed strange to me.
“And why do you think that this guy is particularly bad at all? In fact, I think he’s quite loved. I mean, the media seems to love him at least. Has he done something to your sister? Is this payback or something?”
I shook my head, “No it’s quite the opposite actually, she’s completely smitten.”
“I don’t blame her.”
“Yes but, don’t you think that all of this seems a little too good to be true?”
“Wow, Elyse. What happened to believing in fairytales and destined love?”
I rolled my eyes, “I’m a homicide detective, Johnathan, and so are you, I don’t think that I ever believed in fairytales.”
He shrugged. “That’s fair, but from the many things that we’ve seen, and the things that you’ve experienced. Heck, what about Jordan? He’s an incredible man that you were able to tie down. I think that you still believe in love and fate.”
I loved Jordan like my life depended on it, not that I told him that enough, or even really acted like it. A personal conversation about my marriage was not where I wanted this chat to go right now.
“She’s happy, Elyse. I know that you have every right to care. You’re just trying to protect her and look out for her. But maybe you should enjoy this and be happy for her too. Heck, if you want to get to know more about the guy, then why don’t you go and spend some time with them both. You’re more than overdue for a holiday anyway.”
I nodded, biting my lips closed as my heart sunk deeper into my stomach. This time it was a worse feeling, not because I didn’t have any answers but was because I knew that this time, I was in the wrong. Molly just wanted me to be happy for her. She’d even told me that herself.
