I will have to tell him eventually about my surveillance. About Robert. I’d hoped to have this discussion sooner, but part of me worries Oliver will not see my concerns and instead be offended by my need to keep him safe.
When I was young, before my mother died, my father had made the error of making some bad investments with some very bad people. His need to get his invention—a primitive version of the doorbell camera—into the hands of men he deemed influential, won out over concerns of safety.
Though we’d had a home security system, the technology wasn’t quite there yet to be as quick to alert the police.
We’d come home from dinner to an empty, trashed house, just as one of the thugs was speeding off in the getaway car.
The police showed up nearly twenty minutes later, due to the late alarm. We lost everything that day, and I learned firsthand the true value of materials. Things could be bought and replaced, but security could never be replaced. The feeling of being safe would never return. Not until I had found a way to truly keep people safe. Not until I learned to be the smartest person in the room. Everyone thinks Veil was just some half-cooked idea I’d formed in college, because that’s what I told everyone. The only person who knows the truth is Chickadee.
Because that was how she met my parents—as the insurance agent who processed the numbers and figures of our life and boiled my father’s work down to a paragraph on a piece of paper.
To her we weren’t just papers, though. We were a family in need of peace of mind that would never truly return.
I did all I could to keep my family safe. I learned to hack. I learned to build. I learned how to be inconspicuous and I learned how to not only make threats, but act on them. And I learned how to not only be the smartest person in the room, but the one with the biggest dick. Dominance would always win up against the wicked. Because in the end, even criminals have no sense of security.
But there is also a fine line between protecting those I care about and stalking them. I’m uncertain if Oliver will see my reason, and if he will feel violated. I worry telling him the truth will erase his sense of security. But perhaps it is a risk I need to take. If he is angry with me, he can be angry.
As long as he is safe…
I open my door and he walks in slowly. The lights come on automatically and he lets out a heavy breath as he takes in the sight of my humble abode.
“Holy fuck, Sloane, it’s—”
“Dark, yes, I know.” I roll my eyes. I know my aesthetic can be a bit much for people. Chickadee says I was born with a black heart—jokingly, of course—but sometimes I think she couldn’t be more on the money.
Black is the essence of color. It is everything and nothing. It is the true veil-darkness. It is the place where phantoms and ghosts reside.
It is where I live both physically and metaphorically.
The overhead chandelier glistens as the sun sets, casting an almost neon glow onto the black glass walls.
Most people would balk at an open glass house, but my home is a fortress.
It is outfitted with a myriad of unauthorized tech. The version of Veil used to protect my home is modified with Ghost and the base source code of the first iteration of Phantom. Nothing and no one gets past my castle wall.
Unless I say so.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it again. I will deal with Ericson and his updates later.
“Would you like a tour?” I ask humorously.
Oliver nods, gazing at all the architecture.
“It’s so beautiful…” He sighs. “Like something straight out of a science fiction movie.”
“Why, thank you. I was going for Greek Tragedy meets Computer Nerd, so…”
Oliver chuckles.
“Well, I think you knocked it out of the park, then.” He smirks at me.
“Come.” I offer him my hand, and he takes it gingerly.
I show him everything. The kitchen, the lab. The open living room and study. My bedroom, the bathroom, and then we finally come to the last room, the one I am most nervous about.
I know this is a big step. Showing Oliver the parts of me I often hide. Showing him the room only I have ever been in.
If he accepts this, I will tell him the truth. I will bear my little black heart and my secrets to Oliver and I will do whatever it takes to make him understand that I am absolutely one hundred percent in love with him.
