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“Because I’m your slave”

Oh, God Molly couldn’t think about those conversations or she’d have to add the cri list of trespasses She curled her legs under her and read the book Master had set out for her, an obscure title about the history of China He chose a wide variety of books for her to read, so that soe, disjointed knowledge No matter If he wanted her to read it, she read it She concentrated on the dense, scholarly text in case he chose to test her understanding Her fingers traced over her se She becaan appeared beside her to click on a stronger light

Molly looked around in confusion “What time is it?”

“Nearly seven Your Master’s late, but it’s Friday Maybe he’s having dinner or drinks with a friend”

“Maybe,” Molly said She wished he was here though She felt unsettled and irritable Soht

Mephisto received the call at five in the afternoon He’d always remember the time, and the voice of the hospital official, frank but sy Mephisto as his eet this call one day, but he’d hoped it would be a lot later Decades later Clay was only fifty years old

Mephisto raced across town, but he was too late The doctor spoke with hi a lot of medical stuff while Mephisto stared at the still form on the hospital bed Clayton didn’t look like hie, how quickly the life force fled once the body was gone It should have lingered a while, especially in someone as powerful and vibrant as him It should have seeped away slowly, so it wasn’t such a shock to see hioodbye It wasn’t right for a great man like Clayton Copeland to die alone

The sterile medical words roiled around in Mephisto’s brain as he sat at Clay’s bedside trying to s Ruptured cerebral aneurysm Stroke, seizure, death The doctor spoke to Mephisto as if hevessel in Clay’s brain had been diagnosed almost two years earlier, at aa stent Didn’t Mephisto know about any of this?

No All Mephisto kneas that almost two years earlier, Clay had called and asked him to look after Molly for a week so he could take a “business trip” Mephisto real preparations around that tie conversation at a park afterward, a secretive expression clouding the man’s face

If I die tomorrow, tell her you love her

I would give her to you now if I wasn’t so selfish

Why had Clayton kept this secret from them? Because he was a very unselfish man He hadn’t wanted them to carry the burden of worry about a condition that couldn’t be fixed Mephisto could have handled it, but Molly would have been beside herself with fear and anxiety

Molly

Mephisto looked at his watch and then buried his hands in his dreadlocks It was nearly seven Molly would be wondering where Clay hy her Master wasn’t home yet What now? He’d promised Clayton he’d take care of Molly in the event of his death, and he would, but Mephisto had never really thought past the general idea of the thing, and he certainly hadn’t expected it to happen so soon Hell, of course he’d take care of her, but he’d never thought about the specifics, like how on earth he was supposed to look Molly in the eyes and tell her that her Master was gone Then there were all the other things he’d have to help her withfuneral arrange with Clayton’s family and his multi-million dollar estate Clayton had multiple businesses and foundations, and real estate from coast to coast, all of it Molly’s now

Later Mephisto would think about all that later or he’d get overwhelure out what to say when he got there, because they weren’t the kind of words you could come up with on the fly Mollyyour Master died today That part was easy, but ould he say then? He’d have to bring her to the hospital She would need to say goodbye, even though it would be heart wrenching for her to see Clayton lying there lifeless Mephisto was all too fa face of death, but it struck deeper when it was a friend For Molly

Oh, God

Mephisto stood and straightened his shoulders He could finish his breakdown later For now, he had to be strong enough for both of the in traffic beside other cars containing people going through the everyday grind

Going ho forward to dinner or a night on the town Fuck, it was Friday He called Josh at the club, asked hiht It see over to wreck Molly’s world, everyone else was going about their usual business and the eht of work

Mephisto took the elevator up to Clay’s floor, took the long walk down the hall He’d only been to Clay’s glea castle in the sky a few times He stopped outside the formidable front door, rubbed his teht the housekeeper Mephisto couldn’t reh, and she knew

“I need to see Molly,” he said

The housekeeper stepped back and let hi room He could see her from the foyer, her dark head bent over a book

“Mr Copeland died today,” he said to the old woo”

He’d spoken quietly but Molly looked up at the sound of his voice For aht look when they saw a friend But then, perhaps fro She came to hiistered with hi collar around her neck

“Molly, it’s Clayton Your Master Your husband”

He reached out to her, took her hand Her voice trembled when she asked, “What? What is it?”

He couldn’t say anything more for a moment with the tension in his throat He sed hard and squeezed her fingers “I’m so sorry He had a stroke They took hi seizures”

Tears filled Molly’s blue eyes “Oh, no Poor Master”

He kept staring at her, too weak to say the next words Her gaze begged for more information, but at the saed “Did they fix him? He’s okay, isn’t he?”