by Cat Mann
Chapter 22
Corruption
I woke up the next morning very surprised to find Ari still cuddled up in bed with me. I was fairly certain that it was a Friday but jet lag fogged my brain and my days had been running together so much that I could have been wrong. I reached across Ari and grabbed his cell phone off the bedside table. I was right, it was Friday and Ari was extremely late for work.
“Ari,” I shook him awake, “you’re late – get up!”
He blinked his sleepy eyes, wrapped his arms around me and pulled me on top of him. “Margaux’s in Chicago remember? I don’t have to go to work.”
I let out a happy sigh and rested my forehead on his. Ari flashed me a salacious grin and we played around for a while together in between the sheets. Eventually, I kicked off the blankets and we made our short journey to the shower to start the day.
It was eleven o’clock in the morning by the time we left our house to cross the lawn to Aggie’s. When we walked through the back glass door, we found Aggie sitting at the table with Max eating lunch. Aggie held a knife in one hand and an apple in the other.
“It’s a little early for lunch don’t you think?” Ari said stretching his arms up over his head in a yawn.
“Please tell me you didn’t just wake up,” Aggie huffed as she sliced into the apple.
A sly smile spread across Ari’s face.
“Well, Ava and I have been awake for a while, but yes, we did just get out of bed.”
Aggie tsked and shot me a cold look.
“Ari, I swear Ava has corrupted you.”
I stared at her in disbelief; Ari laughed and kissed his mother on the cheek.
“Max and I have been up since five this morning, isn’t that right, Max?”
Max blinked his large, sad eyes at Aggie. She didn’t wait for any other response and began to chat with Ari.
I pulled a chair up next to Max.
“What’s the matter?” I whispered.
Max is a quiet child and didn’t respond, but his bottom lip trembled a bit and he wiped his runny nose with his hand.
I frowned and looked over at Ari, who was still talking with his mom.
“There’s nothing to be scared of here, Max. Andy and Aggie won’t let anything happen to you. You are safe and loved.”
He let out a tiny whimper and I sat with him for a while and talked a bit more, but he still didn’t say a word.
I stood up to re-fill Max’s drink and grab him a tissue.
“So what are you and Max doing today?” Ari asked, still giving his full attention to his mom.
“Well, I need to run to town and pick up some things for him, and then we’re going to meet your father, sister and her boyfriend for dinner out.”
“So was Dad okay with this whole situation?” Ari asked, pointing to Max.
“Of course he was, Ari. You know your Dad. He would never turn anyone away, especially someone as sweet as Max here.”
“Okay, just making sure.”
Ari walked across the kitchen to my side at the sink.
“You ready, Ava?”
I nodded and gave Max a kiss on the top of his head and promised to come back over later in the evening. Ari and I went back home to get started on some more decoding.
After an entire day of diligent code cracking, Ari and I were able to decipher that my mother and I had been staying with Margaux and Perry in L.A. after my father died. A Kakos came to my mother and demanded my life. Margaux made the deal that saved me temporarily, but then we were no longer safe with her. We fled to Canada and we lived there unbothered until I was thirteen and at that time another man named Steven Spruce, Kakos zealot, came for my life. He had been sent by the Kakos to do their dirty work. One look at my beautiful mother made him weak. He made a deal with her that he would spare me if my mother left Canada to be near him in Chicago. She agreed, desperate to do anything to keep me safe. She didn’t know that Spruce never even had the power to make such a contract. The deal sealed her fate, but it sealed his as well.
“So Margaux sacrificed her soul for me and is now possessed by No. 7? The part of Margaux that is still my grandmother is trying to fight for my survival, while the part of her that is No. 7 is trying to kill me? Let’s see, I have to try to save Margaux and destroy No. 7 all at the same time, before Margaux loses her internal battle and comes to kill me. If she comes to kill me before I figure out how to save her, we are all dead. The whole thing is absurd!”
I laid my forehead down on the cool wooden desk and let out a frustrated moan. Ari reached across the desk and ran his fingers through my tossed hair.
“Why do you think Margaux set my dad’s study on fire? I mean, why not just leave you in Chicago? If she hadn’t brought you here, you would never have known anything.”
“Well, I don’t think Margaux set the study on fire; I think No. 7 did. I do think that Margaux brought me to California. You have to look at it as if they are two different people. Margaux loves me and is fighting to save me and No. 7 is fighting to kill me. It just so happens that they are stuck in the same body. Bit of an inconvenience, that.”
“That’s pretty messed up, Ava,” Ari flipped another page in the journal.
I lifted my head.
“Yeah, it is. Poor Margaux.”
“What, so you like her now?” Ari gave me a sideways glance.
“I have always hated the person inside her because that is the only person I really know. She can’t help but be hateful towards me when I am around. But when I think back at all she has done for me, I can see now how much she loves me. She brought me here to you, she kept us safe from each other when the Kakos started after me, she gave you a job, she apparently built her clothing empire using designs suited just to my liking. I should have seen it earlier but I was just too busy being a selfish, snobby teen.”
I paused for a moment thinking about the all the times she had been nice to me and how at those times she had been an entirely other person.
“Have you ever noticed her eyes change before?”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
“One minute she is on a rampage of hate and her eyes are cold and black and then for like a split second she gives a look as though she is so sorry and so sad and her eyes turn a deep blue. And her face looks a little bit older and little more tired.”
“Yeah, I guess I know what you are talking about; I just never really gave it much thought.”
“That moment of weakness, or strength, however you want to look at it, that’s Margaux, the real Margaux.”
Ari and I were interrupted by August and Collin. They came in a little before dark and announced that they were getting in the hot tub and asked if we wanted to join them. I really wanted to, but I knew I would feel guilty abandoning my work. I needed to figure out how to destroy No. 7 and fast.
Ari pulled me to my feet, “Listen, Ava, you can’t keep this up; you need to give yourself a little break.”
I pursed my lips and looked down at the mountain of work before me.
“Please,” he pouted and smiled one of those smiles that I cannot resist.
“Okay, but let’s go next door real quick to see Max. August, you guys should come, Max is scared – afraid of being in a new place. I know he would really like you.”
“Yeah, sure,” August agreed and he and Collin walked with us over to Aggie and Andy’s house.
It may have been the first time I ever walked through the back door at Aggie’s and found the kitchen with no one in it.
“Hello?” Ari called though the house.
My ears perked up when I heard the TV.
“Come on,” I said, “they’re in the den.”
Andy, along with Lauren and Luke, were sitting on the couch while Max sat on the rug right in front of the TV. They were all sucked into an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. All four of them were watching the television intently, heads cocked slightly to the side, and none of them noticed our arrival.
Ari walked across the room and turned off the TV.
“No way, this stuff isn’t good for Max.”
“Oh, really?” Andy said. “Maxy, sing the song.”
Max giggled then sang the chorus to the SpongeBob theme song.
“That’s great, Max,” I gave him a fake smile. “I’m sure several hours per week of watching SpongeBob will look super on your college applications.”
He smiled his little boy grin at me and I was relieved that he seemed to be a little happier than he had the last time I saw him.
Andy tsked at us.
“That cartoon is fun, guys, and Max is three. Lighten up. Ari and I used to watch some dopey show he had on DVD all the time when he was little and I think he turned out fine. What was it called again, Ari?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Ari said deadpan.
“Oh, come on, you do too … you watched that show so often the disc wore out and your mother had to buy a new one … ”
Ari sighed. “Power Rangers.”
A huge laugh burst through my lips.
“Yes, that’s right!” Andy cheered. “You were obsessed with it; watched it every single day!”
“He’s exaggerating,” Ari grumbled to me.
“Don’t lie, Ari!” Lauren yelled playfully. “Ava, he watched it every day after school and then again before bed time. He even had Power Ranger underwear!”
I laughed harder.
“Lauren,” Ari smiled an evil smile, “I suggest you stop talking before I reveal some seriously embarrassing stories about you in front of your boyfriend.”
Lauren blanched and pinched her lips together quickly.
“I was like seven years old,” he said defensively to me.
I smiled warmly and leaned up on my toes to give him a kiss.
“I think it’s sweet.” I moved my lips to his ear, “Do you still have the undies?”
“Maybe … ” His eyes sparkled mischievously, “ … and if you’re good and you play your cards right, I might model them for you one day.”
August sat down next to Max and had him laughing in a matter of seconds. August generally talks very fast and, like a true Frenchman, uses expressive hand gestures and facial expressions. Max laughed and clapped his hands while we all sat around and played with him. Before long, Aggie walked in through the laundry room door carrying a heavy basket of clothes. Max climbed up on my lap in a hurry and Ari rushed up off the floor to help his mom.
We stuck around for a little while longer, until it was time for Max to go to bed. Ari and I tucked him in and I sang him a little French song, then sang it again in English. He hugged us both tightly and then we got up and closed the door behind us.
We said our goodbyes and left with Collin and August to go hang out in the hot tub for a little bit.
We weren’t in the water long before Rory found us there, grabbed Julia and a cooler of his favorite drinks and joined the group. Then Nick discovered the hot tub scene and came in along with Lauren and Luke. Ari and Lauren were trying to out-do one another by sharing embarrassing childhood stories with the group. Then Nick, the oldest, joined in on the storytelling and put them all to shame. It was good to see him a little happier than he had been since Misha's death. We stayed in the tub a long time and eventually the guys started to get rowdy. I decided to get back to work on the journal.
I camped out in the living room and made my way slowly through the pages. I had a list a mile long of words I needed to figure out and my head was pounding. My eyes were bloodshot and I was past the point of exhaustion. I sat in a messy pile of post-it notes, hardly able to keep my eyes open, when Ari came in the house. The sun was just peeking up over the east lawn.
“You’re still awake?” he asked with a huge yawn.
“Barely,” I answered, nearly inaudibly.
Ari scooped me up off the floor, threw me over his shoulder and carried me to our room. He plopped me down on the bed.