Rumours that the Kitchen Guy Told Sanchez Told Me

June 28, 2020. The next morning.

I sit in my bed, scrolling through the AMA, checking on my scores.

Salome Najbreit, Score: -200 (as Markus), 47 (as Claude) (+41)

Salome, unsurprisingly, has seen the largest gains since my arrival back home. We’ve gotten handsier with each other with each passing art ‘lesson’, closer and closer to becoming intimate, but there’s been some invisible barrier that neither of us seems willing to cross—the line that would make these flirtations actual cheating.

I have to wonder. Will this change once we’re in Colombia, and out of Father’s house?

Scarlet Najbreit, Score: 55 (as Markus), 8 (as Claude) (+9)

Scarlet will be the other member of the family with us on the trip. My score with her as Markus is higher than it is with Claude. I have half a mind to tell her the truth right now, and bring her score with me up to 55 for good. But there’s no guarantee that my score will actually rise to 55 if I break the news to her. I’ve learned that the AMA can be unpredictable, and if I’m going to tell her the truth, I’m going to need to do it in a way where I can be sure of the outcome.

Madeleine Najbreit, Score: -200 (as Markus), 21 (as Claude) (+6)

Hyerim Najbreit, Score: -250 (as Markus), -5 (as Claude) (-17)

Holly Najbreit, Score: -150 (as Markus), 1 (as Claude) (-8)

Warren Najbreit, Score: -1000 (as Markus), 34 (as Claude) (+2)

The other scores in my family are fairly predictable. Some changes up or down based on my interactions with them. One way or another, I’ll need bring them all around eventually. But for now, I’ll have to be satisfied with my progress on Salome.

What really concerns me is Erin:

Erin Najbreit, Score: 87 (as Markus and Claude) (+0)

Her score hasn’t budged one bit in the last few weeks. That scares me.

By now, Father and Vidocq will have come up with a way to turn Ricardo against Erin. And Ricardo knows the truth about me and what I’m trying to do. The second he is compromised, so is my new identity. That’s the other reason why I’ve got to get out of this house. If I’m in Colombia when the news drops… I won’t have much if I’m on the run there, but at least I won’t be in the lion’s den, quietly awaiting my slaughter.

My only solace is that Erin and Genevieve always seemed to be close with Ricardo. Maybe their latest falling out is just a small spat that they’ll quickly recover from. But I know better than to be so optimistic.

I sigh and scroll down to two new entries on the AMA:

Joshua Sanchez, Score: 5 (as Markus), 25 (as Claude)

Imelda Zepeda, Score: -250 (as Markus), 1 (as Claude)

What’s with the massive difference between their scores? I’ve never seen anybody start with a positive score for Markus like Sanchez has… I think about that for a second. It’s possible that somebody could see the incident favourably, but that would reflect more on them than on what I did. I’m not sure what I should do with this newfound knowledge about Sanchez.

Then, Imelda’s score with Claude is only barely above 0. What’s up with that? She seems nice enough whenever we hang together, but maybe she’s only tolerating me because of Sanchez… if so, she’s doing an awfully good job pretending to be friendly.

And, speak of the devil.

“Hey, Claude, you gonna be on your phone all day?” Imelda asks, knocking on the door to my suite.

“Don’t disturb him, he’s probably jacking himself off to pictures of Salome,” Sanchez says, before bursting into a deep laughter.

In a second, I’ve opened up the door, phone in my pocket. I face the two of them holding onto each other’s shoulders, still chuckling at Sanchez’s joke.

“Are you trying to get me kicked out of this house?” I ask, looking slightly annoyed.

There’s no need to be actually concerned. If need be, the cameras Father hid in the room will save my ass, ironically enough.

“I’m just sayin’, we see the way you and her ‘collaborate’ on her art projects. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more ‘collaborating’ once you two are in Colombia,” Sanchez snickers.

“There’s nothing going on between us,” I say dismissively. “But come on, you’re telling me that the wives around here have never had an affair? There’s no way that old man—” I gesture upwards towards Father’s quarters “—can keep them all satisfied…”

“If Sofia’s screams are anything to go by, he’s still quite a stallion in bed,” Imelda says, flashing me a grin.

“But there have been affairs. Or maybe an affair,” Sanchez says suggestively. “You know—”

“That was just a rumour. Another one of your stupid rumours, truthless and baseless,” Imelda says.

“My rumours are top-notch and well-sourced,” Sanchez says, indignant.

“You never did tell me what the one concerning Erin was,” I say, cutting in and curious as to what they know.

“You see, that’s a good one,” Sanchez says. “A real top quality rumour.”

“Like all of your other ones,” Imelda says, rolling her eyes.

“Yes, exactly,” Sanchez says. “What I’ve heard about Erin is that she was kicked out of the family not because she was sleeping with students or whatever, but actually, because she was in touch with Markus.”

“Markus Najbreit?” I ask, using the words to mask my faint surprise.

“Yeah, but the theory’s nonsense,” Imelda says. “Come on, where do you even get an idea like that from?”

“One of the kitchen guys told me they overheard something when they were serving food once,” Sanchez says. “So it’s basically confirmed as true.”

“The kitchen guys do nothing but shoot the shit all day,” Imelda says. “You can’t trust ‘em. What I heard was that she was caught doing a bunch of illegal surveillance with some high tech stuff, and the Feds were going to charge her with something. So the family had to fork over a bunch of money to keep it hush-hush, and then they kicked her out.”

What the fuck? I think inside. What Imelda said was close enough to the truth it sets off alarm bells in my head, but I can’t figure out what exactly it is that I should be worried about. The fact that Father might be working with the Feds? That the Feds might have taken an interest in Erin? That Erin’s access to the map data was something that Father knew about? Could any of those be true? Could all of them be?

“See, if what I said was bullshit, then your story is, like, elephantshit,” Sanchez says. “No way on Earth that happened.”

“Just you wait, I’ll be proven right eventually,” Imelda says, crossing her arms, sounding supremely confident in herself.

“Is it really that hard to believe that she just slept with one of her students?” I ask. “That sounds more reasonable to me that whatever conspiracy story you guys are telling…”

“You’re allowed to tell us what you really think,” Imelda says teasingly, as if she doesn’t believe me. “Come on, who between the two of us do you believe?”

“You two are no better than the kitchen guys,” I say, shaking my head.

“Hey, you know what?” Sanchez says. He looks at me expectantly, and I look back at him, mildly confused. “If you take this chance in Colombia to get real ‘familiar’ with Salome, maybe you can get her to tell us what happened with Erin.”

“Seriously?” I ask.

I already know what happened, I add as a silent afterthought. Or… do I?