Each day, I did my best to generally clean up the place. And at noon each day, Andre ordered me to join him for a “working lunch”. The thing was that they never actually ended. I only “worked” for a morning while he sat there and scrolled on his phone or took a few calls. For all intents and purposes, he was “off”. After the grandfather clock rang out at the noon hour, though, he made me have lunch with him, and that rolled into us merely sitting together and talking. Sharing coffee and himdoing a damned good imitation of a man who wanted to befriend me.
He didn’t.
He couldn’t with those lustful gazes he couldn’t hide quick enough from me when I turned to face him.
Besides, if he knew what else I was doing in his office, any interest or desire he had for me would end abruptly.
I saw the progress of my work to clean his room. It looked tidier and organized.
But I also felt like I was accomplishing something in snapping pictures of things that seemed slightly important and sending them to my uncle.
Most of it seemed to be in code. A lot of the papers looked dated. But I was trying my best.
He didn’t agree.
R:Why the fuck would you think I would want a blurry receipt of a food purchase for their restaurant from seven years ago?
That was the text he’d sent me while I showered one night.
I bit my lip and winced. It didn’t really seem like there was anything about drug deals to send to him. When Andre admitted he preferred digital correspondence, I relayed that to my uncle. He hadn’t been pleased.
R:No shit, he relies on technology. That’s why I had Emilio spying on him.
Sofia:Ok. Then I’m not the woman for this job.
I never was. My purpose in life was to help, not hurt. To be a nurse, not a stand-in as a spy.
Sofia:I’m not a hacker.
R:Just try harder. Don’t be useless.
He’d added another image of Esmeralda, who looked weaker than ever, pale and frail.
Sofia:It’s not my fault that I can’t find anything. He’s not stupid enough to leave things out.
R:Then figure out how to get on his fucking phone or something.
My uncle was clearly getting fed up with the low-quality things I was sending him, but it wasn’t like I could magically produce something that would satisfy him. Andre wasn’t even talking about business, giving me no chance to eavesdrop, either.
Passing along scraps of meaningless information was all I was comfortable with, anyway. I didn’t want to be caught. The guilt that ate away at me didn’t help me in juggling this double life here.
More and more, I started to worry that Andre was starting to catch on to me. Somehow. Some way. And the mere possibility of his turning on me and treating me like he did Yusef intimidated me.
If I die, no one will care for Esmeralda.
“You look like you’ve got something on your mind,” Andre said as I finished shoving boxes of older documents into a filing cabinet.
“I do?” I glanced back at him as he stood and checked his appearance in the full-length mirror. Instead of the jersey-soft T-shirts and jeans or sweatpants he’d been wearing while relaxing at home, he’d dressed up today. No tie, but he looked more “on” and ready to present. The reason for his change of attire was a meeting with his father and cousins over at Mikhail and Claire’s building.
I still didn’t understand why I had to come with him as his so-called assistant. It wasn’t like I’d beinthe meeting with them.
“Yeah, you do.” He speared me with an expectant look.
“I was just thinking back to the first time I was in this room.”
He paused in checking himself out to study me with a frown.
“Yusef was in here grumbling about looking for a map,” I said. “But I can’t recall finding a single map in organizing all of this.”
