CHAPTER 6

AT AROUND FOUR in the afternoon, after Misha showed her family the F******k posts about Soren’s alleged kinky and nasty characteristics which promptly shocked them again, and while they all sat and converged in the living room waiting, like some sort of an apocalypse would happen which would they, the gurus that they were, attempt to stop, Misha’s F******k Messenger chimed.

Hi, I’m here, a message from Soren read, and Misha’s heart automatically raced.

“He’s here,” she told her family while still looking at her phone.

“I’ll let him in,” Jaden said as he stood up.

“No, I’ll do it,” Misha said and bolted upward.

She rushed out towards the main door and opened it. And there, outside their small fence, Soren stood, looking at her, smiling, looking a bit more handsome than when she first saw him. He wore a gray short sleeve polo and denim pants. Was it just her or he seemed happy to see her? And Misha wanted to blush just by looking at him as she immediately remembered her dream where she and Soren were furiously having sex. And she knew that the job of forgetting that dream and completely eradicating it from her mind would really be arduous.

“Hi,” he greeted her when she walked close to him.

“Hi,” she greeted back. “You didn’t have a hard time finding our house?”

“No, the neighbors were friendly,” he said, the happy smile constant on his face. “Shall we go?”

She cleared her throat and it suddenly felt like a big bug was trapped in there. “My family, they want to talk to you first,” she said. “They know the incident.”

“Okay,” he said, his smile growing a little bigger.

It’s a trap, she wanted to tell him but kept her mouth shut. She opened the gate and let him in. She led him to the main door and they walked to the living room, with her family waiting for them like a jury out to sentence a notorious murderer. Well, Soren, according to his family, was a murderer—of good manners. Misha’s parents and sister were seated on the long sofa while Jaden stood behind them. There were two single sofas facing them, and he led Soren to sit on one before she sat on the other.

She cleared her throat again and began the prosecution, which Soren probably thought would just be a harmless conversation. “Ma, pa, Jaden, Ruth, this is Soren,” she introduced him. “Soren Cortez.”

Only Ruth smiled and it was a sincere and enthusiastic smile, their father didn’t even try to hide his scowl while looking at Soren.

“Soren, they are my family,” she introduced her family to the visitor. “Ricky, my father…” she paused, a bit rattled by her father’s immediate negative reaction to Soren. “He’s an engineer,” she added for lack of words.  “And my mother, Myrna, she’s an accountant, and my siblings Jaden and Ruth, both are still students.”

“Good afternoon,” Soren greeted her family, delight obvious on his face.

“Good afternoon,” Ruth enthusiastically greeted him back. The rest of the family stayed quiet, but Misha saw Jaden smile while her parents’ serious faces remained. Misha glanced at Soren and saw a hint of awkwardness starting to crawl on his face.

“Misha told us you’re taking him to identify the suspects,” her father told Soren.

“Yes, sir,” he answered.

“You seem to be a good man,” her father continued speaking. “But why is your family calling you a rogue?”

            Confusion clouded Soren’s gentle face. “A rouge? What do you mean, sir?”

            “According to your family, you’re a drug addict, a sex maniac, a liar, and a kleptomaniac,” her father said, going direct to the point.

A sex addict, Misha wanted to correct her father but was there really difference between a sex maniac and a sex addict? Maniac seemed to suggest lunacy. But she didn’t bother to answer her own question as she was more interested on the expression that splashed on Soren’s face. He really wasn’t shocked. He looked more disappointed, like it really wasn’t impossible for her family to know about it, like it would be more shocking if her family didn’t know about it. She was waiting for him to glance and look daggers at her—who else would tell her family about his “debauchery” but her— but he did not.

“Those are just rumors, sir,” Soren retorted, calmly, sitting with his back straight on the chair. ‘They are not true.”

“It is your family who are spreading it,” Misha’s mother interjected.

He sighed. “They hate me, ma’am,” Soren said, still calm.

Ruth’s voice hopped in. “Why?”

Soren smiled a little smile. “For reasons they’ve only imagined,” he said.

“Like what?” Misha said. She wanted him to explain to her and to her family and convince them that he really wasn’t bad, that her impression on him was accurate and that he really was nice guy—and an excellent boyfriend-material.

“Explain to us the sex addict rumor,” her father said.

Misha stopped herself from squirming. Did her family really have the right to interrogate him? But then, it was up to Soren if he wanted to answer it. He could say No, I have no obligation to explain to you and she would perfectly understand him. He could leave anytime and no one could stop him, the only downside was he would never be welcomed in this house again.

“It was my brother who started it,” Soren divulged.

“Why?” her mother asked.

Misha waited with bated breath for the explanation, but what she got was a glance from Soren who now looked confused, like he was wondering why he had to explain to her family some seemingly very personal things about him. He was here just to help.

“Soren,” she said, softly. “There’s a sex video… they say it’s you who’s in that sex video...”

“Sex video!” their parents simultaneously exclaimed.

Ruth’s eyes widened but didn’t speak.

“It’s not me,” Soren said, scratching the back of his head, with an expression on his face that hinted that he’d probably discussed and denied that video a hundred times and that he was tired of it.

“Who’s in that video?”

“I don’t know, a foreigner that looks like me,” he said. “They saw this video on a porn site where the guy resembles me, they then spliced and cut the video and spread it and made them appear that it’s me.”

That answer was answered with a brief silence—and most likely skepticism— from her family.

“Do you know James Marzan?” her father asked him.

Soren’s confusion aggravated. “James Marzan?”

“James Marzan, a former employee of your family,” her father elaborated.

“I-I don’t know him, sir.”

“How can you not know?” her mother said, sounding a bit exasperated, probably being overwhelmed now with the discussion, especially when the sex video was mentioned..

“I-I really don’t know him,” their visitor insisted and glanced at her again. “Who is he?”

“You really don’t know?” Misha asked him.

He shook his head—there was only confusion on his face, no annoyance.

“He’s my uncle,” she said. “He was an employee in one of your companies. Seven years ago, he disappeared and hasn’t been found until now. The last place he was seen before he vanished was inside the building where he worked.”

Soren looked aghast at the information. “That’s the first time I heard about that,” he said.

“Impossible,” his father said, his voice getting a little more intense.

“Seven years ago, I was still in America,” Soren explained. “I was studying there… I was living there… I was sent there fifteen years ago…”

“And you didn’t hear the news about my brother?” my father asked him.

“I didn’t,” he said. “I wasn’t really communicating with my family then.”

And that statement made Misha really curious. What was wrong with his family? Soren was the youngest and the youngest kid were usually spoiled but here was Soren, being brutally ganged up on by his family. “Does your mother hate you, too?” she asked him.

His answer was fast. “No, my mother loves me.”

“Are you a bastard?” she asked before she could rein in her tongue.

But Soren responded to it. “As far as I know, I’m not,” he said, “unless my mother was lying.”

Does lying run in your family, too, aside from nastiness? She wanted to ask but she was able to get hold of her tongue that time before she could voice it out.

“Are your mother and father enemies?” Ruth asked.

“They would quarrel, yes, like most of married couples, but they’re still together.”

 “Are you telling us the truth?” her mother asked Soren. “About not knowing james?”

“I am, ma’am.”

“You’re a pathological liar,” her father said. “And it’s your family who said that.”

Soren gently shook his head. “It is them who are lying, sir.”

“Do you have any proof?” her father asked again.

“If you really know my siblings, you won’t ask for any proof, sir.”

“Sadly, I don’t really know them.”

Soren didn’t respond to it and it was a bit incredible that he still didn’t appear annoyed at all the questions her family was throwing at him. Others would have walked out or yell or curse at her family, but Soren, he remained seated, he remained polite. Her Uncle James vanishing didn’t give them the right to harass Soren with their questions and suspicions. Yes, it was alleged that her uncle was last seen inside the company of Soren‘s father, but the keyword there was “alleged.” There still was no proof that his family really had to do with her uncle’s disappearance. Her family and her uncle’s family and all their relatives suspected that they had something to do with the disappearance but they didn’t have any proof. That was why no one had been charged or sent to jail.

While everyone was still quiet, Soren reached inside his pants’ front pocket and put out his cell phone and read a text message. “It’s Andy,” he said. “Asking where we are.”

“We should go,” Misha suggested as the conversation was starting to make her really awkward.

“Jaden will go with you,” said her father. And it didn’t sound like a suggestion.

“Let me drive,” Jaden requested.

‘No,” Misha objected as Jaden wasn’t really a careful driver. “Get my keys in my room.”

Soren stared at her. “I thought your car was broken,” he said.

She felt her face reddening. “I-I thought, too,” she said, stammering. She stammered whenever she lied, no matter how big or how white the lie was. “I thought wrong.”

‘Okay,” he said, his facial expression benign so she couldn’t tell whether he was upset that he discovered her lying. And to think they were all accusing him of being a liar. Well, karma sometimes could really be instant.

“We’ll just ride with you,” she told Soren in a firm voice. “Jaden, let’s go.”

And no one in her family objected.

“Okay,” Soren quipped.

“Jaden,” their father said. “Protect your sister.”

A small smile that looked hurt shaped on Soren’s lips, but he didn’t say anything. He was still too courteous even though her family was being unfair and rude to him. Or was it all just an act? And that sooner or later, he’d show his true evil self? Maybe, Soren would take his revenge while they were in his car and far away from her parents. But Jaden was with her and would surely protect her. But could he? Soren was taller, looked stronger, and she read one comment on his F******k account that he knew how to handle guns and knew some martial arts—which was probably the reason he wasn’t scared a bit to confront those motorcycle riders. Jaden was clumsy and didn’t know any martial arts while Soren, well, she recently witnessed him approaching two men with the intention of brawling with them and almost effortlessly carrying an injured lady.

So, yeah, she and Jaden would be defenseless when Soren started to show his evil self to them and harm them—like wanting to rape her.

He was a sex addict, wasn’t he?