“How well do you really know my sister, Skel?” I ask. I had hoped I’d somehow been wrong, or read the notes wrong, but his sheepish face shows I’m right. My gut twists. “Spill, and you better not tell me a word of a lie, or I’m out.” It’s an empty threat, but I still cross my arms. “You haven’t just met her once or twice.”

He swallows, looking down and away. “I have only met her a few times. I just didn’t clarify what … happened during one of them.” He licks his lips, trying to figure out what to say.

I pour another glass of SynthWine, but don’t drink it. I’ve had enough, but at least it’s something to do with my hands. Anger bubbles inside me. No one trusts me to have all the information. The decisions I’ve made without knowing the full story …

“I first met her a few months ago. She was at one of the parties for Knights, Rooks and Pawns. I thought she was a young hopeful, trying to get into the Ratel, get a taste of power by latching onto a powerful member. She had a way of drawing the eye. I guess she would, being a hostess and all.”

He stares into space. He’s still standing in the middle of the kitchen. He takes the chair across from me, its legs screeching softly against the linoleum.

I say nothing, letting him find the words. “Near the end of the party, we were both pretty drunk. Real alcohol at those things, and neither of us were used to it. Whatever she’d been there for, she hadn’t found it. But she took a shine to me. I didn’t understand why. It’s not like I was important. She asked me to go to a hotel with her.”

I feel like I’ve been punched. I should have seen it, guessed it. I try not to think about his hands on my waist when we danced at Zenith. I try not to think about how he took off my clothes, so expertly. How well he seemed to know my body.

Tila got to him first. She always gets there first. And if he was attracted to me, it wasn’t actually for me. It was because I look like her. In a surge of paranoia, I wonder if my sister slept with any of my exes. David? Simone? I shake my head. The constant lies are getting to me, and I’m not even undercover yet.

I pick up my glass, the wine within sloshing. I set it to the side.