Penelope

"Who knew it would take amnesia and you almost dying for you to finally start growing!" His mother lovingly jumps on him with affection. "You sounded just like a money-hungry rat for a second, there. I'm so proud! I'll have to tell your father the good news and send some money to Niki's family in thanks for her wonderful assassination attempt..." She trails off in joy.

It would seem he was worried for nothing. He cuts his mother's loving rant off and asks for some more information. It would seem that the deceptive woman is on his side. For now. It won't hurt to see what he can gather from her.

She immediately regains her cool and looks at him coldly. "I, of course, ensured that all evidence involving any of our heritage in a negative light came into our possession. Follow me."

She motions to him and they begin to walk to a smaller mansion on the right side of the estate. "This is your living area for when you're at home, not that you ever are. I compiled all the evidence that relates to you as well as information about your life into documents at your desk. Perhaps, you'll also regain some memories of your loving childhood in this place too? I'm kind of liking you better as you are now, though. Oh! And, here's your phone. At least, it's the one you had on you when Niki tried to kill you. You likely have a few others in places I don't know."

"I take it that this 'evidence' is only what you deem I'm worthy of knowing?"

Mother snorts. "That's a given. You're my son but neither of us are exactly good people, you see. Everything I do is for my own benefit. You might have amnesia but you aren't dumb so don't ask any more dumb questions."

She guides me to my 'room' which is more like an office and hurries away as I start looking through the documents at my desk. "And with that, I bid you adieu."

None of the documents seem to have any information that will lead me anymore. I wasn't expecting Mother to give me all the answers, but I didn't think she'd black out any name in these reports besides my own.

I power on my phone and scroll through the contacts. It would seem she did me a service and kept it all intact. Obviously, this phone is tapped and meant for surveillance so I can't use it to call any of these people. It's still useful for learning acquaintances' names and filling in blanks. There's also nothing stopping me from contacting them on a separate phone later.

It would seem that the goal of my mom is to delay me from information and not necessarily prevent me from it. Everything about her is throwing me through a loop. I mean, she said that she didn't really believe I lost my memories and yet all these preparations seem to be because of my memory loss.

The only thing I know for sure is that I can't trust her. I can't trust anyone. Except myself.

Wait, is 'Cain' really dead? If he's 'alive', what if he overtakes this body when I'm unconscious or tries to regain control? With this in mind, I can't even trust myself.

TRUST NO ONE. NOT EVEN YOURSELF.

I decide to get one of those edgy stickers plastered on a motorbike to ride away into the sunset on.

Looking through the call history, I note down a few names. Three of them stand out, right now. A "Joyce" who has spontaneous contact with me but long call times and appears more frequently than the rest. A "John Doe" who seems to have contact with me on Wednesdays at 8 PM without fail. The name is definitely a fake one, though. Finally, there's a "Penelope" who I called right before I went to bed with Niki and died.

Judging by the reports in front of me, Penelope is probably my daughter.

"Fuck..."

I've been talking a lot of shit about my parents in both these lives, but I probably won't be a better parent than any of them. It would seem that I have a secret daughter from one of my more influential exes (there are probably more daughters but the others were easily silenced with my money). Every other Saturday, I'm in contact with her. Ex-Cain probably called her to say he wouldn't see her that fateful day but there's a possibility he genuinely cared for her and warned her of his incoming death.

Regardless, it's a Friday so I'll contact her to meet up, as usual, tomorrow and gauge the situation. I'm not even sure she's my daughter since I only concluded this from a mysterious "P" that I apparently fund money to. It's possible she's another love or something too, but she's still the best person to get some more info since she's the last living person to talk to Ex-Cain.

I scroll through the text history on the phone and note the meeting address. Due to surveillance, Mother will already know of my current plan so there's no reason to try and avoid her monitoring at this meeting. I call Penelope.

"Dad?! Are you OK? I saw the News..." I can hear her hoarse voice sniffling. It seems that I was right over her being my daughter but Cain is only 25. His daughter seems to be at least 15... Surely, he wasn't impregnating women THAT young, right? I make a note to ask about her mom and find out the truth.

"Hey... Penelope? I have amnesia, I'm sorry." I hear her go silent at my indifferent tone. "I know we would meet up on Saturdays so let's talk tomorrow at the usual meeting place, alright?"

I can hear her breathing softly for what seems like an eternity.

"Got it. Uhm, Dad?"

"Yes?"

"I love you. I love you so much. I know you don't remember anything but I'll do anything to help you out. Our world is... dangerous. You don't need to remember me or ever love me back, but I'll be here for you until one of us dies. That's what family is for."

Before I can respond, the call abruptly ends.