Chapter 12
“Monti, my friend, what is going on here?”
Worried, Monti asked, “What do you mean?”
“Why have I sold 14 million albums in the first week alone?”
Smiling and talking innocently, Monti said, “Don’t you like that? If I were you, I would be beyond thrilled.”
“I don’t have a problem with it. I am thrilled. The reason why I’m calling you is because I want an explanation as to why all of this is happening.”
“What do you mean? It’s happening because you’re talented.”
Chris laughed. “Please, there are many other singers that are very talented out there and the most they sell in one week is 600,000 copies.”
“They don’t have what you have. That’s why.”
“That’s exactly what I’d like to know, Monti. What do I have that others don’t that makes me sell so many records?”
“Well, for starters, you’ve got a fantastic voice. You are a mezzo-soprano. Your vocal range is seven octaves. No other male singer outside the opera can do that. People are absolutely enchanted with your voice and your lyrics, the rhythm of your songs according to what you’re talking about. You’re simply amazing.”
“What I’m trying to say is, do you think if another artist who has had their genes enhanced or who was born the way that I am now, do you think he or she would sell fourteen million copies of their albums worldwide in their first week?”
“It depends on their voice, their imagation, and many things.”
“So you don’t think any other artist like me has the voice I have.”
“There is something that you have to understand. The enhancement of someone’s genes doesn’t guarantee having the perfect singing voice and the talent that you have. Just because you are as successful as you are, that doesn’t mean that everyone who is like you is going to be a fabulous singer. Someone like you is only going to be a fabulous singer if he or she has the talent to do it, if he or she was born to do it. Gene enhancement guarantees perfect health, it guarantees that if you get burned, it’s going to heal in a matter of minutes, it guarantees intelligence above human intelligence, and it guarantees a certain talent.”
“I understand.”
“As with humans, not all of us have the same talent. Some of us can sing, some of us can draw and paint, some of us can become impresarios, some of us are doctors, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, geneticists, engineers, builders… it all depends on what we are good at, just like humans. If they’re good at something, that’s what they’ll do.”
“You mean if you want to become a singer, you can’t because you’re a geneticist and genetics was what you were born to do.”
“I don’t know,” said Monti, blushing. “I’ve only sung in the shower and no one has critiqued my singing in any way.”
“Sing for me, anything, anything that comes to your mind, and I’ll tell you if you could be a singer if you wanted to.”
“Ok,” said Monti. “If that’s what you really want, but if I suck, just keep your mouth shut and don’t express your opinion because negative opinions always make me feel really bad, ok? I don’t want to start crying.”
“Don’t worry,” said Chris. “I am incapable of intentionally hurting someone’s feelings, unless I tell him or her something bad about them, although it's true, for example, if he or she’s mean or something like that, and then he or she gets offended. I have no control over someone else’s feelings and their reactions to what I say or do. No one can.”
“That’s true.”
“You may start singing." Chris got his digital voice recorder and connected it to the phone so that Monti’s song could be recorded. It was a special digital voice recorder for recording phone conversations that had just been released into the market. It was for people who were harassed, intimidated or threatened over the phone, so that they could prove the crimes that were being committed against them. So far, no one had used it to record someone singing. A new law had just been passed that in case of harassment, phone conversations could now be recorded without the authorization of the other person.
Monti started singing.
“I’m sorry that I’m not who you expected me to be
I didn’t want to hurt you, it is the truth
I can’t fall in love with you
You belong to someone I care about
He really loves you, you he can’t do with out
That’s why it would be heartless to leave him for me, baby
I feel absolutely heartless
After what I have just done
I feel horribly evil
I was here now I’m gone
I want nothing to do with you
You can’t make me feel worse, and that’s the truth
I really have to get over you
But right now I can’t
I’ve just failed again
To resist the temptation of loving you
And that makes me absolutely heartless…
“Wow,” said Chris. “You can really sing.”
“I don’t have your voice. I mean I don’t have a seven-octave range.”
“But you do have a six-octave range.”
“You really think so?” said Monti, smiling.
‘ “Yes. You sing really well. Let me tell you, you can come up with really good songs, too. You’re amazing.”
“Oh, Chris…”
“I think you’d be fierce competition for me. I mean you’re really good at genetics, it’s what you do best, but you can really sing and write songs also. Was that song off the top of your head?” Chris was still recording the conversation.
“Yes, that was off the top of my head, but the bad thing about this is that it was autobiographical.”
“It was?” said Chris, saddened.
“Yes. The song talks about my brother’s ex-girlfriend.”
“What’s your brother’s name?”
“His name is Emmanuel.”
“Do you want to become a singer?”
“I would love to, but I adore genetics. It’s my natural talent, and so is doing business.”
“You think your brother has a voice as good as yours?”
“Oh, his voice is much better than mine. He’s always wanted to be a singer, but when I betrayed him in the worst way imaginable, he became depressed and now he doesn’t want anything to do with music.”
“We’ve got to do something to change his mind, don’t you think?”
Laughing, Monti said, “I really appreciate your great intentions, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do to change his mind.”
“We’ll see about that. I want you to call Emmanuel on three-way.”
“I appreciate what you’re trying to do, man, I really do. Hold on.” Monti dialed Emmanuel’s number while Chris was still on the line.
The phone rang three times and Emmanuel picked it up. “Hello.”
“Emmanuel, this is Monti.”
“How are you doing, Monti? Is there something I can do for you? What do you need? You want me to come over to your house and talk?”
The recorder was still going. It had 100 hours for continuous recording.
Monti was astonished at the way that Emmanuel was treating him. Unbelievably, he hadn’t talked to Emmanuel since he and Emmanuel fought and Monti killed him only to bring him back to life minutes later. “Everything is ok. I have a friend on three-way calling here who is interested in your future career as a singer.”
“You know what, Monti Gerard? Yes, I have been writing songs, and composing songs, and yes, I’ve been taking vocal lessons to improve my voice. However, I don’t think I could sing these songs because they’re all about Leah, and as unbelievable as this may sound, what happened between me and Leah, it still hurts, really badly.”
“Perhaps it’ll help if you just let it out, if you just let the world know just how evil Leah really is.”
“I don’t think I have the courage it takes to do that, Monti.” said Emmanuel, crying all of a sudden.
“I insist that you let the world know,” said Chris all of a sudden. “Hi, I am Christopher Olivier.”
“Oh,” said Emmanuel, “you’re the new multi-platinum singer.”
“Yes,” said Chris, blushing, “although I still can’t believe it, that’s me.”
“So you advise me to go ahead and destroy Leah’s reputation in front of the world.”
“She deserves it. She broke your heart, didn’t she?”
“Yes, but she’s married now. I don’t have the heart to do that.”
“Whatever you want, Emmanuel,” said Chris. “I know that one day, you will stop loving her, and you won’t have any compassion for her, and that will drive you to tell the world how you feel.”
“I don’t love her anymore.”
Monti and Chris believed Emmanuel.
“I just don’t have the heart to ruin a life. She’s married; she has two babies I mean cheating on me with you was nothing. In these songs, I’m going to be telling everybody everything she did to me. For fear of killing her in self-defense, I put up with physical, sexual abuse; she’s forced me to sell my body to her friends…”
“Wow,” said Monti, “I really thought…”
Emmanuel interrupted him. “Yes, I know, you thought it was just her cheating on me with my brother, but it’s a lot more than that, Monti.”
I wish I could change Emmanuel’s mind. Emmanuel couldn’t read this thought of Monti, but Chris could. “All right, Emmanuel, we’re going to leave you alone for now. We know that one day, she’s going to do something to you to make you come to your senses and wake up…”
Suddenly, Emmanuel got a call on the other line. “Guys, I know this is a very important call. I mean it’s my brother and my new singing idol. However, I got a call on the other line and if, knowing that, the person won’t hang up, it’s because he or she’s got something very important to say. Wait for me, ok?” Emmanuel took the other call. “Hello.”
“Mr. Emmanuel Saralegui?”
“Yes.”
“I called you to inform you that your house is no longer your house.”
“What do you mean?”
“Leah Carrere has purchased it.”
“How could she do that?” said Emmanuel, crying.
“Do you remember signing papers recently, the papers that were sent to you by mail talking about you refinancing the house?”
“Yes.”
“You thought you were indeed refinancing the house, but what you were really doing was giving it up to Leah Carrere, for free.”
“How did she come up with this kind of scam?”
“Well, it is a scam, but she doesn’t see it that way. This is the house that you’ve lived in together for the past six years. Leah just purchased your part of the house from you. She did it like this because she knows that you wouldn’t have signed the papers willingly if she had told you what it was that she intended to do. The reality is that you’ve got to move out. You have twenty-four hours to get out of the house.”
Monti and Chris were still on the other line. They wouldn’t hang up even if this phone call took all night because they knew something horrible was happening to Emmanuel. This wasn’t good news, and they wanted to be there to support him.
“Don’t worry. You don’t have to give me twenty-four hours, officer,” said Emmanuel, crying. “The only thing I’m taking with me is my files with my songs on them. I know I can count on my brother and he’ going to give me everything I need, including a place to live,” he said, broken down.
“I am really sorry.”
Emmanuel cut the call and went back to the call with Monti and Chris. “You guys, Leah stole my house from me.”
“How did she do that?” asked Chris, surprised.
“I signed some papers to refinance the house and it turned out that Leah somehow took those papers, wrote a document where I declared that I was giving up my part of the house, and put my signature on there.”
“Do you see what I’m saying?” said Monti, angrily. “Do you see what I’m saying, Emmanuel?”
“Monti…!”
“You should have no compassion for her whatsoever! Now you have one more song to write. Tell the world just how heartless that whore really is.”
“She didn’t have a place to live, apparently, so she just took my house from me.”
“She cares about no one but herself!”
“You’re right. I’m going to take my songs and I’m going to go. The question is May I live with you for a little while, while I reunite the money to buy another house?” said Emmanuel, crying.
“You can spend a few days here, and then I’m going to buy you another house while you get started on your singing career. With that chain of genetics clinics, the money’s been coming in like crazy. I grossed one hundred million dollars this month alone.”
“Wow…”
“So I have more than enough money to buy you another house, Emmanuel. When you get here, we’re going to talk about what you want your house to be like. In the meantime, bring your songs and get a record producer to sign you.”
That will be no problem at all. I will help him do that, thought Chris, but neither Monti nor Emmanuel could read that thought.
“Ok. Thank you, bro, for being so good to me.”
“Hey, you know that blood is thicker than water,” said Monti, crying. “We’ve always gotten along wonderfully and we’re not going to let a whore come between us.”
In the morning, Emmanuel came to Monti’s house. Incredibly, despite the horrible way that he treated Rachel in the past, she received him with a big hug and a sisterly kiss. “Hello, Manny. How are you?”
“I’m doing terribly, Rachel,” said Emmanuel, crying, “but you know how we Latinos are. No matter what we’re going through, we always keep smiling.”
Suddenly, Heath came out of the dining room after finishing the breakfast that Monti and Rachel had prepared for him, and said, “You’re going to smile from ear to ear for a long time when I tell you what I came here for.”
Smiling, Emmanuel screamed, “Heath Manning, oh, my God!” and they hugged for a few minutes and Emmanuel said, “I adore you, man! You’re my favorite record producer! Artists under your wing have sold millions of their debut albums!”
“Well, I have nothing to do with that,” said Heath, holding Emmanuel’s hands. “It’s like a best-selling book. They write it. They put their souls into it. All I do is publish it. That’s all,” and laughed. “Oh, Manny, Manny…” They sat down together. “I heard your little demo.”
“My demo?” said Emmanuel. “I never made a demo.” Then he looked Monti in the eyes. “What did you do, Monti Gerard?”
“I did nothing,” said Monti. “It was Chris,” smiling.
“What did Chris do?”
“What they did or didn’t do is irrelevant right now,” said Heath with a contract in his hand for Emmanuel to sign. “The important thing is that I heard you, I absolutely loved it, and I want you to be my newest artist. I brought something with me,” said Heath, showing Emmanuel the contract.
“So that’s the way you do it, huh? When you like someone you sign him or her and three weeks later, an album is released.”
“Exactly, that’s why all hopefuls are turning to us, because we’re the ones that release albums the fastest depending on the fact that all the songs they’re going to use are ready to be produced. If they don’t have any songs written, it takes longer… say six months, but that’s the longest it takes.”
“What if the tracks on the album are filtered and the artist has to go back, re-edit the album and record other songs?”
“That never happens. Our music is never filtered.”
“How do you do that?”
“It’s a secret that we’re going to share with other record companies to help the music industry prosper again. In the meantime, I want you to read this contract thoroughly. If there’s a term or a clause that you don’t agree with, don’t sign, and we will take that term out that you don’t agree with, change a few words around, and make it so that you will agree. If the second attempt to please you is not successful, then you won’t sign, we’ll forget about the whole thing, and you’ll make a demo for another record company and sign with them.”
While Heath was explaining all of this to him, Emmanuel was reading the contract. It would only take him three seconds to read each one of the forty pages. When he was done, he said, “I agree with everything.”
“You agree with every single clause, every single term on that contract? You agree with every word written on that document, every little word? Are you sure?"
“Yes, sir, I do."
“Great! Now, you’re going to sign, I’m going to sign, and Mr. and Mrs. Bernaola are going to be our witnesses,” said Heath, excited, like a child that had just gotten his favorite toy for Christmas.
Emmanuel, Heath, Rachel and Monti signed Emmanuel’s contract.
Heath shook Emmanuel’s hands and said, “Welcome to Manning Records.”
Everyone hugged. Then, Heath left the house to go to court and validate that contract.
In the meantime, Emmanuel and Rachel sat down to have breakfast together because Monti had to go to work. He was late, but even though he was the boss of the company, he liked to be there early just in case one of his employees needed something, so they could talk to him, personally. Monti headed out the door.
Emmanuel and Rachel started talking in the dining room as Emmanuel ate his breakfast, a bowl of his favorite cereal, a banana, toast, juice and milk. “Monti asked me to have this book of houses available to you,” explained Rachel as she opened the book for Emmanuel, sitting on the chair that was right beside him. “The booklet is from Crazy Bird Homes. They have luxurious houses at a price that Monti can afford.”
“I can’t deny that I want a luxurious house,” said Emmanuel, “but I can’t do that to you guys.”
“You heard the amount of money that Monti’s making as a geneticist and that I’m making as a business woman, $100,000,000 a month. Monti could very well be the next Richard Snyder!” Richard Snyder was the most powerful and wealthiest man in the United States. “We can afford a luxurious house for you!”
“If that’s what you guys want...”
“Of course it’s what we want. We want the best for you. Never forget that.”
Pointing to the ‘Samba’ model house, Emmanuel said, “That’s the one I want.”
“You want it custom-built or already built?”
“I want it already built.”
“Why? You can have it built just the way you want it, and then you could live here with us. It’s not a problem.”
“You guys don’t have pets, and my dog Chesney could be a problem.”
“No, he wouldn’t.”
“I haven’t had enough time to train him to go potty outside.”
“What are maids for?”
Emmanuel had to come up with an excuse not to move in with Monti and Rachel. “You know, I tend to fart a lot. I don’t have a stomach problem because I’m perfectly healthy according to experts, I mean we all are. I’m just nasty.”
“Doesn’t everyone fart, Emmanuel? I mean that’s no excuse. I know you’re looking for an excuse not to move in with us. Why? I thought you loved us.”
“I do love you. I just…”
She interrupted him. “You think that Monti doesn’t trust you with me.”
“Well, yeah.”
“That is utter nonsense. He knows you’re a good person. Come on. You’d never do that to him. If you did that to him Leah would win. Come on, now! You think that if I knew you were capable of doing that, I would let you into my house, much less try to convince you to move in with us while you get your own house? You’re making no sense, Emmanuel.”
“