Page 20 of Thin Lives

“Nothing for you to concern yourself with, Emma. Go relax. Rest for my cousin, huh? No stress for the baby. Don’t worry about the problems of men.”

Emma flinched inwardly, her heart seizing with an invisible agony that Calisto couldn’t possibly know was there. His words had been said so flippantly—his cousin.

The baby was not his cousin.

It was his son.

She had to press her lips together in a tight line to keep from saying that exact thing to him.

Calisto strolled past her in the hallway, already moving onto his next thing. By the time she turned around to watch him go, he was already gone around the corner, and she was forgotten to him.

She had learned over the last few months that she was not a priority in Calisto’s world anymore, what with his memories being gone. As Affonso’s wife, she was simply a woman in Calisto’s life that he treated with respect, but kept a healthy distance from at the same time.

How could Calisto ever possibly begin to remember her when he wouldn’t get close enough to her to be triggered into a memory?

Emma knew it would only take just one memory.

The right one. A simple one. Anything.

A clue for him to see that something between them hadn’t been as innocent as it looked like to everyone else on the outside. Some small hint for him to go digging for more. When that avalanche started for Calisto, she hoped it didn’t end until he had everything he needed.

She would be waiting when it did.

But, today was not that day.

Clearly.

Despite knowing better, Emma turned fast on her heel and followed the same path that Calisto had. Guessing by the phone call from earlier, and the several that Affonso had made afterward, something had happened and it wasn’t good.

Emma wanted to know what it was.

She quickly made her way to Affonso’s office, noting from down the hall that the door had been left open. The hissed voices coming from inside didn’t slow her down a bit. She could have stayed out in the hall and kept hidden from view, but as it was, she had already been on her feet for longer than the doctor would approve.

Walking right inside the office, she found Affonso and Calisto glaring at one another. Affonso stood behind his desk, palms down on the top as he leaned over it slightly. Calisto stood only a couple of feet away from his uncle, sneering and not backing down.

From what, though?

“Leave,” Affonso barked at Emma.

She sat down on the couch instead.

“Did you?” Calisto asked, ignoring Emma’s presence and Affonso’s demand for her to go away. “I want to know, zio, and I want to know why.”

“I have been here all day,” Affonso snarled, his gaze cutting back to Calisto in a blink. “Ask Emma or the cook, for God’s sake.”

Calisto’s stance didn’t soften a bit. “We both know you rarely dirty your hands. Why must you dirty yourself when you have plenty of others who would do it for you?”

“Calisto!”

“You were the only one who knew I was going to the church and why—”

“What does that have anything to do with the priest?” Affonso asked, throwing his hands wide. “And why do you think I had anything to do with it, my boy?”

Calisto’s straight back relaxed a little. “They questioned me for hours. Even having the lawyer in there did nothing for me.”

“I tried all day to get you out, Cal. I did.”

“They treated me like shit. I was the one who found him, zio.”