Page 31 of Thin Lives

Her pretty features darkened with sadness. “Some things are, Cal.”

“Like what?”

Emma didn’t answer him, instead saying, “If something feels wrong to you, it probably is. If it doesn’t seem right, then it isn’t. Don’t trust based on loyalty and blind faith. He is not who you think he is. I just want you to know that, okay?”

Calisto wasn’t quite sure what to make of her passing remarks. He didn’t get the chance to question her on them, either, because she slipped out of the library without another word or look at him when she went.

Stunned, he stared at the spot where Emma had disappeared.

Her words kept ringing loudly in the back of his mind.

Their conversation was the most he had ever gotten out of Emma, and the longest time he had spent alone with her.

Well, that he knew of.

Calisto was just stepping out in the hallway from the library when Affonso and Ray appeared on the other side behind the opening office doors. Affonso looked Calisto over, and then behind him.

“Go on, old friend,” Affonso told Ray. “I’ll catch up.”

Ray went without question. Once he was gone down the hall and out of sight, Affonso turned back to Calisto with a smile.

It didn’t look true, strangely.

“Where is my wife?” Affonso asked.

Calisto straightened a bit. The first words out of his uncle’s mouth had been to question him on Emma’s whereabouts like that was automatically what Calisto would know.

Why would Affonso do that?

It seemed like lately, Calisto had far more questions than he had answers. He didn’t like that a lot of them seemed to be leading straight to his uncle.

And … now Emma.

He is not who you think he is.

If it doesn’t seem right, then it isn’t.

Emma’s words whispered a little louder in his head. Calisto wasn’t entirely sure why, but he thought they might be directed toward his uncle. From the very moment he had seen Affonso after he woke up, things just felt off to Calisto.

Affonso was not who he remembered. It was little things wrapped up in small issues, to be sure. His uncle’s attitude, his lack of apathy and trust. The way he controlled the most basic daily routines around Calisto, as if he didn’t think he could do it on his own. How he kept a distance between them, when he had never done that before.

Little things, yes.

But it added up to something that didn't feel right at all.

Calisto had believed for months that his uncle was hiding things from him, for many reasons. One of the biggest was the ending of a relationship between Calisto and a woman from a fellow New York family. He hadn’t loved her, but he’d considered marrying her for status, and his uncle. After waking up without his memories of the last two years, Affonso brushed the relationship off as something that hadn’t worked out and nothing more. It couldn’t have been that simple.

Still, it was one thing Calisto chose not to push on.

Like other things.

A lot of things.

Affonso told him something, and Calisto trusted his uncle, giving him … blind faith.

As a consigliere for their crime family, he should have been given access to almost anything he wanted in regards to his uncle’s dealings, but he wasn’t. Not even close.

Calisto had the distinct feeling Emma was trying to tell him something without actually telling him. He just had to figure out what it was.