Page 69 of Thin Lives

He still wasn’t hers—she wasn’t his.

“I know you’re what I’m missing,” Calisto said, his features confused and darkened with pain.

Emma couldn’t help herself, she nodded.

Because she was.

She was missing him, too.

So why couldn’t she just tell him?

Why did the fear keep choking her silent?

Emma

Emma had never been more anxious in her life than she was waiting for the front door of the Donati home to open. On either side of her, both Michelle and Cynthia waited, both excited and happy.

But her?

Emma had so much dread building inside her body that she felt physically sick. It certainly didn’t help that leading up to this day, she had gotten very little sleep, and her nerves were ready to snap at even the slightest aggravation. Despite being put on bedrest, she had practically no time at all to relax.

Not with her husband coming home.

Affonso’s release had depended on several factors like his healing, the fever he had been running, and how he felt in general. When that call came from Ray, telling Emma that Affonso would be released the next day and expected to come home to a house ready to welcome him, she barely kept down her lunch.

Running a palm over her stomach, Emma tried to calm herself.

She didn’t need the stress or the worry.

It wasn’t her who had shot Affonso.

Oddly, it didn’t help much.

When the door finally opened, and Affonso was led inside by Ray and Calisto, Emma didn’t quite know what to do or say. In a wheelchair, the man seemed almost smaller than what she knew he actually was. He appeared fragile as he shook his head when Ray asked him a question, and then waved a hand to ward off whatever Calisto was saying right after.

Emma knew looks were certainly deceiving.

Affonso may have appeared weak, but she knew he was anything but.

The man was a snake.

A dangerous, poisonous snake.

“Daddy!”

Michelle’s shriek of happiness brought Emma from her inner thoughts, and she watched the girls rush forward to their father. It took Affonso far too long, in Emma’s opinion, to open his arms and accept the embrace from his daughters. He winced when they hugged him, but other than that, he gave nothing away.

From the corner of her eye, Emma found Calisto watching her.

Silent, unmoving, and dark.

He hadn’t come back to see her since that last time.

He hadn’t said another thing about the memory he had regained.

She wondered what he was thinking, or what else he might know.

Jesus.