Thin Lives (Donati Bloodlines #3) Read Free Page B

mother,” Calisto said.
    “You know how your mother died. Her heart gave out because of her disease. We visited the grave, Cal.”
    Calisto rapped his fingers on the steering wheel, hearing the annoyance in Affonso’s tone as clear as day. Each time this subject was brought up between them, Affonso became irritated and cold. It was almost as if he wanted Calisto to simply forget about it all and move on with what he had left.
    He just couldn’t do that.
    “Not Ma, exactly,” Calisto said. “More me. I want to know about me during that time.”
    Affonso grunted, and a glass clinked on the other end of the line. “You were … distraught.”
    That sounded right.
    But it still felt like a lot was left out.
    “I think …” Calisto’s brow furrowed as he wondered if he should admit to the one memory he knew he had leading up to the accident.
    “What, my boy?”
    Affonso’s gentle question made Calisto think that his uncle was simply irritated with his questions because maybe he wanted him to be better. Happy, even. And Calisto was focusing on things that were no longer important because they had already happened.
    So, he chose to tell him.
    “I think I was at the church that night,” Calisto said.
    “You were there earlier in the day. The Irish, remember?”
    Calisto knew what his uncle was talking about, but remembering was a whole other matter. No, he didn’t remember having a meeting with the New Jersey Irish mob boss, but apparently he had and refused to allow anyone else to come as well.
    Affonso blamed the accident that followed on the Irish boss.
    A war was still raging between their families on the streets.
    “Not then. Ray said that was in the daytime,” Calisto explained.
    Affonso sucked in air through his teeth, and a chair squeaked. “Keep going.”
    “I remember being there that night, zio . At the church. I was angry about something, and Father Day wanted to talk to me about it, but I pushed him off.”
    “Cal …”
    “And then I remember being on the highway right after, just before my car was run off the road.”
    Silence answered his statements back.
    Calisto wasn’t all that surprised at his uncle’s lack of a response. He had kept his only regained memory a secret from everyone, other than his private doctor who was charged with monitoring and recording any returning memories he might have.
    It just didn’t feel normal for Calisto to be like he was, so overturned, unbalanced, and confused over one memory that he didn’t understand . He wanted to, and when he did, he planned on opening up to others about it.
    “And that is all you have remembered?” Affonso asked.
    The question was posed quietly, but it still rang with an undercurrent that Calisto couldn’t quite decipher.
    “That’s all,” Calisto confirmed.
    Affonso was quiet for a long while.
    A heavy weight rested on Calisto’s shoulders the longer he was forced to wait for a reply from his uncle. Affonso was so adamant that Calisto leave what was behind him in the past where it belonged. He repeatedly assured him that nothing was important enough for him to be chasing it when he could be moving forward in his life.
    Calisto couldn’t agree.
    His mind was saying there were things he needed to know, or he wouldn’t be able to let his curiosity go entirely. His heart felt different every single day that he walked around in a dazed bubble, wondering where in the hell his life was.
    Because this didn’t feel like his life.
    Calisto knew it was, but it was still missing something. He was without an important piece to his puzzle, but he didn’t even know what that piece was.
    How could he explain that?
    He felt crazy!
    “Cal?” Affonso said.
    It took Calisto far too long to realize his uncle had said his name at least three times. While his focus was on the road he was driving down, his attention was somewhere else entirely.
    Somewhere on a lost piece of him.
    “Yeah, zio ?”
    “That night—right before—it’s all you