Page 25 of Played By the Fool

“Could he have been kidnapped?” Carmelo asks.

“I looked all that up, with facial recognition. I regressed his picture and searched everywhere.”

“Fuck me. What are we missing?” Francesco slams his hand on the table.

This goes on for a few hours. The guys keep searching for any information about John. But they come up empty handed. I think we’re going to have to admit that he had nothing to do with Emilia’s disappearance. And that he’s just a shitbag that cheated on two great women.

“Lorenzo called, Frank’s doing better. And he said that Frank remembered hearing Emilia say John’s name before he got hit,” Enea tells everyone.

Fuck. It was him, so where is he keeping her? We searched everywhere in his house and she wasn’t there. And why would he take her? He hasn’t even tried to contact her in a while now. He’s only been chasing Kali. I’m so confused, and now I’m even more worried. Is he that unhinged? What if he hurts her?

Emilia

“You’re not John. Who are you?” I ask the John look-alike.

“What makes you think I’m not John?” he laughs.

“You don’t sound like him.”

“But I am John. You’ve been with me for a year. You should know me by now.”

Could I really be that confused that I don’t recognize him? Maybe? I mean my head is still screaming at me and my vision is going a little fuzzy. But my hearing is working, and this thing—shape-shifter maybe? It doesn’t sound like John.

“I do know John. And you might look like him, but you don’t sound like him.”

“But you agree that I look like him, right?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s really all that matters. You’re here with me now and we’re going to have a good life.”

What in the fuck is he talking about? We’ll have a good life?

“I have a good life. And I’d like to go back to it.”

Doppelgänger John takes two steps forward and slaps me across the face. I gasp at the sting it leaves and all I can think is John would never hit me. He may be a liar and a cheater, but he’s not an abuser.

“Ideservewhat he has, why shouldheget everything? The perfect family, the women, WHY WAS I THE ONE LEFT BEHIND?”

I have no idea what he’s talking about. But I do have a feeling that if I don’t play along? He’s going to hurt me more.

“Maybe if you explain to me what you’re talking about?—”

“Why? You don’t care, no one’s ever cared about me. John got the good life and I got left with the psychotic, junkie mother. He took the life I should have.”

Holy fuck. He’s John’s brother? Twin?

“Why don’t you tell me your name? Because I know you’re not John.”

“My name is Paul, I’m the older, better twin. But somehow I got left behind and only John was taken when our father left.”

“Where’s your mom now?”

“In the other room. She’s resting.” He smiles at me.

That smile doesn’t make me feel reassured. That smile makes me think that his mom isn’t ‘resting.’

“Maybe we should get John over here. So you can talk to him and he can understand what’s going on.”

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