Natalia was twisted up in the blankets, deep in slumber. She looked so peaceful that Len didn’t want to disturb her. In the years he’d lived with Sara, Len had had to endure her terrible poetry about being strong. All the time: strong this, strength that. Sara was constantly trying to convince herself she had it, but in reality, she had no clue what the word meant. Sara was a parasite, an invertebrate. She had no moral compass or grit. Then years later, here came Natalia: a woman who genuinely had a backbone of steel. Natalia didn’t need to give herself little pep talks to assure herself of her mettle. She just woke up every day and made big things happen. Truly strong people didn’t crow about their strength because they were too busy taking it for granted. Len studied Natalia’s face and wondered what she saw in him. She was a beautiful millionaire jet-setter with penthouse apartments all over the world, living a life of gunrunning and global intrigue. And somehow she found Leonard Savitz, a has-been journalist from the rusted bowels of Western Pennsylvania, interesting enough to break out of jail and sleep with.
