Outside of the room, they are talking but their voices are too low for me to decipher the individual words. Somehow I knew Aleksei would betray me. I knew it yet it still saddened me because it was a loss, and my life has been full of losses. The door opens and then closes. I wait three more heartbeats and rise. A quick look at the main living room and the foyer reveals no one. The suite is empty, eerily silent. I open the door quietly and see the elevator is unmoving. The stairs then. Aleksei is sadly overconfident in his tactics and does not notice he is being followed. At the door of his new room, I pause to listen while Aleksei explains to Naomi why he is spiriting her away and to whom, but waiting is swept aside when I hear him begin to panic. I push open the door that I’ve surreptitiously unlocked while Aleksei is trying to reason with Naomi. Inside the room he is bent over a convulsing Naomi.
