“No.”
“I want to be able to see Sasha.”
“Yes.”
“So I need an address.”
“I’ll let you have it, when I get one.”
“What about now?”
“It’ll only be a few days.” Stay strong, she told herself, don’t give in.
“Don’t do this!”
“Keep safe, Charlie.”
He remained standing after the door closed behind her, quietly again, the drink forgotten in his hand. He put it down abruptly, angrily, spilling it, and at once wondered why-for whose benefithe was performing like someone in a B movie. He went into their bedroom, seeing that this time Natalia had cleared everything from her closets. He thought at first she’d only left one thing in Sasha’s room, the doll he’d brought back from London. Then he saw, beside it, the diamond bar brooch he’d also bought there for Natalia.
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up commonwealths and ruin kings
John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel