To help with the suspicion bit, I flit about town like a social butterfly. I dress up and go to parties, attend opera and ballet. I smile, laugh, and dazzle friends and opponents alike, all the while trying to process what all of this means, how our lives are going to change… how Alexei is going to react to losing his nephew so soon after his sister’s death.
I don’t know why I care about that. It doesn’t make sense. I know what the Leonovs are like, especially Boris, the boy’s grandfather. Slava will be better off with us, messed up as we are, and kidnapping is the best way to accomplish that. If Nikolai tries to go through the legal channels to claim his paternal rights, the Leonovs will hide Slava away, make him disappear. That’s what we would do in their shoes. So this is the right mov
