Chapter 3

Omar continued living in the home of his benefactors. He seemed perfectly healthy and swaggered around the apartment, enthusiastically swinging his fat ass whenever Yuri was away. In Yuri’s presence he would start groaning and wheezing and complaining about his health. The old immigrant might have been utterly deaf to hidden harmonies, but he knew how to scheme — like an old, experienced animal.

Yuri tried to behave as though he had seen nothing and knew nothing. But he watched his wife closely. She really did seem to have embarked on a path of reform. More precisely ... it looked as though she was trying to set foot on that path. Fighting herself, fighting the 6 Maple Court inside her. Yuri was hardly the one to judge; he had lost his own battle with that house long ago and no longer even struggled. But Annette ... she could still win.

The beauty returned to yoga in earnest, taught online classes, meditated. But from time to time the tension inside her seemed to become ... unbearable. Then Annette would begin behaving strangely. No, she did not cheat on her husband. But one day, for example, she suddenly came out of the bedroom wearing nothing but lavender lace underwear and lay down on the sofa where she could be seen from the kitchen.