Epilogue

Mabel Shot


**Four months later**



I stretch out in bed and look at the ceiling, tilting my face to the side and seeing the empty bed. I sit up and stretch my arms, glancing at the clock, no longer worrying about the time. My exchange program at the gallery ended two weeks ago, which secured me an advanced exchange in a subject called Czar Gregovivk. Not that we haven’t been going at it like bunnies constantly, as Sieta likes to say. But in these last weeks, we really gave her something to talk about, as we managed to outdo ourselves. Although we went out these days to celebrate Aunt Yelena’s birthday, who insisted on making me try her famous light juice. I woke up with Czar passed out beside me, his ripped clothes next to mine, in his aunt’s living room, with the doors locked, having no idea what I did. Sieta was the one who told me I almost violated the honor of her cousin, Greg, and she and Aunt Yelena left laughing, locking us inside.
I felt good around them, as if they were my true family, which I never had. Speaking of family, Alekessandra is on the run from the police, just like my adoptive father. When the police raided the house I lived in with them, they found another girl inside; I think she had been living there for a few months. They took her away to a safe place, along with the other children who were removed from the orphanage. The orphanage I was left at as a child has been shut down; Dexter managed to inform some of his friends in the police about what was happening there, without mentioning how he found out. Baby and Gim, whom I grew to love so much, became my friends, friends I never had, and they gave me the courage to walk into the room where Kaiser was and confront him for the first time in so many years.
Sieta even got jealous when I told Baby and Gim that they had a friend who loved them a lot in Russia. But as I told Sieta, I don’t see her as a friend, but as a sister I never had. She tried to act tough, not showing me her teary eyes when she turned her back to me, but I could see a tear shining on her cheek. She refused to admit she was moved, saying it wouldn’t look good for her now that she’s a counselor in Sodom. I tried to understand a bit more about how their world works, even though Czar didn’t want to.
Sieta, along with Ramsés and Santana, whom I only knew by sight, were the ones who stayed to clean up the mess from the day of the trial. I almost fell on my butt when she told me they blew up the butcher shop, and when I say blew up, I mean literally blew it up, sending everything into the air. The newspapers reported that a gas chamber in the butcher shop had ruptured, releasing flammable gas into the air, which caused the explosion during the night, and luckily, no one was inside. Well, technically, it wasn’t a lie since everyone who was there was dead. It’s a scary scheme, if you think about it, involving police, property insurance, and the fire department, all ensuring it was an explosion caused by a refrigeration chamber failure.
Czar ordered the rest that was left to be demolished, cementing the place entirely, leaving the truth buried there with the dead. But there was a truth I didn’t want to leave buried in that place. The day my exchange ended at the gallery, I asked Mr. Rumeu who really recommended me to work for him. The old man smiled at me, looking out the window of his office at Mr. Gregovivk, who was waiting for me outside, before hugging me and telling me it was Macro, that Macro had spoken so well of me that he wanted to meet me, and luckily, I fit perfectly into the job.
I felt relieved. I confess that deep inside, I still felt like Czar hadn’t told me the whole truth after we got home and he spent hours with me in the shower, soaping me up. We didn’t talk about it anymore, nor about what Macro told me before he died. Czar made me realize that there are things that need to stay in the past in order to move forward. And that’s what I did when I hugged Mr. Rumeu, thanking him for the chance he gave me. I couldn’t find out the truth about Boris and not tell him. I murmured in his ear, before leaving, to take a look at his box books and study them carefully.
Macro didn’t want to be buried; he never liked the dark, just like me, so I asked Czar if he could be cremated. And on the day he turned to ashes, Czar took me to the cliff where Sebastian died, and I scattered Macro’s ashes, letting him rest with his owner. I admit I still didn’t know what I was going to do with my life when the exchange program at the gallery ended, whether I would return to New York or stay in Moscow with Czar, but I made my decision the moment that huge man held my face between his hands and kissed me with such passion, telling me he didn’t want me to leave. Vanilla sex followed by sadomasochism never felt so good, making me even more addicted to him than I already was. Christ, I’m a fool, a love-struck fool, that’s the truth!
The smell of his cologne fills the room as soon as the bathroom door opens. My eyes watch every movement he makes as he steps out of the bathroom while I sit on the bed and stretch.

“Good morning.” Czar's strong voice, even though low, vibrates in my ears, making me sigh amid the intoxication his scent causes.
I look at his large hands, which he uses to dry his body as he walks around naked, so beautiful in his masculinity. Czar opens the wardrobe, searching for something to wear while I admire him, sighing.
I’m in love with every part of him, every feature, every movement and gesture. He fills the entire room with his dominant, masculine presence. Having Czar nearby is like being intoxicated by his intensity. A force pulls me from the inside out toward him.
“Ramsés called me last night, letting me know he’s going to Cairo. Apparently, he found a lead on Yusefe.”
I slowly push the sheet off me and toss it aside, moving across the bed and crawling to the edge, gazing at his broad shoulders. He drops the towel to the floor and grabs a pair of pants along with his black belt.
“If we’re lucky, maybe this man will tell us where Valéria has been hiding.” Czar takes a deep breath and relaxes his shoulders, still shrouded in a cloud of concern for Valéria, whose whereabouts remain unknown. “I was thinking we could maybe travel a bit, get out of Moscow, maybe take you to Paris, so you can see the Louvre in person, just the two of us, without anyone knowing where we’re going.”
His body turns, and he falls silent, observing me kneeling at the foot of the bed on the mattress, looking up at him. I would go anywhere as long as he was by my side.
Czar's brown eyes, which were calm when he left the bathroom, now have a dark hue, shining with his power. The pants he holds hang from his fingers for a few seconds while he looks at me until Czar lets them fall to the floor along with the towel.