Wow and now after all that . . . he had done this to her in retribution?  No one she was bitter. Right after her birthday when she had crumbled to her affections for him and opened her self up to him, he had just dumped everything she had shown him off a cliff and ghosted her.  He's gone as far as he possibly could without really handing in a good excuse. He couldn't because there was none. Now she had flown all this way just due to her hopes and dreams to see if he was true to his word.  What worth was a set of words from Henry Wong? She had come to end her journey to find the man she loved canoodles with a woman with intense notoriety for beauty and scandal. He had missed the mark so widely he was sure Ellie harboured fairly murderous intentions when she'd gone.

His eyes tailed to the still shuddered doors which she had just harshly closed.  Where she had gone was so far away. Henry knew that he was only skimming the surface and as the crest of the wave hit him, he would surely drown.  Hope was dwindling fast. He would lose everything if he did not go to her know. Belief in him was a bit beyond what he could expect. What a sucker's paradise he had made for himself that the pivotal realization had come on the same timing that would made him look the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

That someone else was even in the room was a shock to him as Nadia took out her lighter and started lighting her cigarette holder.  She blew the smoke into his face deliberately so he would cough. "I don't like to be made a fool, Henry Wong. My games usually don't have other players of the female gender.  I like her. She's a good sport and could have shot me in cold blood and I would want her to do it again. I would have her in a second if she likes women too. She's too good for you.  I'm not shocked that you don't have the same values of holy matrimony. You think that she's a joke you can ignore because it didn't land right."

Henry shook his head as he wanted to comment on Nadia's s.e.xuality, but truthfully he was beyond caring for her feelings.  His lips were stuck together as he tried to think of a courteous way to say what he wanted. It was very disturbing that she had been in the room while his marriage was revealed to be different than what he thought.  He stood with his hands in his pockets as he could only shrug. "I don't know what to say. I'm deeply sad to see that our friends.h.i.+p has come to a misunderstanding."

"You call that an apology?  No wonder she just gave up and left.  I want her if you don't. To play a game of pa.s.sion with an innocent is a cruel thing.  A woman like that is rare to see her even raise her voice. To have a kind person be moved to anger is pure evil on your part.  She's not going to stay with you. Or if she hits you, I'd testify in your favor that she was on her final string with you. You cannot be a saint to me and then be a devil to her.  That's not how reputation works. You're going to hurt me worse than I saw you hurt her. Those aren't odds I'm willing to play with." Nadia puffed out another cloud of smoke aimed at his face.

Henry moved back and coughed before he could bat away enough of the smoke to look at her properly.  He didn't know she smoked this much. He tried to come to terms with his situation. It took a couple seconds before he thought of something worth saying.  Nadia above everything deserved a good man who was not attached as he obviously was. "I know what I've done is deeply offensive and I regret everyone I've hurt with my poor choices.  My intent is not to have a different woman every week as this makes it look like. You have many admirable qualities that I want in a long term partner and Ellie obviously is the same or I wouldn't have married her.  I've always had doubts about our quick nuptials. I needed to confirm the difference between genuine feeling and l.u.s.t. You have more value than your body, I've known you for years and you know I believe that. I just needed an experience to confirm that Ellie is the only one for me.  I have . . . I did that . . . I got there, but that's when she walked in."

Her eyes became misty as she took a deep draught and blew the plume out in the opposite direction of his face.  "Now you see that's something completely different. You're getting there if you're practicing to try to woo her back.  But for a girl so out of your league, clearly, this isn't good enough. I'll give you some pointers as this is my specialty.  I'm surprised that under all that talk about mergers and hedge funds and stocks that you're nothing a.n.a.lytical like you seem. You show what you want others to see, but what you are is an emotional idiot who wants love more than your own stupid ambitions.  Good, you have convinced me of that. It's a start. If you can keep it up, you better run as fast as you can after that girl and pour out all the poetry you can that she's the only one for you. I wouldn't buy it, but I'm not a very nice girl am I? You beg with all the being you have that you're a miserable loser.  It will work the first time if you can get the tears geared up. Any woman whose deeply in love will forgive her husband once. You get one chance to mess up. But if you do it again, I'm sure she will take everything from you and laugh. That's the secret of very beautiful women, they're vengeful."