— From whom?

— From that guy I met when I went to an ear piercing salon.

Robert looked at his companion in surprise.

So that's it! Has she already got a boyfriend? However, she quickly learned the lessons of Madame Kshesinskaya.

— He made an appointment for me today at the Maxim restaurant, on Royal Street.

Robert looked at Monica in amazement.

— Okay, you admire the gift, and I'll go to the post office and at the same time book tickets for tomorrow's flight. We're leaving, you understand? So finish all your personal business today.

From the post office, Robert sent the finished report by air mail to America so that the article would be printed in the magazine before he returned.

— Mr Jackson! Please stay a minute longer, — said the postal worker, — we have a letter for you.

— Letter? From whom?

— From Mrs. Matilda Kshesinskaya.

Robert was taken aback. Did he get a letter from the other world? He quickly opened the envelope. It really was from Kshesinskaya.

"Dear Robert! If you are reading these leter, then you are the only survivor of our entire campaign …"

What does "only" mean? Robert whispered and went cold.

"Monica"! — Like lightning flashed through his mind.

Without reading the letter to the end, Robert rushed towards the hotel. Even from a distance, he was horrified to notice a crowd of people just under the windows of their room, which was located on the third floor. There was a huge pool of blood on the sidewalk.

Robert looked up, saw the wide open window of their room and understood everything. He leaned forward, but the cordon policeman stopped him.

— Where is she?

— The body has already been taken away, monsieur, — the policeman replied.

Robert ran upstairs. In the room, the police were doing their job.

An investigator approached him.

— Did you live here together?

— Yes, we are business partners.

— Often quarreled?

— Absolutely. Vice versa. We had more than just business relationships.

— I understand. Are you familiar with this bottle?

The investigator showed an empty vial from the parcel received.

— Yes, we got it an hour ago.

— From whom?

— I do not know. A messenger brought it to us.

— It is written here — from Matilda Kshesinskaya. Was the bottle full when you received it?

— Yes. Was full and closed.

A policeman approached them and gave the investigator a note. He began to read it in his mind.

— Here you go. Something is clearing up, — the investigator concluded and handed the note to Robert.

"Dear Monica. After my death, I want you to get that part of the wealth that I did not have time to use. To find out about his whereabouts, please drink the contents of this vial and immediately a guess will flash in your mind. I wish you good luck, your Madame Kshesinskaya.

— In the vial, most likely there was some kind of strong hallucinogen that made the girl jump out of the window.

Robert clutched his head in horror.

With what deceit and ruthlessness Kshesinskaya destroyed those who coveted her wealth. Terrible creature! She managed to take out her jewels from the flames of the Russian revolution, but there were so many of them that in her hundred-year life, she did not have time to spend them. But she also did not allow the survivors to take advantage of it. A sort of dog in the manger is a typical manifestation of female sabotage. And stupid Monica, blindly believing in the infallibility of Matilda, immediately drank the liquid sent.

Suddenly Robert remembered that he had an unread letter in his pocket.

He immediately took it out.

“I'm sorry, Robert, but you didn't have time to save her. I knew — Monica would drink this potion. Your girlfriend had all the makings to turn over time into an insatiable greedy witch and become a source of trouble for you. This is familiar to me. Zhozya, who grew up before my eyes, as soon as she found out that the will was finalized, she immediately persuaded Marek to end me. I bequeathed my Parisian house to both of them equally. But she did not want to share with the doctor and killed him with the same injection that he dealt with me. She must have killed him during the sexual pleasures. How well I know you all. I can see right through, even from beyond. And the stupid police officers never guessed that I had ordered the brakes of Josie's Peugeot to be destroyed, in which she rushed to Nice. Do you know why? Yes, because before I died, I said where the jewels are. Yes, dear Robert, I buried them in the courtyard of my house in Nice, which is now an orphanage. In the corner of the garden, I made Nika's grave. He doesn't have a grave. Here is what I did the best I could. And under it she buried her jewels. Now Nike has a grave and whoever wants to stir it up will suffer my punishment, because, as it is said in the Bible, gold will eat his flesh».

That evening, Robert sat down ahead of time at a table by the window in the Maxim restaurant. He didn't feel hungry. Curiosity and a burning desire to get drunk brought him here. He wanted to see the guy that Monica had a date with. Why did he need it? Monica is dead, which means it's pointless to be jealous, but Robert was interested in seeing who she preferred.

The fact that she was his assistant, companion and shared shelter and bed on trips did not mean at all that he was her chosen one of the heart, his knight on a white horse. Undoubtedly, in her dreams there was someone else with whom she would be close not by the nature of her professional activity, but by the call of her heart, and it was this chosen one that