With her free hand, she grabbed her coat and a baby blanket and, as she rushed out, snatched a shawl thrown over a chair. All she wanted was to get lost, to be free of the tears and emotions of the recent days. “Don’t follow me,” she barked at the black deputy bodyguard on duty, who sent Wade a confused look. If Wade had so instructed, the man could have restrained her, but she suspected Wade was already plotting a better way. The enemy.

“Where will you go?” he asked from the door while she jabbed at the elevator button. The blinking lights above both elevators did not indicate whether her escape was near. “At least wait until Leslie returns.”

If she responded, she would scream, but that would give him an excuse to act concerned about her state of mind. “Get out of my life,” she grumbled instead, and was relieved when the first elevator arrived.

As the doors closed, she heard the ring and swish of the second elevator and saw Wade gesturing to the bodyguard to follow her.

“Lobby,” she told the operator, and leaned her burning forehead against the mirror. The cold touch offered an infinitesimal refuge, enough to clear her head. Where was she going now? Where was she going with her life? Think. The ballroom floor. Its wide double staircase, used only for banquet guests, led out to a side street. Nola reached around the operator and punched the button marked “mezzanine.”

Clumsily, using one raised knee to support Lulu, she fashioned a sling out of the shawl and tucked the baby into it. The elevator stopped. Nola hoisted the bag on her other shoulder and stepped out. Indeed, the spacious air-conditioned banquet foyer was deserted at this mid-afternoon hour, as were the hotel shops surrounding it. Their display windows, with their array of jade, cloisonné and embroidered silk, looked like an orchestra playing to an empty theater. The artifacts reminded her of Daniel’s snuff bottle. In her hurry, she had swept it into her bag along with the toiletries, but there had been no time to fish it out.

Only then did she remember the detection device the insurance company insisted on installing in all her street shoes. She looked down. Luckily, she had slipped on her rubber-soled exercise shoes.

A bored doorman manned the side exit. Probably uninformed of her escape, he held the door for her. “Taxi?”

She shook her head and marched out.