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From the kitchen, Jack heard sobbing in the next room. It was Zahra. He wanted to go to her, but Nouri was of the mind to

“let her cry it out.” A few minutes later she appeared in the entranceway to the kitchen with a tissue in her hand, her eyes

puffy.

“This has gone very wrong,” she said, sniffling. “I need—I think I should speak to Farid.”

Nouri was incredulous. “Have you lost your mind?”

“I don’t want to go to jail. Look what happened to my sister.”

“Stop,” said Nouri. “You have to stay strong.”

“What good am I to Yasmin if I’m behind bars? If I ask Farid not to prosecute me for taking Yasmin, maybe we can work this

out between us.”

“Farid is not your answer,” Nouri said. “The only way forward is to keep pressure on the US government.”

“I think talking to Farid is an excellent idea,” said Jack.

“You don’t even know Farid,” said Nouri.

“Farid came to see me after the hearing,” said Jack. “He told me it was Ava’s wish that Yasmin be raised in the West. He wants

to honor that wish.”

“Then Yasmin belongs with me,” said Zahra.

“That’s what I told him.”

“What was his response?”

Jack soft-pedaled it. “You’re not his first choice.”

Nouri scoffed. “You see, Zahra? You still want to call Farid?”

Jack looked at Zahra with as much sincerity as he could muster. “I believe he could be persuaded.”

Her sad eyes glimmered with a bit of hope. “You really think so?”

Jack could see it in her expression and hear it in her voice: Zahra welcomed any sign that Farid didn’t hate her. That alone raised more questions about her allegations against Farid, though it wasn’t at all unheard of for the abused to seek the approval of their abuser. Jack’s more immediate problem was to extricate himself and Yasmin from a bad situation, and he had to exploit any angle.

“I think Farid would be receptive to your call,” said Jack.

Nouri’s anger rose. “Zahra, he’s playing you. Farid is a distraction. The FBI is trying to stall, and so is he. Don’t bring

Farid into this.”

Jack continued to work on Zahra. “You said it yourself. This is all wrong. I’m sure Farid feels the same way. Everyone’s options

are narrowing. Let’s talk to him about keeping Yasmin in the US. Maybe we can work something out.”

“That’s never going to happen,” said Nouri.

“We’ll never know unless you talk to him,” said Jack.

Zahra seemed torn. Clearly, she didn’t want to disappoint Nouri. But for reasons Jack was only beginning to understand, she

felt some kind of connection to Farid, and her feelings tipped in the other direction.

“I want to speak to Farid,” she said.

Nouri muttered something in his native tongue.

“Please,” said Zahra. “I must talk to him.”

Nouri glared at Jack, directing none of his anger toward Zahra. “Fine,” he said. “Call Farid. But I want it on speaker so

I can hear. And don’t tell him I’m here.”

Farid’s phone number was on the initial court filing, which Jack pulled up on his cell.

“Let me initiate the call and break the ice,” said Jack. “Then you can take it from there.”

Zahra agreed. Jack dialed, and on the third ring, Farid answered.

“Farid, for Yasmin’s sake, please don’t hang up. It’s Jack Swyteck.”

There was a brief silence, which made Jack think he’d lost him at hello. Then hope.

“I’m here,” said Farid. “Is Yasmin with you?”

“Yes.”

“Let me speak to her.”

Zahra shook her head—a firm no .

“She’s asleep,” said Jack.

“Wake her up. I want to talk to my daughter.”

Jack looked at Zahra, who took a moment to respond.

“I’ll check on her,” said Zahra, and she left the room.

“Zahra is getting her,” Jack said. “It’ll be a minute.”

“Is Nouri there?” asked Farid.

Jack didn’t answer.

“I know Nouri is there,” said Farid. “The FBI told me.”

Nouri seemed to have lost interest in the wizard-behind-the-curtain charade. “Yeah, I’m here, Farid.”

“Did Nouri tell you how we met, Jack? He flew all the way to Tehran to tell me that if I filed this lawsuit against Zahra,

it would come out in the courtroom that Ava slept with him.”

Jack had to prevent the call from devolving into tit-for-tat. “Let’s not rehash the past, Farid.”

“Nouri even showed me proof that he was sleeping with Ava,” said Farid. “He showed me a pair of her shoes. He told me she

left them in his apartment.”

Nouri moved closer to the speakerphone. “Don’t push me, Farid. Or I’ll end this call, and you can forget about talking to

Yasmin.”

Farid was undeterred. “I’ll bet you didn’t show those shoes to the Iranian government, did you, Nouri?”

“Last warning,” said Nouri. “I’ll hang up.”

“I’ll bet you didn’t show them Ava’s wedding ring either, or any of the other things she was wearing on the day she was arrested

by the morality police. Because if you showed those things, you would have to explain how you really got them.”

Nouri grabbed Jack’s phone and, with the push of a button, ended the call.

There was silence in the room. But for Jack, things were beginning to come clear—and the prison video was making even more

sense.

“The plastic bag that changed hands in the video,” said Jack. “The one the guards gave you when they handed over Ava.”

“What about it?”

“It contained Ava’s belongings, didn’t it? Her street clothes. The shoes you showed to Farid to make him think she had been

to your apartment.”

Nouri was silent.

“And the wedding ring you put in the pipe you hurled through my office window.”

More silence.

“ You’re the one who wanted to keep Ava from becoming an issue in the Hague proceeding.”

“Not just me,” said Nouri.

“But you, more than anyone, wanted to shut down any public discussion of whether Ava Bazzi is alive or dead.”

“I, as much as anyone. But not more.”

“When you say ‘anyone,’ do you mean the Iranian government? Or the US government?”

“Isn’t it obvious to you, Swyteck? Both .”

“Then who are you protecting?”

Nouri didn’t answer.

Jack pressed. “Whose side are you on, Nouri?”

His eyes narrowed, but it seemed more like resolve than anger. “I’m on Zahra’s side,” he said. “And Ava’s.”

Zahra entered the room. Yasmin was half asleep in her arms, and Zahra was struggling to support the deadweight of a seven-year-old

girl.

“Yasmin doesn’t want to speak to Farid,” she said. “Do you, darling?”

Yasmin buried her face in the crook of Zahra’s neck.

“That’s fine,” said Nouri. “That ship has sailed.”

Zahra looked at Jack with a mixture of concern and disappointment in her eyes—a little too much disappointment, Jack thought.

“So, Farid is gone?”

“Yes,” said Jack. “That opportunity is lost.”

“It was never an opportunity to begin with,” said Nouri.

“Then what’s left?” asked Zahra. “You keep saying that we have to keep the pressure on, Nouri. But what chance do we have against the entire United States government?”

“They’ll give us what we want,” said Nouri. “Just as soon as that video works its way up the chain of command and lands on

the right desk.”

“You’re fooling yourself,” said Jack. “The video shows Ava was alive when she left Evin Prison. That’s what the Iranian government

has said all along, and the US government has never said otherwise. That’s not a pressure point to make them accept Zahra’s

terms of surrender.”

“That video is the tip of the iceberg,” Nouri said.

Jack studied his expression. Nouri didn’t appear to be bluffing.

“What else do you have?” Jack asked.

“Do you remember the end of the video? The car waiting in the parking lot?”

“Yes,” said Jack.

Nouri’s expression was very serious. “I know who was driving it.”