“Liz! Do you know where the money is?” her mother stood in the doorway, frightened and confused. She could not understand where the savings had gone, because she was the only one who knew the code to the safe.
“What money?” Lisa reluctantly looked up from her laptop, where she had been browsing profiles on a dating site.
“The money we were saving for Grandma’s rehabilitation after the surgery… It’s gone from the safe!”
“Maybe you moved it somewhere?”
“I didn’t move anything! Answer me! Did you take it?”
Lisa had always dreamed of marrying a rich man. That idea had settled in her mind back in her teenage years, when she used to flip through glossy magazines filled with photos of celebrities on yachts and in luxurious mansions. She imagined herself in a silk dress on the deck of a snow-white yacht, holding a glass of champagne, with a loving and generous man by her side.
Perhaps that was why Lisa never tried hard at school and never dreamed of a successful career.
“Why should I waste my youth on some boring job when I can live beautifully?”
“Because life isn’t a fairy tale! Rich men don’t fall from the sky like a gift from heaven!” her mother and grandmother would argue, trying to talk some sense into her.
“They exist, and I’ll find one! And stop teaching me how to live! Look at yourselves first!” Lisa always snapped back.
When Lisa turned sixteen, she studied dating sites instead of textbooks. She searched for a wealthy admirer everywhere: through friends, in communities for successful people, online, at modern art exhibitions — anywhere she believed rich men might appear. Every day, she spent hours choosing photos for her profile, writing perfect messages, and planning her dating strategy.
But for some reason, truly wealthy men never appeared on her horizon.
Among her admirers were ordinary guys, whom Lisa did not take seriously at all and brushed off like annoying flies. The most persistent one was Dima. He courted Lisa more stubbornly than anyone else and seemed to mistake her rejections for flirtation. He came from a simple family and worked as a manager at a car company. Lisa accepted his attention mostly out of boredom: a café, a walk in the park. She laughed at him, yet sometimes she even liked the way he admired her, complimented her, and looked at her with loving eyes. But in her dreams, she saw a completely different man beside her.
“You look more beautiful today than ever,” Dima would say, handing her a rose.
“Thanks,” Lisa would reply carelessly, taking the flower. She imagined herself receiving baskets full of roses — the kind she believed she deserved. But for now, they existed only in her fantasies.
“Maybe we could go to the cinema this weekend?” Dima asked shyly.
“The cinema?” Lisa grimaced. “No, thanks. I’d rather find something more interesting.”
“But… I thought you wanted to see that movie…”
“Sorry, I have other plans. If you want, you can buy me coffee and dessert.”
“Sure, let’s go!” Dima would agree, and he would take her to the café she chose herself.
Usually, after such outings, Lisa would say she did not like the coffee and then post sad messages on social media about how real men had disappeared — men who knew how to treat a girl to good coffee. It was after one of those posts that Leonid wrote to her.
In his profile photo, he looked like a real millionaire: expensive watch on his wrist, perfectly polished shoes, an impeccable suit. Judging by his messages, Lisa concluded that he knew how to court a woman beautifully — compliments poured from him like a river. And after their first meeting at a nice restaurant, Lisa’s dream of receiving baskets of roses came true. From then on, flowers appeared at her door every day.
“Well, Mom! And you said generous men didn’t exist!” Lisa boasted proudly.
“They exist, sure. Just not for people like us,” her mother said, shaking her head and trying to warn her. But Lisa did not care.
“That’s what you think. I’ve finally got my lucky ticket.”
“It’s long past time you found a job instead of sitting around waiting for a miracle!”
“I do work! I’m a stylist, by the way!” Lisa shouted. She could not understand why her family refused to treat her activity as real work.
“Your ‘projects’ don’t bring in anything! You said yourself that you work for free.”
“I’m building my name! And anyway, with Lenya, I won’t have to think about money. I’ll do what I love for pleasure! And if I want, I won’t work at all!”
Her mother clutched her head. She could not understand how someone like Lisa had appeared in their family.
After only two weeks of dating, Leonid made a grand gesture and invited Lisa to the Maldives.
“I’m going on vacation,” he said. “And I want you to come with me, Lisa. You deserve the very best. Just imagine it: white sand, turquoise sea, a personal waiter bringing you cocktails…”
“Of course! I’ll go!” Lisa’s heart began to race. Finally! Her dreams were coming true. She immediately called all her friends.
“My man is taking me to the Maldives! A real man!”
“No way! Things like that don’t happen!” her friends sighed with envy.
“He already bought the tickets. I saw them!” Lisa insisted.
“Well then, have a wonderful trip…”
But her mother and grandmother were completely against it. When Lisa announced that she was flying to the Maldives with her new boyfriend, a scandal broke out.
“With a man you barely know? To the Maldives? That’s dangerous!” her mother cried. “Maybe you should introduce him to us first?”
“Why? So he can be horrified by the apartment I live in? Or find out that my father is just an ordinary plumber?”
“We have a normal apartment, and we are normal people! Educated people!” her mother was once again stunned by her daughter’s words. “And you should really start using your head before rushing blindly into something!”
“This won’t end well!” her grandmother agreed.
“You’re just jealous!” Lisa exploded, looking at her mother. “You’d love to be in my place too, but instead you married Dad, the plumber!”
“How can you say that? Your father and I worked our whole lives so you could have everything… So you could get an education, so you could choose any profession you wanted…”
“And I have chosen! I chose a life of luxury! So don’t stand in my way!”
“Luxury is just words!” her mother raised her voice. “You live in a fantasy world!”
“No, you live in a world of limitations!” Lisa shouted. “And I want more!”
A heavy silence hung between them. Her mother took a step forward, as if she wanted to shake her daughter and bring her back to reality.
“I’m going, and that’s final! You won’t stop me! Later you’ll be thanking me when your rich son-in-law takes you on vacation too! Though I’ll still have to think about whether you even deserve it!” Lisa snapped, making her mother even more furious. But because her grandmother was preparing for surgery and the atmosphere at home was already tense, the woman decided not to make the argument worse.
“Fine. It’s your life. Do as you wish.”
Lisa smirked and returned to texting Leonid. She had not answered Dima’s messages for several days, considering him unworthy of her attention.
A week before the trip, Lisa took a long walk with Leonid through the night city. She was on cloud nine. They talked about their upcoming vacation, and in her mind, Lisa was already lying on a white sandy beach.
She did not want to go home at all.
“Maybe I could stay at your place?” she suggested.
“Not yet. There’s a leaking pipe at my apartment. But don’t worry, I’ve already called a plumber. They’ll fix it.”
Leonid drove her home, but just before they said goodbye, he received a message.
“What is it?” Lisa asked when she saw his face darken.
“The payment for the bungalow rental didn’t go through.”
“Why not?”
“My card got blocked! Damn it!” Leonid swore. “With all these new banking rules, this is already the second time they’ve blocked my account!”
“So where are we going to stay?”
“We’ll figure it out later. Of course, there’s a risk… But I can’t pay right now.”
Lisa became genuinely frightened.
“Either that, or if I can’t solve it, we’ll have to postpone the trip.”
“What? I’ve already told everyone! How can we not go? They’ll laugh at me!” Lisa began to panic.
They discussed the situation for a while longer, and then Lisa ran home. A few days later, Lisa’s mother discovered that the money had disappeared from the safe.
“Lisa! Where is the money? The money we were saving for Grandma’s rehabilitation… The safe is empty!” her mother said after finding the savings gone.
“I don’t know anything!” Lisa muttered.
“And yet! Only people in this house know the code!”
“Then ask Dad!”
“Your father would never take that money! He was the one putting it there from his side jobs!”
“Then Grandma took it.”
“She’s in the hospital! Tomorrow we have to pay for the rehabilitation center!”
“Then call her. Why are you asking me?” Lisa tried with all her strength to sound calm. But her ears were turning red, giving away her anxiety.
Her mother, however, knew her daughter too well.
“Elizaveta… Tell me honestly where you put the money and why you didn’t ask me. Just don’t tell me this has something to do with that scoundrel Leonid!” Her mother came closer and took Lisa by the chin, staring into her eyes. Lisa forcefully pushed her mother’s hand away and jumped up from the sofa.
“I’ve had enough! You’re always lecturing me! I won’t put up with it anymore. I’m leaving. If you don’t understand me and only judge me, then I don’t belong here!”
She began frantically packing her things, throwing clothes into a suitcase.
“Lisa, stop!” her mother grabbed her by the arm. “Think about what you’re doing! Where will you go?”
“I’ve thought everything through!” Lisa pulled her arm away. “You have your life, and I have mine!”
She closed the suitcase and walked out of the apartment, leaving her mother in tears.
As luck would have it, Dima was standing near the entrance. Since Lisa had not been answering his calls, he had decided to catch her in person.
“Hi. These are for you,” Dima smiled, holding out three roses.
Lisa grabbed the flowers and threw them straight into his face.
“I’ve found a real man, and we’re flying to the Maldives. Don’t call me again and don’t come here anymore! Stop embarrassing me!”
After walking away from Dima, Lisa started calling Leonid. He lived in a prestigious district, one he had mentioned many times and had even shown her photos of his apartment. But he had never invited Lisa to his home, always blaming plumbing problems after renovations.
Only now did Lisa realize that she did not know his exact address.
Leonid rejected her call. Lisa sent him a voice message. Five minutes later, she saw that the message had been listened to, but no reply came.
“He’s probably busy. I just need to wait,” she decided. Lisa tried calling him a million more times, but his phone was unavailable.
She thought something must have happened to him. Maybe he had lost his phone. Maybe he had no signal. She was ready to believe anything except the truth — that he was just a scammer. Lisa did not even notice when it started raining. She kept staring at her phone screen as if hypnotized. Nor did she notice Dima sitting down beside her and opening an umbrella over her head.
“Lisa, let’s get under a roof,” he suggested when she burst into tears. “It’s cold out here. Come on. I’ll buy you coffee. Your favorite.”
Lisa looked at Dima and only then realized that he had been nearby all this time. He had seen everything.
Mechanically, she stood up and followed him.
“So? Tell me. What happened?” he asked. “Just tell me as a friend.”
Lisa began crying even harder, but when her sobs finally quieted, she told Dima what had happened the day before.
“Lenya said his account was blocked and that we might have to cancel the trip!” she sniffled.
“And?”
“I said we had to come up with something. The tickets had already been bought, and we only needed to pay the remaining part for the hotel. But all the money was in his account, and he said he couldn’t deal with it until Monday morning, while the reservation would expire if we didn’t pay!”
“Okay… And then?”
“He said we needed to find cash somewhere. But I knew it was dangerous to give money to someone directly. I’m not stupid!”
“Where did you get the money?” Dima asked tensely.
“I took it from the safe. Leonid said he would return everything on Monday! I thought no one would notice! I only borrowed it! I took it and put it on my card so I could pay for the hotel booking. I knew how it worked. I knew it wasn’t a scam!”
“Did you pay for the hotel through a travel agency website?” Dima asked.
“I paid through a link. Lenya said it was an invoice from the hotel!”
“That was a phishing link. It was a scam,” Dima said, shaking his head.
“No! It can’t be! Lenya wouldn’t do that! He’s not like that!” Lisa protested.
“Yes, of course. He’s not like that,” Dima said bitterly. He understood there was no point arguing with her. “Come on. I’ll walk you home. Tell your mother the truth.”
“She’ll kill me! That money was for Grandma.”
“Let’s go together. I can lend your family the money. But only on the condition that you pay everything back.”
Lisa spent the next few days in despair. She returned home with her head lowered, unable to look her mother in the eye. She locked herself in her room, curled up on the bed, and cried. Dima spoke to Lisa’s mother himself. Lisa did not even have the courage to admit to her “theft.”
On the third day, her mother knocked on the door.
“Lisa, we need to talk.”
Lisa opened the door. Her mother looked exhausted, but she did not shout.
“Dima helped us. You should thank him. Grandma has been transferred to the rehabilitation center. I hope you’ve learned something from all this.”
“Mom… I’ll work and pay it back, I promise. Forgive me,” Lisa said, her voice trembling. She finally understood everything. She realized how foolish she had been and how badly she had let her family down because of her pride.
Lisa truly kept her promise. She got a job — not as a stylist, but as an ordinary sales assistant in a clothing boutique. The first days were difficult: she had to wake up early, stand on her feet for eight hours, and deal with difficult customers. But with each paycheck, she felt she was slowly earning back her mother’s trust. She gave the money to her parents, and they used it to repay the debt.
Gradually, her relationship with her family improved. Her grandmother also began to recover.
Lisa filed a report against Leonid with the police. But there was little chance that he would be found. Lisa had transferred the money herself, and there was not much anyone could do. She barely communicated with Dima anymore. She was ashamed of how she had behaved during their last meeting. Besides, Dima himself had pulled away from her and dealt only with Lisa’s parents regarding the money.
One day, Lisa met Dima on the street. He was walking somewhere in a beautiful suit and looked very impressive.
“Hi. How are you?” she asked shyly.
“I’m good. How are you?” he replied with a reserved smile.
“I’m working, living… I think about you sometimes. You know, I understood something important: real men aren’t the ones who promise mountains of gold. Real men are the ones who stay beside you, even when you make mistakes,” Lisa said, looking at Dima with hope, expecting him to invite her somewhere.
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said rather dryly.
“Maybe we could have coffee sometime?” she suggested.
“I’m sorry, Lisa. I’ve found someone. I love her. And you’ll meet your own destiny too,” Dima said. Then he wished Lisa luck and walked away.
Lisa remained standing there, watching him go.
Only now did she understand how close happiness had once been.
But it had not been meant for her.