Svetochka peeked into the private room where her mother was mopping the floor.
“Mom, I’m scared to sit there alone,” she said.
Olga turned around sharply and whispered:
“Svet, you can’t be here. We had an agreement. Do you want them to fire me?”
“Mom, I’ll just stand here quietly.”
“No, go away.”
“Let her stay,” intervened a man around thirty-five who occupied the room. “Come here, Sveta, we can talk while your mom works.”
Olga sighed. It wasn’t ideal, but Sveta had entered a private room occupied by some businessman or important boss. The man had serious health issues, and Olga had heard that he was scheduled for surgery soon.
“Are you sure she won’t bother you?” she asked.
“Of course, not. Do you know how it feels to lie here alone? I feel like howling. It would be better to be in a regular room with people around.”
Olga smiled and continued cleaning. It turned out that even among the wealthy, there were decent people. Though she had every reason to think otherwise.
One such rich man had taken everything from her, including her husband.
Once, everything was fine. Soon after Olga left the orphanage, she met Ivan. He was also an orphan, and they had a lot in common. They were friends, and then they got married. They had many plans for life. Ivan transported goods by truck, and Olga went to school and worked part-time. Then Sveta was born, and she had to take academic leave.
When the daughter was born, it all happened. Ivan was sent on a trip right after his shift. Olga was very worried; her husband was tired, but he had to go. The truck lost control and veered into a ditch. Ivan was almost unharmed, but they pinned a huge debt on him for the cargo.
They had nothing to pay with. When Ivan decided to go to the police, he was supposedly attacked by hooligans, and just like that… Olga no longer had a husband.
The hooligans were never found, and Olga sold everything she could. She only begged for one thing—to leave Sveta alone. She gave away all the money, moved to another city, rented a room, and has been living here for several years, working as a janitor. Additionally, she cleaned stairwells and worked for two elderly ladies from their home, who sometimes looked after Sveta.
One of the grandmothers caught a cold and told her not to bring the child for a few days to avoid infection. Sveta was at the daycare during the day, but in the evenings, there was nowhere to take her.
Olga finished cleaning and looked at her daughter.
“Well, Svet, let’s go, I’m done.”
The man looked at her:
“Let her sit a little longer.”
Sveta turned to her mother:
“Just a little bit, please.”
Olga hesitated. On the one hand, it was against all rules, but on the other, Sveta found it interesting with this patient. And it seemed she wasn’t bothering him, maybe even helping.
“Well, I don’t know. Alright, I’ll check in on you. Svet, if anything, go straight to the utility room, please don’t tire the uncle.”
Olga had no relatives. Well, she probably did, but she knew no one and didn’t even want to look because who would want someone like her in their family?
All she knew about her past fit on one photograph: a woman holding a very tiny girl, a man on one side, a boy about ten on the other. Olga knew the little girl was her. She also knew her entire family died in a fire. The caregivers told her that some woman brought the photo to the orphanage almost immediately after the fire.
Who was that woman? Why did she come? No one knew or remembered anymore…
She picked up Sveta after cleaning. The man smiled:
“Come visit me again.”
“I will, Uncle Valera. Well, if mom allows it.”
Olga smiled:
“Oh, she probably bored you.”
“What? Of course not. You bring her. I’m genuinely interested, and it’s not so dull. She’s smart, perceptive.”
Sveta asked hopefully:
“Will we go to the hospital together again?”
“Well, I don’t know, I’ll ask how Grandma Katya is today.”
Grandma didn’t get better. Even worse. Olga called an ambulance, they took her to the hospital, and the doctor said it wouldn’t be serious if not for her age. So she should stay under medical supervision.
Olga understood that she would have to take her daughter to work again and again. Well, it’s not forever.
That evening, Sveta was with Uncle Valera again. Olga half-listened to their conversation.
“Did you already order a gift from Santa Claus?”
“No, mom says it’s not nice to ask. Santa Claus will see how I behaved and will bring the gift I deserve.”
“Really. Well, what would you actually like to get for New Year? But tell me secretly, I won’t tell anyone. Cross my heart.”
“I would like a phone. That way you can call everyone, take pictures, play. But mom says I’m still too young. When I grow a bit, then we can think about a phone. Almost everyone in my group has phones. It’s interesting. I won’t be on it all the time, all the time is harmful. Just sometimes.”
The patient smiled:
“I agree with your mom, phones at your age are a bit early. But kids these days are so clever.”
The next day, when there was nowhere else to go, the daughter went to Uncle Valera but came back almost immediately:
“Mom, let’s hurry, Uncle Valera is not feeling well.”
Olga rushed to the room. The patient indeed felt bad, so much so that he didn’t see them. Olga burst out of the room, rushed to the nurse’s station:
“Quick, the patient from the private room is feeling bad.”
Chaos ensued. Sveta peeked out from under the table and watched everything fearfully. The patient was taken to surgery. Olga heard the nurse defending herself:
“I just went in there fifteen minutes ago, everything was fine. It’s incredible how quickly it happened.”
“Good thing he made friends with the little girl,” replied the doctor. “No rounds at this time, the nurse checks hourly. By the time someone reached him, he might have been dead.”
Olga was so distressed herself!
The next time her shift was due in three days, Sveta had to come with her again. When the girl was taking off her coat, the head nurse peeked in:
“Hello, Svetochka. Your friend from room seven asked for you specifically.”
The girl perked up:
“Mom, can I?”
Olga asked the head nurse:
“How is he? Will Sveta not disturb him?”
“He’s better now. You can go. But not for long, of course, he gets tired quickly.”
Olga decided to start with Uncle Valera’s room. They entered, greeted him, and the man smiled:
“Well, finally, I’ve been waiting. How are you, Svet? Turns out, you saved my life.”
Sveta was embarrassed:
“It wasn’t me, it was the doctors. I just called my mom.”
“Well, then everyone did well. Come here.”
Uncle Valera reached under the pillow, pulled out his expensive phone, took out the SIM card, and handed it to Sveta:
“Here, keep this. Let it be your gift from Santa Claus.”
Olga said:
“You what, this is a very expensive gift.”
“Not more expensive than life. Take it, buddy, it won’t be boring waiting for your mom in the utility room, as I’m not much of a conversationalist for now.”
He closed his eyes, and Sveta looked questioningly at her mom.
“Let’s go, I’ll set it up for you in the utility room.”
They quietly left the room. Olga inserted her SIM card into the phone so Sveta could watch cartoons, and was about to leave when her daughter called:
“Mom, look!”
Olga returned to her. The girl opened the phone’s gallery and showed a photo of the old picture. Parents with baby Olga in their arms, and her older brother next to them… Her relatives who died in the fire.
Olga gasped:
“Where did he get this? This is my photo!”
She was utterly bewildered. One could suppose that somewhere in the world there is another such photo with someone else, but then it turned out that Valeriy was her relative!
Sveta enlarged the image and suddenly asked:
“Is that Uncle Valera as a boy?”
Olga looked at the photo. Lord, the boy really did look like him!
She slumped into a chair, exhausted. What now?
She wandered around dazed for two days. On the third, when she came to clean Valery’s room, he was already sitting on the bed.
“Ol, did Sveta come with you?”
“No, the neighbor got better, so Svetochka is staying with her.”
“Pity… but, probably, it’s hard for the child here, she gets tired. Are you alright? You seem upset.”
Olga sighed and suddenly decided. She wasn’t going to impose, just ask:
“Tell me… Sveta showed me an old snapshot that you have in your phone.”
“Ah, forgot to delete. Can you manage to clean it all up? Delete everything into the trash.”
“Of course. But that’s not the point. Here… this is all I know about my family.” Olga handed the patient the same photograph and showed him the little girl in the woman’s arms. “This is me.”
“And this is me.” He pointed to the boy. “I was told that my sister died with my parents!”
“And I was told my brother died with my parents.”
Valera wiped sweat from his forehead.
“So, I need to make a call… Olga, it turns out, you’re my sister, but this can’t be! They couldn’t have lied to me my whole life! Alright, you go, I’ll find you.”
Olga rushed out of the room. She didn’t know whom Valeriy intended to call, and she didn’t want to know now. She regretted even mentioning it.
An hour later, a whole delegation entered the room: an elderly woman and man, a young woman, and the hospital director.
The head nurse peeked into the utility room:
“Olka, come, something happened. I don’t know what, but our patient even called the chief and they’re asking for you.”
Olga’s hands trembled. She stood up:
“Alright, let’s go.”
In the room, they were waiting for her. The elderly woman looked at her and immediately started crying. Valera was gloomy. The girl sat next to him, holding his hand. The chief doctor sat Olga down on a chair and left.
The elderly man spoke:
“Forgive us, girl. Forgive us if you can. We are your uncle and aunt. Your father was Natasha’s, my wife’s, brother. When they died, the question arose about what to do with you. We couldn’t leave Valerka in the orphanage because he understood everything, he knew us, and we loved him. And we couldn’t take both of you because we just couldn’t afford it. We saw you once, realized you wouldn’t have any memories of the family, and children are adopted more often. So we told Valer that everyone died, especially since he was in the hospital and didn’t make it to the funeral. Then we moved to this city so no one would slip up. Natasha did go to the orphanage to see you, she left the photo so there could be some connection.
“There’s nothing for me to forgive you for,” said Olga. “You didn’t have to take me, or Valery either. Thank you for taking him… I’m very glad I’m not completely alone in this world.”
Olga felt her heart filling with warmth.
Events unfolded with incredible speed. Newly found grandparents and Valeriy’s fiancée came to visit them that same evening. Sveta was thrilled with the gifts they brought. They talked for a long time, discussing everything that happened.
When Rita, Valeriy’s fiancée, heard the story of Olga’s husband, she exclaimed:
“What is this! Olga, write me the names of all those involved in that case. I’ll find out everything.”
Valeriy’s mother nodded:
“Ritochka is a crime journalist, everyone’s afraid of her.”
Thanks to her efforts, the murderers of Olga’s husband were quickly found and jailed. As Olga suspected, they were hitmen of the same businessman her husband worked for.
At her brother’s wedding, she met his friend Volodya, who fell in love with her at first sight and didn’t leave her side throughout the wedding, saying that if he turned away, someone would surely snatch her away.
Olga was able to continue her education with the help of her affluent brother, and now a new, happy life awaited her. Not just hers, but everyone who was now by her side.