Natalya, don’t go to him! He will deceive you!” Svetlana exclaimed in a voice trembling with anxiety, standing like a wall in front of the door. Her fingers gripped the wooden doorframe convulsively, as if it were the last support between a terrible past and an uncertain future. In the mother’s eyes shimmered a plea, almost despair. She knew — if she fell silent, her daughter would go to where pain awaited her.
“Mom, what are you talking about?! Didn’t you see the daisies on the windowsill this morning? Who else would bring them every day?! He loves me!” Natalya replied, standing on one foot, struggling to fasten the stubborn buckle of her sandals. Thin, fair-haired, dressed in a white festive dress her mother had finished sewing for her just last night, she seemed the embodiment of innocence and youthful hope. Stars sparkled in her eyes, and her heart, overflowing with feelings, heard no warnings.
“How does he ‘love’ you! Did he love Marinka too?! And where is that Marinka now?! She’s babysitting a child at her aunt’s in the village, while her man is already looking for a new wife on the side!” Svetlana spoke sharply, but not cruelly — rather with the pain and bitterness of lived years. She understood: her daughter would not listen. Not because she was foolish or headstrong. Simply because she was in love. Just like Svetlana once had been — recklessly, madly, without thinking of consequences.
She remembered that whirlwind that swept her youth away, how nothing else mattered: neither her parents’ opinions, nor friends’ advice, nor even the concept of the future. Only one person existed in the world — and that was enough. But then the noise of joy was replaced by the silence of disappointment, and smiles by tears. Svetlana knew what awaited her daughter — sleepless nights, sighs, fluttering dreams, brief moments of happiness… and then — pain. The pain of betrayal. The pain of losing faith. And if Svetlana had somehow managed to cope, how terrifying it was to imagine what Natalya would endure. Because her soul was purer, gentler than her mother’s. There was not even a shadow of cynicism in this girl. She didn’t know pain, didn’t understand betrayal. She shone like a clear little star, lighting those around her.
“Natalya, darling, wait… You don’t need this!” Sveta, feeling the helplessness of her words, grabbed the keys from the lock to stop her daughter. “I won’t let you go!”
“Mom!” Natalya’s voice broke, tears filling her eyes. It hurt. It was unfair! Unthinkable! Mom had never treated her this way before. Why was everything different now? Didn’t she want her daughter to be happy?
“Let me go…” Natalya stepped closer, catching her mother’s anxious, pained gaze. “I will leave anyway. Mom, don’t you understand?! I love him…”
The girl gently took her mother’s hand, kissed the knuckles pale from tension, and the keys fell onto Svetlana’s palm.
“Thank you…”
The door slammed. Cold silence hung in the room for a moment. Then Svetlana screamed — not with words, but with her whole soul. Her pain burst out like the howl of a she-wolf who had lost her pup. She didn’t just scream — she poured all her sorrow, fear, and despair into that cry. Would history repeat itself? Would Natalya go through the same torment she herself had?
Svetlana had met Petr many years ago at a school dance. Her friends had dragged her there, tired of seeing her as a model homebody.
“Don’t you want freedom?! Why are you always sitting at home?! School — home, home — school. Life passes you by, Sveta! Don’t you get it?!”
But Sveta truly understood nothing. She knew only one thing — her help was needed at home. Her mother was ill, her father often away on business trips, trying to earn a living for all of them. On Sveta rested a younger sister, studies, and household chores. Where was the time to go out? And why? She dreamed of a great, true love. Like in the books. So that her heart would skip a beat, her soul would sing, so they would live happily ever after like grandma and grandpa, like her parents.
Svetlana looked at them with reverence. How much warmth in every glance, how much care in every gesture! Even after many years of marriage, they still loved each other as on their wedding day.
“Mommy, why do you love Dad so much?” she once asked, pressing herself to her mother’s shoulder.
“How can I not love him, darling? He would bring me the moon from the sky and turn the world upside down. Just ask. He’s always been like that. Sometimes he’d rush to school, throw his backpack on the desk, and there’d be two buns — his mom fed him breakfast. He’d give one to me and break the other in half.”
“Why?”
“I’ve always been a glutton!” her mother laughed. “Loved to eat. Luckily, not like Grandma said — ‘horse feed.’ Though I know — even then he would love me.”
“Why?”
“Because, like me, he doesn’t care about appearances. The main thing is your own person.”
“What does that mean?”
“Simply, darling. If you feel you can wake up next to him every morning, see him every day, bear his children — that is love. But that’s only half the story.”
“Why?”
“Because he has to find you too. Not everyone is as lucky as your father and me. Often one loves, the other endures. Sometimes they live without love at all.”
“Is that even possible?!”
“Yes, darling. It happens…”
Back then Svetlana did not understand these words. Only years later did she learn that her grandmother was married off by force. Ordered, and she agreed. She lived her life with her husband side by side but never heard words of love from him. She herself did not know what it meant to love truly.
“She was waiting for love, Svetočka. But never got it. And though she said in her last days she did not regret life, I know — it wasn’t so at all. Because before dying she whispered to me: it’s better if granddaughters remain single than live as she did. And then I decided — I would seek my happiness until I found it!”
“So why search, Mom? Dad was always there!”
“Ah, daughter… We often don’t see what’s right under our noses. Everything seems better somewhere over the mountains, elsewhere. People are kinder, grass greener. That’s how our nature works.”
“So how did you and Dad get married?”
“This way. He quietly watched as I rejected suitors. Even laughed. Then he came to my father and said: the house is ready, matchmakers to come on Red Hill Sunday, and if I don’t marry her, I’ll be a bachelor for life. Father knew my character and sent him to me. And I couldn’t refuse him.”
“Why? Did you realize you loved him?”
“No!” her mother laughed again. “I remembered the buns. And realized no one else would share with me like that. Isn’t that love?”
And when Sveta saw the way Petr looked at her, she decided — it was fate. If he was afraid even to breathe on her, wasn’t that love?
Oh, how wrong she was! Petr really was afraid — but only for the first couple of months. Then fear was replaced by habit, and habit by false confidence that Svetlana would always be there, an invisible support for his days. He came in the evenings to the old wooden fence behind which she lived, greeted her parents with such courtesy as if they were important guests, and always asked the same thing:
“May I take Sveta to the dance?”
How could one say no to that? Smiling, attentive, almost shy? How not to believe in the sincerity of his feelings if he looked into her eyes as if they held everything — the meaning of life, light, and warmth?
And Sveta did not intend to refuse. She flew out of the house like a bird spreading wings after a long captivity. Everything inside fluttered, her head spun from Petr’s gentle whispers, from his promises spoken as if he truly believed them himself. She felt fate had finally smiled on her, chosen her among many others. And what was her merit? Simply being herself?
Her girlfriends whispered behind her back, either envying or rejoicing for her. But Sveta no longer listened. Nothing existed around except those evenings with music, his hands carefully leading her in dance, his voice sounding just for her.
But one day, like thunder on a clear day, came words that froze her heart:
“I’m leaving, Sveta. A friend invited me to the places I’ve long wanted to visit.”
“Wait, Petya… What about me?” Svetlana stood before him, stunned, not understanding how one could so suddenly destroy a whole world.
“And what about you? Was it good for us together?”
“Yes…”
“Good then! It was, Sveta! It all was. And now it’s gone!”
Sveta watched him leave while her legs still held her up. She wanted to scream, cry, run after him, but there were no tears. Not a single drop. Only emptiness. And cold inside. Why? For what? What did she do wrong?
And only one thought kept her afloat — the warmth inside, growing day by day. A child. A small living being who already needed her. A baby whose heartbeat matched her own. And then she made a decision: there would be no father, no love, but this child would grow up loved, cared for, and understood. No one would hurt her child as she once was hurt.
And so, a few months later, little Natalya was born. Big, loud, cheerful. With bright blue eyes, curly pale hair, cheeks like two ripe apples. And nothing like her father. Everything in her came from her grandmother — the look, the smile, even the character. Just as kind, open, and bright.
But the mother’s joy was short-lived. Grandmother passed away quietly in her sleep when the baby was only six months old. Svetlana stood by the coffin, holding little Natalya who still did not understand why everyone around was so sad.
“We’ll cry later, daughter! You can’t now! You’ll lose your milk!” Svetlana’s father whispered through tears, rocking his granddaughter. “We must hold on…”
“We must, Papa… But how?” Svetlana whispered, shrinking from the pain. But there was no time to cry. In her arms was her daughter who needed attention, a younger sister crying inconsolably who had to be calmed. Life left no time for grief — she had to live. For their sake.
And Svetlana lived. She replaced her mother for her sister, raised her daughter, taught her to be kind, honest, and caring. She never married. Her father often urged her, but she just shook her head:
“I don’t want to, Papa… Love passed me by. And without it — you know, it’s not life…”
Natalya grew up a gentle and kind child. She often hugged her mother, asking “just because,” without reason. Did someone bring an animal home? Plenty! Cats, dogs, hamsters — all lived under Svetlana’s roof.
“Mommy, let me hug you!” “Oh, fox! What have you done?” — “Nothing!” — “Don’t lie to Mom!” — “There’s a kitten… very small…” — “Natalya, that’s already the fifth tail in the house! No mice to feed them all!” — “Mom, you can’t abandon him! He’s alive!”
Svetlana only sighed and stroked her daughter’s head. Where there are five, there will be six. How else to teach kindness if not by example?
Sveta married off her sister, helped her start a new life, saved money for her daughter’s education. They believed Natalya would be the first in the family to get a higher education. But fate decided otherwise.
One day a neighbor, Nadezhda, came to Svetlana. They had barely talked before — mostly about everyday things. But that day the woman brought news that made Svetlana’s eyes darken.
“Hello, Svetlana. We need to talk. Only you can protect your daughter…”
Nadezhda was also a mother. And she loved her daughter Marinka with all her heart.
“My Marinka gave birth. I have a grandson now… But it turns out I have no daughter…”
“What are you saying, Nadya?! Surely not…”
“No. Marinka is alive. The birth went well. But… What am I to do with her now? I begged her! I pleaded not to be with that Sashka! I knew, I felt he would deceive her! But she wouldn’t listen…”
Without a word, Svetlana sat down next to her and held her tightly.
“Don’t say that, Nadyusha! Don’t reject your child! Will you turn away just because some scoundrel deceived her?”
“What am I to do, Sveta? How to tame my mother’s pride? If she’d listened — she wouldn’t have had to go to her aunt! Now you can’t even go out in the village — they’ll laugh!”
“They’ll lie and calm down! But don’t you know how it is?”
“No life, no future now…”
“Oh, come to your senses! What future do you need? You have a grandson! A healthy boy! That’s happiness! And you see nothing. You’re ready to chase your daughter away because of your hurt and lose your future. What’s done is done, Nadya! But with what you have — you live! Alone or with family — your choice. But I know your heart won’t reject your child. And you won’t reproach Marinka. Were we young once?”
“Your words are good, Sveta… Oh, how good! But what will happen if you yourself have to walk those same coals?”
Svetlana did not answer. She knew Nadezhda was right. Because Sashka — the very one who deceived Marinka — was now courting her Natalya.
When Natalya came home that evening, she was radiant:
“Mommy, I’m so happy!”
“Natalya, daughter, I need to talk to you!”
“Later, Mommy! Later! I have an exam tomorrow! I have to study! I’ve really neglected my studies. I’ll pass — and then we’ll talk! Definitely!”
Svetlana wanted to object, but her daughter had already disappeared, running to a friend’s.
Days flew like sand through fingers. Exams passed, results known. Natalya returned home with a medal in her hand, happier than ever.
“This is for you, Mommy!”
“Daughter, it’s time to get ready…”
“For what?”
“To apply! You wanted to be a doctor!”
“I changed my mind, Mom! I’m getting married! To Sashka…”
“Has he already proposed?”
“Yes… No… Oh, Mom, what difference does it make! It’s all clear anyway!”
“No, Natalya! Nothing is clear! If he loved you, he would have come to us properly a long time ago, asked for your hand from me and Grandpa.”
“It will happen, Mom! Give it time!”
Svetlana wanted to shout that time doesn’t wait, every minute is precious. But she was silent. Decided to wait.
“We’ll talk at home,” she said, “calmly.”
But there was no conversation at home. Natalya refused to listen.
“I love him, Mommy! I love him… Don’t you understand me?!”
“I understand everything! I was young once! That’s why I know what awaits you if you don’t think now. If this is true love, it will endure everything. Does Sashka love you? Let him prove it. Let him go to the city with you, help, support. Then you’ll get married.”
“He doesn’t want to, Mom… He says we’ll live well here. There’s a house, a job will be found. When the baby comes — we’ll marry…”
“No, daughter! Who puts the horse behind the cart?! I raised you so no one would use you!”
Scandal, tears, pain… Day after day.
Hands dropped. Maybe let the daughter go through her mistakes? Let her get hurt and then come running home, seeking her mother’s protection? Or lock her up, take her away, hide her from the world so she can’t break free and do stupid things she’ll regret all her life?
But no answer. Only a mother torn with doubts.
And fate, as always, watches. Wipes a tear from Svetlana’s cheek, admires the smile of sleeping Natalya, then reaches for the bouquet of daisies on the windowsill.
“Loves — doesn’t love, spits — kisses, holds to the heart — sends to hell… Loves — doesn’t love…”
Natalya wakes up hearing another bouquet being placed on the windowsill. She looks out the window and freezes. The one who brought the flowers was not Sashka. It was Grisha Smolyakov — their neighbor, quiet, modest, always staying in the background.
Everything fell into place.
“Mom, we need to get ready!” Natalya ran barefoot into the kitchen.
“Where, darling?”
“To the city. To study!”
“Thank God! You came to your senses!” Svetlana couldn’t hold back tears.
“Love doesn’t start with deceit, right, Mom? You told me that yourself!”
“Right… So who deceived you, dear?”
“Sashka. He lied to me from the start. And I believed…”
Svetlana hugged her daughter like in childhood, rocking and comforting her.
“How did you realize he lied?”
“He said the daisies were his doing. That every morning he went to the fields to make me happy… But it turned out Grisha was the one bringing them.”
“Grisha?” Svetlana was surprised.
“Yes. I saw him in the morning. Asked him straight — if the daisies were his. And he didn’t hide it…”
The mother said nothing. She just kissed her daughter and took out an old suitcase — the very one holding memories of their first years.
A few years later she gave her daughter away in marriage. To Grisha. To the one who left everything and moved after Natalya to the city to be close, to support, to help.
At the wedding, when Svetlana asked her son-in-law:
“Grisha, son, where do you think you’ll live? In the city? There are more opportunities there?”
He smiled and replied:
“We’ll go home, Mom-Svet. There are no daisies in the city like the ones my Natalya loves…”