While parking near his favorite café at lunchtime, Anton couldn’t have imagined how it would all end. Suddenly, he saw two lovers standing across the street. They hugged, then sweetly chatted, gazing into each other’s eyes as if they hadn’t met in a hundred years.
“Vera?” Anton muttered in shock and automatically dialed his wife’s number while watching her. He expected Vera to glance at her phone and pick up. But when she pulled it out, she muted the call and continued talking to the dark-haired man who had just handed her a luxurious bouquet of red roses.
“Vera!” Anton could no longer bear watching his wife’s betrayal. Snapping a few photos of the lovebirds, the enraged husband jumped out of the car and strode quickly toward the crosswalk. “What is going on?! Vera! Vera!”
It took him a few minutes to reach the spot where his beloved wife had been cooing with the handsome young man. But by then, neither Vera nor her companion were there.
Did she notice me? Get scared? Run away? flashed through his mind. Anton frantically scanned the area. He ran around the street, checked the nearby shop, and even asked a passerby if he’d seen a woman in a white coat carrying a huge bouquet of red roses.
“No, haven’t seen her,” the stranger replied.
“You didn’t? That’s a shame,” Anton said, crestfallen. In despair, he kept calling his wife again and again, but her phone was already switched off.
After pacing around the store for a while, Anton decided to go home. Vera wasn’t the type to silently walk away from her husband. She would have talked to him.
When Anton returned home, his wife still wasn’t there. He sat alone in the apartment until late evening. All this time, he couldn’t believe what had happened. He and Vera had been married for eighteen years — the happiest years of his life. How could she trade him for some young guy? Had she really stopped loving him? Why didn’t she just say so? If Anton had known his wife didn’t love him anymore, he would have let her go for their mutual good. But Vera had chosen to live a double life, and that was unbearably painful.
Lost in thought, Anton heard a faint sound in the hallway. It was his wife quietly trying to unlock the door, hoping he was already fast asleep. Usually, he never waited up when she worked late. But how startled Vera was to see Anton standing right at the entrance.
“Oh, you scared me,” she flinched. “Why are you standing in the dark?”
“I’m waiting for you. What, lots of work again?”
“A ton,” she replied, lowering her eyes. “A delegation from Asia arrived. Vadim Petrovich made us redo all the reports. Wanted to show off in front of potential investors.”
“I see,” Anton replied dryly. He looked at her with disgust, and Vera noticed.
“Did something happen? You look pale today. Are you sick?” Vera slowly took off her white coat. At that moment Anton remembered the bouquet of red roses the stranger had given her.
“And where are the flowers?” he ignored her questions. “Left them at the hotel? Shouldn’t have. You could’ve brought them home. Said they were a gift from the Asian rep. I would’ve believed you. You’ve always taken me for a fool anyway.”
“What?” Vera turned pale. She perfectly understood which flowers he meant but didn’t want to admit it. “What are you talking about? What flowers? What hotel?”
“Stop lying, Vera. I saw you. Near the store across from the café where I have lunch every day. You just had to meet him there, at that time. Did you want me to catch you? Or has he turned your head so much you forgot about everything else?”
“Darling, you must have mistaken me for someone else,” Vera whispered after swallowing hard. “I wasn’t even in that area today. I sat in the office all day redoing reports.”
“You want to say that wasn’t you?!” Anton ground out between clenched teeth. He had almost come to terms with his wife’s betrayal, but her blatant lie infuriated him. He pulled out his phone and held it out to Vera. “I saw everything with my own eyes! Stop hiding the truth. Just tell me, who is he? What does he have that I don’t, Vera?!”
“Antosha…” she grew even paler looking at the screen. “You got it all wrong…”
“Wrong?! Then explain what you were doing with that man! He’s young enough to be your son, Vera! What, old Anton doesn’t turn you on anymore? Now you need a young body? Or maybe this guy is some rich daddy’s kid? You’ve been complaining about money lately — decided to become a sugar granny for a wealthy boy? That’s trendy now, huh?”
“Stop it!” Vera blurted out. She stepped up to her husband and tried to slap him, but Anton grabbed her hand mid-air.
“You cheat on me, and you’re the one getting violent?!” Anton’s eyes reddened with rage. “How could you, Vera? We’ve been married eighteen years! We have a daughter in college! How will you look her in the eye?!”
“I will! I didn’t do anything wrong!” Vera wanted to say more but suddenly fell silent. She lowered her eyes and began to cry.
“What, hard to confess your betrayal? How could you treat us so vilely?! Aren’t you ashamed, Vera?”
“I am ashamed,” she said without looking up. “So leave me alone. Tomorrow I’ll pack my things and leave…”
It hurt Anton to hear these words from his wife, but he didn’t stop her. He could forgive anything but betrayal.
In the morning, when Anton got up for work, Vera was still asleep in the living room. He ate breakfast without any appetite, then dressed and left.
When he came back in the evening, his wife was no longer there. Some of her things still hung in the closet, but most of her clothes were gone.
Anton felt shattered and empty. Before going to bed, he called their daughter, who studied in another city.
“Mashunya, you probably heard that your mom and I are divorcing?”
“Yes,” the girl’s voice was distressed. “Dad, what happened? Mom said you quarreled. Did she leave home? Why? Tell me!”
“It’s a long story,” the man lied. He didn’t want to say that her perfect mother had gotten involved with some boy. “She’ll tell you herself sometime. Don’t worry about us, honey. We’ll figure it out.”
That conversation left a deep scar on Anton’s heart. He wasn’t so much hurt for himself as for his daughter. Masha idolized her mother. Vera was her role model and authority. Now Anton felt ashamed of the woman he loved.
Three whole months passed without the spouses seeing or speaking to each other. Anton knew Vera had moved back into her old apartment she inherited from her parents. She used to rent it out, but now she lived there.
He still hadn’t filed for divorce. He kept hoping Vera would call and explain everything. Maybe she’d find the right words, ask forgiveness, and he’d forgive her. He still loved her and didn’t want to part.
But time passed, and there was no word from Vera. She didn’t file for divorce either.
At some point Anton decided enough was enough. If his wife didn’t want to meet him halfway, he shouldn’t waste time. One day he took the documents and headed to the registry office to put an end to their long marriage. But on the way, he ran into Vera’s cousin.
When Natalia saw her former relative, she genuinely rejoiced.
“Oh, hi! Long time no see.”
“Yeah, been a while,” the man forced a smile.
“Listen, I’m so sorry you and Vera split. Such a beautiful couple you were. No one could have guessed you had problems.”
“We didn’t,” Anton smirked. “Your cousin just wanted attention from younger guys.”
“What do you mean?” Natalia was surprised. “Didn’t you separate by mutual agreement? Vera said you just lost feelings.”
“Yeah, right!” Anton exclaimed bitterly. He was upset Vera had lied to her relatives, saying they both were at fault. “Vera cheated on me with some boy, can you imagine? I even have photos. I caught them red-handed.”
“Red-handed?!” Natalia’s eyes widened as she took Anton’s phone and stared at the pictures for a few minutes. Her cautious expression changed. She looked at Anton strangely and smiled. “You misunderstood.”
“What do you mean, misunderstood? I know it! She even admitted it!”
“Admitted?!” Natalia was even more surprised. Her eyes darted nervously as if she knew something. “Anton, you really should talk to Vera. I don’t think she cheated. That boy… well… it’s better if you ask Vera yourself. She was faithful to you.”
Natalia’s last words left Anton stunned. He thought she was joking, but she looked quite serious. He wanted to ask her more about the man, but Natalia refused to answer.
That same day Anton went to his wife and demanded an explanation.
“Tell me who that guy was! Why didn’t you tell me anything? What’s the secret?!”
Vera could no longer hide the truth. She had long wanted to share this story with her husband but never dared. Now she had no choice.
“The guy you saw me with is my son, Roma. I gave birth to him when I was sixteen. His father was also a teenager. When our parents found out I was pregnant, it was too late. They forced me to give the baby to an orphanage. When I turned twenty, I wanted to get him back, but by then he’d already been adopted. They told me he was in a good family and would be happy. Eventually, I came to terms with it, but a few months ago, grown-up Roma decided to find his birth mother — me. We met, talked… and he forgave me. Now we stay in touch.”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! Would you really have gone through a divorce just to keep me from knowing the truth?”
“Yes!” Vera cried and burst into tears. “Do you think it was easy to admit I abandoned my own child? If I told you, I wouldn’t be able to look you or Masha in the eye!”
“Silly,” Anton said softly. He walked over and hugged her tightly. “Masha and I know you’re a wonderful woman. If you did that, you had your reasons. Who are we to judge a choice made twenty years ago?”
“You’re really not angry at me?” Vera asked, raising her tear-reddened eyes.
“Of course not. I love you, silly.”
From then on, there were no more secrets between them. Anton and Masha gladly welcomed Vera’s son into the family. Roman turned out to be a smart, well-mannered young man. Despite his mother’s seemingly unforgivable act, he forgave her and was happy they were reunited.