I never considered myself a simpleton. On the contrary, I had plenty to be proud of in this life. I managed to escape from a tiny town, move to a big city, get a good job there, and even buy a three-bedroom apartment. Then I got married, and it seemed my happiness knew no bounds. How wrong I was then!
Hello dear readers! Today I will share with you another case from practice, which I found quite amusing. I hope you will like it too. A client came to me and told me about an event that happened in her family.
I met Vlas a year and a half ago. The meeting took place on a river rafting trip, which was a first for both of us. I immediately liked the charming young man. He played the guitar wonderfully and sang beautifully. We spent two weeks in the forest, on the banks of the river, rafting on huge inflatable boats, and in the evenings, we sat by the fire, ate grilled fish, canned chickpeas, simple soups, and drank amazingly tasty tea from tin mugs. In it floated spruce branches, willow-herb flowers, and the endless starry sky was reflected.
I moved to the big city from a provincial tiny town of ten thousand people. There were no jobs there for young people, except in the quarry. Young people went to the North for earnings, worked in shifts. Such a fate did not entice me at all. I wanted to enter the big world, especially since I graduated from school with a gold medal and did very well on the state exams. My parents supported me, and I entered the history department. However, I did not go on to work in my field—I got a job at a real estate agency. I earned a professional reputation surprisingly quickly, was recommended by friends and acquaintances, and never sat without orders. Our agency was one of the oldest and largest, so I was lucky to get a job here.
I worked very hard, not wanting to return to my parents. Of course, I never forgot about them, helped with money. Soon I was able to buy myself an apartment, paying it off even before the due time. I was quite satisfied with being alone; I was not looking for a relationship. It always seemed to me that family was something too complicated. Besides, I was not a beauty. Perhaps men noticed me, but I simply did not see it and lived quietly. But Vlas was someone I liked immediately, and he looked at me with openly admiring and loving eyes. After returning from the rafting trip, we had dinner together in a small cozy restaurant, and gradually began to date. The guy seemed to me a good and reliable person.
He too had moved here from a village. His parents lived far away, but were happy that their son had settled in life. Vlas worked at a building materials store. They didn’t pay too much, but the guy liked his job, and for me, money was not the main thing. I looked at the soul of a person, at his thoughts. It turned out that Vlas was also not in a hurry to start a family, looking for the right person. And that turned out to be me, and six months later, the guy proposed to me. I happily agreed. We decided not to celebrate the wedding too lavishly. We quietly registered at the registry office. Our parents couldn’t come, so only close friends were present at the celebration. We then sat in a cafe and returned to my apartment, now officially as husband and wife.
I made our family nest cozy. I bought new beautiful bedding, sewed curtains for the living room and kitchen. We bought a large comfortable bed with a good mattress, changed the tiles in the bathroom. In the evenings, we cooked dinners together. Vlas loved to cook, and he did it excellently. Especially he succeeded with soups and fish. His Finnish roots on his mother’s side made themselves known. My husband’s fish soup with cod and cream could have conquered even the English queen.
We had enough money for almost everything our hearts desired. Next year we planned to go on a seaside vacation. I had never been there, and I really wanted to see the endless turquoise sea expanses.
But lately, my relationship with my husband became tense. Vlas, previously delicate and gentle, now allowed himself, for example, to joke quite roughly and sharply about my appearance. I never considered myself a beauty, I had a very ordinary appearance. One day he really hurt me, and I asked:
“If I don’t suit you physically and am too old, then why did you marry me, Vlas?”
“You are a good person, I am comfortable with you,” replied my husband, realizing that he had gone too far.
My husband was three years younger than me, and this often became the reason for his inappropriate jokes. Such behavior of his really hurt and irritated me, and I repeatedly asked him not to behave with me in this way. But my husband, initially apologizing, soon even stopped doing that, continuing to mock my nose, my very curly hair, or something else. Kindergarten!
Such behavior of my husband soon brought a rift in our happiness, and I increasingly wondered why I tolerated such treatment with myself. When I was alone, nothing like this happened, I lived quietly, no one offended or upset me. I’d better have gotten a cat than lived with a person who constantly tries to devalue me! My self-confidence also shook. I caught myself critically examining myself in the mirror and also began to criticize my external data.
And one day I returned home early. Vlas was already in the apartment, talking to someone on the phone.
“My wife is a simpleton, trusts me unconditionally. Her apartment will be mine”—I overheard my husband’s conversation.
I froze, like a little mouse hearing the steps of a cat.
“Very simple, my sweet! I will persuade her to become a guarantor for a loan I take from the bank. I’ll say that I want to open my own tire shop. She is compassionate, she will support, and sign everything. An acquaintance notary, my good friend, will slip her a sales contract, and voila! The apartment is mine! And we will get married, after all, I have loved only you for so long, and lived with Lena only for the money. You know how tired I am of enduring this cold herring already?”
I listened and could not believe my ears—and I had lived with this person for almost a year! However, I quickly composed myself, quietly left the apartment, closed the door, and rang the bell.
“Ol, is that you?”—my husband opened the door, looking at me in astonishment. “Why are you ringing?”
“I forgot my keys.”—I tried to smile as cheerfully as I could. “Mm, dinner smells so delicious! I’m hungry like a wolf!”
“Yes, I tried especially for myself. Salmon with oranges!”—Vlas proclaimed with pride.
We sat down to dinner, I poured myself some orange juice, and waited for my husband to start telling me fairy tales. And so it happened.
“Listen, Kolyan and I have long wanted to open our own tire shop. I think I’m ready to start my own business now.”
“That’s great news. And really, enough of working for someone else!”—I took a big sip of juice and put a piece of salmon in my mouth.
“You’ll be the guarantor when I take out a loan, won’t you?”
“Of course, darling, I believe in you so much!”—I smiled as sincerely as I could and nodded.
My husband beamed, got up from the table, and came to kiss me. With effort, I refrained from flinching from this simple caress. After what I had learned, I wanted to kick the traitor out, throwing his things into the hallway. But I decided to teach my husband a lesson.
The next day, we went to the notary, not to put off the inevitable. My happy husband chattered about how smart I was and how lucky he was to be with me. I mechanically dropped smiles, nodded, and soon we entered the office of a lanky-looking young man in a cheap, not-so-fresh suit. He made the most repulsive impression.
The day before the trip, I went for a haircut. Rather, I told my husband I would go to the hairdresser, but instead, I turned to law enforcement. There, I explained everything as it was, without concealment, and they promised to help.
Now we sat in the notary’s office, and he, obsequiously, slid papers to me.
“Right here and here you need to sign, dear Elena Mikhailovna!”—said my husband’s accomplice.
At that moment, law enforcement officers burst in, detaining both. My confused Vlas looked at me hurt and bewildered.
“How could you, Lena?”
“How could you? Not only are you cheating on me, but you’re also trying to swindle my apartment. Aren’t you ashamed?”
My husband was taken away. Afterward, I cooperated with law enforcement, although it was clear anyway—my soon-to-be ex-husband would be going away for a long time. I filed for divorce, and since we had no common children or jointly acquired property, the process took less than a month. Already being free, I remembered our life with Vlas and resolutely did not understand what I had done to deserve betrayal from the person I loved. After all, we lived well, did not argue. But guessing what is in the dark of another person’s soul is pointless. There is such a category of inherently petty and nasty people, which you do not recognize right away. Their nature is rotten, their intentions the lowest. Vlas turned out to be such a person, and I just did not notice the warning bells for a long time.
He also had a girl on the side. She came to me with accusations after I put her almost-husband in not so distant places. I did not talk to Victoria for long, slammed the door right in front of her nose. She still shouted insults at me for a long time, providing the neighbors with a free show. I decisively did not care what people thought of me. I needed to sort myself out, calm down, get over the betrayal of someone I trusted. I really could not have imagined that Vlas could do something like this. He seemed such an uncomplicated, simple, bright, and warm guy. But, as they say, it’s calm in the deep pool.
Left alone, I got a dog. It was the right decision. Labrador Zephyr became my faithful friend. We walked in the park in the evenings and mornings, went to training. I doted on him, and being alone with Zephyr did not weigh on me. My parents fully supported my separation. Mom came to stay, brought treats, lived with me for almost a month and a half. We talked a lot with her.
“I thought it would be like with you and dad. You understand, you don’t think that a person harbors evil.”
“I understand, daughter. But don’t think, there are worthy men in the world.”
“At least Zephyr!”—I patted the smiling Labrador, who was wagging his tail, furiously slapping me with it on the leg.
“And Zephyr will find a bride. And you will meet your person. I didn’t find your father right away either. You know, it’s my second marriage.”
I knew that mom had married very young the first time but did not live with her ex-husband for even a year. But she went for dad when she was almost thirty. And she was happy, and gave birth to me and my younger brother, Vanya. Dad became the man of her whole life, loved mom and us very much. And mom became his guiding star, his soul. We always felt that our parents loved and valued each other. They never argued in front of us, never raised their voices at each other. Our home was always peaceful and orderly, although we had difficult situations in life, as in every family. And I desperately wanted the same—to be tightly-tightly, soul to soul, and as my younger brother said when he was a little child, “nose to nose.”
Perhaps mom is right, and I will still meet my happiness. But for now, Zephyr and I will live and gather good things. I was warm and cozy with mom, I missed her a lot. But still, I did not think of returning to my hometown. Stable work, a familiar apartment—all this held me. I tried not to remember Vlas, to erase him from my life. Misunderstandings happen to everyone. Each of us can make a mistake, the main thing is to take the lesson presented by fate and find the strength to move on. Even if I never get married, I will still be happy by myself. I don’t know what is in store for me, but I try to live every day with joy and dignity.