Lately, arguments had become a normal part of life in the Denisov household. Vera had been feeling awful because of a difficult pregnancy, yet her husband, Stepan, kept insisting she was exaggerating and pretending to suffer more than she really was. In his mind, she was simply using the pregnancy as an excuse to take sick leave and stay home, because, after all, that meant she could skip work for a “valid reason.”
“If you don’t want to go to work, just say so. Why act like some kind of tragic victim in front of me? I’m not the one handing out medical leave,” he grumbled. “You could’ve at least done the laundry today and made a decent dinner. You were lying around at home all day anyway.”
“Lying around”… yes, that was one way to describe it, because Vera’s condition could hardly be called anything else. Her head pounded constantly, and waves of nausea kept rolling through her body. She felt miserable, so weak she could barely get out of bed, even when she was desperately thirsty. Only toward evening did she finally feel a little better, enough to pour herself a mug of warm herbal tea. That was exactly when her husband got home from work and decided she was having the time of her life instead of taking care of him.
Vera tried not to take offense, but whenever his arrogance crossed the line, she could not hold back her anger. After their fights, Stepan usually got dressed and ran off to his mother’s place. There he would complain about his hard life, and his mother would immediately take his side, blaming Vera for everything. Vera knew all of this, yet she had no strength left to influence her husband or make him change. She decided to focus on herself first. Her priority was to bring a healthy child into the world. Whatever would happen with Stepan afterward was secondary. She had no desire to deal with that now. If their marriage fell apart, then so be it. She would simply have to accept it and move on. Stepan’s mother was doing everything she could to make sure that happened. If she had truly wanted her son to have a happy marriage, she would have encouraged him to respect Vera and care for her instead of welcoming him every time he ran to her with another complaint.
Little by little, Vera’s condition improved. The nausea faded, the heartburn no longer tormented her so often, and she finally began to feel human again. At work, her colleagues smiled warmly at her and asked what it felt like to be an expectant mother. Many brought her treats, looked after her, and told her to take it easy, not to overload herself, and to rest whenever she could. Only at work and in her parents’ home did Vera feel supported. At home, beside her husband, she withdrew into herself, trying to distance herself from the negativity that seeped through every look he gave her and every heavy sigh he let out.
More and more often, Stepan went straight to his mother’s house after work and stayed there overnight. At times it seemed as though he had already left the family for good, but Vera no longer worried about it. She knew she would manage. Even if she ended up alone. Her parents stood by her, and sometimes her father said that if Stepan did not come to his senses, he would take Vera home himself and never let his son-in-law near his wife or child again.
One day, Stepan came home earlier than usual with flowers in his hands, which shocked Vera. He was in a good mood, showering her with compliments and offering a kind of care he had never shown before. It felt as though a completely different man had walked into the house. Vera watched him, wondering what could possibly have happened.
Did Dad talk to him? the troubling thought flashed through her mind.
Igor Ivanovich had been barely holding himself back for a long time. He kept saying he would have a man-to-man talk with his son-in-law, while Vera begged him not to act rashly. She worried for Stepan and partly blamed herself. After all, she had stopped smoothing over the sharp edges of their relationship and had emotionally distanced herself from him, simply to protect her nerves. Maybe she should not have pulled away so firmly. Maybe if she had acted differently, there would not have been such a misunderstanding. Vera looked her husband over, but saw no trace of bruises. Her father would never have been able to restrain himself if he had truly confronted Stepan. So something else must have influenced him. She just could not figure out what.
“What’s gotten into you today? You seem… different. Kinder,” Vera asked carefully.
“Kinder? I’ve always been like this. Kind. I love you. How else could I be? Our baby will be here soon, and I’m really happy about it, by the way…”
Stepan fell silent, as if he was about to say something he knew she would not like. He chewed on his lip, his eyes darting around.
“No, never mind. It’s nothing.”
“If you’ve started, then finish.”
“It’s not a big deal. It’s still too early to get ahead of ourselves. But since you want to know, I’ll just say it.”
Stepan sat down beside her and took her hand.
“Mom said that I should go on parental leave, and you should go back to work right after the baby is born. Isn’t that a great idea? I kept worrying about how we’d survive without your salary, but now I’ve calmed down. Everything will be fine. I don’t earn much, but you make good money.”
Vera burst out laughing, pulled her hand away, and stood up, moving toward the window. Suddenly she could not bear to remain close to him. Irritation spread through her veins like fire, building into a storm.
So that was it.
His mother said so.
Now it all made sense. He was thrilled because he was already imagining himself taking leave and sitting at home, carefree and comfortable.
“Do you really think you can handle a newborn on your own?”
Vera tried to appeal to his common sense, tried to make him understand that a baby was not a toy, not a pet. Caring for an infant would not be simple. This was not some kind of vacation where he could do whatever he liked and live at his own pace. She wanted to believe he was truly thinking about what was best financially for the family, rather than just looking for a way to get a break from work, but his next words destroyed that hope.
“What’s so hard about it? Feed the baby, change the diapers, give it a pacifier, and let it sleep. And anyway, Mom promised she’d help me. You’ll only have to pump milk for the baby at first, and after that there won’t be any problems. I never even realized this was an option, but apparently it is. I’m excited. You’re happy too, right?”
“No,” Vera answered sharply, turning around and fixing him with a burning stare.
“Well, you know, I wasn’t really asking. You’ve already had plenty of rest running off on sick leave, and I’m a human being too. I need a break from work as well. I want to wake up whenever I feel like it instead of jumping up every morning to an alarm clock like some trained animal.”
“A human being? Sometimes it seems to me you’re nothing of the kind,” Vera said in despair, feeling an emptiness inside her chest.
People do not change in the blink of an eye, but our first impressions of them can turn out to be completely wrong. When life becomes difficult, many people drop their masks and bare their teeth. That was exactly what had happened between them. Vera was seeing her husband clearly now. She had never nitpicked his flaws before. She had accepted him as he was. But now, when she needed his support most, she saw that he was incapable of giving it. A mama’s boy, concerned only with his own comfort, selfish to the core, unwilling to become a real man who could take responsibility for his family. What had she been thinking all this time? Her parents had warned her, but she had refused to see it. Only now had the rose-colored glasses come off, revealing the true face of the man she had married.
“Why are you saying such hurtful things? Are you trying to say I’m wrong? My mother never says foolish things. If she says it’s a good idea, then it is. You shouldn’t argue.”
“Fine. I wasn’t even planning to argue. But I’m tired of you and your mother. If life is so wonderful under her wing, then go back to her. Quit your job if you want and sit on her neck. I can’t do this anymore.”
Because she was getting upset and feared the stress might harm the baby, Vera called her parents and asked them to come help her pack. She was finally determined to leave her husband. She could no longer tolerate his selfishness and his desperate need to live by his mother’s advice. No matter how hard she tried to please him, there would always be another “Mom said.” Vera was exhausted from fighting her mother-in-law from a distance. If that woman had such magical power over her son, then she should have taken him back long ago instead of letting things reach this point.
Stepan was too frightened even to open his mouth when he saw Vera’s father. He tried to persuade Vera not to act impulsively, telling her that all problems should be solved peacefully, but he failed to understand that he himself had destroyed the marriage she had worked so hard to protect.
For the first few days, his mother kept calling, trying to force Vera to “come to her senses.” But very quickly she changed her tune and began calling Vera the source of all evil, claiming she had probably cheated on Stepan and gotten pregnant by someone else, and that this was why she had run away before the truth could come out.
Vera did not care what anyone thought of her. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl and surrounded her with love. During the divorce proceedings, she did not even file for child support, because her husband had already been shouting that the child could not possibly be his and demanding a paternity test—because, naturally, “Mom said so.” Since he was denying his daughter, it was better to erase him and his deranged family from their lives completely. Vera did not want her daughter to grow up around the tantrums of that father and grandmother. Better not to know such relatives at all.
Three years later, Vera remarried. This time she was truly happy, because she had finally met a real man, someone ready to care for her and her daughter and protect them both.
One day, by chance, her former mother-in-law saw Vera and the little girl in a shopping mall and realized how terribly mistaken she had been when she had insisted the child was not Stepan’s. But by then, no one would ever allow her near the girl. Stepan had even demanded that the child not be registered under his name, so by mutual agreement the space for “father” on little Lena’s birth records had been left blank. Soon, however, it would be filled with the name of her true father—the man who had given her love and had insisted on adopting her.
Looking at the little girl, who was the very image of her son, the woman felt a sharp, burning sense of injustice. She told herself she was angry at Vera, but deep inside she knew she was blaming herself. Still, people who are used to making others guilty do not grieve for long. Convincing herself that Vera had deliberately hidden the child’s resemblance to Stepan and had intentionally robbed him of the chance to know his daughter, the woman lifted her chin and walked past as if she had not recognized them.
And that was exactly how it should be.
Vera would never have given her a second chance, because neither her former husband nor his mother had ever known how to sincerely ask forgiveness or truly admit their mistakes.