This day was supposed to be one of the happiest. Vlad had thought everything through to the last detail. His bride deserved the very best. Although Alina always said that their love was what mattered most, he wanted to surround her with a real fairy tale. She deserved the best engagement and wedding. After all, it was a huge event that happens only once in a lifetime. Waking up early and taking a shower, Vlad managed to call his bride to make sure she was as excited about the celebration as he was. Although it was not yet the wedding, the engagement party was organized on a grand scale. Vlad and Alina invited all their relatives with whom they wanted to share their joy and close friends.
Approaching the desk drawer where a velvet shell-shaped silver box lay, Vlad took it out, opened it to look at the rings again and make sure he had made the right choice. However, the rings were not inside.
His smile immediately slipped from his lips. A pounding headache began. Where had they gone? Vlad had definitely not taken them out. He thought perhaps his sister had decided to show them to one of her friends, or maybe his mother? They just hadn’t returned the rings to their place… where else could they have disappeared from the apartment? Thieves definitely hadn’t broken in!
Taisiya Nikolaevna calmly sipped tea, sitting in the kitchen. She looked up at her son with a smile as he burst in there and shook her head.
“Why do you look so pale? Changed your mind about getting married? Or did the bride run away? I hope she doesn’t have the sense to do that… so much money was poured into this engagement.”
“Where are my rings, Mom?” asked Vlad, feeling he was about to get an answer to his question. “The box in the desk is empty. The rings couldn’t just leave the house on their own.”
“Of course, they couldn’t. They don’t grow legs. I pawned them at the pawnshop and bought your sister a dress. Well, why are you looking at me like that? You didn’t want to give the money, I found it myself. We’re still going to your engagement.”
Vlad felt like he could sink through the floor. His throat tightened as if clasped by steel chains. It was even hard to breathe.
“If you want, go and redeem them, you spent so much money on the restaurant and the event… and the cost of those rings, it’s simply unimaginable!.. And if you don’t want to redeem them, just buy some gold-plated ones. Your bride can do without gold. I really don’t understand why you started spoiling her from the very beginning of the relationship. She will sit on your neck, dangle her legs, and then we can expect no help from you?”
Vlad managed to swallow the saliva that had gathered in his throat. His hands clenched into fists.
“There, in the cupboard, lies the pawnshop receipt. It’s near the house if you decide to go and redeem them.”
“What pawnshop? What should I redeem the rings with now? You know I spent almost everything I had!.. There are still a few days until payday, and I need those rings today!”
“Is that my problem? I told you that Ksyusha needed a new dress. We’re not going to look like poor relatives at your engagement. We must shine. She’s your sister!”
“Ksyusha’s closets will start falling apart soon from all these dresses. Wasn’t there anything she could choose from in all that abundance?” Vlad hid his irritation, but it still painfully scratched the realization that he needed to do something urgently.
What could he do? He might call his boss and ask for money a little earlier, but it’s not certain that would work, as it’s against the accounting rules, and everything there is strictly by the clock. He could borrow from one of his friends, but it wasn’t like he could just sit there frantically calling each one.
“She wanted exactly the dress we bought. It’s from the new collection. Expensive, I agree… but we are your closest relatives, so we should look the best. Ksyusha will be the real queen of this celebration.”
The queen of the celebration was supposed to be Alina, but apparently, Taisiya Nikolaevna completely forgot that the engagement was for her son, not her daughter. Vlad sharply turned around, grabbed the pawnshop paper, decided what to do, and returned to the room. He looked at the suitcases he planned to move to the apartment in a few days. They had just finished renovating it and had not yet managed to move in the furniture, but now he decided it was better to sleep on the floor for a while rather than stay in a house where his own people could easily rob him.
Vlad could not come to terms with his mother’s actions. When Taisiya Nikolaevna took her daughter to the beauty salon, stating that she must look better than everyone, Vlad took action. It was no trouble to arrange with a friend with a van to help move his things. Although he wanted to look rested at the celebration, it was a pleasant hassle.
Vlad promised himself that no one would dare prevent the engagement from being perfect. And he had ideas on how to do everything quickly with minimal losses. That’s what he occupied himself with, getting everything done much faster than expected.
The apartment smelled of fresh renovation. It lifted his spirits. His father had given him this apartment. Although his mother was against his father attending his son’s engagement, the man still invited his father and his family. He did not understand why he should choose between his parents. If they couldn’t preserve their relationship, the child definitely shouldn’t be responsible for their mistakes. Vlad wanted to communicate with his father; they had a lot in common, and his wife and her daughter turned out to be much nicer than his mother and sister, who constantly schemed. Even now they had set him up, but the main question had been resolved, and the rings were already back in their place.
Dressed in a dark blue suit and a pristine white shirt, hair neatly styled, Vlad looked at his reflection in the mirror with satisfaction. Now he was a groom, soon to be a husband, and he would have to take responsibility for his family, protecting them from outsiders. The man was sure that his mother would not forgive him for the step he had taken. She would long remind him of this if she continued to communicate with him at all, but it was better to show his stance now than to endure when something similar happened again. And it definitely would happen. How many families were destroyed due to parental interference? Vlad thought he was lucky with his in-laws. Right after meeting them, they said they would not interfere in the young couple’s affairs and that if they needed something – they could ask for help directly.
“As long as you don’t ask for help, whether it’s advice or money, we won’t interfere,” said his future father-in-law.
They never interfered in their daughter’s affairs, tried to guide her while she was growing up, explained what was “good” and what was “bad,” but at the same time allowed her to learn from her own mistakes if they saw that their stubborn daughter was headstrong and didn’t want to listen.
Vlad’s mother constantly told him how he should live, what to wear, which girls to date. She condemned his choice right away: said that Alina was too simple and unworthy to date such a successful handsome man, let alone marry him. Of course, Vlad had shown his stance then, but apparently, it wasn’t enough.
His mother had grown accustomed to the fact that her son constantly provided for her and his sister with everything necessary, spending a large part of his salary on them. If Ksyusha needed new expensive gadgets, Vlad bought them without a second thought. If his sister wanted a new dress – he gave her the money. Just once he refused, and what did it all lead to? His mother decided everything on her own. She probably thought that her son was lying, that he had plenty of money left. Even if he had – it was his money. He planned to buy good furniture for the apartment, then save for the wedding and a trip. No one helped him except his father. His mother always spent all her spare money on Ksyusha; her salary quickly ran out, and she demanded money from her son. She didn’t even ask – she demanded. Perhaps this was Vlad’s main oversight. He had always indulged his mother and sister to the point where they didn’t hesitate to take rings out of his room and pawn them.
Calling a taxi, as he didn’t feel like driving that evening because there would be sparkling wine on the table, and the young couple would definitely have a glass each as it was their celebration, Vlad went to pick up Alina.
In her simple, inexpensive dress, she looked incredibly enchanting. Unlike Ksyusha, Alina never spent money on expensive branded items, but she always dressed tastefully. Vlad thought that even in worn-out clothes, his bride would outshine any expensively dressed lady at any celebration, because the main beauty was hidden in her eyes, radiating kindness and a soul-warming light.
“I am so lucky to be with you,” said Vlad, holding his beloved girl’s hand.
Many guests had already gathered. They approached the young couple and congratulated them, some asking when they would be able to celebrate at their wedding.
Vlad’s phone rang. Apologizing, he left Alina with her parents and went outside to answer his mother, as he had to “explain” what happened.
“Vlad, what’s going on? We were delayed at the beauty salon!.. We came home, and my room is turned upside down. And Ksyusha’s dress is nowhere to be found.”
“Exactly. The dress is nowhere, because I pawned it and redeemed my rings from the pawnshop. And about the room – you knew where to find the rings in my room, but I didn’t know where you hid the dress receipt, I had to try hard to find it. Sorry, there was no time to clean up after myself.”
“How dare you rummage through my room and dig through my personal things?” flared Taisiya Nikolaevna.
“You set a fine example, Mom. If it’s permissible for you to rummage through my desk and take my things, then why can’t I do the same?”
Vlad spoke in an even tone, though emotions raged inside him. He couldn’t understand how his mother had the audacity to demand anything from him. After all, she was the one who had acted improperly, and now she was demanding as if she had been robbed.
“Notice, I didn’t take anything that wasn’t mine, I just took back what was mine.”
Taisiya Nikolaevna fumed, and Vlad understood the rage his mother was in at that moment, but he did not plan to apologize or ask for forgiveness. He was sure he had done the right thing.
“You acted very badly. You don’t even realize what a situation you’ve put your sister and me in. Poor Ksyusha is disheartened. Of course, she won’t want to go to your engagement now.”
“I’m not insisting.”
Taisiya Nikolaevna sobbed and vented her resentment on her son. She screamed that she would never forgive him for such an action, and if he now chose his bride and did not plan to continue helping his real family, then he would lose his relatives.
“If a real family and relationships for you mean financial support and fulfilling all whims even in such a deceitful way, then so be it. I’m ready to lose that. You still have plenty of outfits bursting out of your closets that you can wear to our engagement… However, I must warn that I won’t let such tricks slide anymore. I will soon have my own family. I’m not refusing to help you if you really need something, but I won’t spend money on expensive branded clothes for my sister anymore.”
“Then don’t call us anymore and ask how we are! You’ll crawl back and beg for forgiveness. There are many girls in this life, but there’s only one mother.”
Vlad hung up the call. He didn’t feel guilty at all. Taisiya Nikolaevna had acted despicably by solving the issue of buying her daughter a dress in such a way, but Vlad managed to set everything right. He didn’t plan to dwell on it. If his mother really didn’t want to communicate with him anymore – that was her right. She had driven his father away in the same way, then said that he was completely uninterested in the children. Vlad was glad that he hadn’t believed her and had mended his relationship with his father. Now he saw how his mother could act if slightly opposed.
Letting out a puff of steam from his mouth, Vlad smiled. He didn’t want to spoil his bride’s mood on such a wonderful day, nor did he plan to set her against his mother. Vlad decided that he would not tell anyone about what had happened, and now… he would just be happy together with Alina. After all, they would soon be husband and wife.
A few months later, the young couple got married. Taisiya Nikolaevna declined the invitation to the wedding, continuing to show everyone that her son had betrayed her. However, Vlad was not greatly troubled by this. He wasn’t going to force anyone to love him and accept him as he was. Probably, his mother never loved her son at all, since she was capricious and behaved as if he had robbed her, left her out on the street, and not just taken back his own. Vlad had eventually told Alina about what happened before the engagement, as it would have been worse if she had learned from someone else about the reason for her mother-in-law’s absence at the wedding. Alina did not judge; on the contrary, she supported her husband, because sometimes you have to make a step into adult life… and if parents are not ready to accept it – they need time. However, in their situation, time resolved little, since Taisiya Nikolaevna was angry not because her son had moved out and started his own family… she was angry because she no longer received the money he used to bring home, and could no longer spoil her beloved daughter, whom she had always wanted instead of a son, not even feigning joy at his birth.