The day at the office started as usual. Some people were drinking coffee, others were already eagerly glancing at the clock, counting down how much longer they had to endure being at work, and some had already started working hard to stand out in front of the boss. By the way, the head of the company was Yuri Timofeyevich — a young and arrogant guy who was frankly disliked by his subordinates, who came up with new insulting nicknames for him behind his back.
“Well, has our hotshot managed to earn a couple of million today yet?”
“No way! Let him at least not squander what he already has!” — laughed the girls in the smoking room.
This attitude toward the man was caused not only by his behavior but also by the fact that he got his position thanks to marrying the daughter of the company owner. The father-in-law had to find a job for his son-in-law, although at first, he was completely against his marriage to his daughter.
Although everyone in the company knew how Yuri’s career had been built, they remained silent because everyone valued their own position and stable salary. Besides, objections against the management never led to anything good, and the young man, though he had indeed hit the jackpot, was determined, cunning, and sly. He tried to find advantage for himself in everything. For example, he tried to sign contracts on the most favorable terms for the firm, but for some unclear reason, this did not lead to profit growth.
Yuri understood why this was happening. After all, he had taken the leadership position through connections (“blat”), whereas before, he only followed orders. He lacked business skills. While his father-in-law was alive, he thought it would be easier than it turned out later.
Leonid Davidovich had founded the company many years ago but lost his health raising the business from scratch and died several years ago, having given himself entirely to his creation. While the father-in-law was alive, Yuri behaved inconspicuously and obeyed the orders of the management, but after Leonid Davidovich’s passing, he grew bold and started acting differently. And when he took the place of the company head as a relative, his new position went to his head. If only the father-in-law had known into whose hands he was handing over his business, which he had opened in the turbulent ‘90s and built from nothing…
The old man had sacrificed his life on the altar of prosperity. Everything in the company was well organized, the system worked excellently, but Yuri accumulated salary debts, reduced profitability, and didn’t particularly worry about it. The generous inheritance had come too easily to him.
Yuri proved to be an unreliable heir not only in business. In his personal life, he also played a dishonest game, regularly cheating on his wife. Dasha didn’t know anything about this, but a woman’s heart felt something was wrong. Yuri, however, was in no hurry to listen to her words. He clouded his wife’s mind with excuses about eternal negotiations and having a lot of work.
One day, a new employee appeared in the office — a cleaning lady named Zinaida. Usually, personnel of this level go unnoticed. Cleaners are gray mice who do the dirty work. But it was impossible to say that about Zina. Life had beaten this young girl badly; looking at her without pity was impossible. Burns covered half her face and were simply shocking.
Sometimes someone’s gaze lingered too long on the girl, which caused general awkwardness. Office workers looked away disgustedly when Zina came to tidy up. Some pretty girls seemed embarrassed about their beauty in Zina’s presence; some pitied her, and some openly despised her. Besides, the girl was mute.
The HR deputy approved her candidacy for the vacancy without looking, since not long before, Dasha, Yuri’s wife, had called and asked to hire this girl. Fortunately, the vacancy was free. So Zina began her modest career at the company, where she was often openly laughed at without shame. She never responded. She just worked, carrying out her duties, head lowered, eyes downcast.
For Yuri Timofeyevich, such characters were nothing. Once his gaze fell on the inconspicuous figure of Zina.
“Another ugly duckling,” he thought.
Over time, rumors began to spread in the company that the cleaning lady stayed late, practically polishing the director’s office. Yuri was even initially flattered by this. He thought the girl was secretly in love with him. And since he was a good-looking guy, many young new office employees admired him. Knowing he was a big boss, some of them dreamed of getting closer to Yuri to gain a better position. And he really promised the beauties the moon, but after getting what he wanted, he just fired them. Sometimes he also felt the desire to have some fun with the cleaning lady.
“That kind of freak is new in my collection,” he said to himself with a smirk.
However, though Zina spent more time in the boss’s office than her duties required, she never asked for a raise. The office didn’t want to bring up this topic. After rumors about the cleaning lady’s long stays in Yuri’s office, discussions started about where Zina’s such zeal came from, and whether she wanted to curry favor.
“Oh, look at her working! She probably doesn’t know that you can’t get a raise from our Yurtsy…”
“Yeah, business is in decline now,” the malicious tongues in the office jabbered.
To figure out the situation, Yuri Timofeyevich decided to try talking to the cleaning lady, but he got nothing from her, shrugged it off, and forgot about it.
One morning, he noticed the papers on the desk were not arranged as he left them the night before. This made Yuri suspicious. Without hesitation, he decided to run a little test on Zina by setting a kind of marker on the stack of documents — an ashtray, remembering how it was positioned. The next morning, everything was confirmed — someone had been rifling through the documents, and the ashtray had been moved.
“But who could it be? Why? What does she want?” — Yuri asked himself nervously pacing the office, repeating the same question without understanding the reason.
That same day, he installed cameras to see what was happening in the office in his absence. Arriving at work the next morning, he sat on the edge of a chair and eagerly played the video. Yuri’s surprise was immense when he saw the ugly duckling Zina boldly running the office in the evenings.
All day Yuri was restless. He was torn by the desire to call Zina and tell her he knew everything. What held him back was knowing about her affliction. Whenever he imagined confronting her, asking what she was doing in his office, he wouldn’t get answers because she was mute.
He wanted so much to get to the truth that by the end of the day a cunning plan formed in his mind to catch her red-handed. Pretending to leave for home, Yuri stayed in the storeroom, waiting for everyone to leave and for Zina to start her “dark deeds” in his office. He anticipated catching the impudent cleaning lady and accusing her.
“Well, got caught, spy?!” — the boss roared bursting into the office.
Yuri did not expect what happened the next second. Zina didn’t even flinch but just smiled. A million thoughts flashed through Yuri’s mind. He didn’t know what to do next, and he was choosing among many options — call security or tie her up himself. Surely competitors had sent the creature to snoop through the documents!
But then what? How to prove her guilt? After all, she hadn’t done much…
While standing at the door, flushed and sweating, Zina slowly smoothed her hair and then took it off. Yuri’s eyes widened. He could not imagine such a turn of events. The wig fell to the floor, and in the next second Zina wiped off the makeup simulating scars on her face. Yuri could not imagine what was behind all this — his own wife.
“Well, you sly one? Planning to ruin the company? You won’t manage to squander everything my father built!”
Yuri was dumbfounded, not even knowing how to justify himself. In one moment, he turned from accuser into accused. Dasha caught him off guard not only by revealing that today’s Zina was not who she claimed to be but also by showing her intelligence and cleverness. Yuri was stunned by her courage and the skill to deceive him so that he suspected nothing. His whole life was a farce; he had deceived so many people, fooled his father-in-law, and married his daughter… And how skillfully he cheated on her! Over years of deception, Yuri had become so used to being believed, to getting away with his deeds…
Meanwhile, his wife continued:
“I took and replaced the documents. Now all contracts are with me. Don’t think you can just wash your hands of this. The evidence of your guilt is obvious…”
“Dasha, I’ll explain everything,” Yuri stammered.
“No need to explain. All I want from you is to resign!”
“Don’t even think about it! And if you…” Yuri started shouting.
“If you don’t resign,” Dasha interrupted, “you will be shamefully fired at the board meeting!”
Yuri was furious. Now he no longer intended to justify himself. Now he saw in his wife a worthy rival, whom he had to remove. It seemed he was ready to do anything just to save his skin. His eyes filled with blood, and his hands clenched into fists. He moved toward his wife, but security rushed in.
Dasha was well prepared. She took a panic button with her, throwing it in her pocket. Before Yuri could reach her, he was already lying on the floor of his office, tied hand and foot. Now he had completely different thoughts.
He even felt regret. But not that he could have lived honestly and had everything he had before tonight. Not that he behaved so vilely in front of people who trusted him. Not even that he ruined Dasha’s fate and perhaps killed her trust in men. He lay on the floor, cheek pressed to the tile, regretting only that he wasn’t more careful deceiving his wife. Even at this moment, when Yuri was completely defeated, he still thought about how to get back to his cozy, warm place.
Though Dasha was only 25, she combined natural beauty with sharp intelligence. She had received a good upbringing and graduated from university with honors. Dasha grew up without a mother, who died when the girl was five. She lacked maternal care and love. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t find love for a long time until she met a charming and pleasant guy who literally swept her off her feet, showing that much-desired care and attention.
According to Yuri, he grew up in an orphanage and overcame a difficult childhood. This was manipulation of feelings, which the inexperienced girl did not understand at the time. In reality, the guy’s parents were alcoholics. Dasha fell in love almost immediately and accepted his marriage proposal six months later.
Though her father was against it, seeing that his daughter was married, he gave in, hoping the young family would be fine. Yuri “kept up appearances” until the father-in-law’s death — not only at the firm but also with his wife. Before that, he had affairs on the side, of course, but only really lost control after Leonid Davidovich’s passing. He explained the smell of women’s perfume on his shirt by working in a female team, and since his wife trusted him, she believed that the female hair on his clothes appeared by accident…
Time passed, and Yuri even allowed himself to have hickeys on his neck. But he didn’t know that Dasha was not a meek simpleton who would forever endure and tolerate, but a self-sufficient, strong woman who at some point would want to teach the scoundrel a lesson. Yearning for honest human relationships and a sincere man she had always dreamed of, Dasha began planning how to expose the scoundrel who worked on several fronts.
Her illusions finally faded when she realized Yuri married her only because of her father’s wealth and career opportunities. He obviously never loved his wife, if he was even capable of such a feeling. At one point, Dasha was ready to endure it all her life, so much had her husband crushed her morally.
Yuri had one favorite phrase: “The man must be the head of the house.” Sometimes he even gave her a hard slap. Another such quarrel was the last straw for Dasha. What gave her strength was that she did not want her father’s company, so hard-built by him, to go bankrupt.
Dasha prepared thoroughly. She contacted a former classmate who worked as a makeup artist. He helped her transform, simulating a scar on her face and even helped select a wig. When Dasha saw herself in the new image, she was surprised how realistic it looked. You could say, her own mother wouldn’t recognize her.
She was almost on the verge of failure several times, but there would definitely be no second chance. If Yuri had unmasked Dasha earlier, she wouldn’t have managed to replace all the documents. Then her father’s company would have been lost forever, and his rightful heir would be left with nothing.
It was difficult for Dasha to stay in the same house with a scoundrel, pretending she knew nothing…
Yuri, of course, was shamefully fired and then received divorce papers. By law, Dasha became the owner of the firm, and her personal life began to improve. The makeup artist guy asked her out on a date. By the time Dasha met him, he was widowed. He had a complicated past: his wife died in a car accident while pregnant.
Dasha managed to revive the company. She was inspired that she gave the business a second wind. Sometimes, returning home, she thought with warm memories of her father that he would like how his daughter runs the business.
Her relationship with her new man developed quickly. Having gained experience from her first marriage, Dasha already understood where to trust a person and where to keep him at a distance. Her current partner left no room for doubt. He showed her a completely different attitude.
The girl recovered quite quickly from the failed marriage, and one day she told her beloved that she was expecting their child.