Impossible! It can’t be!” Nadezhda thought, looking at a photograph where a young pregnant girl was hugging her husband’s neck, sitting on his lap and smiling joyfully. Twenty-five years of marriage… was it all going to the dogs now? Her heart painfully clenched as she stared at the photo, forgetting that she had logged into the social network to update information in their work group as requested by a colleague.
Her head was throbbing, so she forced herself to get up from the desk to take some tranquilizers. It was incomprehensible that Arkadiy could cheat. But what else could this situation be called? The girl had captioned the photo “Daddy.” Indeed, he was old enough to be her father! And the implications of such a term were well known. Lately, Arkadiy had been stressed about money; he mentioned that bonuses at work had been canceled, so his earnings were modest, but now a lot of things started to make sense… did he need money to support a mistress? Their joint savings account had suddenly dwindled. Nadezhda hadn’t asked why her husband was withdrawing money; she trusted him completely and knew that if he decided to spend a certain amount, it was for something necessary, not for entertainment, but now she had her doubts.
Returning to the computer desk, Nadezhda looked at the photograph with disgust again and closed it. She didn’t feel like doing anything, but she felt a responsibility—she had promised her colleague, after all, and couldn’t just shut everything down and leave. So, she distracted herself by updating the information, completely detaching from what she had seen. After finishing her work, she quickly messaged her colleague, turned off her phone, and went to the kitchen. Cooking dinner often calmed her, so Nadezhda decided to immerse herself in it, if only to rid her mind of the unpleasant thoughts now scurrying around like hungry cockroaches.
Hearing the door to the apartment open, Nadezhda peeked into the corridor. Maxim, the foster son whom she and her husband had adopted from an orphanage as a baby, had returned. They had never hidden the truth from Maxim, and he thanked his parents for giving him the chance to grow up in a family, loved them, and considered them his only true relatives.
“You’re home early today,” Nadezhda smiled, though her smile was strained.
“I just stopped by for a bit, Mom. The guys and I are going to the chess club. I’ll be late. Have dinner without me. The guys ordered pizza. We want to train a bit more before the competition. Got to get those brain cells moving.” Maxim paused, then frowned and looked at Nadezhda seriously: “What’s wrong with you? Any problems? You look gloomier than a cloud.”
“No, no, everything’s fine. Just tired today. The heat is oppressive, and I always struggle when it’s so hot outside. Don’t worry. Everything’s fine. Good luck to you and the guys.”
Nadezhda disappeared into the kitchen and resumed cooking dinner, though she didn’t understand who she was doing it for… How would their conversation with Arkadiy go? She loved her husband with all her heart. They had lived so many years together, were happy, and now she couldn’t imagine her life without him. How would they live apart? Yet he had already found his consolation. But did he really matter to his young mistress? That remained a question.
Maxim changed clothes and left shortly after, and Nadezhda sat at the table waiting for her husband to return. She imagined in detail the conversation with Arkadiy, thinking about how she would tell him that she knew everything. She could have pretended not to see anything, of course, but she had always been straightforward. It simply wouldn’t work to lie and smile when you knew the truth. And why bother? It wouldn’t be like before anyway, because the resentment wouldn’t just disappear, and living with a betrayer was no longer possible.
Her husband returned home with a bouquet of lilies. He knew they were Nadezhda’s favorite flowers and often bought them for her, but sometimes he chose different ones, saying he wanted to delight his wife with variety. Nadezhda had never found anything strange in this gesture, but now she thought—perhaps he buys them coming back from his mistress? And how many such occasions were there? Her heart painfully clenched… once again that day.
“How delicious it smells! Every time I return home, I’m thrilled to come back to a tasty dinner and my beloved family,” Arkadiy said with a dreamy smile. He handed the bouquet to his wife, kissed her on the cheek, and smiled. “I missed you terribly. I’ll wash my hands and be right back. Hungry as a wolf.”
Nadezhda put the bouquet in a vase while her husband changed clothes and washed his hands. She tried to hold herself together to not pour out all her emotions on her husband. You should never talk to loved ones in a fit of anger. Twenty-five years of marriage wasn’t a joke. Even if her husband had cheated, for the sake of everything between them, she had to retain at least some respect for him.
After serving dinner on plates, Nadezhda sat at the table.
“Nadyushka, why are you so sad today? Any troubles at work?” Arkadiy joined his wife at the table.
“I know everything…” Nadezhda replied in a detached voice, looking at her husband and silently pursing her lips. “I know everything, Arkash. There’s no point hiding anything from me anymore. You understand that’s not your child, right?”
His mistress could deceive him all she wanted by calling her pregnancy a miracle, but he couldn’t have children. That was precisely why they had decided to adopt a child from the orphanage years ago. The couple had visited more than one doctor, underwent treatment, but then received a diagnosis they couldn’t ignore: Arkadiy was infertile. And now here he was, featured in a photo with a pregnant girl, as if he believed that she was indeed carrying his child. For a moment, Nadezhda thought it might be just some stupid joke, and the girl was a daughter of his good friend… a colleague. But colleagues don’t kiss and hug like that. The photo was too intimate for a mere colleague’s picture. Too much! And why was Arkadiy tagged in the photo? Surely the mistress knew he rarely appeared on social media and wanted to show his wife that her husband was unfaithful, to lure him away from the family. What was she planning next?
“I’m afraid to even ask where you found out everything, my Sherlock… But I suspect, of course, that someone’s trying to trick me. I promise you, I’ll figure everything out.”
“Just like that? You won’t even say it’s not what I think?”
“What’s the point in lying? You already know everything. I just didn’t want to make you nervous, so I didn’t tell you anything. I got involved with her foolishly, and now… I didn’t even think I’d have to deal with the consequences.”
Nadezhda wanted to howl in despair. Deep down, she probably still hoped her husband would defend himself, say that he hadn’t cheated on her, but he only confirmed what she had heard. His words echoed in her head, refusing to stop. They repeated over and over again.
“I said I want to do a DNA test, but she refuses. What kind of discussion can there even be? If she were sure of her honesty, she wouldn’t argue and would do the test. Right?”
Nadezhda grimly smiled, sobbed, and shook her head.
“What made you seek adventures at your age? She’s young enough to be your daughter! I never thought you could do such a thing!”
“What daughter, Nad? Are you talking about Lena? She looks much older than you now! Well, you’re giving me too much credit.”
“You have a Lena too?… Just great! I was talking about Svetlana, the girl sitting on your lap, who signed your photo ‘Daddy’…”
“Wait, Nadyusha… you really misunderstood everything. Svetlana is the daughter they’re trying to pin on me. I thought at first you found out about Lena… I don’t know how she found me, but she claimed that I have an adult daughter who needs a father. I didn’t want to meet her, but she dragged Svetlana to my office, and she clung to me, joyous, claiming to have met her father. She’s pregnant, asking for support because the father of her child ran away. In general, I only sat with her in a cafe once. She asked to take a picture, I couldn’t even imagine she would sit on my lap and start hugging me, I told her straight that I doubt our kinship, and that I can’t have children, but Lena screams that she had no one but me, demands that I don’t push away a daughter now suffering from depression during pregnancy. I gave them my word: either we do a DNA analysis, or they should never cross my path again. I never thought she would post any photos. Maybe it was a plan to break us up? I think we should teach them a lesson.”
A heavy stone fell from Nadezhda’s heart. She cried, unable to keep her emotions to herself. Arkadiy got up from the chair, approached his wife, and hugged her.
“Why are you being silly? We’re like penguins—together forever. I never looked at other women after meeting you, and with Lena, I had a relationship when I was a student, and even then, it didn’t last long. She ran off to someone more successful and declared she didn’t want to know me anymore, and I wasn’t suffering. I felt, probably, that my happiness would definitely find me.”
Arkadiy decided to teach his former lover and her daughter a lesson. The next day, he wrote to Svetlana that he wanted to meet her in a cafe and talk about supporting her. He asked her to come alone, as it was impossible to speak in the presence of her mother. Svetlana arrived joyously, kissed the man, but he immediately gave her a stern look.
“Please observe the decorum, for we are complete strangers to each other, Svetlana.”
“How strangers? You said that you acknowledge your fatherhood and agree to help! What kind of jokes are these? I shouldn’t be nervous! It might harm the baby!”
“If you really shouldn’t be nervous, you would never have gotten involved in this adventure, Svetlana. Now tell me, why did you come up with all this? Wanted to destroy my marriage? I won’t tolerate lies anymore. If you don’t answer my questions directly, I’ll go to the police and accuse you and your mother of fraud.”
Svetlana was genuinely frightened. She started sobbing, trying to appeal to his sympathy, but quickly realized that such tricks didn’t work on Arkadiy.
“I was actually going to go to the police this morning, but I decided to give you a chance because you’re pregnant and still far from your mother. Why did Lena come up with all this?”
“She wanted us to be together again. Mom missed you, Arkadiy. She loved you. She never had any successful relationships after you, and she often reminisced about you…”
“Lies!” Arkadiy shouted, but immediately composed himself because other patrons were starting to look their way. “That’s a blatant lie. I want to know the truth.”
“The truth is that she learned about your successes. She decided to get you back by any means. And she gave me money to play the role of a lovestruck daughter who dreamed of her father. I thought there would be some help from you, but you’re stingy… just like all men. How does your little wife tolerate you, I don’t understand… Probably, you two are a perfect match. And it’s good that nothing worked out. It’s nauseating to smile and rejoice in a kinship that we don’t have, and never did.”
Svetlana jumped up from the chair and quickly left, while Arkadiy rubbed his temples and shook his head. He realized once again how lucky he was with his wife. Another woman in Nadezhda’s place would probably have thrown a fit, screamed, and accused him of all mortal sins, throwing things from the balcony, but his wife treated their past and the feelings they had for each other with respect.
The man returned home and hugged his wife tightly, telling her everything he had learned from Svetlana.
“I suspected it was something like this, just confirmed my suspicions. How wicked people can be… It just blows my mind.”
“I understand. And did you give them a lot of money? Helped them, right? I never asked where you were taking it from our savings, but a lot of money went… I won’t argue if you initially believed and helped them,” Nadezhda cautiously started the conversation.
Arkadiy smiled, kissed his wife on the temple, and stepped back from her.
“And here’s the joyful news I wanted to tell you yesterday, but didn’t because it wouldn’t have been received as joyfully. Anyway, remember I told you I wanted to start my own business? It worked out, Nadya! The permit was issued quickly through an acquaintance. I was afraid something might go wrong, so I didn’t talk about it to not give false hope. Business is going well. Clients have appeared. So soon we’ll be able to buy Maxim an apartment, we’ll travel… we’ll live even better.”
Nadezhda was pleased and praised her husband.
“It’s not me who should be praised, but you… I would never have achieved anything in this life without such a wife. And I will never tire of saying it!”