— “Valya! Valentina! What’s wrong with you?” With each passing second, Boris’s loud voice grew quieter and quieter. Within a minute, the woman could no longer make out her husband’s words. She couldn’t hear or see anything at all. After an emotional conversation, Valentina suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed.
She came to when her husband brought a piece of cotton to her nose. The sharp, extremely unpleasant smell instantly brought Valya back to her senses.
“What happened?” Trying to recall the last few seconds, she looked around the room. “Did I… fall? Right onto the floor?”
“Are you kidding me?” her husband set the vial aside, shot his wife a fleeting glance, and smirked. “Do you think I’ll stay if you start fainting? Is that your plan?”
“In what sense?” At first Valya didn’t understand what Boris was talking about, but then she remembered why she’d lost consciousness.
A few minutes earlier, her husband had confessed he’d been cheating for a long time. For almost five months Boris had been secretly seeing a younger woman, and now he had decided to leave for her for good.
“We lived together for a whole twenty-five years, and you’re just going to take it all and cross it out like this!” Valya wept quietly, refusing to believe what was happening. Despite their strained relationship, she still loved Boris.
“Nothing there to cross out,” her husband grumbled. “We’ve been living like roommates for a long time. The kids are grown and gone, there’s nothing tying us together.”
“Nothing tying us together?” A lump rose in her throat. “What about feelings, Boris? Do you really feel nothing for me?”
“Did you hit your head when you fell?” the man sneered. “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? My Natasha—now that’s different. Beautiful, smart, slim, toned… And you? Oh, please…”
“And how old is this Natasha of yours? Twenty? Twenty-five? You think she won’t change? You think she’ll be young all her life?”
“She won’t change,” Boris snorted. “For me, she’ll be beautiful forever!”
With that conviction, the man packed his suitcases and left for the young woman, while Valya stayed alone in her parents’ apartment.
After the painful divorce, she stopped living and merely existed. Falling into depression, Valentina couldn’t come to terms with her husband’s betrayal. Plump and rosy-cheeked Valya lost a lot of weight, and her face turned a grayish hue.
“Daughter, what’s wrong?” Her mother, Antonina Igorevna, visited Valya from time to time. They lived in neighboring districts. For several months she had watched her daughter fade. “What’s happening to you? Why are you tormenting yourself like this? Stop it. Come on, get up. We’ll have lunch together.”
“I don’t want to eat. I feel nauseous, and my head is spinning.”
“That’s nausea from hunger, and the dizziness is from weakness. You look awful. You absolutely need to eat,” Antonina Igorevna said, on the verge of tears as she looked at her daughter.
“That’s not why I lost weight. And the nausea is for another reason,” Valya raised herself up in bed and looked at her mother in despair. “I have on… cology…”
At her daughter’s words, a ringing filled Antonina Igorevna’s ears. All this time she’d thought Valentina just had depression, but it turned out she was sick as well.
“I found out a few hours before Boris confessed to his affair.”
“Does he know? Did you tell him? Or did you spare his nerves?”
“I wanted to tell him that day but didn’t have time. Boris started talking first, and after that it seemed pointless…”
“How is it pointless? Nonsense! You should have told him later!”
“What for? Do you think he would have stayed? And even if he had, why would I need that? I want to be loved, not have someone live with me out of pity.”
“To hell with that Boris!” Antonina Igorevna spat theatrically. “Better tell me how you’re getting treated. What do the doctors say?”
“Nobody says anything…” Valya lay back down and turned away from her mother. “I’m not getting treated, and I don’t want to.”
“What do you mean…” Antonina Igorevna’s heart clenched. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to live. I don’t see any point…”
Her daughter’s words shocked her. She had thought Valya wasn’t trying to get better because she had no chances, but it turned out to be much more complicated. Valentina didn’t want to live because her husband had betrayed her after twenty-five years of marriage.
“What are you saying?!” cried Antonina Igorevna. “How is there no point?! What about your children? What about me? What about your father? Are we less important than your philanderer of a husband? You want to burn out because of that scoundrel and miss your children’s weddings and the birth of future grandchildren? Is that it?”
“I feel awful, Mom!” Her mother’s words had an effect. For the first time, Valentina burst into loud sobs and threw herself into her mother’s arms. “Why did he do this to me? Did I deserve this?”
“No, you didn’t!” her mother shook her head, wiping away tears. “You deserve a long, happy life! You must fight, do you understand? If anything happens to you, I’ll die too!”
Sitting on the bed, mother and daughter talked and cried for a long time. In the end, Antonina Igorevna convinced Valya that she needed treatment. The very next day the emaciated, weakened woman turned to doctors for help.
For several months, Valentina was periodically hospitalized. She went through more than words could describe. Endless therapies, hair loss, exhaustion… and a completely new outlook on the world. These were the hardest days of her life. Eventually, Valya underwent surgery and the tumor was removed. The doctors gave no prognoses regarding her future or her chances of recovery, but after some time, her body began to rebound.
When Valentina first went outside after the operation, she drew the spring air deep into her lungs and began to cry. This time they were tears not of sorrow, but of joy. For months she had been bottling up so many emotions that now they were all bursting out. She didn’t care how she looked or what people around her thought. She was alive. And in that moment she felt life in a special way—the right way—without any extra “lenses.”
As remission set in, Valentina became truly happy. Not long ago, she hadn’t even wanted to consult a doctor, let alone go under a surgeon’s knife. But now everything was entirely different. Over this difficult period, Valentina had rethought her beliefs. Only now did she understand that life is the most precious thing a person has, a Great Gift, and no Boris is worthy of being the reason to forfeit that Gift because of his betrayal.
These right thoughts didn’t come to Valya immediately. She began to consider the value of her life only when, in her darkest hour, she was supported by her beloved children, parents, relatives, and even colleagues. Each in their own way respected and loved her, and wanted to witness her recovery.
But what influenced Valentina most was the birth of her first granddaughter. While she lay in the hospital recovering from serious surgery, her daughter gave birth to a girl. Seeing the child for the first time, Valya understood what the true meaning of her life was. It wasn’t Boris or any other man. It was her parents, children, and grandchildren, whom she loved so deeply. Without them and their support, she would never have managed to overcome that terrible illness.
For a long time, Valentina heard nothing about her ex-husband. In the first six months, people said Boris had moved to another region with the young woman. But a couple of years later the ex-husband resurfaced. He got in touch with the children and began to maintain a relationship with them.
“Mom, would you mind if my brother and I keep talking to Dad? He wants to see his granddaughter and be part of her life,” her daughter asked cautiously when Valya came to visit.
“No, of course not. Why are you even asking? You and Kolya are already adults—you should decide for yourselves whom to speak to and whom not,” Valentina replied. “So, has your father come back? I thought he left the city.”
“Yes, he arrived recently. Now Dad works here and is renting an apartment on the outskirts.”
“How did his precious darling dare to leave it all and come back? What didn’t work out for them?” Valya asked with irony.
“Actually, Dad came back alone. He left his live-in girlfriend. Turns out, the young lady found herself a young fiancé. Dad ended up alone.”
“Amazing!” the woman smirked. “You can talk to your father, but please spare me his presence. I don’t want to think about the past. I want to think only about the future.”
After her illness and surgery, Valentina’s worldview changed completely. She still felt ashamed in front of her mother. If not for Antonina Igorevna, Valya would have been gone long ago. She wouldn’t have seen the granddaughter who was recently born. Nor would Valya have attended her son’s wedding. Kolya married right after his mother recovered. Valya witnessed all these events thanks to Antonina Igorevna, who convinced her in time to seek help.
Valentina never despaired again. Now she knew there is nothing more valuable than one’s own life and the lives of loved ones. Even when everything is very bad, one must always believe that it will get better