Diana always felt that she had been incredibly fortunate from birth. She grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and never wanted for anything.
After finishing school, her parents got her into a prestigious university, and then she started working at the family business.
Needless to say, she had her own apartment and car right after school.
At twenty-two, Diana met Nikolay and fell head over heels in love with him.
The man was handsome and had no problems with the opposite sex.
However, to win Diana’s heart and make her his wife, he had to work hard.
All because her parents were against Nikolay. They didn’t like that at twenty-eight, the man worked as a taxi driver, despite having graduated from law school.
Diana, by hook or by crook, managed to persuade her parents to change their opinion of her suitor.
Eventually, her mother and father agreed to Nikolay as a son-in-law and even helped organize and pay for the wedding.
As a gift, her parents bought the newlyweds a country mansion and hinted that they expected grandchildren soon.
Throughout their three years of marriage, Diana never doubted her choice. Nikolay was always attentive and caring towards her, never rude.
However, for some reason of his own, the husband refused to work at the family business.
Nikolay preferred to work as a lawyer in a government structure, but after only two years, he resigned.
Since then and to this day, he has been unsuccessfully looking for a new job, and categorically refused to work for his father-in-law.
Diana didn’t pressure her husband or push him to work, because thanks to regular help from her parents, she and Nikolay could continue to live comfortably.
Diana had a good relationship with her mother-in-law, Ekaterina Danilovna.
The woman often visited and sometimes even stayed overnight. She openly praised her daughter-in-law and tried to please her, so Diana never expected anything bad from her.
Returning from work a couple of hours earlier than usual, she heard voices talking upstairs.
Judging by the voices, it was Nikolay and Ekaterina Danilovna. Diana quietly went upstairs and saw her husband standing in the doorway of the wardrobe room.
“Mom, maybe that’s enough? You’ve already spent a whole hour trying on clothes,” Nikolay said unhappily. Something unintelligible was replied from the depth of the room.
“Dear, what’s going on here?” the girl asked curiously.
“Why are you home so early?” her husband asked, surprised and simultaneously frightened, ignoring her question.
“Father arranged an early day off because of some meeting, I didn’t inquire. And why are you so flustered?” Diana asked, not understanding, and approached her husband.
Nikolay abruptly closed the wardrobe door and tried to lead his wife downstairs.
“Nothing special, just surprised to see you home so early. Let’s go to the kitchen, I’ll make you some delicious cheesy soup,” the husband blurted out nervously.
However, the wife realized that her husband was hiding something from her and confidently entered the wardrobe.
There, she saw Ekaterina Danilovna trying to take off Diana’s evening dress, which was the same size as hers.
“Sunshine, your dresses are so beautiful, I couldn’t resist trying them on,” the mother-in-law said unflappably and smiled sweetly.
Diana was shocked by what was happening and a bit at a loss, not knowing how to react to what she saw.
“How often do you try on my clothes?” the girl asked suspiciously.
Ekaterina Danilovna, pretending nothing had happened, quickly changed back into her own dress.
Nikolay preferred not to get involved in the confrontation and went to the kitchen to set the table.
“I just wanted to see how it fits on me. Sorry if it offended you,” the mother-in-law said calmly. “It’s so beautiful, I’m sure you look magnificent in it. How much does this dress cost?”
“I don’t know, it was a gift from my mom. I hope next time, if you decide to try on my things, you’ll ask me for permission first,” Diana said sternly.
“Of course, dear, don’t be mad at me, I didn’t mean any harm,” Ekaterina Danilovna wailed and hurried to her son in the kitchen, leaving her daughter-in-law in the wardrobe room.
Diana tried to calm down and mechanically began to fold clothes and straighten the suits hanging on the hangers.
When she picked up her husband’s dark blue trousers, a folded paper fell out of the pocket onto the floor.
Diana bent down, picked it up, and read: “Happy anniversary of our meeting, my love! Thank you for last night!”
The girl read the message several times until it dawned on her that the handwriting belonged to neither her nor her husband.
Moreover, she and Nikolay had never celebrated the anniversary of their meeting. At first, she wanted to go down to Nikolay and find out who wrote the note.
However, after some thought, Diana decided that it would be useless. If her husband was cheating on her, he would undoubtedly lie and make up some excuse on the spot.
The girl pocketed the note and went downstairs. By that time, the mother-in-law had already left the mansion, and Nikolay in the kitchen was waiting for her arrival.
The girl sat down to eat with a stony face. The man did not try to engage her in conversation, seeing the displeased expression on her face.
He naively thought that his wife was angry because of Ekaterina Danilovna’s impudence.
“I’m going to meet with friends,” she said calmly after eating. “I’m not inviting you because we agreed to meet in a cafe just us girls.”
With these words, she left the house and got into her car. Diana went into the city, but instead of the cafe, she visited a pet store. There, she bought a collar with a GPS tracker.
Afterward, the girl set it up and linked it to her phone. She returned home later that night when Nikolay was taking a bath.
The wife decided that it was the perfect time to carry out her plan. She took the keys to her husband’s car and hid the collar in the trunk.
The next two days were uneventful. The man behaved as usual and went nowhere.
Diana even began to think that she had overreacted because of a silly note.
On Monday, with a calm heart, she went to work. Around noon, a notification arrived on her phone that her husband’s car had started moving.
Diana curiously began to track Nikolay’s movements. According to the GPS tracker report, he first drove to an apartment building, stayed there for about an hour, and then went to a shopping center.
Burning with curiosity, Diana couldn’t resist and ran off from work. She wanted to find out what her husband was doing at the shopping center.
However, finding Nikolay in the huge shopping center was not easy. But luck smiled on the girl, and she noticed a tall figure near the entrance to a grocery supermarket.
Diana cautiously headed in his direction. When she got closer, she saw her husband in the company of a woman and two children—three and six years old.
Suddenly both kids started jumping around Nikolay and loudly shouting:
“Daddy, daddy! Will you buy us ice cream today?”
The man leaned towards them with a joyful face and whispered something, after which the children calmed down. Diana approached her husband on shaky legs and with trembling lips uttered:
“What does all this mean? Why do they call you daddy?”
“Diana, what are you doing here? Let’s go outside, we need to talk,” Nikolay said nervously and took his wife by the elbow.
He literally dragged her outside and with a pale face began to explain. It turned out that when Nikolay met Diana, he was already in a common-law marriage with Liza, who was pregnant with their second child at the time.
The young people lived poorly, and for state payments, they registered Elizabeth as a single mother.
For this reason, the man’s passport never had a stamp about marriage and children.
Liza, Nikolay’s civil wife, came up with a plan to improve their financial situation.
Elizabeth suggested that Nikolay make Diana fall in love with him and get money from her.
At first, the man refused this idea, but after long persuasions, he agreed.
However, as the money came in, Liza’s appetites grew. Eventually, she insisted that Nikolay marry Diana. Thus, the man started living with two families.
“Diana, if you love me, don’t tell your parents anything for a couple of months and don’t file for divorce. I haven’t found a job yet, and Liza and I need to pay off the mortgage,” Nikolay begged.
“Do you hear yourself? You’ve brazenly deceived me for over three years and led a double life, and now you have the nerve to ask for something?” Diana asked, wiping away tears, bewildered.
“Understand, it’s all for the kids. You don’t want them to end up on the street, do you?” the husband tried to appeal to her pity.
“I don’t want that, but it’s not my problem. Did Ekaterina Danilovna know that you have another family?” the girl asked tiredly.
“Yes, mother knew everything from the beginning,” Nikolay admitted guiltily.
“Give me the car keys,” Diana demanded. “Since mother knew everything, let her help you pay off the mortgage.”
Nikolay sighed heavily and obediently took the keys out of his pocket and handed them to his wife.
“Don’t come home, your things will be sent to you, as well as the divorce papers,” the girl said bitterly and walked away.
Diana made her way home in tears. She could hardly believe that her beloved husband had been leading her on for over three years.
Within two months, the spouses were divorced. Meanwhile, life for Nikolay and Liza became even more difficult.
Without Diana’s financial support, they were forced to cut their expenses, and the mortgage hung heavily on their shoulders. The man’s mother refused to help them, stating that her son was entirely to blame.