— “So you’re choosing your pride over our family?” Marina flung the medical report onto the table.
— “How adorable. So now you’re going to blackmail me?” Viktor smirked. “Very original.”
— “Vitya, it’s just a procedure! Millions of couples do it!”
— “Millions of idiots jump off a bridge too. Should I jump as well?”
Three months earlier, Marina had been sitting in the doctor’s office, trying not to show how her hands were trembling. She and Viktor had been trying for a baby for half a year, and month after month the test showed only one line. Fears crept into her mind—what if something was wrong with her? What if she never became a mother? Family had always been her dream, and the thought of being childless terrified her more than any illness.
Viktor drummed his fingers on the armrest, and from his face it was clear—he was no less nervous, he just hid it behind a show of calm.
— “Azoospermia,” the doctor said. “A complete absence of sperm cells. A congenital condition.”
Marina blinked in confusion, not immediately grasping the meaning of the word. But she understood from her husband’s face—the news was bad. Very bad.
Viktor went pale and leaned back in his chair as if he’d been struck. One thought pounded in his head: “Defective. You’re not a real man.” All those months he had secretly blamed his wife for the fact that pregnancy wasn’t happening, and it turned out—the problem was him. And now Marina knew the truth. She knew he wasn’t like other men.
— “Can it be treated?” Marina squeezed her husband’s hand.
She still didn’t fully understand the scale of the problem, but she was already imagining how to explain the delay with grandchildren to their parents. How to justify herself to friends who, one after another, were going on maternity leave.
— “Unfortunately, no,” the doctor shook his head. “The seminiferous tubules didn’t develop properly. It occurs in about one percent of men; the causes aren’t fully understood. I understand how hard this is for a young family to hear…”
He paused, watching Marina’s stunned face.
— “But there is IVF with donor material. It’s a completely safe procedure that gives a woman the chance to give birth to a healthy child.”
Marina clung to those words like a lifeline. So not everything was lost! So she could still become a mother!
But Viktor, in that moment, felt such a surge of anger that he barely restrained himself from standing up and leaving right then. This doctor was calmly suggesting that his wife get pregnant by another man—and talking about it as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world!
— “The success rate for IVF pregnancies can reach forty percent on the first attempt,” the doctor continued. “Many couples choose this path. The child will be genetically related to the mother, and you’ll raise the baby together…”
— “Thank you. We’ll think about it,” Viktor said sharply, standing up.
The doctor’s words hit the most painful place—his masculinity. It meant any stranger could give his wife what he couldn’t. And now he was being asked to accept it—and even be happy about it!
— “Vitya, wait!”
Marina didn’t understand why her husband reacted so harshly. The doctor had offered a solution! A way to have a child!
— “What is there to think about? Someone else’s child is not my child. Period.”
The doctor watched the scene with professional sympathy—he’d had countless conversations like this. Men almost always reacted painfully.
— “Vitya, but we wanted a family!” Marina tried to hold him by the sleeve. “I want to give birth! It doesn’t work with you, but there’s another way!”
— “Another way?” Viktor turned toward her. “You want me to raise a child from some other guy? To look at him every day and remember that I’m defective?”
— “No! I want us to have a family!”
— “Then go to that doctor and let him pick you a donor! Maybe handsome, smart, athletic—everything your husband doesn’t have!”
The doctor cleared his throat delicately.
— “I understand this news is shocking. Take time to think. And remember,” he addressed Marina directly, “the decision is always yours. Both of yours.”
— “Let’s go!” Viktor grabbed his wife’s hand and practically dragged her out of the office.
On the way home, Marina tried to calm him down:
— “Vitya, I understand it’s hard… But we’ll get through it! The main thing is I can give birth!”
— “Not from me.”
— “But I’ll raise the child! And you will too! The baby will be ours in how we raise them!”
— “Shut up,” Viktor stared out the car window. “Just shut up.”
And Marina fell silent, realizing that any words right now would only make things worse.
That evening, Elena Pavlovna, Viktor’s mother, came over. Marina set the table and silently thanked fate that there was at least someone who might influence her stubborn son. An hour earlier she had called her mother-in-law and told her about the diagnosis—Viktor himself had allowed it, saying, “Call whoever you want. Sooner or later everyone will find out anyway.”
— “Mom, no advice,” Viktor said, opening a bottle of wine with trembling hands. He poured himself a full glass and drank it in one gulp.
— “Son, Marinochka is right. The child she carries will be yours in how you raise them.”
When Marina had called a couple of hours ago and haltingly explained the situation, Elena Pavlovna had sunk into a chair, unable to believe what she’d heard. Her boy would never be able to become a father! The first minutes, her head was nothing but chaos and pity for her son.
But when the shock passed, she started thinking clearly. Marina was a young woman who dreamed of children. Elena Pavlovna herself remembered how, in her youth, she had longed for motherhood—how she wanted to rock babies and teach them their first words. If Marina was denied that, she likely wouldn’t stay in the marriage. Which meant her son would lose the woman he loved and still end up without a family.
— “Wonderful! Now even my own mother is against me,” Viktor set his glass down so hard that wine splashed onto the tablecloth. “Maybe we should hold a vote? And you told her everything! So what now—tell the whole town about my problems?”
— “Vitya, I asked your permission! You yourself said—call!” Marina stared at him, bewildered.
— “Vitya, stop being so nervous!” Marina slapped her palm on the table.
She felt sorry for him, but his behavior frightened her. She had never seen such loss of control in him before.
— “And what choice do I have? You’ve teamed up against me!”
— “We want your happiness,” Elena Pavlovna shook her head.
She understood: her son’s happiness was in family. And for Marina, at least, family was impossible without children. If her daughter-in-law gave up motherhood, sooner or later she would leave for someone who could give her a baby.
— “My happiness is not being forced to raise other people’s kids!” Viktor jumped up from the table. “You want a child, Marina? Then go cheat on me! Grow horns on my head and give birth! Why all these complications with donors and hospitals?”
— “Viktor!” Elena Pavlovna gasped.
— “Mom, don’t pretend! You understand—what’s the difference, IVF or cheating? The result is the same: someone else’s child!”
Marina went pale and turned away. The conversation was taking a horrible turn, and her husband clearly needed time to process the blow to his ego.
— “Vitya, today isn’t the time for this. You’re upset…”
— “Upset?” Viktor laughed. “I’m just thrilled to find out I’m defective!”
Three months passed. Marina met her sister Anya at a café—she desperately needed support and advice. Nothing had changed after talking to her husband and mother-in-law, and time kept slipping by.
— “He’s just a stubborn jackass!” Marina crumpled a napkin in her hands.
— “Maybe he just needs time?” Anya looked at her sister helplessly.
When Marina told her about Viktor’s diagnosis, Anya had been silent for a long time, not knowing what to say. The situation seemed hopeless.
— “Three months! He refuses even to discuss it!” Marina sobbed. “Any attempt to talk, he reacts like it’s a personal insult! I’m already afraid to even bring up children!”
— “Call Sergey—he’s his friend. Let him talk to him.”
Anya remembered that a year earlier she’d had a conflict with her own husband, and it was a talk with her best friend that helped her find a way out.
— “Do you think it’ll help?” Marina hesitated.
Dragging family problems outside the home had always felt wrong to her.
— “Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Maybe a man-to-man talk is what he needs. Sergey can support him and, at the same time, explain that you’re not the enemy.”
Marina nodded. In the end, if a friend could influence Viktor and convince him to agree to IVF, then it was worth trying.
A few days later, Sergey came to Viktor’s workplace. They sat in a meeting room.
— “Vityok, don’t be angry at me or Marina. She told me about your problem. I understand how hard it is, but you have to keep living. Look at the situation rationally.”
— “Marina had no right!” Viktor snapped, turning sharply to his friend. “And I’m telling you right away—I’m not raising someone else’s child! Seryoga, understand: Marina can’t get pregnant by me. Nature treated me cruelly, but that’s reality. No!” Viktor slammed his fist on the table. “No чужих детей!”
— “But you love your wife. Think about that.”
— “There’s nothing to think about. My decision is final.”
— “Vityok, you’re an idiot.”
— “Thanks for the support, friend.”
Sergey realized it was pointless to continue.
— “Alright. Let’s talk about work then.”
— “Whatever.” Viktor stood up. “Bye.”
Marina insisted on a family meeting—she wanted support from Viktor’s relatives, hoping they could help change his mind. Deep down, she was preparing for a final decision: if even Viktor’s parents couldn’t persuade him, then further fighting was pointless. Viktor’s parents and Anya came.
— “Son, think again,” Viktor’s father, Pavel Nikolaevich, spoke quietly. “Marina is a good girl,” he said “think again” because he considered his son’s decision unreasonable and destructive.
— “Dad, you too—stay out of it!”
— “Vitya, why are you so selfish?” Anya asked carefully.
— “Oh, the wife’s sister has an opinion too! Let’s invite the neighbors next!” Viktor was furious that his personal life had become a public discussion. Marina watched in silence, trying to find a way to soften the conflict, but she understood her husband was extremely aggressive.
— “VIKTOR!” Marina tried to speak gently but snapped. “Stop mocking everyone!”
— “I’m mocking you? You’ve put me on trial!” He decided it was a trial, not a search for a solution, because everyone present was against his position.
— “We’re trying to help!” his mother said, stunned. She looked at her son with pain and confusion, feeling disappointment in what he had become.
— “You know what? Go to hell, all of you! My life—my rules!” Viktor didn’t want to discuss the problem because he was afraid to admit his own fears. He believed it concerned only him, ignoring his wife’s rights. He blamed Marina for organizing the meeting and planned to simply wait until everyone got off his back.
Viktor slammed the door. Marina covered her face with her hands.
— “Don’t worry, dear,” her mother-in-law said. “He’s just confused.”
— “The boy is struggling,” Pavel Nikolaevich added. “A stress reaction.”
When Viktor’s parents left, Anya hugged her sister:
— “Marina, your husband is a backward, possessive man. He’s pathologically jealous.”
For two days Marina and Viktor didn’t speak. She decided not to provoke a scandal, waiting for her husband to say something, but he lived in the house like a stranger—he even cooked for himself.
Finally, Marina made up her mind and started packing—she had concluded that life together had become unbearable.
— “Where are you going?” Viktor noticed out of the corner of his eye what she was doing, but didn’t even look up from his laptop. At that moment, he despised his wife because he considered her weak. He fantasized that now she would definitely look for a man who could give her a child. Viktor was convinced that as a husband he no longer satisfied her, and that humiliated his male pride.
— “To Anya’s. I can’t be near you anymore.”
— “The blackmail continues? Cute,” he decided it was blackmail because he couldn’t believe she was truly ready to leave him.
— “It’s not blackmail. It’s the end,” Marina said—of their marriage.
— “Dramatic. You won’t win an Oscar for this,” he jabbed at her to protect himself from the pain.
— “You know what? You’re right. чужие дети are terrible. But living with you is worse!” Marina had reached that conclusion after sleepless nights. She remembered considering giving up on children, but then realized: Viktor had accused her of cheating with a coworker, Andrey, just because he had expressed sympathy. She understood her husband had pathological jealousy, and that his refusal to have children was just an attempt to control her life completely. Most of all, she realized he didn’t love her.
— “The door is where it’s always been,” Viktor didn’t try to stop her because he wanted to show he didn’t care, hoping she would give in first.
Marina left, quietly closing the door.
Half a year passed. Viktor sat in a bar with Sergey.
— “She filed for divorce,” Viktor swirled a glass of whiskey. He thought about the divorce bitterly, but still considered himself right.
— “What did you expect?”
— “That she’d come to her senses. Realize I’m right,” he believed in his rightness because he was convinced a man isn’t obligated to raise someone else’s child—that it went against nature.
— “Vityok, you’re an idiot.”
— “Thanks for the support, friend!”
— “She’s pregnant,” Sergey said it to show that Marina had found a way to be happy without Viktor.
Viktor froze—shock and rage hit him at once; he thought of betrayal.
— “What? How?”
— “She did IVF. Without you.”
— “She had no right!” he snapped, because he still saw Marina as his property. Viktor boiled with anger, accusing her of deceit.
— “She did. You’ve been living like you’re divorced for a long time,” Sergey felt happy for Marina because she had managed to fulfill her dream.
— “It’s betrayal! She left me in a hard moment! She promised to be with me forever, but her женские инстинкты were stronger! And what IVF—she probably just slept with someone!”
Sergey looked at his friend with disgust. Viktor had fully shown his true face.
After that conversation, Viktor rushed to his former sister-in-law’s place—climbing the steps, he thought about how he would demand explanations and force Marina to come back.
Marina opened the door.
— “How could you?!” he accused her immediately, because he considered himself the victim.
— “Leave, Viktor.”
— “This is my child too!” he decided, because he couldn’t accept that Marina could live without him.
— “Since when?” Marina was genuinely surprised. “You said you don’t need other people’s children.”
— “But you’re my wife!”
— “Not anymore. And I never will be again.”
Behind Marina, Elena Pavlovna appeared. Seeing his mother, Viktor thought of betrayal by the closest people.
— “Son, go. You destroyed everything yourself,” his former mother-in-law believed he had brought it to this ending with his own actions.
— “Mom? You’re here?” Viktor was shocked that his mother had chosen his ex-wife’s side.
— “I’m going to help Marina. And you… you made your choice,” she decided, because she saw Marina like a daughter who needed support.
— “It’s a conspiracy!”
— “No, Vitya. These are the consequences of your selfishness,” Marina said, and closed the door.
Standing in front of the closed door, Viktor thought everyone had betrayed him. He thought of himself as a victim of circumstances.
Elena Pavlovna didn’t abandon Marina because over those months she had understood: her son’s divorce didn’t cancel her own feelings for the young woman who had become dear to her. Besides, she blamed herself for not supporting Marina enough during the conflict with Viktor. By becoming the baby’s godmother, she felt as if she were correcting her mistake.
Pavel Nikolaevich came for the same reason—he had sincerely come to love Marina like a daughter and wasn’t going to lose her because of his son’s stubbornness. For him, family was defined not by a stamp in a passport but by human relationships.
Viktor stood in the corridor of the maternity ward after his mother’s call. The day before, Elena Pavlovna had told him about Marina’s daughter being born, hoping it would change him. He didn’t plan to go into the room—he just wanted to see them from afar.
When he thought he would remain behind the glass forever, Viktor meant his own choice. He himself had cut off any path back to family when he issued an ultimatum and didn’t back down even after the divorce. Now his parents had chosen Marina and her daughter, and he had become an outsider.
Shame and pride kept him from approaching Marina—shame for what he had done, and pride that wouldn’t let him admit he was wrong. He understood that after everything he had said, he had no right to ask for forgiveness.
In the empty apartment, Viktor wandered through the rooms where Marina had once lived. Her belongings were long gone, but in his mind he reconstructed where everything used to stand. He thought about how he had gotten exactly what he’d demanded—complete independence from “other people’s” problems. Only now did he understand the price of that independence.
He didn’t pity or hate himself—he simply grasped the scale of the loss. Viktor realized that his principles had turned into emptiness. He had been afraid of responsibility for someone else’s child, and in the end he was left without his own family and lost his parents’ respect.
Little Sofia truly became family to all the Vinogradovs—except the one who had been so afraid that blood mattered more than love. Now he sat alone and thought about the fact that family isn’t made by genes.