a girl. She had already secretly named her, Eva.
Since then, the Bryantsevs family has had a black streak. Olga gave up her job at the state gallery and devoted herself to her son. And if his grandmother had taken care of him before, now both women were praying for him. At first, the husband blamed his wife's insanity on a severe loss and then realized that the wife had gone mad because of her only son. All-day long they waited for him from school, taking him to music, drawing, and language classes. Maxim wanted to give him to swim but met with such a cruel rebuff that he closed the subject.
Once Oleg, spoiled by two eternal servants, stole a pension from his grandmother's purse and bought binoculars, cigarettes, and chocolate. Maxim wanted to punish the impudent youth, but his mother and grandmother, with bloodshot eyes, rushed at his father and son-in-law like tigresses.
The head of the family began to come home later and later. Then he started staying with a work colleague. But he left the family like a decent man, leaving everything when the child turned eighteen.
Oleg, who had pretty much driven his mother and grandmother with his antics, became subdued after his father left. Looking at himself from the outside, he shook himself up, entered the Moscow Polytechnic, and moved to a hostel. Without his mother and his grandmother, it was difficult for the first few weeks. Then he forgot that someone had cooked for him, washed, cleaned, and ironed. He made friends with his classmates and was surprised to discover football and swimming.
Oleg was the best in computer science at the University. In the late nineties, computers were available to ordinary citizens like spaceships. And having learned that the computer wants their happiness, his mother and his grandmother called Oleg's father and asked for half of the sum of money. He listened to the offer, bought and brought to them a real computer, a gift for his son's birthday by himself.
The only condition that the computer was at the mother’s and grandmother’s flat (Maxim's former apartment), Oleg was happy as a young dolphin. Now he disappeared for days in the family home. Mother Olya and grandmother Zina was crying with emotions of happiness, his father came once a week to visit his son and always found him at home, on the spot. Moreover, Anatoliy, his best friend, who was finishing medical school, came to work on the computer with Oleg every day. And women, instead of one, now had a double joy. They loved Tolik as if he was their son and grandson.
Chapter 9
Vera spoke to Oleg rather coldly, for the first time in a long period of their relationship.
– Cat, hi, why are you so sad?
– Oleg, I called you a lot of times the day before yesterday and yesterday. I decided not to bother you today. My friend picked me up from the hospital yesterday and brought me home.
"From the hospital?" What happened? he pretended to be so surprised that even Vera, who was in love with him, did not believe him this time.
"Stop being ridiculous. I was taken to the hospital to see your friend, your wife. Didn't you know? You didn't get a call? Or did you decide not to bother me? I will die so I will die, – self-pity covered the girl with such force that she hung up for the first time.
As she washed away her angry tears with mascara in the bathroom, she didn't pay attention to the screen when the sound of the bell echoed across the tile.
"I've already told you. Is something unclear?
"Excuse me, is this Vera?"
The voice on the other end of the line was agitated and trembling. Obviously, the woman had been preparing for this conversation for a long time. And today I decided to dial the desired number.
"Who are you and what do you want?"
– Vera, my name is Larisa, Larisa Belozerskaya… I'm Oleg's ex-girlfriend. Oleg MaksimovichBryantsev. I want to talk to you. Can I meet you?
"I've already met his wife, thank you and goodbye," the current mistress sighed heavily and was about to hang up when she heard the next scream:
”I know that you are not able to have children. Ara brought you as a sacrifice to her gods!”
Vera's hands began to shake, and the tremor was so strong that the switched-on phone fell on the snow-white tile. The phone was still calling her name.
Vera leaned the broken screen against her face and answered:
"Come to my house. I'll text you the address.
– Vera, you are in touch, thank God. I'm sorry, but I know your address. I also lived in this apartment for several years.
Larisa Belozerskaya rang the doorbell exactly thirty minutes later. A tall, slender woman in her thirties looked chic. Dark, long hair, light brown eyes, a perfect face minimally touched with makeup, on the lips a nude fashionable shade of lipstick and a light train of expensive perfume, a black turtleneck, jeans, jewelry only a watch of a famous Swiss brand and a diamond ring on the ring finger.
It was these details that Vera noted as Lyalya, short variant of the name Larisa, took off her outer clothing and left her bag in the corridor, followed the hostess to the kitchen.
– Tea? Coffee? – Vera barely uttered the words, such a crazy weight, fatigue, physical and moral pain fell on her, that she was becoming smaller and grayer in front of the gorgeous Lyalya.
"Thank you, if you can, I’ll just have a glass of water."
Belozerskaya immediately went to the main point. To a story about yourself.
She met Oleg accidentally, at the birthday of a rich mutual friend, they instantly liked each other, and Larisa found out that Oleg was married to Ara a few months later. She told me about the house in Thailand, about how wonderful they were traveling in Europe, and then her lover rented this apartment for her.
Vera had a terrible headache, and she could hear all the words remotely. She remembered how, as a child, her mother used to wear a rabbit fur hat in the winter so that Vera wouldn't get cold in her ears. The cap was warm and large, the gray fur tickled Vera's face, and the strings under her chin pressed against her neck. She said that nothing could be heard in this hat, and when her mother called her home from the ice slides, Vera pretended that she did not hear her mother's screams and promises to be punished for such a bad behavior.
Even now Vera was sitting in front of Larisa, and the words of her former lover reached her through the child's fur hat, although she heard and understood every word. The invisible strings were tight around her neck, and she drew in her breath noisily and heavily.
"Vera, are you ill?" she heard Larisa's words clearly and clearly.
"No, no, it's all right. Just recently I was in the clinic, probably, this is still the effect of drugs and anesthesia.
"That's why I came to you. You see, I was in this clinic, too. The fact is that I got pregnant from Oleg. He met this with hostility, took me to the clinic for an abortion under the careful guidance of Anatoly Ivanovich. Yes, Yes. That. I was terribly worried, I wanted to keep the baby. But then my friend who works in this clinic told me that Oleg had already brought his mistress here for an abortion a few years ago. She died on the operating table. According to the documents, the cause of death was an allergy to anesthesia. Unfortunately, this happens, doctors also make mistakes, not checking the patient for tolerance. But the strangest thing is that my friend told me that during the operation, instead of Oleg, ArinaBryantseva, Oleg's wife, was sitting under the door. The staff signed a non-disclosure agreement, but when my friend saw me on the
