I almost laughed.
But the pain only caused difficulty breathing.
For how many months did he tell everyone that his son was supporting a lazy wife?
How many times have you repeated in my presence that only those who don’t work have beautiful hands?
How many times have I looked at my things, my books, my posture, as if it were a suspicious deception.
And yet they did not try to find out the truth.
The humiliating version was enough for her.
Because it was more convenient.
“The patient has a wound on her face,” the nurse said. “And a recent suture. Remove the baby immediately.”
This time, Galina Petrovna had to give Leo away at the altar.
When they placed the baby next to me, I cried for the first time in all this time.
It’s not pretty.
He is not calm.
How they weep for the postponed horror.
When everything could have ended differently.
A few minutes later, the head of the department and the investigator on duty were already in the room.
The police were officially notified.
The installation of cameras in the hallway was requested immediately.
The nurse gave a statement.
The nurse too.
It turned out that Galina Petrovna did not enter the apartment alone.
Veronica actually came with her.
I was sitting in the car near the emergency room.
With an empty child car seat in the back seat.
Upon hearing this, a new wave of cold washed over me.
So it wasn’t an impulse.
It’s not a family scene.
It’s not hysteria.
They got ready.
The documents were fake, but they were carefully crafted.
With the seals of a private notary.
With language designed to frighten.
In a woman after surgery.
At its weak point.
About his loneliness.
They asked me to call my husband.
I closed my eyes.
This call scared me almost as much as what happened.
Because now not everything depended on position.
Not from the cameras.
Not from the police.
And it will depend on who he chooses when there is no more room for excuses.
Artyom arrived in forty minutes.
I was staring at the door the whole time.
On the white handle.
Over the shadow behind the frosted glass.
Over the wet footprints of someone’s boots in the hallway.
When he came in, he had the face of a man who still hoped there had been a misunderstanding.
Then he saw my bruise.
I saw Leo in my arms.
I saw a policeman at the window.
And then he aged.
– Lena…
He took a step towards me.
But I moved.
Just a little bit.
That was enough.
He understood.
“Your mother tried to take our son,” I said. “Your sister was waiting in the car.”
He remained silent for a long time.
At that moment, a person decides what they will be like in the future.
Son.
Husband.
Father.
Or a coward who chooses the role that causes him the least pain.
“Mom said you weren’t yourself after the operation,” he finally said.
Not because he didn’t hear me.
Because I needed the last bridge.
The last chance to not see it all.
I looked at him in a way I never had before.
Without asking.
Without hope of being loved.
— The cameras recorded everything, Artyom.
He sat down in a chair leaning against the wall.
That same cheap plastic chair for visitors.
Curved.
Extra.
For the first time in his life, he could not be saved by kind words.
