The nurse brought me tea in a paper cup.
It had cooled down a while ago, but I still had it in my hands.
Sometimes you need heat, but not for your body.
To feel that you are still here.
That you were not erased.
Later I discovered that Veronica was the first to confess it.
Not out of conscience.
Out of fear.
He said it was his mother who made it all up.
That she simply went with her.
I thought that later on I would officially “change my mind”.
This word was the most terrible.
As if a child were a matter of pressure.
As if motherhood could be rewritten by someone else’s stubbornness.
As if one woman’s pain gave her the right to enter another woman’s room and decide the baby’s fate.
Galina Petrovna was released on bail.
The investigation progressed rapidly.
They had a video.
There were signs.
There was a coup.
There were documents.
There was intent.
That was enough.
But for me, the most important thing didn’t happen during the interrogation.
And not in the police corridor.
The main event occurred on the afternoon of the third day.
Artyom collected his mother’s things from our apartment.
Silently.
Without heroism.
Without boasting that he had finally understood everything.
I just brought the boxes out into the hallway.
On top was her favorite tablecloth, which she herself had once brought, saying that there should be a “normal housewife” in the house.
He returned to the room late.
He sat down next to me.
I watched the children for a while.
Then he said:
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to forgive me. But I won’t let anyone decide for us.”
Before, these words would have been enough for me.
But after giving birth in the hospital, you start to hear everything differently.
When they tried to take your son away from you, you began to understand very clearly the price of broken promises.
I didn’t respond immediately.
Sometimes, silence is not a sign of weakness.
Sometimes it’s the only honest thing left.
We were discharged after five days.
There were no flowers in the painting.
There were no happy family photos.
I asked to bring only the children and the bag.
No guests allowed.
No balls.
Without trying to pretend that everything is okay.
The exit from the department smelled of bleach and wet jackets.
