“Dear guests, I have a very special birthday present for my husband,” Svetlana said, pulling a small box from her handbag. Her mother-in-law’s face turned green with rage.
“Disgraceful! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, you tramp?!” Galina Arkadyevna burst out.
The guests fell silent. An oppressive hush descended over the table. Svetlana’s husband turned red, and the muscles in his jaw tightened with anger…
Sveta was sitting in the corridor of the clinic, holding her older sister’s hand and desperately trying to find the right words to comfort and encourage her. But what could anyone possibly say in a situation like this?
Tears streamed down Masha’s face. The doctor had just told her that she had serious problems with her reproductive system. Her chances of becoming pregnant were extremely low. She needed treatment, and that treatment would require a great deal of time and money. Worst of all, there were no guarantees.
“What am I supposed to do now, Sveta?” Masha looked at her sister.
“Don’t lose hope. Everything will work out. The most important thing is to believe,” Sveta said, squeezing her sister’s hand.
Although she tried to appear brave, a strange anxiety was growing inside her. She was worried not only about Masha, but also… about her own future.
Sveta herself had been married for two years.
At first, she and Yegor had decided to live “for themselves.” They traveled, toured different cities across their vast and beautiful country, and enjoyed married life. Then Sveta began concentrating on her career. She received a promotion and a salary increase. Yegor was doing well too. He certainly wasn’t sitting around at home—he worked hard.
Then one day, as the couple walked past a children’s store, Sveta finally asked:
“Darling, maybe it’s time?”
“Well… if you’re ready.”
“I don’t think anyone can ever be one hundred percent ready for it. But if we keep putting it off, there will always be something that seems more important—a renovation, a new car, a vacation. I’m afraid we might miss the right time. Like Masha… She and her husband have been married for ten years, and they still don’t have children.”
“Oh, she probably just got a bad doctor,” Yegor said dismissively, waving his hand.
“She’s been to several doctors. What if we have problems too?”
“Come on. We’re both healthy.”
“Then let’s not postpone it.”
“Whatever you want,” Yegor replied indifferently.
Several months passed, but Sveta did not become pregnant.
“Listen, it’s normal. Half the married people at my office complain that it didn’t happen immediately for them either,” Yegor said with a shrug.
“Maybe we need treatment?”
“It’s probably just the environment. Everything happens when it’s supposed to.”
“Still, we should get examined.”
“Fine. But don’t become obsessed with it. We’re not in a hurry,” her husband replied.
The months went by.
Sveta continued supporting Masha while secretly wondering whether perhaps their problems were hereditary. She underwent several tests, but the doctors found nothing unusual.
Sveta did not panic. She read discussions online and realized that such things could be normal. Not everyone conceived immediately.
Yegor remained calm as well and never made the situation seem more serious than it was.
Galina Arkadyevna, however—Sveta’s mother-in-law—only smirked.
“No one in our family has ever had problems like that. If there’s one thing I know, my Yegor is as healthy as an ox. It’s you girls who seem to have everything wrong.”
And now, sitting in the clinic corridor beside Masha after yet another unsuccessful IVF attempt, Sveta felt truly frightened for the first time.
If her sister had such serious difficulties, perhaps there really was something hereditary on the female side of their family.
Maybe Sveta wasn’t healthy either…
A chill ran over her skin.
“Svetochka, darling, you should get checked too,” Masha suddenly said, wiping away her tears and looking seriously at her sister. “For your own sake. Just get examined so you know.”
Sveta said nothing and merely nodded.
She didn’t admit that she had already begun undergoing tests and that she too had been unable to become pregnant for several months.
That same evening, a serious conversation took place at home.
Galina Arkadyevna happened to be visiting. She overheard what her daughter-in-law was saying and immediately decided to contribute her opinion.
“If you want to be cured, you need to go to Valentina Vasilyevna,” her mother-in-law declared.
“I’m not sick. I don’t need to be cured,” Sveta replied coldly. “There’s no reason to treat me like I’m defective before we even know what’s happening.”
“Oh, come on,” Galina Arkadyevna said dismissively. “It’s obvious that there are abnormalities on the female side of your family.”
“Galina Arkadyevna! How can you say something like that?”
“Mom, seriously…” Yegor tried to defend his wife.
“I simply want healthy grandchildren,” his mother said. “That’s why you’re going to a doctor I trust. End of discussion.”
Sveta decided not to argue.
A couple of days later, she was sitting in the office of Valentina Vasilyevna—the very same “best gynecologist” recommended by her mother-in-law.
Galina Arkadyevna had described the woman as practically a medical genius. Besides, she was an old friend. Surely she wouldn’t give bad advice.
Valentina Vasilyevna appeared attentive and serious.
As soon as she looked through Sveta’s test results, she frowned.
“Are you certain you’ve never had any chronic illnesses?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. “There are several things here that concern me. We need a much more thorough examination. You see, there also appears to be a hormonal imbalance. Have you been taking any medication?”
“No.”
“When was the last time you saw an endocrinologist?”
“I had tests done. Everything was normal.”
“Oh, it might have been normal then. That doesn’t mean everything is normal now.”
Valentina Vasilyevna talked for a long time, told stories about patients from her practice and… frightened Sveta terribly.
Sveta practically walked home on trembling legs.
She chose not to repeat the entire conversation to her husband.
Galina Arkadyevna, however, naturally managed to extract the supposedly confidential medical details from her friend and soon arrived at her son’s home wearing a mournful expression.
“I told you there were problems in your family!”
“Galina Arkadyevna… Please don’t.”
“No. My son deserves to know that he married a defective woman.”
Sveta could not bear those words.
She jumped up from the table and ran into the bedroom.
“Mom…” Yegor said quietly before following his wife to comfort her.
From that evening onward, Sveta’s life changed completely.
There were endless tests, repeated appointments, treatment plans, vitamins, injections.
Yegor watched all of it with detached indifference.
“Well, go ahead and get treatment. I’m not rushing you. We have plenty of time. And if it doesn’t happen, then maybe we just won’t have children.”
“What do you mean, we won’t?! Darling, maybe… maybe you should get checked too? Just so we can know for certain. My test results don’t actually show anything definite. Everything seems normal, but Valentina Vasilyevna always manages to find something. Some tiny issue…”
“What about me? Everything is fine with me. I’ve already been checked!”
“Still…”
“Do you think we have unlimited money?!” Yegor snapped. “You’ve already spent our entire vacation budget on your tests and vitamins!”
“Sorry,” Sveta said quietly. “I promise I’ll get everything back to normal.”
Yegor nodded.
The following day, he placed some papers in front of his wife.
“Here. Now you can stop bothering me,” he said.
Sveta saw that they were medical test results. She didn’t study them carefully, but from what she could understand, her husband’s results were perfect.
That meant the problem really was with her.
Her mother-in-law only made things worse.
At Sveta’s birthday celebration, Galina Arkadyevna stood to make a toast and publicly humiliated her in front of all the relatives.
“I wish our dear Svetochka a speedy recovery so she can finally give me grandchildren. I certainly hope we won’t have to resort to artificial methods like some people.”
She paused and nodded toward Masha.
“Your sister has problems, after all. How many IVF attempts has she already had? And none of them worked. We don’t need defective genes in our family. Everyone in our family is healthy! So let’s drink to good health.”
Sveta blushed and remained silent.
She was deeply shocked by this so-called birthday toast and felt terribly hurt by her mother-in-law.
Masha got up from the table altogether and left the celebration, claiming she had something urgent to take care of.
“What did I say?” Galina quietly justified herself to her son after her “speech.” “I only said what plenty of people are already thinking.”
Sveta became increasingly irritated.
A growing sense of doubt and resentment took root inside her.
Especially after her next visit to the doctor.
That day, when she once again came to Valentina Vasilyevna’s clinic, a nurse was administering one of the special IV treatments prescribed to Sveta.
Suddenly, the nurse spoke quietly.
“I can see there hasn’t been much progress… You’ve been coming here for quite a while now.”
“Yes. Sometimes it feels as though I came here perfectly healthy, but every time I leave, I have a new problem,” Sveta said with a sad smile. “Although Valentina Vasilyevna is such a caring doctor. And you’ve been wonderful too. I’ll miss you when you leave.”
“Yes, I really am quitting,” the nurse replied.
Then she lowered her voice to a whisper.
“And I have some advice for you. Go to another clinic. An independent one. Without your mother-in-law and without your husband. Do it for yourself. And don’t tell them you’ve already been examined.”
Sveta froze.
At first she wanted to object, but then she realized that, strictly speaking, she really hadn’t seen any other specialists.
Her local therapist and the doctor at the public clinic didn’t count. That had been a long time ago, and everything had been rushed. It wasn’t the kind of thorough examination that should be done when dealing with something so important.
“But I feel like they’ve already examined every inch of me here,” Sveta whispered.
“Here? Yes. But I strongly recommend seeing a doctor somewhere else. I’ve seen a lot of women during my career, and I have a feeling that you’re healthy.”
The nurse’s words were sobering, unexpected, and invigorating—like being hit with a bucket of ice water.
Svetlana didn’t hesitate.
She followed the nurse’s advice.
The doctor at the independent clinic gave her an astonishingly simple answer:
Sveta was healthy.
No inflammation.
No hormonal abnormalities.
“But what if I haven’t become pregnant in two years?”
“Then your partner needs to be examined, because there’s nothing wrong with you,” the doctor replied calmly.
Sveta showed him the test results and records from Valentina Vasilyevna’s clinic.
“Lady, what exactly do you want me to tell you?” the doctor asked.
He wasn’t nearly as gentle as her mother-in-law’s friend. His manner was somewhat blunt and direct.
But he told Sveta exactly what she had been waiting to hear.
“I already told you clearly: you’re healthy. Go have a baby. You should have sent your husband to a doctor. From the looks of things, he’s the one who isn’t ready for fatherhood.”
Sveta did not go home afterward.
Instead, she went to see her sister.
They talked for a long time, considered everything they knew, and finally decided what to do.
A week later, Sveta told Yegor that she was going away for “treatment.”
“You know, I realized I’ve spent far too much of my health trying to ‘get healthy,’” she told him.
“You think a trip to the Caucasus is going to cure you?” Yegor asked skeptically.
“Yes. I’m sure I can get pregnant. I just need a change of scenery.”
“Well, go then,” her husband said with a shrug. “Just make sure you’re back for my birthday. I want everyone together.”
Three weeks later…
“Dear guests, I have a special present for my husband,” Sveta announced.
She had returned just in time for the celebration. Her face was glowing, and she seemed to have gained a little weight.
Sveta stood up and continued.
“Yegor, Galina Arkadyevna, what you’ve been waiting for all this time has finally happened. I’m pregnant.”
Demonstratively, Sveta poured her wine into Yegor’s glass.
“I’m not allowed to drink anymore.”
“What did you say?” her mother-in-law gasped. “You don’t joke about things like that.”
“I said I’m expecting a baby. You’re going to be a grandmother.”
“That’s impossible!” Galina Arkadyevna muttered.
Silence fell over the table.
Sveta’s mother looked at her daughter’s mother-in-law in confusion.
“Why would it be impossible? Svetochka has been receiving treatment from your friend for so long, Galya.”
“Sveta is barren! She couldn’t have gotten pregnant!” Galina shrieked, glaring furiously at the pregnancy test with two lines that Svetlana held right under her nose.
“You filthy little tramp! What have you done?!” Yegor jumped to his feet. “This pregnancy is a lie! You didn’t go to a health resort—you went off sleeping with other men! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”
“Will somebody finally explain what’s going on?!” Yegor’s father slammed his fist on the table.
“Sveta got pregnant by another man! What’s so difficult to understand?! Obviously, she couldn’t possibly become pregnant by our Yegor!” Galina Arkadyevna blurted out, glaring at her daughter-in-law with hatred.
“Really?” Svetlana said through clenched teeth. “Then perhaps you’d like to explain to the whole family exactly why that is. Maybe because your precious son is the one with a medical problem? Because he’s the infertile one, not me?”
She stared directly at her mother-in-law.
“Why are you silent? I know everything. The people at the clinic told me your little friend had been deceiving me.”
“Who told you?!” Galina snapped, no longer even trying to hide the truth. “I’ll find them and sue them!”
“You’re the one who should be sued!” Svetlana’s mother stood up and moved toward her daughter’s mother-in-law, clenching her fists. “You terrified and humiliated my daughter!”
“Get out, you disgraceful people! Get out of my son’s house!”
Another few seconds and the two mothers might actually have come to blows.
Fortunately, Yegor’s father separated them.
Svetlana, however, had no intention of staying in that house any longer.
She had never unpacked her suitcase. She put the rest of her belongings inside it and headed for the door.
“So you’re leaving?” her husband called after her.
“You knew,” she said, turning around. “You knew the whole time! You and your mother—you were both tormenting me.”
“I hoped you’d eventually accept it and stop planning to have children!” Yegor shouted. “People can live perfectly well without kids, but no! You’re too stubborn! So you went and did something like this! You found another man! That was stupid. Now you’ll live in poverty with some bastard child!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll survive,” she replied.
Then she looked at her mother.
“Mom, let’s go. They can keep lying to each other. We’re not participating in this circus anymore.”
Sveta and her mother left.
Soon afterward, the guests also began leaving Yegor’s birthday party.
Almost all the relatives sided with Sveta.
That evening, the family finally understood what kind of person Galina Arkadyevna really was—and just how rotten the people in that household could be.
Of course, Sveta had invented the entire pregnancy.
She wanted to expose her husband and mother-in-law and force them to reveal the truth, even if that meant using deception herself.
Sveta and Yegor eventually divorced.
There was nothing left connecting them.
Yegor remained with his diagnosis and his mother, while Sveta eventually married again.
She met a businessman who told her from the beginning that he dreamed of having a large family—three children.
“I want children too,” Sveta replied. “Let’s not put it off.”
Their first night as husband and wife was enough.
Surprising?
Not really.
Both partners were healthy, and neither of them was deceiving the other.
When Sveta finally discovered that she truly was expecting a baby, she burst into tears.
But this time they were not tears of fear.
They were tears of happiness.
Masha eventually became a mother too.
She gave birth to twins.
After everything she had gone through, the treatment finally worked, thanks to her doctors.
And Yegor…
When he learned that Sveta had remarried, he began spreading rumors among their mutual acquaintances. He claimed that his ex-wife was still “barren” and was simply deceiving yet another gullible man.
“You’re the one who’s full of hot air. She’s doing just fine,” one of their mutual acquaintances told him after hearing the gossip.
Yegor had never expected his friends and relatives to side with Svetlana, and that only made him even angrier.
But Sveta no longer cared.
She was happy, and she quickly forgot about Yegor.
Meanwhile, Yegor and his mother continued poisoning their own lives for a long time with their bitterness and hatred toward his former wife.
