Olga was in a hurry to get home. There was only one day left until the holiday. And there was still so much to do—clean the house, decorate the Christmas tree, buy the necessary groceries for the table.
She rushed out of the office in her light boots with heels. It was slippery, and Olga, trying to be careful not to fall, headed to the parking lot where her car was parked.
Everything around was beautifully decorated for the New Year—bright garlands were lit on the facade, as well as on a small Christmas tree next to the office building. From the nearby park, where children were frolicking in a winter town, laughter and cheerful music could be heard.
And in Olga’s head, a popular New Year’s song was also playing, which she had heard on the radio that morning while heading to work.
The New Year is rushing towards us, soon everything will happen, Dreams will come true, That again we will be deceived, they will give us nothing!
«Well, no one will deceive me! I’ve already prepared a gift for myself!» Olga said, smiling in the rearview mirror. «And I bought something for my husband too. I think he will be thrilled.»
She and her husband were still in that beautiful period of family life when they could enjoy a calm life without children. They were not rushing with this matter. Although Maxim had been raising the issue lately, Olga was not in a hurry to become a mother. Her negative experiences from her childhood played a role when she, starting from the age of ten, had to take care of twin siblings—a brother and a sister.
But that wasn’t the only reason. Olga valued her job and the career that had been going so well for her lately.
«I’m only twenty-seven, I still have time!» she told her friends and family. And she convinced herself of this.
«Don’t you want a little one?» Maxim would wonder. «It’s such a miracle!»
«I do! I’m like everyone else, everything in its own time,» Olga smiled back at her husband. «I’ve only been the department head for six months.»
They had been living together for two years, and the young wife didn’t think there was a need to rush any changes in their well-ordered and measured life.
«At least give me a hint when you’ll be ready?» Maxim persisted.
«Everything will happen, in time.»
Now, sitting in the car and waiting for the engine to warm up so she could go home, she smiled at the children playing nearby and thought that perhaps she was ready, and soon she and Maxim would start working on this matter.
Her mood was wonderful. Olga loved the New Year and wanted to make this holiday unusual and memorable for them as a couple. Who knows, maybe this New Year would be the last one they would spend just the two of them.
Olga had long thought about what surprise to prepare for Maxim to amaze and delight her husband. Nothing original came to mind. She struggled, doubted, dismissed one idea after another. And then suddenly realized that she didn’t need to be clever. The beauty of the surprise was in its simplicity.
Today, she needed to tidy up their small apartment and also hide her gift so that Maxim, upon seeing it, would be surprised and pleased at the same time.
Her husband was working the night shift today, and that was doubly good. First, he wouldn’t be in her way. And second, he would be home tomorrow, which means they would meet the New Year’s night together.
After stopping by the local supermarket near their home to pick up some last-minute groceries for tomorrow’s table, Olga returned home and happily got to work.
First, she needed to do a thorough cleaning, having put away the things in the closets beforehand. Olga loved to tidy up her one-bedroom apartment, which she had inherited from her grandmother. She always did it cheerfully, with music playing loudly so it could be heard in every corner of the apartment.
Today, the smart speaker was «treating» its owner to lively New Year’s songs—just as Olga herself had wanted.
When the cleaning was done, Olga took the box with the artificial Christmas tree from the loft and began to assemble it. The next step was to decorate the forest beauty with garlands and Christmas ornaments, which had also belonged to her grandmother.
Olga quickly handled this task as well, only taking breaks for phone calls with friends who decided to tell her all their news that evening.
Now came the most enjoyable yet challenging part—hiding the surprise for her husband. Olga wanted him to find her gift unexpectedly. She considered several options, but they all seemed somewhat cliché.
Initially, the woman thought about placing it under the Christmas tree. But then Maxim would see it right away, and there would be no surprise. Then Olga thought about asking her husband to get champagne flutes from the cupboard, which she would «forget» to set on the festive table. Maxim would open the cupboard, see a bright envelope, and be surprised.
There was also an option to hide the gift on the balcony, where she would send her husband to fetch something. But something about this option bothered Olga, and she was still pondering where to place the small red folder containing a trip for two to Thailand.
Maxim had long talked about this dream of his. And now, having received a New Year’s bonus, Olga decided to surprise her husband, and herself as well.
Still undecided on where to hide the folder with the surprise, Olga reluctantly answered another call from an acquaintance. Continuing to listen to her friend, holding the cell phone between her ear and shoulder, she quietly went about her chores, moving around the apartment. Here, Olga took empty boxes from under the garlands and Christmas decorations, intending to put them back on the loft.
She climbed onto a chair, but before she could push the boxes deep into the shelf, she suddenly noticed some strange bundle far back in its depths.
Olga tried to reach it but couldn’t. She realized that she needed a ladder to manage it.
«Verun, sorry, I can’t talk any longer. So much to do! Alright, hugs, happy upcoming New Year!» Olga impatiently ended the conversation and rushed to the balcony for the ladder.
Her curiosity was piqued. Who and why had hidden something there, about which she didn’t know? Could it also be a surprise for her from Maxim? Well then, he’s to blame for not hiding it better. Although, to be fair, if the woman had simply tossed the empty boxes without looking into the depths of the loft, she surely wouldn’t have noticed the strange bundle.
When, having set up the ladder and finally reaching the secret item, Olga took it in her hands, she was quite surprised.
«No, this isn’t a gift. It’s been lying here a long time, even covered in dust,» she said, examining what she found in her hands.
It was a newspaper bundle containing several colored photographs.
Olga, surprised, began to examine the unfamiliar people.
Here was a young woman with a boy in her arms. Both were smiling, and it was immediately clear that this was a mother with her son. In the next picture, the same people, but now a threesome, probably with the father of this blond boy, who now reminded her of someone. Another photo showed a group of young people—girls and guys—having fun near a fire in the outdoors. One of them had a guitar, and judging by the faces of the others, they were cheerfully singing something.
«Who are these people?» Olga wondered, not recognizing anyone in the photos.
She looked closely at the group photo again and suddenly, unexpectedly for herself, recognized her own Maxim. True, here he was very young, probably seventeen years old. Next to him stood a young girl whom her husband tenderly embraced by the waist. And she was not looking at the camera, but at him.
Looking more carefully, Olga suddenly felt an inexplicable pain in her heart as she recognized the young beauty in this girl from the first photo, the one who was with the child.
«What’s going on?» she asked herself. «Why is Maxim hiding these photos from me? And why does the boy in the photo look so much like him?»
She now clearly understood—the son of this woman looked very much like Maxim.
The joyful pre-holiday mood was gone!
What was her husband hiding? Why did he hide these photos far away in the loft? And why keep them in the apartment where he lives with his lawful wife?
At first, she panicked, but then she composed herself.
Olga uncorked a bottle of red wine and downed a glass in one go. A few minutes later, she was able to think and reason clearly.
The main thing was not to act rashly, but to wait for her husband to come home and ask him all these questions. But for some reason, Olga felt that she already knew the answers. Only one question remained—whether to stay together or part ways.
The night passed almost sleeplessly. Barely waiting for her husband to return from work, Olga silently threw the photographs she had found on the table in front of him.
Maxim turned pale and became disoriented.
«Don’t you want to explain anything to me?»
«Ol, I really wanted to… just not now. I was waiting for us to have a child. Our own son or daughter. So that you wouldn’t react so vehemently when you found out. I even saved these photos to tell you everything.»
«Tell me,» she said curtly.
«It’s Lena and her family—son Petya and husband Dmitry. Lena and I went to school together, were friends. First love, all that…»
«The kind that results in children? Is the son yours?» Olga interrupted him.
«Yes,» Maxim exhaled. «Mine. And not mine, it just happened.»
«Why aren’t you together, and some Dmitry is raising your son?» Olga asked, trying to keep her breath.
«I was young then, flighty, even stupid. I had just moved to the city to go to college. Then Lena calls—says, come back, we need to get married. Apparently, we’re having a baby. I said—I can’t, I need to enroll, to study. You sort out this problem yourself… I was scared, honestly. I was still a child myself, and then this…»
«And what did she do?»
«She sorted it out—married Dimka, the grandson of a neighboring grandmother who sometimes visited her. And she didn’t even tell him she was expecting. Later, she explained that he was born at seven months.»
«So, you have a son that you knew about when you asked me to marry you. And you kept silent? And you’ve been silent for the two years we’ve been living together. And I suppose you would have kept lying to me, right?» Olga asked through tears.
«Ol, please, I’m begging you, forgive me. Yes, I know about this child, but officially he’s not my son. So it’s fine, if you’re worried about that. Our kids—when they are born, they will be my kids,» Maxim tried to justify himself.
«You are even worse than I thought yesterday when I found this bundle,» the wife tiredly responded, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
«Ol, why are you doing this? I love you, and everything will be fine. Forget and throw it out of your mind. We’re meeting the New Year today, I’ve prepared a gift for you,» Maxim tried to smile.
«Another one? No, forget it. Enough of that. I also prepared a surprise for you—I wanted to take you to Thailand in a couple of months. I dreamed of surprising and pleasing you. But now none of that matters anymore. I’ll return the ticket.»
«Ol, why? Don’t do that! Let’s go there together, we dreamed about this. And everything will be fine, you’ll see,» Maxim was upset, learning what surprise awaited him.
«No, nothing will be fine anymore. We’re getting a divorce.»
That same day, Maxim was forced to pack his things and move out from Olga’s place. The woman spent New Year’s Eve alone.
They divorced. Olga could never forgive Maxim for his double betrayal. He betrayed two women—his first love and the mother of his son, and her, Olga, with whom he was planning to build a new life.
