Anna Igorevna, Ilya Petrovich is here. Shall I let him in?» asked the secretary, Liza, peeking into the office.
The woman, in a strict business suit, briefly looked up from her documents and nodded wearily:
«Yes, of course, let him in, and Liza, could you bring us some coffee, please?»
A few seconds after Liza closed the door, having knocked out of politeness and without waiting for an answer, a tall, stately middle-aged man entered, smiling softly, and greeted Anna.
«It’s been a while,» she smiled back, got up from her desk, and sat at the meeting table opposite the guest, piercing him with an inquisitive look, «What brings you here?»
«And you don’t think that I might have just missed you?» Ilya Petrovich seemed embarrassed, coughed into his fist to hide his awkwardness, and opened his briefcase to take out some documents, «No, Anna, it’s a serious matter that brought me here. It concerns your late husband.»
Anna’s eyebrows furrowed, and her curiosity intensified. At that moment, Liza brought their coffee and quickly left.
«What exactly?» Anna asked, swallowing a lump in her throat. Memories of her husband cut through her, she had only recently started to recover, and now the memory reopened an unhealed wound.
Anna had loved Oleg in her own way. He was much younger than her, and initially, the thought of marrying a young man was alien to her, but Oleg had captured her heart, and just a month after meeting, they were married, holding a marriage certificate. For all eight years, her husband had literally carried her on his hands, and five months ago, she received the chilling news—Oleg had died defending a girl on the street. Anna couldn’t believe it wasn’t a joke or a cruel prank until she saw it for herself at the identification.
The funeral passed as if in a haze, and she had to take unpaid leave from work, but it couldn’t last forever; two weeks later, she was forced to return to her duties, which distracted her somewhat from reality. Uninvited tears welled up, and Anna startled herself. She pushed the coffee cup towards Ilya.
«Tell me,» she said, exhaling loudly.
«Well, here’s the thing… I’m pretty sure you don’t know this, but shortly before his death, Oleg bought an apartment. It turned out that the seller was my client, I helped with the transaction, which required notarization. So, you need to claim the inheritance.»
«Wait… What… An apartment… Why didn’t I know about this? Why did he need this apartment?»
Ilya Petrovich shrugged and took a sip of coffee.
«I’m not privy to those details, Anna, and Oleg was noticeably nervous, then asked me not to tell you. He said you didn’t know yet.»
«It’s strange, I couldn’t even guess that he was saving money behind my back. I was sure he didn’t even have his own account. It was his idea that everything we acquired during the marriage should be registered in my name. He didn’t want me to think he was with me for some kind of profit. I can’t wrap my head around this…»
Anna clutched her head, and Ilya moved to a chair next to her and gently patted her shoulder.
«Anna, why are you winding yourself up? How can we know now why your husband did this? Maybe he was preparing a surprise for you, and you’re getting upset over nothing.»
«Ilya, I trusted him blindly, and it turns out, he was just using my trust. Well, you’re right, we can’t know his intentions now, so it’s better not to think about it, or else you can imagine all sorts of things.»
«That’s right! Here, take this duplicate of the apartment statement; it has the address, you just need to find the keys.»
«Keys!» Anna seemed to revive, «Yes, when they gave me his belongings at the morgue… among them were keys, strangers. I didn’t attach any importance to them at the time, just packed everything into a bag…»
«Do you want me to go there with you?» Ilya offered, and Anna nodded uncertainly.
«It would be good, who knows what other surprises might await me. And why didn’t you tell me earlier? About the apartment?»
«While Oleg was alive, I couldn’t, and when he was gone, I didn’t want to upset you, you were not in the right state. But now it’s time to enter into the inheritance, so I decided.»
Anna nodded and stood up.
«Let’s go! Just need to stop by the house for the keys. Although, I’m not sure these are the right ones.»
«Anna Igorevna, will you return today?» asked Liza as Anna and Ilya left the office.
«No, Liza, I doubt it, I have urgent business, but I’ve finished with the documents, I’ll sign everything tomorrow, and then it can be sent.»
Arriving at the specified address, Anna got out of Ilya’s car and looked around. A new elite building, closed courtyard, video surveillance cameras. Apartments here were not cheap; apparently, Oleg had been saving for a long time. He earned well, it seemed, but Anna was not interested in his real income. He contributed enough to the family budget, always gave her gifts, and flowers without occasion were always in her favorite vase. But how he managed to also save up for an apartment?! There were many questions unlikely to find answers.
«Ready?» Ilya asked cautiously and took Anna by the arm. «Shall we?»
«Yes, let’s go!» She confidently walked to the entrance next to her old friend.
Going up to the twelfth floor in a spacious modern elevator, Anna got out of the cabin and stopped at the door with the desired number. She felt her hands tremble and looked at Ilya, handing him the keys.
«Let’s ring first,» the man suggested and pressed the doorbell.
There was silence behind the door, no one opened, and only after the second ring did Ilya Petrovich try the key, and it fit.
Opening the door timidly, Anna entered the apartment after Ilya and stopped at the threshold, gasping in surprise. In the hallway, there were women’s clothes—a jacket, a coat. On the shelf stood high-heeled shoes and old boots of Oleg. It was clear that people lived in the apartment. Anna walked through the rooms, in one of which she saw a baby crib, rattles. Baby clothes were drying on the balcony. She looked at Ilya with eyes full of longing.
«What does this mean?» she asked with disobedient lips and helplessly sank onto the couch.
Ilya Petrovich sat down next to her.
«We need to wait for those who live here and find out everything,» he said and added, «Maybe we should wait outside, to avoid misunderstandings?»
«Yes, of course,» agreed Anna and stood up, continuing to look around.
But as they approached the front door, a key grated in the lock, then the door opened, and a young woman, holding a baby, screamed loudly.
«Who are you?» she asked with a trembling voice and pressed against the doorframe.
«And who are you?» Anna responded with a question to her question.
«Oh, sorry, I’m Vika, I live here with my son. Oleg, my… I don’t know how to say, the father of my son, in short, rented this apartment for us. Are you the owner? But Oleg told me that he paid for a year in advance?! Is something wrong?»
Anna didn’t know what to say in response, and then Ilya spoke.
«We just wanted to see how things are here. Please come in, Vika, I’ll help you bring in the stroller.»
«Thank you,» the woman entered the apartment, took off her shoes, and headed to the room. «Forgive me, I’ll just put Maxim to sleep, he needs to nap, or he’ll get fussy. And you can put on the kettle in the meantime.»
Anna stood pale as a sheet, looking questioningly at her friend, who patted her on the shoulder and gestured towards the kitchen. Very soon, Vika joined them.
«He’s asleep…» she said and began to bustle about, setting the table, «Don’t worry, I keep everything in order. As soon as the rental period ends, we’ll move out, though I don’t know where yet, but there’s still time, I’ll definitely come up with something. Just Oleg… He left me. Apparently, he specifically rented this apartment, said he had prepared a surprise, and here’s his surprise—he disappeared without any warning, even before he knew the son was born.»
«And what, you didn’t try to find him?» asked Anna, gathering her strength.
«Well, why not, I called him, but he was always unavailable, apparently, he blacklisted me or changed his number. And if so, I won’t impose. I knew from the start that he was married. And he said he loved both me and his Anna, and that he couldn’t decide who to be with. So, apparently, he decided not in my favor. Although he said he dreamed of a child, and his wife couldn’t have one, but he chose her anyway, I can’t be upset.»
«You know, Vika, we’ll go, I just remembered that I urgently need to go somewhere.»
«What about the tea?» the young woman seemed upset, «We haven’t even introduced ourselves.»
«Another time,» said Anna and bolted out of the apartment, and down at the entrance, she burst into tears.
Ilya hugged her but did not try to console her, understanding how hard it was for her now.
«Anna, dear, let’s go home, you need to rest, shall we go to my place? I can’t leave you alone now, or if you want, I’ll stay at your place?!»
Anna silently approached the car and whispered:
«Take me home, Ilyush, I just need to be alone. Sorry.»
At home, Anna turned on her husband’s phone and laptop. She had been afraid to do so before, but now there was a pressing need to understand. How could he?! Lead a double life. And although he told his mistress about her, and although he loved her, it didn’t make it any easier. In the phone, Anna found a contact «Vikusya», with whom he regularly communicated, read the chat in the messenger. Her heart clenched from the words he wrote her. «Bunny, darling, little soul, beloved.» He also said nice words to Anna, but there was not such tenderness in them. Well, she knew what could happen from a union with a man twelve years younger. He gave her years of happiness, which she will remember, and you can’t judge him for choosing youth. And he really wanted a child, very much. But Anna couldn’t have one for him. The sins of the past didn’t allow it. In her youth, she was pregnant but chose her career over personal life and terminated the pregnancy, deciding that there would be more children later, but alas! She and Ilya argued over this at the time, soon after he married, to spite her. And she set out to build a career. She built it! Now she heads a serious enterprise, but it didn’t bring her happiness. She and Ilya became friends, meeting again after years, even their families were friends for a couple of years, then he divorced his wife, and she moved abroad with their daughter.
In Oleg’s laptop, Anna found no less interesting things. He tried to write her, Anna, a letter, in which he explained that he had been saving money to buy her dream house, sold the collection that his grandfather had left him, but met Vika, she got pregnant, and he bought the apartment so she would have a place to live with the child. Indeed, he doubted for a long time whether he could leave Anna, so he didn’t say that the apartment was his. But now he decided, after all, a child needs a father, and he really wanted to raise his own child, so he asked Anna to understand, forgive, and not hold a grudge. He really appreciated the years lived with her, but that’s how it turned out. He planned to leave Anna, leaving her this letter, and it was even worse for him, he didn’t have the courage to confess everything looking into her eyes. Although, now it’s unlikely to change anything.
Anna closed the laptop lid and went to sleep. That night she dreamed of Oleg. He asked her to forgive him, said that he never loved anyone as much as he loved Anna. And she woke up with a smile on her face. «I forgave you, Oleg,» she said, looking at his photo, and felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. As if a new chapter in her life had begun.
«Ilya, I really need your help,» she said on the phone, and within an hour Ilya Petrovich was sitting across from her in their favorite cafe.
«I think you’ve made the right decision,» he said, having listened to Anna, «as soon as I prepare the documents, I’ll let you know.»
Soon after, they went to visit Vika together.
«Oh, I wasn’t expecting guests,» she fretted, «I have absolutely nothing for tea.»
«We don’t need anything,» smiled Anna, «we came to get acquainted, as I promised. My name is Anna Igorevna, I’m Oleg’s wife. Well… His widow.»
«What?!» Vika immediately sank onto a chair, «What happened?»
«Oleg didn’t leave you, Vika,» Anna managed to say, «moreover, he was planning to stay with you, but unfortunately, he died.»
«It can’t be…» Vika sobbed bitterly, «How will I live now? When I thought he was alive, even if with another, but alive, it was easier. And now… I loved him very deeply, and hoped that he would at least meet his son. Now there’s no hope, and without it, life isn’t easy…»
«You’ll manage, you have someone to live for,» said Anna, «and you have a place to live. This apartment is yours and your son’s. We brought the documents, you just need to sign. And yes, I will help you prove that the child is Oleg’s and arrange a pension due to the loss of a breadwinner.»
«Can you really not despise me?» asked Vika, disbelievingly, not daring to look up at Anna, «I’m so guilty before you…»
«No one is guilty,» said Anna and smiled, «It just happened that way…»
Leaving the building, Anna breathed in more fresh air, then exhaled noisily and looked at Ilya.
«Remember, you invited me to dinner?»
«Oh, when was that?!» he laughed, «After the twentieth attempt, I stopped even hoping, afraid of another rejection.»
«Don’t be afraid! I was a married woman then, you could understand me, but now I’m as free as the wind, in the full sense of the word. So?»
«Let’s go to a restaurant!» Ilya declared solemnly and extended his hand to Anna.
