For four years after the wedding, Olga lived with the dream of becoming a mother. She had always loved children: first she looked after her little cousins, then babysat her nephews and nieces, and later even got a job as a kindergarten teacher. But Olya had no children of her own.
For the first two years, she comforted herself with the hope that very soon, just a little more, and she and Andrey would succeed. Then those dreams turned into active efforts and frequent visits to clinics. Olga practically lived in hospitals. She took tests, had ultrasounds, and consulted different specialists.
The doctors only shrugged.
“There are some issues, but they are not critical. Don’t worry, pregnancy will happen soon. And yes, your husband needs to be examined too.”
When Olga passed these words on to her husband, he sharply replied that he did not want any additional examinations.
“Everything is fine with me! I already go through medical checkups all the time. If something were wrong, they would have told me long ago.”
Olya did not insist. Because of his profession, Andrey really did undergo medical examinations often. The realization that the problem was with her and her imperfect body weighed on her even more heavily. Gradually, Olga began to withdraw into herself. The same questions kept spinning in her head: “What if it never happens? What if I never become a mother?”
If not for the support of her friends, her mother, and her sister, she would have fallen into despair long ago.
“Oh, come on, Olya,” they would say. “Everything will work out. It just takes time. There are women who give birth at thirty-five, at forty, and even at fifty. You still have your whole life ahead of you. Don’t rush.”
But the years passed, and the miracle never came. During that time, Olya went through hormonal injections, all kinds of stimulation treatments, and other procedures that were sometimes painful. The treatment was expensive and difficult. Some medications made Olga dizzy, and because of long hormonal courses, her weight often fluctuated.
Olya endured all these trials in silence, but among her husband’s relatives, she felt especially vulnerable.
“Well? Any news? When am I going to have grandchildren?” her mother-in-law, Marina Sergeyevna, asked every time they met. She said it deliberately loudly, at the table, in front of the whole family, and Olga involuntarily blushed.
“They will come… someday,” the daughter-in-law answered, trying not to show how her lips were trembling. Tears glittered in her eyes, but Olya held them back.
“When?!” her mother-in-law said, shaking her head. “You and Andrey have been together for many years, and still nothing has changed. I had hoped you would turn out to be a little more… fertile.”
Those words always wounded Olga. At night, after meetings with her mother-in-law, she would cry quietly into her pillow so Andrey would not hear.
One morning, noticing his wife’s swollen eyes, the man raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“What happened? Were you crying again? What was it this time? Another negative test?”
“Because of your mother!” Olya snapped, turning sharply toward him. “Every time, in front of everyone at the table, she humiliates me, and you stay silent. Why can’t you stand up for me at least once?”
Andrey thought for a moment.
“And what am I supposed to say? ‘Yes, Mom, we don’t have children yet, but we’re trying very hard’? Like that?”
“At least that! Just don’t stay silent!” Olga burst out angrily, feeling resentment boiling inside her.
“Stop going crazy. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Don’t obsess over it, and everything will be fine.”
Olga could not understand how her husband could be so calm. After all, he also wanted to become a father! But apparently, not as much as she did…
In the fifth year of their marriage, Olya decided to force her husband to go to a fertility specialist. That evening, when Andrey returned from duty, she gathered her courage and said:
“I can’t go on like this anymore. You also have to take all the tests. Maybe the problem isn’t with me, but with you? Maybe it’s because of you that we aren’t becoming parents?”
For the first time, Olya dared to say those words to her husband, and they hit him hard.
The man abruptly pulled away, straightened his shoulders, and looked at his wife as if she had insulted him.
“I am healthy, Olya! How many times do I have to tell you that I constantly go through medical commissions? They check me almost under a microscope. Everything is fine with me. You don’t have to doubt that! It’s you who…” He stopped, choosing his words. “You’re obsessed with one idea and don’t see anything around you.”
Andrey said it with such contempt that Olga could not bear it.
“Fine! In that case, we need to get divorced. Find yourself a woman who won’t be obsessed with children, one who will give birth to your child right away.”
Andrey opened his mouth to answer sharply, but suddenly fell silent. After calming down, he said:
“I don’t need anyone else. If we can’t have a child, we’ll live together, just the two of us. And if we want to, we’ll adopt a baby from an orphanage. It’s not the end of the world!”
Olga looked at her husband and saw confusion in his eyes. It was as if he himself had not expected those words from himself. At that moment, she felt hope for the first time.
“And it’s true,” Olya thought. “There is always a way out. We don’t have to go to such extremes as separation.”
And the woman began treatment again. Her medical file grew thicker and thicker, while the pressure from her mother-in-law became more noticeable. With each passing month, Marina Sergeyevna made more and more spiteful remarks about her daughter-in-law.
“She probably led a promiscuous life in her youth, and that’s why she can’t get pregnant,” she said behind Olya’s back, but the daughter-in-law no longer reacted to those barbs. She moved forward methodically and with purpose.
One day, while tidying up the storage room, Olga came across an old, worn folder with her husband’s name on it. She had not intended to look through the documents, but her fingers opened it almost involuntarily.
The papers were six years old. Medical terms, numbers, signatures, and stamps flashed before her eyes. Olya almost immediately realized that these were the results of Andrey’s examination. Curiosity got the better of her.
“Alright… let’s see…” Olga whispered and began reading carefully.
Ten minutes later, the woman came across a diagnosis she could not even read at first, let alone pronounce. She quickly grabbed her phone and typed the complicated word into a search engine. The result shocked her: Andrey had a congenital condition!
After looking through several websites describing the problem, Olga froze. Her hands became sweaty, her breathing quickened, and anger boiled in her chest. He knew. All these years, Andrey had known that the problem was with him, and he had kept silent. He had kept silent while she went through endless procedures, endured humiliation from her mother-in-law, and lost faith in herself and in her ability to give birth…
Olga sank onto the sofa, picked up her phone, and was about to dial Andrey’s number, but stopped.
“No, he won’t get away with this so easily. He and his mother publicly called me ‘defective’… Now it’s my turn to put them in their place,” Olya muttered, closing the folder. A clear plan was already forming in her head: she would wait for the right moment and answer in a way they would remember for a long time.
That weekend, a family dinner was planned at Marina Sergeyevna’s home in honor of her wedding anniversary with her husband. All the relatives were invited. Olya and Andrey came too.
Everything began as usual: the same apartment, the table covered with appetizers, the same conversations, and, of course, the same topic.
“Well,” Marina Sergeyevna began with her usual smirk, “today we are celebrating our wedding anniversary, and soon my son and daughter-in-law will have a milestone date too. They have already been married for five years. Quite a respectable length of time! But it looks like I will never see grandchildren. It’s time to admit that not every woman is meant to become a mother…”
Andrey, as always, remained silent when his mother began humiliating his wife at the table. Olya looked at her husband, hoping he would say at least something. She was giving him a chance to redeem himself, but the man missed it, staring down at his plate. Then Olga stood up, raised her glass of wine, and waited until everyone turned their attention to her.
“Yes, you are right, Marina Sergeyevna,” her voice sounded unexpectedly calm. “Some women are not meant to become mothers. Especially if they have tied their lives to men who hide the truth about their own health from them for years.”
A silence fell over the table. The guests froze, staring at the daughter-in-law, and the mother-in-law went pale.
“What are you talking about?!” she suddenly blurted out. “Are you implying that it’s because of Andrey that you can’t get pregnant? How convenient—blaming a healthy person for your own sickness! If not for you, my son would have had three or four children long ago!”
“Oh, really?” Olya snorted sarcastically, casting a glance at Andrey. He was sitting there as white as the tablecloth. Her husband looked at her with pleading eyes, as if silently screaming, “Please, don’t!”
But Olya did not remain silent. She took out that same folder with the proof and threw it onto the table, right in front of her mother-in-law.
“You don’t believe the problem lies with your son’s health? Then read it!”
Marina Sergeyevna recoiled from such audacity.
“This is all nonsense! It’s not true! What are you trying to achieve, Olya?”
“Justice! For five long years you reproached me for not getting pregnant, even though the reason was your son! Did you know about it? Or did Andrey hide his diagnosis from you too?”
“Olya! Stop it!” her husband interrupted sharply. He jumped up from his seat, grabbed the folder, and pressed it to his chest, not wanting to show anyone the medical records. But that very gesture convinced everyone that Olga had not made anything up.
The tension in the living room was so thick that it seemed even the air had grown heavy. Finally, Olga felt her resentment begin to recede. She decided she had said enough. The woman rose from the table and headed toward the door, but when she took hold of the handle, she stopped and turned back to her mother-in-law.
“I am sorry that you will never have grandchildren. Even changing daughters-in-law won’t help you. But maybe luck will be on your side, and Andrey will find a woman with a child, or perhaps even several…”
Marina Sergeyevna opened her mouth, but found nothing to say. And Andrey, still in shock from the whole situation, clutched the folder tighter and hurried after his wife. He caught up with her on the stairs and grabbed her by the hand, but Olga pulled away.
“Wait! Listen to me! I didn’t tell you about it because I was afraid you would leave me. I love you so much… I thought that if I hid the truth, we would be able to find some way out…”
“If you had confessed right away, I would have stayed,” Olga answered quietly. “But what you did is unthinkable! You lied to me every single day. For five years I went through pointless procedures, endured humiliation from your mother, and blamed myself… And you stayed silent. You stayed silent when I cried, when I asked you to support me, and when I hoped we would get through this together. I will not be able to forgive you…”
After the divorce, Olga felt a strange sense of relief. She no longer had to go to hospitals unnecessarily, take endless tests, and wait for a miracle. She no longer heard her mother-in-law’s baseless accusations and could breathe freely.
She put the idea of motherhood aside because she was not ready for marriage.
Two years passed.
One day, standing on the balcony and watching children playing in the yard, Olga thought, “What if I try again? Not with Andrey, but with someone else? With someone who will be honest from the very beginning and won’t hide diagnoses behind excuses…”
The woman smiled and realized it was time to open a new page in her life.
