You’re the one who brought that child into the world!» declared the mother-in-law, looking at her grandson. «My Dimochka and Olezhek were calm, but this one doesn’t seem to be from our ‘stock’.»
«Breeds are for dogs or cats, Marya Gavrilovna. Children are people. All people are different. Eye color, hair, and appearance don’t necessarily have to be the same as yours,» Polina tried to justify herself, explain to her mother-in-law that «similar» or «not similar» was her subjective opinion, but then she realized it was useless.
«That’s just an excuse. It should be checked…»
«Marya Gavrilovna, what are you planning to check? Are you going to hook me up to a lie detector?» Polina rolled her eyes.
«No, I’ve seen tests on TV shows. They take samples and then open an envelope.»
«And what else have you seen on the shows? Do you know that all these shows are staged? That there are actors who play their roles according to a script?»
«Oh, come on. Don’t sugarcoat it for me. Your child doesn’t look like our family.»
«Nor does he look like ours. What now? Should I take the test too?»
At this, Marya Gavrilovna puffed up like a turkey and left.
«Don’t mind her, Polina. Mom’s going through a midlife crisis,» dismissed Oleg, Polina’s husband. «Since she was laid off, she spends too much time in front of the TV. Sometimes it seems she trusts the blue screen more than us.»
«Maybe your mom should see a psychologist? She’s really getting to me with her accusations. Do you even believe me?»
«Of course, I do. I know Alexey is my son, I’ve never doubted it for a minute,» Oleg looked at the restless little boy who was drumming his legs against the stroller and spitting out his pacifier, unwilling to sit still.
Oleg and Polina had been married for seven years. They didn’t rush to have children, lived for pleasure, and built their careers. As adults, no one interfered or hurried them. The mother-in-law, Marya Gavrilovna, didn’t meddle in her elder son’s family; she favored the younger one, Dimochka, and bestowed all her love on him and his wife, Tatyana.
Polina even felt sorry for Tanya. Marya Gavrilovna was involved in all family matters, seemed to be everywhere with her son and daughter-in-law, teaching them how to live, giving advice, and hurrying them to have grandchildren. As they say, she was present at every crucial moment except holding the candle. Polina even thought that with the birth of a granddaughter, Marya Gavrilovna would drive her daughter-in-law crazy, but suddenly, as if someone switched her: she adored her granddaughter and began treating Tatyana differently—blowing dust off her.
Marya Gavrilovna’s attitude towards her elder daughter-in-law changed as well. She started to find faults in Polina. And when the elder son had his firstborn… Marya Gavrilovna was utterly disappointed.
«Not our boy. A stranger. Unlike Tatyana’s daughter. My spitting image! Such a good girl!» she would say, reminiscing about her granddaughter.
Her talks might have died down, but the theory of infidelity was suddenly supported by her father-in-law and… the younger daughter-in-law, Tanya, who suddenly sided with her mother-in-law.
They all began to find oddities in the baby Polina had given birth to.
«He’s often sick.»
«He’s developing slowly.»
«And overall, he doesn’t look like us,» concluded the mother-in-law’s husband.
Now the topic of «native — non-native» became the main one at all family gatherings. Polina was uncomfortable going to her mother-in-law’s and having her over after such talks. Though these phrases were said with a hint of joke, no one laughed, and Polina decided to put an end to this intrigue once and for all. «We’re not going to your parents anymore,» she told her husband. «Let them live without us. Your grandchild and daughter-in-law are apparently not genuine enough for them. Soon they’ll say you’re adopted too, Oleg.»
«It’s funny to you, but I had that feeling,» admitted her husband.
«It’s not funny to me at all. If you keep hearing you’re a pig, soon you’ll start oinking.»
«Agreed. Basically, you’re right. My mother has been overdoing it lately.»
«I see nothing wrong with our child being fair-haired. Many children are born not looking like their parents, and they change as they grow. Mom told me I looked like the neighbor until I was three, but dad never reproached her. Over time, I began to look like my dad, and later it turned out that the neighbor was a distant cousin of my grandmother on some line… No wonder I looked like him.»
«Look here,» Oleg searched something in his phone, then showed old photos. «I specifically photographed this from an album at my parents’ house.»
«Who’s this?»
«This is my great-grandfather, my mom’s grandfather. See the blue eyes? And the fine facial features. I think our son takes after him.»
«Yeah, it’s quite possible.»
Polina found it strange that Marya Gavrilovna did not recognize her grandson, forgetting about her own great-grandfather. She decided to remind her mother-in-law of this oversight at their next meeting. But her idea never materialized because something incredible happened!
The mother-in-law called Polina in a mournful voice:
«Congratulations, you cheater. You’ve jumped around.»
«Marya Gavrilovna, what are you talking about?!» Polina flared up.
«We all know, no need to deny it. I haven’t told Oleg, you tell him yourself. Consider it a gesture of mercy, because I see that my son loves you and I don’t want to hurt him too much. But if you don’t confess to him soon, I will tell him myself! I won’t let you fool my Oleg!»
Polina listened, her mouth agape. She hadn’t expected such a turn. Where the mother-in-law got the genetic material and how she managed to prove the unprovable was a mystery to Polina.
Polina was beside herself all day. Oleg noticed her mood.
«Something wrong?» he asked, seeing how Polina was nervous.
«Don’t worry about it… Marya Gavrilovna called.»
«Listen, if this is again my mother’s conjecture, I’ll block her number right now so she doesn’t affect the atmosphere in our family. Your emotions are affecting the child, he’s already hyperactive, and with your mood, he becomes even more uncontrollable.»
«Of course! Since he’s not from your breed!» Polina slammed her hand on the table. «You know what? Pack your things and go to your mother if you’re siding with her!»
«Stop it! I just want to know what happened again!»
«Your mother is threatening me. She’s proven something, apparently in her imagination.»
«What?»
«That the child is not yours, probably.»
«What nonsense?» Oleg clasped his head.
«I guess she won’t give up. This has gone too far, I won’t tolerate it. The child is too young to understand that his grandmother considers him not native, but when he gets older, he might believe her nonsense! It’s unacceptable.»
«And what do you want to do?» Oleg frowned.
«I don’t know yet, but your mother is being offensive. I won’t let this slide.»
Oleg found nothing to say. He loved his wife, trusted her, but under his family’s pressure, he occasionally slipped into thinking that anything was possible… What if the son he considered his own was really someone else’s?
Probably Polina felt his doubts, and that hurt her, not what the mother-in-law and other relatives from that strange family thought.
She decided to sort it out, and for that, she needed to talk to the mother-in-law in person.
Polina left the child with Oleg and went to his mother’s house.
Tatyana opened the door.
«Hello, is Marya Gavrilovna home?»
«No, she’s gone. What for?»
«I need to talk.»
«About the genetic test?» Tatyana squinted.
«You’re in on it too? So, you’ve all decided to gang up against me!»
«Well, are you such a saint, an innocent? You should be ashamed… with such a sin on your conscience.»
«What sin? I didn’t cheat on my husband!»
«Really? I have different information,» Tatyana disappeared behind the door, then came out a few minutes later and handed Polina a paper.
«Kinship 0%.»
Polina gasped. That couldn’t be.
«Tests make mistakes. Besides, this could be a forgery! I just don’t understand why you need this? Why does the mother-in-law want to destroy our marriage?!»
Tatyana didn’t answer; she just shook her head, looking condemnatory at Polina, and closed the door in her face.
Polina cried all the way home. She couldn’t understand how such a result came out in the test. Yet, she didn’t want to upset her husband with unverified data. Therefore, when she got home, Polina decided to thoroughly check the documents. Fortunately, Oleg and the son were not at home, probably out for a walk. Polina sat at the table, carefully read all the lines, and, finding something interesting, made a decision on how to teach her mother-in-law and her family a lesson. But for that, she needed to check something.
A few days later, Polina came to her mother-in-law with an invitation to a talk show.
«No, I don’t understand… Where are we going?! To television?!» Marya Gavrilovna looked surprised at her daughter-in-law.
«To your favorite talk show,» Polina answered.
«Why?»
«Why? You wanted to expose the fraud. Let it be done for the whole country to see. Let everyone know that there is a non-native child in your family.»
«I can’t bear such a disgrace, no way. You cheated — you explain to your husband. I hope that, knowing the truth, my Oleg will not tolerate and support someone else’s child,» Marya Gavrilovna hissed.
«Your hopes will not be justified, mom,» Oleg entered the room. He was holding two envelopes.
«Oleg, I understand that you’re surprised and can’t reconcile, but look at the truth…» the mother-in-law tried to insist.
«I’ve already looked. And learned a lot of interesting things. For example, that my father is not my father. What do you say, mom?» Oleg pulled a DNA test from the first envelope. Marya Gavrilovna turned pale and clutched her heart.
«Mom?! What’s wrong?! Polina, call a doctor!»
No one in the family expected Marya Gavrilovna to take the news about her secret, which she had kept for so many years, so hard.
Polina thought the mother-in-law faked the attack and fainting to avoid responsibility: the further conversation had to be postponed. But still, Polina and Oleg found out that Tatyana had done the kinship test. She admitted she had carried the biomaterial to the lab herself. She took a sample from Oleg’s father. It so happened that the men were namesakes — Oleg Olegovich — that’s what both Polina’s husband and father-in-law were called. And they had the same surname too.
«I thought that the grandfather should have kinship, since he was a close relative,» Tatyana confessed. «After getting the results, I realized that the mother-in-law was right — the child has no relation to our family… At least on the father’s line.»
«Yes, only here’s the catch… My son’s kinship with me was confirmed,» Oleg opened the second envelope and handed it to Tatyana.
«How so?»
«Simple. I’m not a blood relative to my father.»
«In other words, our wonderful mother-in-law ‘cheated’ with Oleg. Sorry, dear,» Polina looked at her husband with a mix of pity and condemnation. «I’m sorry that each of you doubted me. Especially sorry that you doubted, Oleg.»
Polina gave her husband one last look and, turning around, left. She needed to think a lot.
Oleg doubted her, her fidelity, and whether their son was really his… This hurt Polina. She even thought it might be worth divorcing.
«Polina… wait! Forgive me, I know I acted like a fool. Damn me for falling for these rumors. I don’t know why I even went to the clinic with my son.»
«To make sure your mother was right.»
«Forgive me. I’m ready to give you time to make further decisions. But let me say one thing: even if my son was not my blood child, which is unlikely, I would not love him less and would not renounce him.»
«It’s hard to say what would have been… Don’t make promises. And now, forgive me. I’ll call you when I decide on my future life.»
Oleg let his wife be alone, but a day later, he came to her and apologized again. He cautiously regained her trust—was there and proved his love.
Meanwhile, Marya Gavrilovna paid fully: no one visited her in the hospital. She was overwhelmed and understood that a big confrontation awaited her at home. The husband, Oleg Olegovich, until that moment did not know that their elder son was from another man. Oleg Olegovich changed his opinion about his wife and thought about divorce. The shameful truth surfaced… all because the foolish daughter-in-law conducted the wrong test!
«Who knew, Marya Gavrilovna, that you had such a sin?» asked Tatyana, disdainfully wrinkling her nose.
The mother-in-law had nothing to say…
Polina never found out why the mother-in-law and Tatyana wanted to separate her from her husband. Most likely, it was about money — Oleg earned well and before marrying Polina helped financially his mother and younger brother. He gave expensive gifts to his niece, paid for vacations for his mother and father… And then the «source of blessings or the horn of plenty» was cut off, money stayed in Oleg’s family. With the birth of a son, Oleg stopped helping his relatives. Apparently, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law thought that by divorcing Oleg from Polina and proving that the son was not his, they could again use Oleg’s money for their own purposes. But their plan failed.
Polina forgave Oleg, they learned to trust each other. But Oleg no longer communicated with his mother and brother’s wife. He could not forgive the lies.
