The house resembled a fairytale hut on chicken legs, but Anya was delighted with it as if it were a royal palace. For three years since leaving her second husband, she had lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment with her mother, who reminded Anya every single day that she had warned her, that Anya with her loud-mouthed Vanechka and quiet Vasilisa had ruined her life, that she should have pursued education instead of getting married. Anya knew all this herself; she wasn’t that foolish, but her mother took particular pleasure in painting Anya as a failure.
«I should have chosen a different daughter!» she concluded each of her tirades.
She always said that, ever since Anya was a child: when Anya asked why she didn’t have a father, her mother said she had bought her at the store, and no father was needed for that. As a teenager, Anya fantasized that she was adopted and that was why her mother didn’t love her, but the mirror proved otherwise: Anya had her mother’s face, her hands, even her voice. So there was no doubt about their relation, but her mother never dropped the joke about having chosen a different daughter.
That’s actually why Anya rushed into marriage at seventeen, deeply pregnant with Vasilisa. Her husband was a teacher from a tourist club, who was, of course, disgracefully fired after Anya’s belly began to grow. His name was Arseniy, and he was a decent man. But as a husband, he was so-so: he didn’t show up for the discharge from the maternity hospital, never found a new job, and how often girls called him at night… Anya might have stuck in this marriage, but then she met Yegor, who seemed like the perfect man, who promised to rescue her.
Yegor was perfect. He had a good job, he moved Anya into his three-bedroom apartment, showered her with gifts, and never said a bad word to her. Anya thought she was living a fairy tale.
The fairy tale ended when Anya gave birth to Vanya. Yegor hadn’t been very welcoming to Vasilisa before, which was perhaps the only problem in their relationship, but after the birth of his son, it worsened: he scorned the girl, called her stupid, chased her out of the room so she wouldn’t infect the baby. Things escalated. Over three years, Anya packed her bags many times, repeatedly begged him not to touch the girl, but when he hit Vasilisa for spilling juice on a new sofa, knocking out a tooth, her heart couldn’t take it. She had to go back to her mother, who was not pleased at all.
The house had been left by Anya’s maternal grandmother. Anya barely remembered her; after the age of five, her mother stopped taking her there: she had quarreled with the grandmother and cut off all contact. She threw away letters and postcards unread, and when Anya tried to write a letter to Grandma Dusa, her mother beat her so harshly that Anya never attempted it again.
«So, you’re going to abandon your own mother?» she wailed as soon as she learned that Anya decided to move to the village. «When you needed me, oh please, but now you’ll just leave me here alone? You have no conscience, Anna!»
Her mother had no real reason to complain: yes, she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but it wasn’t so dreadful. And the mother herself complained that Vanechka bothered her, wasn’t this what she wanted, for Anya to move out?
Arguing with her mother was pointless, so Anya just gritted her teeth and began preparing for the move.
In reality, everything turned out not as rosy as she had imagined. The house was old, and on the very first night when it rained, water dripped from the ceiling, and the stove that Anya tried to light only smoked.
In the morning, she wrote about all this on social media. Her friends wrote that Anya was daring, someone replied that it was cool, a real challenge. Only one person offered help: her first husband.
Anya had hardly spoken to Arseniy. He didn’t pay child support, didn’t see his daughter, just asked how she was. Anya followed his life through social media, noting the frequent change of attractive girls who happily posed with him in photos.
In response to her story, he wrote: “Want me to come? I’ll fix everything for you.”
At first, Anya wanted to refuse. But then she thought: why not? He was still Vasilisa’s father; let him do something for the child.
She had forgotten how handsome he was and how sweet his smile was. It was hard to hold a grudge against Arseniy when he looked into her eyes, his eyebrows forming little houses and he smiled guiltily. Moreover, he really got to work fixing everything: patched the roof, repaired the fence, found a man who relaid the stove.
Meanwhile, Anya sorted through her grandmother’s things. What to do with them was unclear: it seemed pointless to keep them, but too sentimental to throw away—so many letters, so many photographs.
While sorting through the photographs, Anya found a strange one. In it, her mother stood in a fox fur hat with a pink envelope in her hands, clearly with Anya. Anya had never seen this photo before, so she couldn’t explain why an unfamiliar man stood next to her mother, holding another pink envelope…
She showed her discovery to Arseniy. He looked at the photo for a long time, then said:
«You probably have a sister.»
This revelation shocked Anya. Could it be that her mother’s comments about wishing she had chosen a different daughter weren’t just idle talk? Anya’s hands trembled as she dialed her mother’s number.
«Did you have twins?» she asked without even greeting her. «And don’t deny it, I found a photograph.»
Her mother was silent.
«Answer me!»
«Yes,» her mother exhaled. «I had twins. So what? Be glad I took you and not the dumb one. She was like your Vasilisa, backward.»
«And where is she now?»
«How should I know? With your father, unless he put her in an orphanage.»
Anya’s teeth started chattering. She couldn’t believe this was true. Perhaps it was just a dream, because she and her mother had argued fiercely.
This was no dream. Her mother had indeed left one daughter with her father. Her mother had indeed hidden the truth from her all these years.
Anya cried so much that she couldn’t calm down. Arseniy hugged her, stroked her hair, and kissed her wet eyes. Everything happened by accident. She hadn’t thought of anything like this, had long since fallen out of love with him, knew that nothing good would come of it, saw how many girlfriends he had and that he hadn’t changed at all. So later she pretended as if nothing had happened. Arseniy hinted that maybe they could repeat it, after all, they were family, but Anya said it was better not to start.
She no longer spoke to her mother. She put her number on the blacklist, spent several days digesting the news, remembered various excuses her mother had made, realized her sister was named Yana: her mother sometimes called her that when she was little. Her father, apparently named Sergey, but how to find people just by name and surname?
«That’s easy!» Arseniy got excited. «You have the same birth date! And you probably look alike! Maybe even twins? Let me finish with the stove, and I’ll start searching.»
Three suitable girls were found. None of them looked much like Anya, but there was something common in all. What to write to them, Anya didn’t know, and Arseniy took it upon himself. And three days later, one of them wrote to her: it seems we are sisters.
Yana lived on the other end of the country. That they were sisters became clear after Anya sent her the found photograph.
«Yes, that’s dad,» Yana confirmed.
Their father had died two years ago; Anya hadn’t had a chance to meet him. And meeting Yana wasn’t easy: due to illness, she was wheelchair-bound, so if anyone was to travel, it had to be Anya.
«I have no money, and I can’t leave the kids anywhere.»
«What am I here for?» Arseniy asked. «I’ll watch them. And I’ll find you money, just give me a couple of days.»
That was the last straw that tipped the scales in his favor. Anya thought: maybe I shouldn’t resist? He is Vasilisa’s father and he’s trying to help her, and he plays with Vanya as if he were his own, not like Yegor, who couldn’t stand Vasilisa. Maybe they both needed to grow up, be with others, to realize they were better together.
And two days later, as if to confirm these thoughts, after the morning omelet, she threw up. Anya remembered what she had eaten yesterday and what could have caused food poisoning, then tried to remember when she last had her period. It had been in the city, so there was no need for a test.
Arseniy was overjoyed. He picked her up in his arms, as they do in all those beautiful videos, and even cried.
«See, we are made for each other. I’m so glad we’re having a child! It doesn’t matter, boy or girl. I’ll rebuild the house, get a job, everything will be fine.»
Yana was a bit upset that the meeting was postponed, but she suggested that they all come together: Arseniy and the kids, and to stay for a longer visit.
«I’m quite lonely here,» she confessed. «I only interact through the internet, I’ll forget how to talk soon.»
Arseniy promised to find money for everyone. He walked around the village, asked who needed a worker, arranged to chop wood, spread coal. He saved the money in a tin box from under the tea.
Anya felt happy, despite the morning sickness tormenting her. She even wanted to call her mother and say: see how wrong you were, look what a good man Arseniy is. But Anya knew that her mother would still find something nasty to say.
Three months passed, and her belly was already showing. They had saved quite a bit of money, but not enough for tickets; they still needed to live on something. Moreover, Anya had planted potatoes and other vegetables, which grew with varying success, and first needed to try to gather her modest harvest.
That day, Vasilisa was swinging on the swings from morning; she always loved to do that, could spend hours on them. What exactly happened, Anya didn’t know—whether she fell or hit herself, but Vasilisa came into the house all bloody. Anya was scared, felt her daughter—all intact, only her lip was split. She ran to get Arseniy; he was chopping wood in a neighboring house, where a widow lived with two girls. She caught him inside the barn with this widow, stormed out, burned. Of course, he ran after her, started making excuses, but Anya couldn’t bear to see or hear him. She threw up several times, then took the kids and asked a neighbor to drive them to the district center. There, Vasilisa’s lip was stitched up, after which Anya suddenly decided to go to her mother.
She was at home. Silently stared at Anya’s belly.
«Whose?» she finally asked.
«Ex’s,» Anya didn’t specify.
«And what about this one?»
«Fell off the swings.»
«Clear.»
Anya took out her phone, found a photo of her sister, showed it to her mother.
«This is Yana.»
Maybe Anya imagined it, but maybe not, her mother’s face twitched, distorted for a moment. Then it froze back into an immobile mask.
«I want to go to her. I don’t have enough money. Will you add?»
She took the money from the tea box for herself.
«What about the father?»
«He’s dead.»
Her mother nodded satisfactorily.
«Never missed a skirt. While I was in hospital with you, he started something with my friend. I left Yana with them intentionally, where’s the justice: he’s a free bachelor, and I’m a woman with a double stroller.»
She glanced at Anya’s belly. Anya expected her mother to say that now Anya was with a triple stroller, but her mother remained silent.
«Alright,» she said. «Come in, need to feed the kids. And I’ll buy us tickets, hide your money.»
«What do you mean, us?» Anya didn’t understand.
«Would I let you go alone, you fool! You’d end up pregnant with a fourth. I’ll fly with you. My daughter, after all. Need to ask for forgiveness before death.»
For some reason, Anya wanted to cry. But she held back. Hugged her mother, went to the kitchen, sat the kids at the table. And while her mother bustled with the pots, suddenly thought: maybe it really wouldn’t be so bad? Sometimes you can give a second chance.
