Lena, I’m off, I’ll be late! Don’t wait up if you go to bed!» Ivan shouted from the hallway to his wife. «Stop right there!» Lena shouted back.
She came out of the bathroom with a towel on her head. «Why are you going to be late today? Did the office schedule change, or did you take a part-time job as a stoker at your organization? What’s going on?» she asked suspiciously. «Last week you came home after midnight four times! Before that, it was the same thing several times… Did you find someone else, Ivan?»
«What are you talking about?» Ivan’s face changed, and his eyes darted around. The man looked everywhere but at his wife.
«And what did I say that was so outrageous? You used to come home from work at seven! And now suddenly you’ve started staying late! What’s all this about?»
«Lena, keep your voice down! Why do you start yelling right away? The kids will hear!»
«What are you talking about?» Elena was surprised. «What kids, they went to school an hour ago! Daddy, huh! Doesn’t even know if his kids are home!»
«Ah,» Ivan managed. «Maybe that was when I was in the shower?! I didn’t notice!» he smiled.
«I see you’ve stopped noticing a lot of things, Ivan! So what’s going on at work that you’re planning to stay so late again today? Explain to me, please!»
«Nothing special! Just a lot of work piled up!» Ivan replied to Lena.
«Well, I see you couldn’t even bother to come up with a decent excuse! Thought I would continue to believe your nonsense, right?»
«What excuses? What are you really talking about, Lena? If you don’t believe me, call Igor, he’ll confirm everything! And he’ll say that we really are staying late!»
«Maybe I should call your boss instead, I have his number somewhere! I wonder if he will confirm your words? And maybe even explain what you can be doing in the office until midnight on a computer?!»
«Lena, there you go winding yourself up again! You fill your head with nonsense and then just get nervous and take it out on me!»
«I wouldn’t be winding myself up if you didn’t start acting weird! I wouldn’t have said a word against you if you weren’t blatantly lying to me and treating me like a fool! I can feel you’re just lying to me!»
«What makes you think I’m lying to you?» Ivan asked and again averted his eyes.
«Because you can’t even look me in the eyes! You’re looking everywhere but at me! And that’s the first sign you’re lying! You’re even starting to sweat now!» Elena pointed at her husband’s forehead.
«Oh, Lena, stop making things up! Maybe you just want me to quit my job and sit at home? To be only with you? Well, I can quit, and then you can support all four of us! It’s not hard for me!»
«Why do you always go to extremes? What does quitting have to do with anything? You’re just lying to me, that’s all! And you start making up all kinds of nonsense! That’s always what happens when someone has nothing else to say!»
«Anyway, Lena, I’m off to work! And I don’t intend to discuss this topic with you anymore, and I certainly don’t intend to justify myself to you! Call anyone you want! Just remember, if you shame me in front of the boss like this, I really will quit and sit at home on your neck! Got it?»
«Wait, how exactly can I shame you in front of your boss? I don’t understand this at all? You, I see, have lied to such an extent… Well, never mind, I won’t call anyone! I’ll just come to your office myself today, and let your boss confirm your words!»
«Just try!» Ivan suddenly roared.
And Lena, now, when she spoke about going to his work, was precisely expecting this reaction from him.
«Anyway, my dear!» the woman began in a stern voice. «Either you tell me who she is now, pack your things nicely and leave without any fuss, like a man! Or I will make you so infamous at work and among acquaintances and friends that, believe me, you will not like it! And your father, he will rip your head off for this!»
«What does my father have to do with this?» Ivan didn’t understand.
«Just think about it! Remember… If you don’t want to, I’ll remind you! He said in front of you that, God forbid, if you ever cheat on me, he will pull all your arms and legs off! And evict you from this apartment! Remember?»
«Are you going to complain to my father about me?» Ivan’s hands trembled.
«Oh, how nervous you suddenly got! So who is she, someone from work? Do I know her?»
«There’s no one but you!» Ivan began to panic. «Stop constantly suspecting me of all the deadly sins!»
«Why are you yelling? Don’t raise your voice, you hysterical!» Lena replied calmly. «Why are you so nervous? That means you have something to hide!»
«That’s it, I don’t want to talk to you about this topic anymore! If you don’t trust me, that’s your personal problem! And I,» the man quickly glanced at his watch, «am going to be late for work because of you! I’m off!»
«Nothing serious, you’ll make up for it at night!»
Ivan gave his wife a malicious look, then opened the front door and left the apartment.
Lena took the towel off her head, wiped her hair a little, and went to her bedroom for her phone. She had no desire to go to her husband’s work. So she quickly found the boss’s number in the phone book and called him directly.
The phone was picked up almost immediately.
«I’m listening!» a gruff male voice answered. «Who is this?»
«Hello, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich! My name is Elena, I’m the wife of one of your employees, Ivan…»
«Ah, yes-yes-yes! I understand, hello, Elena! How can I help?»
«My question might sound strange… But… I wanted to know, do you have some sort of backlog there? Do they, I mean your office staff, and especially my husband, really work until night, or what?»
«What makes you think that?» the man asked in a questioning tone. «No! They all work until six as they always did! And Ivan has even been leaving early lately! What happened?»
Lena was silent for a few seconds. Then she gathered herself and replied to her husband’s boss.
«It’s nothing special! Thank you, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich! I’ve learned everything I wanted to! Goodbye!» said Lena and hung up.
Her mood was almost non-existent already, and after the words of her husband’s boss, it completely vanished. She needed to get ready for work, but her head was filled with completely different things. And she couldn’t think about work at all.
She dried her hair, got ready, and still went to work. But there Elena could not concentrate on her task at all. Various strange thoughts constantly crept into her head, which couldn’t just be shrugged off. She understood that her husband, with whom they had been married for almost fifteen years, was simply cheating on her. And all that remained was for her to catch him in the act. To finally, irrevocably.
Her work ended exactly at five, an hour earlier than her husband’s. The kids had already texted her that they were home. So she got ready and drove her car to the office where Ivan worked.
When she arrived and parked near the office building, her husband’s car was still there. But it wasn’t five minutes before Ivan suddenly came out of the building. At that moment, he was talking on the phone.
His wife’s car went unnoticed by the man, so absorbed was he in the conversation. He got into his car and drove off. Lena, without much thought, followed him. She immediately wanted to call him under the pretense that she was going home, and find out where he was. But she didn’t do that. The woman decided to follow her husband to the end.
The journey took about forty minutes for Lena. She didn’t lag far behind her husband, but she also tried not to get too close to him.
In the end, this private detective game led the woman to a very familiar area. One where one of Lena’s friends lived. And this thought disturbed her.
«No, it can’t be!» she tried to convince herself. «Not just Vika lives here!»
But a little later, when Ivan turned into one of the courtyards, the very courtyard where this Vika lived, and parked his car next to her entrance, all doubts disappeared.
Ivan got out of the car and headed for the entrance. Lena stopped, waited about ten minutes, and then decided to take her phone and dial her friend’s number. But then she suddenly changed her mind, got out of the car, and headed for Vika’s entrance.
Victoria was one of her best friends. With whom she practically always shared everything that happened in Lena’s life. And not so long ago, just a month and a half ago, her husband left. And Vika told Lena that she had caught him with a lover.
Approaching the entrance, she thought about how to play her visit to Vika so that she would open the entrance door for her without questions through the intercom. But she didn’t have to do that because children ran out of the entrance right in front of her, and she quickly slipped through the open door.
Riding the elevator to the sixth floor, the woman was determined. She approached her friend’s apartment door and rang the bell. Lena knew that Vika should be home at the moment, as she was temporarily not working and was looking for a job.
But they were in no hurry to open the door for Lena. So she pressed the bell button again and held it until the door finally opened.
Vika, shocked, stood in front of Lena in a bathrobe and with tousled hair.
«Where is he?» Lena asked her friend sternly.
«Who?» Vika tried to pretend she didn’t understand.
«You know exactly who I’m talking about! Step aside!» said Elena and simply pushed the hostess aside.
«Have you lost your mind?» the friend began to protest. «Lena, where are you going with your shoes on?» Vika shouted after Lena.
But Lena wasn’t listening anymore. She charged forward like a tank. Opening the door to Vika’s bedroom, she found who she had actually come for. Ivan at that moment was frantically trying to pull on his pants.
«Lena, just don’t be mad! Please!» Ivan begged his wife. «I’ll explain everything to you now!»
«I don’t need you to explain anything, I’m not blind!» the wife calmly replied to her husband.
She entered the bedroom, approached her husband closely, and with all her might kneed him between the legs. So hard that Ivan even squealed like a piglet. From pain and shock, he fell to his knees in front of his wife and held onto his groin, while Lena, instead of simply turning around and leaving, managed to kick him several times, and again right there, where she had hit him with her knee.
Ivan turned pale and red at the same time. His eyes, the woman thought, might just pop out of their orbits.
Vika stood behind and was afraid to even peep. Lena calmly turned around, looked at her friend, and walked towards her.
«Lena, calm down, I’ll explain everything to you now!» Vika began to wail.
«Another one!» the woman smirked.
She sharply grabbed Vika by the hair and yanked her towards her. Vika, by inertia, began to fall on Lena, and she simply stepped aside. She didn’t start kicking her friend, although she very much wanted to.
The woman left her friend’s apartment, walked down the stairs, sat in her car, and thought she would just burst into tears. But no, there wasn’t a single tear in her eyes. Just offense and pain. She started the car and drove home, where her daughter and son were waiting for her.
Twenty minutes after she was home, Ivan walked into the apartment.
«And what are you doing here? You can turn right around and go back to where you’ve been working late!»
«Lena, let’s talk!» he walked forward from the door and tried to take his wife’s hand.
«Get away from me, and don’t you dare touch me with your filthy hands! You have someone else to touch, go wear yourself out there! But you’re not welcome here anymore! I’ve already filed for divorce!» the wife waved a phone in front of her husband.
«Lena, let’s not rush things! Why destroy everything just like that? Over some trifles! I’ve sent Vika away, I won’t set foot there anymore! I don’t want to lose you! Please forgive me!»
«I’m not interested in that right now! You can go back to her! By the way, I called your father while I was driving home! And I told him all about your escapades! He said he would come soon!»
Ivan turned pale when he heard about his father again. Although he was almost thirty-six years old, he was still afraid of his father like fire. Because now and then, if he didn’t like the son’s words during a conversation, especially if the son complained about his wife and children to his mother in his presence, he could heartily slap him in the face. And it didn’t matter to him whether it hurt Ivan or not, whether he would have a bruise or not. His father simply couldn’t stomach whiners and those who betray their loved ones.
And the most interesting thing is that all these years, Lena, Ivan, and their children, whom Ivan’s father adored, lived in the grandfather’s apartment, which he never transferred to his son.
After the father’s arrival, Ivan got it even more. True, unlike his wife, his father didn’t hit him. And he told Ivan that his son better not dare appear in this apartment anymore. Because after they divorced, he would write off the apartment to his daughter-in-law and grandchildren. And he would no longer consider such a despicable person as Ivan his son.
