Diana always felt that she had been extremely lucky since birth. She grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and never lacked anything.
After finishing school, her parents placed her in a prestigious university and then got her a job at the family business.
Needless to say, she had her own apartment and car right after school.
At twenty-two, Diana met Nikolay and fell head over heels in love with him.
Nikolay was handsome and had no trouble with the opposite sex.
However, to win Diana’s heart and make her his wife, he had to work hard.
All because Diana’s parents were against Nikolay. They didn’t like that at 28, the man was working as a taxi driver, despite having graduated from law school.
Diana managed to convince her parents to change their opinion about her chosen one.
Eventually, her mother and father agreed to Nikolay as a son-in-law and even helped with organizing and paying for the wedding.
As a gift, the parents bought the newlyweds a country mansion and hinted that they expected grandchildren soon.
During all three years of marriage, Diana never doubted her choice. Nikolay was always attentive and caring towards her, never rude.
However, for some reason of his own, he refused to work at the family business.
Nikolay preferred to work as a lawyer in a government structure, but after working there for only two years, he quit.
Since then, he has been unsuccessfully looking for a new job, adamantly refusing to work for his father-in-law.
Diana did not pressure her husband or push him to work because, thanks to regular help from her parents, she and Nikolay could continue to live comfortably.
Diana had a good relationship with her mother-in-law, Ekaterina Danilovna.
The woman often visited and sometimes even stayed the night. She openly praised her daughter-in-law and tried to please her, so Diana did not expect anything bad from her.
Returning from work a couple of hours earlier than usual, she heard voices on the second floor.
Judging by the voices, it was Nikolay and Ekaterina Danilovna. Diana quietly went upstairs and saw her husband standing in the doorway of the dressing room.
«Mom, maybe that’s enough? You’ve already spent an hour trying on clothes,» Nikolay said discontentedly. From the depths of the room, his mother responded incoherently.
«Sweetheart, what’s going on here?» the girl inquired.
«Why are you home so early?» Nikolay asked, surprised and simultaneously frightened, ignoring her question.
«Dad arranged for a shortened day because of some meeting, I didn’t inquire further. Why are you so agitated?» Diana asked, puzzled, and approached her husband.
Nikolay quickly closed the dressing room door and tried to lead his wife downstairs.
«Nothing special, just surprised to see you home so early. Let’s go to the kitchen, I’ll feed you some delicious cheese soup,» the husband babbled nervously.
However, his wife understood that the man was hiding something from her and confidently entered the dressing room.
There, she saw Ekaterina Danilovna trying to pull off Diana’s evening dress, which was the same size.
«Sunshine, your dresses are so beautiful that I couldn’t resist trying them on,» the mother-in-law said nonchalantly and smiled sweetly.
Diana was shocked by what was happening and was a bit confused, not knowing how to react to what she saw.
«How often do you try on my clothes?» the girl asked suspiciously.
Pretending nothing happened, Ekaterina Danilovna quickly changed back into her dress.
Nikolay preferred not to get involved in these arguments and went to the kitchen to set the table.
«I just wanted to see how it fits me. Sorry if that offended you,» the mother-in-law said calmly. «It’s so beautiful, I’m sure you look magnificent in it. How much does this dress cost?»
«I don’t know, my mom gave it to me. I hope next time, if you feel like trying on my things, you’ll ask my permission first,» Diana said sternly.
«Of course, dear, don’t be mad at me, I didn’t mean any harm,» Ekaterina Danilovna lamented and hurried to join her son in the kitchen, leaving her daughter-in-law in the dressing room.
Diana tried to calm down and mechanically began to fold clothes and adjust the suits hanging on the racks.
When she picked up her husband’s dark blue trousers, a folded piece of paper fell from the pocket to the floor.
Diana bent down, picked it up, and read: «Happy anniversary of our meeting, my love! Thank you for last night!»
The girl read the message several times until it dawned on her that the handwriting belonged to neither her nor her husband.
Moreover, she and Nikolay had never celebrated the anniversary of their meeting. Initially, she wanted to go down to Nikolay and find out who wrote this note.
However, after some thought, Diana decided that it would be pointless. If her husband was cheating on her, he would undoubtedly lie and come up with some excuse on the spot.
The girl put the note in her pocket and went downstairs. The mother-in-law had already left the mansion by then, and Nikolay was waiting for her in the kitchen.
The girl sat down to eat with a stony face. The man did not initiate any conversations, seeing her displeased expression.
He naively believed that his wife was angry because of Ekaterina Danilovna’s impudence.
«I’m going to meet with friends,» Diana said calmly after eating. «I’m not inviting you because we agreed to sit in the cafe just with the ladies.»
With these words, she left the house and got into her car. Diana headed into the city, but instead of the cafe, she visited a pet store. There, she bought a collar with a GPS tracker.
Afterward, the girl set it up and linked it with her phone. She returned home late at night when Nikolay was taking a bath.
The wife decided that it was the perfect time to implement her plan. She took the keys to her husband’s car and hid the collar in the trunk.
The next two days were uneventful. The man behaved as usual and did not go anywhere.
Diana even started to think that she had wound herself up over a silly note.
On Monday, with a calm heart, she went to work. Around lunchtime, a notification on her phone indicated that her husband’s car had started moving.
Diana curiously began to track Nikolay’s movements. According to the GPS tracker’s report, he first drove to an apartment building, stayed there for about an hour, and then headed to a shopping center.
Unable to contain her curiosity, Diana ran off from work. She wanted to find out what her husband was doing in the shopping center.
However, finding Nikolay in the huge shopping center was not so easy. But fortune smiled on the girl, and she spotted a tall figure near the entrance to a grocery supermarket.
Diana cautiously made her way toward him. When she got closer, she saw her husband in the company of a woman and two children—three and six years old.
Unexpectedly, both children began jumping around Nikolay and loudly shouting:
«Daddy, daddy! Will you buy us ice cream today?»
The man bent down to them with a joyful face and whispered something, after which the children calmed down. Diana approached her husband on shaky legs and asked with trembling lips:
«What does all this mean? Why do they call you daddy?»
«Diana, what are you doing here? Let’s go outside, we need to talk,» Nikolay said nervously and took his wife by the elbow.
He literally dragged her outside and with a pale face began to explain. It turns out that when Nikolay met Diana, he was already in a civil marriage with Liza, who at that moment was pregnant with their second child.
The young couple lived poorly, so for state benefits, they registered Elizabeth as a single mother.
For this reason, the man’s passport never had a stamp about marriage and children.
Liza, Nikolay’s civil wife, had a plan to improve their financial situation.
She suggested that Nikolay make Diana fall in love with him and get money from her.
Initially, the man refused the idea, but after long persuasions, he agreed.
However, as the money came in, Liza’s appetites grew. Eventually, she insisted that Nikolay marry Diana. Thus, the man started living with two families.
«Diana, if you love me, don’t tell your parents anything for a couple of months and don’t file for divorce. I haven’t found a job yet, and Liza and I need to pay the mortgage,» Nikolay pleaded.
«Do you hear yourself? You’ve been brazenly deceiving me for over three years and living a double life, and now you have the audacity to ask for something?» Diana asked, wiping away tears, dumbfounded.
«Understand, it’s all for the children. You don’t want them to be on the street, do you?» the husband tried to appeal to her pity.
«I don’t want that, but it’s not my problem. Did Ekaterina Danilovna know that you have another family?» the girl asked tiredly.
«Yes, mother knew everything from the beginning,» Nikolay guiltily answered.
«Give me the car keys,» Diana demanded. «Since mother knew everything, let her help you pay off the mortgage.»
Nikolay sighed heavily and, submissively taking the keys from his pocket, handed them to his wife.
«Don’t come home, your things will be sent to you, as well as the divorce papers,» Diana said bitterly and walked away.
Diana made her way home in tears. She could hardly believe that her beloved husband had been leading her on for more than three years.
Within two months, the spouses were divorced. Meanwhile, Nikolay and Liza’s life became even harder.
Without Diana’s financial support, they were forced to cut their expenses, and the mortgage weighed heavily on their shoulders. The man’s mother refused to help them, stating that her son was entirely to blame.
4
