Diana always felt that she was born lucky. She grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and never lacked for 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 was provided with her own apartment and car right after school.
At twenty-two, Diana met Nikolai and fell head over heels in love.
The man was handsome and had no problems with the opposite sex.
However, to win Diana’s heart and make her his wife, he had to work hard.
All because her parents were against Nikolai. They didn’t like that at twenty-eight, the man worked as a taxi driver despite having graduated from law school.
Diana managed to convince her parents to change their mind about her chosen one.
Eventually, her mother and father agreed to Nikolai 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 house and hinted that they were expecting grandchildren soon.
Throughout their three years of marriage, Diana never doubted her choice. Nikolai was always attentive and caring towards her, never rude.
However, for some reason, the husband refused to work at the family business.
Nikolai preferred to work as a lawyer in a government structure, but after working there for just two years, he quit.
After which, to this day, he unsuccessfully looked for a new job, adamantly refusing to work for his father-in-law.
Diana didn’t pressure her husband and didn’t push him to work, because thanks to regular help from her parents, she and Nikolai could continue to live comfortably.
Diana had a good relationship with her mother-in-law, Ekaterina Danilovna.
The woman often came over and sometimes even stayed the night. She openly praised her daughter-in-law and tried to please her, so Diana expected nothing bad from her.
Returning from work a couple of hours earlier than usual, she heard voices from the second floor.
Judging by the voices, it was Nikolai and Ekaterina Danilovna. Diana quietly went upstairs and saw her husband standing in the doorway of the walk-in closet.
«Mom, maybe that’s enough? You’ve already spent a whole hour trying on clothes,» Nikolai said discontentedly. From deep inside the room, his mother mumbled something in response.
«Dear, what’s going on here?» the girl asked curiously.
«Why are you home so early?» asked her husband, surprised and simultaneously frightened, ignoring her question.
«Dad arranged for an early day off today because of some meeting; I didn’t inquire further. And why are you so nervous?» Diana asked, puzzled, and approached her husband.
Nikolai quickly slammed the closet 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 blurted out nervously.
However, the wife understood that the man was hiding something from her and confidently entered the walk-in closet.
There she saw Ekaterina Danilovna struggling to take off Diana’s evening dress, which was the same size as hers.
«Sunshine, you have such beautiful dresses that I couldn’t resist trying them on,» the mother-in-law said calmly and smiled sweetly.
Diana was shocked by what was happening and was a bit lost, not knowing how to react to the sight.
«How often do you try on my clothes?» the girl asked suspiciously.
Ekaterina Danilovna, pretending nothing happened, quickly changed back into her own dress.
Nikolai chose not to get involved in these disputes and went to the kitchen to set the table.
«I just wanted to see how it looks on me. I’m sorry if it offended you,» the mother-in-law said calmly. «It’s so beautiful, I’m sure you look great in it. How much does this dress cost?»
«I don’t know, my mother gave it to me. I hope next time, if you want to try on my clothes, you’ll ask me 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 her son in the kitchen, leaving her daughter-in-law in the walk-in closet.
Diana tried to calm down and mechanically began folding clothes and straightening the suits hanging on the hangers.
When she picked up her husband’s dark blue trousers, a piece of folded paper fell out of the pocket onto the floor.
Diana bent down, picked it up, and read: «Happy anniversary of our first meeting, my love! Thank you for last night!»
The girl read the message several times until it dawned on her that the handwriting belonged neither to her nor to her husband.
Moreover, she and Nikolai had never celebrated the anniversary of their meeting. Initially, she wanted to go down to Nikolai and find out who wrote the note.
However, after some thought, Diana decided that it would be pointless. If her husband was cheating on her, he would undoubtedly lie and quickly invent some excuse.
The girl pocketed the note and went downstairs. By then, the mother-in-law had already left the mansion, and Nikolai was waiting for her in the kitchen.
With a stony face, the girl sat down to eat. The man didn’t bother her with conversation, seeing her displeased expression.
He naively thought that his wife was angry because of Ekaterina Danilovna’s audacity.
«I’m going to meet some friends,» Diana said calmly after eating. «I’m not inviting you because we agreed to meet in a cafe just for the ladies.»
With these words, she left the house and got into the car. Diana drove 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 to her phone. She returned home late at night when Nikolai 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.
Nothing special happened the next two days. The man behaved as usual and didn’t go anywhere.
Diana even began to think that she had overreacted because of a silly note.
On Monday, with a calm heart, she went to work. Closer to lunch, she received a notification on her phone that her husband’s car had started moving.
Diana curiously followed Nikolai’s movements. According to the GPS tracker report, he first drove to an apartment building, stood there for about an hour, and then went to a shopping center.
Diana, burning with curiosity, couldn’t stand it and ran from work. She wanted to find out what her husband was doing at the shopping center.
However, finding Nikolai in the huge shopping center was not so easy. But fortune smiled on her, and she noticed a tall figure near the entrance to the grocery supermarket.
Diana cautiously headed in his direction. When she got closer, she saw her husband with a woman and two children—three and six years old.
Unexpectedly, both kids started jumping around Nikolai 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 with trembling lips said:
«What does all this mean? Why are they calling you dad?»
«Diana, what are you doing here? Let’s go outside, we need to talk,» Nikolai 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 Nikolai met Diana, he was already in a common-law marriage with Liza, who was pregnant with their second child at that moment.
The young couple lived poorly, and for state payments, they registered Liza as a single mother.
For this reason, there was never a stamp about marriage or children in the man’s passport.
Liza, the common-law wife, came up with a plan to improve their financial situation.
She suggested Nikolai charm Diana and get money from her.
At first, the man refused this idea, but after long persuasions, he agreed.
However, as the money came in, Liza’s appetites grew. Eventually, she insisted that Nikolai 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,» Nikolai pleaded.
«Do you hear yourself? You’ve been blatantly deceiving me for over three years and leading a double life, and now you have the audacity to ask for something?» Diana asked, wiping away tears.
«Understand, it’s all for the children. You don’t want them to end up on the street, do you?» the husband tried to appeal to her sympathy.
«I don’t want that, but it’s not my problem. Did Ekaterina Danilovna know you have another family?» the girl asked tiredly.
«Yes, mother knew everything from the beginning,» Nikolai guiltily answered.
«Give me the car keys,» Diana demanded. «Since mother knew everything, let her help you cover the mortgage.»
Nikolai sighed heavily and, obediently taking the keys out of 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, life for Nikolai and Liza became even more difficult.
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 to blame for everything.
