— Dima, let’s call it quits. Five years of marriage, and I still can’t conceive a child. Why torture each other? I don’t want someone else’s children. Surrogacy is not for us. We wasted our time and money on IVF.
— I think the same, Lena, that all of this is useless. Love alone is not enough to build a family.
— I have no property claims against you, Dima. The apartment stays yours, and I’ll move in with my mother.
They parted with deep regret on the very day they filed for divorce. She wept both before and after the ceremony, and his eyes filled with tears.
After leaving the registry office building, they went their separate ways.
At home, Elena told her mother:
— Dima’s mother constantly pressured him, insisting that I’m infertile and unworthy of her son. Let him now rejoice. I freed her little boy for the daughters of her friends. Half of them are already married, yet it’s still not enough for her.
— Daughter, don’t think about them. Dmitry has his own head on his shoulders. You insisted on the divorce for nothing.
— That wilful mother-in-law drove me crazy. She would come over, then call, demanding that we leave her noble son alone.
Later, Elena’s former classmate Vitaly visited her.
— I saw from the window yesterday how you arrived with your things. My wife died during childbirth. I took the twins to their grandmother in a village. My mother needs to build her experience, and the grandmother is already retired.
— Vitalik, you didn’t just drop by without a reason. Spill it—what are you planning?
— My boys need a mother. They’ll soon start school, and not in a village, right?
— Do you need a nanny? But I work.
— No, Lena. The grandmother will move in with us. I’ve always liked you since school, but you chose that classmate. And I married Sveta without love.
— So you’ve always liked me, and yet you didn’t even know about me.
— Lena, how about you agree to marry me?
— Vitalik, you’re such a hurry-up. Give me some time to think.
— We’ll file the application, and you’ll have a couple of months to decide.
— You talked me into it. Come by my office tomorrow after work. I’ll send you the address by text. And no lavish wedding, please.
— As you wish.
Vitaly left, and Elena laughed.
— Mom, I just got divorced, and my new fiancé is already here. Can you believe it?
— Vitalik is a good man, daughter. I feel sorry for Svetocha. She carried twins, it was so hard on her. She was in the hospital almost all the time for bed rest. Her little heart was weak.
— Oh, Mom, I’m definitely not pregnant.
A couple of weeks later, Elena received a call from her former mother-in-law.
— Dimochka and Yulenka have filed an application at the registry office. I didn’t even know that she was pregnant with him. Apparently, it’s already three months along.
— My congratulations to your son, — and Elena ended the conversation.
— Mom, Vitalik appeared just in time. I will marry him without any hesitation, — she told her mother, recounting the news about her ex-husband.
Elena and Vitaly filed an application at the registry office. Already outside, he offered her to move in with him.
— I’m sorry, but I’m not ready for such close relations yet. I’ll move in only after the marriage registration. For now, let’s get used to each other from a distance.
Vitaly agreed, but Elena detected hurt in his voice. However, at that moment it seemed insignificant. Time will pass, and everything will fall into place.
Elena was drawn to Dmitry, especially in the evenings and at night. More than once she planned to call him and express her outrage: how could he, while still married, allow himself to have a close relationship with Yulia. But something inside stopped her.
The day of the registry office registration with Vitaly was approaching, and Elena suddenly fell ill. In the mornings she felt nauseous, and her head spun. She thought it was due to anxiety. Her mother advised her to see a doctor.
Elena scheduled an appointment at the polyclinic, but just a day before the visit to the registry office.
— You’re expecting a child, — the doctor stated.
— This must be some mistake. I divorced my husband and had no other relationships.
— Get some tests done, — the doctor handed her a referral.
The results were not due immediately, and already the next day Elena had a wedding. Should she tell Vitaly about this? What if it was a false result or just a hormonal imbalance? Let it be what it will, she decided, and went to bed.
It was already late when Dmitry called her.
— How are you, Lenochka?
— I’m fine! Tomorrow I’m marrying a widower with many children. I will raise someone else’s children.
— And you didn’t want to take the little one from the orphanage with me?
— Dima, time goes by, and my desires change.
— Send me the registry office address. I want to come and congratulate you.
— I’ll send you a message with the time in the morning. Be happy for me, even though I couldn’t do so during your wedding.
— I don’t understand, Lena. What do you mean?
— About your infidelity, although I didn’t know about it before. Your mother enlightened me.
— Again, Mom? I’m tired of her antics. Besides you, I had no one and will have no one. I miss you terribly.
At the registry office, when the registrar asked Elena if she agreed to become Vitaly’s wife, she hesitated, glancing at the guests. She was waiting for Dmitry. And then he appeared with a bouquet of flowers and shouted:
— I love you, Lenka! Don’t marry him! — and spread his arms wide.
— I can’t live without you either, Dima. — Elena rushed into his arms, and he, picking her up, ran out onto the street. There was his car, and they drove to his place.
— And what about your pregnant wife, Yulenka?
— Who? I don’t know her. Besides you, I’ve never had another wife. Did your mother say that?
— Dima, even after our divorce she can’t find peace.
In the evening, Dmitry told Elena what he had learned.
— I was at my mother’s as a guest the day before yesterday. It was late, and I decided to stay over. I heard her talking in her bedroom with a friend. I listened in and understood everything, — he recounted the conversation between his mother and her friend.
Elena had no idea about her mother-in-law’s treachery. It was she who, when visiting Elena, had mixed some liquid into her tea, after which the first miscarriage occurred. And even when Dmitry announced that Elena was pregnant, the mother-in-law continued to secretly harm her daughter-in-law. Even after the IVF, she wasn’t appeased.
— Dima, could she really be capable of that?
— I underestimated her, Lenochka. Now everything will be different. You will definitely get pregnant.
Suddenly, Elena received a message with the test results.
— Dima, I’m already pregnant with your child. There was no intimacy with Vitaly. Can you imagine? The term is about two and a half months. When we divorced, he was already out.
— Now my mother will never set foot in our apartment, Lenochka, with her meddling.
Elena successfully gave birth to a girl later on, during her second marriage with Dmitry. When he informed his mother about it, she was in shock.
— You’re together again? How could you, my son, do this behind my back? I had arranged with Olga Pavlovna. Her daughter had just graduated from college, and we were planning to visit you. This is not your child, son.
— What do you mean «my child»? And this is not the end. And one more thing—I want to tell you. The last time I stayed over at your place, I heard what you bragged about to your friend. Imagine what you did to Lena. You’d be in jail if that were the case. Never come near my family again.
Several years passed.
Dmitry and Elena had two children. He maintained contact with his mother, calling her and occasionally visiting. However, he never lifted the ban he imposed.
