Vera the Mistress - стр. 15

Vera never talked to her friend about her personal life. She knew their family, sometimes went to birthday parties, but always alone. Vera was silent about her married lover, and Vika pretended not to notice her secretive personal life. Vera did not know that in the past, Victoria had such an instructive and difficult story, although with a happy ending. And Vika, in turn, having heard her friend's story, felt that the situation had gone too far. Vika realized that Vera had already lost this battle. The main thing was that Arina in this unequal struggle felt sorry and let go of the stupid fool. Although in the back of her mind, something told Vika that Ara did not take prisoners and shot them on the spot.

Oleg has always been a very exemplary boy, a loving son, and a caring grandson. He loved his mother and grandmother very much. It should be noted that mother Olga and grandmother Zina loved Oleg much more. He has always been too overprotected and put on a pedestal as a little God.

Oleg's father left the family when the boy was eighteen. Having suffered in eternal quarrels and scandals about the upbringing of the child, the family broke up, the father was forbidden to punish the boy for pranks, give him to sports or take him fishing. It was a taboo to punish him, he could get injured in sports, and catch a cold at the open air. The slightest desire of a man to teach his son was met with hostility. And it ended with another stupid and vulgar scandal.

Grandmother Zina, who came from the countryside to help with her grandson, remained in Moscow. Their seniors’ apartment was a large one, left as a legacy by rich and distinguished relatives. His great-aunt had no children, and the only heir was a grandson her dear and beloved sister, Maxim, Oleg's father.

Having met Olya at an exhibition of paintings, a modest, provincial girl studying the art of the Silver age, Maxim just a few months later made a proposition. The couple was among a smart set of artists and the Bohemia of Moscow. Quiet, intelligent, and smiling Maxim and Olga carefully hid their main family problem, they tried to get pregnant for a long time, but fate, generous in everything, did not give them a child for many years.

Maxim was forty, Olga was thirty-eight.

– Pregnant! – reported the district gynecologist with joy and relief.

The late pregnancy was a very hard ordeal. Olya went blue from toxicosis and thin from headaches and nausea. In the last months, she was taken to the hospital. There was a real threat of miscarriage. That happened at the beginning of the ninth month, the long-awaited first child Oleg was born.