“No, he won’t get anything—not the house, not the money!” Alyona shouted indignantly after learning the astonishing news.
The young woman entered the apartment building where she had spent her childhood and youth. She had not been here for a long time. Exhausted after a sleepless night on the plane, she could barely stay on her feet or think clearly. She was also trying not to think about the reason for her visit. It was too painful.
“Mom, my dear, how could this have happened?” Larisa dropped her bag and suitcase as soon as she crossed the threshold of her parents’ apartment and embraced her mother.
Now she could finally let her tears flow. She had held them back and endured the entire journey, but now her emotions overwhelmed her.
“Hello, my darling! I’m so happy to see you,” Nadezhda said, trying not to cry as she stroked the back of her eldest daughter, who was clinging to her.
It would not be right to greet a child she had not seen for two years with tears in her eyes, even in such a terrible situation.
“How are you, Mom? Have you recovered even a little? This grief is so terrible that I don’t even know what to say. I don’t understand how I survived all of this so far away from you and Alyona.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. We’re holding on. You know your father wouldn’t have approved if we remained trapped in our grief for too long. I’ve finally waited for you to arrive, and that alone brings me joy. Don’t worry, darling. We’ll get through everything. Take off your coat. You need to rest and eat after your journey.”
Three weeks earlier, Larisa’s father had suddenly died of a heart attack. Larisa, who lived thousands of miles away from her parents, had been unable to come. She had ended up in the hospital herself when an old chronic illness suddenly worsened. The pain had been so severe that she could barely move, let alone make such a long journey.
Larisa had been living for two years in a city on the ocean, where she had moved with her husband. The terrible news had taken her completely by surprise. She grieved for her father, who had not been old, and was devastated that she could not attend the funeral of someone so close to her.
Now, three weeks later, she had finally managed to return to her hometown to support her mother and younger sister. Larisa planned to stay until the fortieth day after her father’s death.
“Mom, where’s Alyona? Isn’t she living with you now? She assured me over the phone that she would stay with you for a while—at least for the first few months.”
“Alyonka is staying with her boyfriend, Nikita. I’m perfectly fine, sweetheart. Why should I keep her here beside me? I’m already feeling better. I’ve gone back to work, and life is gradually returning to normal. It wouldn’t do either of us any good to sit here together drowning in grief and sorrow,” Nadezhda replied without much enthusiasm.
“Mom, what are you talking about? I can see that you’re suffering. You’re only trying to stay strong in front of me, but you can’t fool me. My sister really is selfish. She could have stayed with her own mother for a couple of months. Nothing terrible would have happened to her!” Larisa exclaimed angrily.
She desperately wanted to cry, but she tried to control her emotions for her mother’s sake.
“Don’t say that, Larochka. Alyona did stay with me. She did,” her mother protested.
“For how long, exactly? A day? Two days? Was she really that desperate to run back to Nikita?” Larisa asked bitterly.
“Please don’t fight with each other over this. That’s the last thing I need right now,” Nadezhda begged her eldest daughter.
Larisa went into the bedroom and slowly unpacked her suitcase. Her mother later called her to the table, but Larisa decided to take a shower first after the long journey.
Standing beneath the strong, scalding streams of water, the woman finally allowed herself to cry. It was so painful to think that she would never again see someone so dear to her, hear her father’s cheerful laughter, or listen to his jokes. The family apartment seemed empty, as though it had lost half of the warm, living energy that the grown-up sisters had always needed.
She had to admit that her mother had changed. Larisa noticed it immediately. Nadezhda had lost weight and looked confused and helpless, as though she had aged ten years in just a few weeks. All her assurances that she had accepted the death of her beloved husband were lies.
“Mommy, I’ve missed your pancakes so much,” Larisa said as she sat in the kitchen. “I’ve been dreaming about them for such a long time! You can’t even imagine.”
“Well, I’m glad I managed to bring you at least a little happiness.”
“Oh, Mom, don’t say that. I love you so much. You yourself are my joy and happiness,” her daughter said, trying to support Nadezhda. “Please take care of yourself. We need you.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. I’ll try.”
After dinner, without meaning to, they began talking about the recent tragedy that had invaded their quiet, ordinary lives like a message of darkness. Who could have imagined that a fifty-two-year-old man who had never complained about his health would suddenly leave this world in a single moment?
Nadezhda told her daughter how everything had happened. She described how many people had volunteered to help organize the funeral and how their relatives and acquaintances had supported her without leaving her alone in her misfortune.
“A lot of people came from your father’s workplace too. I didn’t even know most of them. People came up to me, offered their condolences, and said comforting things.”
“People’s support is essential at moments like this,” Larisa said, pressing herself tightly against her mother.
They sat together on the sofa where little Lara had loved to sit as a child. She remembered how happy she had been whenever she squeezed herself between her parents and waited for their affectionate, playful reactions.
“There’s something else I want to tell you,” her mother continued. “One young man made a strong impression on me. He was probably from your father’s workplace because I had never seen him before. He didn’t speak to anyone. He just stood to one side in silence and cried. Can you imagine? Whenever he wiped the tears from his face, he turned away so no one would see how much he was suffering.”
“A young man?” Larisa asked in surprise. “That’s strange. Why would he be so upset? It wasn’t as though he was saying goodbye to his own father!”
At those words, mother and daughter looked at one another in surprise. Each of them thought that Larisa’s unintentional remark might actually be true.
“I didn’t even think of that,” Nadezhda said. “You’re right, sweetheart. A person could only grieve like that for someone very close. I was too overwhelmed to think about it then, but now, while telling you, I realize that he cried as though he had lost his own father.”
“No, Mom, don’t invent things. Are you suggesting that Dad had other children besides Alyonka and me?” Larisa asked in astonishment.
“Am I suggesting it? Of course not. But can anyone ever be one hundred percent certain?”
“No, Mom! How could that be possible? Dad loved you, and there was simply nowhere for any other children to come from. That’s enough. Let’s forget about it. It’s nonsense. We don’t need another problem right now, trying to understand why some emotional young man behaved that way.”
The next day, Alyonka rushed over. She looked bright, cheerful, and full of life. She happily embraced her sister and said that she had missed her terribly. Larisa thought it was obvious that her sister had already left all her troubles behind. Alyona was living a full life, just as a young, healthy woman in love should.
“Alyona, couldn’t you have stayed with Mom? I asked you to,” Lara scolded her. “How can you be so selfish?”
“Stayed with her? Why? Mom sent me back to Nikita herself and assured me that she was fine,” the girl replied carelessly.
“I understand everything about you now. You don’t care about your own mother at all. Fine, let’s forget about it. Let’s talk about something else. Mom said there was an unfamiliar young man at the cemetery. Did you see him?” Larisa asked.
“Yes, there was someone. I noticed him too. He was strange—he was even crying. He kept looking at me. Maybe he wanted to come over but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Why are you asking about him?” Alyona wondered.
“Because he was strange. I can’t stop thinking about it. We should try to find him. Do you think we could?”
“Oh, Lara, why do you even care about him? Don’t fill your head with nonsense!” her sister replied dismissively. “Let’s talk about how we’re going to divide Father’s inheritance instead.”
“It isn’t nonsense. My heart tells me it isn’t nonsense at all,” Larisa said thoughtfully. “And what is there to discuss about the inheritance? The apartment will remain with Mom. We’ll sell the suburban house that Dad inherited from Grandpa because we don’t need it anymore. You and I will divide the money. I’ll put my share into an interest-bearing bank account. You can do whatever you like with yours. You could buy yourself a small apartment, for example. Just make sure you do it before getting married. Be sensible.”
“I’m no more foolish than you are!” Alyona replied, delighted by the pleasant prospect.
Soon, however, a series of events lifted the veil of secrecy, and everyone discovered who the mysterious young man was.
“Mom, have you already applied to open the inheritance case?” Larisa asked a week after the fortieth day.
“Not yet. It’s probably too early,” her mother answered with a sigh.
“It isn’t too early. We need to go to a notary. We’ll also find out whether Father left a will,” Larisa insisted.
“A will? What are you talking about? Alexei never even mentioned anything like that,” Nadezhda said, surprised by her daughter’s suggestion.
“Then the notary can confirm that Dad didn’t leave a will. After that, we can calmly wait for the legally required period before claiming the inheritance.”
The daughter eventually persuaded her mother, and soon they went to see a notary.
They were astonished when their inquiry produced confirmation that a will did, in fact, exist.
“What is this?” Nadezhda asked in confusion. “Why did Alexei make it, and when? Why didn’t I know anything about it?”
Even stranger was the fact that the will named Alexei’s thirty-year-old son, Vladislav.
“Where did he come from? My husband and your father never mentioned having a son!” their mother cried after they returned home from the notary’s office.
“Mom, let’s calm down. Judging by his age, he was born before you and Father met. Maybe Dad himself didn’t know about him until recently. And perhaps he simply didn’t have time to introduce him to you,” the elder daughter reasoned.
“Well, isn’t that wonderful? He didn’t have time to introduce him, but he had time to write a will! Is that how it was? What happens now? Do we have to divide everything with this Vladislav, who is a complete stranger to us?” the offended Nadezhda continued. “How could Alexei do this to us?”
“Mom, I understand that you’re upset. But if we put our emotions aside, Father acted wisely. He left the apartment and the car to you, didn’t he? Eventually, all of that will pass to us, your children. He divided the house among his three children.”
“That’s exactly the point! Lara, your father and I invested so much effort and money into that house! What connection does this stranger have to our home? Is that fair?”
“No, it isn’t fair. But it’s foolish to speak about fairness when my father died while he was still so cheerful and full of strength,” Larisa replied sadly. “Still, it was his decision, Mom. All of us have to accept it.”
“Why are you so calm? You’ll now receive only one-third of the house’s value instead of the half you were expecting. Doesn’t that upset you?”
“No. Alyona will be furious, though—I have no doubt about that. But there is nothing we can do. A legally valid document exists, and personally, I see no reason to challenge it.”
Larisa proved to be right about her sister.
“What? What son? What brother named Vladik? He won’t get anything!” Alyona shouted. “Not the house and not the money! What nonsense is this? What kind of son is he? He’s a fraud!”
Larisa found her paternal half-brother on social media and tried to contact him.
To her surprise, Vladislav responded almost immediately and readily agreed to meet her.
“That day, I wanted to come over and tell you everything about myself,” the young man began. “But I realized that it wasn’t the right time or place.”
“Tell me, had Father known about your existence for long?”
“No. I found him two years ago, after my mother died. She and I had lived alone together ever since I was born. Only shortly before her death did she tell me about my father. She said that she had once had a brief affair with a man who was passing through our town.”
“Why didn’t your mother look for our father after you were born? He wasn’t married to my mother yet,” Larisa said in surprise.
“She did look for him, and she found him. She told him that she was expecting a child. But Father replied that he didn’t need some provincial girl and that he loved another woman whom he intended to marry. After that, my mother didn’t try to contact him again. She didn’t even apply for child support.”
“I understand. It seems that when Dad learned about you after so many years, he felt guilty for not participating in your upbringing. That must have been when he wrote the will, even though he had no intention of dying so soon.”
“Yes, perhaps you’re right. I’d like to stay in touch with all of you,” her brother said sadly as he looked at Lara. “I don’t have any other relatives.”
“I have nothing against that. My sister probably won’t want to communicate with you, though. Perhaps she’ll soften when she grows a little older and has children of her own. I live far away and will soon be flying home again. But should you ever decide to visit, I’ll always be happy to see you,” Larisa said, embracing the young man like a sister.
“It’s a shame that you live so far away. I’m glad I met you. I always dreamed of having a sister like you,” Vladik replied.
Soon, buyers were found for the country house, and the children divided the money among themselves just as their father had instructed in his will.
Alyona and her mother wanted nothing more to do with Vladislav. Larisa, however, occasionally called and exchanged messages with him. She sent him photographs and told him about her life. Recently, she informed him that he would soon become an uncle.
Perhaps one day Vladik would finally travel to visit them in the distant city on the shore of the vast ocean.