Indecent Proposal

***

Nevertheless, I somehow managed to invite her to talk to me in a café that serves ice cream, which I knew she was crazy about. It was there when I suddenly, unexpectedly to myself, asked her to marry me.

She looked at me for a long time, thinking something over, then shook her head and asked, "Mikhail Vasilyevich, why do you need someone else's wife, albeit an ex-wife, and besides, pregnant?"

"How?!"

"Like this. Did you think that if nothing happened between us, it's because I'm barren? I was just on the pill, but I stopped recently. Sergey and I decided to make a family and that's how it turned out."

"Does he know?"

"No, and you don't tell him. Since he divorced me, he doesn't want to have children from me, why should I impose on him? It's just my child, no one else."

"Do the parents know?"

"No one knows yet. There's no need for that. Otherwise, Sergey might get the idea that I'm tying him to me this way. So, I'd better not."

"All the same, all will be revealed in time.

"Then I'll think what to do."

I just shook my head.

"Tell me, Marina, don't you like me at all?"

She paused, and then said seriously:

"Oddly enough, but no. I have thought a lot about everything. After all, in fact you raped me, even if not physically. That 'deal' of yours left me no choice, and I should probably hate you, but I don't. After all, it was MY decision, and you only took advantage of the moment. That doesn't excuse you though, so let's stop dating. You know, I have a lot to do. Now I have to think not just about myself."

It's taken me a whole month to persuade her, knowing that gifts other than flowers are don't interest her, I tried to replace them with signs of attention. I enlisted the help of the best consultant psychologists in an effort to somehow get some interest from the woman I had once offended.

Fortunately, I succeeded, and she finally accepted my marriage proposal. By this point, her belly was already noticeable, not too much, but quite to the experienced eye. So, when we began legally married, the local tabloid press said that she had deceived the 'oligarch', making him knock her up. But both she and I didn't care about that; we knew very well who had deceived who.

We spent our honeymoon in the Maldives, where we flew on our private jet and spent two weeks there (we couldn't do more) in an oceanfront bungalow with azure water and the cleanest sand beach. However, Marina didn't sunbathe too much, worrying about the baby, but she bathed a lot, thinking that it would be good for our daughter (we already knew it was a girl).

Six months later, our Anechka was born, who immediately and forever won my heart. And a year and a half more she said her first word in my arms, and that word was: "Dad"! For the first time in my life, I wept and swore that I would do anything to make our baby girl happy, no matter what it cost me.

And yes, we didn't stop with her alone, and our family was joined by another girl (Ilona) and a boy (Oleg). And you know, I'm happy and proud. Proud of my children and, of course, of my wife. I don't know for sure if she loves me the way she once loved Sergey, we just never talked about it, as if afraid of something, but I feel that she does deeply care about me, and I am head over heels in love with my wife, the mistress of my home and the main bond of my family. Our family.

***

Sergey

Two years. Two years as I am trying to forget my cheating ex-wife. And for two years she's been coming to me in my dreams. I've done everything: I've been partying, screwing others, "chopping wood," all in vain. Still, I don't regret leaving her, even though I haven't met, hopefully only for now, someone who can replace her.

Naturally, I was informed right away that she had married her oligarch, and I was even surprised. It seemed to me that he had played around with her and would have forgotten her. After all, he had a proper reputation, more than one woman had tried to catch him in the net of Cupid, only no one had succeeded before. And here they even quickly made a baby for themselves. I read somewhere that she was pregnant before they were married. She didn't seem to grieve long after she divorced me. Well, that's her business. Let's see how long her lauded fidelity lasts.

Today, we have a Christmas gathering with my friends, Alain and Victor, at their summer house. The twins have grown up and are already in the ninth grade. Anya is seriously studying music and is going to a music college to study the cello, and Sasha is fascinated by sambo and is already in the junior league of the city. Victor has just returned from another business trip again, this time to Indonesia. He brought me souvenirs, including so-called 'wind music' by feng shui. If it is placed, say, on a balcony, then at the slightest breeze, it emits a pleasant, measured sound. The tubes and beater are made of bamboo, and a monkey figurine made of coconut shells is placed on top.

He gave his wife and daughter a necklace and beads made of red coral, and gifted Sasha a boomerang, assuring that if he practiced, the boomerang would surely come back into his hand. Later we laughed a lot, watching the kid's attempts to achieve this. The boomerang flew anywhere but back to its owner. Victor and I also tried it, but with the same invariable success.

In the evening, sitting by the fireplace, sipping mulled wine, we reminisced, and then Alain suddenly remembered the concert where they invited me six years ago. This memory once again scratched my soul, and Alain managed sarcasm, asking:

"Did you know that Marina got married when she was already pregnant?"

I grumbled, but still, I answered, "You know she started cheating on me long before our divorce. So I guess she didn't stop."

"You mean, with Mikhail?"

Friends, of course, were aware of the reason for our divorce, so I did not hide anything from them.

"Naturally, who else?"

"No, he didn't return from a six-month business trip until about a month after your divorce, so the child is definitely not his."

"It's interesting, she was with someone else, wasn't she?" I wondered.

"I think that did not happen," Victor joined in, "or obviously someone would have found out. And Marina is not like that either."

"Yeah, not like that! And to have a lover, when I lie in the hospital, is it like that?" I heated up, but immediately fell silent.

That turns out what? The baby can be mine? I immediately started calculating, and all things considered, the conception must have been around the last days of our life together. And yes, it didn't look like Marina had anyone else at the time. After all, we wanted children so badly.

A hot wave ran through my body. My friends were silent, looking at me.

"What are you going to do now?" Alain asked.

"I don't know, but I want to participate in my daughter's life," I said firmly. "If necessary, through the court will demand recognition of paternity."

"Slow down," stopped me Alain, a former lawyer, "the girl was born in wedlock, so that any court will recognize the paternity of Mikhail Vasilyevich, even without regard to his influence and money."

But I was already on the edge. Up to the time I thought the girl was the daughter of the oligarch, I didn't care, but if it is my blood, I wanted access to communication with her with all my might.

The first thing I did the very next day was to head for the Belykh mansion.

Strangely enough, I was admitted without any problems. The guard, having contacted the owner of the house, escorted me to the living room with the fireplace, where the head of the family was, who first welcomed me.

"Hello, Sergey Anatolievich. Is everything Ok with your work? What brings you here?"

I did not even say hello and immediately attacked:

"You knew that Marina is pregnant from me?"

"Oh, so that's the reason." Mikhail rubbed his chin and suggested, "Do you want something to drink?"

"Let's," I decided not to make it worse.

"Wine, beer, cognac or vodka?"

"Let's have a cognac."

Mikhail poured into low glasses from a bottle marked "Hennessy XO," and put a saucer on the table with sliced lemon, sprinkled with sugar and coffee.

We took glasses, and he asked:

"What shall we drink to?

"To faithfulness," I couldn't resist teasing him.

He grinned a little, but he supported the toast, and we drank. Then he asked me, "So, you are interested in my daughter."

"Or mine," I couldn't stand it.

"No, just mine. You abandoned her, leaving Marina."

"I did not abandon the child; I just did not know anything about it."

"Were you interested?"

I didn't say anything. Indeed, at the time I could not think about anything but my wife's cheating. And to boot she did it with him.

"That's what it is," Mikhail concluded and poured us some more. "You still don't know why she cheated, do you?"

"It's as plain as day. She wanted money. I bet you gave her gifts, no match with mine. That cocktail dress at the party was worth something."

"So that's where the wind is blowing from, the photo from the party..." the counterpart drawled when we drank. "No, she was indifferent to gifts, and that dress she wore only because I asked her to, after all, the dress code, you know."

"So enlighten me, the dark one, what else did you take her with, if not that?" I asked sarcastically.

"You know, even though Marina and I have not talked about it, I still think it is unethical to put you in the know, but I can't forbid you to ask Dmitri Anatolievich about it. So, he who seeks may find. And as for the daughter, accept the fact that she's mine. Or rather, mine and Marina's. And if anyone ever claims otherwise, I'll make sure he regrets it," and he threw me a hard look. "And another thing, I don't know how my wife feels about you now, but I wouldn't want to put her to any unnecessary tests, so please don't look for meetings with her. So far you have behaved quite correctly, keep doing so."

At this, I understood, our meeting was over, and I left the house without another word.

***

Meeting the professor, the very next day, it was like pulling the support out from under my feet. I couldn't even imagine that it turned out that my illness was fatal. It was only now that the puzzle was beginning to take shape for me. But I just couldn't understand why Marina hadn't said anything to me. We surely had to make a decision together, and I was even more angry at my ex-wife, for depriving me of the opportunity to participate in my own destiny.

"I wonder what decision you would have made if you had known," Victor told me when I ran to them that night in indignation, pouring out all that I had heard. "Would you have agreed to save your life at such a cost?"

"No way!"

"No way." Victor was silent, and then added, "And what was she to do? She knew you well."

"But why didn't she say anything later?" I asked after thinking, calming down a little.

"What was she supposed to say? Fall on your chest and, as in Indian soap operas, tell you how she bought your life at the price of her body? Do you think it would have been better?"

He stood up, looked at his wife sitting next to him, and continued, "So you finally found out, well, what was your action?"

"Well, I didn't know that, did I?"

"But did you WANT to know?" He interrupted me. "Or was your inflamed ego more important? Well, she was betrayed, and no matter what the reason was, right? And now it's too late. Just leave it alone, stay out of their lives. Build yours."

We talked for a long time that night, remembering my life with Marina, and my "successes" on the personal front afterwards. But in my head came a stubbornly matured determination at all costs to assert my rights to paternity.

Unfortunately, the court did not accept my claim. They said that the main thing for them is the fate of the child, not my emotions. That the girl was born in marriage, knows her father, and who (and if) is her biological father is of secondary importance. I tried to insist on a DNA analysis, but the answer was that it is done when a child grows up without a father, and then only if the mother insists on it. None of this is the case here.

My trips to lawyers led to the same result, as long as everything is fine with the child, no one would bother with the test, and that even if I managed to secretly conduct such a test, it would be of no importance to the court. In other words, I would never get paternity.

Frustrated, I spit on the threats of Mikhail, tried to meet with my ex-wife, which took a whole week, catching her at last in the mall and offered to drink coffee and talk.

I must say, Marina looked stunning. It is understandable; both clothes and body care - everything was at her service...

Or maybe I was biased, and just forgot, what my wife looked like.

When she saw me, she didn't show any emotion and agreed to sit at a table in a café. Ordered ice cream, which she always adored, carefully taking off portions of the sweet treat with her spoon and silently sending them into her mouth. So, I was the first to speak.

"Marina," I tried to take her hand in mine, but she took it away softly, but adamantly, and said in a voice devoid of emotion:

"I'm listening to you."

"You know that Anya is our daughter, don't you?"

"You mean you're her biological father?"

"Isn't that what I said?"

"No, you said she's our daughter, and she's not. She's my daughter and Mikhail's daughter, and you're just her biological father."

"But I want to be her real father."

Some elusive emotion ran across Marina's face, and then she said:

"It's too late, Sergey, two fathers are too much for her."

"But I can somehow participate in her life, can't I?"

"Immediately. no," said Marina. "Anya knows and should always know only one father, the one who raises her... And loves her."

"But I also love her!"

"Really?" she answered with an ironic smile. "You did not know anything about her until recently."

"It was you who deprived me of that knowledge."

"That's right. You didn't want to know anything, you didn't want to live with me, and therefore you didn't want to have children with me. Even if only for that moment, but it was very important to me."

We sat in silence for a while, while Marina continued to feast on frozen cream with a small spoon. After which I asked:

"Why?"

"Why what? Why did I decide to buy your life? Or why didn't I tell you about it?" She was silent for a while. "If you didn't understand the first one, you won't understand the second either. But I must be going."

She stood up, and her heels clattered to the exit, taking Marina out of the café and out of my life.