Vera the Mistress

"Who are you and what do you want?"

– Vera, my name is Larisa… I'm Oleg's ex-girlfriend. I want to talk to you. Can we have a meeting?

"I've already met his wife, thank you and goodbye," the current mistress sighed heavily and was about to hang up when she heard the unexpected sharp quickly pronounced words cutting her ear:

”I know that you are not able to have children. Ara sacrificed you to her gods! She is familiar with Dark Magic!”

Vera's hands began to shake, she mechanically hung up, but the tremor was so strong that the phone fell on the snow-white floor tiles. It rang again.

She pressed the broken display against her ear and answered:

"Come to my house. I'll text you the address.

– Vera, you are in touch, thank God. I'm sorry, but I know your address. I also lived in this apartment for several years.

Larisa rang the doorbell exactly thirty minutes later. A tall, slender woman in her thirties looked chic. Dark, long hair, light brown eyes, a perfect face minimally touched with makeup, on the lips a nude fashionable shade of lipstick and a light train of expensive perfume, a black turtleneck, jeans, jewelry only a watch of a famous Swiss brand and a diamond ring on the ring finger.

I am Larisa, Lala for short. She took off her coat and left her bag in the corridor, followed the hostess to the kitchen.

– Tea? Coffee? – Vera barely uttered the words, such a crazy weight, fatigue, physical and moral pain fell on her, that she was becoming smaller and grayer in front of the gorgeous Lala.

"Thank you, I’ll just have a glass of water."

Lala immediately got down to the main point. She told her story.

Oleg got acquainted with her accidentally at the birthday of a rich friend of theirs, they instantly liked each other, and Larisa found out that Oleg had been married to Ara after a few months. Lala mentioned about the house in Thailand, how marvelously they were traveling in Europe, and then her lover rented this apartment for her.

Vera had a terrible headache. Lala’s words hammered her temples with no slightest mercy. She remembered her mother used to make her wear a rabbit fur hat in winter so that Vera wouldn't get cold in her ears. That cap was warm and large, the gray fur tickled Vera's face, and the strings under her chin pressed against her neck. She said that nothing could be heard in that hat, and when her mother called her to return home from the skating rink, Vera pretended that she did not hear her mother's shouts and promises to punish her for misbehavior.

So now sitting in front of Oleg’s ex-girlfriend, and the words said by the latter reached her through the imaginary child's fur hat like knife goes through the butter, she could heard and understand every word. The invisible strings were tight around her neck, and she drew in her breath noisily and heavily.

"Vera, are you alright?" She heard Larisa's words distinctly and clearly.

"I am fine. Just recently I’ve been in the clinic, probably, this is still the effect of drugs and anesthesia.

"That's why I came to you. You see, I was in this clinic, too. The fact is that I got pregnant from Oleg. He met this with hostility, took me to the clinic for an abortion under the careful guidance of his Doctor. Yes, Yes. It is exactly that I was terribly worried about. I wanted to keep the baby. But then my friend who works in this clinic told me that Oleg had already brought a young lady here for an abortion a few years ago. She died on the operating table. According to the documents, the cause of death was an allergy to anesthesia. Unfortunately, this happens, doctors also make mistakes, not checking the patient for tolerance. But the strangest thing is that my friend told me that during the operation, instead of Oleg, Arina, Oleg's wife, was sitting behind the door. The staff signed a non-disclosure agreement, but when my friend saw me on the abortion list, she immediately called me. I was really scared, I'll admit it. After getting Oleg fairly drunk, I began to ask him about that young lady. At first he refused, then told me that he had a young girl, a student from a poor family. They dated for several months, and then Natasha got pregnant. He always called her Natasha. I don't remember her last name. He took her to have an abortion at a friend's clinic, but she died. Oleg began to cry, saying that Ara can't have children, that he is a traitor and bastard. He also said that he loved his wife like a goddess, like a shrine, and would never have a child with a mistress. Then the next morning he woke up, sobered up, obviously remembering our dialogue in details, behaved aggressively towards me for the first time. I've never seen Oleg so angry. But after he had left, Arina called me.

Larisa gulped down her water. Her hands began to shake visibly. She took a deep breath and continued.

– Ara came right here, to this apartment, to our cozy nest, as I dreamt it to be. She went to the sofa without taking off her shoes and lit a cigarette. This is an amazing woman, in her presence I felt like an insect that she can easily crush. All my thoughts, desires, plans disappeared. My head then was clear. All I had in my head was Ara's thoughts. She didn't say anything, but I knew everything she was telling me. She wanted a baby, my baby. She would not to love and educate that baby. Ara wanted a sacrifice. My child had to be sacrificed to her gods so that she could become pregnant. I clearly understood this. Vera, don't ask me how. Just ask Oleg who Natasha was and why she died on the operating table. I now have a family, a husband, child and business, I haven't seen Oleg for a long time, but yesterday a friend from the clinic called me and told me about you. Vera, run away from them. These three: Oleg, Arina, and Doctor are terrible people. I'm afraid of them, and I want to warn you to stay away from them.

Vera closed the door behind Larisa and sat down on the floor. Forty minutes later, the doorbell rang. Rising with difficulty, Vera looked through the peephole and opened the door. There were two persons standing there. They were two out of three.