She ran to her husband’s workplace without warning and was stunned by what she heard there…
As she looked at the display of the children’s store, Veronika smiled. Such tiny clothes, like they were for dolls. Her hand instinctively slipped over her still-small belly. She had just received her blood test results confirming her pregnancy.
She was so excited and wanted to share the joyful news with her husband as soon as possible. They were going to become parents. They had been trying for a year and a half, and now the long-awaited two lines appeared on the test, and the analyses showed that the pregnancy was progressing well. Deciding she didn’t want to wait until the evening, Veronika stopped by the café where her mother worked and bought a delicious lunch for her husband.
His favorite steamed buns with meat and a few Korean salads. Veronika wanted to make Maxim happy as soon as possible and headed to his office. She didn’t call or warn her husband.
She decided to give him a double surprise. The smile wouldn’t leave her lips—it grew wider and wider, and she felt like spinning with happiness. She was pregnant! Soon a long-awaited miracle would appear in their family.
Entering the office, Veronika greeted a few employees she knew. She used to often bring lunches to her husband and even attended corporate events with him. Maxim had never forbidden his wife from stopping by during work hours; every time, he was happy and proudly introduced her to those who hadn’t met her yet.
“Maxim Viktorovich is in an important meeting right now. Please wait for him on the sofa,” said her husband’s new secretary as soon as Veronika approached his office.
“I can wait for him in the office.”
“You can’t. This is a work area, and I cannot let anyone in without the boss’s permission.”
The secretary lifted her chin, pursed her lips, and gave Veronika an appraising look. The introduction did not go well, but Veronika never tried to be friends with everyone. After all, she wasn’t planning to raise children with these people, nor did she intend to interact closely with them.
Her husband had never formed close friendships at work either. He had few friends in general because he couldn’t trust strangers easily and tested friendships over years.
Sitting on the small sofa, Veronika leaned back, took a magazine, and decided to flip through it to pass the time. Since she wasn’t allowed into the office, she had no desire to argue or cause a scene—why create extra problems for her husband at work?
“Mashul, are you going to the restaurant with the boss again after work today? Or maybe we’ll go home together?” approached another young girl, someone Veronika hadn’t seen before.
Her heart skipped a beat. What did “going to the restaurant again” mean? Yesterday, her husband did come home late—he had gone to a restaurant but said he was meeting a business partner there. Why would he bring his secretary to an important meeting?
“Don’t shout like that,” the secretary scolded. “This is his wife. Probably not today. He already said we can’t meet every day. Yesterday we had a wonderful time. I have no reason to complain. After the restaurant, we went to the hotel… It was delightful. Maxim is so caring. I’m very lucky to have him. Only he’s in no rush to divorce yet. Says we need to find the right moment for that.”
Veronika clenched her fists. The girls were speaking quietly and glancing in her direction, but she had excellent hearing. Could it be that her husband had taken someone on the side? That couldn’t be! Maxim loved his wife and adored her. He would never betray her. No… she couldn’t believe it.
“And this partner of his is annoying. She’s always cozying up to him, and he seems to reciprocate. He tells me not to be jealous, but how can I? I already have to share him with his wife.”
Partner? What was even happening here? Veronika hadn’t come to her husband’s work for a long time, and now everything seemed drastically changed. And how terrible it sounded—“have to share him with his wife.”
Did the girl have no self-respect to agree to be a third wheel in a marriage? Or was she, Veronika, the one who was redundant in this situation?
Noticing that the doors from the meeting room opened, Veronika straightened up. Her husband came out first, fastening the top button of his shirt as he walked. He looked tired and agitated. Following him was a beautiful, long-legged woman with bright red lips. She adjusted her short skirt, caught up with Maxim, and took his arm, laughing about something.
Veronika hadn’t expected to witness such a scene. Was this the partner the girls were talking about? If so, then the rest of their conversation must have been true. She felt utterly awful inside.
“Just like I told you. It breaks my heart to see them together,” the secretary complained. “But what can you do? I love him, and he promises I’ll be his only one.”
Her husband walked past without even noticing Veronika, and she decided to take advantage of the situation and leave. Feeling unwell, she couldn’t stay any longer in the place that made her head spin.
She needed fresh air and to calm her emotions. Leaving the lunch she had bought for her husband and asking the secretary to give it to him, Veronika went down the stairs, avoiding an encounter with Maxim near the elevator. His demeanor wouldn’t leave her mind, and the words of those girls echoed like a tolling bell, repeating over and over, forcing her to believe in their truth.
Did he really have something going on with this so-called partner? Why did he look so exhausted, and why would he let her touch him? No one would talk like this out of nowhere.
The secretary clearly understood that Veronika might have overheard her conversation with her friend, but she didn’t care—almost as if she wanted to make it clear: this man no longer belonged solely to his wife.
Slowly wandering through the park, feeling as if the ground was unsteady beneath her feet, swaying from side to side, Veronika thought over what she had heard but refused to accept it. She and her husband loved each other.
He couldn’t have just changed like that, suddenly found someone else. There had to be a reasonable explanation. First, Veronika wanted to speak with her husband. She couldn’t act rashly, trusting absurd rumors.
Who could guarantee that these girls were telling the truth, that they weren’t talking just to provoke? And yet her mind was restless, weighed down with anxiety.
After walking enough to exhaust herself, Veronika headed home. She was tired, and any trace of her earlier good mood had vanished, replaced by absurd thoughts that she struggled to suppress. She feared the worst—that it might all be true.
And what would she do then? They had waited so long for this pregnancy. Would she really be left alone with the baby? Would she have to bear this burden entirely on her own? Could she manage without the man she loved? Of course, she could—but it would hurt too much…
Arriving home, Veronika collapsed onto the bed. She didn’t even notice falling asleep, only waking to the touch of something soft against her body.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you, but it seemed like you were cold,” Maxim apologized, sitting down beside her.
“It’s so late… Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” she asked, propping herself up slightly on her elbow.
Her head was spinning. For a moment, Veronika even thought that everything she had overheard at her husband’s office was just a dream, some foolish nonsense that should simply be forgotten.
“I just got back. Today was a difficult meeting, and then I had to go to the partner’s house to deliver some papers for signing. Sorry. I sent you a message, but you were probably asleep,” Maxim explained.
Veronika clenched her fists. Sitting up, she leaned back against the headboard and studied her husband carefully.
“And how was your time at her place?” she asked, her voice tinged with hurt.
“Her place? Actually, it’s a man’s house. We just signed the contract, that’s all.”
“I saw everything with my own eyes. How you left the meeting room with the partner… how she shamelessly clung to you. And how tired you looked. Interestingly, no one else came out after you. Was it so hard to negotiate just the two of you? Or were you doing something else in there?”
Maxim’s face turned crimson. He cleared his throat and shook his head.
“I didn’t know you came.”
“Really? So the secretary didn’t give you the lunch I brought? She kept it for herself? You’re too close with her if she can behave so brazenly.”
“Lunch?” Maxim frowned. “No, she didn’t give me anything. After I saw Marina Andreevna off, I returned to the meeting room, and we spent a long time discussing a complicated issue with the shareholders. She is the wife of the partner whose papers I went to sign.
He’s not in the best shape right now, recovering from surgery, so he sent his wife to the meeting with us. I had to sign the documents with him personally. I don’t understand why you’re jealous. Marina Andreevna is certainly a peculiar person, but there’s nothing between us, and there never could be. She’s just overly friendly with everyone.”
Veronika wasn’t going to keep it to herself. She told her husband about the conversation she overheard between his secretary and her friend. Maxim ran his hand through his hair and shook his head.
“I should have put a stop to this immediately, but I thought my words would be enough. Maria hasn’t been with our company long. When she started showing me attention, I told her right away that I have a beloved woman and that I’m not the type to take advantage of a young secretary’s interest.
“Perhaps she didn’t understand me the first time and kept trying to charm me. Every time I reprimanded her firmly, but I gave her a chance. I thought she was naïve and would calm down eventually. I never imagined she could stoop so low and spread such nonsense about me. Tomorrow, I’ll have her write a resignation and leave the company.”
Veronika listened, looking into his eyes, realizing he wasn’t lying. Maxim was as shocked as she had been. He was angry because he had been kind to the girl, and she had dared to spread malicious rumors about him.
He suggested that Veronika listen to his conversation with Maria to leave no doubt about his sincerity. The next morning, he called his wife, set the phone aside, and summoned the secretary.
The girl began to cry and beg for forgiveness, pleading not to be fired and asking for another chance. She claimed that Veronika had misunderstood something they said about another person, then admitted that she had hoped to win his favor in any way possible after being charmed by him at first sight.
“If your wife had quarreled with you, I would have been there for comfort, and then I would have been by your side. Forgive me. I understand now and won’t do it again.”
“If I had quarreled with my wife, I would have sought a way to reconcile with her and never let it happen again, but I would never seek comfort elsewhere. You were very mistaken about me, Maria. I gave you enough chances. That’s enough. Write your resignation and leave. I will find a new secretary today.”
Maria’s plaintive pleas for another chance didn’t work. Maxim had already given her chances, and she hadn’t used them. He had no intention of stepping on the same rake and quarreling with his wife. He loved Veronika too much and didn’t want her to be upset because of foolish people. He instructed the company to find him a mature secretary, someone who already has a family and children, who wouldn’t try to charm him and would focus on work instead of nonsense.
When Maxim returned home, a delicious candlelit dinner awaited him. Veronika apologized for even letting herself think of her husband’s infidelity. She confessed that she had found out about her pregnancy the day before but hadn’t dared to tell him. Maxim was overjoyed to hear the news.
He asked his wife not to hide anything from him in the future, not to invent scenarios in her head, and to speak immediately about whatever was troubling her. Of course, he was glad that she hadn’t created a scandal and had spoken honestly, but if they had had this conversation earlier, she would have been less anxious and wouldn’t have overthought things.
The couple embraced tightly and promised each other that from now on they would resolve any uncertainties together, rather than acting rashly and arguing based on absurd rumors spread by ill-intentioned people.
