– Marina, I’m even afraid to imagine that you hate my mother so much. That your mere appearance in her house was the reason that she was paralyzed, while she is getting worse and worse every day. After all, I only asked you to go to her for a week. We haven’t been to her for so long that I even had to hire a girl to help her. There can’t be such a coincidence, you just arrived and she fell ill on the same day. Oh, my God, is it really becoming a family thing with us, my sister was ready for anything for money, and now you are there too. After all, you were constantly saying that you couldn’t stand her when we were still living with our parents, and now apparently decided to take the opportunity and send her to the next world early! – a man was yelling at his wife on the phone.
These rude and unfair words made the woman uncomfortable, and tears came to her eyes. Even in a terrible dream, she could not imagine that she could be accused of such a crime. And who else? Her own husband, whom she doted on.
Finally, Vladimir threw to his wife that he was flying out tomorrow in order to catch his mother alive and God forbid if she was involved in this.
***
A thundercloud swept across the sky, shedding a real tropical downpour that refreshed the streets, watered the fields in need of moisture and even the small rose garden of Olga Konstantinovna, an 80-year-old old woman.
At this moment, standing in the courtyard, she lovingly looked at her wonderful flower garden, having admired enough, the elderly woman, leaning heavily on a stick, went into her cozy gazebo, where a kettle with hot tea and a dish of freshly baked cookies were ready. Sitting on a bench, the grandmother looked longingly at her small estate in which she had lived alone for many years.
She buried her husband more than ten years ago, but her daughter Anastasia left her parents’ house when she was studying at university, and all because of money. She loved them too much, literally demanding parents, while she completely abandoned her studies. More than once, the dean called his parents and warned that if this continued, Nastya would face imminent expulsion, even her father’s money and connections would not help here. So soon it happened, their daughter was kicked out of the university in disgrace in her last year. After that, her parents flatly refused to continue sponsoring her fun life. They had a big fight then, so the girl packed up her things and left her father’s house forever. Since then, Olga Konstantinovna has not heard anything about her. There were rumors in the village that Nastya had married some criminal element and moved to the capital, but the old woman did not know whether it was so.
In addition to her daughter, the woman also had a son, Vladimir, a wonderful guy who never forgot about his mother and tried to help as much as he could. That’s just with his wife, they lived abroad and they rarely saw each other. And now she had become quite old, every day it became more and more difficult to manage the household. That’s why the son turned to the agency and decided to introduce a nurse to her, as she jokingly called such an assistant. Right now she was waiting for the girl who was recommended by the agency.
At that moment, a young couple, a guy and a girl, were approaching her house. Just got off the bus.
– We will process the old woman quickly, I think we will manage in a month, – a tall and slightly stooped guy in a baseball cap told his companion.
– I’m very scared. I never thought I could come to this,” the girl answered in a frightened and anxious voice.
– Understand there is no way back. You love me and you want to save me from prison. I owe so much money that this old woman is our only chance. She’s already got one foot in the grave, so it won’t be a big deal. The main thing for you is to ingratiate yourself with her, the rest is my concern.
So discussing the plan of action, they did not get to the grandmother’s house. Exactly at the appointed hour, a bell rang at the gate, a very pretty and smiling girl stood on the threshold, some modest guy next to her.
– Good morning, Olga Konstantinovna. My name is Alyona, I will help you with the housework.
From this girl there was such kindness that the hostess immediately realized that they would definitely make friends with her. There will be at least someone to talk to and discuss the latest news. After all, like all elderly people, grandma was very trusting, once a person liked it.
There was a place in the house for her husband, a jack-of-all-trades, because the poor guy had nowhere to live. Olga Konstantinovna couldn’t get enough of her new assistant. Now every day Alyona was busy at home: cooking, cleaning, washing.
Igor really had golden hands. He could have put up a fence and cut in a lock. I’ve taken up repairing the roof of the barn right now. Still, savings, no need to hire strangers. The old lady only had to enjoy the silence for days on end, and to have tea in her gazebo.
Alena always served tea and even stirred sugar in it herself. The girl’s drink turned out to be special with a pleasant sourness, the old woman had never drunk such tea before. Ace asked her assistant what kind of curiosity this was, and she just waved it off and said that this was a very old recipe that was passed down in their family from generation to generation. The only thing that worried Olga Konstantinovna was her rapidly deteriorating state of health, but she attributed it to age, and to magnetic storms.
***
A month before these events, Igor, pale as chalk, was sitting in a small roadside cafe, two strong shaven-headed guys were sitting next to him at a table. In their huge paws, small cups of coffee looked ridiculously toylike, especially when they brought them to their mouths, sticking out their little finger. Since business people read somewhere that this is what etiquette requires, and now a very serious conversation was going on between the three men and it was clearly not in favor of Igor.
– And so, partner, we have invested a lot of money in our business, and now, thanks to you, it has failed. So mediocre to manage – it’s necessary to try.
– What are we going to do, Igor? – added the second big guy. – You need to return the money!
– Guys, I’ll get it back. Just give me a little time to think about the situation. You know me, I’ll get money out of the ground if I promised…
– That’s because we know you and give you a chance. The amount is serious, so we give you three months, but remember not a day more, and then you will have to talk no longer with words. For example, it will be possible to talk even with your beautiful wife, I think that you don’t want her pretty face to be a little spoiled.
Igor knew perfectly well that jokes are bad with these guys, if they say so, they will definitely bring their threats to execution.
“And the devil pulled him to contact them,” he thought, already driving up by bus, since he had to pay off the car for the debts of the apartment in which he lived with his wife Alyona and mother-in-law Anastasia Pavlovna.
Of course, living with his wife’s mother is still a pleasure, but the guy had no other way out yet. After all, money was very tight. When he entered the apartment, he heard his mother-in-law’s voice coming from the cramped but still cozy kitchen. She was talking to her brother Vladimir.
Alyona told her husband that her mother had quarreled with her parents more than 30 years ago, they said they never wanted to see their daughter again. Since then, they have not communicated, because Anastasia Pavlovna was a very proud person, although she did stupid things in her youth. But she kept in touch with her brother, while strictly forbidding him to tell their parents about it. True, grandfather was not alive for a long time, but there was a grandmother who lived out her life alone in a huge house.
At first, Igor did not really delve into what his mother-in-law and his brother discussed, but soon grasping the essence, he began to greedily absorb every word in their conversation. It was about hiring someone to help the old mother. As soon as he heard this, a crazy idea of easy earnings came to his head with the help of which he would finally be able to pay off all his debts and even something else would remain.
After waiting for his mother-in-law to finish the conversation, he apologized for having unwittingly overheard her and offered to go help old Alyona and him at the same time. After all, the granddaughter has long dreamed of seeing her grandmother at least once during her lifetime, and they say there is just nothing to do. His business has collapsed, and so they will earn at least a penny, enjoy the countryside, breathe fresh air, and at the same time give Anastasia Pavlovna a break from them. She found his offer quite sensible. She herself had long dreamed of reconciling, at least with her mother, but she did not have time with her father.
Soon Alyona came and the three of them discussed everything. The girl really liked her husband’s offer, the only thing they agreed on was to tell Vladimir that they found the so-called nurse through an agency.
On the same evening Igor called two of his old friends, those even rascals. Without their help, it would be impossible to do in the case that he conceived. Anton was a chemist for a local pharmaceutical company, and Ivan was a notary. Half an hour later, Igor met with a chemist at an abandoned construction site. A friend handed him some kind of bag with white powder, and in response received a hefty wad of money, which Igor had to re-borrow from those acquaintances who were still willing to lend him, not knowing what kind of plight he was in.
– Is the remedy reliable? Igor asked, looking suspiciously at the contents of the bag.
– Don’t worry, when have I let you down? The main thing here is to treat them daily and within a month a person will go to another world. It was incredibly difficult for me to get it, so you owe me now.
After a while, the guy dedicated his plans to his wife. At first, the girl was just shocked by such an offer. After all, he offered to kill her own grandmother and take possession of her house in order to sell it later. He begged so much to help him, said that he would not live otherwise. After thinking for a few days, Alyona gave up. She loved her husband so much that she decided to commit a crime for him.
Having settled with the old lady, the girl began to add a terrible potion to her grandmother’s tea every day, thanks to which the poor thing began to pass every day. From a lively and cheerful old woman, she began to turn into a poorly thinking and exhausted decrepit old woman. She was getting worse every day.
One day Alyona brought a well-dressed man into the house, telling her grandmother that he was a representative of the pension fund. They say that for a long time her pension was charged incorrectly, but now everything will be fixed, you just need to sign some papers. Olga Konstantinovna was already feeling so bad that she didn’t understand anything at all. Signed all the documents that the criminals slipped.
And it was the day before Vladimir sent his wife to visit his mother-in-law.
Happy Igor immediately grabbed the signed documents, and it was a donation for the house that now belonged to him, as well as the remains of a white potion with detailed instructions on its use and processes leading to death written by caring Anton. The guy decided to hide all this in his mother-in-law’s house for now, until the old lady gives her soul to God and until the passions around it settle down.
That’s just it was a big mistake on his part. The whole point was that Anastasia Pavlovna was very obsessed with cleanliness, she carried out a weekly general cleaning of her apartment in her house. There just weren’t any places left that her rag and vane wouldn’t look into. Therefore, a few days after that, she easily found her son-in-law’s hiding place and from what she saw, her eyes just popped out. After all, whatever the reason for her quarrels with her mother, no matter how much time has passed since then, but first of all she was a daughter. Judging by the instructions, Olga Konstantinovna had at most a week to live.
Meanwhile, her daughter-in-law simply couldn’t find her place from worries that she could really be the reason that her mother-in-law was completely ill. After all, even upon arrival, the old lady was very weak and retarded, but at least she was still moving, and now she was lying flat in bed paralyzed on the left side. The doctors did not even take the hospital, blaming everything on age. Marina also really liked the caring nurse and her husband, who took care of the lying person without any squeamishness and did everything in their power to somehow alleviate her suffering. It looks like Olga Konstantinovna really had a few days left.
***
A yellow taxi car was slowly moving along the highway leading to a small village immersed in the greenery of apple orchards. There was a woman sitting in it on Vita and she was about 50 years old. With a sinking heart to the pain in her eyes, she peered at the places where her childhood passed. Anastasia Pavlovna thought for a long time before deciding on this step years later. She was returning home to expose her son-in-law and daughter, and perhaps still have time to save her mother. She had already called the police and was now waiting for them at the house, but when approaching it, she unexpectedly ran into her brother. She told him the whole story of what the son-in-law and his daughter had planned. Vladimir was just furious. He immediately burst into the house, shaking in front of a stunned Igor and Alyona gift and a package with the remains of the potion. The guy denied everything, but Alyona could no longer restrain herself, repenting, she burst into tears and confessed everything. Then her husband tried to escape through the window by knocking out the glass with a stool, but he did not have time to go far and was detained by the police who arrived.
Anastasia Pavlovna understood perfectly well that this was a prison for them. The daughter and her husband, who planned to take the life of an old helpless man, do not deserve any other attitude. Fortunately, the criminals did not have time to finish their work. The poor old woman was sent to the hospital after all, where she stopped receiving the drug poisoning the body and quickly went on the mend. Olga Konstantinovna was very glad that Nastya finally returned home, but her brother had to apologize to his wife for a long time for being able to allow such thoughts in relation to her.
Igor and Alyona received solid sentences for attempted murder. Along with them were his friends, a chemist and a notary. Soon, a newly formed family gathered in the gazebo of Olya’s grandmother. It was sad and dreary for them, but nevertheless they need to move on.
The last thing the old lady said to her granddaughter and her husband:
– How could you do that? I would give you the house myself. Yes, everything I have, just to save you.
Tears of remorse flowed from the eyes of the scoundrels, but it was already too late, you can’t return the past.
0 Comment