Anthony had been a beautiful child from the very beginning. At preschool pageants, he was always given the most heart-wrenching poems to recite. The mothers and grandmothers in the audience would dab at their eyes, whispering in collective adoration:
"Oh, what a gorgeous child! A literal angel. And the way he read that poem—it brings me to tears!"
But then, Anthony's beautiful mother left for a sunnier life far across the ocean, just like in a fairy tale. She left for another man. Soon after, Anthony's father married a new mother who came with a ready-made brother, Andrew. Andrew wasn't as striking as Anthony, but the two of them got along well.
The boys went through daycare and school together. In high school, the story with the poetry repeated itself: Anthony would declaim from the stage while everyone clapped enthusiastically. To be honest, however, his grades were mediocre at best. He often got passing marks literally for his "pretty eyes." It wasn't like that for Andrew—he had to study and grind for every B.
When Anthony grew up and started dating, school became even more of a struggle. He had no desire to study, but he was saved by the girls who solved his problems and gave him answers during exams. Still, college applications were looming.
His parents were terrified he would fail the entrance exams. His stepmother, Valerie, was practically living on heart medication, worrying in advance about the future degree of her adopted son, who looked like a movie star.
She worried less about her own son, Andrew, than she did about Anthony. Andrew had long ago set his sights on the Maritime Academy; he had dreamed of being at sea since he was a little boy.
"Don't worry, Mom, we'll make it! Andrew's the one who has to break his back—I'm the one who gets by on charm!" Anthony would joke.
And he was right; he got lucky. Once again, girls stealthily helped him pass the standardized tests, whispering the correct answers. Anthony got into a decent, high-ranking university. And once again, studying was pushed to the back burner. He had too many distractions.
During his college years, Anthony dated a string of girls—each one more stunning than the last. How could it be otherwise? He was such a handsome guy that women threw themselves at him. He didn't even have to make a move; he just had to accept their persistent attention and choose which one to settle on.
Then, suddenly, the entire student body and faculty were rocked by unexpected news: Anthony had gotten married!
Many girls cried themselves to sleep that night. Anthony had married Alice, a girl two years his junior. They didn't even have a wedding; Alice was an orphan, and Anthony didn't care much for a big ceremony. They just signed the papers, and that was it.
Anthony wouldn't have married someone truly unattractive, of course, but his chosen one wasn't a classic beauty either. She was just... sweet. But her character was pure kindness and gentleness. Her eyes shone with positivity, and her beauty was natural and real. She had no silicone enhancements, no extensions, no fake nails. She barely even wore makeup.
His friends asked why he had married a "plain Jane" when there were so many high-maintenance, polished thoroughbreds surrounding him.
He would just joke:
"I like natural products! No GMOs. None of that rubber tuning on the face or chest, no plastic fakes. You can play with toys for fun, but for real life, you choose something serious."
Alice zealously prepared delicious home-cooked meals for her husband—the full three courses. She took notes for him and wrote his term papers, while the young husband happily... cheated on her, just as he always had.
They say habit is second nature. How could he restrain himself and eat only one dish when there was such an abundance of desserts around? Blue-eyed, brown-eyed... blondes and redheads. Anthony had a particularly soft spot for redheads. He adored women with that fox-like coloring; it drove him crazy. That was why he had married Alice—she was a redhead, covered in golden freckles. She hated them and powdered her dainty nose, but he found them enchanting.
He would kiss the tip of her nose, so thick with freckles it looked like it was dusted with pollen, as if she had been sniffing dandelions. He even gave her a ginger kitten for their first anniversary.
Valerie, however, grumbled that a red-haired baby boy would have been better than a red-haired kitten. But they had decided not to rush into having children. Or rather, Anthony had decided. Alice accepted his decision in silence, even agreeing that they had "decided together."
Anthony hadn't finished playing around yet; he wasn't ready for kids. He was a big kid himself.
There were no issues with his degree after graduation either—Anthony defended his thesis (with Alice's help, naturally) and even landed a very good job. One of his flings had put in a word for him with her high-ranking father.
By that time, Andrew had gotten married. And the family, to their deep sorrow, had buried their father, who never recovered from a stroke. Valerie was left alone—or rather, with her daughters-in-law.
Anthony was generally satisfied with his married life. In the mornings, he devoured a delicious breakfast, kissed Alice on his way out, and drove... to see his mistress, Lauren. The one who had helped him get the job.
Alice would feed the beloved cat and head to her own classes—she was finishing her final year. From Lauren's place, Anthony would go to the office and there, forgetting both Alice and Lauren, become entirely preoccupied with his boss's secretary, Nina. Nina's red hair wasn't natural, but she was a marvel nonetheless.
On weekends, he would go to visit his mother in the suburbs, and there he would visit a cheerful young widow named Natalie. Natalie had been married to a local contractor who had died in a tragic accident.
The beautiful Natalie didn't mourn her husband for long. The rosy-cheeked, statuesque woman so turned Anthony's head that he tried to go to his mother's almost every weekend, finding urgent chores to do around the house.
He lied to Alice, saying he was going to help his mother. He lied to his mother, saying he wanted to rest from the work week and the city noise. But why would he need friends when a passionate lover was waiting for him?
***
Anthony lived a life essentially free of worry. He was perfectly content. One day, he grabbed a girl right from under the wheels of a car, preventing her from being hit. Then he realized she was drunk. She kept babbling that she had no reason to live, while simultaneously showering him with a hundred apologies.
Her drunken tears and her remorse for her foolish act touched him. Perhaps the poor girl really was in trouble. He felt he should help, or at least listen. Anthony called work and asked for a few hours off for an unforeseen emergency.
He took the luckless girl to a cafe, ordered them both strong coffee, and listened to her pour her heart out. She sobered up, told him she lived a reckless, worthless life, and promised to get her act together as thanks for saving her. The "therapy session" ended up needing a repeat.
And so, Anthony accidentally started seeing Nelly! At first, it was just to support her, but then, out of nowhere, he fell head over heels in love. Spring was in full bloom. Anthony and Nelly walked along the waterfront and through the parks, and he felt like a savior and a healer of lost souls.
He was so happy she wasn't drinking anymore and had stopped talking about suicide. Her life had more or less stabilized. At first, Anthony was surprised that he was just holding her hand like a brother—caring and chaste. He forgot about all his other mistresses!
They blew up his phone and sent piles of texts, but Anthony was entirely absorbed in the mental well-being of his depressed beauty.
Then, he had an affair with the depressed beauty, and he completely lost his mind. He was in love! He didn't even notice how it happened. Maybe it was because she was a redhead! But not like Alice. Alice was like a warm summer sun.
Nelly was like an autumn fire fox against a crimson forest. Her thick, shiny hair was almost red-orange, like a blazing campfire. And her skin had no freckles—it was white and flawless, like alabaster. Lauren, Nina, Natalie, and all the other beauties—including his own wife—were forgotten. Every breath Anthony took was filled with love for the fragile, tender Nelly.
He decided to leave his wife. It turned out he couldn't live a single day without his fire fox. Anthony filed for divorce. The process was quick: they had no children, and he and Alice hadn't yet acquired any joint property to divide... except for Alice's ginger cat, which no one was going to fight over.
Alice stayed in the apartment they had been renting together, while Anthony packed his suitcase and moved in with Nelly.
"Alice, do you want me to leave you some money?" Anthony asked, though he immediately chided himself. Idiot, she just started a job. Of course she needs it—how else will she live?
Alice, of course, refused. But he left a stack of bills in the hallway drawer anyway.
Anthony was walking on air. He didn't even notice that Nelly, besides being generally unsuited for life, was incapable of the simplest daily tasks. Even making morning eggs turned into a small fire and clouds of acrid smoke throughout the apartment.
No matter! They had love! Besides, they could always order pizza or sushi.
Soon, he and Nelly applied for a marriage license, and then they were married. It was the most romantic evening of his life! Their evening.
The entire apartment was strewn with flickering candles and smelled of incense. The bride was slender and weightless, like an elven princess. They drank red wine and stared silently into each other's eyes. In the mysterious glimmer of the candlelight, everything felt like a dream.
Then Nelly, her eyes shining, dragged her husband up to the roof to celebrate their happiness under the starry sky.
They admired the views of the city at night, the scattering of stars in the ink-black sky, and then Nelly suggested... that they hold hands and "fly" off the roof together.
"What?! We're not birds! If we fly, it definitely won't be up! It'll be onto the pavement..." He peered cautiously over the edge, feeling his legs go numb at the height. "Wow, that's a long way down. Even the cars look tiny from here."
"That's good. To feel the happiness of flight and die in that moment of bliss—what could be better?" Nelly said enigmatically.
"Actually, life is better! Seeing things you've never seen before. Going places you've never been. Flying in a helicopter over the mountains... skydiving..."
"Then let's jump!" Nelly persisted. "Even without a parachute. The fall will be long enough to feel unearthly happiness!"
"You're crazy!" Anthony kissed his young wife's nose.
"Yes! I'm crazy in love!"
Nelly grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the flimsy railing at the edge of the roof. Anthony resisted weakly at first, not believing she would actually do it. He thought she was joking... but when he realized she wasn't joking at all, his foot already felt the deep, terrifying void beneath it.
Everything happened like a slow-motion movie. Nelly flew downward, arms spread wide, pulling him with her. Anthony made one last desperate attempt to hold on and catch the girl, but it was useless.
He fell from the roof right after her. They say when you look death in the eye, your whole life flashes before you—all the days and years in a sequence, like a flash of light. Is it a lie? No, it's not.
Your entire life really does flash before your eyes in a fraction of a second. So bright, like a blinding flare. And you see every moment so wisely, as if a Higher Intelligence is showing you where you went wrong and where you could be proud of yourself...
But it is a late wisdom that will never be useful in life again. As he fell, Anthony had time to be horrified that there was nothing in his life to be proud of. Except perhaps the fact that he tried to save Nelly for a second time... though he failed. She still managed to kill herself, just as she had planned for a long time, and she managed to take Anthony with her.
Then came the sound of an impact that echoed like a million bells. And Anthony was finally blinded by a flash as bright as a thousand suns... and then came the blackness.
***
Anthony lay in intensive care. He looked nothing like the handsome Anthony of the past. He looked more like a mummy, tightly wrapped in bandages. During the fall, he had caught on someone's bedsheets that were drying on a twelfth-floor balcony; a gust of wind had suddenly blown them out like a sail toward him.
Anthony got tangled in a duvet cover. The cover tore away immediately, and Anthony flew down inside it like a superhero. Only this accidental superhero's cape wasn't red and fluttering... the next gust of wind caught the fabric, and a current of air pushed Anthony onto a van parked by the entrance.
It was a moving van with a roof made not of metal, but of thick polymer vinyl printed with the store's name and phone numbers.
If Anthony had hit the pavement like Nelly, there would have been nothing left of him. Because of that stroke of luck, Anthony survived. He had a broken leg and a broken back. A traumatic brain injury. Seven fractures in total, not counting small bone cracks.
For three months, he lay unconscious in the ICU, occasionally dying and being brought back. After the fall from the roof, he experienced two clinical deaths.
They say that at the moment of death, a person leaving this world sees a bright light and relatives coming to meet them. Is it a lie? It's not.
Anthony saw a corridor of light, at the end of which figures loomed. When they came closer, he recognized his father and his grandparents! They didn't call him to join them—they just stood there, looking at him very seriously.
He tried to walk toward them, but he never succeeded. He kept hitting some kind of barrier that seemed to cut off the world of the dead from the world of the living.
For another four months, doctors patched and glued him back together, trying to restore his ability to walk, but eventually, they gave up.
"I'm sorry, brother. I have a kid. I can't take you in... I'm always on the road for work, and who can I put the burden on? My mother? My wife with a newborn? I... I can help you get into a nursing home. They have care and treatment there..." Andrew sniffled guiltily.
Anthony closed his eyes and remained silent. So much for help. Anthony hesitated for a long time about whether to write to his biological mother. She had abandoned him and his father when Anthony was five, got married, and moved to Italy. Would she come? Would she at least help her son with money?
He finally gathered his courage and wrote. His mother contacted him via Skype. She teared up, but Anthony could see it was all a bit performative—she was dabbing her eyes, but there was no feeling for him in them. She was blotting tears, but really she was just fixing her makeup. And what feelings could there be? She had left him as a toddler and never contacted him again. Feelings like that can only fade; they don't grow stronger over time. His mother promised to send money for medicine. When she asked about his prognosis, she learned that he was unlikely to ever walk again—at least not without a surgery in Europe that cost about two hundred thousand dollars.
Plus, there would be long-term rehabilitation afterward. Hearing this, her eyes darted around. With a falsely cheerful voice, she wished him luck in raising the money and hurriedly said goodbye, promising she would call again.
Anthony knew she wouldn't call. She hadn't wanted him when he was healthy; why would she deal with him in a wheelchair?
The handsome man who had been chased by herds of girls was left completely alone. No one visited Anthony, and no one even called him. He waited resignedly for the day the transport would arrive to take him to the nursing home.
And then, fate took pity on Anthony once more. His wife took him from the hospital. His ex-wife. Alice. She had visited him several times in the trauma ward. Anthony was both glad to see her and angry... but he was so lonely!
Alice brought him back to that same rented apartment. It was only when they got to the building that he finally noticed she had a significant baby bump.
She was walking like a little nesting doll, rounded and waddling like a duck. When she had wheeled him out for walks in the hospital garden, she had always been wearing a loose robe or a jacket.
Anthony was still under the influence of painkillers—his body felt like it was being cut into pieces by a red-hot saw, and he was given regular injections to dull the pain from the injuries and the surgeries. Because of the shots, he was inattentive, scattered, and his vision was often unfocused.
But on the day of his discharge, when Alice left her robe at the hospital and was wheeling him down the path to the apartment, he finally saw how much she had changed. The walk wasn't far—it only took ten minutes to get from the building to the hospital.
Alice wheeled him slowly, but she was behind him, so he only heard her voice. At the entrance, she positioned his chair facing the sun but shaded from the glare and sat heavily on a bench to catch her breath. Anthony's jaw dropped.
"You're... pregnant?"
Alice smiled and blushed. Even the tips of her ears turned pink.
"Well, as you can see."
"We were getting divorced, and you were already expecting?! And you knew, and you didn't tell me anything?"
"What would it have changed? Would you have suddenly loved me again?" Alice looked him intently in the eye.
Anthony was at a loss for words. They were divorced. The child would now be born without a father. Alice had taken him in because, besides her, there was no one else left in the world who wanted him. Not his numerous beautiful mistresses, not his wealthy biological mother, not his brother with his family... Andrew wasn't his blood brother, but they had lived as one family since childhood.
His father would have wanted him, but Dad was gone. He had no one but Alice. Anthony suddenly covered his face with his hands and wept inconsolably, just like he had as a child when his mother left. Alice immediately sat beside his chair, pulled his head to her chest, and held him.
"Anthony, honey, don't! We'll get through this! You'll see! Hang in there, dear. You just have to help me a little bit! I can't do this without you. Oh, God!"
A pregnant woman on the verge of giving birth, with no home of her own and a disabled man on her hands, was begging him for help because she couldn't manage without him! What heart could withstand that?
***
Later, it turned out that Anthony was entitled to the apartment belonging to his late wife, Nelly, which she had inherited from her parents. After a mountain of paperwork, he managed to become the owner of this unexpected inheritance.
The old building in the city center, with thick walls and twelve-foot ceilings, was considered elite housing. Its market value was a substantial sum, even with a slight dip in real estate demand.
Naturally, Alice immediately declared that the apartment should be sold—there was the money for the surgery!
"Are you crazy?! A place like that! We'll never be able to buy anything like it again."
"Anthony, if it gives you your legs back—then to hell with the apartment. Even an 'elite' one!"
"Why aren't I some kind of hotshot programmer who could just write a brilliant app and sell it for..." Anthony started to fantasize.
"But since you aren't a programmer, we have to work with what we have!" Alice interrupted, bringing Anthony back to earth.
He just sighed and promised to think the matter over carefully.
"Just don't think too long. In your case, time is money. We can't delay. And we can't delay in any sense: the baby is coming soon. I'm a lot more mobile with a belly than I will be with a newborn in my arms."
His Alice was the voice of reason, as always. Meanwhile, his tireless ex-wife launched into a frenzy of negotiations with various medical foundations. Selling the elite apartment still wouldn't cover the full cost of restoring the mobility of his lower limbs.
Seeing her persistence, Andrew joined the fight. He brought an envelope of money and, before speaking further, told Anthony that he was a complete idiot.
"The biggest fool in the world! You left a woman like that for a crazy person! And the mess you made—good grief. You absolute disaster of a Casanova."
"I kick myself every day! But at least I didn't lose her for good."
"Look, Anthony... my wife and I talked it over. One day we'll earn enough for a new house and a car. You'll get better, and you'll help us then. But I won't forgive myself for leaving my brother in a wheelchair for life. Get the treatment! Go and have the surgery. Come back to us on your own two feet."
He leaned down, and the brothers shared a tight hug. Alice stood in the doorway, smiling. Then she tied an apron over her large belly and announced:
"Who's coming to help me in the kitchen? We're making dumplings with potatoes and liver!"
***
When Alice and Anthony were negotiating with potential buyers for the apartment, two important things happened unexpectedly.
First, a well-known professor from Germany contacted Alice—or rather, Anthony—and offered to perform the surgery free of charge, at the clinic's expense. It turned out Anthony's case was complex and of high scientific value. Many surgeons wanted to be present during the procedure to gain experience for future cases. It was a risk, of course, but every surgery carries risk. And it wasn't particularly pleasant to be a "guinea pig," but Anthony agreed.
Then, Anthony's mother arrived—the last person he expected to see. He thought they had already said everything to each other. She asked her son for forgiveness, for everything! She regretted that she couldn't ask her husband for forgiveness... and she offered to pay for the flights, the surgery, and the rehabilitation. She said her husband, Vincent, had suggested the money himself—they were wealthy and childless, so what were they living for? You can't take a single dollar with you to the grave.
Alice held Anthony's hand and remained silent. She hadn't expected this either. They turned down the apartment buyers, who then tried to start a bidding war. Before, they had been stalling and trying to lowball the price to an absurd degree, taking advantage of Anthony's desperate situation. Now, seeing the property slip away, they suddenly offered nearly fifty percent more!
When Anthony declared that the deal was off regardless, the buyers hurled insults and even threats. Alice calmly replied:
"What could you possibly scare me with? I wasn't afraid of being left with a baby in my arms and a disabled man in a wheelchair. Do you think I'm going to be scared of a few greedy vultures now?"
She snorted and decisively wheeled the chair away. Then, everyone quickly scattered in different directions.
Anthony went to Germany.
Alice went to the maternity ward.
And her ginger cat went to Andrew's house until Alice returned.
***
The surgery was a success. The rehabilitation was long, but effective. For a while, Anthony walked with a cane, but soon even that wasn't necessary. He remarried his wife and went back to work. In his spare time, he happily pushed a stroller through the park paths.
He would put his arm around his wife, and the two of them would coo over their baby. Andrew bought a new house and was already finishing the renovations; he planned to invite his brother's family over for a housewarming party soon. Anthony's mother was coming back with Vincent to meet her grandson.
His mother even looked younger; she was constantly smiling and making baby noises at the screen during video calls. She kept saying she didn't understand how she could have lived for so many years like a stone statue, having lost her heart somewhere.
Anthony thought he would never be able to forgive her—but it turned out he could, and he did. Occasionally meeting women in the city with whom he had once shared a mutual interest, he would pretend not to notice them.
When particularly persistent women hinted that it would be nice to get reacquainted with such a handsome guy, he would only smile:
"Handsome? Believe me, beauty is such an unimportant thing."
They didn't believe him, of course.
But he knew better.
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