Then the little Emilia, who had already fallen asleep again, without suspecting that its existence was the reason for the collapse of a lie built for decades.
— Ms. Mileva — said the judge, — before continuing with the documents, I would like to hear your explanation.
I knew this moment would come.
I had been waiting for him.
Still, it seemed to me that if I opened my mouth, I wouldn’t be able to stop.
I looked at Sylvia.
My daughter.
Fifty-six-year-old woman sitting against me with anger, fear, and something even more painful in her eyes.
Betrayal.
Then I looked at Mikhail.
My son.
A fifty-three-year-old man who could not bear the thought that the legacy he had considered his own for so long could be divided by a baby.
I took a breath.
— It all started fifty-two years ago — I said.
I was twenty-seven when I met Todor.
I worked as a librarian in the community center in Veliko Tarnovo. Every morning I walked down the cobbled street to the Samovod bazaar, carried a canvas bag of books, and thought my life was completely predictable.
I was engaged to Georgi.
He was a good man.
Stable.
Respected.
He worked in an electric plant and everyone said I would have a safe life with him.
„Georgi is a family man “, my mother said.
„Not like that Todor who keeps dreaming and doesn’t know where it will be in a month. “
Todor was a geologist.
He traveled a lot. He worked on research in the Rhodopes, in Stara Planina, near Madan and Kardzhali. It appeared in a few weeks, then he disappeared again with a backpack, cards, and that look that made one believe that the world was bigger than anything known.
I loved him.
Not quiet.
Not reasonable.
I loved him as only young people love, who still don’t know how high the price of choice is.
He wanted us to get married.
He said he would find a job closer to Tarnovo. That we will build our lives.
But my father was against it.
He said Todor was not a sure person. That there is no property. That there is no permanent job. That it will not make me happy.
And I, the then Elena, was scared.
Not from Todor.
From disappointing everyone.
Georgi proposed to me.
There was a ring.
There was an arranged apartment.
There was work.
