A pregnant prisoner found a wallet at a rich man’s grave. And when she looked inside, she instantly BORN from what she saw
The June sun pleasantly warmed Yulia’s back as she walked along the rows of marble tombstones and monuments of various shapes and colors in the Kiev cemetery. The walk through the cemetery did not bring the woman any pleasure, but it was a sad necessity without which Yulia simply could not survive.
She carefully, so as not to disturb the relatives who came to visit their deceased loved ones, examined the graves for candies, cookies, bread and other edible products left on them. Some of the elderly homeless women who sat at the cemetery gates reproached Yulia for this way of collecting.
“Look, Yulka, you’ll have enough of walking among the dead, what will happen to your baby, it’s not good,” Galina, an elderly petitioner who had lived on the street for many years, told her. “You never know what kind of things people do here at night. Some evil eye or curse will fall on your child, and then you’ll wonder why your son or daughter is screaming incessantly, as if possessed.”
However, in response to such horror stories, Yulia only waved her hand. “Oh, Baba Gal, I’m not afraid of any kind of curse anymore, I’ve seen so much in three years in prison that I can scare away any witches and devils I want.”
Of course, the young woman was just being brave. If it weren’t for the complete hopelessness and the lack of opportunity to earn a normal income, her feet would never have set foot on this land of sorrow. But, alas, she had no other choice yet. The thing is that a new life had been glimmering under the heart of the 28-year-old woman for almost seven months.
Yulia was released from a prison colony in the Chernihiv region on parole just three weeks ago, and the child she was expecting was the result of her relationship with a young guard. Only now has the former prisoner begun to understand that if it weren’t for her pregnancy, she would have seen freedom a long time ago.
The woman remembered the cold look the investigator gave her at the Kiev police station when she, pale and terribly tired after the stress of her husband’s funeral, was forced to go to him for questioning.
“Yulia Sergeyevna, we have received the results of the tests,” the policeman began in a dry, businesslike tone, “including the fingerprints that our specialists collected from your home.” “So what?” the woman asked him in a weak voice. “Can you tell me what happened to my husband? Why did his heart stop so suddenly?” The investigator looked down at her, and the corner of his mouth suddenly twitched, making Yulia think he was laughing at her. “You don’t have a clue, do you?” the investigator answered with a question.
“Well, fine, if you prefer to play the victim, I’ll tell you the results specifically for you, so that there’s no longer any doubt that your husband was murdered.” “What?” the young widow asked, dumbfounded. “What do you mean, murdered, what nonsense?”
“First of all, don’t you dare raise your voice at me!” the policeman barked at her, and to intimidate her even more, he slapped his palm loudly on the smooth surface of the wooden table. “And secondly, don’t pretend that you don’t understand anything, your husband, Yulia Sergeyevna, was poisoned in cold blood. Moreover, now we know for sure that you did it, because on the decanter with which the murdered man was carried there is only one set of fingers, and these prints belong exclusively to you.”
The blood drained from Yulia’s face instantly. She felt her arms and legs grow cold and covered in tiny goosebumps. The woman found it difficult to breathe, so she did not answer right away. It took her several agonizingly long seconds before she could say through bloodless lips: “It’s impossible! No, I would never do anything bad to my husband! I loved Vlad!”
In response, the young widow heard the investigator’s unpleasant, creaky, hoarse laughter
“You know, citizen Kovalenko, every other woman who killed her husband says the same thing when questioned as you are now, no one wants to immediately confess to what they did, hoping to the last that some mistake could have been covered up as a result.” “But it’s true,” Yulia insisted. “Why do you think that I was the one who put the poison in the water? Someone else who did this to my husband could have wiped the jug clean. I picked it up after I entered Vlad’s office.”
The policeman’s face showed irony. He wrote something down in his notebook, then fixed his ugly, bird-like eyes on her again. “You must have wanted to get your hands on Vladislav’s apartment after his death?” he continued, as if nothing had happened.
It seemed that for him her guilt had already been proven by fact. “Well, I can even understand you to some extent,” the investigator shrugged. “A huge two-story apartment in an elite residential complex on Pechersk, a decent collection of paintings. Naturally, you decided that there was no point in waiting for your husband to find himself some mistress, and then push you into the background, as a result of which, when the property is divided, you will not receive a penny.”
“What nonsense,” Julia couldn’t resist. “How can you make such disgusting guesses?
I don’t know anything about any mistress. My husband was a simple businessman, he sold furniture, if it comes to that, and did not own an oil rig. Yes, this apartment was indeed the most valuable thing he managed to acquire over the years, but he never talked to me about divorce.
And even if he had spoken, Vlad was a noble man. I am sure he would never have treated me the way you describe.”
Yulia began to sob. Her black scarf was soaked through from the tears rolling down her face. The woman had come straight from the wake. The investigator threw her a paper napkin with undisguised contempt.
“Wipe yourself off, you’ve made it damp. My God, all of you women are natural-born actresses.” The policeman shook his head and looked somewhere over Yulia’s head, where a black, light-proof mirror was visible. The young woman guessed that he had been given some kind of sign from there. Apparently, it was time to finish with her.
“You decided, out of greed and guided solely by a woman’s desire to be sure of tomorrow, to take what was due to you before it came to dividing up the property,” the investigator confidently concluded his theory. “No, everything you say is completely far-fetched,” Yulia insisted. “And a heart attack is so convenient.”
The man literally put pressure on Yulia, ignoring her words. “But you miscalculated when you chose the poison. The forensic expert immediately suspected something was wrong as soon as he saw the body. And now we are finally convinced of everything.”
Yulia shook her head and said decisively once again: “I didn’t do it, I repeat. I didn’t kill my husband. And you don’t consider the version that it could have been one of his competitors? You don’t want to test this theory?” The young widow felt a small tremor of anger and the awareness of the injustice that had befallen her.
“Maybe you’ll teach us how to work?” the policeman shouted at her again. “You just said that your husband is practically a sofa salesman. So why on earth would he have competitors who could organize an attempt on his life? Don’t you think that’s a bit petty? Not the right level?”
Yulia pursed her lips, and her eyes reflected doom. Everything had already been decided for her, and it seemed that she had no hope of saving herself. She did not know what else to say in her defense, so a satisfied smile spread across the investigator’s face. “Take her away,” he said to the guards standing in front of the interrogation room doors. “I think everything is clear here. We are finished.”
The police took away the weakly resisting Yulia, and from that moment on she never saw freedom again. First she spent about a month in a pretrial detention center in Kyiv, then a quick trial decided her fate: Yulia was given 8 years of general regime, after which she was sent to a penal colony located in the Chernihiv region.
The woman did not know that her husband’s parents, who were very wealthy people, hated their daughter-in-law so much that when the tragedy happened to their son, they did not even consider other candidates for the role of Vladislav’s killer. They were absolutely sure that there was no one else to commit this crime except Yulia.
Just in case, they decided to play it safe and gave the investigator such a large bribe that he promised to do everything possible to ensure that the investigation went in the direction Vladislav’s parents needed.
It was very hard for Yulia in the colony. It is known that women serving time for the murder of their husbands are often attacked by their much more authoritative comrades. Yulia was no exception, and every day she had to literally bite out life with her teeth, otherwise she would have been trampled immediately. One day, a young guard named Daniil Semenov was transferred to the colony.
Despite the grim place he worked in, he tried to treat all the prisoners with friendliness and understanding. “Life happens in different ways,” he often said. “The fact that these women ended up here and were torn away from their families is punishment enough for them. Why make it worse?”
The new guard was a little over thirty, but by that age he already had a lot of wisdom. Everyone liked Daniil – both the prisoners and the female workers of the colony itself. Therefore, each of them secretly dreamed that this stately guy with a very kind and nice face would pay attention to her.
Of course, Semenov maintained order to the same extent as other guards, but he never was rude to women just like that, unless the situation required him to use all the methods that were included in the list of his official duties.
Daniil guarded the sewing shop where Yulia worked. That’s where they saw each other. The guard immediately liked the quiet and modest woman, although his other colleagues scared the guy: “You don’t know who you’re getting involved with, unless she sent her husband to the next world.”
However, Daniil didn’t care, and gradually he began to court Julia: he would bring her a small bouquet of wild flowers, or leave a chocolate bar on her work desk in the workshop.
The head of the colony, seeing that a romance was brewing between the prisoner and the guard, reluctantly allowed them to meet occasionally in the visiting room. At one time, he had carefully studied Yulia’s case and came to the disappointing conclusion that the young widow had been very cleverly set up.
As for Daniil, the guy had a crystal-clear reputation and good brains, so the head of the colony could safely trust him in this matter…
“Watch out, Semenov!” he warned his employee just in case. “If you feel that she wants to use you for some of her own interests, report to me immediately. Got it?
Of course, I hope that this love of yours is true, but still, you should never let your guard down. Do you agree? ” The young man nodded. “Don’t worry, Arkady Borisovich, Yulia and I agreed on everything in advance. She knows what will happen to her if she tries to betray me. But she is not like that at all. I think we would have a very good family together.”
Here Daniil was not disingenuous. He really did evoke only the kindest and most tender feelings in Yulia. The prisoner was glad that she had a real protector among the local scorpions.
Many in the colony, of course, did not like this state of affairs, and they even tried to set Yulia up to separate her from the guard. But the young widow was not one to be timid. She learned to defend her right to life and love and tried to maintain dignity among the envious female prisoners and guards.
Daniil helped her little by little in whatever way he could, and then one day, when they were alone, he asked her to marry him. Yulia felt warmth and tenderness spreading in her heart. She had never thought that their relationship would ever reach this exciting moment. “You’ll see, Yulenka,” he told her, “as soon as we get married, you and I will go far, far away from here. I work here on a contract, too.”
“Oh, Dania, you silly one,” Yulia answered him with a sad smile, “do you even know how much longer I have to sit here? They gave me eight years. Lord, I wish I lived to see it!” Daniil squeezed his fiancée’s fingers lovingly. “But maybe you won’t have to serve out your full sentence? Well, you can write an application, and I’m sure they’ll let you… And then you and I will try to start a new life on the outside.”
Yulia didn’t know why, but she really wanted to believe the words of the guard. She had already given up hope that she would ever meet her happiness. She loved Vladislav, yes, but here he was…
To be honest, her husband never showed her his feelings to the full extent. They lived well, but his parents, as the young woman knew, did not like her at all, although they tried to control themselves for the sake of their son, every time they came to them in Kyiv from Vinnitsa. Dania was completely different. It was as if he was made of the same stuff as Yulia herself.
And you didn’t have to prove to him that you have the right to be called a businessman’s wife. He was the most ordinary person and at the same time the kindest, most honest, most reliable man she had ever met in her entire life.
However, the young widow’s dream was not destined to come true. When Yulia was in her fourth year behind bars, Daniil was brutally murdered by other female prisoners. It remains unclear whether this was due to some personal grievances or whether the prisoners were hoping to take revenge on Yulia for her happiness. When she learned of her lover’s death, she thought she would go crazy. The woman had never experienced such severe heartache even after the death of her first husband. “Why, Lord, why did this happen to me?” Yulia asked the heavens. “Am I really going to walk around with this curse all my life like some kind of black widow? Not a single man survives next to me!”
In her grief, Yulia wanted to commit suicide, but, thank God, she was saved by caring cellmates whom Kovalenko could trust. Later, while in the medical center for a mandatory checkup, she learned that she was expecting a child. At first, this news caused mixed feelings in her. “How will she be here now? And when the child is born, will they take it away?” Fortunately, pregnancy within the walls of the colony itself was grounds for parole, and since the head of the colony was aware that Yulia and Daniil were dating, he easily issued all the necessary documents for the expectant mother.
And so Yulia was released. Now the question of what to do next became extremely important to her. How to start her life anew? She had no more friends. The few people she had communicated with during her marriage to Vladislav turned away from her as soon as they learned of Yulia’s arrest. The former prisoner had no parents, as they had died many years ago, just shortly before their daughter decided to finally move to Kyiv. Yulia was from a village near Zhitomir, where she spent most of her childhood and youth. The girl’s mother worked on a local farm, tending to the planting of fodder crops for livestock, and her father worked as a combine operator.
Yulia, just like her parents, planned to go to work on a farm after school and even took special courses in veterinary medicine. The girl hoped that she would be able to treat sick animals, thereby helping both them and the entire farm complex. However, life, as is usually the case, abruptly messed up all her plans. One winter, when Yulia was just over twenty, her mother and father caught a very severe form of flu and, alas, were unable to cope with it. They went to the hospital late, despite Yulia’s requests to speed up this process. The daughter was then beside herself with grief, only by a miracle did she not get infected from them, but she felt absolutely no joy from this. Her mother and father died a week later, and this became the very blow that prompted the young girl to pack her things and move to Kyiv.
Almost immediately after the funeral, Yulia began selling the house. After the deal, she left the village and closed the door to this tragic part of her past forever. Already in the city, she worked for some time in a private veterinary clinic in Podil, where she met Vladislav, her future husband. The businessman brought his little black pug Henry for treatment, and from that moment on, a pleasant acquaintance began between the young people, and later, it smoothly grew into a quiet romance, and then into a wedding.
Now, however, Yulia had absolutely nothing left to cling to in order to begin to adapt to society again. The pregnant woman could not get any normal job, because all employers thought that she wanted to come to them solely for the sake of maternity leave, and the certificate of release from prison also had a negative effect on them. No one wanted to get involved with a former prisoner, and the stigma of a prisoner was now, it seemed, forever burned into her forehead.
Since the woman did not have her own place to live, she had to spend the night on the streets of Kyiv at first. A little later, Yulia learned about the existence of special crisis centers for women in difficult life situations. There she could be fed and always allowed to stay overnight for a couple of days to rest and get herself in order. Yulia did not abuse such assistance, trying to use it only in exceptional cases. Nevertheless, she needed to start somehow adapting to life outside, which is why she decided to collect various kinds of food at the cemetery. After all, it was not as humiliating as, for example, begging…
The former prisoner even planned out a route around the Kyiv cemetery. She already knew where the richest burials were. There she could always find something ready-made or sweet for herself and her baby. Every time she took something tasty from there, Yulia invariably prayed for the one who rested underground. It didn’t matter to her whether it was a local criminal or just a rich person who got into a car accident or died because of an evil disease. Yulia simply thanked the deceased for not letting her and her unborn child die of hunger today.
Passing by one of the graves, Yulia noticed that under the bench next to the tombstone there was a large leather wallet. Joyful thoughts immediately appeared in her head, and her mood improved. Of course, such luck. Life had not been very pampering for the former prisoner lately, so finding someone’s lost wallet meant providing herself with food for at least a couple of days ahead. Looking around and making sure that there was no one nearby, the woman picked up the wallet from the damp ground and, holding her breath, slowly opened it. Alas, the anticipation gave way to sharp disappointment. There was almost no money inside, only a couple of hundred-dollar bills and some change. Mostly, there were various bank cards and some receipts.
Yulia sighed and wanted to close her wallet, but then she saw a corner of her driver’s license sticking out of the extra compartment. Pulling it, the young pregnant woman pulled out the document. There was a color photo on the license, and for some reason the face on it seemed familiar to Yulia. Stepanov Artem Grigorievich. She read the name of the wallet’s owner, and then gasped. Looking at the tombstone next to which she had found the wallet, the young woman for a second even thought that she had imagined it. But no. The name, surname and photo on the license completely matched the name of the deceased, whose stern face looked at Yulia from the marble monument.
“Oh, my God,” Yulia thought to herself and crossed herself three times. “What’s going on? If this Artem was buried a year ago, then how could his wallet have ended up here? The deceased didn’t drop it himself, for God’s sake?” “This is all somehow strange,” Yulia said out loud and carefully examined the find again. That’s right, the wallet was almost new, it simply couldn’t have lain in the open air for so long. Either someone would have picked it up, or the money in it would have long since melted from the snow and moisture and turned into mush, just like the driver’s license. The receipts, like the bills, were completely dry. It seemed like they had been received just a couple of hours ago.
All this seemed very unusual to Yulia. Hiding the wallet in the pocket of her old jacket, the woman thought about what she should do now. There was little money, and she would naturally spend it. But what to do with the cards? You can’t take anything from them. And if she tried to pay with them somewhere in a store, even for small change, it could lead to her being arrested again. Yulia didn’t want to go to jail anymore, so she decided not to take any risks and leave everything in the wallet as it was.
However, from that moment on, the young woman began to approach this mysterious grave more often. Yulia hoped to see one of the deceased’s relatives there, and one day she was lucky. Seeing a man sitting on a bench in front of the tombstone, Yulia quietly approached him and asked: “Excuse me, are you by any chance related to the deceased?” The stranger, who was sitting with his back to Yulia, turned around, and Yulia felt as if she had been struck by electricity. Despite his thick beard and moustache, this was the same man whose face was depicted on the monument, and whose photo Yulia had found in that ill-fated wallet.
“Oh, my God,” the pregnant woman clutched her stomach. The woman was taken by surprise and had false contractions. However, Yulia was so scared that she would give birth in the cemetery ahead of time that she chose to sit on a bench next to a grave. The expectant mother closed her eyes tightly and began to breathe deeply, trying to calm the strongest spasm in her lower abdomen. “One, two, three, four,” she tried to count, simultaneously stroking her stomach.
“Girl, are you feeling unwell?” the man rushed to her, then began to pat the pregnant woman on the shoulders soothingly. “You, you are there, on the monument,” Yulia said with difficulty, pointing to the tombstone. The man followed her gaze and answered briefly: “Yes, but it is not at all what you thought. I am completely alive, you can be sure of that. Calm down, nothing terrible is happening, I will explain everything to you now.”
When the contractions stopped and Yulia felt better, the bearded stranger began his story: “I had to fake my own death, because I simply had no other choice. They want to kill me.” Yulia looked at the man with wide eyes. “Kill? But who?” “My stepmother and half-brother,” Artem explained. “After my father’s death, they smelled money blood like piranhas and decided to get their hands on all of dad’s assets, eliminating me first. Even though I was adopted by my parents, my father always considered me his own, and besides, I’m three years older than Oleg. I’m turning thirty-five this year, which means that all the reins of my father’s company were supposed to pass to me.”
“Well, well,” said Yulia, “what terrible people.” “You can’t even tell me,” nodded Stepanov. “This is a real conspiracy. It all started when Svetlana bribed one of the drivers, and they cut the brake system in my car. I got into a terrible accident, but miraculously managed to crawl out of the car before it exploded.”
Yulia pressed her hands to her face and whispered, “Oh my God!” “But that wasn’t the end,” Artem continued calmly. “The next time I was attacked was in a dark alley, not far from my work on Khreshchatyk. The killer stabbed me twice.” To prove the truth of his words, the man lifted his shirt and showed Yulia two long, rough scars a few centimeters from his heart. “God has been merciful to me, too,” he commented briefly. Yulia just gasped quietly; she certainly didn’t expect to see that.
“You are a lucky man,” she said, “you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, no doubt.” “I hope it is my father who is watching over me from up there,” Artem pointed his head at the sky, “otherwise I would have been lying in this earth a long time ago.” The young businessman pointed to his own monument for the girl. “I didn’t wait for the third time. I set it up so that my car would have fallen off a bridge into the Dnieper when I was driving to conclude an important deal. Of course, I had to pay a lot for the fake certificate and the car’s expert examination, but the main thing is that my trick worked. Svetlana and Oleg, my stepmother and brother, think that I am no longer alive. This will lull them into a false sense of security for a while until I figure out what to do next.”
Artem smiled sadly at Yulia. “So don’t be afraid, there’s no one there, the coffin is empty. I’m the most alive of all those whose photos you see on these tombstones.” Yulia hesitated for a bit, then made up her mind and returned the wallet to its rightful owner. “Sorry, when I found it, I immediately thought that something didn’t add up. How can the same person have the license and be in this photo? So I decided to keep an eye on your grave. Forgive me.” “Nothing,” Artem simply answered her and gratefully accepted the wallet. “I just come here on a whim. I look at myself and every time I think, if only a little more, I would actually be there. This helps me get up every day with the thought that I must restore justice and not let my relatives seize my father’s business.”
Yulia looked at Stepanov carefully, and then nodded sympathetically. “I understand, believe me. Is it really impossible to hold them accountable?” Instead of answering, Artem shook his head sadly. “Evidence. It’s very difficult to get, because all the evidence against Svetlana and Oleg is only circumstantial. This couple is not the stupidest, they have taken precautions everywhere, just so that suspicion does not fall on them”.
Julia understood the feelings of the young rich man very well. After all, she herself had recently encountered tyranny, when for the sake of money and general hostility, people are ready to literally put a person in a cage, forever erasing any mention of him from their lives. Vladislav, her husband, also had monetary assets, and his company was considered quite successful. He himself told her shortly before his death that the company had finally started to make a good profit, and then he was poisoned, and all the blame was placed on her. Where all the money and assets of the company went remained an unsolvable mystery for Julia. But, as the young woman believed, Vladislav’s parents himself had probably taken care of them, not wanting to share anything with their daughter-in-law-poisoner.
Yulia told Artem her story, and he treated it with sincere sympathy and understanding. Suddenly, a strange, slightly mischievous light gleamed in his eyes. “Yulia, what if I offered you a business that you could make good money on, how would you feel about it?” Yulia became a little wary. “It depends on what we’re talking about.” The businessman smiled. “Don’t worry, nothing criminal. I’ll pay you, and you’ll help me corner my brother and stepmother.”
“Well, how can I help you with this?” Yulia didn’t understand. “I have absolutely no relation to your family.” Artem shook his head. “Your task will be to enter my stepmother’s house under the guise of a maid and collect some dirt on her and her brother. I know that they have documents in their safe, maybe even photographs, which can be considered direct evidence of their guilt. I can’t make unfounded statements, but it seems to me that my father didn’t die a natural death either.”
Yulia looked at the man in amazement and nodded slowly. “Okay. But even if I go to them and say that I want to work for them, it’s not a fact that they’ll hire me, seven months pregnant.” “If you set yourself the lowest price, they’ll be happy to invite you,” Artem reassured her. “I found out, their previous maid just quit. They’re very greedy people. They’re not willing to pay much, so their staff is constantly leaving.”
After thinking it over, Yulia agreed. She had nothing to lose, and here she had a roof over her head, food, and she could help a good person. She could still work, so all she could do was hope that Artem’s relatives would take her into their home without asking unnecessary questions. The young woman did not plan to tell them about her criminal record.
Arriving at the specified address in the elite district of Koncha-Zaspa near Kiev, Yulia saw a large two-story house in front of her, surrounded by a high stone fence along the entire perimeter. Having explained to the guards the purpose of her visit, the woman went inside, where she was taken to the office of Svetlana Nikolaevna, Artem’s stepmother. The tall, thin woman in her early forties seemed to be looking anywhere during their conversation with Yulia, except at the pregnant woman herself. The manner of her conversation made the young woman want only one thing – to run away from here as quickly as possible. The owner of this luxurious estate behaved so arrogantly. But Yulia remembered that she had promised Artem to help, so she had no choice but to accept the fact that icy blood probably flowed in the veins of her new acquaintance’s stepmother.
“Are you sure you can follow all the rules of my house?” Svetlana Nikolaevna asked her at the end of the interview. “Keep in mind that I have no desire to pay any slackers, and besides, you will not be able to leave the mansion more often than once a week. Does that suit you?” At this point, Svetlana looked straight into Yulia’s eyes, and the poor pregnant woman felt an unpleasant shiver spread throughout her entire body. The rich widow’s black eyes reminded her of a poisonous snake. One wrong word or objection, and her and Artem’s entire plan would go down the drain.
“Yes,” Yulia said quickly. “Yes, that suits me just fine. I don’t have any relatives in the city anyway, so…” “Well, that’s great,” Svetlana said, as if enunciating each word. “I’m not interested in the details of your personal life, so starting tomorrow you can start performing your duties. And remember, if my son or I find that you’re behaving incompetently or not doing your job well…” Artem’s stepmother gave the young woman another piercing look. “You’ll be out of here faster than I can say ‘fass’ to my dog. Is that clear?”
Yulia blinked her large, bright eyes in confusion. Was this shrew really ready to unleash guard dogs on the maids just for unwashed dishes? The only words she could utter were: “Of course, more than that, Svetlana Nikolaevna. I promise that I will work quietly and diligently, just as you wished.” The mistress of the house nodded, and the guard, who had been standing near the door the whole time, led the young woman to the head maid, who had already explained to Yulia what exactly she would have to do in this mansion.
For Yulia, the grey working days dragged on. Artem was right when he said that his stepmother and stepbrother had a terribly bad character. They literally glared at all the servants, constantly suspecting them of idleness or laziness. Several times, Yulia heard how Svetlana Nikolaevna insulted other maids with undisguised pleasure. But for now, everyone was happy with her work.
Oleg Stepanov turned out to be a nice, but very slippery young man, who liked a good drink, but did not like to work hard. Every now and then, his mother would scold her son with displeasure for unfulfilled business obligations. However, he only laughed it off. It seemed that he himself did not particularly consider his mother’s authority. “Mom, calm down, please. This company is not going anywhere from us. Now we’ll marinate them for another week, and they will bring us all the contracts themselves to sign, and even lay them out on a silver platter. It is not profitable for them to lose such huge percentages.”
“Oleg, come to your senses already,” Svetlana Nikolaevna replied. “I told you clearly, you need to be very careful with these partners. They are not as simple as they want to seem. And they are also cooperating with the Chinese. The situation can change at any moment, and then we will be left with a big loss. Honestly, sometimes it seems to me that you are not interested in anything except these parties of yours and endless alcohol”.
Instead of answering, the young man triumphantly raised his glass of whiskey to his mother, which he had not let go of during their conversation. “Luckily, Daddy left us a lot of money,” Oleg said dreamily. “So what if we lose a little on this deal, then another one will turn up. The main thing is that we are now infinitely rich, Mom, and no one keeps track of our expenses anymore.” His mother’s face twisted in disgust. “Lord, how pathetic you are,” she said slowly. “If only you would be ashamed to drink in front of your mother, it’s not even twelve o’clock yet.”
The son answered Svetlana Nikolaevna with something unpleasant, because immediately after that a distinct sound of a slap was heard. Apparently, Artem’s stepmother’s composure had finally cracked. “Well, what a family,” thought Yulia to herself, carefully wiping the antique bronze statues on the large oak chest of drawers. “They seem to be interested in nothing but money. The son, look, will sell his own mother if he is promised a solid sum for it.”
Otherwise, if you don’t count such unpleasant scenes, the stepmother and her son behaved quite adequately towards Yulia. Maybe because she was pregnant, or maybe because she didn’t give them any reason. The Stepanovs didn’t offend Yulia, but they never encouraged her either, believing that if a maid’s work was done at the most ideal level, then it should be so.
When Yulia saw her salary a month later, she didn’t even know how to react to it. The pregnant maid definitely didn’t expect to see such a modest amount. Of course, she named the minimum threshold of her salary when applying for a job, as Artem had taught her, but she still hoped that the employers still had at least some remnants of conscience. As it turned out, they didn’t. It’s good that Artem himself transferred a good amount of money to the woman’s account, which he opened specifically for this purpose. Thanks to this, for the first time during her entire pregnancy, Yulia was able to buy the vitamins and fruits she needed.
The man kept his promise and now expected the same from Yulia, but she had nothing to please the young businessman with. During the month that she worked in Stepanov’s stepmother’s house, Yulia managed to notice one interesting person there. It was a girl, beautiful and funny, with a long waterfall of golden hair that fell down her slender back to her waist. The girl’s name was Larisa, and she was considered the bride of the owner’s son Oleg. The young man, as Yulia managed to notice, often began to quarrel with his mother because of her. The son’s new lover claimed the title of his wife, and Svetlana Nikolaevna did not like this at all, planning to find a much more profitable and aristocratic match for her Oleg.
Oleg himself was very determined and even gave his passion a wonderful, terribly expensive ring with a huge pink diamond. When his mother found out about such improper use of parental funds – Oleg, as it turned out, withdrew the money from his father’s special account – she simply exploded, causing a real scandal for her son. The most unpleasant thing is that Larisa was also in their house at the time of the quarrel and could perfectly hear how the future mother-in-law scolded her fiancé and the girl herself, as they say, in every possible way.
“I can’t believe you decided to marry this prostitute. Look at her carefully, she dreams of getting closer to your money,” Svetlana Nikolaevna shouted at her son furiously, shaking her fists in the air. “What do you know about Larisa, Mom?” Oleg yelled back. “She is the most beautiful, smartest and most charming girl I have ever known. We will definitely get married in a couple of months, and you won’t stop us.”
“Only over my dead body,” the owner of the mansion shouted loudly and quickly walked out of the house, not wanting to continue this conversation. She lingered on the threshold for a moment and, turning around, shouted to her son, shaking her miniature designer handbag in the air: “Hear me, Oleg, if I find out that you and this scum have filed an application with the registry office, I will deprive you of everything, your entire inheritance, do you hear?” “Just try it, old witch,” her son answered her in the same spiteful manner. “Your trick won’t work a second time. I’m not your father, I won’t give myself up so easily…”
The young man stopped short. He saw several of the household staff, including the housekeeper, the cook, and Yulia herself, looking at him with undisguised curiosity. “What are you staring at?” he growled, looking at them. “Do you want me to fire you all? Now get to work before I throw you all out on the street.” The workers immediately lowered their eyes in shame and hurried away, each to their own business.
Yulia noticed how red spots appeared on the face of the young master’s son as soon as he remembered his father. The woman realized that there was some kind of bad secret hidden here, perhaps connected with the documents that the maid was supposed to find. At that moment, someone quietly called out to the girl. She turned around and saw Oleg’s fiancée in front of her. The blonde, grinning slightly, came up to Yulia almost point-blank and pointed out to the young woman her belly protruding from under her uniform.
“Isn’t it harmful for the baby to listen to such conversations?” she almost sang. “By the way, an eavesdropping maid is the most vulgar and unattractive thing that can happen in the house of respectable people. What are you sniffing around here, I wonder?” Yulia looked into Larisa’s beautiful dark green eyes and did not know what to answer. At that moment, the pregnant woman noticed that the girl’s face seemed familiar to her from somewhere. But Yulia could not remember where exactly she had seen it.
“No, what are you saying, I wasn’t eavesdropping at all,” the maid finally answered. “Svetlana Nikolaevna asked me to clean the lower hall, so I came down.” Larisa looked at her suspiciously and, still grinning, added: “Okay, fine, wave the rag better, Madam Maid, otherwise I’ll tell my fiancé everything, and then you’ll end up on the street with your stray, and that’s the best case scenario.” The girl looked at her in such a way that Yulia had no doubts left – this beauty would be a worthy addition to the family of the local rich ghouls
A couple of days later, luck smiled on the young woman. She was cleaning Oleg’s office and saw that the small safe where all the important documents were kept was open, while its owner had gone somewhere. Without wasting time, Yulia looked in and quickly took a photo of all the documents she could get her hands on with her phone. Among other things, she came across two death certificates, both in the name of Artem’s father, but the results of the conclusions in them were completely different. “Oh my God!” Yulia whispered to herself. “He’s right.”
The girl had barely finished filming when Oleg burst into the office, hugging his lover. Yulia only had time to grab a broom and jump to a large bookcase, after which she pretended to vigorously scrub some dirt on one of its shelves. The lovers, however, seemed not to notice the cleaning lady at all, they passionately kissed and hugged, and then Oleg, to Yulia’s great amazement and embarrassment, grabbed his Larisa by the arms and sat her down on a wide desk, all the while showering the girl’s face and neck with kisses.
Julia didn’t know what to do, she would gladly like to disappear into thin air, but she was afraid that if she tried to leave openly, it would only cause even greater anger on the part of the young rich man. Then the girl heard Larisa say passionately to the groom: “Do you have wine, Oleg? Let’s drink, let’s celebrate our engagement without that snake, your mother.” Oleg, instead of standing up for his mother, only laughed maliciously and joyfully at the same time. Apparently, he had the same opinion about Svetlana Nikolaevna, or maybe it was Larisa herself who set her son against his mother.
“Of course, dear, I’ll bring you a bottle now, and in the meantime, take the glasses.” Yulia literally pressed her face against the cabinet in the hope that she would not be noticed. Larisa, having taken the glasses out of the cabinet, quickly looked around. At that moment, the maid accidentally raised her eyes and in the mirror reflection of the glass door managed to see how the rich man’s girl was pouring some white powder into his glass.
“Let me pour you some myself,” the beauty purred and, drawing Oleg’s attention away from the bottle and hiding the glass behind her back, quickly poured the last one some alcohol, filling it almost to the brim. After that, with a scorching smile of passion, she handed the glass to her fiancé. “Here,” she said, continuing to hold Oleg’s gaze, “I want you and me to drink this to the bottom.” The girl took the young man’s own wine from his hands. “For our love,” Oleg whispered into her lips, “nothing will ever separate us, until death.”
“Until death,” Larisa repeated and brought the poisoned drink to his lips. And at that very moment, Yulia’s consciousness seemed to be illuminated by a flash of lightning. She remembered where she had seen this Larisa before. Once, it was a long time ago, she came to work to her husband Vladislav and saw a beautiful blonde girl sitting at the reception desk in front of his office. It was Larisa. The beauty worked as her husband’s secretary, and part-time, apparently, she made a living in this black trade, fooling rich men, and then, having fished out decent amounts of money from them, eliminating them.
Although Oleg was extremely unpleasant to Yulia, he did not deserve such a terrible death. Yulia turned sharply and threw the rag she had been using to wipe dust at Larisa. And when the insidious beauty lost her vigilance for a moment out of indignation, Yulia knocked the damned glass out of her hands with one swift movement.
“Don’t drink,” she breathed to Oleg. “Don’t drink anything she gives you, or you’ll die.” Oleg looked at her with astonished eyes, and Larisa looked at the pregnant maid with undisguised hatred. It seemed she would have been happy to incinerate the former prisoner with her gaze, but instead she chose to throw herself on Oleg’s shoulder and say in a tearful voice: “Oleg, I’m scared. Who is this crazy woman?”
Yulia was amazed at how quickly the anger and fury on her face were replaced by fear and false adoration for her rich fiancé. Artem’s half-brother continued to glare at the maid, in which now instead of amazement there was open contempt and annoyance. “What was that just now?” he asked the pregnant woman sternly. “How should I understand your actions?”
“There was poison in the glass,” Yulia said quickly. “I saw her put it in there while you were getting the wine. That girl wanted to poison you.” “What?” Oleg exclaimed. “Are you out of your mind? Larisa and I are engaged, she’s my fiancée, what’s the point of her poisoning me?” The rich young man looked at the beauty with hope. A shadow of panic crossed Larisa’s face at first, but then she just grinned awkwardly and said indignantly: “What nonsense! You’re not going to believe it, are you, darling? She’s just jealous that we have such strong feelings, such love. Her boyfriend probably dumped her as soon as he found out he was going to be a dad.”
Larisa smiled cheekily and glanced at the maid, as if to say, what can you say to that? Yulia, although deeply offended, had no right to give in. The former prisoner’s sense of justice was stronger. The maid straightened up and looked fearlessly first into Oleg’s eyes, and then into his scoundrel bride’s. “You simply have no idea who you want to tie your life to, Mr. Stepanov,” she said in an icy voice. “This woman may be guilty of my husband’s death and of my own fate being broken forever.”
After that, Yulia told Oleg about how she was accused of her husband’s death, how she was sent to prison, and how she now has to work on her feet all day long just so that she and her future baby have the opportunity to eat and sleep in a warm, dry bed, and not on the street. Hearing all this, Artem’s half-brother was shocked to the depths of his soul. Turning to his mistress, he slowly asked her: “Larisa, is this true? Did you really want to kill me?”
The blonde’s lips began to tremble, she began to fussily stroke Oleg’s hand, and her eyes darted from side to side. “Oh, Oleg, of course not, maybe she imagined something, that’s why she freaked out, she’s pregnant, hormones, all that. Are you really going to believe some maid and not me? Your one and only, unique Lara, your love, Oleg?” Stepanov Jr. silently looked at Larisa, but his eyes were not shining with affection and love. It was hard to believe, but Oleg finally recognized the lie in the words of his beautiful bride.
“If all this is not true, then why are you shaking, Lara? What, are you afraid that this woman will tell the police?” Larisa slowly backed up to the wall until Oleg loomed over her like Shakespeare’s Moor. “Confess, did you want to poison me?” Suddenly Oleg hit the wall next to the beauty with all his might, and his fist flew a few millimeters from her face, causing Larisa to give in and squeal loudly in fear.
“Yes, yes, I wanted to do it,” she squeaked, like a mouse caught in a mousetrap. The glassy eyes of the young rich man contained only one question. “Why? For what, Lara? I would have given you everything, no matter what you wanted.” Larisa, whose eyes were full of horror and tears, literally fell to her knees in front of Oleg and began to beg him: “Oleg, my dear, forgive me, I’m so stupid. But nothing happened, right? We… we were so happy together. Are you really going to bury all this because of some stupid misunderstanding?”
She clung to his hand with all her might. But when the young man turned around, Julia could see only disgust and pain on his face. It seemed that he really had strong feelings for this poisoner and was not ready to accept the fact that she was simply using him for her own selfish purposes. “Get out!” he said quietly, throwing her hands away, as if she was now nothing more than some kind of annoying insect for him. “Get out of my house, and I never want to see you again.”
The beauty rose from her knees with difficulty, slipping on her high heels. Her face with the makeup smeared on it no longer looked so seductive and beautiful. Having looked at him for the last time, Larisa ran out of the office, and then Yulia heard the clatter of her stilettos on the stairs leading to the first floor. The scoundrel had fled, but Yulia still had a nasty feeling in her soul. The woman felt that this girl could be guilty of her husband’s death. However, Yulia had no evidence other than indirect confirmation of guilt, and this upset her even more.
“Thank you for opening my eyes,” Oleg thanked her. “This girl has completely charmed me, I followed her everywhere as if under hypnosis.” “You’re welcome,” Yulia responded and involuntarily winced. At that very moment, she felt the baby kick inside her. After all, eight months is already a noticeable period. Seeing that the maid was not feeling well, the young rich man let her go to her room for a while so that she could rest, and then continue her work. That was the end of his gratitude.
A week had passed since the incident with Larisa, but Oleg’s character had not changed, and in the material matter everything remained the same. Very soon the young rich man again began to behave as arrogantly as before, and simply told his mother that he and his mistress had broken up. Svetlana Nikolaevna was happy, although she did not show it. From that moment on, she managed to immerse her son in intensive work with his father’s company for some time.
Later, Yulia kept thinking that, in fact, she had saved another scoundrel, since Stepanov’s greed had not gone away. It seemed that he had survived the episode with the failed poisoning like a bad dream, after which he had shaken himself off and continued to lead his usual way of life. A couple of days later, Yulia had another day off. She and Artem agreed to meet in the same place as last time, at the cemetery, next to the young businessman’s own empty grave. Artem believed that it would be safer for everyone, and Yulia did not object, after all, she had to think not only about herself.
When the maid handed the businessman all the photos she had managed to take in his stepbrother’s office and told him about the story with Larisa, Artem was quite surprised. “Who would have thought that our affairs would be so unexpectedly connected,” he shook his head, and then promised Yulia: “Don’t worry, we will definitely bring this killer to justice. Who knows, if she worked for your husband, it may be that it was she who came to him shortly before his death.”
“You say all your husband’s money disappeared after you were jailed?” “That’s right,” the woman nodded. “I specifically asked my second fiancé-escort later. He promised to check everything through his friends who are specialists in economic law. In the end, they assured him that my husband’s company seemed to have disappeared overnight, dissolved, all the accounts were empty.”
Artem promised to look into the matter, and after carefully studying the photographs of the documents once again, he noticed two different conclusions about his father’s death. “You know, Yulia,” he said finally, “if it weren’t for you, I would never have been able to prove the involvement of relatives in my father’s death. Thank you for your help. I think it’s time for me to come out of the shadows.”
“I hope you can do it, Artem,” Yulia wished him luck. “These people deserve to face the law. While I was working for them, I saw that they would do anything for their own benefit.”
Having printed out the photos and documents as evidence, Artem went with them to the police, where he explained his situation in detail. The investigators, of course, were quite shocked by such a sharp turn in a long-closed case, but decided to help the young businessman, especially since, thanks to the information about Larisa, they had a lead in another very sensitive case.
The very next day, Artem, clean-shaven, haircut and in a brand new business suit, drove up to his stepmother’s house in Koncha-Zaspa in his shiny foreign car. The guards, seeing the dead man who had returned from the other world, almost fainted. However, the man managed to convince them that he was completely alive, made of flesh and blood, and that he urgently needed to talk to Svetlana Nikolaevna and Oleg.
The thin woman in the emerald three-piece suit, who was sitting at her desk at that moment, thought she had misheard when she was informed about who exactly had come to her house. The stepmother thought that it must be some madman who had decided to cash in on her family’s scandalous past. The fact is that the news of the death of the head of the Stepanov family had caused a great stir in the Kyiv press at the time, which is why Svetlana and her sons had to literally fight off the ubiquitous journalists.
Artem did not wait for a special invitation, quickly passed the guards and went up to the second floor. With one strong push of his hand, the man opened the door and came face to face with his treacherous stepmother. Svetlana turned pale, seeing her long-dead stepson in front of her, and immediately clutched her heart. “This can’t be, Artem,” the woman said, breathing heavily. “After all, you died, you crashed in that accident on the bridge, we saw the remains of your car.”
Artem, calmly ignoring his stepmother’s emotions, said with a stone face: “Good morning to you too, mother. Well, have you and Oleg already managed to spend all of daddy’s money? Or is there still something left in those accounts that you have been so persistently creating in offshore zones and Cyprus this whole year?” As soon as his stepmother heard about the money, she immediately came to her senses and again pulled her usual icy mask over her face. Artem gave her credit: she held up just fine, despite all the rottenness of her greedy and cruel nature.
“It’s nice to know that you still care so much about your father’s case,” Svetlana Nikolaevna said slowly and rose from the table. “If you only knew how sometimes I regret that you are not my real son, but this wimp, Oleg.” Artyom silently pulled the documents out of his bag and threw them on the table in front of her. “The game is over, Mom. Here is everything to prove your involvement in my father’s death, including the real conclusion about his death, according to which Dad did not die of a heart attack at all. You injected him with too much of the drug that the doctor prescribed. You knew that the overdose would cause sudden cardiac arrest, and then you bribed the pathologist to give you another correct conclusion, right? Only Oleg, the fool, could not part with the original. He was always too emotional and unbalanced, so he even managed to get involved with a girl who tried to poison him.”
Svetlana’s face, which had remained frozen all this time, trembled when she heard about her own son. “What? What poisoning?” she looked at her stepson in confusion. But at that moment Oleg himself entered the office. The young man looked at his dead half-brother with eyes wide with horror. Finally, with great difficulty, he was able to turn his gaze to his mother to ask: “Mom, don’t I think it’s really Artyom?”
“No, son, you’re not imagining things,” his mother responded dryly. “Your brother is going to put us behind bars because of some lousy papers whose authenticity still needs to be proven. What poisoning did he just tell me about?” Oleg was embarrassed, not knowing what to say to that or how to react to the appearance in their house of a half-brother, whom they had all thought dead for a year. However, Artem himself resolved this dilemma. Shaking the collar of his jacket, the young businessman glanced at his watch, and at that moment the roar of police sirens was heard in the courtyard of their estate
Having printed out the photos and documents as evidence, Artem went with them to the police, where he explained his situation in detail. The investigators, of course, were quite shocked by such a sharp turn in a long-closed case, but decided to help the young businessman, especially since, thanks to the information about Larisa, they had a lead in another very sensitive case.
The very next day, Artem, clean-shaven, haircut and in a brand new business suit, drove up to his stepmother’s house in Koncha-Zaspa in his shiny foreign car. The guards, seeing the dead man who had returned from the other world, almost fainted. However, the man managed to convince them that he was completely alive, made of flesh and blood, and that he urgently needed to talk to Svetlana Nikolaevna and Oleg.
The thin woman in the emerald three-piece suit, who was sitting at her desk at that moment, thought she had misheard when she was informed about who exactly had come to her house. The stepmother thought that it must be some madman who had decided to cash in on her family’s scandalous past. The fact is that the news of the death of the head of the Stepanov family had caused a great stir in the Kyiv press at the time, which is why Svetlana and her sons had to literally fight off the ubiquitous journalists.
Artem did not wait for a special invitation, quickly passed the guards and went up to the second floor. With one strong push of his hand, the man opened the door and came face to face with his treacherous stepmother. Svetlana turned pale, seeing her long-dead stepson in front of her, and immediately clutched her heart. “This can’t be, Artem,” the woman said, breathing heavily. “After all, you died, you crashed in that accident on the bridge, we saw the remains of your car.”
Artem, calmly ignoring his stepmother’s emotions, said with a stone face: “Good morning to you too, mother. Well, have you and Oleg already managed to spend all of daddy’s money? Or is there still something left in those accounts that you have been so persistently creating in offshore zones and Cyprus this whole year?” As soon as his stepmother heard about the money, she immediately came to her senses and again pulled her usual icy mask over her face. Artem gave her credit: she held up just fine, despite all the rottenness of her greedy and cruel nature.
“It’s nice to know that you still care so much about your father’s case,” Svetlana Nikolaevna said slowly and rose from the table. “If you only knew how sometimes I regret that you are not my real son, but this wimp, Oleg.” Artyom silently pulled the documents out of his bag and threw them on the table in front of her. “The game is over, Mom. Here is everything to prove your involvement in my father’s death, including the real conclusion about his death, according to which Dad did not die of a heart attack at all. You injected him with too much of the drug that the doctor prescribed. You knew that the overdose would cause sudden cardiac arrest, and then you bribed the pathologist to give you another correct conclusion, right? Only Oleg, the fool, could not part with the original. He was always too emotional and unbalanced, so he even managed to get involved with a girl who tried to poison him.”
Svetlana’s face, which had remained frozen all this time, trembled when she heard about her own son. “What? What poisoning?” she looked at her stepson in confusion. But at that moment Oleg himself entered the office. The young man looked at his dead half-brother with eyes wide with horror. Finally, with great difficulty, he was able to turn his gaze to his mother to ask: “Mom, don’t I think it’s really Artyom?”
“No, son, you’re not imagining things,” his mother responded dryly. “Your brother is going to put us behind bars because of some lousy papers whose authenticity still needs to be proven. What poisoning did he just tell me about?” Oleg was embarrassed, not knowing what to say to that or how to react to the appearance in their house of a half-brother, whom they had all thought dead for a year. However, Artem himself resolved this dilemma. Shaking the collar of his jacket, the young businessman glanced at his watch, and at that moment the roar of police sirens was heard in the courtyard of their estate
It is impossible to describe how happy Yulia was when she learned that she would no longer have to live with the stigma of a “prisoner”. She thanked Artem in every way she could. The woman continued to work for the businessman in his house and continued to help him with the housework until the very moment it was time for her to give birth. Unfortunately, since Yulia did not have the opportunity to have an ultrasound in the colony, the woman did not know until the very last moment that she was going to give birth to twins. The birth was very difficult, but in the end Yulia coped, giving life to two wonderful boys. The young mother named them Anatoly and Vyacheslav, in honor of her grandfathers on both sides.
Artem was happy to look after the woman in labor while she was recovering in the hospital, and he happily brought her and the children what she needed. And one day, shortly before being discharged, Artem noticed unusual birthmarks on the right side of both boys’ bodies. The thing was that he had exactly the same birthmark on his body, absolutely the same shape and size. The man understood that this could not be a simple coincidence. Such things are passed down only from generation to generation, and so he took the risk of asking Yulia: “What did you say was the name of your second fiancé, the one who worked as a guard in the colony?”
“Daniil,” Yulia answered him, surprised. “What happened?” “Yul, I understand this may sound strange,” Artem began, embarrassed, “but let me do a genetic test on your babies, I think I may be related to them.” Yulia was sitting in bed, rocking the twins, but, hearing such an unusual statement, she even froze for a moment. “Why do you think so?” was all she could ask, amazed.
“You see, I grew up in an orphanage until I was five,” the businessman explained to her. “But I barely remember that period, because I was quickly adopted, and these birthmarks, they can only be found in members of the same family…”
The shocked Yulia agreed to do a DNA test for the kids, but the results left her absolutely perplexed. Artem really was a relative of her children, and, if you believe the results of the examination, it was a very close circle, right down to cousins. Artem hired two private detectives at once to find out the truth about his childhood, and a month later they provided him with shocking results. It turned out that Artem was the brother of that same escort Daniil, who once wanted to connect his life with Yulia.
The brothers were separated many years ago, in early childhood, due to the fault of their negligent mother. The woman decided that she could only raise one child and kept Daniil. Artem, like a thief, was abandoned by his good-for-nothing mother at night in an orphanage in Kyiv, where the boy grew up until he was five years old, before businessman Stepanov took him in. Over time, after Yulia returned to the millionaire’s house, the young people decided to try to build their own relationship.
It was not a flash of bright passion, but the feelings that arose between them were very strong and deep. Artem was impressed by Yulia’s courage and dedication, so he could easily see her as his future wife. Yulia was immensely grateful to the man for everything he did for her and her children, because, being their uncle, Artem immediately adopted both boys.
After six months of wonderful, warm and respectful relations, Artem and Yulia got married. The wedding was modest, in the circle of Artem’s close friends and several women from the crisis center, who supported Yulia in the most difficult times. The newlyweds settled in Artem’s spacious house in the suburbs of Kyiv, where Yulia finally found the long-awaited feeling of security and comfort. Anatoly and Vyacheslav grew up healthy and cheerful, surrounded by the love of their mother and the care of their uncle, who became a father to them.
Artem, having taken over the management of his father’s company, restored its reputation and brought it to a new level. He also established a charity foundation that helped women in difficult life situations, like Yulia. Yulia herself, having gained self-confidence, began working for this foundation, helping other women find work, housing, and rebuild their lives after difficult trials.
As for Svetlana Nikolaevna and Oleg, their case received wide publicity in the Ukrainian media. The trial lasted several months, but thanks to the irrefutable evidence collected by Yulia and Artem, both received long prison terms. Svetlana, despite her threats, was unable to use the services of expensive lawyers, since Artem convinced them to drop the case. Oleg, having survived the injury, fully admitted his guilt, hoping for a mitigated sentence, but his testimony only strengthened the prosecution’s position.
Larisa, who had been detained at the airport, also stood trial. Her chemist brother, who had given away all the details of their criminal scheme, became a key witness. Larisa was found guilty of several murders, including the death of Vladislav Kovalenko, and received a life sentence. Upon learning this, Yulia felt that justice had finally been served, and the shadow of the past that had hung over her for so long began to lift.
Yulia and Artem’s life was not without its difficulties, but they learned to overcome them together. Their home was filled with the laughter of children, the warmth of family evenings, and the belief that even after the darkest times, a bright future can come. Yulia often recalled her walks through the Kyiv cemetery, but now they seemed like a distant dream. She knew that every step she took during those difficult days led her to a new life full of love and hope.
