‘Who… who provided you with all this?’ he asked sharply.
Natalia bowed her head slightly.
‘We did it ourselves.’
Sergei sneered.
‘Don’t make me laugh.’
And then, for the first time, she smiled — barely noticeable, cold, without her former gentleness.
‘Did you really think we’d vanished when you kicked us out?’
Those words hung between them.
Sergei felt anger rising inside him.
‘I didn’t kick anyone out… I just…’ he began.
‘You threw us out,’ Yegor calmly interrupted.
The silence grew even heavier.
Sergei looked at his son and, for the first time in a long while, was at a loss for words.
And then he noticed something else — a man in an expensive suit had entered the restaurant. The staff immediately sprang into action.
And this man headed straight for their table.
‘Natalia, am I late?’ he asked gently.
Sergei froze.
The man sat down next to his ex-wife as if that were exactly where he belonged.
And at that moment, Sergei realised: this was only the beginning…
Chapter 3. The New Life He Couldn’t Quite Grasp
Sergei didn’t immediately realise what was happening.
The man in the expensive suit settled down calmly next to Natalia, resting his hand on the back of her chair so naturally, as if he’d always done it.
‘Is everything all right?’ he asked, glancing briefly at Sergei.
Natalia nodded almost imperceptibly.
‘Yes.’
And that turned out to be enough.
Sergei felt irritation welling up inside him, mixed with something even heavier — humiliation.
‘Who… is that?’ he asked sharply.
Natalia looked at him calmly.
‘That’s Alexei.’
A pause.
Alexei gave a slight nod, but made no further attempt to introduce himself. There was neither defiance nor malice in his gaze. Only the calm confidence of a man who had nothing to prove.
Sergei gave a wry smile.
‘I see… so that’s how things stand now.’
‘How exactly are “things”?’ Natalya asked quietly.
He leaned forward.
‘I get it. You’ve found yourself… a wealthy patron. You’ve got your bearings quickly.’
At that moment, Yegor jumped up from his chair.
‘Don’t you dare talk about Mum like that.’
The teenager’s voice trembled, but it sounded firm.
Alexei calmly placed his hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
‘Don’t,’ he said gently.
And Yegor obeyed. That stung Sergei more than any words could.
‘Interesting,’ he muttered. ‘So now you listen to him.’
Natalia sighed wearily.
‘You didn’t come here for the truth, Sergei.’
He leaned back sharply in his chair.
‘What did you come here for, then?’
‘To convince yourself that we’re still where you sent us.’
Silence fell.
The music in the restaurant sounded as if from far away, as though from someone else’s life.
Sergei looked at them and, for the first time, felt that the situation was spiralling completely out of his control.
‘I gave you the chance to start afresh,’ he said more quietly. ‘I couldn’t…’
‘You couldn’t bring yourself to drag along a family that had become a burden to you,’ Natalia said coldly.
Those words hung between them like a verdict.
Alexei leaned forward slightly.
‘You were wrong about just one thing,’ he said calmly.
Sergei tensed.
‘And what was that?’
‘That you decided money was the most important thing.’
Sergei gave a short laugh.
‘What else, then?’
Alexei looked him straight in the eye.
‘The ability not to betray the people who trusted you.’
A pause.
Sergei wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
And it was at that very moment that he noticed something else: the restaurant manager had approached their table and bowed respectfully to Natalia.
‘Everything is ready for your event tomorrow, just as you requested.’
Sergei froze.
‘Event…?’ he repeated.
Natalia looked at him.
And for the first time, a sharp glint flashed in her eyes.
‘Did you really think that all this time we were just… getting by?’
And then Sergei realised: he knew absolutely nothing about how they’d been living for the past three years…
Chapter 4. The restaurant that changed everything — and the truth he could no longer hide from (THE FINAL)
Sergei sat motionless.
Natalia’s words wouldn’t let him go; it was as if they were stuck somewhere deep inside him.
‘Did you really think we were just… surviving?’ she repeated more quietly, but each word struck him with greater precision than a blow.
He tried to smile, but his face wouldn’t cooperate.
‘What was I supposed to think? I left you the house, the money…’ His voice broke. ‘You were supposed to…’
‘We don’t owe you anything,’ Natalia said calmly.
Those words were final.
Alexei pushed his chair back slightly.
‘I think there’s something you need to know,’ he said.
Sergei tensed.
‘Like what?’
Alexei looked at Natalia, and she gave a barely perceptible nod.
‘When you left, she didn’t “end up in the middle of nowhere”, as you’re used to thinking,’ said Alexei. ‘She went back to where she’d once started. To the people who’d reached out to her.’