“You are going. Because of you, my ulcer is acting up again. I can barely walk. Come on, pack everything he bought you and get ready.”
Alyona stepped toward the window and stuck her hands deeply into the pockets of her sweatshirt.
“I am not going. I am staying here.”
Luba got up, and the table shook. Unhurriedly and confidently, like a rhinoceros, she moved toward Alyona and grabbed her by the shoulder.
“You little bitch, start thinking about what you’re going to tell your father! He’s going to beat you black and blue for sure, and I will not lift a finger to defend you, you little shit. Let’s go.”
She dragged Alyona into the hallway, just as unhurriedly and yet fiercely, like a real mother.
Aspirin turned to Mishutka, but the bear sat on the windowsill with the look of a perfectly ordinary toy, an old one, not particularly clean, and absolutely helpless. Avoiding Aspirin’s eyes, the cop got up and pushed his untouched cup of tea away.
“Alexey Igorevich, we need to talk—”
“Later,” Aspirin said.
In the hallway, Luba Kalchenko was roaring in anger.
“You little . . .”
“I am not going!”
“Yes, you are!”
The sound of a slap.
Aspirin felt as if someone threw a pot of boiling water in his face. He threw himself into the hallway, slipping and almost falling. Alyona writhed in her mother’s arms; Luba repeatedly slapped her daughter on the cheeks, simultaneously trying to stuff her into a winter jacket.
“You little shit, look at how spoiled you’ve gotten. Spoiled rotten! Just you wait.”
Aspirin grabbed Luba’s hand and jerked it toward him. The woman gasped and let go of Alyona.
“Alexey Igorevich . . . ,” the cop said warningly.
Luba narrowed her eyes.
“Get your hand off me. Look at you, playing the defender. Where were you when I sobbed over the baby carriage? Or when I bought stinky shoes in a secondhand store just to get her to day care? Where were you? In Paris?”
Alyona pressed her back against the mirror, shifting her gaze from her mother to Aspirin and back. Her cheeks burned, and she struggled to contain her tears.
“Please restrain your emotions,” the cop said. “The law decides everything. By law, you, Luba Kalchenko, have full legal rights . . .”
“I am not going anywhere,” Alyona whispered.
Luba took a step toward Alyona, but Aspirin was faster, jumping between them just at the moment when the woman’s hand reached for the girl’s ear.
“This is my house. If you don’t leave, I will call the police.”
“Really?” Luba looked at the cop standing in the hallway, who didn’t seem to be quite so interested in intervening.
Aspirin threw the front door open.
“Get out.”
Luba put her hands on her hips. “Or what?”
“Or I will throw you down the stairs,” Aspirin promised, stealing a quick glance at the cop.
“This is quite second nature for you, isn’t it,” the cop said. “Ms. Kalchenko, may I speak with you for a minute?”
“I am not leaving without her!”
“Yes, you are,” Aspirin said quietly.
She looked him up and down, and under her gaze the hardiest cactus would have withered in an instant. Aspirin was the first one to look away.
“I wish I had never met you,” Luba from Pervomaysk said softly. “You’re not a man, you’re shit.” She turned to the cop. “Well?”
“Well what, ma’am? The girl is old enough to make her own decision.”
“Oh, shut up!”
She stormed out. The cop followed, turning to look back at Aspirin for a moment, then shrugging, left.
“Alexey?”
Sitting in front of his laptop, he stared out of the window where wet tree branches were pushed around by the wind and storm clouds pressed down on the roofs. A change in the weather was coming. A big change.
“Alexey, how about meatballs tonight?”
“Tell me the truth. Is she your mother?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“So then you have been lying to me? Have you lied about everything? And you don’t have any brothers?”
She sat down by his side at the edge of the bed.
“Remember how I told you . . . This reality is digesting me. When I met you, I lied about being your daughter. But now it has become the truth.”
“It has become the truth,” Aspirin repeated dully. “That is what she is like then, Luba from Pervomaysk. Unbelievable. Astonishing. And does her husband really beat you?”
“Not yet,” Alyona said. “So far he’s only threatened me. But now that she’s said it, it would almost certainly become true as well.”