Lisa, my younger sister, was unserious from childhood, with the wind in her head. Boys, lipstick, and dancing were the only things she was interested in in high school, and over the years the only things she added to it were alcohol. While I was studying and working my ass off, trying to graduate with honors, Lisa went to clubs, dabbled in casual hookups, and came home once a week at most.
Mom always predicted Lisa “big future” – to seduce a richer man, thus, to settle well in life. Lisa absorbed her mother’s insistence like a sponge. It was only with her way of life that an accidental pregnancy was a matter of time. I had just graduated from college and was hired full-time at the firm where I worked part-time during my studies.
And Lisa, in her third year, took a sabbatical because she was pregnant. Strangely enough, it was her mother who talked her out of the termination. Lisa’s life has turned into a living hell: my mother never missed a chance to prick her with how she was disappointed. After all, according to her plans, Lisa was supposed to pick up some rich guy, not get pregnant at a student party of God knows who. The “mystery man” turned out to be a rather nice boy named Alex, who had been in love with my sister since freshman year. He was a newcomer, from a poor family, but with big plans for life. Naturally, no one would even let him on the baby’s doorstep. I rented an apartment near work, and my life turned into home-work-home, like most people’s lives on this planet.
Lisa, getting in shape after childbirth, again went in search of a rich “stone wall. Lisa completed her task: she found a “daddy” ready to take Lisa, complete with her mother, into a well-fed life without poverty. Only in this life there was no place for Alice, my niece.” Daddy “didn’t even know his chosen one had a child. Alice was brought to my house, complete with a deed to my mother’s apartment, as moral compensation.
– If anything, you’ll get the apartment back,” my mother admonished me and left for Italy, in the company of Lisa and her husband, the owner of factories, newspapers and steamships.
Alice went to kindergarten. She almost didn’t notice that her mother disappeared from her life. Clever girl immediately became attached to me, and my evenings were not so lonely. We would have lived together if it hadn’t been for Alex, who found out that the mother of his child had abandoned his daughter. Alex didn’t see Alice, he was forbidden. But, nevertheless, he regularly dropped envelopes in the mailbox with money for his daughter.
I saw no reason to prevent Alice from communicating with his dad. If the mother abandoned the child, then at least there must be a father – I reasoned and introduced her to her daddy. The girl was delighted: all little girls in general are delighted with the caresses of their fathers. Alex spent all his free time with his daughter.
Against the backdrop of caring for Alice, we grew closer. Our decision to live together was quite logical. Mutual sympathy, concern for the child, common interests – between us there was no mythical “spark”, it was a quiet thoughtful choice.
When Alice turned six, it was time to think about how to register her for school in a year. I wasn’t her guardian, Alex wasn’t officially her father. I called Lisa. Her answer was simple:
– Do what you want, she’s your responsibility now. I’m pregnant, I’m going to have a baby. And you can keep this one.
Alex and I signed our names and he went to court to wrestle his daughter away from Lisa, who had abandoned her. He was recognized as the father, Lisa as a bad mother, and she was deprived of her parental rights. Lisa’s interests were represented in court by a lawyer acting under power of attorney. He spoke in her words:
– I don’t need this child, at least put him in an orphanage.
When Alisa started second grade, I adopted her. Alex and I were waiting for a child together. At the very beginning I wrote that Alex was quite an ambitious young man. He set a goal for himself and was on his way to it. He had a good job with great prospects. We didn’t need the money.
At the same time with work Alex was looking for investors to start his own business – something related to computer technology, I don’t really know. We lived the life of an ordinary family – Alice called me Mum, she couldn’t wait for her little brother, and Alex carried us all in his arms.
Mom and Lisa’s return was like a bolt from the blue. They showed up as if nothing had happened. Mom didn’t keep track of Lisa, and my not-so-smart sister tossed branchy horns at her “daddy.”
“Daddy” would not tolerate such neglect and disrespect from his wife and gave her a kick in the ass by taking the baby away. Lisa’s youngest son had the same citizenship as his father and was an Italian citizen. Unemployed Lisa with no property had no chance of custody of her son. It was a kind of karma: Liza abandoned one child – her second, born to siphon alimony in case of divorce, was taken away from her.
Lisa and her mother returned home like beaten dogs. They quarreled constantly, my mother accusing my sister of having a rabid female reproductive organ, and my sister grieved only for the lost money – the youngest child did not interest her at all, nor did her eldest daughter. They asked to stay, they had nowhere to go. Mom immediately started talking about getting the apartment back. We agreed to make a deal: my husband and I are looking for an apartment and as soon as we buy it, I’ll give it back to my mother.
Alisa had forgotten Lisa, and officially I was her mother. I talked to my sister to stay away from my daughter. Lisa snorted:
– You really have to. I’m still young, I can find a normal man. If you like it, bring her up. Seeing who my husband was, my mother began to reprimand Lisa:
– What a fool you are, look what a man missed. You should live now, you wouldn’t need anything. And your sister, look how sly she is – she got her hands on an orphan.
Lisa heard her mother’s words in a different way. She thought about it and went out on the warpath:
– You took my daughter and my man. I will return them. – she declared to me.
That same day Alex and the kids and I moved into a rented apartment. We had already found a suitable option to buy, we had to wait a little while until the sellers gather all the certificates and paperwork. Lisa called Alex every day. She waited for my husband after work and for my daughter after school.
Alice knew that I was her aunt, the suggestion of calling me mom came from her. My daughter was fascinated by the beautiful, slender mother. Lisa told her a fairy tale about an evil, divorcing sister who prevented the little princess’ parents from being together. Trouble came to my house. Alex was torn between the woman he still loved and me, the one who was raising his children. Alice was making a scene, she wanted her mother. My husband wasn’t himself, he was always snapping at me: he had problems at work, his competitors had released a similar app right on the eve of his own release. One younger son was a small island of stability. The apartment was bought. I used to wait for this day with bated breath and hope, and it was the beginning of the end for me – Alex bought me the apartment, gave up the rights to it, and left for Lisa, taking Alice.
I filed for divorce. Lisa bragged that her family was back with her. My mom called and demanded that I leave Alex and Lisa alone:
– Live her life and that’s enough. Stay away from them, your sister deserves happiness.
– And I don’t? Don’t I deserve it?
Alex was well aware that my sister didn’t need him, that she didn’t need Alice. Lisa only wanted money, and nothing but money. Lisa’s joy with my mother did not last long: my ex-husband’s investors demanded their money back. Mom and my sister wondered whether to wait for Alex’s bad streak to end, or find someone more promising for Lisa.
They settled on the second option. Lisa easily threw Alice and Alex out of her life again. Alex had the nerve to expect a reconciliation with me:
– Alice needs Mom, you love us.
Mom had the nerve to demand her apartment from me:
– Lisa decided to start her own business, she needs start-up capital, we decided to exchange the apartment. You promised to do it.
I remember. But I promised to return the apartment before they cynically trampled my family, deprived me of my husband and daughter, took away my son’s father. I put them out on the street. I simply sold the apartment, letting the buyers evict the people registered there themselves. Let Lisa make a living doing what she knows best, and let my mother be her cashier.
