– May I come in? – Olivia asked, forgetting to say hello.
Tina, seeing the daughter of her ex-husband on the threshold of the apartment, at first was confused, then came to her senses and opened the door wide.
– Come in. Do not take off your shoes, it is not necessary.
Olivia and Tina walked into the room and stood there in awkward silence.
– So, you are like this? – the guest was the first to start the conversation.
– Yes, Olivia, I am, – Tina smiled guiltily, – A divorcee. I think that’s what your mother calls me?
– And why do you know me? – Olivia was surprised. – I don’t think we have met.
– Yes, we have.
– When?
– There… When everyone was saying goodbye to your father. At the cemetery.
– Were you there too? – Olivia started drilling Tina with her eyes. – I don’t remember you there.
– But I was.
– No, you weren’t. It can’t be. Mom would have recognized you for sure. She would have been hysterical.
– I had to put on a wig and change my appearance a lot. And I stood a little far away.
– Jesus… – Olivia still didn’t believe this woman. – Well, you, and the conspirator…
– How could I not go to him?” Tina’s voice trembled a little. “After all, your dad and I…” She paused here. “I’m sorry… It’s okay that I started talking to you on a first name basis.
– It’s okay. Especially since I know all about you too.
– I see.
– What do you understand?
– I understand what your mother may have told you about me. Let’s keep it that way.
– No.
– What? – I don’t understand, Tina.
– Dad told me everything about you. All the truth about you. Shortly before his…
– What truth did he tell you? – Tina was frightened.
– Everything. The story of your love. It turns out that you’re not the divorcee, but my mother.
– Don’t, Olivia … Don’t talk about it … – Tina even closed her eyes, so she was unpleasant to talk about this topic.
– Why not?
– Because it’s between me and your dad.
– Are you saints? – Olivia suddenly asked defiantly.
– Why saints?
– Because normal people don’t behave like this. If you were in your place, you would cling to my sleeve and start pouring out all the pain that you have accumulated during this life. You would start to justify yourself to me, tell me who is to blame and so on. After all, my mother broke your life, and you…
– Did you have a fight with her?
– No.
– Then why are you here?
This question sounded a bit rude, but Olivia was not offended by it. She looked at Tina again with a long look.
– I came because I wanted to look at you. To see with my own eyes the woman whom my father loved until his last minute.
– Really – to the last?
– Yes, he did. He confessed it to me himself.
– God… – Tina sank down on the couch and sobbed softly. – Was I wrong?
– I don’t know which of you was right, but… – Olivia sat down next to this strange woman, and for some reason put her palm on her hand – Now I understand my dad. I understand why he easily left mom a year after the wedding and went to you. Have you always been like this?
– Like what?
– Sacrificial.
– I’m normal, Olivia. I’m just normal.
– Ordinary? No, you’re not. First you took my dad away from my mom. Then, when you found out she was pregnant with me, you made him come back. You forced him. It’s incomprehensible. To love a person and make him return to his unloved wife for the sake of an unborn child. After all, your mother called you a divorcee all your life. For your feat.
– She did not know that it was me who forced him.
– Yes, she did,- Olivia said, her voice angry.
– ‘So be it,’ Tina replied wearily, ‘but I knew that the child must have a loving father. Didn’t you love him?
– The child should have a happy father!” – the girl exclaimed, and her hands trembled. “And when he confessed to his daughter before he was gone that all this time he loved another woman instead of his wife… Why did he confess to me? You don’t know?
– I don’t know.
– But I do. Because he couldn’t tell anyone else. Because you weren’t around… He and my mother have grown very distant in recent years. You know, I think she was glad when he died.
– She doesn’t say that! I know how much it hurts, little girl. But what can we do with you now? You’d better not think about it.
– How can I not think about it? I loved Dad more than life itself. And now I’m all alone. All alone in the world. No, my mother tells me sometimes that she loves me, but I don’t believe it.
– Why? How can you not believe your mother?
– It’s possible, maybe. When she talks about her love for me, I see that she is trying to convince herself, wants to believe that she is telling me the truth. But she can’t. In fact, she has never loved anyone. Never loved anyone. Only herself.
– Don’t judge her. It’s not her fault she can’t love. She’s a miserable woman.
– A miserable woman who makes everyone miserable. Can I come to you?” Olivia suddenly asked.
Tina looked at the girl frightened and did not answer.
– When I want to talk, can I come to visit you, – the guest repeated her request again.
– Of course…
