When Taya showed her wedding photos to friends, she always added with a laugh:
“Goodness, what a nightmare that dress was! Gorgeous, yes, but so heavy and cumbersome! Next time I marry, Ill pick something light and airy.”
Everyone assumed she was jokingand laughed along. Taya *was* joking, of course. Her friends knew shed married for love. It had been a whirlwind holiday romance: Taya at 21, Oleg at 28.
August, the shimmering sea, sparkling wine, starlit skiesall the ingredients for passion had led them straight to the registry office. Though first, Oleg had to divorce his second wife, and Taya had to move to his hometown.
London to Brighton to Londonthat route would become achingly familiar to Taya for the next decade.
But back then, the young couple had to rent. Oleg had given his flat to his second wife, whod threatened to swallow pills, throw acid at wife number three, or leap from a window if he dared leave her. Over time, though, shed quietenedperhaps hed promised to return? As for his first wife, Oleg rarely spoke of her. That marriage had lasted a year and a half. Theyd drifted apart. Later, hed even helped her marry his best mateeveryone happy, himself included.
Wife number two had stuck around longer. Three years in, Oleg realised her true nature: a cold-hearted woman who sneered at the idea of “little humans,” as she called babies.
None of this troubled Taya. She was self-assured, ambitious, certain of her beauty and brilliance. Oleg adored her. Flowers came by the armful; fur coats in triplicate; shoeswell, she couldve worn a new pair daily. He whisked her to Paris, Rome, the Swiss Alpsbroadening her horizons before their first child arrived.
Soon, little Emily was born. While Taya nursed her, Oleg bought a cottage and filled it with love. Everything he did, he did for his girls.
They celebrated their new home. Emily started nursery.
Taya threw herself into studyingpreferably in her beloved London, near friends, her mum, even strangers who felt like family. Under familiar oaks, life was calm.
Emily stayed with her doting grandmother while Taya attended lectures. Oleg, fiercely jealous, kept turning up in Londonstaging “accidental” meet-ups in another city! Not that Taya gave him cause for worry. Or so it seemed…
Truth was, she longed to escape domestic drudgery. Shed study forever if it meant no more dishes, no husband to tend, no child to raise. Life was slipping bywhy should someone as bright and beautiful as her waste it on trivialities?
Eventually, Taya had three red-sealed degrees in her handbag. Psychology was her field, and she carried her certificates everywhere, job-hunting with zeal. Oleg objected:
“Do we need the money? Ill go mad waiting for you! Taya, lets have another childa boy or girl, I dont care. Just stay close.”
Taya saw no more children in her future. Her duty was done: a daughter for Oleg, a life for Emily. What more was there? Her mother-in-law, hearing her lofty talk, offered to raise Emily full-time. The girl needed love, after allnot a mother whod rather float in the clouds. Without a second thought, Taya agreedthen slipped off to London without telling Oleg. “Ill call from there,” she decided.
But in London, Oleg was waiting. Hed learned her tricks. “Taya, wheres Emily? Why are you here? Is there someone else?” he demanded.
“Dont be silly. No admirers. Im just… bored with you. I want freedom,” she replied coolly.
“Freedom? From me? From our child? Wheres the love gone? Is this a midlife crisis? Well get through it”
“We wont,” Taya cut in.
Oleg rushed to his mother-in-law. She shrugged. “What can I do? You wont change her. Shes stubborn as stone.”
He returned to Brighton alone, bewildered. How could he win her back? “No good deed goes unpunished,” he muttered. Maybe hed never belonged in her world.
Days passed. Weeks. Taya never returned, though she answered his calls curtly: “Im fine.”
Finally, Oleg sold the cottage, took Emily, and moved to Londonall to salvage his family.
Taya was frosty. “Why fuss? Emily will hate changing schools, leaving friends… And her gran wont approve.”
Excuses. Taya was revelling in freedomno ties, no rules. “Free as a bird” was her motto now. Shed started a dressmaking business, rented a flat, had suitors. Life was full. Thenhusband, child? No. She wanted the past erased, her resolve unshakable as iron. That old life belonged to someone else.
Oleg ignored her and moved anyway, still hoping to reunite them. He met Taya after work, brought Emily (her mirror image). Futile. Taya was unmoved. Finally, she snapped:
“Oleg, leave me alone! Lets divorce. Emily can stay with me.”
Emily was 11 now. She didnt need “staying with.” She had a devoted father, a grandmother who prayed for her daily. She remembered her mother. Loved her. But couldnt fathom why shed chosen to let go.
Time flowed on.
Oleg stopped “fishing on dry land.” Hed never reach Tayas heart. Fate gave him a down-to-earth womanno airs, no fantasies. They live in a village now. She has two sons from her first marriage. No Paris, no furs, no hundred pairs of shoesjust wellies for muddy walks, a warm coat for chores, and dreams of her childrens futures.
Oleg found peace with her. (“Where life is simple, angels dwell; where its complicated, none do well.”) Soon, they had a daughter. For the first time, he knew pure love. The first three marriages? Best left unopened.
As for Taya? She lives with her mum. A business partner once promised her the moonthen swindled her. Her dressmaking venture unraveled. The queue of suitors vanished.
She works as a school psychologist now. All that study wasnt wasted. No regretsthough… who knows the depths of the soul? Maybe even this “free bird” will one day feel a twinge of remorse.
Emily, grown now, lives in Brighton with her husband and grandmotherthe woman who raised her.
On her wedding day, Emily wore a light, airy gown.
A gift from her mother, Taya.
