She just wanted to see who hed left her for…
Parshin walked straight into the kitchen in his coat and sat at the table.
“Im in love with another woman. Shes expecting my child. Im leaving to be with her,” he said bluntly.
Vita turned off the tap and faced her husband.
“Is this the girl who sells apples at the market? Toni, isnt it?” she asked calmly.
“You knew?” Parshin looked up sharply.
“Darling, youve never been good at lying. Of course I knew. Tell me, are you leaving because you love her, or just because of the baby?”
“Im sorry,” he murmured, lowering his head.
*”And what about the ten years weve spent together? Do they mean nothing to you? What about me?”* Her eyes screamed the words, but Vita stayed silent.
“Are you planning to marry her?” she asked.
“Not now.”
“Then lets keep things normal at the university. No need for gossip and whispers in the corridors.”
“Agreed. Should I go?” He stood.
Vita turned back to the sink, turned on the water, and stared at the stream until he left.
He was quickonly took the essentials. Maybe hed come back?
She turned the tap off, sat at the table in the same spot hed just vacated, and dropped her head onto her folded arms. But she didnt cry.
***
She hadnt cried a month earlier either, when her friend told her shed seen Parshin with another woman.
“One of his students?” Vita had asked. “Theyre always falling for him. What do they even see in him?”
“Not a student. A girl who sells fruit at the market near the uni. Her names Toni. Moved here from the countryside, lives in a shared flat on Victoria Street. Twenty-three,” her friend rattled off the details like a detective in some crime drama.
“How do you know all this?” Vita frowned.
“Small town. A friend of mine lives in that houseLisa Dawson. You remember her? Same year as us. Your Parshins there a lot.”
“Cant say I do. So this is where hes been sneaking off to, not extra tutorials.”
Seeing was believing. The next day, Vita decided to follow him. She knew when his last lecture ended, dressed carefully, and waited by the pillar in the hallway.
When he left, she trailed him at a distance, careful not to stare. He might sense her gaze. She wasnt some desperate woman spyingshe just wanted to see the girl hed chosen over her.
He stopped near the market stall where Toni sold apples and other fruit. A small queue had formedthree people. The girl, in a sleeveless puffer over a hoodie and jeans, weighed fruit with quick hands. A thick plait swung forward when she bent for the crates, loose strands falling into her face. Shed straighten up, blow them away, and smilesimple but sweet, dimples appearing in her cheeks. She served customers patiently, but her dark eyes kept flicking toward Parshin. *”Probably overcharging them. Maybe I should call Trading Standards,”* Vita thought bitterly.
An elderly woman took forever picking each apple, inspecting them before finally nodding.
“Enough?” Toni asked.
“Try some plums too. Sweet and softgood for jam,” she suggested.
The old woman hesitated, prodded a few, then shook her head.
“No. Just the apples.”
The bag barely weighed a kilo, but Toni named a ridiculously low price. The woman brightened, paid, and hurried off before the girl changed her mind.
*”She pities the old ones!”* Vita scoffed. *”Probably writes off the loss as spoilage. Or is this all a show for Parshinpretending to be generous?”*
Vita passed the stall every day, even checked the plums once, but never noticed the girl. Yet Parshin had.
Once the queue cleared, he approached. Vita saw the way Toni looked at himlike he was some kind of god. *”Well, he is practically a PhD. Of course shes dazzled.”* The girl adjusted his collar, brushed imaginary dust from his shoulders. The gesture stung. Vita had assumed it was just an affair. But this was love.
She couldnt see Parshins face, but she knew he was gazing back just as tenderly. No point waiting to be spottedshe turned and walked away.
That night, alone at home, Vita finally let herself cry.
***
Shed noticed him at university first. Quiet, serious, never at parties, no close friends, indifferent to girls. Handsome, if not for the scowl under his heavy brows. There was something mysterious about himhe reminded her of Heathcliff.
One lecture, she sat beside him.
“Hello. Bored?” she asked.
He looked at herand smiled. His whole face changed, the frown vanishing. *”Oh, he is handsome,”* Vita realised. After that, they sat together often, and soon he walked her home.
“What do you even see in him?” a jealous friend had grumbled.
“Better you dont know, or youll steal him,” Vita teased.
Things moved slowly. But by final year, they grew closer, and married soon after graduation. His parents werent at the weddingtheyd died in a car crash years earlier. That explained the mystery, the quietness.
In bed, though, he was gentle. Afterward, hed read her poetryAuden, Eliot, Larkin. He had a way with words. Vita listened, spellbound, her heart aching at the beauty of it.
Shed wanted a child desperately. But the doctors said it was unlikelya childhood accident on frozen river had left her unable to conceive. Ten years with Parshin, and no miracle. Hed reassured her they could adopt when she was ready, but Vita wanted her own. She wasnt sure she could love anothers child.
After uni, they both stayed on as lecturers. Lately, their marriage had settled into something comfortable, almost like friendship. They were rarely aparthome, work, always together. For Vita, that was enough. But AlexanderParshin, as she called himwanted passion, fire, a child. So hed found a simple girl, uncomplicated, whod give him what Vita couldnt.
When she learned about the baby, the jealousy burned. Not because hed strayedbut because hed have a son or daughter, and shed never hold her own child.
*”Fine. If I cant give him a baby, let someone else.”* She couldnt argue against a child. Maybe he needed a woman like Tonistraightforward, uncomplicated. What good was a clever, barren wife? *”I wonderdoes he read her poetry too?”*
At the university, they kept up appearances. Only differencethey walked home separately now, making excuses to leave early or stay late. No one questioned it.
Parshin moved into Tonis shared flat. Vita hoped hed come back, but weeks passed, and he didnt. Leaving campus, she avoided looking toward the market.
She learned about the baby between lectures. He approached her, eyes shining, and whispered the news. She forced a congratulations. He rushed off to the hospital. That evening, he turned up at her door, sobbingToni was dead. A stroke. Vita held him as he wept.
“The babys alive. A girl. What will you do?”
“Ill take her,” he said hollowly.
“What about work?”
“My aunt can help at first. Ill go part-time.”
But by spring, his aunt leftshe had her own life, and the baby was growing. He hired a nanny, then fired her the next day when he came home to find the baby crying while the woman scrolled on her phone.
Days later, he called Vita.
“Please. I cant do this alone.”
“You left me, and now youre asking for help? Really, Parshin?”
“Just come.”
Grudges were one thingbut a child was innocent. The moment Vita held the baby, all resentment faded. She loved the girl instantly. Parshin had named her Aliceafter Tonis favourite singer. Alice Alexandra Parshin. It had a nice ring.
At first, Vita just helpedcooking meals, doing laundry, babysitting while Parshin taught. But then the flatmates complainedthe tenant was dead, and a stranger with a baby was living there. He was told to leave.
“Pack your things. You and Alice are moving in with me,” Vita said without hesitation.
They slept separately at first. The day Alice said “Mummy,” Vitas heart nearly burst.
One evening, returning from work, she heard laughterAlices giggles, and Parshins deeper chuckle. She paused in the doorway. The toddler wobbled toward him on unsteady legs; he caught her, tossed her in the air. Both were laughing. Vita had never heard him laugh like that. He looked so happy, her eyes welled up. A sob escaped.
“How long have you been there?” He turned. “Look!” He set Alice down, stepped backand she tottered toward him.
All evening, he couldnt stop talking about her first steps. That night, they were intimate again. Afterward, he read her poetry, just like before, and Vitas heart swelled.
“Did you read to her too?” she ventured, expecting him to shut down.
“Once. She didnt understand it,” he admitted after a pause.
Alice grew, started nursery. She looked more like Toni every day.
Once, after work, Vita and Parshin passed the market. A different womanolder, with garish red hair and a stained apronnow sold apples. No customers; she smoked, chipped nail polish grimed with dirt. She winked at Parshin.
“Lets go,” he said, disgusted.
That night, as Vita washed dishes, he hugged her from behind.
“Thank you. If it werent for you… I adore you bothmy girls.”
“Without you and Toni, thered be no Alice.”
Vita had forgiven. If she hadnt, thered be no Alice, no husband. A different lifelonely, dull.
She pitied Toni. Pity she died so young. But shed left Alice behind. One day, when she was older, theyd tell her about her real mother. Or maybe not. Vita had raised her, loved her as her own. That was what mattered.
