It was 30 years ago. My aunt had married Philip. They seemed like a great couple, except they didn’t have kids. They didn’t concentrate much on that in their younger years, because they were busy traveling and having fun. But time raced by at a breakneck speed, and they became sad and lonely.
My aunt was very worried about it. She underwent a huge number of examinations and the doctors diagnosed her. Infertility. The relative wanted her child so much that she could not even look at other families. She started crying right away. So my grandmother began to persuade her to adopt a child and fake a pregnancy, so rumors would not circulate in the village.
It was difficult for her to decide to take such a step, because sooner or later all secrets are revealed. But she was able to persuade her husband and they began to look for their boy.
The adopted son was from a well-to-do family, but his parents died in a car accident. Other relatives did not want to take custody of the baby, so they sent him to an orphanage. He was a sickly child, and who needs someone else’s problems?
It was the 1990s. There was no money. Filip was an excellent programmer, and he was offered a part-time job in Finland. He could not refuse, for the rehabilitation of his son needed a lot of money. His aunt was raising her son on her own. In the pursuit of the slightest success in her son’s development, she did not notice that her husband rarely came, writing letters that were no longer love letters, but formal. As it turned out, there he met with a classmate of her ex-girlfriend and they began an affair.
Philip just didn’t want to fight the odds and decided to run away. My aunt was left alone with a sick child. It was hard for her, of course, but she was happy. She was very supportive of the doctor. There was some spark between them, certainly not a friendly one. But the woman was afraid of a relationship after her husband’s betrayal.
Alex was a good specialist and person. He believed in the boy’s success and gave hope to his mother. And the baby was very much like him.
The boy brought them together. A true love began to form between them, the kind of love only fairy tales write about. And the interesting thing is that as soon as her aunt and Alex got engaged, the woman got pregnant. It turns out that the problem was compatibility, not infertility.
The eldest son is now babysitting his little sister. The little girl copies her brother’s behavior and loves to play with him.
Only I know about this secret, because no one even guesses that the boy is my aunt’s adopted son, a copy of Alex. How nice that she is happy now, and that she has a real family.
