FATEFUL MEETING

CHAPTER 10

Despite all this, I decided not to say anything to him. Just a minute ago I thought I would confront everything, but now I can't. What would change if I told him that the child was his? I probably wouldn't have been able to get him to break up with Natasha and be with us anyway. And I don't want his money either, I don't want the only memory of Petr to be the amount of money credited to my account.

"I don't want to tell you anything. Sorry, but I have to go now." I turn my back on him and want to disappear by walking quickly.

"Sarah, wait." He grabs my hand already on the street and turns me towards him. Now we're standing here in the middle of the sidewalk, our faces as close to each other as they've been in a long time. How the hell can he afford this after what he did? How dare he even touch me? My cheeks turn red and I start to boil.

"Let me go now, do you hear? Don't touch me again! Never." My nerves are fraying and I can't be calmed down.

"How dare you even look at me after what you've done? I won't explain anything to you, I won't tell you if the child is yours or someone else's, because it's none of your business." I finish, all hot and out of breath, how much this has taken me. Petr stands opposite me, a stony expression on his face and eyes harder than granite. He stands and says nothing, just looks into my eyes, in which there is anger and maybe even a little suffering. But why should he be worried? Nothing happened to him, he was having fun with Natasha, he has a thriving business and he won't be a single father like I am a single mother. So why do I see a troubled look in his eyes?

"Leave that troubled expression, I won't jump on you." I say in a voice so insanely amused that I wonder how I could be so cruel. I look at him one last time, then turn around and just leave.

"What happened to you?" I hear Petr's voice behind me. I turn around hesitantly and look him in the eye again.

"What do you think happened to me? I became a lonely woman who has to protect herself somehow. And this is only thanks to you." I have had enough for today, this conversation, or whatever I should call it, should never have happened. I turn around and go to Valeria, who is waiting for me nearby. We walk in silence, Val doesn't ask anything and I don't even feel like talking about it. There won't even be a walk around the city, it wouldn't have the effect Val and I were looking forward to anyway.

"I'll walk you home... I need to be alone anyway." I break the silence and I'm glad that Valerie nods. But she doesn't say a word, which worries me a little, but on the other hand I'm quite happy. I know she wants to tell me something, but I won't force her, she'll tell me when she wants to. However, when we get to Valeria's and stop in front of the entrance, she turns to me and looks serious.

"Have you ever thought that Petr is telling the truth?" she suddenly asks me a question that has never occurred to me, and I'm even more surprised when my best friend asks.

“God, you never thought of that.” She realizes it when she sees my surprised expression. I really didn’t think about it, I would never have thought that she was telling the truth. What am I saying? Of course she’s lying…after all, I heard it with my own ears that Petr has someone. So why should I wonder if she’s telling the truth?

“Did you even see his expression today? He was completely devastated…Sara, for God’s sake, come to your senses, you’re completely blind, you’re only thinking like that because you heard some gossip about them having fun in the toilet.”

“Val? What are you telling me? For God’s sake…” it all comes to my mind. But how do I know that it’s true? Can I go to Petr’s after today and look him in the eye? I can’t just go there and tell him that I’ve changed my mind, let’s get back together even if I wanted to.

I need time to think things through.

CHAPTER 11

I take a deep breath to gather my strength. My palms are sweating, my heart hammering, but I hold his gaze. I’ve run for too long—now I can’t back down.

“I want you to have the same share in raising our child as I do.” The words leave me trembling, but at the same time… relieved.

Petr’s eyes widen, locking onto my belly. For a second, the silence in the room is deafening. Then his lips part, and in a low voice that sends a shiver through me, he says only:

“So… it’s our child.”

His gaze doesn’t lift. He stares at the curve of my stomach as though he’s seeing proof of a prayer he never thought would be answered. For a heartbeat, I think he might laugh, or collapse, or rage. But instead, Petr does the last thing I expect.

He moves. Slowly, almost cautiously, he comes around the desk. And before I can step back, before I can remind myself of the hurt, his arms are around me. Strong, unshakable, desperate.

I stiffen, caught between fury and longing. But the sound that escapes him—a quiet, broken exhale against my shoulder—cracks something inside me.

At first I freeze, my hands pressed awkwardly against his chest, my mind screaming at me to resist. To remember every sleepless night, every unanswered question, every wound I carried alone. But then… I feel it.

The way his body trembles. The way he clings to me like a drowning man clutching his last chance to breathe. And suddenly, I can’t hold back anymore. My arms wrap around him with a force I didn’t know I still had in me.

Tears blur my vision, hot and endless, but for the first time in months they don’t fall from loneliness or anger—they fall from release. From the terrifying truth that, despite everything, I still love him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers into my hair, and the words shatter me.

“I know,” I breathe, my voice cracking as I press myself closer, burying my face against him.

For the first time, I let go of the fight. I let myself imagine us—not broken, not torn apart by doubt, but together. Raising our child. Facing the future.

And in that fragile, stolen moment, I believe it’s possible.