Almost two hundred people were laughing in the wedding hall when I saw Linda emptying our gift box. I was still wearing my white dress, and in my hair I had the small pearl comb that my mother had kept for me from my childhood photographs. Music was playing, glasses were clinking, my new husband Daniel was talking to the guests, while his mother was throwing the envelopes into a huge bag placed beside the chair.
My cousin Salome approached me at the bar and quietly said:
“Nino, is Linda taking these envelopes?”
“What do you mean?”
Salome pointed toward the box with her eyes. I followed her gaze, and for several seconds my breath caught. Linda was neither checking the names nor arranging the gifts. She was simply taking the envelopes, straightening them with her fingers, and throwing them into the bag.
I walked toward her. Strangely, I was calm. Inside, however, anger was accumulating in me as though hot stones were being rolled around in my heart.
“Linda, what are you doing?”
She raised her head and looked at me as though I had moved a vase of flowers.
“Darling, don’t worry. I’m putting them in a safe place.”
“They were already safe. They were in the box.”
Linda burst out laughing.
“We paid for half of this wedding. I’m simply keeping our half.”
Our half.
I saw my grandfather’s small envelope, written in his own hand, lying in her bag. He had driven four hours to bring me a few words and his savings. Linda looked at it as the return of money.
“These gifts are for us,” I said.
“We are family now, Nino. In a family, everything should be shared.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us in advance?”
Her smile disappeared for a moment, but she immediately regained it.
“Because you are too emotional.”
My mother, Marina, was standing beside the door. She too had spent exactly as much on the wedding as Linda had. She had saved money for me since I was eleven years old. But she had not come, had not shouted, and had not humiliated anyone in front of anyone else.
She simply looked at me and shook her head slightly.
No.
I did not understand her look, but I obeyed. Linda closed the bag and left as though she had picked up extra napkins from the table.
That night I told Daniel everything.
“Did Mother really take the envelopes?” His face changed.
“I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me right there?”
“Because I did not want a scene involving your mother at your wedding.”
Daniel ran his hand over his forehead.
“I’ll talk to her in the morning.”
“No, I’m going to my mother first.”
The next morning, at half past eight, I was sitting at Marina’s kitchen table. The smell of coffee filled the air, while raindrops slowly ran down the windowpane.
“I’ll call Linda,” I said.
“No.”
“She took our money.”
“I know.”
“She mocked me.”
“I know that too.”
Mother picked up the phone and placed it directly in my hand.
“Call her.”
“What should I tell her?”
“Invite her to dinner with us tomorrow evening.”
“Dinner? After she emptied the wedding box?”
Marina calmly took a sip of coffee.
“Precisely because of that.”
“Should Daniel come too?”
“No. Linda first.”
For the first time I noticed something in her eyes that did not resemble anger. It was more precise. Heavier.
Linda answered the call on the second attempt.
“I hope you have calmed down by now, Nino.”
“My mother wants you to come to our home tomorrow evening.”
“For dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Very good. We can also talk about the wedding money.”
Marina was sitting opposite me and touching the same spot on the table with her finger. And I realized that this dinner was not about food at all.
The next evening, when Linda knocked on the door, Marina did not look at me from the kitchen. She only pointed toward the wooden folder lying beside the door. I reached my hand toward it, but at that moment Linda took a small key from her bag and said:
“Before we discuss all this, you should first know who actually owns the apartment where you and Daniel live…”
Marina placed her hand on the folder and slowly spread her fingers to take out the first sheet…
Marina’s fingers touched the edge of the folder, but she looked at Linda first.
“Sit down,” she told her.
“I did not come here for an interrogation,” Linda said, putting her bag on a chair. “I simply want my share.”
“You already took your share,” I replied.
“Don’t exaggerate. I spent money on the wedding, and I am taking from the gifts only what is fair.”
Marina opened the folder. Inside were documents and a small memory card.
Linda’s face changed.
“What is this?”
“The answer to your question,” Mother said.
She placed the first sheet on the table, but did not immediately let go of it.
“Nino, before you see it, you should know: your husband does not know everything.”
I felt coldness in my heart.
“What do you mean?”
Linda pushed her chair back.
“Call Daniel. Now.”
“Why?”
“Because if this paper is genuine, then we will not only have the wedding envelopes to discuss.”
Just then someone knocked hard on the door. Marina did not move. They knocked a second time.
Linda said in a whisper:
“This person should not be here.”
Mother closed the folder and turned toward me.
“Open the door, Nino. But do not say anything until I give you a sign…”
The third knock on the door was so strong that the small copper bell hanging on the kitchen window rang. I went to the threshold. Daniel was standing outside, with wet hair and a clenched jaw. Behind him stood an unfamiliar woman holding a black folder.
“Mother called me,” Daniel said. “She told me to come here.”
Linda rose from her chair.
“I did not call you.”
“I know,” Daniel replied. “Not Mother—the bank adviser called me.”
Marina closed the door and invited us to the table.
“Sit down, all of you. It is time to finish the matters hidden from one another.”
The unfamiliar woman calmly introduced herself.
“I am Eka, a notary. Marina contacted me yesterday. This is the apartment ownership extract, the payment history, and a video recording from the wedding evening.”
Linda chuckled, but the laugh caught in her throat.
“A video recording? Were you spying on me?”
“No,” I said. “There were cameras in the hall anyway.”
Eka inserted the memory card into the laptop. Our wedding hall appeared on the screen. The clock showed eleven. Music could be heard, and the guests were dancing. Then Linda appeared in the frame, went to the chair, opened her bag, and began taking out the envelopes.
Her voice could be heard clearly.
“This is our money. I’ll explain it to Daniel later.”
A shiver ran over my skin. Daniel looked at the screen as though he were seeing his own mother for the first time.
“Mother, did you say that?”
“It is taken out of context.”
“Then let us listen to the full recording,” Eka said.
On the screen Linda was answering my question.
“We paid for half of the wedding. I am taking our half.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I did not know that you took the envelopes.”
“Because your interference was not necessary.”
Marina took another sheet from the folder.
“Now let us talk about the apartment. Linda, you told everyone that you bought this apartment for Daniel.”
“That is how it is.”
“No. You paid only the initial amount. Marina paid the rest of the amount, but she did not register the apartment in Daniel’s name. It is in Nino’s name because a debt hidden by your family was covered with Nino’s money.”
I looked at the sheet. My name was truly written there. My mother’s signature was on it, and below it was the bank’s stamp.
“What debt?” I asked.
Daniel raised his head.
“Mother?”
Linda’s lips turned pale.
Marina said calmly:
“Seven years ago Linda took out a loan in Daniel’s name to save the family business. Then she stopped the payments. Daniel thought everything was over. In reality, Marina paid every month so that Daniel’s credit history and future would not be destroyed.”
Daniel grabbed the chair.
“You took out a loan in my name?”
“I did it for the family.”
“And you paid it with Nino’s apartment?”
“Your wife is not rich anyway. Her mother helped her.”
Those words hurt me more than the envelopes. Linda even viewed my life as part of an account.
Eka took out a third sheet.
“It says here that if someone personally took the wedding gifts, Marina had the right to begin demanding the return of the paid amount and the immediate repayment of the loan. Linda signed this agreement two years ago.”
Linda looked at the sheet and immediately stepped back.
“It was just a formality.”
“No,” Marina said. “It was your last chance to tell the truth.”
Daniel was silent for a long time. Then he looked at his mother.
“How many years have you been lying to me?”
Linda could not answer.
At that moment Daniel’s phone rang. The bank’s number appeared on the screen. He answered and listened to a few words. The color gradually drained from his face.
“What happened?” I asked.
He put the phone on the table.
“The bank said the debt collection process begins today.”
Marina lowered her eyes.
“Because Linda submitted another document yesterday. She says that the apartment is her guarantee.”
We all looked at Linda.
She took a folded sheet from her bag and said quietly:
“I am only taking back what is mine.”
But at the bottom of the sheet there was another signature. Not Linda’s. Not Daniel’s. Marina turned it toward me, and suddenly her face went white.
“Nino, this signature is yours…”
I examined the sheet. I had indeed signed it that day, but I had thought the document concerned something else. And then I realized that Linda’s action was not accidental greed, but the first step of a much larger plan…
ლინდამ პასუხი მიიღო და პირველად გაჩუმდა…
ბოლო ნაწილი ყველაფერს სხვა კუთხით დაგანახებთ. აქ გაირკვევა, რატომ გაჩუმდა დედაჩემი და რა დამალა ლინდამ ყველაზე დიდხანს.
„მე უბრალოდ აღარ დავანგრიე ჩემი ცხოვრება თქვენი გადასარჩენად.“
ლინდამ თვალები დახარა.
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