“Dad, did you see the amazing car parked outside our building?” Zhenya burst into the apartment, her hair ruffled like a little sparrow’s, and suddenly fell silent.
There was an unfamiliar woman in the room with her father. He was holding the woman’s hand and did not let go, even when his daughter entered. Zhenya immediately forgot all about the car.
“Who is she?” the girl asked with a frown, openly staring at the stranger.
“Zhenya, sweetheart…” Her father was clearly nervous, but the woman gently stroked his hand to calm him. “This is Katya, the woman I love. I’ve wanted to introduce you for a long time.”
“The woman you love?! How could you? Don’t tell me she’s going to live with us too!”
Everything inside the teenager was boiling. Who was this Katya, anyway? Her mother had died only three years ago. How could her father bring some strange woman into their home?
“Evgenia,” her father said sternly, “don’t make me feel ashamed of your behavior. Katya is a wonderful person, and I hope the two of you will get along. She’ll move in with us after our wedding.”
“Wedding?! Dad, are you seriously planning to get married?”
The news caught Zhenya completely off guard. Her father had intended to approach the subject delicately, but it had not worked out. His teenage daughter’s impulsiveness and his own lack of experience discussing such things had turned the introduction into a disaster.
“Yes. We’re preparing for the wedding,” her father said with a nod. “I’m sure you’ll get along.”
“Doesn’t she have a place of her own? Why do we need her, Dad?” Zhenya clenched her fists.
“She has her own apartment. And, by the way, that car parked outside belongs to her too.”
“Then let her stay in her own apartment! What does she want here?” Hysterical notes crept into the girl’s voice.
She spun around, rushed into her bedroom, slammed the door, collapsed onto the bed, and turned toward the wall. Tears streamed from her eyes and soaked into the pillow, but Zhenya did not care.
She did not turn around even when her father entered after knocking and receiving no answer.
“Zhenya, what’s wrong?” He sat on the edge of the bed and touched her shoulder.
She jerked her shoulder away, shaking off his hand, and then turned to face him.
“How could you do this? It’s a betrayal! What about Mom? You said you loved her!”
“Zhenya, your mother is gone. You know that. Of course I loved her, and I’ll always remember her. But life goes on. Katya is a very good person. You’ll become friends. I’m sorry everything came out so awkwardly. You know, I’m not very tactful. But Katya… she’s the one who’s teaching me to be gentler.”
He reached out to stroke his daughter’s hair, but she pulled away.
“I’m not going to live with her! She’s a stranger to me!”
Zhenya turned back toward the wall. Her father could only sigh before leaving the room.
“Well?” Katya asked when she met him by the door. “Is she upset?”
He nodded.
“Seryozha, don’t worry. Everything will settle down. She’s at a difficult age,” Katya reassured him. “She needs time. I’ll stay at my own place for now and come over on weekends.”
“Yes, that’s probably the best option.”
Time passed, but Zhenya’s attitude toward her future stepmother did not improve. The girl ignored Katerina, refusing to answer her questions or respond to her requests. Whenever Katya praised her, Zhenya merely snorted contemptuously.
“She’s wasting her time,” Zhenya thought. “It’s all fake. She’s only doing it to please Dad. She picked the wrong person to fool!”
Whenever her father gave Zhenya something she had dreamed of for a long time, the girl would be overjoyed.
“Katya helped me choose it,” Sergey might mention casually.
Zhenya’s mood would immediately sour. She would throw the gift into her closet and never touch it again.
At the end of the school year, Sergey and Katerina decided to renovate the apartment.
“Zhenya is practically grown up now,” Katya said. “She’s outgrown those childish teddy-bear wallpapers.”
“That’s true, but where will she stay while the renovation is happening?” Sergey wondered.
“Why don’t we send her to stay with my mother? She won’t mind,” Katya exclaimed. “It’s lovely there—fresh air and a lake. It would only be for a little while.”
“That’s a great idea!” Sergey agreed. “And she won’t have to breathe in all the dust and paint fumes.”
That evening, Sergey went to speak to his daughter.
“Zhenya, Katya and I have decided to send you to stay with her mother during the holidays. Zoya Stepanovna is a very nice woman. Meanwhile, we’ll renovate the apartment before our wedding in October.”
“Dad, I don’t want to go anywhere!” Zhenya protested.
Katya no longer seemed quite so frightening compared with the prospect of staying with some old woman in the countryside.
“Sweetheart, you know you’re allergic to paint. Remember what happened to your eyes when they painted the doors at school?” her father reminded her.
Zhenya shuddered as she remembered the incident, but even that did not persuade her.
“I don’t want to go anywhere,” she repeated angrily. “Especially not to some elderly woman I’ve never met.”
“Zhenya, don’t worry. Zoya Stepanovna is a wonderful woman. You’ll see.”
Evgenia became so angry with her father that she ran out of the house and wandered around until nightfall. Her father had never seen her behave like that before.
“You’ll pack everything you need in the morning, and tomorrow we’ll take you to Zoya Stepanovna’s house. If you refuse, you’ll go to a camp for troubled teenagers!” Sergey realized that he needed to be firm.
Zhenya behaved defiantly throughout the following day, but the time of departure drew closer regardless. Soon, she was carrying her backpack toward Katerina’s car.
For a while, the girl forgot her hostility as she watched Katya skillfully handle the vehicle.
Zhenya came back to her senses when the car turned onto a country road and stopped in front of a small blue house.
“We’re here!” Sergey announced, clapping his hands.
“Am I going to live in a village?” the girl asked in disbelief.
“And what exactly is wrong with the village, mademoiselle?” a strict female voice asked.
A tall woman came out to meet them. It was difficult to call her an old lady. Dignified and straight-backed, she looked more like a school principal than a country resident.
“Zoya Stepanovna, here’s your new helper,” Sergey said, gently pushing his daughter forward.
“Well, hello, Evgenia. Welcome. We’ll have lunch and get acquainted, and then your parents will leave. They have more work than they can handle.”
Lunch passed in silence. Zhenya refused to eat. Her father and Katerina said goodbye to the angry girl and drove away.
“Make yourself comfortable. You can go for a walk. Dinner is at six. Don’t be late.”
Zhenya merely snorted.
She did not leave her room at six or at any time afterward. Eventually, Zoya Stepanovna came in.
“I assume you aren’t hungry. Excellent. Then come with me and help with the dishes.”
“I didn’t come here to be your servant,” Zhenya snapped. “And I don’t have to help you.”
“All right,” the woman replied with a shrug before leaving.
The next morning, Zhenya was awakened by a rooster crowing. Her stomach growled with hunger. She went into the kitchen, hoping to find something to eat, but there was no refrigerator, and all the pots were empty.
“Looking for something?”
Zhenya had not heard Zoya Stepanovna enter.
“No,” the girl muttered.
“I’m hungry!” Zhenya said more loudly.
“You slept through breakfast. Lunch will be in two hours. I don’t have time to cook right now. There’s plenty of work in the garden, and I haven’t seen any help from you. So you’ll have to be patient and wait,” Zoya Stepanovna replied sternly.
After somehow enduring the next two hours, Zhenya returned to the kitchen. There was not even the slightest smell of lunch.
“Sorry, my back is hurting. Could you peel some potatoes, provided it isn’t too difficult? Then we’ll fry them.”
Zhenya wanted to howl with frustration.
“What a personality!” she complained silently about the owner of the house.
But hunger was stronger than pride, so she had no choice but to peel the potatoes.
“Look at you! You’re a real professional!” Zoya Stepanovna exclaimed sincerely as she examined the thin strips of potato skin. “Even I can’t peel them that well!”
“She’s trying to flatter me,” Zhenya thought, although the praise warmed her heart.
Day after day, Zoya Stepanovna involved Zhenya in household chores. At first, the girl constantly talked back. She even sent her father an angry voice message, complaining that she was living there like a slave.
“All right. I’ll come. Try to hold on until the weekend,” her father replied.
On Thursday evening, Zhenya was sitting on the porch when Zoya Stepanovna sat down beside her.
“You’re angry. Why?”
“I don’t have to…” Zhenya began, but when she looked at the woman, she fell silent.
Zoya Stepanovna was looking at her with the same kindness her mother once had. Tears filled the girl’s eyes.
“Go ahead and cry,” Zoya Stepanovna said, embracing her. “It’s all right. I understand everything. You feel as though your father no longer loves you. You think he has betrayed your mother’s memory. But imagine that you finish school and move away, leaving him completely alone. It would be very difficult for him. Everyone needs someone to love them. Your father loves my daughter. And she isn’t as bad as you think. She’ll never replace your mother, but she could become a good friend. Think about that.”
Zoya Stepanovna kissed the top of the girl’s head and walked away.
Zhenya felt as though the heavy stone inside her heart was disappearing along with her tears.
The following day passed quickly. When Sergey and Katerina arrived, they found the girl and her future grandmother walking down the road with ice creams in their hands, laughing happily.
“I don’t really want to leave,” Zhenya said quietly when she saw her father. “I was promised riding lessons!”
“You can stay. The renovation isn’t finished yet,” Sergey replied, surprised by the change in his daughter.
Another three weeks passed joyfully.
Zhenya was delighted when she finally saw her renovated bedroom. She knew Katya had designed it.
“Thank you,” Zhenya said shyly as she approached her.
Katya embraced her, and Sergey wrapped his arms around both of them, spinning them around the room.
“My beloved girls! Everything is going to be all right!”
Zhenya smiled.
Sometimes stepdaughters benefit from doing a little work. Perhaps then even their stepmothers begin to seem kinder.