“What do we need a third child for?! We’re supposed to raise two, and you, at over forty, are so desperate to have another child! I don’t want that child in the house!”
Ivan screamed so loudly that Valentina could only clutch her stomach and cry. Her eldest daughter, Tatyana, stood nearby, her face cold: she felt like another sister would take away her future. Only fifteen-year-old Lyuba whispered to her mother:
“Mom, don’t be afraid. I’ll help.”
When the girl was born, Ivan only muttered:
“A girl again…”
But he still named her himself—Ganna.
A few days later, Valentina became ill. She lost consciousness right in the kitchen and wasn’t taken to the hospital. After the funeral, the house felt like it had been orphaned twice.
The newborn’s cries came from a neighbor who had temporarily taken the baby in. Ivan sat in the yard, staring at the ground, repeating one thing:
“Because of her, Valya is gone…”
A few days later, he said he didn’t want to see the child and would later hand him over to an orphanage. Lyuba screamed as if she’d been hit:
“This is Mommy’s last remaining blood! What’s she guilty of?!”
But Ivan seemed deafened.
The neighbor kept Ganna for a month, then honestly told her she couldn’t cope anymore. And then Lyuba brought her sister home. From that day on, her childhood ended. She fed the baby herself, did her laundry, rocked her at night, and carried her in her arms when she cried. Tatyana only winced:
“Take her away. She reminds me of my mother.”
A year later, Ivan gathered his daughters and told them he was leaving for another woman, Nina. He promised to send money and leave Baba Zina, his mother, in his place.
“You’re not leaving,” Lyuba said quietly. “You’re just running away.”
Ivan didn’t answer.
Baba Zina arrived and immediately realized how hard life was for the girls. Lyuba was practically single-handedly supporting the house and child. The old woman endured for six months, and then went to Ivan.
Nina greeted her with alarm. It turned out she knew everything and had repeatedly begged Ivan to take Ganna home with them. Moreover, she couldn’t have children herself and was ready to raise the girl as his own. But Ivan wouldn’t even listen.
Then Baba Zina said sternly:
“Either he returns to his children, or you won’t have any happiness. You can’t build a family on such grief.”
That same evening, Nina kicked Ivan out.
“Don’t come back without your daughter,” she said. “I don’t need a man who has thrown away his own blood.”
That night, Ivan came to the old house. Baba Zina opened the door and simply said:
“What, have they thrown him out?”
He entered the room and froze. Lyuba was sleeping at the table, her head in her hands. Ganna lay in her crib nearby. The girl woke up, saw her father, and clung fearfully not to him, but to Lyuba.
And it was at that moment that Ivan truly understood for the first time what he had done.
He sat down on a stool and began to cry—heavily, with a man’s helplessness.
“Forgive me…” he managed to croak.
Nothing changed immediately. Ganna was afraid of him. Lyuba didn’t believe a word he said. But Ivan never left. He chopped wood, carried water, repaired the house, got up at night if the little girl cried. Silently endured her fear and his own feelings of guilt.
Months passed. One day, Ganna, now able to walk, approached him, grabbed his pant leg, and quietly said,
“Daddy.”
Ivan froze, as if he’d been electrocuted. Baba Zina crossed herself, and Lyuba turned away to hide her tears.
From that day on, the house began to come alive.
Tatyana went to school in the city, but before leaving, she approached her sister, looked at her for a long moment, and quietly said:
“Forgive me, little one.”
Later, Nina reentered their lives—not as a stranger, but as the person who made Ivan remember that he was a father. She helped the girls and, over time, became close to Ganna.
A few years later, on Valentina’s memorial day, the whole family gathered around the table. Ganna looked at the photograph on the wall and asked:
“Is that Mom?”
Ivan was silent for a long time, and then answered:
“Yes. And if it weren’t for her, I would never have realized what a terrible person I’ve become.”
He almost lost all his daughters. But it was the girl he once wanted to push away who brought him home.
Sometimes a person comes to their senses too late. But if they still find the strength to stay and make things right, a family can survive even the most terrible pain.
