Natasha told her friend that Ilya began to behave too nervously, hinted at a wedding, against which the girl basically had nothing, but there was one nuance. Ilya stipulated that after the wedding, he and Natasha would move into a two-bedroom apartment (with his residence permit, of course), and Tatiana Sergeevna and Nina would go to live in Ilya's one-bedroom apartment. For Natasha, this was a strange condition, she sincerely did not understand and tried to convince her beloved. She was flattered that he wanted to improve their living conditions, the only thing that confused her was the improvement at the expense of her family. Natasha convinced him that he could take out a loan and calmly change his apartment for two, or even three. Hearing this, Ilya went berserk, he yelled at the bride for a long time and called her a fool for the first time. Natasha was sobbing, sitting on the couch, on which her sister almost poisoned herself later. The doorbell made her come to her senses, through the closed door to the only room, Natasha realized that the landlady of the apartment had come to claim the debt and threatened eviction with the police. Strangely, Ilya promised to repay the debt exactly after the wedding date.
It was the last date of the future newlyweds. Natasha was an adult, working girl, she silently put on her shoes, dressed and closed the door behind her. Ilya, of course, did not stop her. She was bitter, disgusted, disgusted. Natasha walked to the subway intuitively, not taking apart the road. She did not cry, but only bit her lips until they bled and blinked her dry eyes often, often. She really wasn't offended by the smelly bedbug with the ever-soiled toilet bowl, which she honestly filled with everything she could find from Domestos to sulfuric acid, but it only had to be burned. Not for the money he borrowed from her, and she paid off the debt with a salary and a credit card. Not for strange acquaintances and eternal secrets in SMS and phone conversations. She was hurt because she really liked him. He had a zest, he could be funny, courageous, gentle and very personable. He knew how to throw dust in her eyes, and behind all this storm in a glass of water, Natasha trusted and did not see the main thing – falsehood from beginning to end.
After telling Valya her bitter truth, she covered her face with her hands.
– Natasha, I'm sorry, please… Nina came out of her mother's room and hugged her sister.
The girls sat hugging and crying. Two sisters, two blood relatives, two closest people almost lost each other.
Valya delicately stepped aside and looked at the display, 1 missed "Vadim".
– Natasha, Vadim called me. Do you mind if he visits Tatiana Sergeevna tomorrow? – Valentina, of course! Thanks. I'm also has blame before him, I'll explain. I hope we will remain friends.
– Girls, what about the hiding place? Ilya told me to bring everything to the metro station tomorrow morning… – Nina uttered a phrase and fell silent, she was ashamed, but now and forever she spoke only the truth, too terrible a lesson was the result of her lies.
– Nina, what time is it in the morning? – Valya smelled prey and made a stand.
– First I have to write to him that I have the "giblets", it means the contents of the cash, Ilya called it that," Nina answered to Valya's raised eyebrow in question.
– And then? – Natasha was biting her nails.
– Then he will tell me which metro station to bring all the "giblets" to.
Valya no longer listened to about the metro station and Nina's courier delivery, she dialed the number:
– Egor Ivanovich, I need your help, my sister got into trouble, a bad person offended her, and now she is trying to give him all her money. Good. Thank you. I'm waiting.
Chapter 9
Egor Ivanovich Levin, born in 1954, a native of the Tver region, was the namesake of the character of the classic Leo Tolstoy from the novel Anna Karenina, but at the beginning of the terrible and dashing nineties he was known as Gosha Tverskoy. By the age of forty, Egor had a karate school "kyokushinkai", two young sons Vladimir, twelve years old and Valentin, six years old, a beloved wife, dying of cancer mother, and enemies in the wonderful city of Tver. Egor stopped paying "tribute" to the servants of the vile bandit Anatoly Podnebesny a few weeks ago. It was August of the ninety-second, Egor was returning home after training, half of the children did not pay again.
Egor was a patient and kind man, he allowed poor families to train for free, and some children, whom he caught stealing, forcibly brought to school for training. He forced the children to "work out" the crime, one of such loyal and devoted students was a Gypsy. The coach caught the fifteen-year-old kid stealing at the central market, where he sold grown vegetables in the summer season. The kid stole a man's wallet, and he was literally kicked to death if it wasn't for Egor.
– Guys, guys! Good. You'll kill the kid," he yelled, grabbing the unconscious body.
– This scum cut my wallet, let him die! – feeling the blood and excitement, the victim hissed.
– I'll answer for him. Now he's walking under me," Egor said, taking a club from behind the counter.
Looking at the size of the guarantor, the two insulted and humiliated spat on the bloody body and turned around and went.
Egor dragged the kid behind the counter and ran to the phone.
– Vovik, is your car on the move? Come to me, thank you, brother.
Together with his best friend Vladimir, whom he considered a brother, Egor dragged the guy's thin body into the car and drove home. Svetlana the wife was scared, but quickly got her bearings. The family knew that it was impossible to call an ambulance, the police would intervene, and nothing good could be expected from it. The guy was washed, the abrasions and bruises were bandaged, they gave him broth from the cheapest bones through a tube, they ate it themselves, and the body slowly transformed into a live wolf cub. Only his eyes were burning on his face, but it was clear that any movement gave him hell of a pain. Egor introduced him to his family, wife, mother, sons and a friend. The boy didn't speak well, but he listened attentively. Egor took him to his first training session a month later and realized that he had found a great student. The gypsy, so called the kid, did not know his first and last name, judging by the short stories, alcoholic parents threw him into the Tver orphanage from which he escaped. For a couple of years he lived with homeless people and stole what he had to. Egor taught him manners and behavior for a long time, how to go to the toilet without smearing anything around, but he liked something about the kid that he realized in training. The gypsy was burning with passion and love for sports. He poured out all the pain, all the sorrow and sadness in the gym. He looked at Egor as a God, and this was really his religion. The Gypsy, with the help of Egor, graduated from nine grades (the certificate was written out behind his eyes, because the director's chubby son also practiced karate and the Gypsy often protected him from local punks, as a fellow trainee). According to the documents, it was Ivan Ivanovich Tsygankov, working as an apprentice at the factory. In life, he was the best fighter of Tver, Moscow and other regions. On that ill-fated evening, he trained hard in the gym. Egor rented the basement of a neighboring house from the housing department, which was conceived as a parking lot, a Gypsy lived there, looked after the equipment and always brought brilliant cleanliness. The gypsy carefully rolled up a huge poster of Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of the Japanese Kyokushin karate school, and "chinden" – a hieroglyph that became the symbol of the school, i.e. "The Union of Seekers of Absolute Truth." It was a small Japan in the middle of impoverished, criminal Tver.
And on this hot August evening Egor was returning home with heavy thoughts. The market does not bring anything, only ten people go to school, everyone has left for the holidays in the villages, what to pay for the rent of the hall, utilities and, most importantly, what to buy food for the whole family.
An open door on the second floor in a five-storey building did not bode well. Egor taught everyone to close the doors tightly, the first ordinary "dermantine", and the second wooden, heavy with an iron bolt. The bolted door was ajar. Yegor silently descended to the first floor and took a stick for knocking out mailboxes. Silently entering his apartment, he heard the sound of water and moans, slipping into the bathroom, Egor saw his own wife slurping water from