“Daddy, if you leave, the new mommy will give me the medicine again. Save me,” whispered Sofia, clinging tightly to her father. Oleg, shaken, realized something was terribly wrong.
The next morning, he told his wife, Larisa, that he would be going on a short business trip to Brașov.
“I need to go for two days,” he said, watching her reaction carefully. “It’s an important client — I have to handle it in person.”
Larisa simply smiled, her eyes still fixed on her phone.
“Of course, dear. Sofia and I will manage just like always.”
But when Oleg looked at his daughter at the table, he saw her shoulders slump. Sofia said nothing. She refused her food and kept her eyes downcast. When he hugged her goodbye, she clung to his arm and whispered:
“Please, don’t go.”
Oleg stroked her hair and whispered back:
“Trust me. I’m close.”
He drove to the end of the street, parked, and waited in hiding. An hour later, Larisa pulled out of the garage with Sofia in the car. Oleg followed at a distance.
She dropped the girl off at school, but around lunchtime returned to pick her up early. Instead of going elsewhere, she brought Sofia straight back home. Oleg waited thirty minutes before sneaking up to the back door.
The windows were cracked open because of the heat. He could hear everything inside.
“Sofia, eat something and then take your medicine,” Larisa said.
