After laying her husband to rest, Anya made up her mind to tackle the clutter in the shed—a place her husband always kept off-limits. She let out a SHRIEK when she laid eyes on IT

Camille called me, said they saw a boy. He looked like Michael. It’s true, the kid had nothing to do with it.

Mom, what are you talking about? Anna answered a little irritated. She was tired from a hard day’s work, from the calls from the clinic. And then her mother arrived.

I guess she decided to blow her brains out once again. That’s what Betty replied and opened a small bag. From it her mother took out an old jewelry box.

Anna had never seen it before. Betty put it on a chair and opened it. When Anna looked into it, her eyes widened.

The box contained antique jewelry, rings, bracelets, earrings. It’s gold. She could only ask her mother gold.

Betty smiled sadly. Earrings with real emeralds. Mother, but where did you get such splendor? We’ve always lived modestly.

You’re just a teacher, dad’s a factory worker all his life. And my grandparents were simple laborers, as far as I can remember. Yes, we’re from a simple family.

Betty nodded. But your great-grandmother Adriana worked at a rich merchant’s house when she was young. Then the merchant fled abroad to England, I think.

And Adriana helped her pack before she left. And when everything was loaded into a wagon to the house, men with pitchforks and axes came. The merchant and his family barely managed to jump into the wagon, but I guess he overdid it.

The horse from pain and fright rushed as hard as it could. Some things flew out of the wagon, and the merchant woman couldn’t hold a small bundle in her hands. It fell right under your great-grandmother’s feet.

The merchant wanted to return it, but the angry men were running after them. So they left. Adriana pushed the little bundle under a bush.

When the men went into the house to do their chores, I managed to pull it out and carried it home. And there she realized what she was holding so tightly in her hands. It was her jewelry.

Adriana didn’t say anything to anyone at the time. At first, she was afraid they’d blame her. She thought she was serving the merchants, so she was in league with them.

But then she decided to let the jewelry lie there, waiting for its owners. She really wanted them back. But the years passed.

Adriana married a good man, a real communist. One day she confessed to him, that she had some real treasures. Timothy swore that she didn’t give everything to the new authorities at once.

And now how to explain where it all came from? He argued, and then buried this box in iron barrels in the garden under the apple trees. Out of harm’s way, it stayed there for years. And then the war.

My husband went to the front. Life was hard in the city. Adriana and her daughter were starving.

One day she dared to use the warehouse, dug out a jewelry box. She chose simpler jewelry at the market, then exchanged it for food. A week later she received a funeral for Tim.

Oh, Adriana cried. She blamed herself. She thought it was because she had taken someone else’s jewelry, and they had taken it from her again.

And she buried the box. Never got her hands on it again. Then Adriana and her daughter were given an apartment in a well-equipped house.

And on the old plot, they arranged a summer house. And only shortly before her death, she told her daughter. About the treasure buried under the apple trees.

But she strictly ordered to keep silent and never use this wealth, because it was someone else’s. Betty’s mother remembered her mother’s words all her life. She told her daughter about the box only before her death, and again ordered her not to touch the jewelry, in case the owners showed up, and not to tell anyone, so that no harm would come to her.

Betty had a superstitious fear of that jewelry box. At the cottage, she often went to the place where the apple tree used to grow. I did.

I wondered what untold treasures were in there. I didn’t tell my husband for a long time, so that he wouldn’t want to use the warehouse. I wondered if it was really cursed.

Then she confessed to her husband, he laughed for a long time, considering it a fantasy. But one day he went to the dacha, and dug out a striking barrel, and in it the very box. Betty scolded her husband severely for his willfulness, and then made him bury it back.

When Anna told about the boy’s son Michael, Betty, of course, immediately thought of that very jewelry, but then she was tempted to use them. But recently she had a strange dream, as if she were walking through a field. Around daisies blooming, dragonflies flying.

The sun is shining so brightly, beauty in a word. Suddenly, there is a noise above her head, a scream. Anna looks up into the sky, and there is a white bird flying and something in its claws is clutched.

A kite is circling nearby, screaming and shouting. And then the white bird flew down with a stone. It flew to Tatiana and hit her with its wing and gave birth to its claws.

A box fell at the woman’s feet. Save me, she heard your voice. As if a bird had shouted it.

She woke up with Betty and couldn’t understand. What was the dream about? She told her husband Nick. He just snorted and said he should watch less sci-fi movies.

And then they looked at each other. He went pale, realizing what the dream meant. Maybe it’s time.

Betty asked hesitantly. Who knows, maybe it is. Nick shrugged his shoulders.

Well, what if the jewelry is cursed and it won’t do any good? Betty, you know how Anna feels, don’t you? Yeah, it’s a shame about the kid. What if it helps? And I think your grandmother made up more about the curse. And the fact that grandfather died, it’s not the jewelry’s fault.

Do you know how many people died back then? Betty agreed with her husband. So they went to the cottage and dug up the jewelry box. Then she went to her daughter’s house.

And now, sitting at the table in the spacious kitchen together with her daughter, they were deciding how to proceed. And frankly, surprised you surprised me mom shook her head ayawapa. About the curse, of course, I do not believe.

And these jewels can really help save Jack. But how to use them? You’d have to sell them, wouldn’t you? That’s what I’m thinking, my daughter. We need to find someone reliable.

Do you have such a person in mind? Anna just shrugged her shoulders. There didn’t seem to be anyone. Perhaps only James is Michael’s faithful assistant and friend.

He must not fail. The next morning, having seen her mother off at the bus stop, Anna went to James’s office. He was having a loud discussion with the accountant in his office.

Greetings, Anna, he nodded when he saw the owner. Here we are deciding with Valentina how much grain to give to the people on it. Then they shook their heads slightly.

Anna, at least two are needed. But Anna then for sale how much less will be. Wendy exclaimed.

And we still have taxes to pay. The loans are hanging without Michael. The case with a squeak still went on.

Enough for everything. Anna answered uncertainly and looked questioningly at James. We should talk.

Let’s go to my office. The manager obediently followed her, and there was Anna in the study, and told him her family’s secret, asked him to help sell the treasure. There should be enough to pay for Jack’s treatment, and we can pay off all our debts.

She said at the end of her story. And again she looked questioningly at the manager. You can help James.

We need to find the right person. I understand, you can just hand it over as a treasure and get your 25%. But how long would that take? Jack I need an operation right away.

James promised to help. And just a couple days later he told me that there is such a person. Together, they went to the city to a jeweler, Yilong Haitang, looking at the contents of the box, and then promised his assistance.

And in two more days she received a very decent sum. It should have been enough for the operation and the running costs of the household. Did he sell the jewelry to someone from the jeweler? Anna wasn’t interested, it was none of her business.

The jeweler only said that a very rich man bought them. Let him use it for his own good. Not Jack.

It had to be saved. Soon the kid underwent surgery in one of the capital’s clinics. The boy quickly recovered.

And by Christmas Anna was able to take the child to her home. She was able to legally adopt the boy. The guardianship office convinced her to get a guardianship.

It’s more profitable that way, there will be an additional payment from the state. And when the child grows up, she will also get an apartment from the state. But he decided to be firm husband’s child.

This is her child, and she herself can raise him. And he will be a real son for her, without any support from the state herself will cope. It is not for money that she takes him.

Three years passed, Anna and Jack lived in the village. During this time Anna has mastered the position of the head of the farm, and very confidently managed the business. James was still around as a faithful assistant.

The farm worked in full force, people worked hard. Anna was happy, her husband was, happy for her. And Michael would also be pleased, knowing that Jack was now alive and well with her.

The boy went to the village kindergarten, was a very smart, quick-witted boy. Anna could not be pleased with her son. Jack read poetry well, sang songs with pleasure at matinees in kindergarten.

He was always the most active and the most artistic. Anna admired her son, rejoiced at his little victories. And Jack loved his mother very much.

How many flowerbeds he tore in the yard, collecting bouquets for mom. How many times he put his knees up, catching butterflies to give to mom for flowers. Anna baby did not scold, only sighed and smiled, smeared his knees with green and blue on the wounds.

And he patiently kept silent with annoyance, wrinkling his nose, because he had never caught a butterfly. And how happy my mother would be, but Anna understood her son’s sadness. She explained that a butterfly is good because it flies, flutters, and when you catch it, you put it in the palm of your hand, it will die.

You just when you see a beautiful butterfly, just call me, we will admire together, she told her son. Jack nodded understandingly. Oh, how many times Anna ran to see those butterflies.

Not all, of course, were so beautiful, but she awed when she saw and kept a sneaky. And even the usual moth doe smiled, was able to please his mother. She lived for her son, thought only of him.

On men did not even look, although the young deceased often drew the attention of other farmers and the district authorities. At one time, he began to show her signs of attention himself. The head of the district, Anna did not know how to refuse him, so as not to offend and not to make an enemy.

If only he was young and unmarried, but he was already under 60 years old and had grandchildren. Then James helped. Several times before the eyes of the head.

Then Anna will take Anna by the hand, then in her ear something spikes now. She realized that her loyal manager, she played it right. But the head understood in his own way, decided that the young farmer is already busy.

And since James was almost friendly, he decided to stay out of it. And then he calmed down, and James and I no longer had to play the heroic lover. No one did.

Jack grew up in love and care. Michael’s parents often came to see their grandson. Sometimes Anna’s parents also dropped by.

Yes, the kid had enough care and attention. And only sometimes the five-year-old would ask his mom, where is his dad? Our daddy is in the sky. Anna sighed and hugged her son.

The boy looked at the sky and could not understand where his daddy was hiding there and why. The others have their dads nearby. And this moment was the only thing that marred the boy’s cloudless existence.

Don’t be sad, baby. Anna said to him, I’m here for you. And the son hugged her tightly around the neck.

Mommy, I love you so much, Jack whispered in Anna’s ear. And she would hug him. At times like that, she was the happiest.

She’s a mom. And that’s all that matters. Often after Jack was put to bed, Anna would sit by the window and look at the stars.

She reminisced about her past life with Michael. Yes, they had been happy, and it still hurt a little that he wasn’t around, and would never be again. And it would probably drive her crazy if Jack hadn’t miraculously appeared in her life.

Yes, on the one hand, she should have been angry at her husband, accusing him of cheating. On the other hand, was it cheating? She was grateful. Grateful to her husband for his mistake.

After all, she was the one who had allowed her to become a mom, even if it was in this way. Anna was even grateful that Jenna had left the baby at the orphanage. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have met again.

Now he was the most native, the most beloved, the most. It happened in the middle of November. It was a day off, the first snow had fallen since the night, and it was white outside.

Anna had started the dough for pies in the morning. And when Jack woke up, the house already smelled of fragrant baking. Pies.

Asked the boy, looking at his mother in the kitchen and rubbing his sleepy eyes. Pies. Anna smiled, taking the tray out of the oven with puffy pastries.

Your favorite with apples. Go to the bathroom to wash up and to the table twice, I didn’t have to beg for a can. He quickly ran to the bathroom, and his bare feet were already slapping back.

Anna listened with a smile when the sun appeared in the kitchen at his mother’s house. And even his hair was deliberately frowning. Why are you barefoot on the cold floor? Who’s going to cough? Not I said Jack, climbed on a stool, and already a petitioner.

Added mom. And let’s go outside after breakfast, there is snow. Yes, it’s winter.

Bending my line. And you want a sheet. Come on mom, the sun pouted his lips.

I want to make a snowman. All right, let’s go make a snowman. Let’s just eat some pies.

Jack smiled happily and dangled his bare feet on the stool. Anna only sighed, brought her son’s slippers and pulled them on his feet. Then waved at the top of his head some more.

They enjoyed their breakfast. Then they gathered outside. It was a fairy tale in the yard.

Flakes of white snow covered everything, trees, fences, and buildings. Everything seemed to be wrapped in a solid blanket of snow. And at the same time, it was so warm and the snow on the ground was so soft.

Anna and her son were making snowmen, throwing snowballs at each other. They were laughing and fooling around. They immediately and did not notice how near their house was getting dark for an car.

And out of it came a man of about 35 years. He stood a little at the fence with a smile, looking at the fun, mother, and son. Then he opened the gate.

Hearing the clatter of a flask, Anna turned her head and raised her eyebrows in surprise. This was a man she did not know. Excuse me, are you Anna? The man asked uncertainly.

Who are you? Anna answered cautiously. And I’m what you might call in hair. Hair? The woman was surprised.

And what do you follow in my house? No, you misunderstood me, the man hesitated. I came to see you to talk about jewelry. He turned slightly pale.

She was about to deny everything, as the man beat her to it. No, no, you don’t think I have a problem with you. I just want to know everything.

First, let me introduce myself. Robert. I’m the great-grandson of a merchant….