Paid for my sister’s wedding, and my mother sent me a message: «You don’t have to come to the celebration. Your stepfather thinks you’re ruining the family photo.» The next morning they received a notification that made everyone in the family FURIOUS…

– You betrayed your family. – And yet I’m here, – Alex said quietly. – And ready to help with treatment.

His mother fell silent, as if not expecting such a turn. – I don’t need your help, – she finally said, but without the former fervor. – I’ll manage myself.

– How? – Alex asked directly. – On pension? Or Victor’s salary? His mother turned away, hiding her gaze. – Health is more important than pride, – Mom, – continued Alex.

– I’ll pay for the treatment. Not so you’d be grateful to me, but simply because you’re my mother. And I want you to live.

Silence hung in the room, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock. Finally, his mother turned to him, and Alex saw tears in her eyes. – You’ve changed, – she said quietly.

– Become? Different? – Yes, – agreed Alex. – I finally became myself. And you know what? It turned out to be the best decision in my life.

On the way back, late in the evening, Alex thought about fate’s strange twists. It turns out a person needs to go through pain and rupture to find their true path. He had to lose his family to find himself.

Approaching his house, he saw light in the neighboring windows; Anna wasn’t sleeping. Her silhouette flashed behind the curtains; probably working late on a new painting. Alex’s portrait, by the way, was already finished: amazingly accurate, reflecting not only appearance but as if the soul itself.

On it, Alex was depicted against the forest background, with a light half-smile and a calm, confident gaze. The way he had become in his new home. The way he always should have been.

Dad would be proud of me, thought Alex, getting out of the car and inhaling the fresh night air. The downtown apartment left to him as inheritance had served its purpose, not as a place to live, but as a lesson. Sometimes you need to lose something valuable to find the priceless.

And the most important inheritance, Alex mused, looking at the starry sky, is not apartments or money. It’s the ability to stay true to yourself, no matter what. With this thought, he headed to the glowing windows of his house, where on the veranda, sheltered from the night chill, an unfinished tea and unread book awaited him.

Life continued, by his own rules.