Chapter 4

  Today, Christin was getting ready to visit his Aunt’s place.

  His Aunt Polina was the eldest child of his grandfather, Daniil Vasiliev. Christin’s father, Lev, was supposed to be the youngest of the two siblings, born just two years after Polina. However, the elderly Vasiliev couple unexpectedly welcomed another child years later—a sweet baby boy named Steve. Fifteen years younger than Polina, Steve grew up as the spoiled child of the family.

  Christin barely remembered his parents.

  He was only five years old when a tragedy occurred—one that no one could have predicted.

  It happened on his Uncle Steve’s twenty-third birthday.

  The entire family had gathered to celebrate. Lev had booked a restaurant for the occasion and decided that he would drive half of the family members, while the rest would travel with Steve. Lev was accompanied by his wife—Christin’s mother—his parents, and Steve’s wife, who had prepared something special for him.

  Steve, completely unaware of what the night would bring, drove Polina and five children.

  Everything seemed to be going as planned.

  Polina received a call from her father.

  “We’ll be at the restaurant in another seven or eight minutes,” he said. “What about you all?”

  “We had to stop on the way—Christin needed a change,” Polina replied. “We should be there in no more than fifteen minutes.”

  “All right, drive saf—”

  The call disconnected.

  A loud crash echoed through the line just before it went dead.

  Polina’s heart dropped.

  She immediately asked Steve to pull the car over and tried calling her father again. The phone was no longer in service.

  Steve noticed her panic. No one in Lev’s car answered their phones.

  Fear settled in.

  They prayed silently, hoping nothing terrible had happened, even as dread tightened its grip on their hearts.

  About fifteen minutes later, the restaurant called.

  They asked if the family was still coming—it had been ten minutes past the reservation time, and no one had arrived.

  That call confirmed Polina’s worst fear.

  Soon the police called.

  They informed them that everyone in Lev’s car had died in a severe accident. A speeding vehicle had run a red light at a major intersection and crashed directly into their car.

  The devastation didn’t end there.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Later, when the forensic examination was completed, Steve was given news that shattered him completely.

  His beloved wife had been three months pregnant.

  Polina broke down, sobbing as she told him—her voice choking with grief—that she had planned to surprise him. He was going to be a father.

  For Steve, this was the most devastating moment of his life.

  He had just enlisted in the army when the incident occurred.

  Christin was still only a child. He often asked questions about his parents, but with time, he stopped—perhaps realizing, in his own way, that they were not coming back. He learned the full truth about the accident only when he grew older. Deep in his heart, he had always known something was wrong, yet he clung to the hope that his parents had simply left him—not vanished forever.

  Steve, burdened by the same loss, was not as emotionally resilient as his sister Polina. He struggled to come to terms with the tragedy and remained trapped in his grief. Eventually, Christin and Steve found comfort in each other, relying on one another to heal.

  Steve couldn’t bring himself to leave his nephew with Polina. She was a divorced woman already raising four daughters, and adding Christin to her responsibilities felt like an unbearable burden to place on her shoulders—Steve believed.

  Before leaving for the army, Steve poured all his love, care, and attention into Christin.

  One day, he called the child over.

  “Christin, my child,” Steve asked gently, his voice trembling as he gathered his courage. “Do you love your uncle?”

  “Yes! I love Uncle a lot!” five-year-old Christin replied excitedly.

  Steve kissed his soft cheeks and swallowed hard. “How would you feel if you and I became a family?” he asked softly. “When other children at your school are picked up by their fathers… how about I come to pick you up—not as your uncle, but… but—”

  His voice broke. Tears rolled down his cheeks as the words refused to come.

  “Will you come pick me up as my papa?” Christin asked, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

  “Yes—yes,” Steve replied quickly, pulling the child into his arms. “As your papa—if that’s okay with you, my dear.”

  Christin cried out with joy. “Yeah!”

  Steve was stunned by the boy’s sudden excitement. Steve’s chest tightened with guilt.

  “My classmates tease me,” Christin said innocently. “They say my parents don’t like me anymore, so they don’t come to pick me up. They say my parents left me with my aunt.”

  He cupped Steve’s face with his tiny hands.

  “I’ll tell them I do have a papa. No one hates me.”

  Then, his voice softened, uncertainty creeping in.

  “Papa, you love me, right? You’ll always be my papa, right?” Christin stared into Steve’s eyes, desperate for reassurance. “You won’t leave me…”

  “Never,” Steve whispered, hugging the child tightly and showering him with gentle kisses. He could no longer hold back his tears.

  After a couple of years, Steve could no longer delay his deployment. Leaving Christin with Polina became unavoidable.

  Before leaving, Steve gave a big jar to the little sobbing Christin, who didn’t want his Papa to leave. Christin clenched tightly to his clothes. Steve softened by Christen’s tears, pointed towards a stack of notes.

  He grabbed Christin’s hands and gave him the pen. He asked him gently, “What do you want for your gift this year?”,

  Christin still crying, asked, confused by the sudden question, “Why do you ask? You are leaving me!”, he hollered.

  Steve slowly beginning to feel the child’s pain let a deep sigh, “Christin, my son, I am going to work. My work just requires me to stay at my workplace. I am sorry, I cannot change that”, he wiped Christin’s tears with sleeves. “Alright tell me, what to do you want for your birthday this year.

  Christin pondered for a while, “A big teddy bear! As big as you Papa!”, totally convinced himself that his papa cannot find such toy and hence wouldn’t leave.

  Surprisingly, he made Christin write the word on a small piece of paper, folded it in half and put it in the jar— “I don’t know yet when I will be back but make sure you write down your birthday wishes on these papers and put it in the jar”.

  He then hugs Christin tightly, “Whenever I come back, I will buy you everything”. He kissed Christin’s cheek that was wet with tears, “I love you the most Christin, without you I will be so lonely. So, learn how to write a letter fast and ask your Aunt to send it to me. I will write you back my dear”.

  Since then, Christin has lived with his Aunt until he turned eighteen, an adult. Then he moved into a house with his friend Andrei. Living with his Aunt, he grew up with four loving sisters.

  Sofiya, the eldest of the four, was now a twenty-nine-year-old doctor who took care of them all—strict, but sweet.

  Polina was proud of all of her five kids, and was disheartened as well, at how they all had to mature up early to help her.