“I’ll talk to each one personally,” decided Kira. “I’ll offer them company shares and a share of the profits. Let them feel not like hired workers, but partners.”
The strategy worked. Two of the three managers stayed, receiving stock packages and joining the expanded management council. The third left anyway, but he was quickly replaced by a young promising specialist who brought fresh ideas to the care home’s work. Tarasov suffered defeat in this battle, but Kira and Gordey strengthened security and confidentiality measures in the company.
In March of the following year, Gordey proposed to her. It happened in his apartment, where Kira once lived recovering from the poisoning. He prepared dinner, lit candles, and after dessert got down on one knee.
“Kira, I know you already had a failed marriage. I know you’re afraid of repetition. But I promise you: I will respect you, support you, love you. Not for money, not for profit, but simply because you are an amazing woman who changed my life. Marry me.”
Kira looked at him through tears. This man saved her twice: first from death, then from despair. He showed her that one can be strong and vulnerable at the same time. That one can trust without losing oneself.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I will marry you.”
The wedding took place in the summer, modestly, in a circle of close friends and relatives. Anfisa Savitskaya cried with happiness, hugging her daughter-in-law. Daria Saltykova also came to the wedding, congratulated the newlyweds, and wished them happiness. Even Olga Cherkasova sent a card with apologies and congratulations. After the wedding, they flew away for a week-long trip to Italy. For the first time in many years, Kira felt truly free and happy.
A year later, Kira and Gordey had a daughter. The birth was difficult, doctors feared for Kira’s health due to the consequences of the poisoning, but in the end, everything went well. They named her Vera—in honor of faith in people, faith in justice, faith that after the darkest times, light always comes.
A little girl with dark hair and her father’s brown eyes became the symbol of their new life built on love and trust. Kira held her daughter in her arms and looked out the window of the maternity hospital. Outside, trees were blooming, the sun was shining, life continued.
She remembered that night in the forest belt when she lay on the side of the road, preparing to die. Remembered the black SUV that stopped nearby, and Gordey who saved her. Everything she went through led her here, to this moment of happiness.
“Life gave me a second chance,” she whispered, kissing her daughter on the forehead. “And I will never waste it again.”
Gordey hugged her by the shoulders, looked into his daughter’s face.
“We are together. And that is the main thing.”
Kira went through hell and returned. She lost everything and gained twice as much. She faced betrayal and found true love. And now, holding her daughter in her arms, surrounded by people who sincerely loved her, Kira knew one thing: life is unpredictable, cruel, but incredibly beautiful if you find the strength to go on.
