I set the baby cradle right on Stashevsky’s desk.
“There. This is your daughter.”
He doesn’t seem even surprised.
“Do you know how many people like you come to me? Should I believe every one of you?”
“But you interest me! You managed to catch my attention.”
“I don’t need your attention.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I just want the child to have a father.”
“I’ll give you money instead. How much? One hundred? Two hundred?”
His poisonous tone, his cold manner of speaking as if I were just another beggar at a lord’s gate, burns me with shame more than if he had simply thrown me out.
“Am I like a beggar?”
Stashevsky lazily leans back in his chair.
“You slipped into my office by deception. Brought a child with you. Press on pity, on conscience… For what? For your own benefit. Who are you if not a beggar?”
I got a job in Stashevsky’s office so that Sonya could finally have a dad. But the dad denies his involvement. Still, I’ll do anything to make Sonya happy. Even if she isn’t my daughter.