Egor is the city’s chief prosecutor. Alёna is an orphan caught stealing food. He desperately needs a family, and she needs guardianship over her niece. She’s against it, but his motto is “I see a goal, I don’t see obstacles.”***
— The arrangement is this. In ten minutes, guardianship will take the child away, and you’ll be sent to a pretrial detention center. But I have an alternative proposal for you.
— I won’t sleep with you!
— Your dubious charms aren’t my taste, sweetheart. Listen and remember. To everyone, you’re my wife, and Katya is my daughter—you who shamelessly and treacherously hid her from me.
— She isn’t your daughter!— she rises in outrage.
— And I’m Sladkova, not sweet. And for you, I’m only by name and patronymic: Alёna Pavlovna!
— Wrong. Not Sladkova, but my wife’s surname—Draakоnova wife. That’s your new last name, Alёna Pálna. And Katya’s, too. I hope you remembered our legend?
Despite my protests, this jerk grabs my elbow and drags me into his office, where a representative from the registry office (ZAGS) is already waiting for us.