— My God, who is this out in such a blizzard? — Anna threw back the blanket and shivered as a cold gust ran across her bare feet.
The knock on the door came again—insistent, demanding. The wind outside howled like a wounded beast, battering snow against the windowpanes.
— Ivan, wake up, — she touched her husband’s shoulder. — Someone’s knocking.
Ivan sat up, blinking sleepily:
— In this weather? Maybe you’re imagining it?
A louder knock made them both start.
— No, I’m not imagining it, — Anna draped a shawl over her shoulders and headed for the door.
The flickering kerosene lamp cast dancing shadows on the walls. The electricity had gone out last night—winters in Ustinovo were always harsh, and 1991 had brought not only political upheaval but record-breaking frost.
The door opened with difficulty—nearly buried in snow. On the threshold stood a girl, fragile as a reed, wearing an elegant dark coat. In her arms she held a bundle. Her face was streaked with tears, her eyes wide with fear.
— Please help me, — her voice trembled. — You must hide him. Take care of him… They want to get rid of him…
Before Anna could respond, the girl stepped forward and placed the bundle in her arms. It was warm. Alive. A tiny face of a sleeping infant peeked from the swaddling.
— Who are you? What’s happening? — Anna instinctively pressed the child to her chest. — Wait!
But the girl had already vanished into the storm, her silhouette swallowed by the swirling snow in seconds.
Anna stood on the threshold, feeling flakes melt on her cheeks. Ivan came up behind her and peered over her shoulder.
— What the… — he trailed off at the sight of the baby.
They exchanged a wordless glance. Gently, Ivan closed and bolted the door against the howling blizzard.
— Look at him, — Anna whispered, carefully unfolding the blanket.
He was a boy, perhaps six months old. Rosy cheeks, plump lips, long lashes. He slept with soft little sighs, oblivious to the bitter cold, the late hour, or the strange exchange.
On a delicate chain around his neck glinted a small pendant engraved with the letter “A.”
— My God, who could abandon such a child? — Anna felt tears pricking her eyes.
Ivan said nothing, simply stared. Over all their years together, they had never managed to have a child of their own. How many nights had he heard Anna’s soft sobs? How many times had they watched other couples’ babies with painful longing?
— She said they want to get rid of him, — Anna looked up at her husband. — Ivan, who would want to discard a newborn?
— I don’t know, — he murmured, rubbing his stubbly chin. — But that girl was clearly not from here—her accent was city, and that coat… it must have cost a fortune.
— Where could she have gone in a storm like this? — Anna shook her head. — No car, no other sounds…
Suddenly the baby opened his clear blue eyes and stared at her. He neither cried nor flinched—just gazed, as if measuring his new fate.
— We have to feed him, — Anna said firmly, heading to the table. — We still have some milk left from last night.
Ivan watched as she bustled by the stove, warming the milk, checking the swaddling, cradling the infant with a tenderness that spoke of a mother’s heart.
— Anna, — he said at last, — we’ll have to report this to the village council. Maybe someone’s looking for him.
She froze, clutching the child to her breast.
— What if they really do want to abandon him? What if we put him in danger?
Ivan ran a hand through his hair.
— Let’s wait until morning. If no one shows up, then we’ll decide what to do.
Anna nodded gratefully. The infant quietly slurped from a little bowl of warm milk sweetened with a spoonful of sugar.
— What do you think his name might be? — she asked.
Ivan leaned in, touching the pendant.
— A… Alexander? Sasha?
The baby smiled a toothless grin, as though agreeing.
— Sasha, — Anna repeated, her voice brimming with the tenderness she’d held onto for so long.
Outside, the blizzard raged on, but inside that little cottage on the edge of Ustinovo, it felt warm—like fate itself had stepped through the door and decided to stay.
Seven years later, a tall, bright-eyed boy stirred porridge in a pot by the stove.
— You’ll be a master chef yet, — Ivan chuckled. — Soon you’ll outdo me.
Anna watched her son with a heart full of love. Seven years had flown by in a day. Every morning she’d woken half expecting someone to come for him—but they never did. The mysterious girl never returned.
— Mom, can I have some sour cream? — Sasha reached for the clay bowl.
— Of course, dear, — Anna replied, moving it closer. — Just be careful, it’s hot.
A knock came at the window. Anna flinched.
— Anyka, come on! Time to drive the cows out! — called their neighbor, Zinaida.
— I’m coming! — Anna called back, adjusting her headscarf.
— Can I go with you? Then I’ll run down to the river, — Sasha asked.
— Did you finish your homework? — Ivan asked, packing his tools.
— I did it yesterday, — Sasha replied proudly. — Maria Stepanovna said I do the best in class.
Anna and Ivan exchanged knowing glances. Sasha was gifted—everyone said so. But though they dreamed of sending him away to a better school, money was tight.
— Maybe one day we’ll save enough to send you to the district school, — Anna mused.
— If only, — Ivan sighed. — The kolkhoz hasn’t paid us this month, either.
Years passed, and that little boy grew into Alexander K. Kuznetsov, the village’s pride—and still Anna and Ivan’s cherished son. Though his hair was light and theirs dark, and sometimes other children whispered that he was adopted, they only laughed.
— You’re our son in every way that matters, — Ivan would say.
— Like a fairy tale, — Sasha would grin.
— Real life is sometimes more marvelous than fairy tales, — Anna would reply.
On his graduation day, Sasha stood tall on the stage of the village club, accepting a gold medal for best graduate in ten years. Anna wiped tears as Ivan straightened his shoulders proudly. Afterward, the family sat down for a modest feast. Ivan raised a toast:
— To you, son—and to your future!
They clinked glasses, and Sasha felt a lump in his throat. Poor though they were, he knew he’d always been surrounded by the greatest wealth: love.
That very evening, the rumble of an unfamiliar car at the gate startled them. A black SUV—shiny, imposing—pulled up. A well-dressed man got out, briefcase in hand.
— Good evening, — he said, introducing himself as Sergey Mikhailovich, a city lawyer. — I’m here for Alexander Kuznetsov.
In the cramped kitchen he laid out documents and photographs, telling them that Alexander’s real name was Belov—that his parents, Nikolai Antonovich and Elena Sergeevna Belov, had been killed in 1991 by rivals, and that the child had been whisked away by the family nurse to save him. According to his late grandfather’s will, Sasha was now heir to a vast fortune.
The revelation stunned them. Ivan slumped into a chair; Anna wept behind her hands. But Sasha stood firm:
— My real family is right here. I won’t abandon you.
Three days later, Sasha met his dying grandfather—blind, frail, but proud—and learned the full story of his birthright and sacrifice. Months later, Ustinovo itself was transformed: new roads, power lines, a sports field, a modern school. Sasha, newly arrived home on a holiday weekend, cut the ribbon himself, thanking the villagers who had raised him.
For Anna and Ivan he built a simple, sturdy house with wide windows and a modern stove, surrounded by a rose garden and a woodworking shop for Ivan. Anna tended her flowers; Ivan worked at his bench, spared by time’s hardships but unbroken.
— I always thought fate would bring you to us and then take you away, — Anna confided one evening in the garden.
— Instead, I chose you, — Sasha replied. — The heart knows best.
On his twentieth birthday, he founded a charity for orphaned children, named for Anna and Ivan Kuznetsov—despite their embarrassed protests.
Back in his Moscow apartment, Sasha carefully placed two treasures on his dresser: the little pendant with the letter “A” and the threadbare scarf Anna gave him on the day he left for the city. Two symbols of his past and present—blood and love, two paths that had merged into one destiny.