A bouquet Of Roses

Many years ago, in the remotest part of Donerov there lived a wealthy merchant who was very good-looking, especially his eyes which according to the young girls in the village was quite alluring. His name was Igor and he lived with his beautiful wife and his two very small children.

Despite his good-looks he was extremely conceited and would often cheat his customers since he was the only one who had goods for sale in his village. The exploitation was so bad that those who brought from him ended up being indebted to him instead. He rarely bothered to give his subordinates their due compensation and made various excuses when they pleaded and begged on their knees to give them some money.

The servants held on until their financial status suffered, there were grain in the market but yet they starved. The economy was already on the verge of collapse and what Igor did was nothing compared to the worse things that was going on outside. The servants thought, "Where can we go? Even if we leave, in the end only death and suffering await us, at-least we can get food here to give to our children…" He was an aristocratic beurocrat hence the difference was huge. They were soon quite fed up with the ill treatment and decided to leave to find greener pastures elsewhere. They left one-by-one in the consecutive days that followed. Antricia the babysitter was the last one to leave since she wanted to stay with the children. But, alas! her financial status was literally hanging by a thread. It worsened day by day by day till the point feeding her own kids was just a mere dream.

She left the children after receiving a tearful goodbye from the kids and promised them that she would return one day. The valet was the remaining one who stayed and all house duties was entrusted to him.

With not one soul in their mansion to take care of their needs, worried, Yelena. She was not used to cleaning and doing menial chores every morning as it was mostly entrusted to the servants. The children were not much of a help either. Her hand ached, her mood soured and her head was a like a balloon that was about to go POP! any second. The mansion was huge and cleaning it, was a fucking NIGHTMARE!

She was DONE! REALLY DONE! After nonstop cleaning the house she felt like she could combust literally due to exhaustion. so, her plan was to go housekeeper shopping. She travelled high and low to find somebody willing but it was all in vain as everybody in the village was unwilling to lend that poor woman a hand due to her husband's temperament.

She was a rubber band stretched taut and one day it just BROKE!

Her husband just straight up, REFUSED to hire a housekeeper! Her voice echoed across the empty hallway. In her fury she contemplated ending her relationship with him right then and there! To be honest their relationship was kind of detereoting for a long time and this housekeeper situation was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"IF YOU DON'T CHANGE YOU HABITS OR WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE DOING, I AM GOING TO MY LAWYER YOU UNDERSTAND ME! THINK ABOUT IT CAREFULLY! I NEED SOMEONE TO TAKE CARE OF THE HOUSE! ARENT I YOUR WIFE? SHOULDN'T YOU BE LISTENING TO MY SUGGESTIONS AND MY ADVICE TOO? I NEVER ASKED YOU FOR ANYTHING, EVEN ONCE! I ADJUSTED TO YOUR LIFESTYLE, I ADJUSTED ACCORDING TO YOUR INTEREST, EVERYTHING ELSE AS WELL BUT NOW WHEN I MAKE A REQUEST YOU JUST STRAIGHT UP IGNORE ME LIKE I AM AN ORNAMENTAL PLANT IN YOUR PRECIOUS BOOKSHELF! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME…?" Then she just went on and on and on screaming until her voice was hoarse and her throat itched

Igor didn't hear a word she said, instead he was busy tuning her out and smoking his cigar thinking about the next boring committee meeting that was going to be held a week later.

If there was another war in the world It was inside the mansion. It became a place of great unrest as both husband and wife bickered over every small thing they found fault with. The children were shifted to their grandparent's house in the city to avoid being targeted by either of their parents.

Unable to handle the strain any longer Igor shifted his residence to his private manor far away from his meddling and bitter wife, left for his business meetings very often and rarely came home.

It was during one of these business meetings that he met someone who would unknowingly change his life 180 degrees.