At the age of sixty, strange changes began to occur in my home, and when the doctor asked me a single question, the look on Maxim’s face changed.

Part 1

When the maternity hospital doctor saw my test results, the pen slipped right out of her hand. She told me to lie down on the bed immediately.

— “Ekaterine, daughter of Dimitri, has anyone been adding something to your drinks over the past few months?” she asked.

I stared at her in complete shock. A young woman in a white coat stood before me, pressing her fingers against the paper on her desk as if trying to hide it.

— “Who would add anything?” I managed to say. “Only my grandson, Maksim, and his fiancée, Aliona, live at home with me.”

• The doctor offered no answer. She walked over to the window and pulled back the curtain. Outside, the November rain fell steadily, drops colliding against the glass surface. My stomach had been growing for several weeks now. At first, I assumed I had simply gained weight, but then the pain began, and Vasili insisted I see a doctor.

Maksim used to prepare tea for me every single evening. He always used the same tiny copper spoon, which had a bird engraved on its handle. That spoon used to belong to my daughter. I found it among her belongings after the accident and used it only on special occasions for years. Yet in recent months, Maksim seemed to retrieve it from the shelf as if by accident.

— “Grandma, drink it while it’s hot,” he would tell me, offering the cup with both hands.

I would smile. He still seemed like that tiny boy I used to embrace after his mother’s funeral, promising that I would never abandon him.

However, Maksim’s gaze had shifted lately. Whenever I mentioned feeling dizzy, he avoided my eyes. When Vasili advised me to get checked, he would suddenly flare up in anger.

— “Why do you let him meddle in our lives?” he asked me one evening.

— “He isn’t meddling in our lives; he is concerned about my health,” I replied.

Maksim gripped my tea cup so hard that the copper spoon clinked against the porcelain.

— “You are simply tired.”

That very night, I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. The door was left halfway open. Maksim was standing inside, pouring something into a cup from a tiny paper packet. When he heard my footsteps, he turned around sharply.

— “What are you doing?” I asked.

— “I was adding sugar.”

Yet the sugar bowl stood nearly a meter away from him. I noticed a white powder on his finger. A chill settled in my heart, as though ice had been poured into my veins.

The next morning, Vasili brought me to the hospital. The doctors examined my stomach first, then drew blood, exchanging silent looks with one another.

— “You are pregnant,” the doctor said.

The world came to a halt.

— “That’s impossible,” I whispered.

— “It is rare, but not impossible. However, this is not just about a pregnancy. We found a substance in your blood that is harming both the fetus and your heart at the same time.”

I realized that at that exact second, the doctor had only one question left—a question she herself was afraid to ask.

— “Who was giving you medication?” she asked me.

I was about to answer when the door to the maternity ward opened, and Maksim stepped inside. He was holding my old purse in his hand. His eyes were fixed directly on the tiny copper spoon resting inside Vasili’s pocket…

Part 2

Maksim stood frozen by the doorway for a few seconds. Then he raised his eyes and forced a smile.

— “Grandma, why did you come here?” he asked.

— “The doctor called me,” I replied. “And why did you bring my purse?”

His fingers gripped the leather handle of the purse so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

— “It was left at home. I thought you might need it.”

The doctor, Marina Lomidze, motioned toward a chair.

— “Sit down, Mr. Maksim. I have a few questions.”

— “I’m not a doctor; I can’t tell you anything.”

— “That is precisely why I am asking you: who was preparing tea for your grandmother?”

Maksim glanced back at Aliona, who had stepped in behind him. Irritation was written across the young woman’s face, but when her eyes fell on the blood test sheet held by the doctor, her color drained completely.

— “What is going on?” Aliona asked.

— “We discovered a potent substance in your grandmother’s blood that disrupts blood clotting,” Marina stated. “Even in small doses, it is dangerous. Daily consumption gradually causes internal bleeding.”

Maksim shook his head.

— “That is absurd. Grandma takes a thousand medications herself. She might have mixed something up.”

I looked at him and, for the first time, saw not an orphaned child, but a grown man who desperately wanted to deceive me.

— “My medications are strictly for blood pressure,” I said. “You know that very well.”

— “I was taking care of you!”

— “Taking care of me? Then why were you hiding that powder?”

Aliona grabbed his arm.

— “Maksim, keep quiet. You can’t argue here.”

— “Don’t you get involved!” he shouted at her.

It was the very first time Maksim had raised his voice at her. Aliona backed away. The delicate gold chain around her neck rested against her chest, chiming faintly.

Marina reached for the phone to call security, but I put a hand out to stop her.

— “Don’t do that just yet. I want to know why.”

Maksim let out a bitter laugh.

— “Why? Didn’t you say yourself that you did everything for me? The house, the money, life? And now you’ve followed some old Vasili around, leaving me out on the street?”

Vasili, who had been standing near the window, said quietly:

— “No one is throwing your grandmother out of her home. She simply wants to make her own decisions for the first time in her life.”

— “Shut up!” Maksim yelled. “You’re only waiting around for the apartment.”

Those words broke something inside me. My whole life, I was terrified of leaving Maksim alone. Yet he had kept me alone for a long time—seeing me only as someone trapped within the walls of my apartment.

Marina set a small device on the desk.

— “We also have a recording,” she said. “The clinic’s psychologist advised you not to drink anything for a few days and to bring us any food left at home. The cup taken from your kitchen this morning is already in the lab.”

Maksim pushed his chair back sharply.

— “A recording? What recording?”

The doctor looked over at me.

— “Ekaterine, before we listen to this, you need to know one thing. Your pregnancy is developing normally, but the substance found in your body is dangerous for the baby as well. Had this continued for a few more weeks, the consequences could have been irreversible.”

I placed my hand over my stomach. For the first time, I felt not just fear, but something tiny and alive that depended entirely on me.

Maksim took a step toward the door.

— “I need to go home.”

Security blocked his path.

Marina pressed a button on the device. Static filled the room first, followed by Maksim’s voice:

— “If Grandma doesn’t leave the house, she’ll leave this world herself. I have no other choice…”

His face turned gray. Yet the recording continued, and a second voice, familiar to everyone, quietly uttered a single sentence…

Part 3

The second voice belonged to Aliona.

— “Increase the dose, or this woman will live another ten years.”

A silence settled over the room so heavy that I could hear the sharp ticking of the wall clock. Aliona covered her face with both hands.

— “No… that’s not how it was. I simply said…”

— “You said it,” Marina cut her off calmly. “It’s your voice on the recording.”

Maksim turned to her sharply.

— “You promised me everything would be safe!”

— “Me?” Aliona backed away. “You were the one preparing the cup for her every single evening!”

— “You brought me the powder!”

— “Because you told me it was just a sleeping aid!”

Their words collided in the air. Yet I didn’t remove my hand from my stomach. I listened to that tiny life whose existence I had learned of only hours ago, and for which I was already prepared to turn the world upside down.

Marina picked up a second paper.

— “The laboratory report reads as follows: the substance found in the tea blocks blood coagulation. Had your grandmother taken it for another week, internal bleeding could have started. Given the pregnancy, the threat was doubled.”

Maksim leaned against the wall.

— “I didn’t want to kill her.”

— “Then what did you want?” I asked him.

He lowered his head.

— “I just didn’t want her living here anymore. You used to say everything would be mine. You told me I was supposed to stay here with Aliona.”

— “I told you that as long as I am alive, you would always have a place in this house,” I replied. “I never said my death was your right.”

Vasili lowered his eyes. In his hand rested that tiny copper spoon. The bird engraved on its handle glistened coldly in the light.

The police placed handcuffs on Maksim. Aliona wept, but there was far more fear than remorse in her tears.

— “Grandma, please, tell them I didn’t mean it that way,” Maksim pleaded.

I stared at him for a long moment. Across his face, I saw traces of that same child I used to embrace years ago. Yet I could no longer help that child. In his place stood a man who had calculated my death for the price of an apartment.

— “I cannot change the truth,” I told him.

Maksim was led away. The door closed.

I thought the hardest part was over. Yet at that exact second, Marina’s phone rang. She looked down at the screen, her brow furrowing.

— “Who is that?” I asked.

— “They are calling from the genetics lab. The results for the additional fetal testing are ready.”

Marina listened to a few words over the phone, all color draining from her face.

— “Ekaterine, you need to hear this response as well. This is not merely about the father’s identity. Your daughter’s old medical records were just uncovered, and there is one major discrepancy in them…”

I looked over at Vasili. The spoon slipped from his hand.

Marina brought the phone to her ear, then stated slowly:

— “It turns out this pregnancy did not begin by chance. And the person who knew all of this should have been sought long before Maksim…”

Yet that night, the most terrifying call didn’t come from the maternity ward. It came from the prison intake office…