Page 103 of Heal Me

Danylo: How are you? How is the Dominican Republic?

Of course, Sebastian told him everything.

Me: Great, but very tired from the flight.

Me: And how are you?

Danylo: Can I call you?

I look at myself in the mirror.

Me: Of course.

I pick up the phone, not immediately noticing Danylo, because as I understand it, he’s trying to go out on the balcony. It’s quite dark outside.

"Hi," he says and turns on the light on the terrace.

Now I can see him. And I don't like it.

"You're drunk?"

"So what?" he laughs, and only now I realise how bad he pronounces the words.

"Something happened? Where is Zlata?" I sit on the bed and cross my legs.

"Zlata? She is no longer in my life."

I freeze.

"What does it mean, Danylo?"

"This means that she is no longer in my life. Pausing between words, he speaks. "There is no her anymore. Disappeared. She left me. She threw me away."

"Are you sure?"

He is so drunk that I don’t understand at all whether it’s true. Maybe he's joking. Well, you know, the good old New Year's joke, when you tell that your wife and child left you.

"And you can not be sure when you receive an SMS on your phone." Danylo stops and starts looking for something. "I read, sorry, it was a mistake. We weren't supposed to get married. I lied to you, I love someone else. I cheated on you. And when you went to France with your father for a week, I got pregnant from someone else. I love him, I really do. I'm sorry for everything, I'm sorry I got you into this. Timothey and I will live with his biological father. My son deserves to grow up with him."

She couldn't do that to him.

She had no right.

"My son," Danylo's voice pulls me out of my thoughts, "she didn't even sayour. I lost everything, Ami. My family, which turns out not even belonged to me. She even lied to me about the month of her pregnancy. She lied to me about everything." "I'm sorry," I say quietly.

"Do you know what's the worst?"

I shake my head and he answers:

"I knew it, but I didn't want to admit it to myself. I didn't want my father to be right. But he is right, I’m worthless. When I saw my son for the first time, I knew deep in my heart that he was not mine. He is nothing like me, Amelia. But I loved him. Shit, I loved him so much. Do you know why I hate myself the most? It feels like I've been living on a polluted planet all this time, and it's only just now cleaned up. She left my life and I began to breathe. Our relationship with Zlata was our parents' contract from the very beginning. I never loved her. Maybe I loved her for some point , but not the way I love ...." He stops.

My heart is torn apart with every word he says.

"You will handle it, I know."

"I got bored." Danylo raises his voice, it's the first time I've seen him like that. "I'm tired of dealing with everything. Now I will live as I want."

"What does it mean?"

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