The cold slashed across his face like a thousand icy blades.
Nikolay Parfenov stood motionless at the edge of Round Lake near Moscow. But it wasn’t just the cold that made him tremble—it was the memory.
A single moment, sharp and unstoppable, that shattered the fragile routine of his life.
AD
Before that day, he had simply been a struggling father. A widower.
His life was an unending cycle of barely scraping by—calloused hands from construction work, sunken eyes from sleepless nights, a heart weighed down by constant worry.
AD
Debts were piling up like snowdrifts, his salary barely enough to stretch across the week.
But through it all, his daughter Maryana waited with hope in her eyes, as if clinging to the belief that tomorrow might bring something better.
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That Sunday was supposed to be different. A brief escape. Just a simple walk through the park, a trail winding beside the frozen lake.
AD
The snow reached their ankles, but Maryana didn’t care. She skipped along beside him, holding his hand as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
AD
Since her mother had died two years earlier, Nikolay had taken on every role in her life—father, mother, guardian, comforter.
As they walked, they heard laughter. High-pitched, carefree, echoing in the crisp air. Two girls, twins perhaps, were playing at the edge of the lake, their small boots slipping perilously close to the thin ice. Nikolay’s heart dropped. He opened his mouth to call out—but then came the sound.
A sharp crack. Like a gunshot echoing over the ice.
The surface split open beneath the girls. One scream—piercing and terrified—and then both disappeared into the black, freezing water.
For a second, all was silent except for the gurgle of the disturbed lake.
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Without thinking, Nikolay dropped his backpack and sprinted. He didn’t pause to weigh the risk.
He didn’t shout for help. He just ran. He ran because he saw children drowning. Ran because if it were Maryana, he’d hope someone would do the same.
He dove into the water.
The cold hit like a wall—crushing, numbing, immediate. His body fought it, but he forced himself to move. His muscles screamed, lungs burned, but he swam toward the struggling figure at the surface.
One of the girls, her eyes wide with terror, was barely holding on. He reached her, pushed her up, shoved her toward safety. Someone onshore grabbed her hands.