“Veronica, you really need to do something about your daughter. Money has gone missing again.”
Alevtina Borisovna placed her fork beside her plate and looked at her daughter-in-law as though the matter had already been settled and all that remained was to announce the verdict.
Five people were sitting around the table: Alevtina Borisovna herself, her elder son Leonid and his wife Veronica, her younger son Boris, and a cousin who had come to stay for the weekend. Only a minute earlier, they had been discussing the weather and the road repairs near the house. Now everyone fell silent.
At first, Veronica did not understand what she meant.
“What money?”
“Twenty thousand rubles. Yesterday, I put it in an envelope. This morning, I went to move it somewhere else, and the envelope was empty.”
Veronica’s expression slowly changed.
Ksenia had visited Alevtina Borisovna on Friday.
The girl was nineteen. She attended university and worked weekends at a coffee shop near a shopping center. That day, Veronica herself had asked her daughter to stop by Leonid’s mother’s apartment. She needed to pick up some medicine from the pharmacy, bring groceries, and finally set up the new television that Alevtina Borisovna had been complaining about for almost a week.
 
In truth, Ksenia had stopped calling her “Grandma” a long time ago.
Veronica had married Leonid when her daughter was fifteen. Their new family had settled into a calm and respectful relationship. Leonid had never tried to replace Ksenia’s father, and Ksenia had never pretended that Leonid was her real dad. They treated each other well, occasionally joked together, and celebrated holidays as a family.
At first, Alevtina Borisovna had also treated Ksenia kindly enough.
But the older the girl became, the more often certain expressions began slipping into the older woman’s conversations: “Veronica’s daughter,” “your Ksenia,” and “that girl from your first marriage.”
Veronica noticed it, but she did not want to turn every unpleasant intonation into a family dispute.
Not until today.
“Your daughter has taken everything again,” Alevtina Borisovna declared.
Veronica looked straight at her.
“What do you mean by ‘again’?”
The question seemed to catch her mother-in-law off guard.
She shifted slightly away from the table.
“You mean you don’t know?”
“That is why I’m asking.”
Boris stopped chewing and wiped his hands on a napkin.
“Mom has been losing money for a while.”
 
“I don’t lose anything!” Alevtina Borisovna objected sharply. “Everything in my home has its proper place.”
“What amounts have gone missing?” Veronica asked.
Her mother-in-law began trying to remember.
Five thousand had disappeared during the winter.
Then another three thousand in the spring.
At the beginning of summer, she had been unable to find seven thousand more.
On one occasion, money had vanished from a box containing documents. Another sum had disappeared from a small purse that Alevtina Borisovna kept in her dresser.
Veronica listened in silence.
Leonid was sitting beside her, and it was obvious that he had already heard this story.
She turned to her husband.
“You knew about this?”
“Mom mentioned it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He gave a slight shrug.
“Because every time, the money was eventually found, or she wasn’t sure how much she had put away in the first place.”
“Nothing was ever found,” Alevtina Borisovna protested. “I simply didn’t want to cause a scandal.”
Veronica looked at her mother-in-law again.
“And for the past six months, you’ve believed that Ksenia was taking your money?”
“I never said I was certain it was her.”
“You said it today.”
Alevtina Borisovna gripped the edge of the table.
“Because today I am certain.”
“Why?”
“The money was there in the morning. Ksenia came at lunchtime. I didn’t let anyone else into the apartment after she left. When I checked in the evening, the envelope was empty.”
Boris shook his head disapprovingly.
“It’s difficult to come up with another explanation.”
Veronica turned her gaze toward him.
“Then don’t come up with one.”
Boris smirked.
“I’m only saying what’s obvious. Someone needs to have a serious conversation with the girl. The amounts are small now, but later she might start taking more.”
At that moment, Veronica lost all desire to keep the discussion gentle.
“Did you see her take the money?”
 
“No.”
“Then don’t call her a thief.”
“I didn’t call her that.”
“You just suggested having a ‘serious conversation’ with her because she might ‘start taking more.’ I understood what you meant.”
Leonid placed his palm on the table.
“Let’s not start shouting.”
No one was shouting, but Veronica recognized this habit of her husband’s. Whenever a situation became uncomfortable, he tried to turn the disagreement into a problem with everyone’s emotions.
“I am calm,” she replied. “I want facts.”
Alevtina Borisovna stood and went into the other room.
She returned carrying an empty paper envelope.
“Here.”
Veronica took it.
It was an ordinary envelope with the number “20” written on the back in ballpoint pen.
“Where was it?”
“In the top drawer of the dresser.”
“Did Ksenia know that?”
“How am I supposed to know what she knows?”
“Has she ever seen where you keep your money?”
Her mother-in-law hesitated.
“I may have taken something out while she was here.”
“So you don’t know for certain.”
“Then who took it?”
That question irritated Veronica more than anything else.
Not because she did not have an answer.
It was because the entire family seemed to believe that the absence of another suspect automatically made Ksenia guilty.
In all these years, the girl had never once given her mother a reason to doubt her.
Ksenia could forget to call.
She could leave a cup in her room overnight.
She could spend all her allowance on a concert and then save money on lunch for the rest of the week.
But she did not take things that belonged to other people.
When Ksenia was fourteen, Veronica once deliberately left some cash on the cabinet to pay for a delivery and went to work. When she came home that evening, the money was exactly where she had left it. Ksenia had ordered food for herself using her own money and had never even considered touching the cash lying in plain sight.
Now her daughter was older.
She studied.
 
She worked on Saturdays and Sundays.
She had saved for several months to buy herself a new phone.
Whenever she needed money for a trip or clothes, she asked her mother. She did not search through other people’s envelopes.
Veronica had no intention of explaining all of this to the people around the table.
She knew one thing: an accusation had to be supported by facts, not assumptions about a person’s age.
“How long was Ksenia here on Friday?” she asked.
“About an hour and a half.”
“What did she do?”
“She brought the groceries and then worked on the television.”
“Did she go into the room where the dresser is?”
Alevtina Borisovna thought for a moment.
“Probably.”
“Did you see her?”
“I wasn’t following her around the apartment.”
Boris interfered again.
“Veronica, who else could it have been? She was in the apartment, and then the money disappeared. It all adds up.”
This time, Veronica did not even turn toward him.
She looked at Leonid.
Her husband had barely participated in the discussion.
“What do you think?”
He sighed.
“I think we should speak to Ksenia first.”
“About what?”
“Just ask her.”
“Ask whether she stole twenty thousand rubles?”
“Not in those words.”
“Then what words would you use?”
Leonid fell silent for a moment.
“Veronica, she’s nineteen. Young people always need money at that age. Anything could have happened.”
After that sentence, Veronica no longer felt the need to persuade anyone.
She slowly picked up her phone.
A month earlier, Alevtina Borisovna had left her front door unlocked twice.
The first time, a neighbor called Leonid in the evening and told him that his mother’s door was standing open.
The second time, Alevtina Borisovna went to the store and left her key in the lock on the outside of the door.
Afterward, Leonid insisted on installing a small security camera in the hallway.
He bought it himself.
He installed it himself.
 
Alevtina Borisovna complained at first, but eventually agreed.
The camera was positioned so that it recorded the front door, the hallway, and part of the passage leading toward the rooms.
It did not record the bedroom or the kitchen.
The camera application was installed on both Leonid’s and Veronica’s phones because Veronica was usually the one who helped her mother-in-law with everyday problems.
She opened the archive.
“What are you doing?” her husband asked.
“Checking.”
Alevtina Borisovna frowned.
“But it only records the hallway.”
“That will be enough.”
Veronica selected Friday’s footage and found the moment Ksenia arrived.
Her daughter appeared on the screen wearing jeans and a light-colored jacket. She was carrying shopping bags in both hands. She unlocked the door with the temporary key Alevtina Borisovna had given her during the summer for errands like this.
“Grandma, I’m here!” Ksenia’s voice came through the recording.
She put down the bags, removed her shoes, and went into the kitchen.
For the next twenty minutes, almost nothing happened in the camera’s field of view.
Then Ksenia walked into the room where the television stood.
She never approached the dresser.
The dresser was farther down the hallway, beside the bedroom door. To open one of its drawers, she would have had to enter the camera’s field of view.
Ksenia walked between the kitchen and the other room several times. She returned to the television, put on her jacket, picked up the empty shopping bags, and left.
She had stayed for just over an hour.
Not once had she gone near the dresser.
Veronica paused the recording.
“Well?”
Alevtina Borisovna stared at the screen.
“Maybe the camera doesn’t show everything.”
“It shows enough.”
Boris crossed his arms.
 
“What about before she arrived?”
Veronica raised her eyes.
“What about it?”
“The money might have disappeared earlier.”
“Mom said she checked it that morning.”
“Then we’ll look at what happened afterward.”
Veronica fast-forwarded through the recording.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
Thirty-five.
Forty minutes after Ksenia’s departure, the lock turned.
Boris walked into the hallway.
The room became so quiet that they could hear the refrigerator humming in the kitchen.
In the video, Boris did not remove his jacket. He merely unzipped it, walked down the hallway, and disappeared into the room.
Sitting less than two meters away from Veronica, Boris stopped looking at the phone.
His face grew tense.
The recording continued.
Several minutes later, Boris reappeared.
He slipped something into the inside pocket of his jacket.
The movement was quick, but perfectly clear.
Then he went into the kitchen and returned without the bag of fruit he had brought with him. He put on his shoes and left.
Veronica stopped the video.
No one spoke.
Alevtina Borisovna slowly turned toward her younger son.
Boris looked first at his mother and then at his brother.
“Yes, I stopped by.”
Veronica said nothing.
There was no reason to ask a question when the answer was already in front of them.
“I took the money,” Boris admitted. “But I didn’t steal it.”
Alevtina Borisovna leaned toward him.
“What does that mean?”
“You told me yourself that if I needed money, I could take it from your savings and we would sort it out later.”
“When did I ever say that?”
“Many times.”
“I allowed you to take money once when you urgently needed to repair your car. And you asked me first.”
“What difference does it make?”
“A very big difference.”
Boris exhaled irritably.
 
“Mom, I was going to return it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I planned to put it back a week later.”
“Twenty thousand?”
“Yes.”
Alevtina Borisovna stared at her son as if she were seeing him for the first time.
Veronica put her phone down.
She had no desire to participate in the argument that followed.
Who had allowed whom to take money, how much Boris owed his mother, and whether he genuinely intended to repay her were matters for them to resolve.
But the story was not over.
“What about the five thousand?” Alevtina Borisovna asked.
Boris remained silent.
“Boris.”
“I took that too.”
“And the three thousand?”
“Possibly.”
“What do you mean, ‘possibly’?”
“I don’t remember.”
“And the seven thousand?”
He rubbed his chin.
“Mom, I wrote everything down.”
“Where?”
“In my phone.”
“Show me.”
Boris took out his phone.
Within a minute, Veronica watched Alevtina Borisovna’s expression shift from disbelief to fury.
It turned out that for several months, her younger son had been taking money from her occasionally.
Sometimes five thousand.
Sometimes two.
Sometimes more.
He did not consider it stealing. In his mind, they were interest-free loans because his mother had helped him that way several times before.
The difference was that he had asked for her permission in the past.
Later, he decided that the permission had become permanent.
“I would have paid it all back,” he repeated.
“When?”
“Once I had saved the entire amount.”
“And I was supposed to think I was losing my mind?”
“I didn’t know you were keeping track.”
Alevtina Borisovna turned sharply toward him.
“You didn’t know? I told you in June that my money was disappearing!”
Boris looked away.
That made everything worse.
 
He had clearly heard his mother complaining about the missing money.
He may also have known that she suspected Ksenia.
Yet he had never admitted the truth.
Alevtina Borisovna understood it too.
“Did you know I suspected the girl?”
“You say all sorts of things.”
“Boris!”
“I didn’t think you were serious.”
Veronica watched him and suddenly remembered previous family gatherings.
There had been hints.
On one occasion, Alevtina Borisovna had asked Ksenia how much she earned during a shift at the coffee shop.
Another time, she remarked that young people had become too accustomed to expensive belongings.
Ksenia had not paid attention to those comments.
Neither had Veronica.
Now those scattered remarks formed a deeply unpleasant picture.
Boris had been sitting beside them the entire time, listening and keeping silent.
Today, he had been the first to suggest having a “serious conversation with the girl.”
Veronica looked at him.
“You already knew this morning that you had taken the twenty thousand, didn’t you?”
He did not answer.
“Boris?”
“Yes.”
“And you still sat here saying that Ksenia might start taking larger amounts?”
“That isn’t exactly what I said.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Veronica turned away.
She needed nothing else from him.
Then she looked at her mother-in-law.
Alevtina Borisovna sat with her eyes lowered. All her earlier certainty had disappeared.
“I need one thing from you,” Veronica said.
Her mother-in-law looked up.
“What?”
“You accused Ksenia of stealing in front of everyone. Now, in front of everyone, admit that you were wrong.”
Alevtina Borisovna frowned.
“But the recording has already shown what happened.”
“I’m not asking about the recording.”
“Veronica…”
“For several months, you suspected my daughter. Today, you called her a thief. You never once saw her take anything. You never asked her about it. You simply decided she was guilty.”
Alevtina Borisovna opened her mouth to respond, but Veronica did not allow the conversation to drift in another direction.
“I don’t need explanations. I need you to acknowledge what you did.”
Her mother-in-law looked at Boris.
He was leaning back in his chair, clearly wishing he could be anywhere but in that kitchen.
“I was wrong,” Alevtina Borisovna finally said.
Veronica nodded.
“Good.”
Then she turned to her husband.
Leonid immediately understood that she was going to address him next.
“What about me?” he asked.
“Why was it so easy for you to assume that my daughter might be a thief?”
“I never said she was a thief.”
“You said she was nineteen, needed money, and that anything could happen.”
“I was trying to prevent a scandal.”
“How convenient.”
Leonid frowned.
“Veronica, we know who took the money now. Why keep turning everyone against one another?”
“Because Boris took money from his mother while you suspected Ksenia.”
“I didn’t suspect her.”
“Then why did you suggest questioning her?”
He had no answer.
Veronica was not going to force him to produce the correct words in front of his entire family.
They would have that conversation privately.
She stood.
“I’m leaving.”
Leonid looked surprised.
“Now?”
 
“Yes.”
“But we came together.”
“You have your keys. Come home with Boris or take a taxi.”
Boris reacted immediately.
“I’ll be leaving soon.”
Veronica picked up her handbag.
Alevtina Borisovna stood as well.
“Don’t tell Ksenia anything yet.”
Veronica stopped in the kitchen doorway.
“Why not?”
“I’ll call her myself.”
“All right.”
Then she left.
The air outside was cold.
The middle of autumn could already be felt everywhere. Dark leaves clung to the pavement, someone had left a wet umbrella near the building entrance, and smoke from a barbecue drifted in from a neighboring courtyard.
Veronica walked to her car, got inside, and sat for several minutes without starting the engine.
Her anger was not directed at Boris.
Or rather, not only at him.
Boris’s behavior was easy to understand.
He had taken the money because he was accustomed to his mother helping him. Eventually, he stopped asking. He convinced himself that he would repay everything, which meant he was doing nothing wrong.
Something else disturbed Veronica far more.
When the money disappeared, everyone’s suspicion immediately fell on Ksenia.
Not on the man who already had a key.
Not on the son whose mother had given him money before.
They blamed a nineteen-year-old girl who had come to deliver medicine.
And instead of stopping his mother, Leonid had allowed himself to consider the same possibility.
He returned home about two hours later.
Veronica was sitting at her laptop, reviewing work documents.
Leonid removed his jacket and came directly to her.
“Mom and Boris are still arguing.”
“That’s their business.”
“He promised to return everything.”
“Good.”
“Are you very angry?”
Veronica closed the laptop.
“About what, exactly?”
“The whole situation.”
“I’m not angry with Boris. It wasn’t my money.”
Leonid understood.
He sat across from her.
“I didn’t mean to accuse Ksenia.”
“But you accepted the possibility that she might have stolen it.”
“I phrased it badly.”
“No. You said what you were thinking.”
“Veronica…”
“Don’t. Just answer one question for yourself. If your mother had made the same accusation against Boris, would you have said that he needed money and that anything could happen?”
Leonid did not answer immediately.
That pause was more revealing than any excuse.
“Probably not,” he admitted.
“Exactly.”
“But Boris is my brother. I’ve known him my entire life.”
“You’ve lived with me for five years. You’ve known Ksenia for the same amount of time.”
“It isn’t the same.”
“Of course it isn’t.”
Veronica leaned back in her chair.
“That’s why I’m not asking you to suddenly feel the same way about her as you do about Boris. I need something else.”
“What?”
“If anyone ever accuses my daughter of stealing, lying, or anything similar again, there will be evidence first. Not her age. Not speculation. Not ‘she needs money.’”
Leonid nodded.
“I agree.”
“And if your mother starts making insinuations again, you will stop her.”
“I will.”
Veronica studied his face.
“I don’t need empty promises just so we can end this conversation.”
“I understand.”
He genuinely did not look irritated. He looked ashamed.
Veronica did not continue pressing him.
The situation had already said enough.
Close to nine that evening, her phone rang.
It was Ksenia.
“Mom, did you call me?”
Veronica looked at the screen.
She had tried to call her daughter a couple of hours earlier, but Ksenia had been working and had not answered.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. Are you busy?”
“My shift is over. I’m on my way home.”
 
“Did Leonid’s mother call you?”
“No. Was she supposed to?”
Veronica hesitated for a moment.
“Possibly.”
“What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Mom.”
“Ksenia, just get home safely.”
Her daughter knew her well enough to realize that something was wrong.
“All right. I’ll be there in forty minutes.”
But Alevtina Borisovna called before Ksenia arrived home.
Ksenia told her mother about it as soon as she entered the apartment.
She removed her sneakers, dropped her backpack onto the ottoman, and looked at Veronica.
“What happened over there?”
Veronica came out of the kitchen.
“What did she say?”
“She apologized.”
“Properly?”
“It was strange.”
Ksenia entered the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water.
“First, she asked whether it was a convenient time to talk. Then she said she was sorry for suspecting me.”
She looked at her mother.
“Suspecting me of what?”
Veronica told her.
She did not go into unnecessary detail.
She explained about the missing money, that day’s envelope, Boris, and the security footage.
Ksenia listened silently.
Her expression gradually became more serious.
“So she has suspected me for a long time?”
“It appears so.”
“But she never said anything.”
“Not directly.”
Ksenia suddenly remembered something.
“Now I understand why she asked how much I earn.”
Veronica remembered that conversation too.
“I thought she was simply interested.”
“So did I.”
Ksenia put down her glass.
“What did Leonid say?”
She asked the question calmly, but Veronica knew her daughter well enough to hear what lay beneath it.
“He didn’t react very well at first.”
“I see.”
“We talked afterward.”
“I didn’t ask whether the two of you talked.”
Veronica sat across from her.
“He accepted the possibility that you might have taken the money.”
Ksenia gave a brief nod.
“Good.”
“What’s good about it?”
“At least everything is clear now.”
Veronica did not like that response.
“Ksenia, don’t conclude from this that he thinks badly of you.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what conclusion are you drawing?”
“That if something happens, people will believe their own relatives first.”
There was no hysteria in her voice.
That made Veronica feel even worse.
She did not argue because that was exactly what had happened.
“This time, yes,” she admitted.
Ksenia looked at her mother.
“Thank you for not interrogating me.”
“It never even crossed my mind.”
“Leonid’s mother said she was ashamed.”
“It’s good that she said that.”
“I told her everything was fine.”
Veronica frowned slightly.
“Everything is fine?”
“What was I supposed to do? Start arguing with her over the phone?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
 
Ksenia picked up her backpack.
“I’m hungry.”
With that, she closed the subject.
There was no dramatic scene.
Still, several things changed during the following weeks.
Ksenia no longer agreed to visit Alevtina Borisovna alone.
If the older woman needed medicine, Ksenia asked Leonid to stop by himself or arranged a delivery.
When she was asked to help with the phone, she replied that she would explain everything at the next family gathering.
Veronica noticed the change.
She did not interfere.
Alevtina Borisovna noticed it too.
Two weeks later, she asked her daughter-in-law directly.
“Is Ksenia angry with me?”
“Ask her.”
“But I apologized.”
“Yes.”
“She told me everything was fine.”
“Then the conflict is closed.”
Her mother-in-law gave Veronica a displeased look.
“But she used to come over.”
“Back then, there were no conversations about missing money.”
Alevtina Borisovna immediately looked away.
She did not ask again.
Her relationship with Boris also changed.
He returned the twenty thousand a few days later.
Then he repaid part of the previous amounts.
Alevtina Borisovna demanded that there be no more “independent loans.”
She allowed Boris to keep the key to her apartment, but warned him that if he entered while she was away, he had to send her a message.
She began recording every amount in a notebook and stopped keeping large sums of cash in her dresser.
Veronica learned most of these details from Leonid.
“Mom writes down every thousand now,” he told her one evening.
“It makes her feel safer.”
“Boris is offended.”
“He’ll survive.”
Leonid smiled.
“That’s more or less what I told him.”
He also tried to speak to his stepdaughter.
Not immediately.
It took him almost a week to gather the courage.
On Friday evening, Ksenia returned from university and found Leonid in the kitchen.
Veronica was in another room, but she heard the beginning of their conversation.
“Ksenia, do you have a minute?”
“Yes.”
“I want to apologize for last Sunday.”
Veronica closed the door after that.
It was their conversation.
About ten minutes later, Ksenia entered her mother’s room.
“We had a good talk.”
“I’m glad.”
“Just don’t ask what he said.”
“I won’t.”
Ksenia smiled.
“Thank you for that.”
Afterward, the tension gradually faded.
It did not disappear entirely. Things like that could not be forgotten after a single family dinner.
But Leonid truly stopped allowing his mother to make insinuations.
Once, in front of everyone, Alevtina Borisovna asked why Ksenia needed new headphones when her old ones still worked.
Previously, a question like that might have led to a lecture about how young people wasted money.
Leonid responded immediately.
“Mom, it’s her money.”
Alevtina Borisovna looked at her son, fell silent, and changed the subject.
Ksenia said nothing.
Later, when they were home, she asked her mother:
“Are you training him?”
Veronica laughed.
“No.”
“Then that’s progress.”
After the incident, Boris avoided family gatherings for a while.
He finally came to Leonid’s birthday celebration.
He encountered Ksenia in the hallway while she was removing her jacket.
Boris hesitated.
“Ksenia.”
“What?”
“What I did back then was wrong.”
Ksenia looked at him.
“Do you mean taking the money, or suggesting that everyone should discipline me?”
He blushed.
“Both.”
“Well, at least you’ve figured that out.”
She walked past him.
Boris remained standing near the door.
 
Veronica saw the exchange from the hallway and chose not to interfere.
The rest of the evening passed peacefully.
A month later, Alevtina Borisovna personally asked Ksenia to help her order a new device for the television.
She called Ksenia directly.
She did not go through Veronica.
She did not go through Leonid.
Ksenia agreed, but visited on Saturday when Leonid was there too.
The three of them completed the setup in twenty minutes.
As Ksenia prepared to leave, Alevtina Borisovna stopped her near the door.
Veronica was standing a short distance away and heard the older woman speak.
“Ksenia, I really was terribly unfair to you.”
The girl zipped up her jacket.
“We’ve already discussed it.”
“I know. I still feel ashamed.”
Ksenia looked at her calmly.
“Then don’t ever do it again.”
Alevtina Borisovna nodded.
It was already growing dark outside.
Ksenia was the first to leave the building. She pulled up her hood and headed toward the car.
Leonid remained behind for a moment, holding the door open for his mother.
Standing on the step, Alevtina Borisovna watched the girl walk away.
This time, she said nothing.