I’ve gone home, Denis! I don’t want to listen to your mother’s complaints anymore!” Nina replied to her husband, putting on her shoes at the doorway. “Nin, she didn’t really say anything bad! She was just pointing out your mistakes! If I were you, I’d listen and try not to repeat them!”
The man stood behind his wife, blocking the exit from the apartment. “Well, if that’s what you think, Denis! Then, I guess I made a mistake in choosing my husband! You should be supporting me, not your mother!” Nina said resentfully and with irritation in her voice. “Now, get out of the way and let me leave!”
“You’re not going anywhere, we came together, and we’ll leave together! And Nina, stop these accusations! Being offended by the truth is the last thing you should do!” “What truth, Denis? What? Do you really believe it’s true that I’m clumsy? That I supposedly do nothing at home?! Is that the truth, in your opinion? Then go to hell with your truth!” Nina lashed out at her husband.
“And where to?” Denis smirked.
“To your mother’s!” the woman snapped. “Get out of the way!”
She tried to push her husband away from the exit and leave her mother-in-law’s apartment.
At that moment, Tatyana Ivanovna, Denis’s mother, sat in her living room on the sofa with a satisfied expression, sipping expensive and tasty wine from a glass, a gift brought by Nina earlier that day.
It all started about two weeks ago when Tatyana Ivanovna nagged her son and daughter-in-law nonstop, demanding they buy her a new television because her old one suddenly broke down.
To stop the nagging, Denis and Nina bought her a nice big television and brought it to her that evening. Naturally, it was purchased not with the son’s money, but with the daughter-in-law’s. In addition to the television, Nina and Denis stopped at a grocery store, bought wine, and some chocolate candies.
While Denis was setting up the new television for his mother, Tatyana Ivanovna opened a bottle of wine, brought two glasses from the kitchen, one for herself and one for Nina, as Denis was driving. The evening started off quite well until Denis’s mother began subtly picking on Nina.
Tatyana Ivanovna suddenly started criticizing her daughter-in-law, calling her a poor housewife and neglectful of her son. She complained about how Denis’s shirts were poorly ironed, and how he often came to his mother’s for lunch, which, she believed, only meant one thing: his wife didn’t care for him at all. Thus, she was a bad wife and a lousy homemaker who did nothing at home.
Nina tried to joke it off at first to avoid escalating the situation and provoking a scandal. But Denis’s mother kept pressing, and the daughter-in-law couldn’t bear it any longer and quietly got up to leave.
This was the first time in nearly three years of their life together that Tatyana Ivanovna had shown her true colors towards Nina.
After Nina finally left her mother-in-law and left them alone, she, standing in the hallway, called a taxi and went home.
Denis came home a couple of hours later and immediately tried to discuss the matter with his wife.
“Do you realize you hurt my mom, huh, Nin? Educated people don’t behave like that! I didn’t expect this from you!”
“You know what, my dear! I could care less about your so-called educated people! Educated people who boast everywhere that they are so cultured are nothing but hypocrites! Who don’t see the log in their own eye but are ready to spot a speck in someone else’s! Please, don’t compare me to that disgusting hypocrisy! As for your mom, she’s a true example of intelligence, as she never fails to mention! A real hypocrite and provocateur!”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mother like that!” Denis suddenly raised his voice.
“Seriously?” Nina smirked. “So, she can spew her vile tongue, and I’m supposed to stay silent, in your opinion? You guys can wait for that!”
“And why did you stay silent there then?”
“Because I was not at my own home, Denis! If she dared to criticize me here, she would be counting steps all the way to the first floor by now! And, by the way, the TV I bought today for your mother should be at our place tomorrow!”
“What?!” the husband was puzzled.
“What’s so unclear? I told you, in plain Russian, that the TV I bought your mother today should be in our house tomorrow!”
“Why would that be?” Denis was perplexed.
“That’s why! I didn’t spend almost forty thousand just to be scolded like a little girl and dragged through the mud afterwards!”
“I won’t take the TV from mother! We gave it to her as a gift!”
“Then give me my money back!”
“But Nina!” Denis was indignant.
“What, Nina? I know I’m Nina! Money or the TV! If you don’t get it yourself, I’ll go tomorrow and take it from her myself! I’m not going to forgive or condone this treatment!”
“You’d really do that?”
“Do you doubt me?” the woman smirked.
“No, I don’t!” replied the puzzled husband. “I just didn’t think you’d stoop so low!”
“I couldn’t care less what you thought!” Nina snapped back. “So, money or the TV?”
“I’ll give you everything back!” Denis replied unhappily.
“Right now! I know you have money in the deposit account, so withdraw the necessary amount and transfer it to me right now!”
“Nina, but I’ll lose the interest! Let me give it all to you next week!”
“No! I’m not waiting until next week! A lot can happen by then, and I’m not about to lose my money! Money on the counter, now!” the wife demanded.
Denis grumbled a bit more, tried to reason with his wife from his perspective, but eventually complied with her demand.
“There, satisfied?” he asked Nina in a bitter voice after transferring the necessary amount.
“Not quite!”
“What do you mean, not quite?”
“Tomorrow or the day after… Let’s say the day after tomorrow, I’ll be home! Your mom comes to our place and sincerely asks for my forgiveness!”
“Ha, and maybe she should kneel before you here!”
“Let her kneel! I’m not against it!” Nina replied to her husband nonchalantly.
“Have you completely lost your mind? Nin, don’t push it too far!”
“I’m not pushing it too far! I’m simply asking that the person who unjustly offended me today ask for my forgiveness! Where, in your opinion, am I pushing it too far?”
“Mom won’t agree to do that!”
“Then make her agree!”
“Nin, what’s wrong with you? You were never like this! Why have you suddenly become so mean?”
“I’ve always been like this, Denis! Always! It’s just that until now, no one dared to rub my face in the dirt like your mom did today! And that’s exactly why I demand that your mom ask for my forgiveness! I won’t let this incident go unpunished! And you, by the way, are also to blame, when they tried to scold me like a little girl back there, you sat and smiled instead of shutting your mom’s mouth and standing up for your wife! Knowing that all she said was untrue!”
“Shall I apologize on her behalf to you?” Denis offered.
“That goes without saying!” the woman answered. “But she has to as well!”
“And what if she doesn’t?” Denis asked.
“Then you pack your bags and go live with your mom!”
“Are you serious about this?”
“Absolutely! You see I’m not joking!”
Denis paced back and forth in the living room. What he had just heard from his wife was disturbing him. And Nina calmly sat on the sofa and watched her husband.
The woman had made up her mind. She looked at her husband with disgust. After what had happened today, she was no longer planning to continue her life with him. She didn’t need someone by her side who couldn’t stand up for her. And it didn’t even matter to her anymore whether the mother-in-law would come to ask for her forgiveness or not; Nina was no longer planning to stay with Denis.
“Fine!” Denis blurted out unhappily. “I’ll call mom tomorrow and ask her to come over the day after tomorrow and ask for your forgiveness!”
“That’s better!” the woman replied contentedly. “Then we wait until the day after tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens from there!”
Instead of calling his mother, Denis decided to visit her the next day and explain the situation. His mother, Tatyana Ivanovna, was beside herself with indignation.
“Not a chance! I’m not apologizing to anyone! Especially not to that fancy piece of yours! I’ve never apologized to anyone in my life, and you won’t see it now! And this discussion is over!”
“Why did you even start saying all that to her, mom? Who even asked you to do that?” Denis asked.
“People like your Ninotchka need to be put in their place immediately! Before she gets too comfortable! And especially since you yourself keep complaining to me about her! That she doesn’t pack lunches for you for work! That she doesn’t iron your shirts, those were your words! I didn’t make this up!”
“Yes, they were my words!” the man agreed. “But then I explained to you that she has a job and she just doesn’t have time to do all that!”
“That doesn’t matter! A wife is simply obliged to take care of her husband! And if she’s not doing that, then she needs to be taught how, and that’s why I started teaching her!”
“Taught her, thanks, mom!” Denis snorted. “Now she might just kick me out of the apartment, and I’ll have to move back in with you! Basically, mom, if you don’t want that to happen just like I don’t, then come to our place tomorrow and ask Nina for forgiveness! And if you don’t do that, then I… I won’t even talk to you anymore! I already spent the night on the couch last night, she didn’t even let me in the bedroom!”
Tatyana Ivanovna resisted a little longer but eventually gave in and agreed to come to her daughter-in-law and apologize for her words.
Around noon, while Nina was cleaning the apartment, Tatyana Ivanovna arrived. She rang the doorbell and immediately grimaced unhappily.
Nina took her time opening the door. She wanted her mother-in-law to get a bit nervous.
Tatyana Ivanovna rang the doorbell a few more times. She was about to leave when the apartment door in front of her opened.
“Come in!” Nina said mockingly.
“Why did you take so long to open the door?” the mother-in-law complained. “What do you think, I’m some little girl that you can treat me like this?”
“How?” asked Nina.
“Now step aside!” Tatyana Ivanovna demanded authoritatively, practically pushing her daughter-in-law aside. “Standing there blocking the whole way!”
“You can boss around in your own house, understood! But here I’m the boss, and I’ll do as I please! And don’t you dare raise your voice at me, Tatyana Ivanovna! I won’t stand here and watch you, you’ll quickly get kicked out by the first of the month! You came to apologize, I’m listening!”
The mother-in-law was stunned by such audacity. She thought she would meet the same Nina she had known for a long time. Someone who would meet all her demands. Someone who wouldn’t say a word against her, like the day before at her house, when they brought her the new TV. But she was greeted quite differently than she had expected.
“What are you standing there for? I’m listening carefully!”
Reluctantly, through clenched teeth, Tatyana Ivanovna muttered her apologies, standing in the doorway.
“I don’t believe in the sincerity of the words you’ve said!” Nina replied.
“Have you completely lost your mind, you little snot? What else do you want from me? Maybe I should kneel before you too?” the mother-in-law hissed.
“Why not?!” Nina smirked. “Go ahead, kneel!”
“You’ve completely lost your shame, girl! I’ve never apologized to anyone in my life and never knelt before anyone!” Tatyana Ivanovna started a tantrum.
“Well, there’s a first time for everything! So, are you going to kneel?” the woman openly taunted her mother-in-law. “Or will you just keep shaking the air with your cries? Basically, if you don’t sincerely ask for my forgiveness right now, then today your Denis will come and live with you!”
As much as she didn’t want to do it, Tatyana Ivanovna eventually knelt before Nina and calmly asked for her forgiveness for everything she had said earlier.
Nina looked at her mother-in-law the same way she had recently looked at her husband. With undisguised disgust and contempt.
“Satisfied?” the woman asked Nina.
“Satisfied!” Nina smiled. “I love seeing intellectuals on their knees!” she laughed. “Ugh,” Nina grimaced. “You’re even worse than I thought! Now get up and get out of here!”
She pushed her mother-in-law out the door, ignoring all her complaints and screams.
In the evening, when Denis came home from work, all his belongings were waiting for him in the hallway, packed in several large bags. And Nina, standing next to them.
“What is this?” the man didn’t understand. “Mom asked for your forgiveness!”
“Yes,” the woman drawled, shaking her head from side to side. “Aren’t you disgusted with yourself, Denis? To make your mother humiliate herself before your wife on her knees, just so you wouldn’t get kicked out of the apartment?! How much do you have to disrespect yourself?”
“I don’t understand you, Nin! I did what you asked me to do! Why did you pack my things?”
“That’s why! I don’t want to see you here anymore! Frankly speaking, you disgust me! I’m not going to live with you anymore! I’m filing for divorce tomorrow, and since there’s practically nothing for us to divide, just quietly, silently take your stuff and leave! And yes, by the way, give me the apartment keys here!”
“But Nina!”
“That’s it, Denis, I’m not going to talk about it with you! I’m not going to listen or figure things out! Just quietly, silently leave my apartment and that’s it! Act like a man for once in your life!”
Huffing and grunting with displeasure, Denis picked up everything that was in the hallway from his belongings and left, leaving the keys to the apartment as Nina had asked.
And when he left, Nina, pleased with herself, opened a bottle of wine, the same one she had bought for Tatyana Ivanovna. And she savored it all evening, imagining the displeased faces of her husband and his mother.