“To be honest…” — her friend paused for a second, as if afraid to say too much — “I still don’t understand: how did you dare do that? It’s beyond the pale, Liza!”
“Beyond what? Good or evil?”
“Well, you know, it depends how you look at it.”
“No matter how you look at it, dear,” Liza smiled, “the result is what matters. And my result is excellent. I got what I wanted!”
“Even so,” the neighbor frowned, “there will definitely be negative consequences…”
“Don’t jinx it!” Liza flared up. “When they come — then we’ll deal with them. Right now I’m in a period of joy and a true victory! So don’t spoil my celebration!”
The neighbor shrugged, offended, and turned away, pretending to be terribly interested in the view outside the window…
It all began the evening when Liza’s husband came home from work and, trying hard to hide his embarrassment, said:
“We need to talk…”
Liza clenched up inside. She had been waiting a long time for Igor to finally make up his mind. And here it was — it had begun.
“Talk,” she tossed over her shoulder, flipping the cutlets she was making for dinner.
“Could you sit down and actually listen?” impatience crept into Igor’s voice. “Or am I supposed to talk to your back?”
“No time to sit, dear,” Liza replied calmly. “Any minute Olezha will remember he needs me and start up with the yelling: ‘Mom, this, Mom, that.’ So let’s not waste time. What did you want to tell me?”
“I…” Igor faltered, struggling to find the words. “I’ve met another woman…”
“And?” Liza didn’t even turn to her husband, still busy with the cutlets. “What’s next?”
“Will you turn that pan off already?!” Igor barked, unable to contain his irritation. “Do you hear what I’m saying?! I love another woman!”
“I hear you,” Liza finally turned to her husband. “Congratulations.”
“What?!” Igor’s astonishment knew no bounds. He had expected anything but this indifference — and congratulations.
“Don’t shout, please, you’ll scare the kids,” Liza remained calm, seeming not the least bit surprised.
“You knew?” Igor exhaled.
“No, I didn’t know,” Liza shook her head slightly, “but I suspected.”
“Suspected?”
“Of course. Wouldn’t you have suspected if I were hours late from work? If I were always on my phone and kept stuffing it into my pocket? If I moved to sleep in another room under some silly pretext? And besides… Igor, any person can feel whether they’re loved or not anymore…”
“Then why did you keep quiet if you figured it out?” Igor asked, a little calmer.
“Well, you know,” Liza narrowed her eyes slyly, “you were the one who proposed to me — and you’re the one who gets to break up the family.”
“Why would you put it that way?”
“How else? If you just wanted to fool around and have some fun, you would’ve kept hiding your escapades. Since you started this conversation, it means you’ve already made some kind of decision. So don’t torture yourself — lay it out…”
Igor looked at his wife and didn’t recognize her. So much composure, calm, self-respect. He’d expected a simple, stereotypical female hysterics.
“Bottom line, I have a proposal…”
“Now that’s interesting…” Liza sat down on a stool and looked at her husband intently.
“I did the math… We’ve got a mortgage… You’re hardly going to manage the payments, even with child support…”
“And we’re not going to discuss the divorce itself?” There was a steel note in Liza’s voice, which Igor, of course, missed.
“What’s there to discuss?” he tossed carelessly. “It’s obvious you won’t forgive me.”
“Right…” Liza smirked. “You know me inside out…”
“So,” Igor still missed the trap, “it’ll be better if you move to your one-room apartment, and I’ll stay here.”
“And the kids?”
“What about the kids? They’ll go with you, of course,” he replied with swagger.
“So I’ll live with two children in eighteen square meters, and you, with your new love — I take it — in our three-room apartment?”
“Well, yeah. You can’t pay the mortgage. That’s obvious. I’ve been paying it myself all this time anyway,” Igor explained confidently, surprised that Liza apparently didn’t get it.
“I see,” Liza stood up. “I need to think.”
She stepped out onto the balcony.
“Sure, sure, go think,” Igor threw after her with a sneer, and thought to himself: “She’ll think, alright. Oh, these women. Think with what?”
While Liza was on the balcony, Igor piled a couple of cutlets onto his plate, added some warm mashed potatoes from the multicooker, and fell on the food greedily.
He didn’t finish.
“I agree,” Liza announced as she stepped back into the kitchen, “but on one condition.”
“What condition now?” Igor smiled condescendingly.
“You’ll stay in this apartment with your lady — and with our son. And our daughter and I will move out.”
“What?!” Igor’s face stretched in surprise, his eyes bulging. “You want to… split the kids?!”
“Yes. Why not?” Liza replied evenly. “The children are ours, the responsibility is equal. So let the son you dreamed of live with you. And the daughter — with me. Seems fair to me.”
“Are you even sane? How can you split children?! They’re not furniture!”
“Of course,” Liza was impenetrable. “So I’m supposed to haul them on my back for the rest of my life while you live in clover. No way. That’s not happening.”
“I’ll pay child support! And help. When I can…”
“Of course. You’ll pay me, and I’ll pay you. We had the children together, and we’ll raise them together. Don’t want the son? Take the daughter. She’s older; she’ll be easier. See? I’m willing to meet you halfway.”
“I knew you were crazy, but this much?!” Igor burst out. “You want to get back at me using the children?!”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Igor. You’re not worthy of my revenge. I just want things to be fair. You get the three-room place with the mortgage and the son. I get the one-room apartment and our daughter. And mutual child support. Only then do we divorce ‘amicably,’ as they say. Otherwise we go to war. I won’t give up a single spoon. Think about it. And think somewhere else.”
Igor left.
He consulted his girlfriend, his mother, his sister.
All of them, with one voice, calmed him down and said Liza was bluffing. No “normal” mother would give up a child for a few square meters. So Igor could agree with a clear conscience. Within three days Liza would take the boy back anyway.
As for Igor’s beloved (her name was Oksana), she was over the moon. Of course! A three-room apartment in the center! A gift she hadn’t even dared dream of!
The fact that along with that apartment came a four-year-old boy somehow slipped Oksana’s mind.
In short, a couple of days later Igor told Liza he agreed to her condition.
“Excellent,” Liza shot back, and insisted — quite firmly — that Igor file for divorce the very next day.
“Why me?” he tried to resist.
“Because you’re the man. And because it’s easier for you to pay for it all.”
The argument seemed logical to Igor, and he filed for divorce.
They had to wait three months. By mutual agreement, Igor moved in with Oksana.
Liza prepared to move and… selflessly repelled attacks from all relatives and acquaintances.
Igor had already broadcast to the whole world that Liza decided to split the children over an apartment and was giving him their son.
“How can you?!”
“What kind of mother are you?!”
“You have no shame or conscience!”
“How can you separate children?! You have no heart!”
That was the mildest of what Liza heard about herself.
She listened.
Sometimes she answered.
Sometimes she kept silent.
Sometimes she simply walked away, so as not to hear, not to answer, not to hold her tongue.
Even her twelve-year-old daughter Katya reproached her:
“I thought you loved us…”
Ignoring everyone, Liza patiently awaited the divorce…
At last, it went through.
The judge was very surprised:
“You want to leave your son with his father?”
“Yes,” Liza answered calmly. “Our responsibility for the children is equal. And besides, their father doesn’t mind. He’s even happy about it. Right, Igor?”
Igor nodded.
And the matter was settled.
Exactly as Liza had proposed.
Igor exhaled in relief…
Too soon.
It was only beginning…
Liza prepared everything for her departure. Packed up their things: hers and her daughter’s. Took the essentials.
And she prepared cheat sheets for Igor.
She wrote out:
what Olezha likes,
what he doesn’t like,
which preschool he goes to,
what the teacher’s name is,
what foods he’s allergic to,
which cartoons he watches,
where the clinic is, etc., etc.
Skimming the sheet, Igor let out a whistle.
“Wow, you don’t say! What’s this for? We’ll manage just fine on our own! Right, son?” He scooped the boy up and tossed him toward the ceiling.
Oleg squealed with delight.
“All right, we have to go,” Liza cut the fun short. “Call if you need anything.”
As soon as she and her daughter left, Igor called Oksana:
“That’s it! The coast is clear! Come over!”
That same evening Oksana posted on social media: “The beginning of a new life!” — and attached a photo of herself and Igor bending over the little bed of the sleeping boy…
And then began hell for Igor — and a patient wait, with remarkable self-control, for Liza.
Reality turned out very far from the illusion.
The very next day Oleg threw a tantrum and demanded his mother.
He refused to eat what Oksana cooked.
Flatly refused to stay with her.
Morning preschool drop-offs drove Igor up the wall. The boy didn’t want to get dressed, he whined. He screamed all the way and braced himself with all his might when the teacher took him into the group. Igor was constantly late for work.
Then Olezha got sick.
Fever, cough, a rash.
Igor had no idea what to do.
Treating a child turned out to be harder than he thought.
Then preschool again. He had to make it in time to pick the child up in the evening. He had to leave work early. Management started giving him the side-eye.
Oksana suddenly left on a business trip. Then disappeared altogether, texting: “I’m not ready to devote my life to your child.”
Igor’s mother refused to help, citing her health.
Liza came strictly once a week for two hours. After she left, Oleg drove his father crazy for several hours.
There was enough money for the mortgage, but Igor hadn’t expected to have to spend so much on the child.
He forgot what rest was. Irritation and fatigue swallowed him whole. To his horror, he caught himself thinking he hated his own son.
After about three months, Igor called his ex-wife:
“Liza, we need to talk. Urgently.”
Liza came over.
“What happened?” she asked with some sympathy, noting how bad her ex-husband looked.
“Please, take him,” Igor said quietly. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“Do what?”
“I’m tired, Liza. Oksana dumped me. My son is driving me up the wall. There are problems at work. The boss is threatening to find another specialist.”
“I understand,” Liza did her best to hide a smile. “Only…”
“Liza, please, no ‘only.’ Take Oleg. And the apartment along with him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Move back here, live all together. I’ll go. I’ll rent a place. I’ll pay child support and the mortgage.”
“And then you’ll come at me with claims?”
“No claims, Liza. We’ll put the apartment in your name. I’ll handle everything myself. Just relieve me of all this. Otherwise I won’t hold up.”
“Is it really that hard to manage a four-year-old boy?” Liza smiled. “You said I did nothing, that I’d gotten too comfortable. And I worked too, Igor.”
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t think… So, do you agree?”
“On the condition everything is done legally.”
Igor gave his ex-wife a long look…
“I didn’t know you were so mercenary…”
“I had good teachers,” Liza shot back.
Igor kept his word.
He transferred the apartment to Liza.
He pays the mortgage.
Child support — for both children.
Almost every weekend, with rare exceptions, he visits them.
He doesn’t forget to bring a bouquet for his ex-wife…
As a thank-you.
For meeting him halfway.
And for letting him live in her one-room apartment and pay only the utilities — until Igor buys a place of his own…
Now all the girlfriends and relatives pity Igor and think Liza is a viper of a mother. Supposedly, she didn’t even pity her little son — heartless.
But she is enjoying her victory for now.
She regrets nothing.
And she doesn’t believe in any “negative consequences” at all.