The jam stain on Marina’s beloved white rug wouldn’t come out. She’d bought practically “half” the cleaning aisle, hunting for something—anything—that could save her precious favorite. But every attempt failed. She flung the rag across the room, dropped onto the floor, and began to cry.
“Don’t take it so hard,” Vadim tried to calm his wife. “It’s just a rug. We’ll take it to the dry cleaners and it’ll be fine.”
“Oh, really?” Marina yelled, her voice bitter. “And why should I pay for the cleaning? Let your sister pay! Her kids did this. We’ll give her the bill—every last cent.”
“Listen, don’t turn into a nag,” Vadim snapped. “I know you loved that rug, but don’t make a drama out of it. Do you not have enough problems in life? Looks like you’re hunting for excitement—or a fight. Go do something useful.”
“Vadim, I know they’re your nieces,” Marina said sharply. “I know you love them. But I’m not letting my home turn into a circus. This apartment will stay cozy, clean, and peaceful. Is that clear?”
“Marina, they’re family!”
“My older sister has kids too,” Marina started, “but they don’t behave like—”
“Don’t,” Vadim cut her off. “Stop now, or this will end in a huge blowup. Here’s what we’ll do: tomorrow I’ll take the rug to the dry cleaners, and that’s the end of it. Okay?”
Resentment boiled inside her, but Marina managed to choke it down.
After drinking some water and calming herself a little, Marina decided to roll up the rug so she could wash the floors. That’s when she got the shock of her life.
On one side, nearly half the rug had been cut into thin little strips. Marina’s mouth fell open, but she couldn’t force out a single word. Vadim looked at her in alarm and rushed over.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Marina stood ghost-white, pointing at the rug.
Vadim lowered his eyes and immediately saw what had done it.
“God, sweetheart—why would you scare me like that?” he exhaled. “My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. I thought something serious happened. And it’s just a thing we stomp on every day. As long as we’re alive and healthy, we can buy another rug!”
Marina recognized the maneuver instantly.
“Don’t you dare feed me fairy tales,” she said through clenched teeth. “I know exactly what you’re trying to do. It won’t work. I’m calling your sister-in-law!”
“Marina, enough!” Vadim shouted. “Look what you’ve turned our apartment into. Over some rag you’re going to make everyone lose their mind.”
“A rag?” Marina froze in disbelief. “You know how long I looked for that exact rug. You know it was brought in from abroad. You know how much that ‘rag’ costs! And you’re standing here making innocent eyes?”
“They’re little kids!” Vadim said desperately. “How can you not understand? If I was sure someone cut it on purpose, that would be different—I’d investigate and demand compensation. But they were just playing. Why can’t you accept that? It was an accident. No one meant to hurt you.”
“When you bring kids into someone else’s home, you watch them,” Marina fired back. “And if you can’t handle them, they stay home—or they play outside!”
“Why do you hate my nieces so much?” Vadim asked sadly.
“You idiot,” Marina snapped. “I’m protecting our peace and our property. Here’s the deal: I don’t want to see Masha and Arina in our apartment again. If they do come, your older sister watches them—every second. And I’m demanding money for the rug.”
“No,” Vadim said firmly. “You won’t do that. Pick a new one and I’ll buy it. But you are not going to disgrace me in front of my relatives. Never.”
“So it’s not them who should be ashamed—it’s us?” Marina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “They ruined someone else’s property, and somehow we’re the guilty ones?”
“I’m tired,” Vadim muttered. “I’m not continuing this pointless conversation. Open the internet and find a new ‘rag’ for the floor.”
When Vadim left the room, Marina gathered the ruined rug and sank into thought.
Why had her marriage turned into this nightmare? Why did her husband—usually decent and kind—turn into a devil the moment his relatives were involved?
They’d met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. They liked each other immediately and spent almost the whole evening side by side. The next day he asked her out, and Marina flew to the date with joy. Love hit fast and quietly. Six months later they were living together.
But Marina’s parents were fiercely against a civil marriage.
“It’s improper,” Tamara Lvovna scolded her. “And unstable for a young woman. Do you even know what happens in these ‘free relationships’?”
“And what terrible thing happens?” Marina scoffed. “Go on—inflate it into a global catastrophe.”
“Sweetheart, you live under one roof with a man,” her mother insisted. “You share a bed, you cook, you clean, you do laundry—you do everything a wife does. And the man? He owes nothing. He’s free. He gets everything—and at any moment he can turn around and leave, and you’ll be left with nothing.”
“Mom, Vadim isn’t like that! You just don’t know him!”
“They’re all ‘not like that’ until it’s time to take responsibility for a family!”
Her father, Vyacheslav Stepanovich, supported his wife. He forbade Marina to live in an unregistered partnership.
“If he wants you, let him come meet us,” he said. “Let him ask for your hand. We’ll have a wedding and you’ll be happy. But there will be no halfway stories—neither here nor there.”
To Marina’s surprise, Vadim accepted her parents’ conditions gladly.
“You know what? They’re right,” he said. “If we love each other, why not get married? What does it matter that we’ve only known each other six months? If there are feelings, everything else will sort itself out. Will you marry me?”
Marina cried with happiness and said yes.
Her parents welcomed the future son-in-law warmly.
“If our daughter loves you, we love you too,” they told him. “From this day forward, you’re our son.”
With Vadim’s family, things were different. His mother, Larisa Andreevna, didn’t treat Marina badly or show open disapproval. On the contrary—she clapped her hands and praised Marina’s beauty.
But she developed an obsessive idea: her older daughter Kristina and Marina had to become best friends—exactly according to the perfect script she’d invented in her head.
“Daughter-in-law, my Kristinochka is a wonderful girl,” Larisa Andreevna would say, “but she has such an unlucky fate.
She fell in love for the first time at twenty-seven, got married, got pregnant… and when her husband found out she was having twins, he simply ran away. Disappeared! She came home from work and he was gone—no husband, no belongings. She tried to find Danila, but it was useless.
Back then, our whole family supported the poor thing. We didn’t believe she could cope, but she’s strong.”
“So your sister-in-law moved in with you?” Marina asked.
“Yes. Since then she’s lived with the girls in our apartment. I see how hard and lonely it is for her, so I do everything I can to make her life easier.”
Over time Marina realized what “everything” really meant. Kristina had climbed onto her parents’ shoulders and made herself comfortable. In reality, the grandparents raised the twins while the “poor thing” enjoyed life—going to restaurants with friends and taking vacations by the sea.
And now, in her mother-in-law’s script, Marina was supposed to put on a superhero cape and “save” the suffering woman too. But Marina refused the role and complained to Vadim again and again.
Vadim, meanwhile, defended Kristina every time and insisted his wife was being unfair. Each incident turned into another family explosion. They could go days—sometimes weeks—without speaking.
And now came this nightmare with the rug. Why should Marina stay silent and pretend it was fine that her favorite thing had been destroyed? It wasn’t fair.
But on the other hand… Vadim. The man she truly loved. The man with whom she hadn’t even celebrated their first wedding anniversary yet.
The man she loved—or the thing she loved…
Suddenly she heard the lock click at the front door. Marina quickly wiped her tears and went back to washing the floors. She didn’t turn around when Vadim entered the living room.
“Marin, forgive me,” he said behind her—words she didn’t expect to hear. “I went too far about the rug. I know how much it mattered to you. I said cruel things out of anger. I’m sorry. I don’t actually think that way.”
“Yeah?” Marina looked at him carefully. “So you’re ready to call Kristina and deal with this properly?”
“I found another solution,” Vadim said. “Come sit on the sofa—I’ll show you.”
Marina eyed him suspiciously but sat beside him.
“Look. I’ve been messaging an old classmate,” he explained.
“And?” Marina frowned. “Vadim, don’t confuse me. Say it straight. I’m not in the mood for riddles.”
“Svetlana married a man in Turkey. Her husband has a small rug factory. You know Turkish rugs are the best in the world.”
“Congratulations,” Marina said dryly. “But I still don’t understand why you’re telling me this.”
“I sent them a photo of our rug and asked if they could make an identical one,” Vadim said. “They said no problem. They’ll produce it within a month and ship it to us internationally.”
“Are you serious?” Marina’s eyes filled with tears again—this time from relief and happiness.
“Why would I joke about something like that?” Vadim said gently. “I want you to be happy and not suffer. I want you to remember your husband will always find a way to fix things. Just trust me.”
“Thank you so much,” Marina smiled, glowing. “And forgive me too, if I hurt you. If you took a step forward, I will too. I won’t demand anything from Kristina. I promise.”
Two weeks later Vadim left on a business trip.
Marina decided to use the time to do a deep clean of the apartment and spend the weekend sleeping. Lately she’d been exhausted—especially in the evenings.
Marriage, it turned out, wasn’t the fairytale paradise romantic dramas painted. Cleaning, cooking, laundry—and someday, the cherry on top: raising children. Just thinking about it made her dizzy and sent chills over her skin.
After a quick shower she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
In the morning, a loud pounding on the door jolted her awake. Terrified, Marina sat bolt upright, and a few seconds later realized it was her sister-in-law. It was only eight in the morning.
Still confused, Marina threw on a robe and stepped into the hallway.
“What happened? Why are you trying to break my door down and waking up the whole building? On a Sunday, too.”
“How else was I supposed to do it?” Kristina said briskly. “I called your phone, but you were unavailable.”
“Because I was sleeping,” Marina snapped. “Didn’t that occur to you? Or was that too complicated?”
“Daughter-in-law, I don’t have time to argue,” Kristina said. “I’m going to the river with friends to relax—all day. I’m leaving the girls with you. Have fun!”
“What?” Marina stared at her, stunned by the audacity. “And when exactly did I agree to that? When did we discuss it? Because I don’t remember.”
“Oh please,” Kristina rolled her eyes. “We’re relatives. The girls want to play with their aunt. What’s so bad about that?”
“Great,” Marina said with icy sarcasm. “After they’ve played with their mother first.”
“What are you implying?” Kristina shouted, furious.
“I’m not implying anything—I’m saying it directly,” Marina replied. “Kristina, stop being shameless. Do you have any conscience? You played the victim, made everyone cater to you, and now you live on people’s backs. Are you the first woman to be left by a man? No. Be a human being. End this circus.”
“You’re nobody to lecture me, got it?” Kristina hissed. “You’ll regret those words!” She grabbed the girls by the hands and hurried down the stairs.
An hour later Vadim called. Marina was one hundred percent sure Kristina had already complained to her brother—and embellished the story.
“Can you go even one day without fights and scandals?” Vadim snapped. “I’m a thousand kilometers away, working on important projects, handling a million tasks, trying to make sure our family lives well. And how do you thank me? By insulting my relatives! Are you out of your mind, Marina?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Marina said, forcing herself to stay calm. “I just refused to babysit because no one warned me. I have my own plans. Why should I drop them? If Kristina had asked ahead of time like a normal person, I would never have refused. She acted entitled and disrespectful, and she got what she deserved.”
“I don’t have time for this nonsense,” Vadim cut in. “Call Kristina and Mom and apologize.”
“What? Never. Absolutely not,” Marina said firmly. “I did nothing wrong.”
“Apologize to my relatives, or I’ll divorce you!” Vadim yelled.
Marina went silent for a few seconds.
“Did you forget the worst moment of your sister’s life?” she said suddenly. “Let me remind you. She came home and there was no husband—no belongings. Here’s the unpleasant news: you’re about to get the exact same treatment. Goodbye.”
“Marina—”
She hung up and turned her phone off.
She wasn’t going to spend another day as part of a “strange little family” that danced to Kristina’s tune.
Marina packed quickly and moved back in with her parents. Vadim didn’t fight for reconciliation either—he understood Marina would never accept his relatives. A month later, they divorced.