Rita woke to the barely audible crying of her daughter. Half-asleep, she glanced at her phone. Half past six in the morning. It was still dark outside; December had been especially gloomy this year.
Stanislav was sleeping with his arms spread out and did not even stir at little Masha’s whimpering.
“Stas,” she whispered, nudging her husband’s shoulder. “Your turn.”
Her husband mumbled something unintelligible and turned onto his other side.
The woman sighed and got up herself. The same thing happened every morning: Stanislav slept very deeply after his night shift at the café, while she did not. Even though the night before, Rita had been up late translating technical documentation for a machine-building plant and was very tired herself.
Picking up her daughter, Rita went into the kitchen.
Masha immediately calmed down and pressed herself against her mother. The one-year-old baby was the very image of her father: the same gray eyes and stubborn chin. Only her character, fortunately, was still much more easygoing.
While the bottle was warming, the woman checked her email. A new order had come in from a regular client: a translation of an equipment supply contract, deadline in three days, decent pay. That would cover the internet bill and buy Masha a winter snowsuit.
“Working again?” Stanislav suddenly appeared in the kitchen. “And you woke the child up, too.”
“I didn’t wake her up. And yes, I’m working, because we need something to live on.”
Her husband poured himself some coffee and stared at his phone. Rita was sure he was reading the news now, then would switch to social media, then back to the news again. That process could drag on for a whole hour.
Meanwhile, she still had to feed Masha, get ready, and take her daughter to her mother’s place, because today she had an important online meeting with Chinese partners.
“Hi, Mom!” Rita called her mother half an hour later. “Can you watch Masha today? I have negotiations.”
“Of course, sweetheart! I was just about to go to the store anyway, I’ll pick up something tasty for my granddaughter.”
Irina Anatolyevna adored Masha and never refused to help. A month ago, she had retired and now could devote as much time to her granddaughter as needed.
Her mother’s apartment was warm and cozy. Irina Anatolyevna had already set the table for breakfast and prepared toys for Masha.
“How are things with you, dear? How’s Stanislav?” her mother asked, settling her granddaughter into the playpen.
“The same as usual. Tiny salary, no prospects.”
Rita did not add that her husband had once again given money to his sister. Every month Viktoria found a new reason to ask her brother for help: utility bills, clothes for her son, medicine. And Stanislav never knew how to refuse her.
“And have you thought about looking for something more suitable for him?” her mother suggested carefully.
“I have. But he’s not exactly eager to change anything.”
The negotiations went well. The Chinese partners approved the new terms of cooperation. Rita was looking at a long-term contract with good pay. The woman was pleased: finally she would be able to relax a little and not have to grab every order that came along.
When she returned home in the evening, Rita immediately understood that her husband was in a bad mood. Stanislav was sitting in the kitchen with a dark expression. In front of him was a plate of hastily cooked pasta.
“Well, you finally showed up,” he threw at her without raising his head. “Have a good time?”
Rita carefully set Masha on the floor and turned to her husband.
“Stas, I was working. I had important negotiations.”
“Yeah, working! Sitting at your mommy’s place, drinking tea! And I had to cook dinner myself after a hard shift!”
“I’m not sitting around doing nothing either! I’m earning money for our family!” Rita snapped. “Today I managed to secure a long-term contract. I wanted to tell you the good news, and you…”
“I don’t give a damn about your contracts if there’s no food at home!” her husband waved her off. “A wife should stay home, cook dinner, look after the child! Family should be a woman’s priority!”
Masha got frightened and began to whimper. Rita picked up her daughter and stroked her head.
“Fine. I’ll stay home. But on your salary we’ll last, at most, half a month. And then what?”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“How? At the expense of your sister, the one you give half your salary to every month?”
Stanislav turned crimson and spun around sharply toward his wife.
“Don’t you dare speak badly about Viktoria!” her husband barked, clenching his fists. “She’s raising a child alone, it’s hard for her!”
“And it’s easy for me, is it?” Rita pressed the crying Masha to herself. “Am I not carrying everything too? Have you ever once gotten up to our daughter at night? Ever once cooked dinner while I was working?”
“I work too! On my feet all day!”
“For pennies!” his wife exploded. “For that ridiculous money, which you also hand over to your sister! And I’m supposed to raise the child, support the family, and keep the house together too!”
Stanislav rushed to the window, then back again. Masha was crying louder and louder.
“Do whatever you want!” her husband threw over his shoulder and slammed the door behind him.
Rita was left alone with her crying daughter in her arms. Her body was trembling with anger and hurt. She tried to rock Masha, but the little girl sensed her mother’s tension and could not calm down.
Stanislav came home drunk. He collapsed onto the couch without even taking off his shoes. Rita said nothing, went into the bedroom, and slept alone.
The next morning the woman woke to the smell of coffee. Her husband was standing at the stove frying eggs, guiltily avoiding her eyes.
“Rit,” he called quietly without turning around. “Forgive me.”
She silently continued feeding Masha without looking his way.
“I was wrong yesterday,” her husband went on, setting a plate in front of her. “I completely lost it.”
“Mhm,” Rita muttered, still sulking.
“I understand that you work a lot. And that most of the money in this family is earned by you,” Stanislav sat down opposite her and looked at his wife apologetically. “I just… get angry at myself. Angry that I can’t properly provide for my family.”
The woman looked up. There was sincere remorse in her husband’s voice.
“You get angry at yourself and take it out on me,” she added quietly.
“Yes. And that’s wrong.”
The couple sat in silence. Masha happily babbled, smearing puree across her tray.
“Listen,” the man leaned forward, “yesterday after work I didn’t go to the bar. Well, first I went to the bar, but then I went to see Seryoga. Remember him? He works at a security agency.”
Rita nodded. Seryozha was one of Stanislav’s old classmates, and they stayed in touch from time to time.
“So, he says they’ve got an opening. Shift supervisor. The salary is twice what I make now. The schedule is one day on, two days off, but the pay is decent.”
“Really?” the woman felt herself beginning to thaw.
“Really. He already spoke to his boss, I’m going for an interview tomorrow.”
“What about experience? Qualifications?”
“Seryozha will recommend me. He says the main thing there is being responsible and not drinking. That suits me.”
Indeed, her husband had never been drawn to alcohol. He drank only rarely.
“If they take me,” Stanislav carefully took his wife’s hand, “you’ll be able to work less. Spend more time with Masha.”
“And what about Viktoria?”
The man grimaced unhappily.
“I’ll deal with Vika. Don’t worry.”
“Stas, I’m not against helping her sometimes. But not every month, and not at the expense of our own family.”
“I understand. You’re right.”
Rita looked carefully at her husband. It really seemed that he was ready to change something, and not just say pretty words as he had before.
“All right,” she said, squeezing his hand. “But if you start taking it out on me again…”
“I won’t. I promise!”
Masha dropped her spoon and clapped her hands, looking at her parents. Rita smiled.
“And that contract,” Stanislav asked, “is it really good?”
“Very. Long-term. We might even start saving for an apartment.”
“We’ll see. First let’s sort out the job, and then we’ll see.”
After breakfast her husband left for the interview. Rita stayed with Masha and took care of household chores. Her heart felt calm. She truly believed that now everything could work out. That maybe her husband had needed that scandal to understand something.
The woman called her mother and told her what had happened.
“It’s good that he came to his senses,” Irina Anatolyevna replied happily. “Stanislav’s not a bad man, it’s just that sometimes men find it hard to admit they’re failing.”
“Mom, what if he doesn’t get the job?”
“He’ll get it. If not this one, he’ll find another. The important thing is that he’s finally started moving.”
Her husband came home pleased. The interview had gone well, and the final decision would be announced in two days.
Stanislav got the job. The salary really was almost twice as high as before.
Rita breathed out in relief. Now she could choose orders instead of grabbing everything in sight.
For the first month, everything went great.
Her husband was inspired by the new job, calmer and more attentive at home. He even spent more time with Masha now: with the one-day-on, two-days-off schedule, he had real days off again.
But the happiness did not last long. At the end of January, Viktoria became active again.
At first her sister-in-law asked for money for her son’s medicine. Supposedly Vitya had come down with pneumonia and needed expensive antibiotics. Stanislav gave her five thousand.
Two weeks later she showed up again and said she had lost her documents and needed money to replace them. Plus, she had nothing to feed the child with. Her husband gave her another ten thousand.
In March she needed money for kindergarten. Then it turned out there was no money for Vitya’s shoes. Then they had their hot water shut off for debts.
“Stas, do you really not notice that your sister comes up with something new every week?” Rita said carefully to her husband after yet another visit from his sister.
“Well, what do you want? She really is having a hard time.”
“And we’re not? We were supposed to be saving for an apartment.”
“Rita, but she’s alone with a child.”
“And we have a child too! And we both work like horses so we can have something and not go around begging!”
Rita really did continue working intensely so they could save up for an apartment faster. She still had to take Masha to her mother’s place.
In April Viktoria came again.
“Stasik,” she began as soon as she stepped through the door, “I’m in trouble. Vitya fell off the swings and got a concussion. The doctor says he needs a full examination, but with insurance the earliest appointment is only in a month.”
“How much do you need?” Stanislav asked automatically.
“I think ten thousand should do for now.”
Rita, who had been feeding Masha in the kitchen at the time, stood up and came over.
“Vika, can I see the report from the emergency clinic?”
“What report?” Viktoria looked confused.
“Well, if the child got a concussion, there should be a report. Or discharge papers.”
“And why do you need that?”
“To understand how serious the situation is.”
Viktoria blushed.
“So you don’t believe me?”
“That’s exactly right. I don’t believe you. Because for three months now you’ve had fifteen urgent reasons to ask your brother for money.”
“Stas!” her sister-in-law exclaimed. “Do you hear the way she’s talking to your sister?”
Stanislav looked uncertainly at his wife, then at his sister.
“Rita, maybe we should give…”
“No!” his wife cut him off firmly. “We will not. Vika, if your son really is injured, take him to the hospital. If you need money to live on, go get a job.”
“I do work!”
“Where? What position? What schedule?”
The relative opened her mouth, but said nothing.
“Stas,” Rita turned to her husband, “we’re not giving her a single kopeck. Enough!”
“But…”
“No buts. That’s final!”
Viktoria left, slamming the door loudly and promising never to come again.
Her husband spent the whole evening gloomy.
“Maybe we were too harsh,” he said. “What if the child really is hurt?”
“Stas, if the child were really hurt, she’d be sitting in the hospital, not running to us for money!”
On Friday evening the doorbell rang.
“Stasik, son!” Olga Pavlovna walked into the kitchen and started taking food out of a bag. “I brought your favorite cake.”
Rita became wary. Her mother-in-law rarely came just like that, especially not with treats.
“Thanks, Mom!” Stanislav hugged his mother. “How are you?”
“Oh, how can I be? I’m worried about Vika. The poor girl can’t find peace! She cries every day. Says her brother has turned his back on her.”
“Mom, I haven’t turned my back on her…”
“Stasik, that’s no way to behave. I didn’t raise you like that. Family is sacred. You only have one sister. Wives can be many.”
Rita, coming out of the bathroom with Masha wrapped in a towel, froze in the hallway.
“Viktoria needs help,” her mother-in-law continued. “She’s raising a child alone. And you let your wife order you around. That’s not right!”
“Mom, but Rita has a point too…”
“What point? The point that she forbids a brother from helping his sister? That’s greed, son. And selfishness. Your wife is leading you down the wrong path.”
The woman entered the kitchen. Her mother-in-law sat at the table looking self-righteous, while Stanislav listened with lowered eyes, confused.
“Excuse me, Olga Pavlovna,” Rita said slowly, “but what exactly do you mean?”
“That family is sacred! Your husband’s sister is raising a child alone, and you forbid him to help her. What do you call that?”
“I’m not forbidding him to help. I’m forbidding him from supporting a healthy grown woman who doesn’t work.”
“She does work!”
“Where?” Rita crossed her arms over her chest. “In what position? Name at least the field.”
Olga Pavlovna hesitated for a second.
“And if she doesn’t work, then what? She has a small child!”
“I have a small child too! The same age as her son! But I work! Do you know why? Because there’s no one else to feed the family! Your son’s salary lasts half a month! And he still keeps handing money to his sister!”
Her mother-in-law turned crimson.
“Don’t you dare speak like that about my children! Stas earns good money!”
“Better than before. But it’s still far from a dream income!”
“And why do you need more if you don’t even raise your child? You only pretend!”
Rita gasped.
“What?”
“What you heard! Do you think I don’t notice anything? Why did you give birth if you didn’t want to raise her?” Olga Pavlovna blurted out. “You’re always taking the baby to your parents! Getting rid of her like she’s a burden! Normal mothers stay at home and look after their children!”
“Really? And what do they eat? Air? Who buys clothes for them?”
“With the husband’s money! The way it should be!”
“With the husband’s money?” Rita laughed bitterly. “Every month your daughter squeezes almost half of Stas’s salary out of us! Half!”
“That can’t be!”
“Oh yes it can! And all the while she doesn’t work a single day!”
“Viktoria is raising a child! And you’re a bad mother! Real women don’t trade their children for a career!”
“Stas!” Rita cried out, turning to her husband. “Do you hear this?”
Stanislav sat hunched over his phone in silence.
“He hears it,” her mother-in-law nodded. “And he understands that I’m right.”
“Really? So I’m a bad mother because I earn money? And your daughter is a good one because she spends it?”
“She’s alone!”
“I’m alone too! Because my husband is tired after work, and on weekends he helps his sister!”
At that moment Irina Anatolyevna appeared in the doorway. She had come to pick up her granddaughter for the weekend.
“Excuse me for interrupting,” the woman said in an icy tone. “I happened to overhear your conversation.”
Rita turned. Her mother stood in the doorway. The look on her face was such that even Olga Pavlovna fell silent.
“Irina Anatolyevna!” her mother-in-law rushed to say. “We didn’t hear you come in.”
“Clearly. Otherwise you would not have allowed yourselves such statements about my daughter.”
“But I’m telling the plain truth!”
“The truth?” Irina Anatolyevna walked into the kitchen. “Then let’s speak frankly.”
She looked Olga Pavlovna in the eyes.
“I know my daughter better than anyone! She has never lived off anyone else. She worked while in college. She got married and supports her family. She had a child and did not give up work, because she understands that one salary is not enough to survive on.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” her mother-in-law started to say.
“It has everything to do with it. Instead of being grateful to the daughter-in-law who is keeping your son afloat, you call her a bad mother!”
“She is a bad mother! She drags the child around to other people’s homes!”
“To other people’s?” Irina Anatolyevna said in surprise. “Am I some stranger to my granddaughter?”
“Well… I mean…” her mother-in-law faltered.
“And why have you never once helped with the child? Why have you never once offered to babysit your granddaughter? Such a dear grandmother you are!”
“And why should I? That’s not my duty!”
“I see. So it is my duty to watch my granddaughter while her mother works and supports the family. And your duty is only to criticize and ask for money for your daughter. Is that it?”
Olga Pavlovna jumped to her feet.
“How dare you!”
“And how dare you call my daughter a bad mother?” Irina Anatolyevna was furious. “Rita gets up to the child at night, feeds her, plays with her, treats her when she’s sick. Then she works until midnight so she can support the family. And you still demand that she support your daughter too? Shame on you!”
“Viktoria…”
“Viktoria is a grown woman! It’s time she started earning her own money!”
Rita looked at her mother with admiration and gratitude.
Stanislav finally lifted his head from his phone.
“Mom,” he said in a conciliatory tone, “Irina Anatolyevna is right.”
“What?” Olga Pavlovna turned to her son in disbelief.
“Rita is not a bad mother. She’s an excellent mother. And wife. And I guess I’m a bad husband if I allowed anyone to speak to her like that.”
“Stasik!” his mother gasped. “What are you saying?”
“I’m telling the truth, Mom. Rita works from morning till night. She gets up with the baby at night. And meanwhile I’ve been giving money to Vika that our family needs.”
“She’s your sister!”
“Yes. But this is my family too!” Stanislav raised his voice. “My wife and my daughter! And they matter more!”
Olga Pavlovna went pale.
“This can’t be… Stas, what has she done to you? You can’t talk like this!”
“I can. And I will. Mom, Rita is right. Vika is a grown woman and she can work. At least remotely. And you owe my wife an apology.”
“Me? Apologize?” she leaped up. “Never! I didn’t say anything wrong to her!”
“You did. A lot of wrong things.”
“Stas, I’m your mother. I gave birth to you, raised you…”
“And I’m grateful to you for that. But that doesn’t give you the right to insult my wife.”
“So that’s how it is?” his mother’s face twisted with rage. “So some outsider means more to you than your own mother?”
“Rita is not an outsider. She is my wife.”
“Well then, fine!” Olga Pavlovna snatched up her purse. “Choose! Either me or her! Your mother or the wife you could be divorced from in a couple of months!”
Silence fell over the room. Rita froze, waiting for her husband’s answer. Irina Anatolyevna held Masha tighter in her arms.
Stanislav looked at his mother steadily.
“I made that choice a long time ago, Mom. When I got married. When my daughter was born.”
“So you choose her?”
“I choose my family!”
Olga Pavlovna stood with her mouth open. Apparently she had expected any answer except that one.
“Fine,” she hissed. “Very fine. Then don’t expect any help from me ever again. And don’t count on any contact.”
“I won’t,” the man answered calmly and walked to the door. “Goodbye, Mom.”
“Stas!” Olga Pavlovna could not believe her son was really throwing her out.
“Goodbye!” he repeated, opening the door.
His mother flew out of the apartment, slamming the door loudly behind her.
After she left, the apartment became astonishingly quiet. Stanislav leaned against the closed door and let out a heavy sigh.
“Stas,” Rita approached her husband and lightly touched his shoulder, “maybe you shouldn’t have said so many hurtful things. You might regret it…”
“No,” her husband turned to her. “The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner.”
“But she is your mother…”
“The one who insulted my wife. The one who demanded that I support my lazy sister. No, Rita, enough!”
Irina Anatolyevna stood up carefully.
“Maybe I should go? You need to talk.”
“No, Mom, stay,” her son-in-law asked. “And thank you for standing up for Rita. I should have done it myself, but… I froze.”
“It’s all right, son. The important thing is that you sorted it out.”
A week later Viktoria called Stanislav.
“Stas, what’s going on? Mom said you threw her out!”
“I didn’t throw her out. I simply explained that I won’t let anyone insult my family.”
“But she’s Mom!”
“And Rita is my wife. And the mother of my daughter.”
“And what about me? I need your help!”
“Vika, what you need is a job. Not help, a job. Do you understand?”
“So you’re against me?”
“I’m not against you. I’m against supporting you.”
Viktoria hung up and never called again.
A year passed. Stanislav got promoted at work. Rita kept doing translations. The couple bought an apartment.
“You know, I was afraid that without your relatives something would be missing from our lives. Especially for you.”
“And?”
“And it turned out to be the opposite. It became easier to breathe.”
“For me too. All my life I felt I owed Mom and Vika. And now I understand that they have to answer for their own lives.”
Masha ran up to her father and held up her little arms. Stanislav picked his daughter up.
“We have our own family,” he said, looking at his wife and daughter. “And that is enough.”
Rita smiled. Now she was happy. They were together. And that was the most important thing.