“I’ve made the decision as the head of this family. Mom needs a trip to the seaside much more than you do. You’re still young—you’ll have plenty of opportunities to go another time.”
Their flight was scheduled to depart at ten the following morning.
Rita loaded the last batch of light-colored clothes into the washing machine and reached for the measuring cup. Valery’s tablet lay on the hallway cabinet, its screen still glowing brightly. Her husband never used a password because he claimed that constantly unlocking the device was a waste of time.
Rita only intended to move the tablet away from the edge so it wouldn’t accidentally fall. Then the large text on the open page caught her attention.
It was the airline’s official website.
Online check-in for tomorrow’s flight.
Rita stopped moving.
The first boarding pass had been issued to Valery.
 
Seat 12A.
The second belonged to Raisa.
Seat 12B.
Check-in complete.
Rita carefully read the information again.
Then one more time.
But the names displayed on the screen did not change.
Margarita’s name was nowhere on the passenger list.
Only two people had checked in for the flight: her husband and her mother-in-law.
Rita slowly returned the measuring cup to its place. She wiped her damp hands on the edge of the sink, picked up the tablet, and walked toward the bedroom.
Valery was standing beside the bed.
An open travel bag lay next to him. He was trying to decide which of two short-sleeved shirts to pack, holding each one against his chest in turn.
“Valery.”
He looked around.
“Which one do you think I should take?” he asked casually. “Probably the blue one, right? It’ll look better in pictures.”
“Valery,” Rita repeated.
 
She lifted the tablet and turned the screen toward him.
“Would you mind telling me who is sitting in seat 12B?”
Valery froze with the shirt still in his hands.
First, he looked at the screen.
Then at his wife.
Then back at the tablet.
Rita neither shouted nor raised her voice.
She simply stood there, waiting for an explanation.
“That…” Valery swallowed nervously.
An uncertain smile appeared on his face.
“There must be some mistake. The website probably glitched. I entered your information. Maybe the autofill feature used the wrong details. I was recently looking at tickets to a health resort for Mom.”
“So it was autofill,” Rita repeated calmly.
“Of course!”
Valery tossed the shirt into his bag and hurried toward her.
“I’ll contact customer support right now. They’ll fix it. You know how these websites are—sometimes they freeze, and sometimes they display complete nonsense.”
“Don’t treat me like an idiot, Valery,” Rita interrupted.
She stepped back before he could take the tablet from her.
“Checking in for a flight requires passport information—the number, date of birth, and every other detail. A website can’t spontaneously replace one passenger with an entirely different person. You deliberately entered your mother’s passport information.”
Valery stopped fussing.
 
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his lounge pants, immediately adopting a defensive posture.
“All right. But let’s not get hysterical.”
Rita raised one eyebrow.
“Do I look hysterical to you?”
“I was going to tell you anyway.” Valery turned his eyes toward the window.
“When exactly? Tomorrow, in the taxi on the way to the airport? Or were you going to wait until Raisa Borisovna appeared at the check-in counter with her suitcase?”
“I was planning to tell you tonight!” Valery’s voice grew louder.
He stepped toward his wife, trying to intimidate her with his height.
“I wanted to explain everything over dinner. Rita, try to understand. Mom hasn’t seen the sea in ten years. Her joints hurt, and her blood pressure is constantly fluctuating. Her doctors even advised her to spend some time in a warmer climate.”
“Excellent,” Rita replied.
She remained perfectly composed, and her calmness seemed to irritate Valery more than shouting would have.
“There’s nothing wrong with taking care of your mother. But explain why you decided to do it at my expense.”
“What do you mean, at your expense?” he exclaimed.
He spread his hands as if she had just said something completely absurd.
 
“We’re married! We share a household budget. And for your information, I paid for the plane tickets with my salary.”
“Fine, Valery. Then let’s remember how we’ve lived this past year,” Rita said slowly.
“Oh, here we go again with your accounting.”
“While you were buying new tires for the car and replacing one fishing rod with another, I was taking extra shifts at the driving school.”
Valery waved dismissively and opened his mouth to object, but Rita did not let him interrupt.
“For eight months, I barely had a single day off. Eight months, Valery. I prepared the instructors’ schedules, dealt with complaints from students, and stayed in the office until nine at night. All that time, I saved every spare coin I had.”
“Oh, don’t start,” Valery said with a grimace.
Turning away, he began stuffing clothes into the bag with agitated movements.
“You’re always pretending to be some poor, suffering martyr. Anyone would think you were unloading freight cars instead of moving papers around an office. I work myself to death too, you know.”
“We had an agreement,” Rita continued in the same controlled tone.
She moved a little closer.
“Exactly one year ago, we sat down together and divided the expenses. You agreed to pay for the flights. I booked a luxury beachfront hotel with three meals a day and paid for it using my credit card.”
“So what?” Valery snapped.
 
“So now you’ve secretly decided to give my vacation to Raisa Borisovna?”
Valery straightened his back.
“I made that decision as the head of our family,” he declared slowly, emphasizing every word as though it should end the argument. “Mom needs the trip more than you do. What will our relatives think if I don’t take my own mother to a resort at her age? You’re young and healthy. Besides, your boss barely approved your leave anyway. You can simply withdraw the request.”
“Withdraw my vacation request,” Rita repeated, slowly considering his words.
“Exactly. You can have a wonderful time at the country house,” Valery continued confidently. “You’ll relax, get plenty of sleep, and enjoy the peace.”
He apparently believed the argument was over and his wife had finally accepted his decision.
“The air is fresh there. You don’t even have to work in the garden. You can sit outside with a book and rest. I’m thinking about you too.”
Rita looked at the man with whom she had shared fifteen years of her life. With every passing second, he seemed more and more like a complete stranger.
In Valery’s mind, he was performing a noble act. He was caring for his elderly mother and sacrificing a family vacation for her benefit. The fact that the entire holiday had been paid for with Rita’s overtime, sleepless evenings, and months of careful saving did not appear to trouble him at all.
 
“So this was your plan,” Rita said, raising one finger.
Her voice was quiet, but every word sounded heavy and precise.
“I spend half a year working a second job. Then I pay for an expensive two-week hotel stay with my own card. Meanwhile, you secretly replace me with your mother and plan to confront me with the decision when it’s already too late to change anything.”
“You’re not exactly killing yourself at work,” Valery muttered through clenched teeth.
His irritation was rising again.
“Stop counting every penny. I’ll pay you back later. As soon as I receive my bonus, I’ll compensate you.”
Rita gave a short, humorless laugh.
“You mean the bonus your employer has supposedly been promising you for three years?”
At that moment, Valery’s phone lit up on the bedside table.
Its ringtone filled the room.
A photograph of Raisa Borisovna appeared on the screen.
Valery instantly reached for it, but Rita was faster. She picked up the phone and activated the speaker.
“Yes, Raisa Borisovna?”
 
Silence came from the other end of the line.
“Rita? Where’s Valery?”
“He’s busy deciding which shirts to take,” Rita answered calmly, never taking her eyes off her husband. “Would you like me to give him a message?”
Raisa Borisovna cleared her throat.
Her voice immediately took on its familiar demanding, petulant tone—the one she always used whenever her personal comfort was involved.
“Rita, tell him to double-check the baggage allowance. I packed my orthopedic pillow, and it takes up half my suitcase. Ask him whether our hotel is definitely right on the beach, too.”
Valery stood there pale and bewildered.
He frantically gestured at Rita, urging her to end the call immediately.
But his mother was already continuing.
“With my legs, I can’t walk up and down hills.”
Rita remained silent.
“I told Valery from the beginning that he had to choose a five-star hotel. We discussed everything a month ago.”
“A month ago?” Rita repeated slowly.
She nodded faintly as the final pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
“So the two of you have been planning this trip for quite some time.”
“Of course,” her mother-in-law replied with a dismissive snort.
She still did not sense the trap.
“Valery explained that you had changed your mind about going. He said you were overwhelmed at work and would find it much more convenient to spend your vacation at the country house. Don’t be offended, Rita, but young people like you don’t need all those expensive comforts. At my age, comfort is genuinely important.”
“Of course it is,” Rita agreed.
 
She ended the call and placed Valery’s phone back on the bedside table.
Silence filled the bedroom.
Her husband breathed heavily and stared at his phone as if the device had personally betrayed him.
“So, an entire month,” Rita said, folding her arms.
She slowly shook her head.
“For a month, the two of you discussed the five-star hotel, the orthopedic pillow, the beachfront location, and the luggage allowance. Meanwhile, I continued transferring money for the reservation without realizing that your plan never included me at all.”
“That’s enough, Rita!” Valery finally shouted.
He began pacing around the bedroom, waving his arms.
“Mom is an elderly woman! How can you be so selfish? Why are you turning this into another scandal? Just accept the situation. Tomorrow, Mom and I are leaving, and you’re staying here. That’s final. The matter is closed.”
“Yes,” Rita agreed with surprising ease. “It is.”
She slipped a hand into the pocket of her lounge pants, took out her phone, unlocked it, and opened the application through which she had booked the trip.
Valery immediately became suspicious.
“What are you doing?”
He stopped pacing and watched her carefully.
“I’m arranging a truly unforgettable vacation for you.”
Rita’s fingers moved swiftly across the screen.
She opened the section containing her upcoming trips and selected the reservation.
 
Two weeks.
A hotel on the beachfront.
All meals included.
A luxurious, high-end resort.
Rita remembered the cancellation policy almost word for word.
If the reservation was canceled less than twenty-four hours before arrival, the platform would charge the cost of one night. The remainder would be refunded within several days to the card used for payment.
She looked up at her husband.
“You bought the plane tickets yourself, correct?”
She paused briefly.
“And they’re nonrefundable. That means you’ll still be able to fly.”
“Of course we’re flying!” Valery said irritably.
He stepped closer, trying to see what she was doing.
 
“But I paid for the hotel,” Rita continued calmly.
A large cancellation button appeared on the screen.
Rita pressed it.
The application displayed a warning about the penalty for canceling at such short notice.
Without hesitating, she confirmed the cancellation.
A second later, a green notification appeared: Reservation canceled.
Valery stared at her phone as though he could not believe his own eyes.
“You… What did you just do?” he asked slowly, pronouncing every word separately.
Rita placed her phone back in her pocket.
Her voice remained completely steady.
“I canceled the hotel. The money will be returned to my card, minus the price of the first night. You can consider that penalty my small contribution to your family vacation together.”
Valery stood motionless in the middle of the bedroom.
For several seconds, he did not move at all.
The carefully designed plan he had considered complete had collapsed after a single touch of the screen.
“You… How dare you?”
At last, he recovered his voice.
Rita took a step toward the doorway.
“Quite easily.”
 
She leaned one shoulder against the doorframe and looked at him calmly.
“You still have your plane tickets. You can fly there, leave the airport, and enjoy the warm sea and soft beach. If necessary, you can sleep right beside the water. The fresh sea air should be excellent for Raisa Borisovna’s joints.”
“Restore it!” Valery roared.
He rushed toward his travel bag as if a solution might somehow be hidden inside it.
“Rebook the hotel immediately! There’s almost nothing left on my card. We’ll arrive with no money! It’s high season—decent accommodation costs a fortune!”
Rita merely shrugged.
“You’re the head of the family. I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
She turned around, walked into the hallway, opened the wardrobe, and pulled out her own travel bag.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Valery shouted after her.
He rushed out of the bedroom so quickly that he nearly knocked over a nearby chair.
“On vacation,” Rita answered without emotion.
She calmly began packing her belongings.
“I’m going to turn off my phone, find a pleasant countryside spa resort, and spend two weeks there. The money I’ll receive from the canceled hotel should be more than enough.”
Rita carefully closed the zipper.
“You should finish packing. And don’t forget to call your mother. Raisa Borisovna hates being late for the airport.”
Two weeks later, Rita was stretched out on a comfortable lounge chair beside a heated pool surrounded by a peaceful pine forest.
She held a glass of ice-cold mineral water in one hand while leisurely scrolling through the news on her phone with the other.
More than fifty missed calls from Valery had accumulated in her blocked contacts.
He had tried calling from the airport.
 
Then he called again after reaching the resort.
At first, he threatened her. Then he made demands. Eventually, he began pleading and nearly begging her to respond.
Rita did not open a single message and had no intention of doing so.
She already knew everything that mattered.
When Raisa Borisovna discovered at the airport that there was no longer a paid hotel waiting for them, she caused an enormous scene in front of the check-in desk.
Valery had so little money that the only accommodation he could afford was a tiny room without air conditioning, located nearly three kilometers from the sea.
Rita smiled faintly, took another sip of cold water, and set her phone aside.
Sometimes the best vacation does not begin with a flight, an expensive hotel, or even the sea.
Sometimes it begins the moment you finally understand that the first person you need to save is yourself.