The doorbell pierced through the morning drowsiness of the house. Sharp, insistent. I frowned, lifting my head from the pillow. Who could possibly need us this early?
Tamara Pavlovna, my mother-in-law, was already shuffling down the hallway. Her whisper was louder than any shout.
— Coming, coming! No need to ring so hard…
I threw on my robe and stepped out of the room. Two policemen stood in the doorway. My heart did an awkward flip and froze.
— What happened? — my voice came out hoarse.
Tamara Pavlovna turned around. Her face was distorted with grief, her eyes red. She sobbed and pointed a trembling finger at me.
— Her! It was all her! She robbed me!
The older policeman, a man with a weary face and heavy gaze, shifted his eyes from her to me.
— Let’s go into the room. You too, — he nodded at me.
We went into the living room. My mother-in-law collapsed into an armchair, dramatically pressing her hands to her chest.
— My jewelry… family heirlooms! Great-grandmother’s ring, my mother’s earrings… all gone!
— You claim your daughter-in-law took them? — clarified the second one, a young guy pulling out a notebook.
— Who else? — wailed Tamara Pavlovna. — Just the two of us in the house! I took her in while my son, my darling boy, is away on business, and she… she spat in my soul!
I stood in the middle of the room, feeling the floor disappear beneath me. The absurdity of it all didn’t fit in my head.
I looked at her face, at the trembling lips, and saw not grief but a poorly rehearsed performance.
— Tamara Pavlovna, what are you talking about? What jewelry?
— Don’t pretend you don’t understand! — she screeched. — Last night they were still in the box, I checked! And this morning… empty!
The senior officer sighed tiredly.
— Citizen, we’ll have to inspect your belongings. Do you object?
I nodded slowly. Objecting was pointless. It would only make things worse.
— Of course. Go ahead.
The young policeman went over to my bag, left on the sofa. I watched his hands as if hypnotized.
He unzipped it, rummaged inside and… pulled out a velvet pouch. The very one I’d seen at my mother-in-law’s hundreds of times.
He untied the strings and poured the contents onto his palm. Gold glinted, stones sparkled. A ring. Earrings. A chain.
— That’s them! — cried Tamara Pavlovna triumphantly, jumping up. — My treasures! I told you! Thief!
She looked at me with undisguised triumph. Malice sparkled in her eyes. She had won.
Destroyed me. Crushed me. There were no flaws in her perfectly thought-out plan.
I shifted my gaze from her glowing face to the policemen, then to the jewelry in my bag. The trap had snapped shut.
And in that moment, I felt neither fear nor despair. But an icy, crystal-clear calm.
My mother-in-law had planted her jewelry in my bag and called the police to accuse me of theft. But she hadn’t considered that, tired of her endless nitpicking and petty sabotage, I had installed cameras in her house. In every room.
My calm seemed to unsettle everyone. Even Tamara Pavlovna stopped sobbing for a second and stared at me suspiciously.
She had expected tears, pleas for forgiveness, hysteria. Instead, I just stood and looked.
The senior policeman, Captain Sokolov, as he later introduced himself, coughed.
— Citizen… you’ll have to come with us to the station to give a statement.
— Of course, — I replied evenly. — I’m ready to give a statement. And even to help the investigation.
My mother-in-law sniffled again, but this time there was bewilderment in her voice. My compliance didn’t fit into her scenario.
— Help? — the young lieutenant asked. — How? Are you admitting guilt?
I slowly turned my gaze to him.
— Guilt in what? In someone else’s belongings ending up in my bag? No, I don’t admit that. But I do very much want to find out how they got there.
I think we’ll all find that very interesting.
I spoke slowly, clearly articulating every word. I looked straight at Tamara Pavlovna. Her face began to lose its triumphant flush, confusion creeping in.
— What nonsense are you spouting? — she hissed. — You were caught red-handed! Such insolence!
— Insolence is what’s happening right now, — I retorted without raising my voice. — Captain, I assume a criminal case will be opened for theft?
Sokolov nodded, studying me carefully. Clearly an experienced officer, he sensed something wasn’t right in this “simple” domestic theft.
— An inquiry will be carried out, and based on its results, a decision will be made whether to open a case.
— Excellent, — I allowed myself a faint smile. — I insist on the most thorough inquiry. With questioning of all possible witnesses. And examination of all possible evidence.
I paused, then added, addressing my mother-in-law.
— After all, you want the truth to triumph, don’t you, Tamara Pavlovna? For the thief to be punished to the full extent of the law?
She flinched as if struck.
— Of course I do! And the thief is right here!
— Then surely you’ll agree to provide the investigation with everything necessary. For example, recordings… if they exist. To reconstruct the events. Down to the smallest detail.
The air in the room grew thick. Tamara Pavlovna stared at me wide-eyed. Slowly, the meaning of my words was dawning on her. Her face shifted from confusion to fear. She swallowed hard.
— What recordings? — she stammered. — What are you talking about?
— About justice, — I replied gently. — Captain, I’m ready to go. I just need a couple of minutes to get dressed.
Sokolov nodded, never taking his studying gaze off me. He was silent, but I could see the gears turning in his head.
He no longer looked at me like a thief. He looked at me like a player in a very strange game.
When I came out of my room dressed and with my phone in hand, Tamara Pavlovna sat in the armchair white as chalk. Her triumph had completely vanished. Now her eyes held only animal terror.
In Captain Sokolov’s office the air smelled of state furniture and fatigue. My mother-in-law, brought in as the victim, sat by the wall nervously twisting her handkerchief. Her eyes darted between me and the captain.
— So, — Sokolov laid the protocol before him. — You still claim your daughter-in-law stole your jewelry. And you, — he turned to me, — you still deny guilt.
— I don’t just deny it, Captain, — I answered calmly. — I state that a crime has been committed against me. False accusation and slander. And I have irrefutable evidence.
I unlocked my phone and opened the cloud storage app where recordings from the cameras streamed in real time.
— Tamara Pavlovna, maybe you’d like to tell the truth yourself? This is your last chance.
She shrank into the chair, her lips trembling.
— I… I don’t know anything… She… she framed me!
I sighed and turned my phone screen toward the captain.
— Here’s the living room footage. Yesterday, 11:14 p.m.
The screen showed the nighttime living room. The door opened quietly, and Tamara Pavlovna tiptoed in.
She looked around, went to the sofa where my bag lay, opened it… and carefully slipped the velvet pouch inside. Then she disappeared just as quietly.
Sokolov silently watched the screen. His face grew harder by the second. I played the next file.
— And here’s footage from her bedroom. Today, 7:02 a.m.
On the video, Tamara Pavlovna walked around the room rehearsing. She wrung her hands, sobbed, pressed her palms to her chest.
Then she picked up the phone and dialed. The sound was perfect. “Hello, police? I’ve been robbed! My own daughter-in-law robbed me!”
The captain slowly raised his head and looked at my mother-in-law. His gaze promised nothing good.
— Tamara Pavlovna…
But she no longer heard him. She stared at my phone screen in horror, as if she had seen a ghost. Then her face twisted, she let out a strangled howl, and slid off the chair.
— On your feet! — barked Sokolov.
The performance was over. Reality had begun.
An hour later I walked out of the police station. All suspicion was lifted from me and I was given an apology. A case was opened against Tamara Pavlovna on two counts.
Part of the house was in my husband’s name, so I had every right to install cameras there.
When I returned to her house to collect my things, my husband Igor was waiting. He had rushed back from his business trip as soon as they called him.
He stood in the middle of the living room, pale, bewildered.
— Anya… they told me everything. Forgive me. Forgive me for her.
I walked up and silently embraced him. I didn’t need words. The important thing was he was here. He was on my side.
We left that same day. I never saw Tamara Pavlovna again. I only know that the court gave her a suspended sentence and ordered her to pay me compensation for moral damages.
Sometimes I think of that day. Of her face, full of triumph, turning into horror.
She had been so certain of her impunity, of her cleverness. But she had miscalculated.
She didn’t know that the quiet, obedient daughter-in-law had long since stopped being a victim. And had learned to defend herself. Not with shouting. But with her mind.