The day turned out to be chaotic. Vera hadn’t dealt with such difficult clients in a long time. She even wanted to send him away for good, but Vera valued her reputation, and her law firm was one of the most popular in the city. She returned home dreaming of a hot shower, fragrant tea, and the book she hadn’t finished yesterday. Her husband was supposed to return from a business trip today, which meant he would be sleeping soundly for a whole day, so Vera would have some time to relax and put herself together.
Upon opening the door, she immediately noticed changes in her own home. A large bag like those used by shuttle traders in the nineties stood in the hallway, a woman’s coat hung on the rack, and women’s boots were scattered near the shoe shelf. Her husband’s things were in place, so he was home. Vera took off her outerwear, put her boots on the shelf, and shuddered when a woman emerged from the kitchen. Vera didn’t recognize her as her mother-in-law at first. She had become plump and unkempt, not at all the lady Vera had seen three years ago.
“Showed up, have you?” Ada Nikolaevna asked and smiled broadly, Vera noticed that the woman had lost several front teeth over time. Her mother-in-law had always taken care of herself. “I just cooked something, come join me.”
“What are you doing in my apartment?” Vera managed to say with difficulty.
“I’m living! I’ll be living with you,” her mother-in-law declared proudly.
“What do you mean ‘living with us’?” Vera couldn’t gather her thoughts from such audacity. Three years ago, Ada Nikolaevna had kicked her son and his wife out of her apartment, into nowhere. At that time, Vera had just started building her own business, Valeriy had lost his job just then, and they were expecting a baby. But Ada Nikolaevna had stated that it was time to think about her personal life, as her son was grown up and could take care of his own family.
At that time, Vera’s grandmother was ill and had long ago transferred her studio apartment to her favorite and only granddaughter, but Vera could not decide to go to her grandmother’s, even though she was the official owner of the apartment. She understood that her grandmother had taken care of her future, but now she needed the apartment herself. Of course, she helped the old lady. She visited her every day, cooked, did laundry, helped her bathe. But creating inconvenience for her, upsetting her, was something she could not do.
Ada Nikolaevna didn’t allow them to stay even for a day to find rental housing. She brought home a man slightly older than her son and introduced him as her boyfriend. Vera cringed at those words. She and Valeriy hastily packed their things and, sitting on the biting wind outside, searched for any housing. Money was tight and they only managed to settle late at night, after many trials. They found a room in a wooden “bedbug nest” and were glad to have at least some roof over their heads.
Because of what happened, Vera lost her baby and for three years could not get pregnant again. Soon after those events, Vera’s grandmother died. It all piled up at once. Even though the housing issue was now resolved, Vera was deeply distressed, having lost a loved one. She didn’t even want to think about her mother-in-law; Valeriy also called her only a couple of times, and she claimed that everything was just fine, no need to worry about her.
And now, this very woman, who had kicked out her son and pregnant daughter-in-law from her three-room apartment, now stood in Vera’s studio and looked at her as if she owned the place.
“Well, that means!” Ada Nikolaevna kept smiling, and Vera struggled to hold back her discontent.
“Got cramped in your own apartment?” Vera asked, “so you decided to grace our ‘palace’?”
“Oh, don’t you taunt me!” snapped the mother-in-law. “It’s tight, but not offended! My apartment is gone, and never will be. Come on, let’s go! I even brought some wine. For peace! Come on!”
“Ada Nikolaevna!” Vera maintained her composure, “I came back from work and really want to rest. In my own apartment! And I ask you to leave with your things! Immediately!”
“What?” The mother-in-law flashed a sparkling glance and shouted into the depths of the apartment, “Valerka, stop sleeping! Come put your lady in her place!”
Valeriy emerged from the room, stretching sweetly on the go.
“Hello, darling!” he pecked Vera on the cheek and looked at his mother, “What’s the fuss?”
“Well, here, your wife is driving me out!” said with such contempt that Vera wanted to throw her out the door herself.
“Vera, I brought her here, what’s up? She’s homeless, couldn’t even call us, didn’t know the new numbers. I met her at the station, where she’s been staying for over a week somehow, I couldn’t just leave her on the street, after all, she’s my mother!”
“And it’s my apartment!” Vera shouted bitterly, “And we ourselves hardly have enough space here!”
“Oh, as if I’ll crowd you!” interjected the mother-in-law, “just throw some mat in the kitchen for me, and that’s enough!”
“The kitchen is not a shelter for the homeless!” Vera countered.
“Vera, listen, why are you like this,” Valeriy patted her on the back and led her into the room, “Sit down, listen! Mother got into a difficult situation. Her cohabitant deceived her, first pulled all her savings, leaving her with nothing, see how she looks now, then forced her to sell the apartment, allegedly to move south, which she always dreamed about. He said, as if he had already found a house there, went to negotiate. And she, as soon as she sells the apartment, will transfer the money to him and follow. He was supposed to settle everything by her arrival. Well, that’s what she did. And as soon as she transferred the money, he stopped answering calls and never called once. We have to help her, Vera, she’s not strangers! You’re a lawyer, try to cancel the sale transaction.”
“Valerik, are you out of your mind? What about the bona fide buyers? They bought the apartment fair and square, unless your mother was forced at gunpoint to sign the papers, and even then, it would still have to be proven.”
“So what about that scoundrel? Maybe turn it around, that she transferred it wrong or something? For fraud, let him return everything!”
“Valer, you’re an adult, and you’re saying such silly things. He’s not a fool, surely, and unlikely to return the money, he’s already managed to move it somewhere, it couldn’t be otherwise. But even if! Even if you manage to find him, get him convicted, and he’s ordered to return that money, he can simply pay a thousand a month and no one will punish him for that – he won’t refuse to pay, just, of course, he won’t have the whole amount. Didn’t she realize what this could lead to when she only got involved with that young man?”
“Well, do something, Vera! We can’t just leave her on the street. She’s a mother, after all!”
“Unpleasant to remind, but sorry, Valer, did she think you were her son when she was driving us into the unknown? She didn’t even ask about the child, knowing I was pregnant at the time. She, apparently, considers us strangers, and if she hadn’t been desperate, she would never have remembered.”
“Well, you know, who brings up the old…”
“Exactly! Let’s not bring up the old, but now let your mother pack up and find herself another refuge. I don’t want to live in my own apartment under cramped circumstances, and I won’t!”
“Vera, you’re a kind, sensitive person! If she were your client, would you treat her the same?”
“I’m not against helping her, I’ll draft a police report, and that’s it. Beyond that, she can pursue justice herself, but there’s no place for her in my house! I haven’t forgotten what caused the miscarriage back then! I haven’t forgotten sitting on a cold bench all night! Don’t be offended, but show her the door.”
“I can’t just kick my mother out on the street!”
“Can’t you? Well, then rent her a room in a hotel from your savings, or rent an apartment for a month, and then let her figure out what to do next, she’s not a little girl, she’ll manage!”
“Didn’t think you’d turn out to be so cruel, Vera. It’s no wonder they say, you live with a person and don’t know what to expect from him!”
“How right you are, dear! Didn’t think you’d forget how Ada Nikolaevna once treated us. For the sake of you, your family, she refused to swap her apartment, and to some scoundrel, she gave everything to the last penny.”
“You can’t be so unforgiving, Vera!”
“Can’t I? Now I don’t even know if I’ll ever be able to become a mother! And you tell me I can’t?!”
“Vera, you can’t bring back the past, but now, directly depends on us the fate of a person not foreign to us.”
“For me, this person is absolutely foreign!” Vera exclaimed. “I’m saying it for the last time! I want to rest in a peaceful environment, tomorrow I have to deal with a complicated client case, so, sort out the issue with your mother, but not in my apartment! If you can’t show her the door, go with her.”
“And rightly so! Let’s go, son, why do you need such a wife? She abandons in trouble, how can that be?! And if something happens to you, she’ll throw you out without regret, like an unwanted dog.”
“Enough, both of you! Get out of my house! Bad wife you have, Valerik, go please a good mama, go together with her, but immediately! I don’t need such a husband either, who doesn’t care about my feelings!”
“Oh, what feelings can you have?!” Ada Nikolaevna was enraged.
“Exactly, none! And that’s why, if you don’t leave immediately, I’ll throw all your things off the balcony!”
“Pack up, mom,” Valeriy said and burned his wife with a look, “we’ll find where to go.”
“So, what, we won’t even eat? I cooked there, and wine…”
Vera bitterly smiled.
“Take it with you!”
A few minutes later, the door slammed loudly. Vera shuddered and, falling onto the bed, cried bitterly. Memories of when the mother-in-law kicked them out without a drop of remorse, as they sat under the rain, searched the internet on their phone, called, then that room with cockroaches, fear, and… miscarriage. Vera could never forgive that. She wasn’t one of those who could understand and forgive everything. She dreamed of a child, and she was deprived of that happiness.
Or maybe she was wrong after all? Maybe fate arranged it so then, and now, on the contrary, it brought Ada Nikolaevna into her apartment to test Vera, to challenge her humanity. Maybe she should have helped, and her husband was right?! Vera couldn’t sleep until morning, and she had to go to work. She decided to call Valeriy, find out how they were, where, but the subscriber was unavailable.
Vera had to pull herself together, drink stronger coffee, and go to the office. Taking documents with her, she asked her assistant to disturb her only on very serious matters. Returning home, she first was surprised that the door wasn’t locked – had she not locked it when leaving? But quietly entering, she saw the same boots and heard voices.
“And take all the money you have. You earned it too!” insisted Ada Nikolaevna.
“We don’t keep cash,” Valeriy responded.
“The cards, then, take all of them, cash them out, she shouldn’t leave anything for her! Now every penny will come in handy for you, to please Nade. Good woman, well done for not being faithful to that bitchy Verochka! A real man always has a mistress!”
“Mom, Nadya is not my mistress.”
“Oh, come on! Do you think I didn’t notice how she looks at you, in love, like a cat in March!”
“Yes, she’s fond of me, that’s why I brought you to her, knew she wouldn’t turn you away.”
“Tell me again there was nothing between you! I’d believe that, how!”
“There was one mistake, after a corporate party, but it means nothing, understand! I love Vera. Let her get nervous a bit, learn to respect her husband and love his mother, then I’ll return to her, but for now, we’ll live at Nadya’s.”
“Why would you want that Vera, with her studio? Nadya has a room for me, and she took me in like a human. Stay with her!”
“Mom, all your problems will be resolved, and you’ll live independently again, just wait for Vera to hustle to help you.”
“Vera won’t hustle!” heard his wife’s voice and flinched with surprise. “Exactly, fate controls everything, no other way! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have found out that I was being cuckolded, and they, sorry, don’t adorn me.”
Vera sat in the armchair and watched as Valeriy packed his things in a bag.
“I’ll watch, or you’ll take mine too,” she said and thought how right she was yesterday, “And yes, your cards are all empty, remember, and don’t even count on mine, otherwise you’ll owe yourself, I’m a lawyer, as you love to remind yourself!”
The man was nervous and, without packing all the things, zipped up the bag and, nodding to his mother, silently left the room. He didn’t try to justify himself, didn’t ask for forgiveness.
“Well, that’s all!” thought Vera, when they left the apartment, and called the locksmith to change the locks.