Alexandra stood in the middle of the living room, her back straight. An unfamiliar firmness rang in her voice. Leonty, sprawled on the sofa with a tablet in his hands, didn’t even look up.
“Sasha, don’t talk nonsense,” he muttered, scrolling through the news feed. “You’ll get your paycheck soon—then you’ll give Mom money for her medicine.”
His mother, Evdokia Markovna, sat in the armchair opposite, methodically knitting yet another useless scarf in a pointless shade of purple. Leonty’s father, Spiridon Vasilyevich, was dozing by the TV, where a fishing show was playing. His sister, Milolika—yes, their parents really named her that in a burst of originality—was painting her nails right on the coffee table Alexandra had brought home from an antique shop.
“ENOUGH!” Alexandra’s voice boomed so loudly that Spiridon Vasilyevich jolted awake and Milolika smeared polish across her finger.
“Why are you yelling?” Leonty finally tore his eyes from the screen. “The neighbors will hear.”
“Let them hear! Let EVERYONE hear!” Alexandra swept her gaze over the gathered family. “I’ve put up with this for three years. THREE YEARS! You moved in ‘for a week,’ until the renovation in your apartment was finished. What renovation? Where is this mythical apartment?”
Evdokia Markovna set her knitting aside; her thin lips pressed into a hard line.
“Alexandra, dear girl, you’re overworked. Sit down—I’ll make you some chamomile tea.”
“I DON’T NEED your tea!” Alexandra stepped forward. “You’ve turned my life into a nightmare! I’m a lead architect, I design buildings—and I come home to what? Evdokia Markovna ordering me around about what I should cook for dinner. Spiridon Vasilyevich tossing cigarette butts on the balcony, even though I’ve asked a thousand times not to smoke in the apartment. Milolika taking my things without permission!”
“Sashenka, those are little things,” Leonty said, getting up from the sofa and coming closer. “We’re family.”
“Family? FAMILY?!” Alexandra backed away from him. “Your mother never misses a chance to remind me I’m the ‘wrong kind of wife’ because I can’t bake blini like she does. Last week your father told my coworkers that architecture isn’t women’s work and that it’s time for me to have children!”
“Dad just made a bad joke,” Leonty tried to take her hand, but Alexandra yanked away.
“And YOU? What are YOU DOING? You quit your job six months ago, supposedly ‘looking for work.’ But I’ve seen your browser history—online games and TV shows! You live on MY money and still throw it in my face that I don’t bring home enough!”
Milolika snorted, still painting her nails.
“So what if she earns money. Leonty’s a man—he needs time to find a decent position.”
“Decent?” Alexandra spun toward her sister-in-law. “He turned down five offers! Either the pay was too low, or the commute was too far, or he didn’t like the boss!”
“Don’t yell at my daughter!” Evdokia Markovna rose from her chair. “Milolika is right. You’re supposed to support your husband, not nag him. I never did that to Spiridon, not once—”
“SILENCE!” Alexandra stomped her foot. “All of you—SILENCE and LISTEN! You’ve been leeching off me for three years! Evdokia Markovna, you’re supposedly sick, but I’ve seen you dragging huge bags from the market—buying groceries with MY money for your girlfriends! Spiridon Vasilyevich, you get a pension, but you don’t put in a kopek, while every week you buy ridiculously expensive fishing gear for a trip you take once a year!”
“How dare you—” Spiridon Vasilyevich started, but Alexandra cut him off.
“And you, Milolika! You’re thirty-two years old! THIRTY-TWO! You don’t work, you don’t study—you’re living off your parents, which means off ME! You buy cosmetics with my card—yes, I see the statements!—and you still DARE criticize how I dress!”
“Leonty, calm your wife down!” Milolika shrieked.
Leonty looked helplessly from his relatives to his wife.
“Sasha, come on… don’t do this. We can talk it out…”
“No! We ‘talked it out’ three years ago!” Alexandra pulled a stack of documents from her bag. “This is my apartment. ONLY MINE. Bought before the marriage with the money my grandmother left me. You are NOBODY here. GET OUT!”
“You can’t kick us out,” Evdokia Markovna said, folding her arms. “We’re registered here…”
“No, you’re not. I checked. Leonty promised to register you, but he never did. Too lazy to go to the service center, right, dear husband?”
Leonty went pale.
“Sasha, let’s talk in private…”
“There’s nothing left to talk about. You have one hour to pack. ONE HOUR. Then I call security. Yes, I hired a security agency. They’re waiting downstairs.”
“You’ve lost your mind!” Spiridon Vasilyevich flushed. “Leonty, are you really going to let this IDIOT talk to us like that?”
“Dad, let’s not—” Leonty tried to calm him.
“LET’S NOT?!” Spiridon Vasilyevich waved his arms. “We raised you, we brought you up, and you let some GIRL humiliate us!”
“Some GIRL?” Alexandra laughed. “This ‘girl’ has fed your whole family for three years! Paid the utilities, bought groceries, bought clothes for your overgrown son! And what does she get in return? Disrespect, rudeness, constant nagging!”
“We help around the house,” Evdokia Markovna objected.
“Help? You rearranged all the furniture to your taste! You threw out my favorite curtains and hung those hideous orange rags! You forced me to give up my office so Milolika could have a room! I work from home at the kitchen table while your daughter watches TV shows in MY office!”
“I need personal space,” Milolika declared.
“Personal space is EARNED!” Alexandra slammed printouts onto the table. “Here are your expenses for last month. Seventeen thousand on cosmetics, Milolika. Twenty-five thousand on fishing gear, Spiridon Vasilyevich. Eight thousand on yarn, Evdokia Markovna—cashmere yarn! And Leonty… oh, my dear husband spent thirty thousand on in-game purchases!”
“How did you—” Leonty grabbed the papers.
“I have access to the family account. Or rather, I DID. I closed it an hour ago.”
“You have no right!” Evdokia Markovna screamed. “That’s shared money!”
“Shared whose? I’m the only one earning it! And you’re only spending it! And you know what? I’m tired of being a cash cow for a family of PARASITES!”
“Sasha, stop!” Leonty tried to raise his voice. “You’re insulting my parents!”
“And they don’t insult me? When your mother told my friends I’m a ‘cold careerist who can’t create a cozy home’? Or when your father told my boss I’d be going on maternity leave soon, even though I’ve told him a thousand times I’m not planning kids for the next few years?”
“Every woman has to give birth!” Evdokia Markovna cut in. “It’s nature!”
“My nature is designing buildings—not servicing your INFANTILE son!”
“That’s enough!” Leonty slammed his fist on the table. “Sasha, you’ve gone too far! You think because you earn money you can humiliate everyone?”
“And you think because you’re relatives you can LIVE AT MY EXPENSE and lecture me about life?” Alexandra took out her phone. “The clock’s running. Fifty-five minutes.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Spiridon Vasilyevich declared. “This is our home too.”
“No, it’s MY home! The one you turned into a train station! Do you know how many times I’ve found strangers in this apartment? Your friends, your acquaintances, some distant relatives! They all come ‘for tea’ and leave with my books, my CDs—my jewelry even went missing!”
“No one took anything!” Milolika protested.
“Oh yeah? Then where are the earrings my mother gave me?”
“I thought it was costume jewelry…”
“And you SOLD them to your friend for three thousand? Yes, I know. She admitted it to me herself when she found out it was white gold with diamonds worth two hundred thousand!”
Milolika went white.
“I… I didn’t know…”
“Of course you didn’t! You don’t know ANYTHING except how to spend other people’s money!”
“Leonty, do something!” Evdokia Markovna begged.
Leonty walked up to Alexandra and tried to hug her.
“Sunshine, let’s calm down. You’re tired, you’re nervous. We’ll discuss everything…”
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” Alexandra shoved him away. “‘Sunshine’—you only remember I’m your ‘sunshine’ when you NEED MONEY! The rest of the time I’m ‘a nag,’ ‘a bore,’ ‘a workaholic’!”
“I never said that…”
“You did! Yesterday on the phone with your buddy Yelisey! I heard everything! How I’m ‘sick of her demands,’ and how you’ll ‘put her in her place’ soon!”
“You were eavesdropping?”
“I live in MY apartment! I have the right to hear what’s being said inside MY walls!”
“You know what?” Leonty straightened up. “Yes, my family isn’t perfect. But they’re MY family! And you… you’re just a selfish woman who only thinks about her career and money!”
“If I didn’t think about money, you’d all STARVE TO DEATH!” Alexandra snapped, then immediately bit her tongue.
Silence fell. Spiridon Vasilyevich turned crimson, Evdokia Markovna clutched her chest, Milolika’s mouth fell open in outrage.
“So that’s how it is,” Leonty said slowly. “So that’s what you really think of us.”
“Yes! That’s exactly what I think!” Alexandra couldn’t hold back anymore. “You’ve latched onto me like leeches! You suck out my money, my strength, my time! I can’t invite friends—Evdokia Markovna criticizes them! I can’t work in peace—Spiridon Vasilyevich blasts the TV at full volume! I can’t rest—Milolika throws parties with her girlfriends!”
“We’ll leave,” Leonty suddenly said. “But you’ll regret it, Sasha. You’ll regret it a lot.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’m stating a fact. You’ll end up alone. Completely alone. With your career and money.”
“Better alone than with PARASITES!”
“Come on, Mom,” Leonty said, helping Evdokia Markovna up. “Pack your things. We’re leaving.”
The next forty minutes passed in silence. The relatives packed their things, clattering suitcases on purpose. Alexandra stood by the window and watched.
As they were leaving, Evdokia Markovna stopped at the door.
“Remember this day, Alexandra. You drove out a family. It will come back to you.”
“Goodbye, Evdokia Markovna.”
Leonty lingered last.
“Sasha, you can still fix everything. Apologize, and we’ll forget…”
“GET OUT!”
He left, slamming the door.
Alexandra was alone in the apartment’s silence. She slowly walked from room to room. Everywhere were traces of three years of “family” living there: a scorched sofa—Spiridon Vasilyevich smoked despite the bans; scratched parquet—Milolika walked in stilettos; splattered kitchen walls—Evdokia Markovna cooked her “signature” dishes without caring about mess.
Alexandra sat down on the floor in the middle of the living room and cried—not out of self-pity, but out of relief. Finally. FINALLY they were gone.
A week passed. Alexandra savored the quiet and calm. She rearranged the furniture, threw out the orange curtains, got her office back. Work went brilliantly—without constant interruptions she finished the shopping center project ahead of schedule and received a bonus.
On Friday evening, the doorbell rang. Alexandra opened it—Leonty stood on the doorstep: rumpled, unshaven, eyes red.
“Can I come in?”
“Why?”
“To talk. Please, Sasha.”
She let him in. Leonty walked into the living room and looked around.
“It’s beautiful now. Like it used to be.”
“What do you WANT, Leonty?”
“To come back.”
Alexandra laughed.
“And why would I?”
“I realized I was wrong. My parents… they really did go too far. I talked to them, and they’re ready to apologize.”
“No.”
“Sasha, come on, let’s try again. Just you and me. My parents will live separately.”
“Where? They don’t have an apartment. You admitted that a week ago.”
Leonty hesitated.
“Well… they’re staying with Aunt Svetlana for now. In a one-room apartment. Four of them in one room. Mom cries every day.”
“Not my problem.”
“Sasha, don’t be so cruel!”
“Cruel? I endured abuse for three years! And now I’m the cruel one?”
“We can rent them an apartment…”
“With what money? Yours? You don’t work.”
“I’ll find a job! I promise!”
“Your promises are worth nothing, Leonty.”
He stood and paced the room.
“You know, Mom always said you were heartless. I didn’t believe her. Turns out she was right.”
“If that’s all, then LEAVE.”
“You’ll regret this, Alexandra. No one will want to live with someone so cold, so calculating—”
“GET OUT!”
Leonty left, slamming the door again.
A month went by. Alexandra lived calmly and happily. Work, friends, hobbies—everything she never had time or energy for before. She started going to the gym again and resumed meeting her girlfriends.
One evening she ran into Yelisey, Leonty’s friend.
“Alexandra! How are you?”
“Wonderful, thank you.”
“Heard you and Lyona split up.”
“Yes—and I’m very happy about it.”
Yelisey shifted awkwardly.
“You know, he’s not doing so well…”
“Not interested.”
“No, seriously, maybe you should know… He got into debt.”
“What?”
“He took out a loan from a microfinance company. Said he’d start a business. But he blew it all on games. Online poker.”
Alexandra shook her head.
“Predictable.”
“Now he’s being threatened. Collectors. It’s almost a million now with interest.”
“And what does he plan to do?”
“I don’t know. He’s hiding. His parents are trying to borrow money, but nobody lends them anything. Everyone knows they won’t pay it back.”
“That’s a shame. But it’s not my problem.”
Yelisey nodded and left.
Two weeks later an unknown number called Alexandra.
“Alexandra Sergeyevna? This is Investigator Mitrofanov. Your ex-husband Leonty listed you as a contact person.”
“What happened?”
“He’s in the hospital. Debt collectors beat him. He’s in serious condition.”
Alexandra was silent for a moment.
“I’m very sorry. But I can’t help. We’re divorced.”
“He asked me to tell you he’s remorseful. And that you were right.”
“Thank you for letting me know.”
She hung up. She felt calm. No pity, no urge to help. Leonty chose his own path.
That evening Evdokia Markovna called. Her voice trembled; sobs could be heard.
“Alexandra, sweetheart, help! Lyonechka is in the hospital, we need money for treatment, for the debts…”
“Evdokia Markovna, I already told you—it’s not my problem.”
“But you loved him! We were a family!”
“We were. Not anymore.”
“You heartless bitch!” Evdokia Markovna shrieked. “I hope you die!”
Alexandra calmly ended the call and blocked the number.
Another half year passed. Alexandra heard from mutual acquaintances that Leonty had been discharged from the hospital but became disabled—spinal damage. His parents sold everything, even their wedding rings, to pay off the debts. Milolika married some older businessman, moved to another city, and doesn’t keep in touch with her parents.
Spiridon Vasilyevich got a job as a night watchman; Evdokia Markovna became a cleaner. They live in a rented room. Leonty stays at home and can’t work because of the injury.
As for Alexandra, she got promoted—she became chief architect at a large company. She bought a house outside the city, got a dog, and met an interesting man—Rodion, the owner of a construction firm. He respected her work, didn’t meddle with advice, and didn’t bring relatives into her home.
One day, walking through the park with Rodion and the dog, Alexandra saw a hunched figure on a bench. It was Leonty—older, grayer, leaning on a cane. He lifted his head; their eyes met.
“Sasha…” he whispered.
She walked past without looking back. Seeing her reaction, Rodion slipped an arm around her shoulders.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m perfectly fine.”
And it was true. She had made the right choice back then, a year ago. She threw out the parasites and got her life back. And Leonty… Leonty got what he deserved. Greed, laziness, disrespect for someone close—everything returned to him like a boomerang.
That same evening an unknown number called. She answered.
“Alexandra Sergeyevna? This is Notary Verigin. I have news for you. Your second cousin once removed in Switzerland, Antonina Pavlovna, has passed away and left you an inheritance.”
“What? But I’ve never even met her…”
“She followed your life from afar. The will says: ‘To my grandniece Alexandra, the only one in the family who can stand up for herself and doesn’t let others sit on her neck.’ You inherit a villa in Zurich and four million euros.”
Alexandra sank onto the sofa. What a twist.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Come to the office, we’ll process the paperwork. And congratulations.”
She hung up and laughed. Life is a strange thing. The moment she got rid of dead weight, miracles started happening.
Rodion came into the room with two glasses of wine.
“Good news?”
“Amazing news. Rodion—how would you feel about living in Switzerland for a while?”
“With you? Anywhere in the world.”
They clinked glasses. Alexandra thought of Leonty and his family. What would they say if they found out about the inheritance? They’d probably come running with apologies and tears. But it was too late. That train had left.
Two years later, Leonty got a job as a janitor at the municipal housing office—the only work he could do with his bad back, rented a corner in someone else’s place, and slowly learned to live independently, realizing it was too late to grow up at thirty-five. Meanwhile Alexandra was furnishing the terrace of her Zurich villa, sipping morning coffee with a view of the Alps, and thinking that she had never in her life felt as calm and happy as she did now—surrounded only by those she had chosen herself.