— “The house was bought during the marriage, so go after your half!” Alexey’s mother lectured. “The law is on your side, son.”
Alexey lay stretched out on the sofa. The talk with his wife didn’t weigh on him at all. The divorce was already decided.
“Mom, what half?” he yawned. “Everything’s in my name.”
“Put it in the Pope’s name for all I care,” Maria Alexeyevna said firmly. “Was it acquired in the marriage? Then it’s shared. You want that… that… woman to beg you for a slice?”
“She won’t ask.”
“That’s where you’re wrong!” his mother snapped. “She’s a crafty little fox—quiet, meek, and still stirring the waters. I told you from the start you should’ve picked someone simpler. This one sits there saying nothing, and then—boom—she’ll claim her rights at full throttle!”
Alexey yawned again. He was used to his mother deciding everything for him.
“Here’s what you do,” she went on. “Tell her she won’t get a single kopek. If she protests, scare her with a lawyer. She’s not a poor girl, but women always want money. She’ll run the moment she realizes she can’t claim anything.”
Alexey gave a short snort. He’d seen how Anya had changed these past months. Before, she really was quiet—almost invisible. Now there was a cold distance in her. And if earlier he could raise his voice and she’d immediately start justifying herself, now her silence hit harder than any words.
“Enough, Mom. I’ll deal with it,” he muttered, getting up. “She’s coming.”
Keys clicked in the lock.
Anna came home late from work, her scarf pulled up to her face. She hadn’t even taken off her coat yet, but she already felt the tension in the air. In the living room, Maria Alexeyevna sat like the unquestioned lady of the house, while Alexey had his fingers laced together and stared at the wall.
“So, are you eating?” Anna asked calmly, slipping off her gloves.
“Sit down. We need to talk,” Alexey replied shortly.
She lowered herself onto the edge of the armchair, like a guest in her own home.
“Listen, Anya,” Alexey began. “You understand we’re divorcing.”
Anna nodded silently.
“And the house stays with me,” he continued, keeping his voice even.
She looked up at him, but didn’t speak.
“It’s registered to me. You didn’t contribute.”
Maria Alexeyevna gave a satisfied little grunt, but Anna ignored her.
“Didn’t contribute?” Anna repeated slowly.
“Well, yes. I paid the mortgage. You earned too, but you had your own salary. You spent it on yourself—I never asked you for anything.”
Anna looked at him in a way that gave Alexey a strange feeling—like he’d just said something very wrong.
“I bought the groceries. I paid for the renovation,” she said evenly. “Two years ago you lost your job, and I carried everything alone. Want me to remind you whose name the furniture loan is in?”
Alexey opened his mouth, but said nothing.
“My boy, don’t fall for it!” Maria Alexeyevna cut in. “Now she’ll start splitting everything down the middle!”
“I won’t,” Anna smirked. “You can keep the house.”
“Good,” Alexey exhaled, relieved.
“But on one condition,” she added.
Alexey’s mother stiffened, as if she sensed a trick.
“You pay me compensation for my share.”
“And why would I?” Maria Alexeyevna demanded.
Anna stood up and paced the room, as if gathering her thoughts.
“Alexey,” she said gently, turning back to her husband, “if you’d said this to me six months ago, I would’ve just left—no demands, nothing. But these months taught me a lot. You’re used to me always giving in. You think I don’t have a backbone. But I do.”
“You—you…” Maria Alexeyevna started, but Anna stopped her with a gesture.
“You’re right,” Anna said, returning her attention to Alexey. “The house is in your name. But in court I only need one bank statement and a handful of receipts to prove I put at least as much into this place as you did.”
“Anya, that’s… that’s…” Alexey flushed.
“That’s called the law,” she said quietly.
Maria Alexeyevna jumped to her feet.
“Would you look at that! A snake! Sweet at first, and now she bites!”
Anna shook her head.
“I’m not a snake. I’m just tired of being convenient.”
She walked to the door, took her coat from the rack, and, turning back, said:
“You’ve got a week. Either you pay compensation, or we’ll see each other in court.”
And she left, abandoning her husband in stunned confusion.
That night Alexey couldn’t sleep. He tried to convince himself Anna was bluffing—that she wouldn’t sue, wouldn’t fight for money. But he couldn’t shake the unease.
Maria Alexeyevna raged all evening.
“What a vicious witch! Did you hear her? Compensation—can you imagine the nerve!”
But Alexey understood: this wouldn’t end easily.
The next morning he decided to check something. He opened the safe with the documents, pulled out the deed, and skimmed it. Right—everything was in his name.
Then his eyes caught a small, neat sheet folded in half.
A deed of gift.
Slowly, Alexey unfolded it.
His breath caught.
The document stated that part of the house already belonged to Anna.
He reread it in horror. Yes—this was the very agreement he’d signed two years earlier, when Anna helped him pay off part of the loan and he transferred half the property to her. Back then he hadn’t even thought about it.
“Damn…” he muttered.
Maria Alexeyevna poked her head into the office.
“What did you find?”
Alexey turned slowly.
“Mom…” he whispered. “She has a share.”
“What?”
“Half the house,” he swallowed. “Officially registered to her.”
Maria Alexeyevna dropped onto a chair as if she’d been struck.
Alexey kept scanning the paper.
“No way…” he breathed.
“What do you mean, ‘no way’?!” Maria Alexeyevna snatched the document from his hands and stared. “What is this madness?!”
“I signed it myself,” Alexey rubbed his face. “Two years ago.”
His mother stared at him, stunned.
“When?!”
He remembered that day in every detail. He had no job, and Anna offered to take on part of the loan payments so they wouldn’t drown in debt. That was when she insisted on formalizing it.
“So she planned it back then!” his mother hissed. “Paid on purpose so she could grab half later!”
“No,” Alexey murmured.
He remembered how Anna had soothed him, told him not to worry, said it was just a formality.
“Doesn’t matter!” Maria Alexeyevna snapped, springing up. “We’re going to a lawyer! This can be challenged!”
But Alexey already knew it couldn’t.
The next day he called Anna himself.
“I’d like to meet,” his voice tense.
“Okay. Tonight?”
“Yes.”
Anna arrived on time. When she entered the living room, Alexey noticed her eyes drift over the house with something like quiet regret.
“Alright,” Alexey said, nervous. “I get it now.”
Anna nodded slowly.
“Good.”
“And?”
“And I’m not giving up my share,” she said softly.
Maria Alexeyevna pushed in:
“Of course not! You’ve just been waiting for the moment to grab a bigger bite!”
Anna looked at her mother-in-law, but didn’t answer.
“So what are you suggesting?” Alexey asked.
“Simple. You buy out my share. Or we sell the house and split the money.”
Maria Alexeyevna actually coughed from indignation.
“Anya,” Alexey realized it wasn’t going to go the way he’d imagined. “You know I don’t have the money to buy you out.”
“I know.”
“So you want to sell the house?”
“Yes—if you can’t pay compensation.”
“And where will you live?” his mother asked sharply.
Anna shrugged.
“I’ll rent a place.”
“And what about the money?”
“I’ll buy my own home.”
Maria Alexeyevna threw up her hands.
“Are you out of your mind? You can’t manage alone—rent and then a mortgage for your own place!”
Anna looked at her calmly.
“I think you should worry less about me and more about yourselves.”
Alexey let out a heavy breath.
“Are you really set on this?”
“Yes.”
He looked at his wife, and suddenly a strange feeling swept over him—like something truly important was slipping out of his hands.
“You never wanted to leave.”
Anna didn’t look away.
“And now I do.”
Maria Alexeyevna sprang up again.
“Oh you… you!” she shook her fist. “You’ve lost all shame!”
“Mom, enough,” Alexey said sharply.
But she couldn’t stop.
“Wretch! You set this up on purpose! What about love? What about family?!”
Anna rose slowly.
“There is no family anymore, Maria Alexeyevna.”
“And you’re not even trying to save it!”
Anna gave the faintest smile.
“I tried. For years. I’m just tired.”
She turned and headed for the door.
“Wait,” Alexey suddenly said.
Anna turned back.
“Give me two days.”
She nodded.
“Fine.”
He had never imagined life without Anna. Yes, he’d treated her like a given—like someone who would always be there, always support him.
But now her leaving felt terrifyingly real.
He thought about how often he’d taken her care for granted. How he’d never noticed how tired she was.
And for some reason it wasn’t their fights he remembered, not her firm voice from yesterday—but the small moments: the way she smiled softly, cooked dinner, ironed his shirts, sat with a book in the evenings with her legs tucked under her.
Alexey stared at his silent phone, unable to make himself call.
Two days passed too quickly—two days he spent searching for an escape.
There wasn’t one.
He understood: if he said the wrong thing today, she would be gone forever.
From morning, Maria Alexeyevna stormed through the house like a hurricane.
“You tell her we’re not selling anything! Let her sue! Years will pass before the court decides!” she fired off advice. “And you’re sitting there like a fool, thinking how to please her!”
“Mom, stop.”
“Stop what? You realize she’s trying to bleed you for money!”
Alexey didn’t answer.
“Son, you don’t even notice how she’s playing you!”
He only closed his eyes.
His mother sighed.
“So what did you decide?”
Alexey looked at her—and suddenly realized he was tired.
Not of the divorce.
Not of the fight over the house.
He was tired of himself.
Tired of living his whole life the way others told him to.
“Mom, I need to talk to Anna. Without you.”
“What do you mean, without me?!”
Exactly that.”
“I’m your mother!”
“Mom… just let me handle it.”
Maria Alexeyevna flung up her hands, but then abruptly fell silent.
She’d suddenly noticed: her son was looking at her differently.
Not guilty. Not confused.
Calm.
And it frightened her.
Anna was waiting in a café.
When Alexey walked in, she only lifted her eyes and nodded toward the empty chair.
“Well?” she asked evenly.
“I… I’ve been thinking,” Alexey began.
“That’s already something.”
“Anna, do you really want to leave?”
She studied him carefully.
“What do you think?”
“I think… I think I was an idiot.”
She didn’t respond.
“I thought you… I thought you’d never go.”
Anna exhaled.
“And that’s exactly why you let yourself do whatever you wanted.”
“Yes.”
For the first time that evening, she smiled.
“At least you’re honest.”
He cleared his throat.
“Can I ask you for one thing?”
Anna nodded.
“Give me a month.”
She frowned slightly.
“Why?”
“I want to prove I can be different.”
Anna gave a short laugh.
“Alexey, people don’t change in a month.”
“I know. But I have to try.”
Anna looked at him for a long moment.
Then she nodded.
“Alright.”
“You’ll give me a chance?”
“No,” she answered softly. “But I’ll see what you do with that month.”
And she left, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
The next day, Alexey packed his things.
“Where are you going?” Maria Alexeyevna watched as he shoved T-shirts into a bag.
“I’m moving out.”
“What?!”
“I need to figure out who I am without you, Mom.”
She went pale.
“So she put you up to this?!”
“No. This is me.”
And with the bag in his hand, he walked out.
Maria Alexeyevna sank onto the sofa, stunned, staring into emptiness.
Outside, Alexey inhaled the frosty air deeply and, for the first time in a long while, felt alive.
A month lay ahead.
And that month had to change everything.
A month passed.
Alexey didn’t call Anna. Didn’t write.
He wanted her to see it for herself—that he truly could be different. That without her he didn’t fall apart, but he also didn’t remain the man he used to be.
And then the day came when he had to hear her answer.
He waited for her in the same café where they’d met a month earlier.
Anna arrived on time, as always.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
She looked at him closely.
“So? How are you?”
Alexey smirked.
“Working. Renting a place. Cooking for myself. Even doing my own laundry.”
“Really?” she smiled.
“And taking out the trash,” he added.
Anna gave a quiet laugh.
“Well, that sounds impressive.”
He waited.
She glanced out the window.
“Alexey… you really have changed.”
He clasped his hands together.
“But?” he asked.
She sighed.
“But I can’t come back.”
He closed his eyes for a second.
“Because you don’t believe me?”
“Because we lived the way we did for too long.”
She looked at him seriously.
“I don’t want to return to a place where no one hears me.”
“And if I—”
“Alexey,” she interrupted. “I don’t want to test it. I just want to move forward.”
He understood then that it was over.
But not the way he’d expected.
Not sharp. Not bitter.
Just… logical.
“So we sell the house?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
A buyer was found quickly.
Anna signed first, silently handing the papers to the realtor.
“Everything okay?” Alexey asked when he added his signature.
“Everything,” she nodded.
The next day the money hit their accounts.
Anna immediately bought a small apartment.
Alexey didn’t go back to his mother—he understood that door was closed for good.
Maria Alexeyevna threw a fit, demanding he keep the money, but he only said:
“Not your business, Mom.”
And for the first time, he wasn’t afraid of her angry stare.
They met by the car outside the notary’s office.
“Well,” Anna said, pulling on her gloves. “That’s it.”
Alexey nodded silently.
She smiled.
“I’m genuinely glad for you, Alexey.”
He gave a crooked grin.
“At least something.”
Anna looked at him carefully.
“You learned to stand on your own feet.”
He nodded.
“And you did too.”
She took a step back.
“Well… good luck.”
“You too.”
And they went their separate ways. No tears. No drama.
They simply closed a door that didn’t need to open again.