Grandma!” a 19-year-old long-haired brunette burst into the room where the old woman was. “Are you sleeping?”
“No, my granddaughter,” Tamara Igorevna, worried, sat up in bed.
“I’m getting married!” Nadya joyfully announced.
“What? Really?!” the woman exclaimed, throwing up her hands in shock. “What about your studies?”
“Grandma, who needs those studies?” the girl frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not going to work as a teacher anyway.”
“And how do you plan to live then?” Tamara Igorevna adjusted her glasses.
“I’m getting married, I told you,” Nadya said, clearly annoyed with the old woman’s questions.
“You’re hoping your husband will support you?” the woman shook her head. “He will leave you…”
“Where will he go?” Nadya snorted, adjusting her long hair. “He’s as poor as a church mouse.”
“And you think you’re some rich bride that he’ll cling to?” Tamara Igorevna scoffed.
“Of course, he will!” exclaimed Nadya. “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk about.”
Hearing her granddaughter’s words, the old woman tensed. It seemed she already knew what was coming.
“Grandma, since I’m getting married, I need you to free up my apartment,” Nadya declared, sitting down on the table lid.
“What apartment?” Tamara Igorevna squinted.
“This one! You gave it to me,” the girl started smacking her gum loudly.
“I gave it to you on the condition that it would be yours after I die,” the woman said, a worried smile on her face.
“It’s not my fault I’m getting married and you’re still alive, is it?” Nadya jumped off the table.
“I have nowhere to go,” the old woman objected, realizing her granddaughter wanted her out.
“That’s not my problem,” the girl blew a big bubble with her gum and loudly popped it. “There are special homes for that. Go there.”
“How could you, Nadya? I raised you after Lyuda died,” Tamara Igorevna wrung her hands in distress.
“Grandma, don’t try to guilt-trip me. It won’t work,” the girl said irritably.
“No, do what you want, but I’m not going anywhere!” the old woman declared defiantly. “This is my apartment, and I will die here!”
“That’s all I need,” Nadya grimaced. “I’m giving you a week!”
However, Nadya soon realized that Tamara Igorevna had no intention of leaving the apartment.
She decided to share this problem with her future husband, who immediately found a solution.
“Go to court, let them evict her by force,” suggested the man, who was just waiting for a chance to move into the two-bedroom apartment.
Nadya didn’t delay and went to court the very next day.
A month later, 75-year-old Tamara Igorevna was forcibly evicted from the apartment.
The woman didn’t know where to go, so she put her things under the staircase and stayed overnight in the hallway.
In the morning, her neighbor Lyuba from the third floor noticed her sleeping on her fur coat and touched her shoulder.
“Tamara Igorevna, why are you here?”
“Nadya kicked me out.”
“That snake! We should call the police!” the neighbor became agitated.
“But they’re the ones who kicked me out. I gave the apartment to my granddaughter, so she’s the owner now,” tears welled up in the woman’s eyes.
“We need to do something, but for now, come stay with me. You can’t sleep in the hallway,” Lyuba helped Tamara Igorevna up and carried her things to her apartment. “And what are those bruises on your arms?”
“Nadya was evicting me,” the old woman sighed bitterly.
The neighbor shook her head disapprovingly but refrained from saying all she thought about the ungrateful granddaughter.
In the evening, Lyuba went to see a lawyer to discuss the situation surrounding the elderly woman.
“Is there any way to get the apartment back?” the neighbor asked after telling the lawyer the story. “Nadya even raised her hand to her grandmother.”
“We need to see the documents,” the young man mused. “If there’s a loophole, there’s hope.”
“Here’s what I found at grandma’s,” Lyuba handed over a folder with tattered papers.
The man studied the documents intently. After ten minutes, he looked up at the woman.
“There’s a chance! A pretty big one!” the lawyer said, rubbing his sweaty palms contentedly. “I found something that the clueless granddaughter overlooked!” he added, leaning back in his chair.
Lyuba tensed, nervously fiddling with the edge of her jacket, eagerly waiting for an explanation.
She genuinely felt sorry for Aunt Tamara, cruelly ousted by her own granddaughter.
“The new owner of the apartment overlooked an important clause in the agreement. Tamara Igorevna has the right to cancel it if she believes that the recipient has attempted to harm her life or health.”
Lyuba relayed to the distressed woman that there was still a chance to get the apartment back.
“No, Nadya is my granddaughter, I can’t kick her out onto the street,” the old woman protested. “I’d rather go to a nursing home.”
Despite her neighbor’s attempts to convince her that her granddaughter needed to be taught a lesson, Tamara Igorevna remained firm in her decision.
The next day, she asked Lyuba to take her to the nursing home with her belongings.
Nadya, having forgotten about her abandoned grandmother, got married and moved in with her husband into the two-bedroom apartment.
However, her happiness was short-lived. During one of the parties the couple liked to host at their place, the apartment caught fire and burned down completely.
Realizing there was nothing left to gain and nothing to repair, Nadya’s husband left her for another woman.