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He slid the key into the lock with such a quiet, treacherous whisper it felt as if it were piercing not metal, but my own heart. A new, shiny, cold key, smelling of someone else’s sweat and someone else’s ambitions. Galina Sergeyevna gave a bitter smile— the old, faithful lock that had lived through so … Read more

Lidia walked along the frozen asphalt, and each step echoed in her temples with a dull, nagging pain. The city drifted in the dusk, the glow of the streetlamps blurring before her eyes like droplets of watercolor on wet paper. She had thought it was just exhaustion—endless projects, deadlines, sleepless nights. She told herself that … Read more

The silence in the little house on the edge of the village was special—dense and ringing, as if filled with the unseen presence of the one who was gone. Ivan Stepanovich, who had lived nearly seven decades in this world, felt it with every wrinkle, every fragment of his wounded soul. A year had passed … Read more

Anatoly froze in the middle of the living room, holding a folder of documents in his hands. His face first went pale, then flushed red. “What do you mean, ‘from your apartment’? We bought it together!” “NO,” Elena cut him off, clutching the ownership certificate in her hand. “This is my grandmother Vera Pavlovna’s apartment. … Read more

Anastasia froze in the middle of the room with a box of wedding invitations in her hands. There were three days left until the ceremony, and she had come to her future in-laws’ apartment to discuss the final details. Georgy Pavlovich, Vitaly’s father, was standing by the window with his back to her, and his … Read more

The hall was humming with muted conversations appropriate to the occasion. The expensive but frankly stifling banquet hall that Galina Viktorovna Orlova had chosen personally, relying on the advice of the city’s trendiest event planner, pressed down with its ostentatious luxury—gilded stucco moldings, heavy velvet drapes, enormous crystal chandeliers casting cold glints of light. The … Read more

— Marry him? Him?” Her mother’s voice, Zinaida Borisovna’s, was as dry as an old crust and cracked with disbelief. It hung in the air of the tiny kitchen, thick and viscous like cooled jelly. “Masha, are you out of your mind? Do you understand who we’re talking about?” Masha didn’t answer right away. She … Read more

Sofia forced the key to turn in the tight old lock, and the heavy oak door opened with a soft creak, letting her into another dimension, into a world frozen in time. The air in Artem Ilyich’s spacious apartment was motionless, thick, and sweetly spicy. It smelled of dusty velvet curtains hiding the stained-glass windows, … Read more

Go back to your village then,” her husband said irritably, without turning to her. Artyom’s voice was even, but in it she heard cold and exhaustion, as if all feeling had frozen over during the long years of silent evenings and unspoken grievances. He stood by the window, looking at the grey November sky, covered … Read more

The office world of “Horizont-Stroy” was a small universe with its own unwritten but ironclad rules. The main law of this universe was simple: remain invisible to Viktor Sergeevich whenever storm clouds passed over his face. And they passed over it almost constantly. The air in the spacious hall, smelling of expensive wood and freshly … Read more