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— Oh really? So I’m supposed to support our family while you blow all your salaries on your sister’s mortgage? Seriously?!

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— “Guess what—they gave me a bonus today. Totally unexpected, but damn, it feels good,” Marina speared a lettuce leaf and a piece of warm chicken breast with evident pleasure. “The boss said the quarterly project took off specifically because of my edits. Now we can finally take a proper vacation, not like last year.” … Read more

— Oh no, my dear! I am not turning our daughter’s room into a bedroom for your mother! If she wants to visit us, she’ll sleep on the couch in the living room—nothing bad will happen to her!

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— Ol, I was just talking to my mom… She’s coming next week, on Thursday. For a couple of days, — Igor said with studied nonchalance, stirring the long-cold tea in his cup. He didn’t look at his wife; his gaze was fixed on the little whirlpool the spoon made in the amber liquid. He … Read more

Masha stood in the middle of the kitchen, eyeing Raisa Petrovna with disbelief as she calmly shuffled the papers on the table.

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Masha stood in the middle of her kitchen, watching Raisa Petrovna calmly sort through the documents on the table. Her mother-in-law was a sturdily built woman with gray hair set in a neat wave and a habit of speaking as if every word she uttered were a final verdict. “Mashenka, don’t be so dramatic,” Raisa … Read more

Just try bringing your nephews over here again, Sasha! I don’t need those little ankle-biters for free, and on top of that I have to watch them and clean up because you want to relax after work! Enough!

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“Just try bringing your nephews here one more time, Sasha! I have no use for those little rugrats, and on top of that I’m the one who has to watch them and clean up because you want to relax after work! Enough!” Marina said it without raising her voice. She stood in the middle of … Read more

— “And what does my apartment have to do with it, Dima? If your sister has nowhere to live, then let your parents deal with it themselves, since she can’t manage anything!” Lena snapped.

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— “No, Mom! I’m going to rent it out for now. We’ll use that money to renovate our new apartment with Dima! And later, when the renovation is finished, we’ll use it to pay down the mortgage!” Lena laid out for her mother the plan for the apartment her parents had bought her back when … Read more

Marina was fastening a turquoise bracelet around her wrist—a gift from a St. Petersburg investor. No, he wasn’t her lover.

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Marina was fastening the bracelet—the one with turquoise, a gift from an investor from St. Petersburg. Not a lover—nothing like that. Just a smart man who knows the value of money and of women who use their heads. She smoothed her hair, checked her earrings in the mirror, and was already reaching for her clutch … Read more

My mother-in-law invited guests to humiliate me in front of everyone—but five minutes later she stood red with shame while I calmly sipped my tea…

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Sometimes silence explodes louder than any scandal, and this explosion changed our family forever. I woke up at exactly six in the morning, when night still hung outside the window and the first rays of sun were just beginning to gild the edges of the rooftops. The house was filled with that special, ringing pre-holiday … Read more

My mother-in-law invited guests to humiliate me in front of everyone—but five minutes later she stood red with shame while I calmly sipped my tea…

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Sometimes silence explodes louder than any scandal, and this explosion changed our family forever. I woke up at exactly six in the morning, when night still hung outside the window and the first rays of sun were just beginning to gild the edges of the rooftops. The house was filled with that special, ringing pre-holiday … Read more

“What is that freeloader doing here? Get out!” my mother-in-law bellowed in my home, forgetting one small detail: here she was nothing more than a guest…

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Alice had always considered her apartment a fortress. Impregnable, reliable, her own. She had bought it even before marriage, investing in these walls not only money but a piece of her soul, paying the mortgage off over six long years, denying herself fleeting pleasures for the sake of that solid, brick tranquility on the second … Read more

“Your sister smashed my car with a bat, and you’re saying it’s all my fault because I wouldn’t let her take a spin with her drunk girlfriends?!”

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“Why are you so early?” Igor’s voice drifted from the living room—lazy and relaxed, muffled by the TV. He didn’t even turn his head when the key turned in the lock and the front door clicked shut. Alina didn’t answer. She stepped into the hall, every movement precise, stripped of her usual fuss. She didn’t … Read more