The morning began the way it always did—an alarm at seven, her son grumbling because he didn’t want to get up, the coffee maker hissing in the kitchen as if to say the day had already started whether you liked it or not. Olga had already pulled on her jeans and sweater and swept her … Read more
Yana lived with her husband, Igor, in an apartment she had purchased herself long before she ever put on a wedding ring—no help from anyone, no guarantors, no dramatic declarations. She’d bought the two-bedroom five years earlier. Back then she was a programmer at an IT company and earned good money. She saved for three … Read more
“What do you think you’re doing, you little brat? Unfreeze that card! I haven’t finished shopping yet!” my mother-in-law screamed when I locked down my savings. Raisa was sitting at her desk, scanning quarterly reports, when her phone gave a soft vibration. She glanced at the screen automatically and saw a bank notification. At first, … Read more
“Freeze.” Victoria said it softly, but with a tone so final that Anton—his hand already on the front-door handle—stopped as if he’d been pinned to the mat. He turned around slowly, trying to wear that familiar mask of offended innocence. It didn’t fit, though—not with the heavy, overstuffed bag hanging from his right hand. The … Read more
St. Petersburg rain had always felt personal to Kirill, as if the sky adjusted itself specifically to his mood. Today it was the color of old steel—low, heavy, and hopeless, exactly like his life had been for the last six months. He stood under the awning of the entrance to the elite business center Atlant, … Read more
Vasily stood in the middle of the living room, crushing a scrap of paper in his fist so hard his knuckles went white. A feverish, almost crazed shine burned in his eyes. This wasn’t merely a lottery ticket. It was his entry pass into a world he’d only ever watched through a phone screen: spotless … Read more
Mikhail shoved his plate away, annoyed. At the bottom sat a lonely portion of plain pasta, barely sprinkled with cheap grated cheese. The sight of that “dinner” filled him with a heavy, bitter resentment—he’d busted his back on a construction site all day, and this was the “welcome” waiting for him at home. “Valya, I … Read more
In Lyudmila’s family, people never spoke loudly—it was considered bad form. Her father, Evgeny Borisovich, a longtime professor of strength of materials, could make even the most shameless truant turn red with a single look over his glasses. Her mother, Elena Vladimirovna, had headed a laboratory all her life and was used to sterile cleanliness—at … Read more
This, girls, is what I call peak-level audacity. You know, some people just climb onto your shoulders and get comfortable. And then there are people like Marina’s mother-in-law. She doesn’t merely sit there — she digs in her spurs, rides you hard, and expects you to smile while you pour her coffee. But every patient … Read more
Alla Nikolaevna went rigid on the sofa, as if she’d never imagined she’d hear an answer like that. Her eyes widened, her eyebrows shot up, and her lips tightened into a thin line. Her fingers jerked, crushing the corner of the same little slip of paper she’d brought with her. Ilya sat beside his mother, … Read more