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In the fall, a new hire showed up at the office—pretty and rather quick on her feet. She fit in fast: sociable and curious, she noticed everything and tucked it away for later.

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The autumn air—clear and cold—seemed to pour new life into an office bleached by air conditioners. And with a gust of wind that sent the first golden leaves spinning, she walked through the door. The new girl. Her name was Alisa. And with her arrival, something trembled in Maxim’s measured, predictable world. Alisa wasn’t just … Read more

She came home from work around midnight, dead on her feet, hungry and angry. How many times had she sworn to quit that cursed store.

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Midnight had finished its dark ball outside the Khrushchevka when Veronika, literally dragging her feet, slid the key into the lock. Even the metal seemed to resist, unwilling to let this exhausted shadow of a woman back in. Not just “dead on her feet”—that would be too mild. She felt like a broken mechanism with … Read more

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” — A woman found strangers in her home, and they didn’t want to let her into her own apartment.

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Valentina Petrovna was folding the last blouse into her suitcase when the phone rang. Her sister’s voice sounded both excited and breathless. “Valya, can you imagine—Oleg and Katya are coming! For a whole week! We’ve planned so much—plays, restaurants, museums. They really want to spoil me…” Valentina Petrovna smiled, picturing her sister flushing with maternal … Read more

My mother-in-law kicked my parents out of my apartment while I wasn’t home—but in the end, she only made things worse for herself.

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Seven years. For seven years I’ve lived in this apartment, for seven years I’ve woken up next to Anton, for seven years I’ve put up with his mother’s barbs. For seven years I’ve heard the same thing: “You came from your backwater and settled yourself right into a ready-made little nest.” Valentina Petrovna never misses … Read more

Class Reunion. He was terrified he wouldn’t recognize her. Fifteen years is no joke.

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He was terrified he wouldn’t recognize her. Fifteen years is no joke. It’s a whole life squeezed into the gap between yesterday and today. The last time Artyom had seen Lika they were both fifteen—two angular, half-childish creatures trembling with unspoken feelings and hormones. Now they were thirty. He was a successful co-owner of a … Read more

He walked out of the operating room, swaying like a drunk. His legs trembled from the strain. He was so exhausted that he hardly felt any joy from having pulled a young man back from the other side—twice his heart had stopped. He wanted to lie down right there, in the corridor, on the worn linoleum.

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The doors of the operating room swung open with a soft, damp sigh, releasing him into the sterile cool of the corridor. Lev Vyshinsky staggered out, swaying like the last drunk at the edge of town. He leaned against the cold, rough wall, feeling his hands—bandaged in exhaustion—betray him with a tremble, and his legs … Read more

“We’ll use her house as our springboard!” the mother-in-law dreamed aloud. “But here’s the snag: marriage doesn’t give you rights to someone else’s property.”

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A two-story brick house on Sadovaya Street came to Irina from her aunt, Margarita Petrovna, under a deed of gift even before she married. A six-hundred-square-meter plot, fruit trees in the yard, a private well, a garage—true wealth for a twenty-seven-year-old woman. The papers were executed with a notary in the spring of last year; … Read more

Where are you wandering around?! I told you I’ve got guests today!” her husband raged over the phone, but she simply hung up and packed his things.

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Lena remembered the day Igor came home with a broad smile and a bottle of champagne in his hands. It was four years ago, when they still laughed together in the kitchen, when he still kissed her in the mornings before work, when she still believed they were a couple and not a master and … Read more

— And what are you doing here? We didn’t think you’d show up,” the sister-in-law muttered in confusion when she saw Rita standing on the threshold of the dacha.

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Rita turned off the engine and looked at the country house through the windshield. Nothing seemed to have changed—the same blue roof, the same birches around the perimeter of the plot, the same gate her father had once painted green. The only odd thing was that the veranda light was on. Maybe the neighbors? Except…the … Read more