Marina stood outside the wallpaper store, carefully examining the samples. Her parents’ apartment had long needed repairs, and their daughter had decided to take the initiative into her own hands. In two years of marriage, she had learned how to plan a budget so there was enough not only for her own needs but also … Read more
The commuter train was slowly approaching the familiar platform, and Anna pressed her forehead to the carriage’s cold windowpane. She hadn’t been to this town in five years. Five years of building a career in the capital, working twelve-hour days, saving on everything—even the coffee from the vending machine. Every kopek went into her dream … Read more
“Listen, Liza, I talked it over with Kostik,” Dima was turning his phone in his hands without looking at his wife. “He says it’s stupid to keep the apartment only in your name. If something happens, I’ll have to prove my rights later.” “What rights?” Liza froze with a towel in her hands. “It’s my … Read more
The champagne was icy and prickly, burning her throat with a thousand tiny needles. Olga drank it slowly—not like a festive drink, but like medicine. They brought her a huge platter on ice, strewn with oysters, shrimp, and halved crab claws. She ate methodically, without visible pleasure, as if performing an important but unpleasant task. … Read more
The recorder trembled in my grip—a small black rectangle no heavier than a bar of soap, yet it seemed to contain the wreckage of my entire life. I pressed play. Mike’s voice—warm, intimate, unmistakable—slid out of the tiny speaker. “Hey, beautiful. Your husband is leaving on a business trip tomorrow.” It was the same voice … Read more
I never expected to see him again—certainly not here. The women’s health clinic smelled faintly of antiseptic and stale coffee, the walls plastered with posters about prenatal vitamins and fertility timelines. I sat in the waiting room, tapping the corner of my appointment slip against my knee, willing my name to appear on the screen. … Read more
For three straight years my dad sat at our table every night and never realized my plate was just a prop. My mother only ever needed to dominate one child. Not Ava—the flawless, size-zero, homecoming-queen-in-training—but me, the eldest daughter who, in her eyes, took up too much air, too much noise, too much space. The … Read more
They mistook my quiet for surrender. They couldn’t have been more wrong. I never thought the walk from a twelve-hour shift at Chicago General to my own front door would feel like crossing into hostile territory. Yet there I stood at 11:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, frozen in my driveway, staring at a house blazing … Read more
Irina set her bag down in the hallway and wearily took off her shoes. Another long day at the office was behind her—client negotiations, reports, planning meetings. The thirty-two-year-old woman wanted only one thing: to take a bath and have a quiet dinner with her husband. “You’re late again!” Alexei’s voice rang out from the … Read more
I stood under the icy streams of November rain, clutching to my chest a thoroughly soaked folder of documents—the last thread tying me to my former life, so calm and so unhappy. Water ran in chilling rivulets from my hair down the collar of a cheap jacket I’d bought on sale the spring before, now … Read more