When Elena heard the sound of keys in the lock, her heart sank. She knew that authoritative clatter of heels in the hallway better than the beat of her own pulse. Eight months pregnant, every movement was already painful, and now she had to face the one she feared more than labor itself. The door … Read more
The scrape of the lock made me freeze, a damp rag still in my hand. I’d been scrubbing a sticky jam stain off the parquet floor—jam brought by Irina Borisovna—and that sound was all too familiar to me. Pasha was still asleep. Sunday, half past eight in the morning. The door opened, and there stood … Read more
Outside the windows raged not just a snowstorm, but a true winter apocalypse. The wind, like a possessed spirit, howled, roared, and battered against the glass, as if demanding to be let in. Snow whirlwinds spun in a mad dance, smothering the world in white silence. On such a night, even the bravest soul could … Read more
Roman Viktorovich Serov, a distinguished-looking man with graying temples, sat in the cramped doctor’s office, clenching his hands so tightly his knuckles had turned white. His face, usually stern and composed, now betrayed a deep weariness, as though years of battling pain had finally etched their mark on him. For ten years, he had been … Read more
I threw the car keys right onto the table. On purpose. So they would clink. So everyone would hear. “Guess what,” I said, taking off my sneakers, “congratulate me. I’m officially on wheels now.” Silence hung in the hallway. From the kitchen drifted the smell of something greasy, suspiciously like “gravy with fried onions,” Valentina … Read more
— I was counting on you, and you turned out to be such a selfish girl… — Mom, you’re asking the impossible… — Alyona began. — Impossible?! Nothing is impossible, if only you wanted it! But clearly, you don’t. So this is how you repay me—with black ingratitude for all those years I raised you, … Read more
“You just need to rest, darling,” my husband Stas’s voice dripped with false concern. “Just a couple of weeks at the best sanatorium. You’ll restore your nerves.” I looked at him, trying to focus my gaze. My head felt heavy, stuffed with wet sand. “I don’t want to go to a sanatorium,” I whispered. Tamara … Read more
The doorbell pierced through the morning drowsiness of the house. Sharp, insistent. I frowned, lifting my head from the pillow. Who could possibly need us this early? Tamara Pavlovna, my mother-in-law, was already shuffling down the hallway. Her whisper was louder than any shout. — Coming, coming! No need to ring so hard… I threw … Read more
In the heart of the city’s most powerful business skyscraper—the lobby of the headquarters of one of the country’s largest conglomerates—there reigned the usual, almost ritual bustle. Morning seemed to flip an invisible switch: with the first rays of sun filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows, a new wave of ambition, deals, and vanity began. The … Read more
That morning was no different from any other. A new maid had arrived at the country estate of Mikhail Sergeyevich Artamonov. Her name was Lena—young, just past twenty, with a tired look in her eyes as if she had lived not through one sleepless night but through an entire lifetime. In her hands she carried … Read more