What a coincidence! You decided to come back only after finding out my father is a millionaire,” the ex-wife said caustically

Tatyana Nikolaevna sat in the empty house, staring at a cup of tea gone cold. It had been three months since Igor packed his things and left for twenty-five-year-old Kristina. After twenty-three years together, everything collapsed in a single moment when he said he wanted to feel alive. At fifty-two, Tatyana suddenly felt like no … Read more

The neighbor asked me to look after her children, but there was clearly something off about them

— “Svetlana Petrovna’s kids are kind of strange,” the concierge whispered, wiping the glass partition. — “Very quiet,” the doorkeeper agreed, “like mice. They just dart their eyes around.” I’d moved into the new apartment a month ago, and the boxes in the corners were still unpacked. Work took all my time—when you sit at … Read more

The wedding ended in scandal thanks to my mother-in-law, and three days later my husband’s mother regretted what she’d done

Crystal chimed merrily, the guests were smiling, and Maria couldn’t take her eyes off her husband. Dmitry—now officially her husband—was beaming with happiness. The wedding had gone beautifully: a cozy restaurant decorated with fresh flowers, their favorite people all around, and most importantly—they were together, despite everything. “Cheers to the newlyweds!” the toastmaster proclaimed yet … Read more

The girl showed up half an hour late to the interview, so I didn’t hire her. A week later she spilled coffee on my million-value contract—but what happened after that…

Mark Ilyich sat in his spacious office, wrapped in the dusk of evening light, shuffling a stack of papers in his hands. Each one was the résumé of yet another applicant for the position of his personal assistant. Thirty-four years old, a steadily growing business, four appliance stores in different parts of the city. And … Read more

The son brought a cleaning woman to his billionaire father’s jubilee “as a joke.” He lost everything—but gained something greater.

The body bent in a bow drilled into muscle memory, and eyes trained to catch the faintest signs of displeasure in a crowd froze on a blot by the entrance. A puddle not wiped up in time, smeared by someone’s hurrying wheel, looked like a shameful brand on the perfectly polished granite of his world. … Read more

He said the child wasn’t his, that he was “pitiful and conceived on the side.” I smiled… and began to plan my revenge.

The air in the White Lily restaurant was dense and many-layered. It was made of the aromas of rich dough browning in the oven, the sweetish smoke of frying onions, and a faint but stubborn note of unease. It drifted above the tables with their starched cloths and dissolved in the soft glow of the … Read more

For eighteen years they took me for a mousy girl from the orphanage, and now my own relatives are licking my boots just to get a slice of my gorgeous apartment…

Liliya didn’t remember her parents’ faces or voices. Her very first, most fragile memories were like a watercolor washed out by rain. In them, as if through a thick morning mist, there barely emerged the image of an elderly woman in an elegant, slightly timeworn hat and old-fashioned glasses with a thin metal frame. She … Read more

When I stopped washing and cooking after losing the baby, my husband didn’t lecture me. He sent a peculiar woman with buckets, and it saved my life.

“Are you home?” Kirill asked briefly, calling his wife during his lunch break. His voice sounded muffled, as if coming from another dimension—from that world where life hummed along as usual, where people hurried about, laughed, and made plans. That world seemed to Rita so distant, almost unreal, like an old dream whose details had … Read more

Gave a ride on my tractor to a drenched old woman in rags — and she handed me a “stone”: “It will heat up on the day your end is near.” I laughed… until it warmed up yesterday morning.

Last summer brought such scorching days that the air above the field shimmered like a quivering sheet of water, and heat rose from the ground in a wavering haze that made every breath sear and drag. I was fixing my tractor right in the middle of the boundless field—the gearbox had failed, leaving the iron … Read more