“By the way, I didn’t tell you—my parents are coming next week. For about a week.” The words dropped into the kitchen like heavy, dirty stones into a clear stream. Irina froze, her hand holding the carton of milk suspended halfway to the refrigerator. The crinkle of the paper bag against the countertop, the sound … Read more
— Son, throw her out of the apartment before it’s too late. She’s ruining your life! Marina froze behind the door. Her mother-in-law’s voice carried clearly from the bedroom—Andrei had put the call on speaker. Marina pressed her back to the hallway wall, afraid to so much as breathe. — Mom… — Andrei answered wearily. … Read more
A sharp ring at the door slashed through the mourning silence of my apartment. Forty days hadn’t even passed since Kostya’s funeral; I still hadn’t learned how to breathe without him—yet my mother-in-law, Larisa Grigoryevna, was already standing on the threshold. Not alone. Beside her was a hunched man with a briefcase. She didn’t even … Read more
“If you file for child support, I’ll wring every last kopeck out of him when he grows up. It’ll be his debt, not mine.” Those words from my ex-husband became my sentence for the next eighteen years. I refused the money to protect my son, worked myself to the bone, and hid the terrible truth … Read more
The call came at three in the afternoon. Alina was standing at the reception desk, filling out patient cards, when her phone vibrated in the pocket of her white coat. Her mother-in-law’s number. Something had happened again. “Hello, Valentina Petrovna.” “Where are you?!” her mother-in-law’s voice was so loud Alina pulled the phone away from … Read more
Dasha stood in front of the mirror, adjusting her veil. The white dress she’d chosen so carefully six months ago now looked ridiculous to her. Nothing was the way she had dreamed it would be. “Are you ready?” Maksim walked into the room with a smile. “Everyone’s waiting.” She nodded, but something inside her tightened. … Read more
“Either you forgive the affair, or you leave,” Igor said—he didn’t even push his plate away. “Say that again.” “You forgive it—we live together. You don’t—you pack up and go to my mom’s. I’m sick of the interrogations.” “With who?” “Katya from my department. It was nothing. It happened. You’re always buried in reports anyway.” … Read more
Lena gripped the steering wheel tighter, trying not to pay attention to the grumbling from the passenger seat. Galina Petrovna, her mother-in-law, had been in a bad mood since morning. “Again you took this bumpy road!” the old woman grimaced, staring out the window. “As if there aren’t other routes!” “Mom, it’s shorter this way,” … Read more
The doorbell rang at the exact moment I was unpacking the last box of dishes. Three years after the divorce, and finally—my own little corner. A small but cozy two-bedroom on the fourteenth floor of a new apartment complex. A view of the park, morning light in the bedroom, and the silence I’d missed so … Read more
The security guard looked at Elena as if she’d shown up to a formal celebration in ripped jeans—not in a sharp suit, holding a box of antique porcelain. “Prokhorova Elena Viktorovna?” he ran a finger down his tablet. “You’re not on the list.” Behind him, through the slightly open doors of the Astoria banquet hall, … Read more