You don’t have children! What are you going to do with the apartment?” — the mother-in-law even parted her lips in surprise when Nastya showed her the keys to her new place.

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— I’m telling you, Seryozha: it’s either me or her! — Galina Petrovna’s voice echoed through the kitchen like an air raid siren. Sergey sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose. — Mom, please don’t start again… — You’re still on her side?! — she raised her voice. — Have you forgotten who … Read more

The neighbors took advantage of our absence and ran a gas line through our property without asking, but we didn’t let it go like that.

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— Vasily, do you see this? — Anna Sergeyevna stood in the middle of the vegetable garden, pointing at a gray gas pipe that snaked right through the potato beds. — What pipe? — her husband tore himself away from fixing the fence and came closer. — What kind of miracle is this? — There … Read more

“Mom’s celebration is more important than renovating your dacha. The dacha can wait. It’s not going to fall apart!” — the husband said boldly.

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Olga glanced sideways at her husband, who was carefully carrying a large box with a laptop. Maksim literally glowed with happiness. A smile hadn’t left his face since they left the shopping center. The man kept adjusting the bow on the package as if it were a precious jewel. “Can you imagine how happy mom … Read more

— Katya, did Sasha already tell you? — the mother-in-law babbled. — Look! There will be forty people. So we’ll start cooking at night. I’ll come early at six in the evening the day before.

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— Katya, did Sasha already tell you? — the mother-in-law rattled on. — Look! There will be forty people. So we’ll start cooking at night. I’ll come early, at six in the evening the day before. — What? At night? — the daughter-in-law smirked. — No, I didn’t sign up for that. — Just wait. … Read more

“No one needs me anymore,” sighed the neighbor grandmother, sitting on the bench. A month later, I was driving her to hospitals and warming homemade borscht for her.

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The day was ordinary, like many others — fatigue weighed down after a long meeting, my head buzzing from the endless flow of information. In my bag were packages: buckwheat, milk, napkins for my son’s school. I was walking home, almost at the entrance to the building, when suddenly I heard a quiet voice: — … Read more

Every day, the boy buried something behind the school. But what was discovered later turned out to be much scarier than any guesses.

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On the outskirts of a small provincial town in Central Russia stood an old school. Its walls were peeling from age, the asphalt in the yard cracked, and the lonely sandbox froze under icy gusts of wind in winter, while in summer it filled with the voices of children and leftover toys. Everything here was … Read more

A seriously ill businessman hired her for entertainment, unaware that she would become his salvation.

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In one of the tallest skyscrapers of a modern metropolis, where glass reflects the clouds and life seems too distant and soulless, there lived a man named Maksim. He was a millionaire—not just rich, but incredibly successful, one of those self-made men: he started from nothing and in ten years built an empire in the … Read more

— Did you buy the meat? After all, we’re not coming to visit you empty-handed, — the relatives brought potatoes for the barbecue.

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Marina ran her hand over the freshly painted fence board and smiled. The white paint had gone on smoothly, without drips, and now the plot looked completely different—not like an abandoned grandmother’s dacha, but like a real vacation home. “Alyosh, look how beautiful it turned out!” she called to her husband, who was busy with … Read more