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“Well, you should have seen your face when I mentioned your first job, Irochka. Like a beaten dog. Did you really think Mr. Voronov, a man worth billions, would appreciate your little attempt to join a conversation about stock prices? I was saving the situation, sweetheart. Saving your husband from embarrassment while you were trying … Read more

“Listen, are you even sane?” Kirill stood in the middle of the living room, and there was something in his voice that immediately made Sonya understand this conversation would not be short. “I’m telling you in plain language: either my mother moves in with us, or I go to her myself. For good.” Sonya slowly … Read more

When I finally took the documents into my hands, something inside me loosened. For the first time in a year, I did not feel emptiness. I felt anticipation. Outside the café window, the asphalt shimmered in the heat. The air conditioner pushed cool air through the room, and I sat there staring at the contract … Read more

Part 1. Ground Zero Evening settled over the city like a heavy gray blanket, hiding the outlines of the apartment blocks in the residential district. Inside the apartment, everything was perfectly ordered—not the kind of order created for comfort, but the kind maintained through discipline. Irina sat at a wide oak table, surrounded by blueprints … Read more

Saturday morning in Dmitry and Alla’s home began with the usual rush and bustle. The kitchen smelled of freshly made pancakes, and extra chairs had already been arranged in the living room. Today they were celebrating the birthday of Alla’s mother, Valentina Petrovna. “Dima, did you order the flowers?” Alla called from the kitchen, wiping … Read more

“Why did you leave your passport on the table? So I would accidentally see it, or so I would have to ask you myself?” Varya was standing by the sink with a wet sponge in her hand, and at first she did not even understand what Nina Petrovna was talking about. The kitchen smelled of … Read more

“From this evening on, we’re running separate finances,” Pavel said, placing his fork on the edge of his plate with such solemnity that it looked as if he were signing a peace treaty after a long and exhausting war. “Every adult is responsible for their own money.” Oksana looked up from the pot of buckwheat. … Read more

“None of this belongs to you. You should be ashamed before God, acting like you have the right to decide anything here,” Tamara Petrovna snapped, slamming a heavy cast-iron pan onto the table so hard it nearly clipped her daughter-in-law’s fingers. Marina didn’t even flinch. Her blue eyes calmly registered the tiny tremor in her … Read more

Marina had always been proud of her sense of smell. In her profession—she worked as a chemical technologist at a perfume factory—her nose was her greatest asset. She could tell natural patchouli oil from a synthetic substitute in a fraction of a second. She could smell a thunderstorm an hour before the first rumble of … Read more

Part 1. Roots and Parasites The greenhouse smelled of damp peat, rotting leaves, and something barely noticeable—sweetish, earthy, and faintly decayed. It was the smell of life: real, wild life that never took weekends off. Lyudmila carefully wiped the thick, fleshy leaf of a philodendron with a soft sponge. Here, among tropical vines and carnivorous … Read more