She came into this world to the whisper of condemnation and the heavy sigh of shame. Her birth was no blessing—it was the fruit of what the remote villages with stone-hard faces called “sinful love.” Her mother, Vasilisa, was a local marvel, a beauty who drove all the nearby suitors mad. But her heart proved … Read more
“Nastya, come in,” Igor Petrovich’s voice sounded routine, almost lazy. But Anastasia, who had learned to distinguish dozens of shades of his mood over twenty years at the company, understood at once—this wasn’t good. She stepped into his glass “aquarium,” feeling a dozen and a half people behind her freeze and prick up their ears. … Read more
“Don’t wear that dress again, Anechka. It makes you look cheap.” My mother-in-law, Tamara Pavlovna, said it in a deceptively soft voice—like a cashmere scarf that’s been moth-eaten. She tossed the line over her shoulder as she passed me in the hallway without even turning her head. I froze in front of the mirror. A … Read more
It all started with little things. But really, is it ever any different? Big problems grow out of small pinpricks that at first seem insignificant. The first time Lidiya Petrovna came to see us was a month after the wedding. I was happy—at last I’d get to know my mother-in-law better! Before that, we’d only … Read more
Lyudmila Sergeyevna was carefully arranging porcelain cups on the shelf when she heard the familiar rumble of an engine in the yard. Her heart skipped a beat—the sound took her back to childhood, when her father would arrive in his old Volga. Now her brother Viktor drove one just like it. “Tolya!” she called to … Read more
Larisa Pavlovna stood before the mirror in the entryway, adjusting the collar of her snow-white blouse. Behind her came her husband’s familiar voice: — You’ve put on those shows of yours again? Lara, how much longer! Twenty years of the same thing—kitchen, TV, kitchen, TV. She didn’t turn around. On the screen, a French pastry … Read more
Seven long years had passed since the earth swallowed the coffin with Lydia’s body. Seven years of silence that rang in his ears louder than any music, and of loneliness that soaked into the house’s walls like the smell of stove smoke. Stepan—everyone called him Stepanych—was left alone at sixty-three. Not old, but no longer … Read more
Isabelle Hartman tilted the blinds in the private suite until a ribbon of pale light slid across the bed. The room was a sanctuary of soft beeps and measured breaths, the machinery doing the quiet, relentless work of keeping Alexander Pierce alive. Almost a year had passed since the crash that turned the billionaire developer … Read more
The engines thrummed like a steady heartbeat as Flight 237 lifted westward out of New York. Most travelers slipped into their airborne rituals—earbuds in, magazines open, neck pillows snapped shut. A few were asleep before the seatbelt sign blinked off. For Sophia Turner, ten years in the sky hadn’t dulled a thing. There was no … Read more
Elena Vladimirovna was standing at the stove, stirring the soup, when her husband walked into the kitchen and tossed an invitation onto the table. “Your class reunion,” Sergey said without looking up from his phone. “Saturday.” She glanced at the card: thirty years since graduation. A pretty card with gold lettering. “You’re going, right?” she … Read more