“— You don’t invite me, but you demand money for your anniversary party?” Olya asked her mother irritably. The phone rang just as Olya and Nikolai were discussing their move to a new apartment. The screen displayed “Mother” — that was what she had renamed the contact after yet another argument about money. Nikolai, her … Read more
“Do you want me to give you money? For things I bought with my own money? Do you understand the consequences?” Nastya asked her satisfied mother-in-law. Nastya stood in the hallway and watched as Galina Petrovna took off her shoes, critically examining the new wallpaper. Alina, Dmitry’s sister, came in behind her, more quietly and … Read more
— This is my apartment, and I want your mother to leave it immediately! Otherwise, you’ll be the one looking for a new home! “Alinochka, you should pour the salt into a different salt shaker. This plastic one absorbs moisture, so the salt gets all clumpy. I had one just like it at home and … Read more
“Why didn’t you warn me you were coming?” her husband asked. An unfamiliar woman was sitting at his table in the restaurant. Marina spotted him through the restaurant’s large window while she was still outside. Oleg was sitting at a corner table, and across from him sat a woman of about forty in a beige … Read more
A Mother Learned the Truth About Her Daughter and Took a Night Bus to the City. Her Daughter Never Tells Anyone What Happened Next Lida found out by accident. Her daughter’s friend Natasha came to the village for the weekend to visit her parents. She stopped by Lida’s house as a neighbor, just to have … Read more
My classmates laughed at me at our reunion, thinking I still hadn’t amounted to anything… But the next morning, they saw me on the cover of a business magazine. “Sokolova? Marina Sokolova?! You actually came?” Igor Valentinov stretched his lips into a smile, but his eyes remained cold. “Guys, look who decided to show up!” … Read more
My mother-in-law kept telling her son to divorce me. I didn’t waste time telling her to move out—I handled it differently. “Divorce her. I’ll find you a normal wife.” I heard Rimma Pavlovna say it from the bathroom. My husband, Stas, was putting up a shelf in the kitchen. I had been helping him until … Read more
— She seated me at a table in the back so I wouldn’t bother the guests. Ten minutes later, everything changed. The Veranda restaurant was an expensive place. I had realized that from the way Vera Pavlovna had been talking about it all week. “Important people go there.” “It attracts the right crowd.” “You can’t … Read more
“Starting this month, you won’t have any personal money. You’ll clear every expense with me,” my husband announced in front of our friends. So I started with his favorite expenses. “Starting this month, you won’t have any personal money. From now on, you’ll clear all your spending with me,” Arkady said, slowly enunciating every word. … Read more
A Birth Mother Left Her Disabled Son in an Orphanage, but Another Woman Adopted and Raised Him — Fifteen Years Later, They Met He was three years old when his mother took him to an orphanage. Anton did not remember that day. Only much later was he told what had happened: it was November, with … Read more