“I’ll let you live in my daughter-in-law’s apartment. She’s an idiot—we’ll trick her in no time,” the mother promised her daughter.
Yulia could hardly believe her good fortune. That morning, her parents had told her they had wonderful news.
“Sweetheart, come over. Your father and I have a surprise for you!” her mother announced cheerfully over the phone.
“What is it?” To be honest, Yulia did not particularly want to spend her day off visiting her parents. She had already planned plenty of things to do.
“Just be patient! Trust me, it will be worth it. You can bring Artyom with you too. He’ll be pleased to hear it as well.”
“All right, we’ll come by after lunch,” their daughter agreed.
She began cleaning, doing the laundry, and ironing, but she could not stop thinking about her mother’s words. What could her parents possibly have planned?
After considering every possibility, she still could not imagine how her mother and father intended to surprise her.
But when she and her husband were ceremoniously seated in armchairs in her parents’ cozy living room and finally heard the news, they could hardly believe their good fortune.
“You must be joking! This can’t be true!” Artyom exclaimed, looking at his wife in confusion. “Yulia, do you believe it?”
“Not yet…” Yulia looked just as bewildered. “Is it really true? Mom, Dad, you weren’t close to Aunt Zina at all. You hadn’t spoken to her for years.”
“That’s right, we hadn’t,” her father replied. “But I had never done anything wrong to my sister. It was all because of her personality. Zinaida, may she rest in peace, was extremely sensitive and vindictive. She once took offense at something trivial and couldn’t forgive me for twenty years.”
“And then what happened?” his daughter asked, still amazed by the news.
“Then I received a letter in which Zina asked for my forgiveness. She also said she was leaving her apartment to you, her niece. She wanted to make amends to our family. My sister was lonely. She never had children, and her husband left her many years ago. That’s the whole story.”
“Wow! It’s like something out of a movie!” Artyom still could not believe that it was real.
The following day, the young man visited his parents and shared the wonderful news with them.
Yulia’s mother-in-law, Olga Anatolyevna, silently thanked fate. The solution to all her problems was falling straight into her hands. God had finally heard a mother’s prayers.
Her daughter Galya had three children but, on the contrary, no husband. She was currently living with her parents. It wasn’t that she had difficulty finding men—they changed as frequently as the weather. She simply could not find a permanent partner who wanted to remain with her for the rest of his life.
The hardest part for Olga Anatolyevna and her husband was that their daughter, her children, and her constantly changing partners all lived with them in their small apartment.
What their son had just told them could save their entire family.
“Hello, sweetheart!” Artyom’s mother greeted him. “Why did you come alone today?”
“Mom, can you believe it? Yulia inherited an apartment. She’s at the notary’s office right now.”
“An apartment? What apartment? And who did she get it from? Her parents aren’t planning to die anytime soon. They’re still young. Did some wealthy relative suddenly appear?” Olga Anatolyevna asked in surprise.
“We can hardly believe it ourselves. Yulia’s aunt made a will before she died and left the apartment to her.”
“That’s wonderful! You and your wife are very lucky,” his mother continued happily. “Semyon, did you hear the wonderful news?” she called to her husband.
“That is good news. Extra living space never hurts. Is it a large apartment?” Artyom’s father asked as he emerged from the room.
“No, it’s a one-bedroom apartment. But it’s in the historic city center, so I imagine it’s worth quite a lot.”
“If you’d known about it earlier, perhaps you wouldn’t have taken out a mortgage for your current apartment, would you?” his mother asked.
“Of course we still would have, Mom. How could the three of us fit into a one-bedroom apartment? Yulia and I have a nice, spacious apartment in a new building, and our daughter has her own room. It’s very convenient. Besides, we don’t have much longer to pay off the mortgage. That other building is old, and the apartment probably hasn’t been renovated in years.”
“So, are you planning to sell it or rent it out?” his mother asked as a plan began forming in her mind.
“We’ll see. We haven’t discussed it yet.”
Olga Anatolyevna had two children: her older son, Artyom, and her younger daughter, Galina. While everything had gone well in her son’s family life—he had married at the proper age, bought an apartment, and his daughter was approaching her fifteenth birthday—there were constant problems with the younger child.
Galina had tried to get married many times. Every time, she experienced a passionate romance that resulted in a child. But each new chosen man disappeared before he ever made it to the registry office with her.
Her mother seriously believed that a curse had been placed on her younger daughter. Someone must have cast the evil eye on her, Olga Anatolyevna thought, which was why Galya was suffering so much in her search for personal happiness.
At the moment, her daughter was in a new relationship. Akram, who had come to the city from some southern republic, had swept the affectionate Galina off her feet. Once again, her daughter had fallen madly in love. Recently, Olga Anatolyevna had begun waiting in horror for Galina to announce yet another pregnancy.
Perhaps her daughter had finally matured a little, or perhaps she was simply tired of all the trouble, but she did not appear to be in any hurry to become pregnant again.
Not long ago, Galina had informed her parents that Akram would be moving in with them. Her mother, already exhausted from looking after her young grandchildren, had fiercely opposed the idea.
“Rent your own apartment. Why should your father and I suffer? Now that you have a man, let him solve your problems,” she told her daughter sharply.
“I don’t understand. Are you throwing us out?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. The last thing I need is some Akram living in my apartment. He may have only just come down from the mountains yesterday. Besides, no one knows what he has in mind. To be honest, I’m afraid of him,” the mother tried to explain.
“Then you’ll never see us again. Neither me nor your grandchildren!”
Olga Anatolyevna assumed that her daughter’s romance would end within a month or two and that she and the children would return to her parents anyway.
But Galina remained resolute. She and the children had left home two months earlier, and there had been no news from her since. No one knew where they were living, her daughter’s phone remained silent, and the mother’s heart trembled with worry and uncertainty.
However, as Olga Anatolyevna listened to her son, she became delighted. An absolutely brilliant idea occurred to her. She would move her daughter and her family into her daughter-in-law’s apartment.
“That would be the right thing to do. We’re one family. Why do Artyom and Yulia need a second apartment? My dear Galya needs it much more. Perhaps someone will finally take her to the registry office,” the resourceful mother thought.
After contacting one of her daughter’s longtime friends, Olga Anatolyevna discovered the address of the rented room where Galina was now living. Without wasting another minute, she went there.
“Why did you come, Mom? Because of you, we had to rent this tiny room. Do you know how difficult things are for us right now? I don’t work. Akram supports me and my children, and we also have to pay rent. But you don’t care about us!” Galina complained.
“Of course I care, sweetheart! I have news that will knock you off your feet!” Olga Anatolyevna declared happily. “I’ve found you a place to live. I’ll let you live in my daughter-in-law’s apartment. She’s an idiot—we’ll trick her in no time!”
A few days later, the mother hurried to ask her son whether the apartment had already been legally registered in her daughter-in-law’s name.
“Yes, everything is finished. According to the documents, it belongs to us now,” Artyom replied.
“Have you already seen it? What condition is it in?” she continued impatiently.
“Yes, we’ve seen it. It’s a nice apartment—warm and cozy, in a solid old building—but it needs renovation. We’re planning to renovate it and then rent it out. When Dasha grows up, she’ll have a home of her own,” her son explained.
“Oh, we’ll help you with the renovation. You’re incredibly lucky!”
“Really? Why is that?”
“Galya’s Akram happens to renovate apartments. He has his own professional team. They’ll turn your old apartment into a masterpiece,” his mother continued enthusiastically. “He’ll come to your place today. Give him the keys, and you won’t have to worry about anything else!”
That same evening, Artyom and Akram visited the apartment together and discussed the details of the renovation.
A month later, Yulia began asking her husband questions.
“Listen, when are they going to finish? We haven’t heard a word from Akram. The apartment is small. There’s only enough work for a week or two. Find out why they’re taking so long,” she asked her husband.
“All right, I’ll find out.”
Artyom was extremely surprised when his key would not open the door. After he repeatedly rang the bell, his own sister opened it. Galina was wearing house clothes and holding her youngest child in her arms.
“Galya? What are you doing here?”
“I live here. What else would I be doing here? That’s a strange question!”
“What do you mean, you live here? I don’t understand. Why are you living in Yulia’s apartment? And why did you change the lock?”
“We made the decision at a family council. We discussed it and decided that my family would live here. I have three children—your nieces and nephews, by the way! Why do you and your wife need two apartments? It’s not as though you’re wealthy landowners!” his sister declared shamelessly.
“Well, this is unbelievable! So, as I understand it, this family council took place without us? You all decided to take our apartment without even informing us? What do you call that?”
“Oh, don’t start making a scene. It has already happened. I’m living here with my children and the man I love. Besides, Akram did a magnificent renovation for you. You can look around, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Yes, a renovation that we paid for, mind you! Yet, for some reason, you’re the one living here!”
“What’s so terrible about that? According to the documents, the apartment belongs to you, doesn’t it? It does! You also paid for the renovation. Who else was supposed to pay for it? Certainly not me. Besides, Mother told me you were planning to rent it out anyway. So consider it rented.”
“That’s enough! I’m not listening to this nonsense anymore. Get out of the apartment immediately! I’m giving you twenty-four hours, sister, only because you have young children.”
“Of course. I’ll rush right out! ‘Get out,’ he says. How quick you are to give orders! I’m not going anywhere.”
“Are you seriously talking back to me?” Her brother was already at the end of his patience. “I’m calling the police.”
“You won’t be able to evict me when I have underage children. The law is on my side,” his brazen sister declared.
It was unclear whether she was bluffing or genuinely believed the government would protect her simply because she had given birth to several children.
Artyom left, slamming the door behind him, and immediately called his mother.
“I don’t understand what’s happening. Why are Galya and her entire family living in our apartment?”
“Calm down, please, Artyom. They’re only there temporarily, all right? Galya is having financial difficulties, so they’ll live there for a while. Is that really such a terrible thing? You’re her own brother, and Galina has three children. You should have some compassion for your sister,” his mother said in a sickly sweet voice.
“Perhaps I would have felt sorry for her, and Yulia might have understood her difficult situation too, if you had behaved like decent people. Instead, you seized someone else’s property like barbarians! You shamelessly moved into a home that doesn’t belong to you without saying a word.”
“How can you say such a thing, Artyom?”
“You heard me, Mom! I advise you to clear out the apartment before my wife and I contact the police. Pass that message on to your shameless daughter!”
“Sweetheart, there’s no need for that… Stop behaving this way, please. I never expected this from you. I truly didn’t… We’re all family…”
Olga Anatolyevna was upset. Her wonderful plan was falling apart. Everything had worked out so perfectly! Her daughter, the children, and her live-in partner had their own apartment. Galina had already forgiven her mother, and they had become close again. She was even grateful to her for finding them such a wonderful home.
“Tell my sister to get out of the apartment. Otherwise, she can pay us whatever amount of rent we decide. There will be no other options.”
Naturally, his sister refused to pay. For some time, Galina continued getting on her brother’s and sister-in-law’s nerves by refusing to move out. Eventually, however, after a great deal of difficulty, she finally vacated the property that did not belong to her.
Yulia and Artyom immediately found tenants for the apartment.
His parents and sister are now offended with Artyom and no longer speak to him. Galina is once again living with her parents. Akram recently abandoned her and returned to his homeland—to his wife and children.