“Did You Get a Bonus? We’ll Buy Your Husband’s Sister a Car,” Karina’s Mother-in-Law Declared
“Lyuda, can you imagine?” Tatyana Petrovna nervously stirred the oolong tea in her cup. “Karina got a bonus. A huge one! And that… that upstart isn’t even planning to share it with the family!”
Her friend shook her head.
“How much did she get?”
“Half a million!” Tatyana Petrovna lowered her voice, even though the café was noisy. “My Vikulya has already found a car for exactly that amount. White, compact…”
“Does Karina know about your plans?”
“What does Karina have to do with it?” her mother-in-law pursed her lips. “She’s part of the family now. And in a family, everything is shared.”
“And what does Oleg say?”
“Olezhek…” Tatyana Petrovna smiled dreamily. “He’s understanding. He knows how badly his sister needs a car.”
“Does he know what his wife needs?”
“Lyuda!” Tatyana Petrovna tapped her spoon against the saucer. “Whose side are you on? That girl earns more than my son, can you imagine? What a disgrace…”
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” Lyudmila said, breaking off a piece of cake. “Karina is a good specialist, so she earns well…”
“Oh, a specialist!” Tatyana Petrovna grimaced. “Big deal, a pediatrician. My Olezhek, by the way, defended his PhD. And he earns pennies…”
“Maybe he should change something too? Go work at a private clinic?”
“A private clinic?” her mother-in-law was outraged. “Our entire family teaches at the university! It’s a tradition!”
At the next table, a young couple was enthusiastically discussing something. Tatyana Petrovna glanced at them with displeasure.
“There, everyone thinks only about money these days. In our time…”
“In our time, you arranged yourself quite well too,” her friend interrupted. “At the department, with a professor husband…”
“That’s different! We’ve been connected to the institute our whole lives. But this one… she came along with her private practice, and now she holds her nose in the air.”
“Tanya,” Lyudmila set her cup aside. “You were the one who wanted Oleg to marry a doctor.”
“A doctor!” Tatyana Petrovna lowered her voice. “Not this careerist. I thought she would modestly work at a clinic, then go on maternity leave… But what does she do? A private clinic, night shifts, and now this bonus…”
“What’s wrong with a bonus?”
“What do you mean? Vikulya wants a car, and her sister-in-law refuses even to hear about it! ‘I earned this money,’” she mimicked Karina. “As if we aren’t family.”
“Can’t Vika earn it herself?”
Tatyana Petrovna waved her hand.
“She’s a creative soul. She wasn’t made for all this fuss. Once she gets married…”
“To whom?” Lyudmila smirked. “She’s been sorting through suitors for the third year now. This one isn’t right, that one isn’t good enough…”
“Because she’s selective!” her mother-in-law straightened proudly. “Not like some people… My Olezhek could have found himself a better match too.”
At that moment, the phone on the table vibrated. A message from her son:
“Mom, Karina and I will stop by this evening. We need to talk.”
“There!” Tatyana Petrovna showed the screen to her friend. “They’re coming. That means Olezhek talked her into it. I told you — my son won’t let me down.”
“Or maybe they want to talk about something completely different.”
“Like what?”
“Well, who knows…” Lyudmila gave her friend a meaningful look. “Maybe we’ll be waiting for grandchildren?”
“Grandchildren?” Tatyana Petrovna snorted. “That careerist thinks only about work. What children…”
That evening, the whole family gathered at Tatyana Petrovna’s apartment. Vika sat in her father’s favorite armchair, flipping through a glossy car magazine. Oleg paced nervously around the room. Karina stood by the window with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Well, children,” Tatyana Petrovna said, pouring tea into cups. “Tell us, what did you come to say?”
“Mom,” Oleg stopped in the middle of the room. “We’ve been thinking…”
“About the car for Vikulya?” his mother-in-law beamed. “I’ve already found a dealership…”
“No, Mom,” Karina turned away from the window. “We’re not talking about a car. I’m pregnant.”
Silence fell over the room. Even Vika looked up from the magazine.
“What do you mean, pregnant?” Tatyana Petrovna froze with the teapot in her hands. “But what about… who will…”
“What do you mean, ‘who will,’ Mom?” Oleg walked over to his wife. “We’ve been planning this for a long time.”
“Planning?” his mother set down the teapot. “Why didn’t I know?”
“Because it’s our decision,” Karina answered calmly. “Our family, our child.”
“Your family?” Vika slammed the magazine shut. “What about me? You promised to help with the car!”
“We promised nothing,” Karina turned to her sister-in-law. “Your mother decided to spend my bonus.”
“Our bonus!” Tatyana Petrovna interrupted. “You’re part of the family, so everything is shared!”
“Mom,” Oleg tried to intervene. “Let’s discuss this calmly…”
“What is there to discuss?” his mother-in-law raised her voice. “They planned a child! Did you think about your sister? She needs a car!”
“Why?” Karina suddenly asked. “Why does Vika need a car?”
“What do you mean, why?” her sister-in-law jumped in. “To drive to work!”
“What work?” Karina smirked. “You’ve been looking for a job for three years. First the schedule doesn’t suit you, then the team isn’t right…”
“I’m a creative person! I need special conditions!”
“Special conditions?” Karina walked over to the table. “So I’m allowed to work night shifts? Spend every weekend at the clinic? Work for years to earn this bonus?”
“You’re a doctor,” Tatyana Petrovna pursed her lips. “That’s your duty.”
“Duty?” Karina looked at her mother-in-law. “And what is Vika’s duty? To live off her parents? To demand money from her brother?”
“Don’t you dare talk about my daughter like that!”
“And don’t you dare decide what to do with my money!” Karina raised her voice. “I studied for seven years, then four years of residency, sleepless nights, difficult shifts…”
“So what?” Vika interrupted. “Big deal, you work! I could also…”
“You could what?” Karina turned sharply toward her sister-in-law. “Get a job somewhere, for starters? Try earning your own money?”
“Why should I work?” Vika stood up from the armchair. “I have a rich brother, a sister-in-law with bonuses…”
“I’m not rich,” Oleg said quietly. “I’m a university lecturer. And my salary…”
“Exactly!” Tatyana Petrovna picked up. “Your salary is miserable! Your wife earns more, and she doesn’t even want to help the family!”
“What family, Mom?” Oleg suddenly straightened. “The one where my twenty-five-year-old sister lives off her parents? Where every ruble I earn is considered shared, while you simply decided to take Karina’s money?”
“Olezhek!” his mother-in-law threw up her hands. “What are you saying?”
“The truth, Mom. For the first time in my life — the truth.”
Karina looked at her husband in surprise. In three years of marriage, she had never heard him speak to his mother like that.
“You know what?” Oleg continued. “I could have gone to work at a private clinic too. Or at a research center. I was invited, and they offered me a salary three times higher.”
“But you didn’t go!” his mother said triumphantly. “Because we have a tradition…”
“No, Mom. Because you said I couldn’t. Because ‘what will people think?’ Because ‘the whole institute will talk.’”
Vika snorted.
“Big deal! At least there’s a reputation…”
“What reputation, Vika?” Oleg turned to his sister. “‘A respected family of hereditary teachers’? And what about the fact that we barely make ends meet? That Karina works herself to exhaustion just so we have enough to live on — is that normal?”
Tatyana Petrovna turned pale.
“So you’re ashamed of our family? Of our position in society?”
“No, Mom. I’m ashamed that I allowed you to control my life. That I couldn’t protect my wife from your demands. That I stayed silent when you demanded money from her for Vika.”
“I didn’t demand! I just wanted to help my daughter…”
“At someone else’s expense?” Karina asked. “At the expense of my sleepless nights? My shifts? My bonus that I earned?”
“But you’re part of the family!” her mother-in-law began again.
“Yes, I’m part of the family. A family where my husband earns pennies because you forbid him from changing jobs. Where his sister doesn’t want to work because it’s easier to demand money from her brother. Where every ruble I earn is considered shared…”
“You know what, Karina?” Vika came right up to her sister-in-law. “You’re just jealous. You never had a family like this!”
“Like what?” Karina didn’t even flinch. “One where the younger daughter is spoon-fed until the age of twenty-five? Where an adult son is forbidden from building a career?”
“We have traditions!” Tatyana Petrovna slammed her palm on the table. “We are hereditary teachers! We have a reputation!”
“A reputation for what?” Oleg suddenly asked. “For being a family that lives in the past? Where children are forbidden to grow?”
“Olezhek, you chose the university yourself…”
“No, Mom. You chose it. You’ve always chosen everything. Where I would study, where I would work, whom I would marry…”
“And what, do you regret it?” Tatyana Petrovna narrowed her eyes. “Maybe you regret getting married too?”
“No, Mom. I don’t regret getting married. Because Karina is the only one who believed in me. The one who supported me when I wanted to go to the research center.”
“You wanted to leave?” Vika’s eyes widened. “But what about…”
“There is no ‘what about,’ Vika. Mom said I couldn’t. And like an obedient son, I stayed. On a beggar’s salary.”
Karina stepped closer to her husband.
“Tell them. Tell them how they invited you to head a laboratory. How they offered you a contract…”
“What contract?” Tatyana Petrovna leaned forward.
“Four hundred thousand a month, Mom. Last year. At a private research center.”
Silence hung in the room. Even Vika stopped turning the pages of her magazine.
“And you refused?” his mother-in-law turned pale. “That kind of money?”
“Of course I refused,” Oleg smiled bitterly. “You said it wasn’t respectable. A private company, no stability…”
“But I only wanted what was best!” Tatyana Petrovna sobbed. “I was thinking about your future…”
“Your future, Mom. Your ideas. What they would say at the institute. Did you think about how Karina and I live?”
“What, do you live badly?” Vika cut in. “You get bonuses…”
“Yes, Karina gets bonuses. Because she works around the clock. Because she wasn’t afraid to leave for a private clinic. And I… I’m just a coward who is afraid of upsetting his mother.”
Tatyana Petrovna sank into the armchair.
“So I’m to blame for everything? For caring about you? For wanting to help Vika with a car?”
“No, Mom,” Oleg shook his head. “You’re to blame for turning care into control. For making it so adult children can’t live by their own minds.”
“And can you?” Karina suddenly asked. “Live by your own mind?”
“I can,” Oleg took his phone out of his pocket. “Yesterday I signed a contract with the research center. I start in a month.”
“What?” Tatyana Petrovna jumped up. “Without my permission?”
“I’m thirty-one, Mom. What permission?”
“And you kept quiet?” Karina turned to her husband.
“I wanted to finalize everything first. So there would be no turning back.”
“Traitor!” Vika shouted. “What about me? Who will buy me a car now?”
“No one,” Oleg said sharply. “If you want a car, go work.”
“Where am I supposed to work?” Vika grimaced. “In some office for thirty thousand?”
“For starters — at least there. Then we’ll see.”
“I can’t work in an office! I’m a creative personality!”
“You know what, Vika,” Oleg folded his arms across his chest. “I’m tired of hearing that. You’re not a creative personality. You’re just a spoiled lazy girl.”
“Oleg!” Tatyana Petrovna clutched her heart. “How can you speak to your sister like that?”
“I can. Because it’s true. And you know it.”
“And you…” his mother-in-law turned to Karina. “You turned him against us! You!”
“No, Mom,” Oleg stepped between his wife and his mother. “I decided this myself. For the first time in my life — myself. We’re going to have a child. And I want that child to be proud of his father. Not of some spineless dad who is afraid of upsetting his mother.”
“So that’s how it is,” Tatyana Petrovna straightened. “Either you stay at the university, or…”
“Or what? You’ll cut me out of the inheritance?” Oleg smirked. “I have a profession, I have hands, I have a brain. I’ll manage.”
“And me?” Vika began again. “What about me?”
“You should finally grow up,” Oleg snapped. “I’m tired of being your ATM.”
“ATM?” Vika recoiled. “How dare you…”
“Exactly like that,” Oleg picked up the keys from the table. “We’re leaving. And you, Vika, start looking for a job. Any job. Even as a cleaner.”
“I won’t work as a cleaner!” Vika stomped her foot. “I…”
“You’re no one,” her brother interrupted. “Just a spoiled girl who is used to living at someone else’s expense.”
Tatyana Petrovna silently stared at her son. For the first time in her life, she didn’t know what to say.
“And you, Mom,” Oleg turned to her. “You should think too. About what you turned your children into. Me — into a spineless creature afraid to say one word against you. Vika — into a parasite who only demands and gives nothing in return.”
“Leave,” Tatyana Petrovna said dully. “Both of you.”
“We’re leaving,” Karina picked up her bag. “I’ll spend my bonus on renovating the nursery. And you… sort things out yourselves.”
A month later, many things had changed. Oleg started working at the research center. His shining eyes and enthusiastic stories about projects were worth all of his mother’s lamentations about “betraying traditions.”
Unexpectedly, Vika got a job at a car dealership. It turned out her “creative nature” was quite good at selling cars. Especially when her salary depended on it.
And Tatyana Petrovna… She still worked at the university. Only now, when colleagues asked about her children, she answered briefly:
“They have their own lives.”
Karina ran into her mother-in-law by chance at a children’s clothing store.
“Buying something for your grandson?” Tatyana Petrovna asked, nodding at the bag in her daughter-in-law’s hand.
“Yes.”
“Do you already know the gender?”
“A boy.”
“I see,” her mother-in-law was silent for a moment. “How is Oleg?”
“He’s fine. He’s leading a project. He has his own team.”
“That’s good,” Tatyana Petrovna turned toward the exit. “And Vika, by the way, saved up for a car herself. Used, true…”
“But her own,” Karina finished.
And with that, they parted ways. Without hugs and without promises that “everything will be different now.” Everyone simply got what they wanted: Oleg got interesting work, Vika got her own car, earned by her own labor, and Tatyana Petrovna gained the understanding that children have the right to their own lives.
And only in the director’s office at the research center hung a strange little sign:
“Your children are not obligated to fulfill your dreams.”
Oleg smiled every time he walked past it.
Translated from your uploaded text.