“Let Him Pay Off His Debts Himself Now. I’m Nobody to Him Anymore,” Irina Smirked
The first phone call from Sveta caught Irina by surprise. Her sister-in-law never called just to chat—their communication was usually limited to holiday greetings and occasional meetings at family gatherings. But that June evening, while Irina was washing the dishes after dinner and Andrey was watching the news, the phone rang insistently.
“Andryusha, hi,” Sveta said, sounding worried. “Sorry to bother you so late.”
Irina listened to the conversation while continuing to rinse the plates. Sveta was telling Andrey about problems with her younger son, Misha. The four-year-old boy had developed a high fever, and they didn’t have the necessary medicine at home.
“You see, there’s still a week until payday, and the doctor prescribed expensive medication,” Sveta explained. “Could you help us out for a little while? As soon as I get paid, I’ll pay you back.”
Andrey agreed without hesitation. Three thousand rubles for medicine for a child wasn’t a critical amount for their family budget. Irina didn’t object, although she mentally noted that Sveta’s husband, Nikolai Petrovich, worked as a foreman at a factory and should have had a stable salary.
The next call came two weeks later. This time Sveta asked for help buying groceries. Her eldest daughter, Lena, was going to summer camp, and they needed to get everything she would need. Another five thousand rubles moved from Andrey’s account to his sister’s card.
“They have children, you have to understand,” her husband explained when he noticed the slight confusion on Irina’s face. “You can’t abandon family when they’re going through a difficult time.”
Irina nodded, but privately thought that Sveta seemed to have difficult times suspiciously often. Still, she didn’t object. She considered helping relatives perfectly normal.
July brought a new wave of requests. Sveta called every week, always with a different reason. Sometimes Lena, who had caught a cold at camp, needed medicine. Another time, they urgently needed money to pay the utility bills before the electricity was cut off. Then their refrigerator broke down, and food started spoiling in the summer heat.
Andrey responded to every request. Four thousand for medicine, seven thousand for utilities, twelve thousand to repair the refrigerator. The amounts kept growing, but her husband didn’t think it necessary to discuss the expenses with his wife.
“She’s my sister,” Andrey would say whenever Irina cautiously mentioned their growing expenses. “I can’t abandon my own family.”
By the end of July, Irina calculated how much they had spent and was horrified. Thirty-one thousand rubles in one month—almost half of her salary as a manager at a trading company. And they had plans of their own for the summer: they wanted to replace the kitchen furniture and take a trip to the seaside.
“Andrey, maybe you should talk to Nikolai Petrovich?” Irina suggested one evening. “Find out what’s actually going on with their finances.”
Her husband frowned and shook his head.
“Why interfere in someone else’s business? Sveta will tell us herself if she wants to.”
“But we’re constantly helping them. Maybe there’s some underlying problem?”
“The problem is that they have two children and a small income. Nothing else matters.”
Irina wanted to argue, but her husband had already switched the television to another channel, making it clear that the conversation was over. She remained silent, although her anxiety continued to grow.
August turned out to be even more expensive. Sveta called twice a week, and every time there was a supposedly compelling reason why she needed financial help. Preparing the children for the new school year, buying school uniforms, paying for extra lessons—the list of expenses seemed endless.
“Lena is starting fifth grade. She needs a good uniform,” Andrey explained after another conversation with his sister. “And Misha is starting preschool preparation classes.”
Fifteen thousand for school uniforms, eight thousand for school supplies, ten thousand for additional classes. Andrey transferred the money without hesitation while Irina silently watched their savings disappear.
“Maybe we should set some kind of limit?” she suggested cautiously. “Say, no more than ten thousand a month.”
“A limit on helping children?” Andrey exclaimed indignantly. “Do you even hear yourself?”
“I’m talking about planning our family budget.”
“A family budget should include helping relatives.”
“But not on this scale.”
“What scale? Are we going bankrupt?”
“Not yet, but at this rate we might.”
Andrey looked at his wife disapprovingly.
“I thought you were a kind woman. Apparently, I was wrong.”
The remark hit its target and hurt. Irina tried to explain that this wasn’t about kindness but about being reasonable with money, but her husband had already stopped listening. The conversation ended with Andrey demonstratively going out onto the balcony to smoke, while Irina remained in the living room feeling guilty.
Meanwhile, Sveta’s requests became increasingly sophisticated. She had learned how to present information in a way that made refusing almost impossible. The children always seemed to fall ill at the worst possible moment, utility companies supposedly threatened to shut things off during the hottest weather, and appliances broke down right before holidays. Every situation demanded an immediate solution, and Andrey reacted exactly the way his sister expected him to.
By the end of August, Irina noticed that her husband had become secretive about money. Before, Andrey openly told her about transfers to his sister. Now he often disappeared into another room with his phone. Whenever Irina asked what they had talked about, he answered vaguely.
“Sveta was asking how we were doing.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes, that’s all. What else would we talk about?”
But Irina’s intuition told her that their conversations involved more than polite inquiries. Andrey was clearly hiding something, and whatever it was had to do with money.
Her suspicions were confirmed by accident. Irina logged into their online banking account to check the balance and discovered a transfer of eighteen thousand rubles made the day before. When she asked her husband about it, he hesitated before reluctantly admitting:
“Sveta asked for help repairing the children’s room. Lena’s ceiling started leaking after the rain.”
“Eighteen thousand rubles to repair a ceiling?”
“Not just the ceiling. They also need to replace the linoleum because the water ruined it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me immediately?”
“I didn’t want to upset you. I know you worry about our spending.”
“I worry because we’ve already spent more than eighty thousand rubles this summer.”
“Not more than eighty. Seventy at most.”
“Eighty-two thousand,” Irina said clearly. “I calculated it.”
Andrey fell silent, realizing that his wife knew the exact figures. He tried to change the subject, but Irina was determined.
“Andrey, this has to stop. We can’t support an entire family.”
“We aren’t supporting them. We’re helping them through difficult situations.”
“They have difficult situations every week.”
“So what? That means life is difficult for them.”
“Or they’ve gotten used to solving their problems at our expense.”
“Ira, you’re saying terrible things about my sister.”
“I’m telling the truth. Sveta is taking advantage of our kindness.”
“She isn’t taking advantage of anything. She asks for help because she’s desperate.”
“Desperate every single week? Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
“What strikes me as strange is your attitude toward family.”
“Family? They aren’t our family. They’re Sveta’s family.”
“Sveta is my sister. Her children are my niece and nephew.”
“And they should be supported by their parents, not by us.”
“Their parents aren’t managing. We’re helping.”
“We’re helping them continue not to manage. Why should Nikolai Petrovich look for extra work when he has a generous brother-in-law?”
“He works! His salary just isn’t very high.”
“Then Sveta should get a job. Lena is in school and Misha is in kindergarten.”
“Sveta can’t work. The children need attention.”
“The children—or does her husband insist that his wife stay home?”
“I don’t know. That’s their business.”
“Then supporting their children is also their business, not ours.”
The conversation reached another dead end. Andrey refused to admit that his sister was manipulating him, while Irina could no longer accept their constant spending. Their family budget was falling apart, but her husband preferred to ignore the problem.
September began with another request. Sveta called in tears. Lena had supposedly been diagnosed with vision problems and needed expensive glasses and a specialist consultation. Twenty-five thousand rubles for a child’s treatment was a serious sum, but how could anyone refuse to help a sick child?
Andrey transferred the money while Irina silently watched. Anger boiled inside her—not toward the children, but toward their parents, who had shifted responsibility onto their relatives. Sveta irritated her most of all because she had learned how to exploit pity and guilt.
The next day, Irina decided to verify the story about Lena’s eyesight. The trading company she worked for cooperated with medical institutions, so she knew whom to contact for information. It turned out that Lena really had visited an ophthalmologist, but no serious problems had been discovered. It had simply been a routine eye examination before school.
“So she doesn’t need glasses?” Irina asked a doctor she knew.
“Her eyesight is normal. Perhaps the parents were simply being overly cautious.”
“Or perhaps they wanted money for treatment that didn’t exist.”
“I don’t know. That happens too.”
Irina thanked the doctor and began thinking. Had Sveta lied again? Had she invented her daughter’s eyesight problems to obtain money? If so, all her previous requests might also have involved deception.
Irina began conducting her own investigation. Through mutual acquaintances, she learned that Nikolai Petrovich had a stable job and earned a reasonable salary—around sixty thousand rubles. Sveta really didn’t work, but not because of the children. She simply preferred staying at home and taking care of the household while asking relatives to finance additional expenses.
Even more revealing was the fact that Sveta wasn’t only asking Andrey for help. His parents were regularly giving her money too, as were other relatives. Apparently, Sveta and Nikolai Petrovich had created an entire financial-support system in which every relative contributed to their household budget.
When Irina tried to tell her husband, he refused to listen.
“I don’t want to know where you got this information.”
“But you need to know the truth.”
“The truth is that my sister asks for help.”
“The truth is that she lies.”
“She doesn’t lie. She simply doesn’t tell us every detail.”
“She embellishes reality?”
“Maybe.”
“To get more money?”
“To solve her children’s problems.”
“At our expense.”
“At the family’s expense.”
“Our family is falling apart because of these expenses.”
“It isn’t falling apart. We simply have different views about helping relatives.”
“We have different views about honesty.”
Andrey flushed and abruptly stood up.
“If you don’t like my family, you don’t have to associate with them.”
“I don’t like being lied to.”
“No one is lying to you.”
“Sveta is. And you’re helping her do it.”
“I’m helping my sister support her children.”
“You’re helping her avoid working and live at other people’s expense.”
“Other people’s expense? It’s my money!”
“Our money. We’re a family.”
“A family? Then behave like a member of one.”
“How exactly?”
“Support my decisions.”
“Even when they’re driving us toward bankruptcy?”
“They aren’t. We have money.”
“We had money. Now we don’t.”
“We’ll earn more. We both work.”
“We work so we can support Sveta and her children.”
“We work so we can help family.”
“Someone else’s family.”
“My family.”
“And what am I? Am I not your family?”
Andrey fell silent, realizing that he had trapped himself. He couldn’t admit that he was putting his sister’s interests above his wife’s, but that was exactly what he was doing. Every request from Sveta was fulfilled immediately, while Irina’s objections were ignored.
“I’m tired of this,” Irina said quietly. “I’m tired of the constant expenses, the lies, and your refusal to listen.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“That we stop giving them money.”
“Completely?”
“Completely. Let Sveta and her husband solve their own problems.”
“What if the children get sick?”
“There’s free healthcare.”
“What if they need money for education?”
“There’s free education.”
“And what if something serious happens?”
“Then they can come to us. Honestly, without lying.”
“Sveta doesn’t lie.”
“She does. And you know it.”
“I don’t.”
“You do. You just don’t want to admit it.”
“Even if that were true, the children aren’t to blame.”
“The children aren’t to blame. But they aren’t our responsibility.”
“How can you say that? They’re my niece and nephew!”
“Your niece and nephew, not your children. They have parents.”
“Parents who aren’t managing.”
“Parents who don’t want to manage.”
“How do you know?”
“Because everyone keeps helping them. Why work harder when you can live off your relatives?”
“Nikolai Petrovich works.”
“He works, but he doesn’t take a second job. Why should he when his brother-in-law helps?”
“Maybe he can’t find one.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to look.”
“I don’t know.”
“Exactly. You know nothing about the real situation in their family.”
“I know they ask for help.”
“You know they’ve become accustomed to living at other people’s expense.”
Once again, the discussion reached a dead end. Andrey refused to acknowledge the obvious, while Irina could no longer tolerate her sister-in-law’s financial manipulation. Their budget was collapsing, their plans were being ruined, and there seemed to be no end to the demands.
Worst of all, Andrey had begun concealing the true scale of his assistance from his wife. He transferred money secretly and then invented explanations afterward. The trust between the spouses had been seriously damaged, and their marriage was approaching its breaking point.
But Sveta kept calling. Every week she found another reason to ask for money, and every time Andrey agreed to help. Irina knew that things couldn’t continue like this.
Then came the blow neither of them had expected.
At the beginning of October, Irina received a call from the bank. A polite manager informed her that a payment on a loan taken out in her husband’s name was overdue by forty-three thousand rubles.
“What loan?” Irina asked, feeling her heart begin to pound.
“A consumer loan of eight hundred thousand rubles taken out one month ago. Andrey Sergeyevich is a guarantor on a mortgage loan and took out an additional loan to repay the outstanding debt.”
Irina slowly sank into a chair.
Eight hundred thousand rubles.
An enormous amount of money that her husband had never mentioned.
She asked the manager to email her the loan details and ended the call.
The documents arrived half an hour later. The loan really had been issued in Andrey’s name a month earlier. Its purpose was listed as repayment of mortgage debt.
But whose mortgage?
Their own apartment had been purchased long ago and was fully paid off.
Then Irina understood.
Andrey had become a guarantor on Sveta and Nikolai Petrovich’s mortgage. When they encountered problems making payments, her husband had taken out a consumer loan to cover his sister’s debt.
Eight hundred thousand rubles.
This wasn’t helping anymore.
It was financial insanity.
Irina waited for her husband to return from work and silently placed the printed documents in front of him.
Andrey looked at them and turned pale.
“Ira, I can explain…”
“Eight hundred thousand rubles,” Irina said evenly. “A loan at eighteen percent annual interest. A monthly payment of thirty-four thousand rubles.”
“I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how…”
“You didn’t know how to tell me that you had jeopardized our financial future?”
“I haven’t jeopardized anything. We can handle it.”
“Handle it? Our combined income is one hundred twenty-five thousand rubles a month. Thirty-four thousand goes to the loan, plus our normal expenses. What’s left?”
“Enough to live on.”
“Enough to survive. What happens if one of us loses our job? If we get sick? If we suddenly need money for an emergency?”
“Let’s not worry about things that haven’t happened.”
“We will. Because you already made plans for both of us without asking me.”
Andrey lowered his head, realizing there was no justification for what he had done. He had signed the documents without saying a word to his wife. He had violated every principle of married life for the sake of his sister.
“Sveta said this was the last time,” he muttered. “She said she wouldn’t ask for anything else.”
“Sveta has said plenty of things. Remember when she promised to return the first three thousand?”
“This is different.”
“No, it’s exactly the same. Sveta has become accustomed to living at other people’s expense.”
“Not other people’s. Family’s.”
“At our expense. Your sister doesn’t work, her husband earns decent money, yet somehow they still can’t pay their mortgage.”
“Nikolai Petrovich got sick and missed work…”
“Did he get sick, or did he quit because he knew there was a generous brother-in-law ready to rescue him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exactly. You don’t know anything about what’s really happening in their family.”
“I know they need help.”
“You know they’re good at asking for money.”
Irina stood up and paced across the room.
Eight hundred thousand rubles wasn’t merely a large sum. It was a financial burden that could last for years—a high-interest loan that would have to be paid regardless of circumstances.
“Andrey, I can’t do this anymore,” she said wearily. “I can’t live with someone who makes decisions like this behind my back.”
“Ira, let’s discuss it…”
“There’s nothing to discuss. You made your choice. You chose your sister.”
“I didn’t choose her. I just helped her.”
“You helped her at the expense of our marriage.”
“Our marriage has nothing to do with this.”
“It has everything to do with it. Family finances are a shared responsibility.”
“I’ll take responsibility for it myself.”
“You can’t. The loan is in your name, but both of us will end up paying for it.”
“We will. And we’ll manage.”
“No, we won’t. Because I’m leaving.”
Andrey raised his head and stared at his wife in alarm.
“Ira, don’t say something ridiculous.”
“I’m not. I’m making a decision.”
“Because of money?”
“Because of the lies. Because you put your sister’s interests above your wife’s.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did. And the eight-hundred-thousand-ruble loan proves it.”
“It was helping family.”
“It was betraying your family.”
“What betrayal? I didn’t betray anyone.”
“You betrayed me. You made a decision that affects our shared future.”
“Our future is still shared.”
“It used to be. Now you have obligations to the bank and to your sister.”
“We have obligations.”
“You do. I had nothing to do with this.”
“But we’re a family.”
“A family makes important decisions together.”
“I couldn’t wait. Sveta was facing eviction.”
“Then let them evict her. It isn’t our problem.”
“How can you say that? The children will be left without a home.”
“The children will still have their parents, and their parents should solve their own problems.”
“Their parents can’t manage.”
“Then they should sell the apartment and buy something cheaper.”
“They can’t sell it. There’s a mortgage.”
“They can. Mortgaged properties can be sold.”
“They’ll lose money.”
“They’ll lose what they couldn’t afford to earn in the first place.”
“Ira, that’s cruel.”
“What’s cruel is dragging relatives into your financial problems.”
“They aren’t dragging anyone in. They’re asking for help.”
“They’re demanding to be supported.”
“They aren’t demanding…”
“They are. Because they know you’ll never refuse.”
“I won’t refuse because helping them is the right thing to do.”
“The right thing to do is be honest with your wife.”
“I was honest.”
“You hid an eight-hundred-thousand-ruble loan.”
“I didn’t hide it. I just hadn’t had time to tell you.”
“For an entire month?”
“I was looking for the right moment.”
“The right moment to tell me something like this was immediately after taking out the loan.”
“I knew you’d object.”
“I would have. And I would have been right.”
“The right thing is to help family.”
“The right thing is to protect your own family.”
“Our family won’t collapse because of a loan.”
“It already has. Because of the loss of trust.”
Irina went into the bedroom and took out a suitcase.
The decision had come suddenly, but its roots stretched back through months of lies, manipulation, and disregard for her opinion. The loan was simply the final straw.
The next day, Irina went to the bank and learned that she could freeze access to their joint accounts. The process took several hours, but the result was worth it.
Andrey could no longer spend their family money on his sister.
A week later, Irina filed for divorce.
There was almost no property to divide. The apartment was registered in her husband’s name, and so was the car. But Irina wasn’t interested in material possessions. She wanted only freedom from the financial obligations her husband had taken upon himself.
Andrey tried to persuade his wife to reconsider. He promised never to help his sister again and swore that he would repay the loan himself.
But the trust between them had been destroyed beyond repair.
Irina knew that if she stayed, a month or two later Sveta would call again with another request.
And her husband would once again be unable to say no.
On the day she moved out, Irina packed only her personal belongings and documents.
The apartment remained with Andrey, along with the loan payments and the responsibility of dealing with his sister’s debts.
Irina rented a small one-bedroom apartment in another part of the city and began a new life.
A month later, Andrey called and asked to meet.
He looked thin and exhausted.
He told her that Sveta was asking for money again—this time to pay the utility bills. But Andrey had no money left. The loan payments consumed a large part of his salary.
“Maybe you could come back?” he asked in a broken voice. “It would be easier together.”
“No,” Irina replied calmly. “I’m not coming back.”
“But we loved each other.”
“We did. But love wasn’t enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“For you to choose me instead of your sister.”
“I never chose.”
“You did. Every time Sveta called.”
“Things are different now.”
“Now you simply don’t have any money. As soon as you do, you’ll start helping her again.”
“I won’t.”
“You will. Because you don’t know how to say no.”
“I’ll learn.”
“It’s too late to learn. The choice has already been made.”
Andrey left, and Irina remained in her small apartment, sipping cold coffee and looking out the window.
She felt sad, but she had no regrets.
She had freed herself from financial manipulation, lies, and the constant need to tolerate having her opinion ignored.
Six months later, a friend told her that Andrey had sold his apartment to repay the loan. He moved into a rented room and spent much of the remaining money on yet more of his sister’s needs.
Sveta still wasn’t working.
Nikolai Petrovich had found a new job, but his salary wasn’t particularly high.
“Let him pay off his debts himself now. I’m nobody to him anymore,” Irina smirked when she heard the news.
She had found a new job with a higher salary, started saving for an apartment of her own, and for the first time in a long while experienced genuine financial freedom.
No one demanded money from her.
No one manipulated her feelings.
No one made decisions on her behalf.
And Andrey was left with the consequences of his choice: the loan, a rented room, and a sister who continued calling with requests.
Only now, he had nothing left to give her.
All of his money went toward paying off his debts.
Sveta quickly lost interest in the brother who was no longer a source of financial support.
Irina didn’t gloat over what had happened, but she did feel a certain sense of satisfaction.
Justice had prevailed.
Everyone had gotten exactly what they deserved.