“— 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 husband, silently nodded as if to say, Answer it. You can’t avoid it forever.
“Olga!” Her mother’s voice rang with festive excitement through the phone. “Can you hear the music? It’s my anniversary! Sixty years old! We’re at the Golden Peacock restaurant!”
“Congratulations,” Olya said cautiously, exchanging a glance with her husband. “I called you this morning, but you rejected the call.”
“I didn’t have time! Guests, you know! I invited forty people!” her mother laughed. “All right, listen to me. Transfer one hundred and fifty thousand to me. Right now. You know my card number.”
Olya slowly sat down on the sofa. Nikolai frowned as he caught fragments of the conversation. Outside the window, the May sunset was fading, and it seemed as though the entire world had frozen in anticipation of a storm.
“Wait,” Olya pressed the phone to her ear. “Are you serious? You didn’t invite me. Is my brother there? Aunt Zina? All the relatives are gathered together, and I find out about your celebration from my cousin?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” her mother snorted. “Don’t mess with my head! You owe me! You grabbed Grandpa’s house for yourself, and now you’re pretending to be some kind of saint? Send the money!”
“You don’t invite me, but you demand money for your anniversary?” Olya asked irritably.
Music thundered in the background, mixed with the voices of guests. Her mother had clearly stepped away somewhere to talk, but she continued practically shouting.
“Are you my daughter or what?” Her voice rose into a shriek. “I carried you! For nine months! And now you want to ruin my celebration?”
“Interesting logic,” Olya said, feeling her fingers turn cold. “So I don’t deserve an invitation, but paying for it is somehow my sacred duty?”
“Talking back to me now? Has that husband of yours brainwashed you? That Kolya? You didn’t have a penny to your name until Grandpa left you that house!”
Memories flooded back against Olya’s will.
Three years earlier, Grandpa Vasily had passed away quietly in his sleep. Olya had been the only person who visited him every week, bringing groceries and listening to his stories about the war and about life. Her brother Andrei appeared once a year, while their mother only called on holidays.
The will came like a bolt from the blue.
Grandpa had left his house entirely to Olya.
Not a word about his daughter. Not a penny for his grandson. Just his granddaughter’s name and a notary’s signature.
“You manipulated him!” her mother had screamed back then. “You filled his head with nonsense! That senile old man believed you!”
“He was of sound mind,” Olya had replied. “The notary confirmed it.”
Her mother rushed to their place the day after the funeral. Her eyes burned feverishly, and her lips trembled with outrage.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said, throwing a copy of the will onto the table. “You’re going to go right now and transfer the house into my name. I’ll decide how to divide everything myself. You’re young. You’ll earn more!”
“No,” Olya shook her head. “Grandpa decided this. I don’t understand why, but I respect his wishes.”
“You ungrateful little wretch! I’m your mother! That’s my property! My father!”
Nikolai had silently stood between them.
He didn’t say a word. He simply stood there.
Her mother hissed something about him being an outsider and stormed out, slamming the door.
Her brother Andrei called a week later. His voice was calm and slightly sad.
“Olya, Grandpa knew what he was doing,” he said. “I’m not angry with you. Live your life in peace. Mom’s tantrums are her problem, not yours.”
That conversation warmed her heart.
But their mother didn’t calm down.
Every month brought new calls, messages, and demands.
“Sell it.”
“Give it to me.”
“You owe me.”
Nikolai quietly walked over to his wife and sat beside her. Olya switched the call to speakerphone so that he could hear what the conversation was turning into.
“All right,” her mother cleared her throat. “Are you transferring the money or not? My guests are waiting! The waiters are bringing the bill!”
“Wait. I want to understand this,” Olya said deliberately slowly. “You arranged a banquet for forty people at an expensive restaurant. You didn’t tell me. You didn’t invite me. And now you’re demanding that I pay for your celebration?”
“What was I supposed to tell you? You’re always so busy! Such an important businesswoman! No time for your own mother!”
“I called you twelve times over the past month. You either rejected my calls or said you were too busy.”
Her mother fell silent for a second, but quickly recovered.
“That has nothing to do with this! You owe me! For the house! For everything!”
“What house?” Olya gave a humorless laugh. “The one Grandpa left specifically to me? The one Nikolai and I sold and used to buy an apartment?”
“Exactly! You sold it! Stuffed your pockets with money! And forgot about your mother!”
“Interesting. So the inheritance Grandpa specifically left to me is actually your money? Brilliant arithmetic.”
Nikolai suppressed a smile. Olya squeezed his hand, grateful for his silent support.
“Don’t try to confuse me!” her mother raised her voice again. “Send the money! Or I’ll tell everyone what kind of person you really are! I’ll disgrace you in front of all the relatives!”
“The relatives who are currently at your anniversary party? The one I wasn’t invited to?”
“Oh, here we go again! You weren’t invited, you weren’t invited! Who even needs you there with that sour face of yours?”
“Right. So there’s no need to invite me, but there is a need for me to pay. Convenient.”
Her mother had apparently moved even farther away from the noise. The music became quieter, while the guests’ voices faded into a distant hum.
“Listen to me, smart girl,” her tone became threatening. “Either you transfer the money, or you’ll regret it. I’ll tell your brother how you robbed me!”
“Andrei? He knows the whole story. We talk to each other. Unlike some people.”
“You’re lying! Andryusha is on my side!”
“Call him and ask. Right now.”
Silence followed.
Olya knew her mother wouldn’t call him.
Her brother had long ago chosen not to interfere, but when it came to what was fair, he acknowledged the truth.
“All right,” her mother suddenly changed tactics. “Fine. Maybe I overreacted about the invitation. I forgot. I had so much to do! But you understand — you only turn sixty once! Help your mother!”
“You know, I have an idea,” Olya said evenly, though there was steel in her voice now. “Nikolai and I are planning a vacation. The sea, a hotel, two weeks. Why don’t you pay for it?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? What does your vacation have to do with anything?”
“Well, think about it. You won’t swim in the sea. You won’t sunbathe. But I’ll have a wonderful rest! Isn’t that enough?”
Nikolai laughed silently.
On the other end of the line, her mother remained quiet, processing what she had just heard.
“Those are completely different situations!” she finally blurted.
“Really? Explain the difference. You organized a celebration for yourself. You invited whoever you wanted. Except me. And now you demand that I pay for entertainment I’m not even part of. How is that different from my vacation without you?”
“I’m your mother!”
“And? Does that automatically make my wallet your property? Interesting theory about family relationships.”
“I agreed to give you a ride because I wanted to help, but what you’re demanding now is too much,” the daughter-in-law told her mother-in-law.
Her mother’s voice trembled — whether from anger or tears, Olya couldn’t tell, and she didn’t want to figure it out.
“You’re cruel,” her mother whispered. “Heartless. I spent my whole life on you, and you…”
“Stop,” Olya interrupted her. “Let’s not manipulate each other. You didn’t spend your life on me. You did what you were supposed to do — raise the child you chose to have. That wasn’t an investment with interest that I now have to repay.”
“How dare you!”
“I dare because I’m tired of staying silent. For three years you’ve been demanding money that doesn’t belong to you. Grandpa left the house to me. Not to you. Maybe because I was the only person who actually visited him?”
A rustling sound came from the other end of the line. Someone had approached her mother and asked her something.
“Go away!” her mother snapped before returning to the call.
“You’ll regret this. I’ll cut you out of my life. Forget that you have a mother. Let’s see how well you manage without me!”
“Interesting,” Olya said without raising her voice. “For three years, you’ve barely spoken to me. You didn’t congratulate me on my wedding anniversary. You didn’t come when I was sick. You didn’t invite me to your sixtieth birthday. And now you’re threatening to cut me out of your life? What exactly would that look like in practice?”
“You… you…” Her mother choked on her words.
“Wait. I’m not finished. You can be angry. You can tell the relatives whatever stories you like. But I’m not transferring money for your party. Because paying for it isn’t my responsibility. And you don’t have the right to demand it.”
Nikolai silently gave her a thumbs-up.
Olya smiled at him.
“So that’s how it is?” her mother said quietly, almost in a whisper. “So you’re abandoning me?”
“I’m not abandoning you. I’m simply refusing to be your ATM. If you want a relationship with me as your daughter, I’m willing. If all you need is a wallet, then sorry, but no.”
“You’ll come crawling back to me anyway! Once you realize what you’ve done!”
“Maybe. But not today. Happy birthday, Mom. Truly. No sarcasm. Sixty is an important milestone.”
Olya ended the call and placed the phone on the table.
Her hands were trembling slightly, but inside she felt an unusual calm — like the silence after a thunderstorm.
Nikolai wrapped his arms around her and kissed her temple.
“You did well,” he said quietly. “That was a difficult conversation, but you handled it.”
“She’s going to start a war now,” Olya sighed. “She’ll call all the relatives, cry to them, tell them her version of the story.”
“Let her. The people who know you won’t believe it. And the others… is their opinion really worth your nerves?”
“Probably not.”
An hour later, Andrei called.
His voice sounded guilty.
“Olya, Mom has already told me all kinds of things. How are you?”
“I’m okay. Just tired.”
“Listen, I was at the anniversary party. I wanted to call you and warn you, but she took my phone away ‘so I wouldn’t get distracted.’ I didn’t know you hadn’t been invited. Honestly.”
“I believe you, Andrei. I do.”
He was silent for a moment before adding:
“She was wrong. About the inheritance and about this. But she’s still our mother. Maybe with time…”
“Maybe,” Olya didn’t argue. “But not today. And not tomorrow. First she needs to understand that money isn’t the only thing connecting people.”
They said goodbye.
Nikolai brought two glasses of water — plain, cold water, exactly what they needed after an evening like this.
“Are your relationship with her ruined now?” he asked.
“It was ruined long before today,” Olya shrugged. “The only difference is that now we’ve finally said it out loud.”
Music was playing through the wall — the neighbors were celebrating something of their own.
Life went on.
With complicated relatives, difficult conversations, and choices that sometimes had to be made.
Olya looked at her husband and smiled.
At least she wasn’t alone.