— Then have dinner with your mother, I’m going home, — I snapped at my husband who had brought my mother-in-law to the restaurant.

“Anya, this place is simply wonderful!” Marina exclaimed as the friends looked at photos of the new restaurant on the phone. “And you say you already booked a table?” “Yes, for seven in the evening,” Anya couldn’t hide her joyful excitement. “Five years of married life is no joke. I want to celebrate it somehow … Read more

The orphan girl who inherited a modest house deep in the forest went mushroom picking and found an airplane… One look inside the cockpit changed everything…

 After leaving the orphanage, seventeen-year-old Lida inherited something strange — a little house in the wilderness, passed down from her long-deceased grandmother. The half-collapsed building stood apart from everything — on the edge of the forest, as if forgotten by time.  No one was waiting for her, nothing tied her to the past — and … Read more

Sonny, we’re giving the mansion only to you! So that this penniless country girl gets nothing after the divorce.

At my husband’s anniversary celebration, my mother-in-law proudly announced: “Son, this is a gift from your father and me — the keys to a house. We are giving them only to you, so that this poor country bumpkin and her child from a previous marriage get nothing after the divorce.” The room fell into a … Read more

Grandma Shura, the Witch’s Granddaughter. The House at the Edge of the Village, Feared by Day, Sought for Salvation by Night

Grandmother Alexandra’s house, whom the villagers simply and familiarly called Shura, was avoided by day from afar. Not that anyone saw evil or black magic in her, but among the people, as usual, they loved to believe in omens — especially in old times. Strange things were said about her, whispered behind gates, near the … Read more

My mother is threatening to take our apartment away if we don’t let her come to the dacha,” my husband confessed to me, and I got seriously angry.

I was standing by the kitchen window, mechanically stirring the borscht when Andrey came back from his mother’s. I immediately saw from his face—the conversation hadn’t gone the way we hoped. He went to the table, sat down, rested his elbows on the countertop, and rubbed his temples. “Well?” I asked, although I already guessed … Read more

“Where’s the money? Where did you hide it?” Lev screamed. “The operation won’t help you anymore. You won’t get better! But mom needs to go on vacation.”

I stood in front of the mirror, staring at my reflection as if trying to see the person I used to be. But instead of a confident, radiant woman of thirty-two, I saw a pale, exhausted shadow. My skin had lost its former glow, turning gray as if lifeless. Deep shadows lay under my eyes—not … Read more

— I don’t give a damn what YOUR MOTHER wants from me! She’s nobody to me! So deal with her problems yourself! Got it?

— Vera, hi. Mom called. Her violets are dying completely — they urgently need to be repotted. Go visit her, help out, okay? You always manage plants so well. The kitchen was filled with the thick, warm aroma of fried onions and carrots — homey, cozy, as if inviting to forget everything else. But this … Read more

She left her children in the fir forest for a life of wealth—but the past found her 18 years later

The village was almost extinct. Out of the eighteen houses, only two remained inhabited: in one, elderly Varvara lived; in the other — Stepan with Anastasia. They had no children, but they did have Mitrich the goat, three goats, chickens, and a garden, which they tended more out of habit than necessity. Everything they needed … Read more

Having caught her husband with a young beauty, the wife didn’t start a brawl; instead, five days later she presented him with an unexpected surprise.

Marina had never imagined that she would end up in such a situation. “Beluga” – the restaurant where Victor once proposed to her three decades ago – had now become the place for his secret rendezvous. She stood by the panoramic window, watching as her husband tenderly intertwined his fingers with a young blonde barely … Read more

— If you want, then you stay with your sister’s kids. I definitely don’t want to! And I don’t want to see this daycare chaos in our home! Got it?

— Dash, I wanted to talk, — Semyon started cautiously as soon as she stepped over the apartment threshold. He stood in the middle of the hallway, shifting from foot to foot, and his look — guilty yet filled with some inappropriate determination — immediately stirred a dull irritation in Darya. She silently took off … Read more