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Irina stood on the porch watching the evening sun paint their brand-new frame house in warm peach tones. Sergey was fussing with string lights, carefully hanging them along the fence. For three years they’d saved, scrimped, skipped vacations—and here it was at last. Their very own dacha. — Sergei, maybe that’s enough? It’s getting dark, … Read more

— Mom, can I come in? I need to talk, — Natalia stood in the doorway of her parents’ apartment, clutching a large bag to her chest. — Come in, just take your shoes off carefully, I’ve washed the floors, — her mother stepped aside to let her in. — Dad’s home, he’s reading the … Read more

“Why are you so early?” Igor’s voice drifted from the living room—lazy and relaxed, muffled by the TV. He didn’t even turn his head when the key turned in the lock and the front door clicked shut. Alina didn’t answer. She stepped into the hall, every movement precise, stripped of her usual fuss. She didn’t … Read more

“Lena, you don’t mind if Mom stays with us for a bit, do you?” Kirill tried to sound calm, but his eyes gave him away: the decision had been made, and he was asking purely for form’s sake. Lena lifted her gaze from the laptop for a second, looked at her husband over the rim … Read more

— “Valya! Valentina! What’s wrong with you?” With each passing second, Boris’s loud voice grew quieter and quieter. Within a minute, the woman could no longer make out her husband’s words. She couldn’t hear or see anything at all. After an emotional conversation, Valentina suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed. She came to when her husband … Read more

The refrigerator turned out to be empty. Vera Stepanovna sighed wearily and reached for her wallet. She’d have to go to the store again. Spend her pension on groceries for the whole family again. “Mom, you’re retired. It’s not hard for you,” Lena said as she got ready for a meeting. Despite having a four-month-old … Read more

— “Your husband can have his birthday without you. You go meet my daughter,” the mother-in-law said brazenly. Victoria slowly lifted her eyes from the colorful gift boxes she was neatly arranging on the table. In the doorway stood Evelina Markovna—her mother-in-law—draped in an expensive dress the color of burgundy wine. “Excuse me, WHAT?” Victoria … Read more

— “What’s this?” Ira was sorting through documents—she needed her husband’s passport, which she was looking for in his bag. But the passport had “caught” on something else. — “I thought you wouldn’t find that…” Andrei muttered, blushing. That morning Irina woke up alone. Andrei had left early—nothing unusual. Ira reached for her phone: the … Read more

Arseny stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of his twenty-fifth-floor office, frozen like a statue, a heavy crystal glass in his hand. Amber whiskey swayed inside, catching the last glints of the dying day. Beyond the glass, veiled by the first mist of rain, the giant metropolis was slowly sinking into evening twilight. Myriads of lights … Read more

Yana pushed open the apartment door and immediately caught the low hum of voices coming from the kitchen. Her husband, Igor, was in there with his mother—Valentina Stepanovna—who had shown up that morning and, as usual, made the kitchen her base camp. “So what’s with the TV?” Igor was asking. “It’s ancient,” his mother complained. … Read more