Month: January 2026

The air in my mother-in-law’s apartment was thick and heavy. It smelled of old fried cabbage, dusty carpets, and the acrid Red Moscow perfume that Zoya Anatolyevna, it seemed, hadn’t changed since her youth. Every time I stepped inside, I felt that atmosphere press down on me, trying to make me shrink and become invisible. … Read more

“Mum called again. She’s insisting we move in with her,” Alexey said, carefully sitting down on the edge of the sofa where Marina was reading a book. She slowly lifted her eyes from the page. In his voice she heard those same notes she’d learned to recognize over three years of marriage—a mix of guilt, … Read more

Olga had always thought that being an adult meant you finally got to run your life the way you wanted. Like a real grown-up. But here she was, standing in an office, holding a promotion order in her hands and feeling as if she were fifteen again. As if the school principal had just praised … Read more

A quarrel broke out in the house, and everyone was sure that the truth was on their side. But one unexpected decision turned everything upside down. Chapter 1. The Announcement at Dinner The bang of a fist on the table was so loud that the plates of still-warm borscht jumped. The rich smell that just … Read more

  “Marina, baby, do you really have to go on that business trip this very weekend?” Her mother-in-law, Galina Pavlovna, was sitting in the kitchen, stirring her tea and carefully avoiding her daughter-in-law’s eyes. Marina looked up from her laptop in surprise. In three years of living with Igor, his mother had never been interested … Read more

“Olenka, what are you doing?” her mother-in-law burst out. “Where do you think you’re going, and who will ever need you with two kids? Come to your senses!” “Mum, they came again,” Nastya whispered, without lifting her eyes from her textbook. Olga froze in the hallway, clutching the grocery bags. Strange men’s shoes were piled … Read more