“Lyudmila Petrovna, it is not your place to decide who will live in my apartment. Stop giving orders to everyone!” the daughter-in-law snapped.
“Have you lost your mind, Lyudmila Petrovna? Olya already lives practically in a dump, and now she’s going to take my apartment too?”
Marina could not believe her ears. She and Sergey were sitting at dinner, while her mother-in-law, Lyudmila Petrovna, wearing the expression of a prosecutor, was laying out her plan.
“Olya needs support. She needs a place to start her life with Anton, and you…”
“What do you have to do with my apartment, Lyudmila Petrovna?”
“Olya will live in yours. No objections!” her mother-in-law declared.
Marina clenched her teeth. Her apartment, inherited from her grandmother, was being rented out to help Sergey pay off the mortgage.
“I rent it out so Sergey can pay off the mortgage. Did you think about that?”
“That rental money is nothing. Sergey earns well enough. But poor Olya needs help.”
Marina looked at Sergey. As always, he tried not to interfere.
“Lyudmila Petrovna, this is my apartment,” Marina said coldly. “I decide what to do with it.”
“Well, Sergey, explain to your wife how important it is to help your family. Olya is your sister!”
Sergey shifted awkwardly.
“Mom, maybe we can find another option?”
“Exactly! That is why they need support! Olya and Anton will move into your apartment next week. Leave the keys with the concierge. End of discussion.”
“Excuse me, I need to make a phone call,” Marina said sharply and walked into the bedroom.
“Do you seriously think I’m going to give my apartment to Olya?” she later asked her husband.
Sergey spread his hands helplessly.
“Not give it to her. Just let her live there for a while. Not for long. Mom is worried.”
“And who is worried about us? Several months without rental income means losing thirty thousand a month. Where are you going to get that money?”
“If you put it that way…”
“I am putting it exactly as it is! If you keep insisting, I will file for divorce.”
Lyudmila Petrovna entered the room without knocking.
“Well? Have you agreed? When can dear Olya move in?”
“Never,” Marina answered.
“Sergey!” the mother-in-law shrieked. “Are you really going to let her speak to me like that?”
Sergey looked as if he wanted the ground to swallow him.
The next day, Marina met with a friend to pour her heart out.
“Let him choose,” her friend shrugged. “He married you, not his mother. It is time for him to make adult decisions.”
That evening, Sergey came home from work looking darker than a storm cloud.
“Mom called. She lectured me for two hours. She says I betrayed the family.”
“Which family? The one we have together, or the one you used to belong to?”
Sergey turned to her.
“You don’t understand. Mom was always everything to me and Olya.”
“And that does not give her the right to control our lives.”
“She isn’t controlling anything! She is just asking for help.”
“Sergey, that is not a request. It is an ultimatum.”
Soon, Sergey received a call from his uncle, Viktor Petrovich.
“I heard you’re having a little war with Lyudmila over there. You know what I’ll tell you? You’re right. Lyudmila has always loved giving orders. I’ll talk to her and to Sergey. It’s time she understood that her children have grown up.”
That evening, Sergey seemed unusually composed.
“Uncle Viktor called. I’m sorry I behaved like a little boy. You’re right. It is your apartment.”
“Thank you. It matters to me that you understand that.”
“I called Mom. I told her Olya will not be living in your apartment. Mom… got angry.”
“I can imagine.”
A month passed. Lyudmila Petrovna did not call. But one day Anton, Olya’s boyfriend, called Sergey and asked to meet.
“Listen, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” he said in the café. “At first, Olya seemed so… light and airy. Then I found out she doesn’t really work anywhere, and her mother gives her money. And then there was this whole apartment story. She said she had an apartment and that we could move there. Then it turned out the apartment belonged to your wife.”
“And now?”
“I’m breaking up with her. But I’m afraid of her reaction. And your mother’s reaction.”
“Welcome to the club. You’re doing the right thing.”
Two days later, Olya called her brother, screaming and accusing him.
“It was you! You ruined everything! You turned Anton against me!”
“Olya, I didn’t turn him against you. We just talked about the fact that adults should take responsibility for their own decisions.”
“Oh, really? You’ll regret this!”
That evening, Marina asked her husband:
“Do you think they will ever calm down?”
Sergey shrugged.
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to waste my energy on this anymore. You and I have our own life.”
“Don’t you feel sorry for them?”
“I do. But I feel even more sorry for the relationship we could have had if they had respected other people’s interests.”
A year passed. Sergey and Marina lived peacefully, renting out the apartment and slowly paying off the mortgage.
“Do you regret it?” Marina once asked.
Sergey looked at her, and his answer was simple but firm:
“Not for a second. I didn’t just choose you. I chose a normal life without manipulation.”