Enough. No More Talking, — His Wife Snapped. Pack Your Suitcase and Get Out. Go Make Your Relatives Rich Without Me
The cheese on sale in the display case was 320 rubles a piece. Yulia silently adjusted the price tag and pressed it back into place with the magnet.
“Don’t take it. Wait,” she said, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. “Maybe there’ll be a discount on Friday. Or we’ll find it cheaper at another store.”
Igor glanced at the price tag, nodded, and pushed the cheese to the edge of the shopping cart as if it were an unnecessary magazine.
At the checkout, Yulia took out her bonus card. There were seventy-three rubles on it. The cashier scanned everything, looking tired.
“Thank you,” Yulia whispered, taking the bag.
That evening, their daughter asked for a doll.
“They showed me one like it at kindergarten, with a ponytail! Her hair changes!”
Yulia placed the grocery bag on a stool and pulled off her cardigan.
“Later, sweetheart. We’re saving, remember? For the kitchen. Once we finish with that, you can have a hundred dolls if you want. Okay?”
“Okay,” the girl whispered, looking away.
Igor silently took out the trash without looking at his daughter.
The next morning, Yulia hurriedly packed lunch boxes, helped the children put on their sweaters, straightened their little backpacks, dropped them off with their kindergarten teacher, waved goodbye, and almost ran toward the store.
At work, she received boxes from the new collection—sneakers, sandals, ballet flats. A walkie-talkie crackled behind her, and the manager called her to the fitting area. The shoe store was only ten minutes from home. The shifts were long, but she took every extra one she could get.
For lunch, she had a piece of bread with cheese and tea from a thermos. Throughout the day, Yulia carried hundreds of boxes, helped customers try on shoes, and answered the same questions again and again. By evening, her feet were throbbing, her back ached, and her head buzzed from the advertisements playing in the background and the shrieks of children near the slipper display.
She could barely wait for her shift to end.
At home that evening, Yulia went into the bathroom, bent over a basin, and dropped T-shirts and socks into the water. She washed them by hand, water splashing against the fabric.
Igor looked into the doorway.
“Why are you washing by hand? Is the machine broken again?”
“It barely washes anything anymore,” Yulia replied without turning around. “It just spins everything around, but the clothes come out just as dirty. It’s faster if I do it myself.”
Igor sighed and leaned against the doorframe.
“I see. Well… we don’t have money for a new one yet. We’ll have to save.”
Later, while Yulia was washing dishes, Igor checked his phone in the other room.
He transferred eighteen thousand rubles to his mother.
In the message, he wrote:
“For the pump and the fence.”
Then he deleted the notification.
Later, during dinner, Yulia gave each of the children a yogurt but didn’t take one for herself.
Igor drank tea while staring out the window. He remained silent, looking down into his cup.
His phone vibrated in his pocket.
A message appeared:
“Quarterly bonus: 22,000 rubles.”
He quickly turned off the screen without looking at Yulia.
“I picked up another shift today,” she said without taking her eyes off the stove. “Olga from the store has a sick child, so I covered for her.”
“Maybe your paycheck will at least be a little bigger this month,” Igor said hoarsely, keeping his eyes lowered.
A week later, Igor received a message from his sister Olga.
“Igor, I don’t even know what to do anymore. The kids have practically nothing to wear. My husband still can’t find a job, and we don’t have a penny. I’m exhausted. Could you at least help us buy shoes for the children?”
Igor sat with his phone and, without hesitating, entered the amount: 12,000.
In the transfer note, he wrote:
“For the kids’ shoes and electricity.”
He pressed “send.”
A minute later, a voice message arrived. There was laughter in the background and a child’s voice saying:
“Thank you, Uncle Igor!”
Meanwhile, the freezer door stood open in the kitchen, water dripping onto the floor.
Yulia wiped up the puddle beneath it.
“We’ve almost saved enough,” she said. “Just a little more. Two more months and we can order it. I calculated everything. It’s a modular kitchen set with a built-in sink. I saw it at Leroy.”
Igor nodded while holding the cabinet door shut with his shoulder.
Their daughter reached for a carton of juice.
“Mom, can I have a little?” she whispered timidly.
Igor caught her glance and answered quickly:
“Drink water.”
Yulia reached toward the carton and froze for a second.
Then she silently put it back in the refrigerator and closed the door.
“It’s almost empty anyway,” she said quietly. “We should at least make it last until the weekend. There’ll be a sale then.”
One evening, Yulia came home late from the pharmacy.
On the way, she was stopped by their neighbor Tamara, who was walking her dog and carrying a bag filled with gauze and wipes.
“I was at the clinic,” Tamara said. “I saw your mother-in-law. She looked so happy! She said your husband helped her install a swimming pool and bought her a new washing machine. What a wonderful son she has. And your kitchen still looks the same, I see. Haven’t renovated it yet?”
Yulia slowly nodded.
“Well… these things happen,” Tamara added. “Family needs help too. They’re not strangers, after all.”
She walked away, adjusting her scarf as she went.
Yulia returned home, closed the door behind her, and hung her bag on a hook.
Igor was lying on the sofa, looking at his phone.
He raised his head.
“Why are you so quiet?”
“Nothing,” she answered shortly as she walked past him. “Don’t say anything. No drama.”
Igor frowned and glanced back at his screen, but didn’t insist.
“I have to get up early. I’m going to bed.”
He went into the bedroom and switched off the light.
Yulia stayed in the kitchen.
She put the medicine cabinet back on the shelf, opened the refrigerator, and stared blankly inside.
She took out some water and poured herself a glass.
She didn’t drink it.
Instead, she silently cleaned the kitchen, took out the trash, and washed all the dishes again.
Igor left early the next morning.
On his way out, he grabbed a sandwich with butter, nodded at Yulia without looking at her, and closed the door behind him.
Yulia got up a little later. It was her day off.
She cooked porridge and sat the children down at the table.
Their son pushed his spoon around his bowl.
“Mom, when are you going to buy me that big toy truck you promised?”
Yulia froze and looked at him.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
“We can’t afford it right now, sweetheart,” she finally said quietly.
After breakfast, she got the children ready and took them to kindergarten.
When she returned home, she cleared the table and made the beds.
Then she took a suitcase out of the storage closet.
She unfolded it, unzipped it, and placed it beside a stool.
She began carefully packing shirts, trousers, and underwear.
There was no hurry.
Igor came home around midnight.
He opened the door and put down his bag.
Then he saw the suitcase.
He froze.
The hallway was silent.
Yulia stood by the window with her hands in her pockets.
She didn’t turn around.
“What’s this?” he asked. “Are you going somewhere? On vacation or something?”
He chuckled and walked into the room.
“I saved money,” Yulia said. “I denied the children things. I denied myself things. Everything was for the kitchen and the appliances. And you were lying to me. Every single day.”
He stepped toward her and reached out his hand.
She moved away.
“You can go to them now. To the people you’ve been living for. I’m not going to bring them meals or support them. I gave nothing to my own parents. Everything I earned went into this home. From now on, everything goes here. Without you.”
“What are you talking about?” Igor stepped closer. “I don’t understand anything.”
Yulia finally turned toward him.
“You thought I’d never find out that you’ve been supporting your relatives?”
Her voice was quiet, but steady.
He looked away.
“Well, you know… they’re family. Things are difficult for them. Who else is going to help?”
“Listen…” he whispered, his voice becoming softer. “I really didn’t mean to hurt you. I thought… well, you manage everything yourself. You always handle everything. And things are really bad for them. I just wanted to help. I didn’t think it would end like this.”
“Let’s not make any rash decisions,” he added. “Let’s talk about it calmly. Don’t get worked up.”
Yulia suddenly turned toward him.
“Enough. No more talking. I don’t want to discuss anything anymore. You can go to your relatives and keep making them rich. Traitor. You didn’t just betray me—you robbed your own children. Aren’t you ashamed?”
“Get out. Right now!”
Igor picked up his jacket and took the suitcase.
He said nothing.
A quiet sob came from the children’s room.
One of the children called softly:
“Dad?..”
But the door was already closing.
Yulia went to her son.
“It’s okay. We’ll manage. From now on, everything will be fair.”
Her daughter stood in the doorway.
“Where did Dad go?”
Yulia stroked her hair.
“He went to Grandma’s. To visit her.”
Igor arrived at his mother’s apartment.
Nadezhda Vasilyevna opened the door wearing a robe.
“Mom, I’m going to stay with you for a while. Yulia kicked me out.”
“Why? What happened?”
“She lost it. Had a hysterical fit. Packed my suitcase, put my things by the door… I’d barely walked in, and she was already standing by the window waiting.”
“What kind of people behave like that?” his mother said, shaking her head. “Everything is emotions with them. First they make your life miserable, then they end up sitting alone. I told you she was unreliable. You never believed me all these years.”
The next afternoon, Yulia was at home wiping down a cabinet when the doorbell rang.
She opened the door.
Nadezhda Vasilyevna stood on the threshold.
She didn’t come inside.
“What kind of behavior is this? He’s your husband! A woman has to endure things! He was trying his best. He wasn’t doing it for himself. He was doing it for the family.”
Yulia could barely restrain herself.
“You manipulate him so you can live better. And I was supposed to work myself to death without a single day off. Everything I earned went into our home, while he gave half his salary to you. So let him stay with you. I’m not living like this anymore.”
She closed the door.
Late that evening, Yulia took out her savings jar and opened her laptop.
She entered the search parameters:
Sochi.
Three people.
Two weeks.
She compared prices.
Then she found a vacation package that matched the amount she had saved.
She paid for it.
She abruptly pushed the laptop aside, stood up, and began laying clothes out on the bed.
“I’m so tired of all this. Why do I have to suffer constantly? Why do I always have to carry everything alone?” she said aloud, as though speaking into an empty room.
The next morning, she submitted a vacation request.
Her first vacation in three years.
She wiped the dust off the suitcases.
“We’re going. We’re just going. For once in our lives.”
Her daughter peeked into the room.
“Mom, where are we going?”
Yulia turned around.
“To the sea. For two weeks. You, me, and your brother. We’re just going to rest.”
“Will you buy me ice cream? Not the one that’s on sale. The kind I actually like.”
Yulia smiled.
“You can have anything you want. Now you can.”
Two days later, Igor decided to go home and try once more to apologize.
He went upstairs and rang the doorbell.
He waited.
Silence.
He knocked on the door.
Still no answer.
Tamara, the neighbor from across the hall, came out of her apartment carrying a bag.
“Oh, Igor. What happened? Lose your keys? Didn’t you go to the seaside with them?”
Igor didn’t even understand what she meant.
“Have you seen Yulia?”
“They went to the sea. I thought you went too. Yulia said she bought a vacation package. She’d wanted to go away with the family for a long time. Looks like she finally did.”
Tamara walked toward the elevator.
“To the sea?..”
Igor stood on the landing, unable to believe what he had just heard.
Then he turned around and left.
Igor returned to his mother’s apartment and sat down in the kitchen.
A mug of cold tea stood in front of him.
Nadezhda Vasilyevna moved between the stove and the table.
“They left,” Igor said. “I was just at the apartment.”
“Where did they go?” his mother asked.
“To the sea. On vacation…”
His mother brushed crumbs off the table.
“Well, why are you sitting there feeling sorry for yourself now? It’s your own fault. What did you expect? You were trying to sit on two chairs at once, constantly giving and giving everything to your relatives. Yulia may be sharp-tempered, but she held that household together. She carried everything on her shoulders. Maybe we really did go too far,” she added more quietly.
Igor lifted his head.
“So now you’re blaming me? I was trying to help you. But apparently, I shouldn’t have.”
Meanwhile, the vacation was easy and carefree.
The beach.
The sun.
Yulia stood ankle-deep in the water wearing shorts and a T-shirt.
Her daughter built a sandcastle while her son pushed a toy truck filled with seashells.
“Mom, look! It can carry real stones!”
“I see. You’ve got quite a powerful truck there,” Yulia said with a smile.
They laughed.
Yulia bought ice cream nearby.
“Not the discounted kind. Your favorite.”
The children reached out their hands.
“Can we tell Dad about this?” her daughter asked.
Yulia hesitated.
For a moment, she said nothing.
“You can. But later. When you want to.”
That evening, Yulia sat on the balcony of the guesthouse.
The wind moved the curtain.
A notebook with her calculations rested on her knees.
She crossed out one line:
“Kitchen. Savings.”
Underneath it, she wrote:
“Sea. Children. Sun.”
She closed the notebook.
Then she took out her phone.
She looked at a photograph of Igor with the children from the previous New Year.
She pressed “delete.”
The screen became empty.
That evening, Igor left his mother’s apartment and walked toward the bus stop.
Near a kiosk, a little girl was asking her mother for ice cream.
Igor turned away.
He remembered his daughter saying:
“Not the one on sale. The one I like.”
He got on the bus.
The evening city passed outside the window.
His phone chimed in his pocket.
A message from Olga appeared:
“Did you sort things out with Yulia? We need help again…”
Igor deleted the message.
He turned off the sound on his phone.
Then he stared out the window.
One thought remained in his mind:
That’s it.
Enough.