And when she entered the restaurant, her mother couldn’t believe her eyes…” “Have you completely lost it?” she almost shouted, recoiling as if caught red-handed. “Me? In this? Playing your fiancée? Yesterday, I was digging food out of the trash!” He calmly clicked the lock, closing the door, and, tiredly leaning against the wall, … Read more
— “She’s gotten on my nerves. She’s put on weight, she’s always unhappy about something. I don’t know why I put up with it.” I heard my husband’s voice from the living room when I came back for my umbrella. The truth overheard by chance I froze in the hallway. The key was still in … Read more
“An overdue loan payment? What loan?” Zinaida pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder, trying with her free hand to catch the cash register log as it slid off the desk. “Credit agreement number seven-three-four-eight, dated November twenty-second of last year,” the woman’s indifferent voice droned in the receiver. “Issued in your name as … Read more
Phone buzzed on the table, lighting up a social media notification. Tamara Igorevna, my mother-in-law, had posted a new photo. “Enjoying the Turkish sunshine!” the caption read. In the picture she was smiling happily with a cocktail in hand against a backdrop of azure sea. I zoomed in on the background. Just automatically. There, at … Read more
My mother was the chief engineer of my existence, the quiet drafter of every blueprint I ever followed. When my father vanished from our lives—leaving behind a six-year-old boy and a woman suddenly carrying the weight of a collapsing world—she became everything celestial to me: sun for warmth, moon for tide, constellations to steer … Read more
All our relatives are coming to stay with us for the summer!” Sergey announced happily, bursting into the kitchen with his phone in his hand. I froze with my half-finished cup of coffee. My first thought was, “He’s joking.” The second: “God, anything but this.” “What relatives exactly?” I asked cautiously, hoping he meant … Read more
Tatyana was wiping dust off the chest of drawers in the living room when she heard the familiar sound of keys in the lock. Her husband had come home from work an hour earlier than usual, and that could mean only one thing—more news about his sister Marina. “Tanechka,” Igor called from the hallway, … Read more
Anna lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to calm her wildly pounding heart. Just a few minutes ago she had gone through one of the most frightening moments of her life — a confrontation with her own husband Alexander and his mother, Olga Petrovna. Their little daughter Sonya was sleeping peacefully in … Read more
“Andrew, please bring me some water…” Marina’s voice sounded чужим—dry and brittle, like last year’s leaves. It barely pushed through the cottony blanket that had covered her completely. Her body had turned into one solid, aching clot of pain. Everything throbbed—from her fingertips to the roots of her hair. Her skin burned, but underneath … Read more
— Yesterday I saw it myself: your “poor” mom was striding cheerfully down the alley with her friend, laughing her head off. And today—on my birthday—she’s suddenly at death’s door? How convenient! Larisa was a Scorpio. Not just by horoscope, but by her very nature—prickly, closed-off, unable to tolerate hypocrisy and lies. She was already … Read more