“Are you suggesting I give away what I worked seven years for? Are you out of your mind?” Svetlana looked at her husband as if she were seeing him for the first time. In her eyes there was less anger than bewilderment. Andrey drummed his fingers nervously on the tabletop. His patience was running out … Read more
An employee at a gas station found a box in the restroom. Inside lay a newborn baby girl and a note: “Take care of her.” The man couldn’t leave the child alone — his wife had dreamed of having children for many years, but doctors said they would never have their own. The next … Read more
So what exactly are you trying to tell me? That I should give up my apartment so you and your mommy can keep diving into scams together?” “Come on, don’t get so worked up, Sasha, it’s my MOM… She didn’t mean any harm…” “And who am I then, Maksim?! Some random passerby?!” Alexandra stormed into … Read more
My husband was standing in the hallway. His tie was undone. His face was red from the cold. Or from that conversation with his boss. I don’t know. “I got promoted!” I turned away from the stove. The pasta was boiling. Foam was creeping over the edge of the pot. I really should have turned … Read more
I stared at my phone for a long time. Alexey was calling for the third time that evening, but I didn’t pick up. The time on the screen read half past ten. Before, at that hour, I’d already be washing the dinner dishes, wiping down the table, hanging up the laundry. Now I was sitting … Read more
The spotlight glare hit me straight in the face. The hall held about three hundred people. I stood on the stage, wrapping up a case presentation—how, in six months, we took a regional chain into the top tier. In the third row, someone suddenly sat up straight. Kira. She stared at me as if … Read more
“You’re not a wife — you’re a burden! Move out tomorrow!” Igor declared. And there it was. It had always hung in the air like dusty, nasty smog, but hearing it out loud—well, you know, it’s like getting slapped. A sharp one. In the cold. Natasha stood in the middle of their living room—the living … Read more
Unblock the card, we’re at the checkout with a full cart!” my husband shouted—after promising his mom and sister a banquet on my dime. I answered with a line that made the cashier call security. His sister was already picking out a fur coat and his mother was choosing caviar, confident I’d pay for … Read more
Shut up! Masha, you’d better not make me angry, or you’ll get it! My mom and my sister need a car, and you’re going to buy it!” her husband hissed. Kirill’s words hung in the kitchen air like a poisonous cloud. Masha stood at the stove with her back to him and felt something inside … Read more
My childhood unfolded in silence. Not the silence you find in libraries or morning forests, but the kind born of constant tension—the need to keep quiet so as not to betray something that wasn’t supposed to exist. We lived in an old house on the edge of the city, in a neighborhood where the asphalt … Read more