Alice and Kirill had been married for twenty-five years. They had two sons. For their silver wedding anniversary, Alice gave her husband a designer silver ring from a limited edition jewelry collection, and he gave her a silver spoon.
Alice was a little upset by such a gift but did not show it.
“You shouldn’t have spent so much money,” Kirill said, sliding the ring onto his finger. “What’s the big deal? Just another anniversary!”
But for Alice, this «jubilee» was not just an ordinary date. She had prepared carefully: lost a little weight, changed her haircut, and bought herself a beautiful dress. She also reserved a private table at a restaurant to spend some time alone with her husband. The couple needed to add some romance to their relationship, as the spark of love had been fading lately.
However, for some reason, Kirill did not appreciate his wife’s efforts. He behaved quite strangely and was frugal with the order. In their family, it was customary for the man to pay at the restaurant, although the couple had a shared budget. This time, Alice even considered suggesting splitting the bill, thinking he might be having financial troubles.
“Maybe there’s something I don’t know?” she wondered. Kirill was always secretive and never told her about his work difficulties, and recently he had stopped sharing news or contributing to the family «piggy bank.»
Moreover, he had recently begun refusing financial help to their youngest son. The boy had turned eighteen and wanted to hang out and feel comfortable among his peers and friends. Kirill used to give him substantial amounts for pocket money. Sometimes Alice criticized him, thinking he spoiled their son.
“I’m not spoiling him, I’m teaching him to live a quality life so he knows what to strive for,” Kirill explained. The teenager was used to having everything and found it very hard to adjust and accept his father’s new “policy.”
“It’s time for you to start earning yourself. Stop pulling money from me and your mother,” Kirill told his son one day, limiting his transport allowance to a small sum.
“You’re wrong. He can’t work; his goal now is to study,” Alice tried to say. But Kirill wouldn’t listen.
“At my age, I was already working part-time.”
“But he’s not you!”
“Exactly. That’s why I’m worried. It’s time for him to grow up.”
Alice couldn’t convince her husband. She began transferring money to their son for entertainment.
Kirill didn’t notice because he was spending less and less time with the family, citing heavy workload. Gradually, he stopped buying groceries, passing that responsibility to Alice.
Everything indicated that he was having financial problems.
Alice knew Kirill’s age was a critical one for a man, when special support was needed. So she tried not to pay attention to the changes in her husband, surrounding him with care and turning a blind eye to the fact that their family was getting almost nothing in return from him.
But the situation at the restaurant gave her new reasons to think.
“Maybe we can skip drinks? Look at these prices…” Kirill said, closing the menu. He ordered only a salad.
“I’ll have a glass of sparkling wine. It’s my celebration today,” Alice replied and called the waiter.
Kirill was served a glass of still water.
“Maybe say a few words?” Alice looked intently at Kirill.
“Well… all in all, I can say we did pretty well. The kids grew up, we did all we could.”
“Wait, wait, wait… what conclusions?” Alice was surprised. She hadn’t expected such words.
“Well, twenty-five years… it’s a milestone. One stage of life gives way to another.”
“Oh. Well, if you look at it that way, then yes. You’re probably right.”
The couple silently chewed their salads. Alice thought about how different she had imagined this evening, and what Kirill was thinking remained unknown.
Tension hung over the table; continuing a romantic dinner in such a mood would be strange, so Kirill called a taxi… for his wife.
“Aren’t you coming home?!”
“I need to stop by the office. There are unfinished tasks. I told you that if we go to a restaurant in the evening, I postpone some work to later,” Kirill opened the car door for Alice. She looked at him sharply and silently got into the taxi.
“Mom, why are you leaving so early?” their son was surprised. “And where’s dad?”
“He went to work.”
“On your anniversary day?”
“Well… what can you do.”
“Where are the flowers?”
“What flowers?”
“Didn’t he give you a single flower?” the son asked seriously.
“Here,” Alice took the silver spoon out of a bag. “A gift for our silver wedding.”
“That’s all?”
“A gift’s not about the cost but the attention. You going out?”
“Yeah. Meeting up with the guys.”
“Need money?”
“No.”
The son left, and Alice was left alone. She took a bottle from the bar and filled a glass. She had a lot to think about.
“Did you forget something?” she heard her son’s footsteps in the hallway.
“Yes. Here,” the boy handed her a bouquet. “For you, mom. You’re awesome.”
Alice bit her lip to keep from crying.
“Thank you, sweetheart. Very beautiful flowers. Well, go, your friends are probably waiting.”
“I can stay home if you want. We could watch a movie.”
“I’m kind of tired. I’ll go to bed early…” Alice looked away. She didn’t want to spoil her son’s Friday evening. It was enough that her own evening had already gone off course.
Alice put the gifted spoon in the cupboard. She noticed there were many unnecessary things in the bedroom and decided to clean up in the morning. She had read somewhere that order in the bedroom is the key to good family relationships.
She didn’t know what time Kirill came back. She fell asleep on the living room sofa. Kirill didn’t call her; he slept alone that night. And in the morning, he left for work again.
They didn’t talk with their son. Alice thought he was sulking at his father for not giving her flowers and didn’t pay it much attention.
She did a deep cleaning and then went to visit her mother in the countryside. The son asked to spend the weekend with friends.
Closer to evening, Alice called her husband to ask if he would visit her mother.
“I’m home, terribly tired. Are you staying at your mother’s tonight?”
“Yes. It’s raining heavily outside; I don’t want to drive in such weather. Will you manage alone?”
“Of course. Say hi to your mom.”
“All right.”
Alice returned home the next day around noon. She didn’t find her husband but noticed that on the perfectly cleaned table, several of her creams had reappeared. She even thought she was hallucinating.
“Maybe Kirill was looking for something in the drawer… or smeared his face with my cream,” she wondered and put the cosmetics back in place. She might have ignored the incident if she hadn’t discovered that her favorite shampoo from a professional line was opened. She had just bought it at the beauty salon and hadn’t used it yet.
Could they have sold her an opened bottle?
Alice even wanted to call her hairdresser to demand explanations but then thought Kirill might have used the shampoo, just like her cream. He sometimes grabbed everything indiscriminately. He didn’t care how much a jar cost; he used whatever was there.
“Kirill… we need to talk,” she asked her husband that evening not to touch her cosmetics. He said he didn’t have such a habit and washed with ordinary soap. They almost argued but stuck to their own opinions.
Alice decided to put her expensive cosmetics in a far drawer so that neither son nor husband would get to them. The incident seemed forgotten.
Until the next weekend, when Alice again had to go to her mother’s. Kirill refused to accompany her, saying he was feeling unwell.
“Maybe you were treating yourself with my shampoo?!” When she returned, Alice was terribly annoyed to find almost half the small bottle was gone! She had only washed her short hair a couple of times, using very little shampoo.
“Stop talking nonsense, Alice. I don’t touch your jars,” Kirill exploded.
“Then who? The house spirit?”
“I don’t know. Ask your son.”
Kirill’s attitude, his constant dissatisfaction, distance, and quarrels with their son opened Alice’s eyes.
But first, she needed to talk to her son.
“Do you bring girls home?” she asked directly.
“No. We have an agreement that the house is our private space. Until I meet the girl I want to bring into my family… I don’t bring just anyone here,” the son answered. “Unlike some, I think with my head.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
“Don’t you see it yourself? You’re a smart woman, mom…”
“Say it straight. Stop speaking in riddles.”
Her son looked at her with a mix of regret and disapproval and said nothing.
Alice understood: he knew something. Everyone in their family had secrets — except her.
That evening, when Kirill came back from work, she asked him a direct question:
“Do you have a mistress?”
“What?” he nervously laughed. “Are you all right? What’s gotten into you?”
“I think we should be honest with each other.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. If you’re bored, find something to do.”
Her husband was irritated again but didn’t want to confess. Meanwhile, Alice noticed more and more “evidence.”
She didn’t understand why Kirill didn’t want to admit anything. Maybe he was comfortable being married but having a mistress. Many lived like that. Women closed their eyes, men had affairs. But Alice had no desire to tolerate it. And without proof, she could do nothing.
Then she decided she simply had to catch the one deceiving her. She read all possible revenge methods online and decided that using depilatory cream instead of shampoo might not work. Iodine or green antiseptic would probably shock but wouldn’t expose the culprit clearly since it would be obvious that nothing could be done.
But she came up with a plan.
Not to delay, Alice made up an excuse and told her household she was going to spend a week with a friend in another city.
The first few days, nobody disturbed the woman in hiding. Her son hung out with friends and called her every couple of days, and her husband just wrote routine messages in the messenger.
By the end of the week, when Alice already thought her suspicions were unfounded and the shampoo story seemed silly, Kirill suddenly called her.
He woke her at one in the morning, and his voice was strange. On one hand, he was angry; on the other, he was choosing his words, not knowing what to say.
“What kind of shampoo did you buy, Alice?!”
“Just a regular one. Why?”
“My hair is all stuck together.”
“I asked you not to touch my things. Why did you take what I hid from you?”
“It just happened… what should I do now?!”
“Send me a photo of the shampoo and your hair. Most likely, you grabbed the wrong product. I have lots of cosmetics and something that can help save your hair before it falls out,” Alice’s heart was pounding like crazy. She waited for what would happen next. But Kirill didn’t hurry to send photos. She tried to call him on video, but he hung up.
“Kirill… what’s going on?!” she wrote.
“I called an ambulance,” he replied.
“Call me immediately. Don’t make a fool of yourself. I know how to help.”
But Alice didn’t wait for a call. While her husband tried to figure out what to do with his stuck hair, Alice was already unlocking the apartment door with her key.
“The ambulance has arrived,” she announced entering the bathroom. There, wrapped in a towel, a stranger girl was crying. If Alice had caught her earlier, she would have thought it was her son’s girlfriend. But next to the girl was her husband, not the son. And it was obvious they came to the bathroom for more than just a visit.
“Alice? How did you get home so fast?” Kirill gasped.
“I didn’t leave. I was waiting for you to use my shampoo again,” she said coldly. “This is eyelash glue remover in this bottle. You’re welcome.”
Alice nodded at the tube.
The idea to replace shampoo with eyelash glue remover came to her by accident and seemed good. First, its consistency and color were indistinguishable from shampoo; second, it could be washed out with a special solution, leaving traces but not harming the “culprit” enough for Alice to face legal consequences. Only she knew this. But the frightened lady who shamelessly used her cosmetics couldn’t figure out how to fix the problem without her help.
“I’ll sue you! You ruined my hair!” the girl sobbed.
“Go ahead. I’ll file a complaint for illegal entry into my apartment and theft of my cosmetics,” Alice answered. “I’m calling the police right now, and you’ll have to explain yourself to some serious men. You’re conveniently dressed — in just a towel.”
The husband’s mistress flinched, and Alice left the bathroom. She was disgusted to continue this pointless conversation.
Kirill came out after her. He looked confused and silent.
“Alice… she’ll wash up and leave. Let’s just pretend nothing happened. I told her not to take your things, but she’s young, stupid, from a poor family. Please forgive her,” he broke the silence. Alice thought nothing could surprise her anymore, but these words hit her like a bucket of cold water.
“Yes. Sure. Let’s pretend nothing happened. But one small detail. She leaves immediately. And you leave with her. Or I call the police right now.”
“Alice…”
“Pack your things and get lost,” she hissed and locked herself in the kitchen. Everything indicated that the evening had been romantic there — not like the anniversary night the couple actually had.
Alice was very hurt. But luckily, her sons supported her. The older son took over all negotiations with their father, and the younger made sure their mother was as comfortable as possible during the divorce.
Fortunately, Kirill had the courage to leave the apartment to his wife. He didn’t want to leave himself because he didn’t take the mistress seriously. She was young, naive, and only entertained him while his wife was away. But Alice was not one to forgive betrayal.
And although she was scared to think about the future, she survived the pain and understood that there is life after divorce — especially with the support of loved ones
