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, “we’re going to have a guest. Marina is coming the day after tomorrow.”
Tatyana froze with the rag in her hand. The last time her husband’s sister had stayed with them was three years ago, and those two weeks had forever remained in her memory as one of the most tense periods of their family life.
“For long?” she asked carefully.
“Mom’s asking us to get her settled in the city. Marina is already twenty-seven and still can’t find her place in life. I think a big city will give her more opportunities.”
Tatyana sighed. She remembered Marina—a tall blonde with a sulky mouth and a habit of treating everyone around her like hired help. The girl had never worked, lived with their mother in a small town, where the older woman supported her on her pension and the money her son sent.
“Fine,” Tatyana said, realizing she had no choice. “I’ll make up a bed for her in the living room.”
Marina arrived on Thursday morning with two huge suitcases and a bag stuffed with cosmetics. She was just as striking as before, but in her eyes Tatyana could read the weariness of provincial life and a hunger for change.
“Igoryok!” she exclaimed joyfully, hugging her brother. “I’ve missed real civilization so much!”
Tatyana silently watched the reunion of the siblings. Marina barely nodded in her direction in greeting, as if her brother’s wife were just another piece of furniture.
“Show me my room,” Marina asked. “I’m so tired from the road. And is there anything to eat? I didn’t have breakfast.”
The following days settled into a certain rhythm. Marina got up around noon, spent a long time getting herself ready, and then demanded breakfast. Tatyana, who worked from home remotely, was forced to interrupt her work to cook for their guest.
“Tanechka, don’t you have any better coffee? This one is kind of sour,” Marina complained, grimacing.
“Tanechka, can you wash my blouse? I want to go downtown for a walk today.”
“Tanechka, do you have an iron? My dress is all wrinkled.”
Igor could see his wife was on edge, but preferred not to notice. Moreover, every day he gave his sister spending money—sometimes for a taxi, sometimes for lunch at a café, sometimes for shopping at the mall.
“Igor,” Tatyana began cautiously one evening when Marina had gone out to meet some new acquaintances, “maybe you should talk to her about getting a job? She’s been here two weeks already and she just keeps having fun.”
“Give her time to settle in,” her husband waved her off. “She’s spent her whole life in a small town. Let her get to know our city first, figure out what suits her.”
Tatyana fell silent, but inside everything was boiling. She watched their family budget melt before her eyes, watched their home turn into a hotel for a spoiled girl who couldn’t even manage a proper “thank you.”
A week later Marina came home in high spirits. She had met her old school friends Alyona and Sveta at the mall. Both had married well and now lived in comfort.
“Can you imagine,” she told her brother excitedly, “Alyona married a businessman, they have an apartment in an upscale neighborhood. And Sveta married a doctor, he opened a private clinic. Every year they vacation somewhere—Turkey one year, Greece the next.”
“That’s wonderful,” Igor replied absently, scrolling through the news on his tablet.
“They invited me to go with them!” Marina blurted out. “To Cyprus! They say it’s beautiful there now, not as hot as in the summer. We can buy a twelve-day tour.”
Igor lifted his eyes from the screen. Silence hung in the room.
“Marina,” he said slowly, “but you don’t have any money for such a trip.”
“Igoryok,” Marina sat down next to her brother and took his hand. “You understand the position I’ll be in if I tell my friends I can’t go. They’ll think I’m a pauper. And then they’ll spread those rumors all over our town.”
“Marina, that’s serious money. A tour to Cyprus, plus spending money…”
“But you’re my brother!” Marina’s voice trembled with tears. “There’s no one else I can ask. Mom already gave me all her savings so I could move here. And I… I was so hoping to start a new life.”
Tatyana heard this conversation from the kitchen, where she was washing dishes. Her hands were shaking with outrage. She understood perfectly well where this was heading.
“How much will it cost?” Igor asked.
“The tour is about eighty thousand. And maybe twenty thousand for spending money. I can’t show up there empty-handed when my friends will have the best of everything.”
A hundred thousand rubles. Tatyana knew they had exactly that amount in their account—they had been saving for repairs on the dacha she had inherited from her grandmother.
“Alright,” Igor sighed. “I’ll help you.”
When Marina, overjoyed, ran off to call her friends, Tatyana came out of the kitchen. Her face was pale with anger.
“Igor, have you lost your mind?” she said quietly but clearly. “A hundred thousand rubles for your sister’s whims?”
“Tanechka, you see what state she’s in. Who will help her if not me? If I refuse, she’ll throw a fit and go back home. Then all our efforts will be in vain.”
“What efforts? She isn’t even looking for a job! She’s turned our home into a hotel and me into a maid!”
“Don’t exaggerate,” Igor winced. “She just needs to get used to the new place.”
“Get used to it? In three weeks? Igor, we were putting that money aside for the dacha. The roof leaks, the veranda is falling apart.”
“The dacha can wait. But the chance for Marina to start a new life might not come again. She needs connections to help her find a good job.”
“A new life?” Tatyana felt a lump rise in her throat. “Igor, do you hear yourself? We’re about to blow all our savings so she can play rich lady in front of her friends for two weeks!”
“My sister is going on vacation, even if I have to sell your dacha! Get that through your head,” Igor snapped in a fit of temper, and at once realized he had gone too far.
Tatyana stared at him, eyes wide. She couldn’t believe that the man she’d lived with for five years could say such words.
“I see,” she said quietly. “So my dacha is just small change to be traded for your sister. Got it.”
She turned and walked to the bedroom. Igor tried to stop her, but she closed the door behind her.
Tatyana did not sleep all night. She lay there thinking about how her husband, without batting an eye, had been ready to sacrifice her property for his sister’s whims. In the morning, when Igor left for work and Marina was still asleep, she sat down at the computer.
Tatyana opened a popular classifieds website and posted an ad to sell Igor’s car—a black Škoda he had bought two years earlier. She set a very attractive price—significantly below market value. In the description she wrote that the car was in excellent condition, the sale was urgent, and she left her husband’s phone number. Confirming it while he slept had been easy. She knew the password to his phone.
The first call to Igor came at seven in the morning. Then at eight-thirty. By lunchtime his phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
“Hello, are you the one selling the Škoda? I’m calling about the ad,” buyers asked.
“What ad?” Igor was puzzled. “I’m not selling my car.”
“But there’s an ad on the internet with your phone number.”
“There must be some mistake.”
By evening Igor was exhausted. He had counted more than thirty calls from potential buyers.
At home he was met by his wife, calmly making dinner. Marina was sitting at the kitchen table, animatedly talking about her plans for the trip.
“Tanechka,” Igor addressed his wife, “all day people have been calling me about selling my car. Do you know what that might be?”
“I do,” Tatyana replied calmly, without looking up from the frying pan. “I posted an ad to sell your car.”
“What?!” Igor turned pale. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Not at all. I’m helping you raise money for Marina. Your sister is more important than your car. You can take the bus to work.”
Marina stopped chewing and looked closely at her brother.
“Tanechka, this isn’t funny,” Igor said.
“I’m not laughing,” his wife turned to him. “Yesterday you said you were ready to sell my dacha for Marina’s vacation. I figured it was only logical to start with your property.”
“I lost my temper. That’s not what I meant.”
“No, Igor, that is exactly what you meant. You’re ready to sacrifice everything for your sister’s whims. Then sacrifice your own car.”
Marina realized she was becoming the cause of a family quarrel and tried to intervene:
“Igoryok, maybe you shouldn’t fight over this?”
“No, Marina,” Tatyana said firmly. “Your brother thinks your vacation is so important that he’s ready to sell my dacha. So he can part with his car too.”
“Take down the ad,” Igor asked. “People won’t stop calling.”
“I will, once you apologize to me and give up this crazy vacation idea.”
“But I already promised Marina!”
“And you promised me you would love and respect me. Where is that respect when you’re ready to sell my property?”
Igor looked helplessly at his sister, then at his wife. For the first time in all these weeks he saw the situation from the outside. His sister really had turned into a spoiled freeloader who thought of nothing but her own pleasures. And he, trying to help her, had been ready to destroy his relationship with his wife.
“Marina,” he said quietly, “I won’t be able to give you money for the trip.”
“What?” Marina jumped up from her chair. “But you promised! I already told the girls I’m going! They’re already buying tickets!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t spend all our savings on your vacation.”
“You’re a traitor!” Marina screamed. “I never thought my own brother could do this to me! Mom will be horrified!”
“Mom will understand,” Igor replied calmly. “She’s always said that family is the most important thing. And my family is Tatyana and me.”
“I’m not staying in this house!” Marina ran to her room. “I’m going back home tomorrow!”
The door slammed shut. Tatyana turned off the stove and looked at her husband.
“Forgive me,” Igor said quietly. “I let myself be led by her manipulations and almost destroyed everything we have. Take down the ad,” he asked.
“I’m already doing it.”
The next day Marina packed her suitcases and ostentatiously called a taxi. She didn’t say goodbye to Tatyana, only gave her brother a frosty nod.
“Don’t think I’ll forget this,” she said at the last moment. “Mom will find out how you treated me.”
“Tell Mom I love her,” Igor replied. “And that I’m always ready to help my family. But only in a sensible way.”
When the taxi disappeared around the corner, Tatyana took her husband’s hand.
“Do you regret it?” she asked.
“No,” Igor shook his head. “I realized I almost lost what’s most precious for the sake of someone who doesn’t value it.”
That evening, as they sat in the kitchen over tea, Igor said:
“I will never again let anyone, even my relatives, tell us how to spend our money.”
“Family is important,” Tatyana said gently. “But family is you and me. Everyone else is just relatives.”
“Exactly,” Igor agreed. “And I swear I’ll never confuse those concepts again.”
A week later they received a message from Igor’s mother. She apologized for her daughter’s behavior and asked them not to be angry with her. Marina had told her version of events, but their mother was not as naive as the girl thought.
“I know my daughter,” she wrote. “She’s used to everyone around her fulfilling her wishes. Thank you for trying to help her. Maybe this lesson will do her good.”
Their savings remained untouched. In the summer Igor and Tatyana repaired the dacha, and after that they could comfortably spend weekends there. And Marina, according to rumors, got a job as a sales assistant in a clothing store in her town and rented a room. Perhaps life really did teach her to value what she had.
But most importantly, Igor realized that a real family begins with respect for one’s wife, not with indulging the whims of spoiled relatives. And he would never again put his marriage at risk for someone else’s caprices, even if those caprices came from his own sister.
