Veronica stepped out of the office building a little after six, and the day seemed almost perfect. The contract had been signed, the clients were happy, and inside her bag was a brand-new key fob from a property she had shown five times before finally managing to sell it. She planned to stop by the store, buy something delicious, and enjoy a normal, peaceful evening.
Her phone vibrated. The screen showed “Nikolai.”
“Where are you?” her husband asked without even saying hello.
“Walking to the car. Why? Did you miss my voice, or my parking spot?”
“About the car… Nika, just don’t get angry. I gave it to Zhenya. For a month.”
Veronica stopped so suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk that the man walking behind her nearly crashed into her.
“You gave it to him? As in, you let him keep it somewhere? Or as in, ‘Here are the keys and documents, have a nice trip’?”
“Well, what was I supposed to do? Their car broke down, the repairs are going to take a long time, and their vacation package can’t be rescheduled. What are they supposed to do, sit at home?”
“Wonderful logic. Their vacation is at risk, so apparently I’m supposed to sacrifice an entire month of my life. Nikolai, do you understand what you’ve just done?”
“What did I do that was so terrible?! I helped my own brother! Are you even human, or are you some kind of calculator?”
“I’m a human being who has six appointments all over the city tomorrow. And, by the way, no one bothered to ask me.”
“Oh, don’t start with the ‘you didn’t ask me’ nonsense. I’m your husband. I have power of attorney.”
“Power of attorney gives you permission to drive the car. It doesn’t give you the right to hand it out to other people. It’s like having the keys to an apartment. You’re allowed to enter it, not move your relatives into it.”
Nikolai breathed heavily into the phone, and Veronica suddenly understood something very clearly: he had not called to discuss anything. He had called to inform her of a decision that had already been made.
“That’s enough. I’m at work. We’ll talk tonight,” he muttered and hung up.
Veronica lowered the phone and slowly continued walking.
Her father had given her that car as a gift. He had saved for it, carefully chosen it, inspected every tiny scratch on the bodywork, and then proudly handed her the documents with the words, “Drive carefully, sweetheart.”
And now that very car was heading down the highway toward the seaside with people who had not even bothered to call her.
Ten minutes later, her phone lit up again. It was Marina, Nikolai’s mother.
“Hello, Veronica,” her mother-in-law said cautiously. “Kolya called. He said you’re very angry.”
“I’m not angry. I’m mildly stunned. It’s the feeling you get when your property drives away from under your nose and then you’re told you’re heartless for objecting.”
“I’m not defending him,” Marina said unexpectedly. “He shouldn’t have done it. He should have asked you. The car belongs to you. There’s nothing to argue about.”
“Thank you. At least someone understands that.”
“But what can we do now? Zhenya and Olya have already left. They’re halfway there. We can’t exactly make them turn around.”
“They don’t need to turn around. Let them enjoy their vacation. I just need someone to explain how I’m supposed to get around tomorrow.”
That evening, Veronica placed her phone and planner on the table and sat opposite her husband.
“Look at this. Tomorrow: nine-thirty, a property viewing on the left bank. Eleven, a family with a child on the other side of the city. One o’clock, two clients back-to-back. Then two more properties I have to visit personally to take measurements and photographs.”
“So?” Nikolai shrugged.
“So the total distance between those places is about forty kilometers. I don’t have wings, Kolya. I checked. Nothing has grown out of my back overnight.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at her planner. For the first time, he seemed to realize that his wife did not simply “drive around” for fun.
“Listen… just take taxis. I’ll pay for them.”
“Excellent. I’m writing that down: ‘Nikolai agrees to cover the taxi expenses.’ No witnesses, but I trust you. You’re an honest man.”
“Stop being sarcastic.”
“I’m not being sarcastic. I’m documenting our agreement. There’s a subtle difference.”
The next morning, Veronica ordered her first taxi at 8:50. Then a second. Then a third. Then a fourth. The city stretched endlessly around her, traffic jams clogged the streets, drivers changed, and the amount on the app kept climbing like yeast dough.
That evening, she placed her phone in front of Nikolai.
“Total: seven thousand two hundred and forty. If you want, we can round it down to seven thousand. I’m generous.”
“What?!” Nikolai jumped up. “Are you serious? Seven thousand in one day on taxis?!”
“Eight rides. Two of them through the city center during rush hour. Here are the addresses, times, and prices. Scroll through them. Take your time.”
He did.
His face grew longer with every receipt.
“You deliberately chose expensive rides!”
“Of course. I traveled in a limousine with champagne and a live orchestra. Especially during the eight minutes I stood in the rain waiting because there weren’t any cheaper cars nearby.”
“This is ridiculous. People somehow get around!”
“People drive their own cars, Kolya. I had one yesterday. Then a natural disaster occurred. Its name was ‘my husband being generous with someone else’s property.’”
Suddenly, Nikolai brightened as though he had found the perfect solution.
“Make your company pay! You work for them. Let them cover it.”
Veronica slowly closed the app.
“My company pays for what we agreed upon. There’s nothing in my employment agreement about my husband giving away my personal car. There’s no clause covering ‘family-related emergencies caused by relatives.’”
“Then it’s your own fault for negotiating badly!”
“I see. Somehow the woman is always to blame. Even when the man was the one who handed over the keys.”
The next day, the same thing happened again: five rides, six thousand eight hundred.
Fourteen thousand in two days.
Veronica calculated the total in the elevator and felt a pulse pounding in her temples.
At the office, Artem, who worked at the desk next to hers, approached her.
“Nika, where are your wheels? Second day in a row you’ve been walking around like some tragic romantic poet.”
“My husband decided to be generous. He gave my car to his brother for a month. His brother and his wife drove it to the seaside.”
Artem nearly choked.
“Wait. Your car? The one your father gave you?”
“That one. And I’m not worried about the car itself. Zhenya is a careful driver. His own car is old, but he treats it like a museum piece. I’m worried about me. I can’t work properly.”
“How much have you already spent?”
“Fourteen thousand. In two days.”
“Listen,” Artem lowered his voice, “why don’t you take some vacation time? It’s a dead season anyway. Clients are sluggish. Go to the sea. By the time you come back, the market will probably pick up.”
Veronica froze.
The idea was unexpectedly appealing.
“You know what? That’s actually a good idea. The funny part is that the whole family will end up vacationing except my husband.”
“They won’t give him time off?”
“No. And somehow that makes the situation even better.”
That evening, she once again placed her calculations in front of Nikolai.
“Fourteen thousand one hundred. Your debt is growing. I’m not charging interest because I’m not a bank.”
“Have you lost your mind?!” Nikolai nearly shouted. “I’m not paying you seven thousand a day! I don’t earn that much! Are you trying to bankrupt me?”
“I’m trying to get to work. Bankrupting you is merely a side effect of your generosity.”
“You’re greedy! That’s all this is! You’re just greedy!”
“Greedy is refusing to give away someone else’s property. Refusing to give away my own property is called being normal.”
Right in front of him, Veronica called his mother and put the phone on speaker.
“Please tell me what I’m supposed to do. I can’t work normally without a car. Your son refuses to pay for the taxis.”
“Veronica, but…” Marina began uncertainly. “Zhenya isn’t a stranger. He didn’t mean any harm. Kolya only wanted to help his brother…”
“If he wanted to help, he should have given him something that belonged to him. He gave away something that belonged to me.”
“Don’t get so upset. I still have fifteen thousand left from last month. I was saving it. I can give it to you if you want.”
Veronica closed her eyes for a moment.
“No. Thank you. I’m not collecting money from random members of the family. I’m waiting for one specific person to take responsibility.”
Silence followed.
The next evening, Nikolai walked into the bedroom and saw an open suitcase on the bed.
“What is that?”
“It’s a suitcase. Fabric, wheels, handle. People usually take them on vacation.”
“What vacation?! Where are you going?”
“To the sea. Since apparently our family has a tradition of enjoying vacations at my expense, I thought I should join in.”
“Have you lost your mind? Alone?”
“Alone. Unfortunately, my husband has a very busy work schedule.”
Nikolai grabbed his head.
“Do you realize you’re spending our money?”
“Our money? Excellent. Sit down. Let’s calculate what ‘our money’ means. If I stop working for two weeks, I lose income. Subtract the cost of the trip—I picked an inexpensive option—and the difference comes to fifty-eight thousand. Add fourteen thousand for taxis. Total: seventy-two thousand. Please transfer it.”
He stared at her as if she had suddenly begun speaking an unknown language.
“Are you completely insane? First you charge me for taxis, then you fly to the sea alone, and now I’m supposed to reimburse the difference too? That’s unbelievable!”
“Unbelievable is giving someone the keys to another person’s car and then being offended when the owner doesn’t applaud.”
“I’m your husband!”
“That would mean something if you behaved like a husband instead of acting like a generous sponsor of someone else’s vacation.”
“Don’t you dare leave!”
“I dare. My plane ticket dares too.”
She left quietly the following morning, without any dramatic scene.
Nikolai slammed the door and spent the entire day furious. His wife had ignored him, taken what he considered “family money,” and flown away.
He called his mother.
She listened to his complaints and gave him a short answer.
“You’re an idiot, Kolya.”
“You too?!”
“Yes. Me too.”
A day later, Nikolai sat with Dima, an old friend from school, telling him his version of events.
“Can you imagine? She just abandoned work, grabbed the money, and flew to the sea. Alone.”
“Alone?” Dima raised an eyebrow. “Kolya, are you sure she’s alone?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said. Women don’t usually pack a suitcase in the middle of the week for no reason. Usually there’s a reason. With a first and last name.”
Nikolai went still.
The thought entered his mind like a nail being driven into soft wood.
“She isn’t answering her phone,” he said slowly. “Not at all.”
“Well, there’s your answer.”
“So she was looking for an excuse…” Nikolai clenched his jaw. “The car, the taxis—all of it was an excuse. She has someone else!”
Two weeks later, Veronica returned home tanned, rested, and calm.
Her car stood beneath the windows, freshly washed, undamaged, and carefully parked between two posts.
She called Eugene.
“Hi, Zhenya. I can see the car. Thanks for bringing it back.”
“Hi, Nika! Listen, that car is incredible! Not a single problem the entire trip. We drove a thousand kilometers and it ran perfectly. Thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome. There’s just one detail. I never gave permission for you to take it. Nikolai had no right to lend it to you.”
Silence.
“What do you mean—you didn’t give permission? He told me everything had been settled.”
“Nikolai says a lot of things. I could have reported that my car had been taken without the owner’s permission, and your vacation would have ended on the first day. I didn’t do that. I don’t believe in ruining people’s holidays.”
“Nika, I…”
“I checked the average rental price for a similar car at three different places. A month costs a significant amount. Please transfer the money.”
“Are you serious?” Eugene’s voice dropped. “Nika, I’m completely broke after the vacation. Kolya and I never discussed paying rent.”
“You didn’t discuss it with Kolya. But you were the one who took the keys.”
Back home, Veronica threw her clothes into the washing machine and sat down in an armchair.
She knew a confrontation was coming. All she had to do was wait for the delegation.
Her mother-in-law arrived first. Marina stood at the door pale, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“Veronica, I know everything. Zhenya called me. How can you do this? He’s family! He returned the car clean, undamaged, and with a full tank. What more do you want?”
“The owner’s permission. A small detail, perhaps, but without it, everything else starts looking a lot like taking someone’s property without consent.”
“You can’t be this greedy!”
“Greedy?” Veronica smiled bitterly. “Greed is wanting to use someone else’s property for free. I simply don’t understand how anyone can take something that isn’t theirs without asking.”
Eugene arrived shortly after Marina. He stood in the hallway twisting the keys in his hands, his ears bright red.
“Nika, I’m sorry. I really thought Kolya had discussed everything with you.”
“Zhenya, you’re a decent person, and I don’t enjoy arguing with you. But you knew whose car it was. One phone call. Thirty seconds. ‘Nika, do you mind?’ That was all it would have taken.”
“I didn’t call,” he said quietly. “That’s my fault.”
“While you were on vacation, I spent fourteen thousand on taxis in two days. Nikolai refused to pay. I had to take time off because I couldn’t work properly without my car. The difference between what I would have earned and what I spent is fifty-eight thousand. Plus the taxis. Who is going to cover that?”
“I didn’t know. Honestly. I’m sorry. I really am.”
The door suddenly flew open.
Nikolai walked in.
He already knew what was happening. His brother had called him first.
“What the hell are you doing?!” he shouted from the doorway. “You’re demanding money from my own brother?! Do you have any conscience at all?! You’re greedy, selfish, and you’re humiliating me in front of my entire family!”
“I see you came here to pass judgment, not understand what happened. Efficient.”
“What is there to understand? Here, take it and choke on it!”
He pulled crumpled banknotes from his pocket and threw them toward her.
“Fifteen thousand! Take it and leave everyone alone!”
The bills scattered across the floor.
Marina gasped and lunged toward her son.
“Kolya, shut up! Stop right now!”
Too late.
Veronica rose slowly.
When she spoke, her voice was so controlled that the entire hallway fell silent.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out of my home. You just threw money at a woman’s feet. You can recover your dignity in the stairwell.”
Eugene grabbed his phone. With trembling fingers, he transferred thirty thousand to her.
“Nika, here. That’s everything I have right now. I’ll pay the rest in installments. And… I’m sorry. Again.”
He took his mother by the arm, and the two of them left.
Nikolai remained standing there for a moment.
Then something inside him seemed to collapse. He sat down heavily on the small bench in the hallway.
“Nika… come on. Everyone got angry. I didn’t think it would end like this. Let’s just forget it.”
“Forget it,” she repeated. “Such a beautiful word. You use it like a magic button. Press it, and suddenly no one is responsible for anything.”
“I’m apologizing!”
“No. You’re granting yourself forgiveness. Zhenya apologized about ten times today. I counted. You haven’t genuinely apologized once in three weeks.”
“Fine! I’m sorry! Happy now?”
“You came into this house and called me greedy, selfish, and shameless. You threw money at me. You didn’t even ask how I spent those two weeks. You didn’t even wonder why I wasn’t answering your calls. Roaming, Kolya. I didn’t activate it because I was saving money. That same ‘greed’ you accuse me of would have cost you more if I’d decided to keep my phone connected.”
Nikolai looked away.
“Dima said something… and I thought…”
“You thought I had another man. Wonderful. My husband gave away my car, refused to cover the consequences, and then decided I was cheating on him. That’s no longer a mistake. That’s a three-act performance.”
She picked up the suitcase from the corner—the same one with the seaside sticker on the side—and pushed it toward him.
It rolled across the parquet floor and stopped at his feet.
“Pack your things.”
“You’re serious?! Nika, enough! Can’t we just forget all this?”
“Forgetting immediately is a coward’s habit. It’s convenient. You wreck everything, mumble an apology, and expect life to continue as if nothing happened. I’ll forget when you walk out that door.”
“This is my apartment too!”
“No, it isn’t. The apartment is registered in my mother’s name, and you know that perfectly well. Everything in this story is mine: my car, my home, my nerves. We had only one thing in common—trust. And you were the first to spend it.”
Nikolai said nothing.
Slowly, he stood up, took the suitcase, and went into the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, he came out with his things packed. He stood by the door for a moment, clearly waiting for Veronica to say something.
She said nothing.
The lock clicked behind him.
That evening, her phone lit up.
It was Marina.
“Veronica… is that it? Are you getting divorced? Over this?”
“I haven’t announced a divorce. But sometimes a person needs to be put back in his place before he starts thinking the whole world is his personal warehouse.”
“He’s sitting on my sofa. He hasn’t said a word.”
“Let him sit. Let him think. What happens next depends on him. If he understands what he’s done, the door can open again. If he doesn’t, then maybe this is better for both of us. I’m hurt. I’m not made of steel. But I’ll do what I have to do.”
The call ended.
Marina put the phone down and looked at her son.
He sat hunched over, staring at his hands.
“You’re an idiot, Kolya,” she said wearily. “A complete idiot. You never earned the car. You never earned the apartment. But you wanted to look like the generous big brother in front of Zhenya—using your wife’s property. Very impressive.”
She went into her room and closed the door behind her.
Nikolai remained alone.
He knew that room down to the last crack in the ceiling. He had grown up there. As a boy, he had dreamed of escaping it, becoming an adult, becoming independent, becoming the master of his own life.
He had married and believed he had finally done exactly that.
And now he was back on the same sofa, sitting like a schoolboy who had been thrown out of class.
He knew he had been wrong.
He understood it in every painful word that had been spoken in Veronica’s hallway that day.
But anger still scratched at him from inside, offering him the easiest explanation: it wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t his brother’s fault. It was hers. She had refused to forgive him. She had refused to forget. She had thrown him out.
Yet beneath that anger, another thought kept returning—simple, stubborn, and deeply uncomfortable.
He had to go back.
He had to call her.
He had to say the words out loud, not as a favor, not as something forced out of him, but sincerely and like a human being:
I’m sorry.
I was wrong.
He picked up his phone and held his finger over her name for a long time.
