I was sitting in the kitchen, absorbed in my work, when the door suddenly flew open with a bang. Maxim burst in, not even bothering to take off his shoes. His eyes were burning with excitement.
— Katya! I did it! I found the thing that will turn our lives around!
I tore myself away from the laptop, where I was finishing a report for tomorrow’s presentation.
— What did you find?
— A business! — he exhaled, throwing his bag on the floor and collapsing into a chair so forcefully that the coffee cup almost toppled off the table.
— What kind of business? — I asked, closing the laptop.
— A sports store! — his face spread into a smile, revealing a familiar gap in his teeth. — Can you imagine? Mom found a space in the shopping mall. It used to be a souvenir shop, but they moved out. And now we’re going to take their spot! We’ll sell sportswear!
I frowned.
— But you’ve never worked in retail.
— So what? — he waved it off. — It’s a simple scheme: buy low, sell high. Mom already made deals with suppliers; she still has contacts from her last job.
Tamara Viktorovna, who had worked for many years as a goods manager, now apparently thought she knew everything about retail.
— And how much money do we need for this project? — I asked, already anticipating the answer.
Maxim nervously ran his hand across his neck, as he always did when he felt uncomfortable.
— About five million. For repairs, equipment, and the first batch of goods.
— Five million?! — I repeated. — Where are we going to get that?
— A loan, — he said carelessly, as if we were talking about buying a new phone. — Mom figured everything out. We’ll pay it off in a year, and then the real profits will start!
I looked at him as if he were a child building castles in the air. Where was the Maxim with whom we used to plan every step of our lives together?
— Are you serious? — my voice was quieter than I wanted. — We have a mortgage, you don’t have a permanent job… This is a huge risk!
— Exactly! — he slapped the table, making the salt shaker jump. — No job! But this is a chance to change everything! To become the master of your own fate! Don’t you want me to succeed?
— I do, — I replied quietly. — But not at any cost. This is too dangerous.
— Just like always, — he sneered, making a face. — You’re such a coward. You’re always afraid to take a step forward. You’ll work for someone else your whole life!
He stood up and left, leaving me alone.
The next day, Tamara Viktorovna came over. She sat at the kitchen table, tapping her fingernail on her cup, and looked at me with disapproval.
— Maxim told me about your conversation, — she began without any preamble. — I’m disappointed, Katya. Very disappointed.
— What happened? — I asked, though I already knew the answer.
— Your attitude toward your husband. He found a great business, and you’re not supporting him. Is that how a loving wife should behave?
— A loving wife thinks about the well-being of the family, — I replied calmly. — And taking a huge loan for a questionable venture is not care, it’s a gamble.
— Questionable? — her voice grew louder. — You just don’t understand business! I’ve calculated everything down to the last penny! In a year, you’ll be swimming in money!
— If everything’s so wonderful, why don’t you take the loan yourself? — I asked directly.
Tamara Viktorovna hesitated.
— They won’t give it to me… I’m too old. But you have an excellent credit history, good income…
— I won’t take out a loan, — I said firmly. — And I wouldn’t recommend it to Maxim.
My mother-in-law looked at me with cold disdain.
— You know, Katya, I’ve always felt that you’re not right for my son. Too calculating, too cold. A real woman should believe in her man, support his dreams. But you… — she shook her head. — You only think about yourself.
She stood up and left, leaving a heavy atmosphere in the air.
From that day on, Maxim and Tamara Viktorovna seemed to unite against me. They never missed a chance to talk about the store. At breakfast, at dinner, before bed.
— Imagine, Katya, — Maxim said while I was putting Dima to bed, — in a couple of years, we’ll have a whole chain of stores! All over the city! Maybe even in neighboring cities!
I stayed silent. What do you say to someone who’s already living in a fantasy world? For him, it was no longer just a plan — it was his new reality.
Tamara Viktorovna now came every day. She and Maxim locked themselves in the kitchen and talked about something in hushed voices when I entered.
Every time I walked into the room, their conversation would stop abruptly. Once, I caught them both leaning over some papers.
— What’s this? — I asked, setting my grocery bag on the table.
— A business plan, — Maxim said proudly. — Mom helped me make it. Everything by the book!
I skimmed through the sheets, written in Tamara Viktorovna’s uneven handwriting. Numbers, graphs, calculations… But it all seemed so naive that it made me uneasy.
I sat down next to them.
— Do you understand that retail is not that simple? There’s huge competition, and the margins are tiny…
— Here we go again, — Maxim interrupted me, rolling his eyes. — Katya, stop being so smart, okay? Mom’s been in retail for thirty years, she knows better.
— She was a goods manager, not an entrepreneur, — I countered. — Those are completely different things.
— What do you even understand?! — he snapped. — You just sit in your office, shuffling papers! But here, we’re talking about real business, real life!
Tamara Viktorovna watched our argument with barely concealed enjoyment. She clearly liked that her son was defending her ideas. She liked that a wall was growing between us.
The pressure increased every day. Maxim became irritable, often taking it out on me and even on Dima. My mother-in-law reminded me at every opportunity that “a real wife should support her husband.”
— I’ve always supported your father-in-law, — she said. — Whatever he decided to do, I was there. That’s why we’ve lived happily together for thirty years.
Then they changed tactics. Maxim became unusually gentle and caring — just like he used to be. He brought my favorite pastries, made dinner, played with Dima. Tamara Viktorovna also “calmed down,” stopped lecturing, and even praised my borscht a couple of times. That never happened before!
This sudden idyll made me suspicious, but I so wanted everything to work out…
One evening, Maxim sat me down on the couch.
— Katya, let’s have a serious talk.
— Alright.
— I understand your concerns about the store, — he began. — Really, I do. But try to understand me: I can’t live like this anymore. I feel like a failure, a kept man. You work, you support the family, and I… — he lowered his head. — I need this chance, Katya. I really do.
I stayed silent.
— Mom found a great loan program for new entrepreneurs. Low interest, convenient schedule. But… — he hesitated, — the loan has to be in your name.
— What do you mean?
— It’s a formality, Katya, — he squeezed my hands. — I’ll pay it off from the store’s earnings. You won’t have to spend a penny, I promise.
— And if the store fails? Like that souvenir shop?
— It won’t fail, — Maxim said confidently. — Mom’s figured everything out. The location is good, the product is in demand. And I can handle it. I’m not a fool!
I pulled my hands away and stood up.
— No. I won’t take out the loan. It’s too risky.
His face twisted in disappointment.
— So, you don’t believe in me? You think I won’t manage?
— It’s a gamble.
— A gamble? — he bitterly smirked. — You know what a real gamble is? Spending your whole life working for someone else! That’s a gamble! Owning your own business — that’s freedom, independence!
— Freedom with debt? — I asked. — That’s questionable freedom.
Maxim looked at me with such pain that it became hard to breathe.
After that, he almost stopped talking to me, came home late, and often drunk. Tamara Viktorovna called ten times a day, threatening and begging me to “come to my senses.”
— You’re destroying the family, — she said. — My son is suffering because of your stubbornness!
I tried not to give in to the provocations, but it was getting harder every day. At work, things started to go wrong: I lost focus, made mistakes. My boss had already called me into his office twice. Dima also felt the tension: he became moody and had trouble sleeping.
I was torn between work, my child, and the household chores, which now completely fell on my shoulders.
One day I came home earlier than usual — my boss noticed my state and let me go. “Go home, Katya,” he said. “Get yourself together. I don’t need an employee in this condition.”
The house was unusually quiet. I walked in, hoping for at least a little rest. And froze in the doorway.
Tamara Viktorovna was standing by my dresser, sorting through documents in the top drawer. My passport lay on the bed next to some papers.
— What are you doing?
My mother-in-law jumped and turned around. Fear flashed across her face, but quickly turned to the familiar arrogance.
— Oh, Katya, — she casually closed the drawer. — You’re home early.
— What are you doing in my bedroom? — I repeated, stepping closer. — And why do you need my passport?
— I was looking for Dima’s birth certificate, — she shrugged. — I wanted to sign him up for swimming, and they require a copy.
— What nonsense? — I grabbed the passport from the bed.
Flipping through the papers, I froze. The name of some microfinance organization caught my eye.
— You were going to take out a loan in my name? — I couldn’t believe my eyes.
— Don’t talk nonsense, — Tamara Viktorovna tried to grab the papers, but I quickly hid them. — I was just… looking at options.
— Options for fraud? — I felt a surge of rage building inside me. — Do you even understand that this is a criminal offense?
— Don’t exaggerate, — she grimaced as if the words were hard for her to say. — No one would have known. Maxim would pay the loan from the store’s income, and you wouldn’t have even noticed.
— Get out of my house, — I said quietly, feeling the cold spread through my body.
— What? — her voice trembled with surprise.
— Get out of my house, — I repeated, louder now, enunciating each word clearly.
Tamara Viktorovna looked at me with undisguised hatred.
— You’ll regret this, — she spat through clenched teeth. — Maxim will find out how you treated his mother.
She ran out of the apartment, slamming the door so hard that the walls shook.
An hour later, I picked up Dima from daycare and returned home. I packed the essentials: clothes, documents, and Dima’s toys. I called my mother and warned her we were coming.
When Maxim came home, we were already gone.
The first night I didn’t sleep. My phone was blowing up with calls and messages from Maxim.
“Where are you?”
“Katya, answer, I’m worried.”
“I’m sorry, let’s talk.”
I ignored all his attempts to reach me.
In the morning, I called work and took a day off. Then I turned off my phone and spent the day with Dima.
We walked in the park, fed the ducks, swung on the swings. Dima laughed, and that laugh seemed like the best comfort from all the troubles.
In the evening, when he fell asleep, I turned my phone back on. Twenty-seven missed calls from Maxim, five from my mother-in-law.
Maxim came the next day. He knocked on the door exactly at six p.m. My father greeted him and led him to the kitchen.
Maxim looked terrible: unshaven, dark circles under his eyes, in a wrinkled shirt.
He sat down across from me, placed his hands on the table, and was silent for a while, gathering his thoughts.
— I’m sorry, — he finally said. — I ruined everything.
I stayed silent, waiting for more.
— Mom told me what happened, — he lowered his gaze. — This… this is unforgivable. I didn’t know she was planning this.
— Really? — I raised an eyebrow. — But it seems to me that you were in on it together.
— I swear, Katya, I had no idea what she was planning! Yes, I wanted you to take out the loan, but only officially, with your consent. I never would have gone along with a scam.
I looked at him, trying to figure out whether he was lying or telling the truth. I used to always feel his lies. Now I wasn’t sure.
— What about the store?
Maxim sighed heavily.
— It’s over. The landlord rented it to someone else. Mom… she lost interest when she realized there wouldn’t be any money.
— And you?
— I… — he ran his hand through his hair. — I took out a loan. In my name. Less than we planned, just three hundred thousand. I wanted to open an online store, no rent.
— And what?
— Nothing, — he bitterly smiled. — Turns out, online sales are even tougher. I spent money on inventory, the website, ads… But there are almost no sales. Now I’m buried in debt.
He sat there, head down, looking so lost that for a moment, I wanted to hug him, tell him everything would be fine. But I held back.
Too much had been said and done.
— I’ll prove that I can change.
I stayed silent. What do you say to that?
When he left, I sat at the kitchen table for a long time, staring out the window. I felt empty inside, but at the same time, light. Maybe this will serve as a lesson for him.
