Baby, can you transfer me five hundred? — came a voice from the living room.
“I can. What do you need it for?” Alina asked, standing at the mirror and touching up her lashes with mascara.
The rising sun was shining brightly outside. The young woman was getting ready for work.
“I want to pick up the little one early from kindergarten and take him to the park. Maybe we’ll get ice cream or cotton candy.”
Alina pressed her lips in displeasure. How can you trust someone who constantly tells little lies?
“A week ago you told me the same thing. And then Maksim told me you didn’t go anywhere. Be honest about what you need the money for, and I’ll think about it.”
“Alin, oh, stop it! We’re a family. We should trust each other. If I say I need money, it means I really need it. Aren’t you ashamed to put me in this position?”
Alina was losing patience. She even stopped doing her makeup and headed into the room to Dima. She found him lying on the couch, glued to his smartphone.
“How much longer is this going to go on?” Alina’s voice trembled with indignation. “I’m working my fingers to the bone to feed us, and you’re lying on the couch again asking for money! Which one of us should be ashamed?”
“Oh, quit starting,” Dima grumbled without taking his eyes off the screen. “I’m waiting on an order; the money will come in soon.”
Before the layoffs, Dmitry had worked as a manager in a hardware store. On the side he sometimes took commissions as an artist. The income, however, was unstable. Before he met Alina, Dima made an effort and looked for steady clients, but that gradually fizzled out.
He remembered his “hobby” when he lost his job and Alina started pressuring him. Only he never managed to build up a client base. Either he couldn’t come to terms with a customer, or savvier competitors showed up. A couple of times he was stiffed. Well, according to Dima.
“Soon, soon,” Alina mimicked him. “Your ‘soon’ and ‘tomorrow’ promises have been dragging on for months! And it’s not like you help with anything… Taking our son to kindergarten—no time, taking out the trash—you’re too lazy, washing dishes—‘that’s not a man’s job.’ What am I being punished for?” She turned away; she felt like she was living in a hell of indifference.
“You know I’m a creative type,” Dima muttered. “I need inspiration, not routine.”
Alina sighed wearily. She loved Dima—once he had seemed so talented and interesting to her. But married life, as it turned out, looked nothing like the romantic fairy tale she’d painted for herself.
“Hey. Alina, listen…” Dima’s voice came through the phone. “My brother, Vitya, got laid off. Totally out of the blue.”
This conversation didn’t bode well.
“So what?” Alina asked warily, sensing trouble.
“Well, he and his family are going to move in with us for a while,” Dima announced as if nothing were out of the ordinary. “Just temporarily, of course. We’ll help however we can. His wife Lena will come, too, and their daughter Mashenka. She’s five, a little older than Maksim. They’ll be friends.”
Alina felt ice spread inside her. She was barely managing as it was, and now there would be guests on top of it. Looked like she’d have to shave a couple of hours off her already meager six hours of sleep.
“What do you mean ‘move in with us’?” Alina exploded. “Did you even ask me? Our apartment doesn’t stretch, and now a whole crowd is going to descend on us! Where are they going to sleep? What are we going to feed them? Pretty soon we’ll be sleeping in a box and eating out of the trash!”
“Don’t exaggerate,” Dima said in a placating tone. “You understand family is sacred. We can’t abandon my brother in a tough spot! And it’s temporary. Vitya will find a new job quickly, and then they’ll move out.”
Alina realized arguing was pointless. As always, Dima had decided everything on his own without the slightest regard for her opinion. “Fine, we’ll survive,” she thought with grim resolve.
A month passed. Dima’s brother Vitya still wasn’t looking for work; he spent his days playing computer games or sprawled on the living-room couch watching TV. His wife Lena cared only about herself: manicures, pedicures, shopping trips. Her social media was full of photos of new outfits and salon selfies. Little Masha tore around the apartment turning everything upside down. Her toys were everywhere, and shrieks and squeals rang out from morning till night.
Alina spun like a hamster on a wheel, trying to feed this entire crowd, clean the apartment, spend time with her son, and still find a minute to rest. She got up at dawn to make breakfast for everyone, then rushed to work, and in the evening, exhausted and worn out, stood at the stove again. No one even thanked her.
Everything came to a head one evening.
“Dima, how much longer can this go on?” Alina cried in despair, feeling anger boil up inside her. “I can’t take it anymore! Your brother isn’t even trying to find a job, Lena just spends money, and I’m the only one carrying the entire family as if that’s how it was supposed to be!”
Her patience cracked when she came home from work and found the fridge empty. Alina had bought groceries for their son’s birthday and already invited guests. And now there was suddenly nothing to serve. The budget was tight, so running back out to restock wasn’t an option.
“Why are you so mad?” Dima scowled. “We’re helping family! You can’t be so stingy! Vitya’s going through a tough time. And Lena has a little kid; it’s hard for her too.”
“Oh, and it’s easy for me? Why is the fridge empty?” Alina was ready to tear the place apart.
“Vitya had some friends over. He made a little dinner for them. Don’t be stingy! Are we going to begrudge my brother a bit of food?”
Something broke inside her. The endless work, the lack of support, the husband’s constant complaints, the children’s screams… She wanted to just scream without stopping.
“Don’t be stingy?” Alina nearly choked with indignation. “That ‘little dinner’ was on my dime—and at the cost of our child’s birthday!”
“We’ll manage somehow,” Dima shrugged. “He’s little. He doesn’t even understand it’s his birthday.”
“He’s not one or two! He understands everything. I’m breaking my back so your family has everything, and they can’t even say thank you. Lena spends all day at beauty salons, and I’ve forgotten what ‘gel polish’ even means. I barely have time to wash my hair! Your Vitya could at least watch the kid since he won’t look for work. Or wash his own dishes.”
“Now that’s a ridiculous comparison!” Dmitry protested. “A man is a hunter, not a babysitter. And Lena’s a woman; she needs to rest.”
Apparently Alina herself wasn’t a woman and didn’t need rest.
She realized there was no point talking to Dima. As always, he took his relatives’ side, refusing to see how hard it was for his own wife, how exhausted she was. At that moment Alina decided firmly that things couldn’t go on like this.
“Dima, I’ve thought it through,” she began the next day. “Either your brother and his brood move out, or you go with them. Your choice.”
Dima was taken aback. He hadn’t expected this turn of events.
“Are you serious?” he muttered, unable to believe his ears. “You want to destroy our family over some nonsense?”
“This isn’t nonsense, Dima!” Alina said resolutely. “This is my life. And your son’s life. I won’t let you and your relatives wipe your feet on us anymore! I’m done being a free maid, nanny, and sponsor for your ungrateful clan! I work, I take care of our child—what do they do? Your brother plays games and watches TV all day, and Lena just does her nails and gets hair plucked from everywhere!”
“You’re exaggerating again!” Dima tried to object. “Vitya is looking for work; it just hasn’t worked out yet. And Lena… well, she’s a woman. She wants to look good.”
“To look good at my expense?” Alina flared. “Dima, wake up! Your family is just using us—me! It’s convenient for them to live with everything done for them while doing nothing.”
“Don’t say that!” Dima frowned. “That’s my family! I can’t abandon them.”
“Then abandon me!” Alina shouted, unable to hold back tears. “I can’t live like this anymore! I feel like a stranger in my own home.”
Dima was silent, his head lowered. He didn’t want to lose either his wife or his brother. He was apparently hoping his wife would calm down and change her mind.
“Well? Have you decided?” Alina finally asked. “Who matters more to you: me, or your freeloader relatives?”
“I can’t abandon my brother,” Dmitry said quietly. “I didn’t expect such meanness from you…”
There was a lot Alina could have said, but she was tired and didn’t want a scene. She simply nodded.
“Then pack your things,” Alina replied coldly. “I don’t want to see you in my apartment.”
Dima began stuffing his belongings into a bag. For a while he was silent, but then he stopped restraining himself.
“You’ll regret this,” he hissed through his teeth, looking at Alina with hatred. “No one needs you but me! Who’s going to want you like this, with your rugrat? You’ll be alone for the rest of your life!”
Alina straightened up proudly and looked at him with contempt. There it was—the true face of a man who, just a couple of hours earlier, had been close and dear to her and their shared “rugrat.”
Or had he?
“Better to be alone than to live with someone as irresponsible and ungrateful as you,” she said. “And don’t you dare call my son a rugrat! He’s a thousand times better than you!”
Dima hissed something else in response, but Alina wasn’t listening anymore. She went into another room and slammed the door, then leaned her back against it and took a heavy breath. It felt like her soul had been turned inside out.
That evening Alina returned from kindergarten with Maksim. She walked down the street, holding the boy’s hand tightly, feeling a strange mix of pain, confusion, and… freedom. Freedom from constant tension, from the need to please everyone, from the guilt of not being able to make everyone happy.
“How do I tell Maksim that Dad left? How do I explain that Dad didn’t choose us?” She feared her son’s reaction; she didn’t want to hurt him.
Maksim seemed to understand everything immediately. He froze on the threshold of the quiet, now-empty apartment.
“Sunshine, I need to talk to you,” Alina said, kneeling beside him.
“About what?” he asked innocently.
She hugged Maksim and pulled him close. It took a few seconds to find the resolve to go on without bursting into tears.
“About the fact that you and I will be living together now. Dad left.”
Maksim said nothing. He clung to his mother even tighter, as if seeking protection from something invisible. Alina kissed the top of his head.
“But we’re not going to be sad!” she said, forcing a semblance of a smile. “We’re going to live interesting, happy lives. We’ll go to the park, to the movies, to the theater. We’ll read books and play games. We’ll be the happiest people in the world.”
“Where did Dad go? When is he coming back?” the boy finally asked.
“Dad went far away for a long time. He decided to live apart from us.”
“Why?” Maksim’s eyes filled with tears. “Did Dad stop loving us?”
Alina didn’t know what to say.
“No, sweetie,” she said, hugging him tighter. “Sometimes adults make those kinds of decisions. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. He’s still your dad, and you can see him whenever you want.”
Maksim buried his face in Alina’s sweater. They cried together, though she tried to hide her tears from him. In truth, they were more from hurt on Maksim’s behalf—and from relief. It was as if a weight had been lifted from her soul. Only one thought kept circling in her head: “Why did I endure for so long?”
“Tomorrow we’ll go to Grandma’s and rest,” Alina said softly. “She misses you very much. And I miss her, too.”
She felt she was standing at the threshold of a new chapter in their lives—one with quiet, cozy family evenings, time with her son, and real rest. She just needed a little patience and to get used to freedom.
