“What delicate earrings you have, Anya,” her mother-in-law, Lyudmila Ivanovna, lightly touched the jewelry with her fingers.
“Thank you,” Anya gave a strained smile, hoping that Pavel would soon come back from working in the yard. She didn’t like being left alone with her mother-in-law.
She loved Pavel, but things with his mother just didn’t work out. Lyudmila Ivanovna adored discussing other people’s finances.
“Who gave them to you?” she suddenly asked.
“Here we go,” Anya thought.
“I bought them myself. My birthday is coming up, so I decided to treat myself. We got a bonus at work, so I chose the earrings I’d been dreaming about for a long time.”
Anya noticed how her mother-in-law’s mood changed. Her warm smile turned cold, and her brows knitted. Lyudmila Ivanovna drew back slightly.
“By yourself, really?” she repeated with disbelief.
“Of course,” Anya replied firmly. “I’ve been able to afford it for a long time. My salary is higher than Pavel’s.”
Her mother-in-law frowned even more, but Anya decided not to dwell on her reaction.
Soon Pavel came into the house.
“Mom, I fixed the gate and dug over the flower beds,” he announced from the doorway.
“Well done, son, thank you!” Lyudmila Ivanovna immediately switched to her son, and Anya sighed in relief, freed from the tense conversation.
A couple of hours later the spouses were getting ready to go home. Anya was already sitting in the car when she noticed that her mother-in-law had led Pavel aside and started whispering something.
“Surely about me again,” Anya thought.
“Fine. I don’t care.”
But after that day, something in the family changed. Anya noticed that Pavel started helping less around the house. Before, at least once a week he would buy groceries, but now he began to “forget” his wallet or card, and Anya had to spend her own money.
There was no talk of getting it back.
“I don’t do it on purpose,” Pavel excused himself. “Work is crazy, so it just slips my mind. Do you want me to pay you back?”
He reached for his pocket, but Anya stopped him:
“Don’t, Pavel. I didn’t ask you to. It’s just… this isn’t like you.”
Pavel pouted, but quickly got over it and didn’t hold a grudge.
Anya celebrated her birthday three times: with friends, with her parents, and with her husband’s family. Her mother-in-law and her own mother had never found a common language, so Anya decided not to bring them together in order to avoid extra conflict.
Over a cup of tea and homemade pie at her mother’s, Anya decided to share what had been weighing on her.
“Maybe I’m just winding myself up for nothing? So what if he didn’t pay in the store a couple of times. I still earn more anyway.”
Her mother shook her head and gently touched her hand.
“Sweetheart, I don’t want to get into your business with Pavel… But I’ve long noticed that Lyudmila Ivanovna is a stingy person. Even before the wedding she counted every kopeck. We contributed more, even though there were fewer guests on our side. And she still thought we were cheating her.”
“Mom, why didn’t you tell me?” Anya was surprised.
“And this woman still dared to judge my mom over money!” she thought.
“You were so happy then… I didn’t want to upset you,” her mother replied.
She fell silent, and Anya looked up at her.
“Just think about it, Anya. What if Pavel becomes like his mother? Could he start pressuring you over money? Using you as a source of income?”
“No, he’s not like that!” Anya immediately objected.
But then she remembered how she always paid for dinners at cafés, for shopping trips, for things for the house. She could no longer recall the last time Pavel himself had paid for anything.
“Although… I don’t know,” she added quietly, lowering her eyes.
Her mother moved closer and hugged her.
“Dear, I don’t want you to be hurt. But life doesn’t end with Pavel. If you’re unhappy with him, leave. The apartment is mine, you’ll have somewhere to live. Let Pavel go back to his mother. Don’t torture yourself.”
Her mother’s words echoed in Anya’s head as she looked at her husband’s gift. Pavel had given her… a set of frying pans. Even though she didn’t like cooking.
And she had seen that box in her mother-in-law’s storage room.
“Looks like I got somebody’s unwanted present,” Anya thought.
“Thank you,” she forced out, trying not to show her disappointment.
Pavel laughed:
“I bought it on Mom’s advice. She said it’s time you learned how to cook.”
Anya sighed wearily and looked at Lyudmila Ivanovna. She was smiling with a slight sneer.
“Pavel, I’ve told you a hundred times that I can cook. I just don’t like it.”
“With cookware like that, you’ll have to learn to love it!” the mother-in-law chimed in. “That’s it, son, enough having lunch in cafés — now your wife will feed you!”
Anya’s mood was completely ruined. They were saving money on her, even though she always chose expensive and useful gifts. And on top of that, they’d jabbed at her dislike of cooking.
That day Anya firmly decided it was time to get a divorce.
But first she needed to prepare. She quietly began spending her savings. Anya understood she was still young and would earn more, but she didn’t want to split the money in a divorce. So she went to the seaside with her mother.
Her mother-in-law fumed at the time:
“What about your husband? Why aren’t you going with him?”
Flipping through the book in her hands, Anya calmly replied:
“Pavel couldn’t take time off. And the tickets were inexpensive. Besides, Mom and I haven’t gone anywhere in a long time.”
Lyudmila Ivanovna nursed a grudge. And when she found out that Anya had paid for dental treatment for herself and her mother, she completely lost it:
“You don’t think about the family at all!”
Anya just laughed, making her mother-in-law even angrier.
“Exactly!” she replied sarcastically.
Later, Pavel told his mother that Anya had “dipped into” their joint money. Lyudmila Ivanovna didn’t know that Anya had contributed most of those funds.
Pavel’s birthday was approaching. Over dinner he suddenly announced:
“I’ve decided what I want as a present: a new game console and a smartphone.”
Anya raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Pavel, since when do we pick out our own presents? Or did you forget what you gave me?”
Pavel frowned.
“But I need it!”
“And I don’t need the frying pans that were gathering dust at your mom’s. You didn’t spend a single kopeck on me, and now you’re demanding an expensive gift?”
Pavel jumped up from the table.
“Because you earn more! You can afford it! Look how much you’ve already spent!”
“It’s my money, and I decide how to spend it,” Anya replied firmly.
Pavel flared up:
“Mom was right! You’re petty and calculating!”
Anya wanted to say that he was free to leave if something didn’t suit him, but Pavel grabbed his keys and wallet and dashed out the door — clearly running to complain to his mother.
Anya didn’t run after him or call him as if he were a child. Instead, she enjoyed the silence that settled over the house.
The next day she stayed late at work. There was a lot to do, and Anya came home tired and hungry.
But an unpleasant surprise was waiting for her at home.
The hallway was a mess — things were scattered all over the floor. Anya put down her bag and went into the bedroom. There she found Lyudmila Ivanovna rummaging through her closet.
“What are you doing?!” Anya exclaimed.
Her mother-in-law went on sorting through the things.
“I know you’re hiding money from Pavel!” she muttered. “I won’t let you rob him! I’ll take everything! You’ve ruined my son’s life, and you’re not going to get away with it!”
Anya stepped forward and slammed the closet door shut.
“Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you doing rifling through my things while I’m not home? This is too much!”
“And you don’t cross any lines, is that it?” snapped Lyudmila Ivanovna. “How much did you spend on your mother? You go off to resorts while my son walks around in rags!”
Anya flung the closet open and stepped aside.
“See for yourself. Are these rags?”
Behind her, Pavel’s shirts, jeans and sweaters hung neatly. He clearly wasn’t destitute.
Lyudmila Ivanovna burst into tears and lunged for the bedside table, but Anya intercepted her.
“Enough! This is not your house for you to dig through other people’s things!”
“I won’t let you!” shrieked her mother-in-law, red with rage.
“I’ve never even tried!” Anya snapped. “Everything I’ve spent was my money! And your son stopped even buying groceries for the house a long time ago!”
She finally let out her pent-up anger.
“And good for him!” shouted Lyudmila Ivanovna. “You earn more, so you ought to support him!”
“He’s an adult! We have an equal marriage! I’m not obliged to support him!”
“That’s your duty!” the mother-in-law went on. “And you’ll buy him everything he wants! Otherwise Pavel will divorce you, and you’ll still give him half the apartment!”
Lyudmila Ivanovna smiled maliciously, sure of her victory. But her smile faded when Anya began packing Pavel’s things into suitcases.
“Take your son’s things right now. I’ll file for divorce myself and pay all the costs so you don’t have to spend anything. I’ll even call you a taxi — you’ll get there in comfort.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” screeched her mother-in-law. “Pavel has the right to live here, half this apartment is his!”
Anya just smirked.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Lyudmila Ivanovna. The apartment belongs to my mother. No court will side with you. Is that clear? Goodbye.”
She showed her mother-in-law out, loaded the suitcases into a car and gave the driver the address.
Anya watched the taxi drive away and felt that it was taking not only Pavel’s clothes but also the burden of her grievances, disappointments and exhaustion.
She took a deep breath and pulled out her phone.
“Hi, Mom. Will you come over? We’ll order your favorite pizza. Yes… there’s something to celebrate.”
Anya smiled as she went back up to her apartment. For the first time in a long while, she felt light
