“Mum called again. She’s insisting we move in with her,” Alexey said, carefully sitting down on the edge of the sofa where Marina was reading a book.
She slowly lifted her eyes from the page. In his voice she heard those same notes she’d learned to recognize over three years of marriage—a mix of guilt, awkwardness, and a decision that had already been made.
“And what did you tell her?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.
“Well, I said we’d think about it…” He looked away, staring out the window. “You understand, it’s hard for her alone in that big house. After my father died…”
Marina closed the book and set it on the coffee table. The movement was calm and measured, but inside everything tightened into a hard knot. Again. Once more these conversations, once more this game of the dutiful son hiding his unwillingness to make his own decisions.
“Alyosha, your father died five years ago. In that time your mother has learned perfectly well how to manage on her own. She has friends, hobbies, she goes to the dacha, to the theater…”
“But she’s lonely!” he interrupted, and there was a hurt note in his voice. “You just don’t understand what it’s like to lose someone close.”
Marina clenched her teeth. Doesn’t understand? Her own parents had died in a car accident when she was twenty-two. But she didn’t remind him of that. That wasn’t the point of their conversation.
“Alright, let’s talk frankly,” she turned her whole body toward him. “Your mother lives in a four-room apartment in the city center. You and I have our own two-room place in a bedroom district. We both work, we’ve set up a life together, we have plans for the future. And you’re suggesting we throw all that away and move in with her? Become lodgers in your mother’s home?”
“What do you mean, ‘lodgers’?” Alexey flared up. “She’s my mother! Our family!”
“Family,” Marina repeated. “Interesting concept. For you, family is first and foremost your mother. And what about you and me? Aren’t we a family?”
He got up and paced around the room. Marina knew this manner of his—when he felt cornered, he started pacing like an animal in a cage.
“You twist everything! I’m not saying we’re not a family. But my mum… she’s already old…”
“She’s fifty-eight, Alyosha. That’s not old; that’s prime age for a modern woman. My boss is sixty and she’s out there conquering mountains.”
“Your boss and my mum are very different people!”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Marina said quietly.
Silence fell. Alexey stopped by the window, looking out at the evening city. Marina looked at his hunched back and thought about how tired she was. Tired of constantly fighting for personal space for the two of them, of having to defend their right to their own life.
Her mother-in-law… Irina Pavlovna was a domineering woman, used to the entire world revolving around her. After her husband died she wasn’t just left alone—she was left without an object to control. And now all her unused energy was directed at her son and daughter-in-law.
Three calls a day. “Alyoshenka, have you eaten? What did Marina make? Cutlets? But you don’t like cutlets! What do you mean, you do like them? You never liked them before!” Unannounced visits. “I was just passing by and thought I’d drop in. Oh my, why is it such a mess in here? Marina, dear, you can’t run a household like this.”
And then the talk of moving in began. At first in hints. “The house feels so empty… The rooms stand unused… And you two are crammed in that little two-room place of yours…” Then, straight out: “Move in with me! There’s plenty of room for everyone! I’ll have company, and you’ll have more space!”
Marina tried to explain to her husband that this was a bad idea. That they needed their own space, that living with his mother would turn their life into hell. But Alexey didn’t listen. Or rather, didn’t want to listen.
“You know what amazes me most?” Marina said, breaking the silence. “That you don’t even ask my opinion. You say, ‘We’ll think about it,’ but in reality you’ve already decided. You’re just trying to find the right words to persuade me.”
Alexey turned sharply.
“That’s not true!”
“Really? Then tell me honestly—are you actually prepared to refuse your mother? To tell her clearly, ‘No, we’re not moving in’?”
He stayed silent, and that silence was more eloquent than any words.
“You see?” Marina gave a sad smile. “And do you know what will happen if we move in? I’ll tell you. Your mother will control our every step. What we eat, what time we go to bed, how we spend our weekends. She’ll meddle in our relationship, give advice, criticize. And you… you’ll always be on her side. Because she’s your mother, and I’m just your wife.”
“Marina, why are you saying these things…”
“I’m saying the truth. Remember last New Year’s Eve? Your mother threw a fit because we decided to celebrate the holiday together, just the two of us. ‘What do you mean, the two of you? And what about me? Am I not family?’ And what did you do? Right—you made us go to her place. And we sat there the whole evening listening to her stories about what a wonderful man your father was and how the younger generation doesn’t know how to respect their elders.”
Alexey walked over and tried to take her hand, but Marina pulled away.
“Marish, don’t be like that… Mum is just lonely. She doesn’t mean any harm. She just needs attention…”
“Attention?” Marina stood up and walked over to the window. “Alyosha, your mum devours you whole. And me along with you. We can’t even plan a vacation without clearing it with her. We can’t buy new furniture without her approval. For God’s sake, I can’t even change my hair color without sitting through an hour-long lecture about how ‘in our day girls didn’t dye their hair all the colors of the rainbow’!”
“You’re exaggerating…”
“I’m exaggerating? Fine, let’s recall specific examples. A month ago I got a promotion. Remember? I was made head of the department. It was important to me, for my career. And what did your mother say? ‘Oh, Marina dear, why do you need all that stress? You should be thinking about having children!’ And you… you said nothing. You didn’t congratulate me, you didn’t support me. You just stayed silent.”
Alexey looked uncomfortable, but stubbornly stuck to his line.
“Mum just voiced her opinion. She has a right to it.”
“Of course she does. But where is your opinion, Alyosha? Where is your position? Or do you not have one?”
That was a sore spot. Marina knew she was hitting his most vulnerable place, but there was no other way to get through to him. He had spent his whole life under his mother’s wing. First in his parents’ home, then, even after marrying, he’d never truly broken away.
“You know what hurts the most?” she went on. “I love you. I really do. But every day it gets harder and harder to see you as a man. As a husband. You’re turning into a permanent little boy running back and forth between his mum and his wife, trying to please them both.”
“That’s not fair!” Alexey exploded. “I’m just trying to keep the peace in the family!”
“In which family?” Marina asked sharply. “In the one where your mother is in charge? Or in the one you and I are trying to build?”
She went to the cupboard and took out a small folder. Alexey watched her, puzzled.
“What’s that?”
“This,” Marina opened the folder, “is the mortgage paperwork. Remember how we dreamed of our own house? We said we’d save up for a down payment, take out a loan, build a house outside the city. I’ve been setting money aside for two years. Here, look—account statements. Almost a million.”
Alexey stared at the papers, stunned.
“But… we never talked about…”
“We never did because every time I tried to bring it up, you brushed me off. ‘Later, later, Mum won’t understand right now, she’ll be hurt…’ And that ‘later’ has been going on for three years.”
Marina sat down on the sofa and folded her hands on her knees. She looked calm, but inside she was trembling with tension.
“I’m tired of waiting, Alyosha. Tired of fighting for our right to a private life. And I’ve made a decision. Either we stay in our own apartment and build our own family, or… or I leave.”
“What?” He turned pale. “Marina, what are you talking about? Divorce? Over this?”
“Over the fact that I don’t want to live my life in your mother’s shadow. I don’t want my children growing up under her instructions. I don’t want to wake up at forty and realize I never lived my own life.”
“But that’s… that’s an ultimatum!”
“Yes,” she agreed calmly. “It’s an ultimatum. And I’m giving you time to think. A week. During that week you must decide what’s more important to you—your mother’s wishes or our family.”
Alexey looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. In his eyes flickered confusion, hurt, anger.
“You’re making me choose between my mother and my wife! That’s cruel!”
“No, Alyosha. I’m not asking you to abandon your mother. I’m asking you to be a husband. To your wife, not a mummy’s boy. Feel the difference?”
He said nothing, and Marina realized—he didn’t feel it. To him it was the same thing. In his picture of the world, a wife was supposed to fit into the existing system of relationships, to accept the rules set by his mother.
“You know,” she said again, “I’ve thought a lot about why this is happening. And I realized something. Your mother is afraid. She’s afraid of being alone, afraid of losing control over your life, afraid of growing old. And instead of accepting those fears and learning to live with them, she clings to you. And you… you let her. Out of pity, out of a sense of duty, out of an inability to say ‘no.’”
“She’s my mother!” Alexey repeated, as if that explained everything.
“And I’m your wife. And if those two roles aren’t equal for you, then we really have no future together.”
Marina stood up and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To a friend’s. I’ll stay with her for a few days. You need time to think without me around. And I… I need to figure out whether I’m willing to keep fighting for our relationship.”
“Marina, wait! Let’s talk!”
She stopped at the door and turned.
“We just did, Alyosha. I’ve said everything I think. Now it’s your turn. Just please, think for yourself. Don’t ask your mum’s advice. This has to be your decision. Only yours.”
And she left, closing the door softly behind her.
The week dragged on painfully slowly. Marina stayed with her friend Tanya, went to work, did all the usual things. But her thoughts constantly returned to Alexey. He called every day, but she didn’t pick up. She needed to keep her distance, to give him space to think.
On the fifth day her mother-in-law called.
“Marinochka, dear, what is going on? Alyosha can’t find a place for himself! He told me everything. How could you do this to him?”
Marina took a deep breath. Of course he’d run to his mother. Of course he’d tell her everything. And of course Irina Pavlovna had decided to intervene.
“Hello, Irina Pavlovna. What’s going on between me and Alexey concerns the two of us only.”
“What do you mean, ‘only you two’? I’m his mother! I have the right to know!”
“That is exactly our problem,” Marina replied calmly. “You believe you have the right to everything. To his time, his decisions, his life. And now to our relationship as well.”
“How dare you!” her mother-in-law’s voice shook with rage. “I devoted my whole life to that child! I raised him, I educated him!”
“And he’s grateful to you for that. But, Irina Pavlovna, he is no longer a child. He’s thirty-two. It’s time to let go.”
“Let go? You… you’re just selfish! You want to tear him away from his family!”
“I don’t want to tear him away from you. I want us to have our own family. And for you to be the beloved mum and grandma who comes to visit, not a warden who controls our every step.”
“What warden? I just care about you!”
“Your ‘care’ is suffocating, Irina Pavlovna. It doesn’t allow Alexey to be an adult, independent person. And it doesn’t allow us to build a normal relationship.”
There was a pause. Marina could hear her mother-in-law’s heavy breathing.
“So that’s how it is,” Irina Pavlovna finally said in an icy tone. “It’s either me or you. Is that how you’re putting it?”
“That’s how you put it. Constantly. Every day. ‘Alyosha, come to me, not to your wife’s dacha.’ ‘Alyosha, cancel your plans with friends, I need help.’ ‘Alyosha, why go on vacation just the two of you, let’s all go together.’ You’re the one making him choose. I’m only asking for equality.”
“What equality? I’m his mother!”
“And I’m his wife. And if those words don’t mean the same to Alexey, then we have no future.”
Marina hung up before the reply came. She knew that now Irina Pavlovna would rush to her son, crying, accusing, putting pressure on his conscience. Would Alexey stand firm?
The answer came two days later. Alexey showed up at Tanya’s place in the evening. Marina saw him through the peephole—he was standing there with a huge bouquet of roses, nervously shifting from one foot to the other.
“Hi,” she said, opening the door.
“Hi. Can we talk?”
They went outside into the courtyard and sat down on a bench near the playground. It was evening; the playground was empty, only the swings creaked softly in the wind.
“I’ve been thinking a lot,” Alexey began. “About what you said. About us. About Mum.”
Marina stayed quiet, letting him speak.
“You’re right. In many ways you’re right. I really… I don’t know how to say no to her. I don’t know how to set boundaries. I always thought it was normal—to take care of my mum, to do what she asks. But I didn’t see how it affected us.”
He fell silent, staring at his hands.
“Mum was very upset when I said we’re not moving in with her. She cried, blamed you. Said you were turning me against her. But you know what? For the first time in my life, I didn’t run to comfort her. I said it was my decision. That I love her, but I have my own life.”
Marina felt a wave of hope rise inside her.
“And how did she react?”
“At first, a big scene. Then silence. She didn’t talk to me for a day. And then… then she called and said she’d signed up for Italian classes. She’d always wanted to learn but never had time.”
Alexey turned to his wife and took her hand.
“Marish, forgive me. I was blind. I really didn’t see how my indecisiveness was destroying our relationship. But I don’t want to lose you. You’re the most important thing in my life.”
“And your mum?”
“Mum… Mum will always be my mum. I’ll take care of her, I’ll help her. But not at the expense of us. Never again.”
He took a small box from his pocket.
“What’s that?” Marina asked in surprise.
“Open it.”
Inside lay a set of keys.
“These are the keys to our future house. I’ve paid the first installment on a plot of land. It’s small, but in a good place. Shall we build?”
Marina looked at the keys, and her eyes filled with tears. Not from hurt or anger—but from relief and joy.
“We shall,” she whispered.
Alexey pulled her into a hug and pressed her to him.
“You know, Mum said something else. After she calmed down. She said I’d grown up. And that it’s time she learned to live for herself, not just for me.”
“You’ve got a wise mother,” Marina smiled. “She just needed time to understand that.”
“And so did I. Thank you for not giving up. For fighting for us.”
They sat there, wrapped in each other’s arms, looking up at the darkening sky. There was a lot of work ahead—on their relationship, on themselves, on the new house. But the most important thing was done. They had chosen each other. And it was the right choice.
“Shall we go home?” Alexey asked.
“Let’s go. Home.”
And they walked to the car, hand in hand. In Marina’s pocket lay the keys to their future. To the house they would build together. Just the two of them. Like a real family
