— So I saved for a year for the seaside, and you, without asking, gave all our money to your brother for his construction?! What seaside?! Did you even ask me?! We’re not going anywhere! And you can go get the money back from your brother yourself, however you like!” The words didn’t break from […]
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— “Mom’s coming on Saturday.” The words hit the kitchen like a slab of fat dropped onto a red-hot pan. Elena didn’t even flinch. She kept methodically slicing the onion, her hand with the heavy chef’s knife moving steady and sure, cutting off translucent rings that thudded dully and damply against the cutting board. The […]
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Lena woke up because the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. She reached for the nightstand and picked up the receiver. On the screen—her mother-in-law. “Good morning,” Lena’s voice was sleepy, hoarse. “Lenochka, are you still not asleep?” the mother-in-law was brisk and cheerful. Far too cheerful for nine in the morning after last night. “I was […]
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— “Lena, I’m back,” her ex-husband announced triumphantly, as if proclaiming victory in a war. “I realized I made a huge mistake. You’re the best woman in my life.” Viktor stood on the threshold—her twice ex-husband, the man she’d divorced four years ago. He held a bouquet of white roses, and on his face was […]
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Good Lord, what on earth is going on?” Marina jerked awake to a crash in the kitchen. The clock on her nightstand read half past six. Sunday. The only day in the last three weeks when she could have slept at least until eight. She threw on a robe and stepped out of the bedroom. […]
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Get out of here!” Marina’s voice trembled like a thin string about to snap. She stood in the doorway, barefoot, hair disheveled, clutching a bundle of children’s toys. At her feet—suitcases jutting out at odd angles, as if thrown together in a hurry. And opposite her—a whole delegation: her mother-in-law with a frozen smile, her […]
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Anatoly froze in the middle of the living room, holding a folder of documents. His face went pale, then flushed. “What do you mean, ‘out of your apartment’? We bought it together!” “NO,” Elena cut him off, gripping the certificate of title in her hand. “This is my grandmother Vera Pavlovna’s apartment. She signed a […]
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— Again the whole apartment smells of vanilla; there’s no air to breathe,”—Raisa Pavlovna’s voice, sharp and dry like last year’s leaf, broke into the kitchen before she herself did, shattering the focused working atmosphere. Anya didn’t flinch. She only gripped the offset spatula a little tighter, continuing with surgical precision to smooth the snow-white […]
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For Elena, receiving a court summons for the dissolution of marriage was no surprise. The last year of her life with Anton had felt like a slow, painful fading. His constant late nights at work, the coldness, the distant gaze—all of it left no doubt. And a month ago he simply came home, packed his […]
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— “She’s gotten on my nerves. She’s put on weight, she’s always unhappy about something. I don’t know why I put up with it.” I heard my husband’s voice from the living room when I came back for my umbrella. The truth overheard by chance I froze in the hallway. The key was still in […]
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