Author: admin

“Seriously, Katya? You want to ruin everything because of some two-hour drive?!” Igor’s voice trembled with outrage, and his face had turned red as if he’d just run a marathon. “Two hours?!” Katya whirled away from the kitchen window where she’d been standing, clutching a cup of cold coffee in both hands. “Igor, that’s four […]

Galina Petrovna stepped over the threshold of our apartment like she owned the place, and I realized—what I’d feared most was starting. “Darya, pack your things,” my mother-in-law said, not bothering with a greeting. “You’re moving back in with us. We’re selling this apartment.” I froze with a cup of coffee in my hand. Artyom, […]

Anna stood at the stove, stirring chicken fillet in a creamy sauce in a frying pan. Behind her she could hear voices—her husband Viktor was greeting guests in the entryway. Today his colleagues were coming over for dinner with their wives, and she’d been cooking for three hours straight. “Just please let it get through […]

The apartment went to Dasha from her grandmother when the girl turned twenty-four. A bright two-bedroom place with a view of the park. The inheritance was оформed quickly—there were no disputes, and no other heirs either. She received the documents six months after her grandmother’s death, as required by law. She simply came to the […]

Katya woke up at 6:48 a.m. Not because she wanted to—because of the furious rustle of foil coming from the kitchen. At first an absurd thought flashed through her mind: a dream? Surely no sane person would be gutting “herring under a fur coat” at seven on a Monday morning? Especially not her. But alas, […]

— And the sauce for the meat—did you make it yourself, Len?” Katya asked, spearing a browned piece with her fork. I nodded, trying to smile as casually as possible. “Yeah. I’m trying a new recipe. Cranberry.” From the far end of the table my husband, Stas, gave a snort. That sound—like a fork scraping […]

The mother stood perfectly still. Only her lips were trembling. “Y-you… you’re throwing me out? Your own mother?” Tatyana nodded silently. And then something changed in her mother. Her face twisted, and her eyes flashed with something dark. “You’ll regret this,” she hissed. “You’ll regret it, Tanya.” She grabbed her old scarf from the back […]

A ringing silence hung over the kitchen—thicker and heavier than the densest fog. The plate of buckwheat and a cutlet Slavik had abandoned was slowly cooling, becoming a symbol of a shattered family dinner and, perhaps, their entire former life. “W-what… what did you say?” Svetlana Petrovna was the first to come to her senses. […]