Lera pushed open the apartment door and, with a hint of satisfaction, kicked off her heels – an eight-hour workday had stretched into ten due to a sudden inspection. Yet, despite her fatigue, her mood remained buoyant. Naturally so – yesterday the realtor had announced that a buyer had finally been found for her premarital […]
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Nadezhda, who had just turned 72, had lived her entire life in the village. For many years, she worked in the poultry house, where the grueling physical labor and endless household chores gradually wore down her health. In her old age, the woman had completely lost her sight, unable even to distinguish the silhouettes or […]
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Mikhail stared thoughtfully at the monitor. His restaurant had just turned one month old, and he couldn’t yet afford to hire professional security or a security service. Of course, he fully understood that employees sometimes take a little extra—some take more, some take less. Everyone has their own reasons. But he couldn’t allow it to […]
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— But how do you not understand, Sergey? — Lena’s voice rang with tension, approaching its maximum volume. — You just need to explain to your mom that she’ll be better off among other elderly people like her! And in return, we’ll get an apartment in a prestigious neighborhood and be able to forget about […]
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Fedor sat in the cool office of a private clinic, his fingers so tightly interlaced that they had turned white from the strain. Every word from the doctor, spoken with that particular caution that only comes when delivering dreadful diagnoses, seemed to drive another nail into the coffin of his fate. An invisible noose tightened […]
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As her grandmother used to tell her, Veronika’s father had disappeared from the village long before she was born. And her mother died after enduring a severe illness that claimed the life of the young woman in just a few months. Thus, the only close relative who took on the care of the girl was […]
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Despite the formal abolition of estates, people are still divided into social categories. This is evident, for example, in the level of income: what is available to some remains an unattainable dream for others. The gap in wealth is sometimes so vast that ordinary citizens view their affluent compatriots as beings from another world—owners of […]
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Yulia Antonovna had long served in the Grigoryev household — Vladimir and Lyudmila. Today the owners had gone somewhere, and the maid, having finished all her chores around the house, sat down to rest by the window. Suddenly, her attention was drawn to a little boy on the street. Skinny and clad in tattered clothes, […]
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— And the children kicked me out…” sobbed the aunt, who many years ago had tried to raise Artyom. “They put me in the shed, saying that I was in their way. I laid my life at their feet! Forgive me if I hurt you… Soon I’ll have to answer to your late mother as […]
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Alice Zv’yagintseva was born to the sounds of fanfare, as if the crown atop her head was not merely a symbol of luxury, but an integral part of her destiny. The wardrobes in her dressing room overflowed with dresses by renowned designers, and trips to Paris, Milan, and New York had become as routine as […]
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