“Where could they have gone?!” Yegor’s roar rolled through the apartment, making the cat dozing on the windowsill twitch its ear in annoyance. For the third time he turned out the pockets of the jeans hanging on the chair and hurled them back with force. “I clearly remember putting them in my jacket! I’m sure […]
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“An overdue loan payment? What loan?” Zinaida pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder, trying with her free hand to catch the cash register log as it slid off the desk. “Credit agreement number seven-three-four-eight, dated November twenty-second of last year,” the woman’s indifferent voice droned in the receiver. “Issued in your name as […]
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“Is that it? Has she gone?” Kirill’s voice in the receiver was taut, like a stretched string. There was silence on the other end. Not long—just a second or two—but in that time he managed to imagine the worst. Then Alina’s quiet, exhausted reply came: “She’s gone.” “Are you okay? Did she… do something?” And […]
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— 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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