“‘You must watch the kids!’ — a new duty imposed by the mother-in-law ‘Where are you?! I’m standing at your door with the kids! Mom said you’re obligated to let us in!’ ‘We’ve left,’ Yegor replied curtly. ‘We’ll be out of town for a whole week.’ ‘How could you?!’ Kristina squealed. ‘Mom’s blood pressure is […]
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“Recognize me?” — the voice on the line was nauseatingly familiar. Soft, insinuating — the very one that once promised forever. I stayed silent, staring at the frost patterns on the windowpane. A call from my ex-husband, Dmitry, after two years of almost complete oblivion — that’s never a good sign. It’s always the prelude […]
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Maksim slammed the refrigerator door and turned to his wife with a disgruntled look. “Yelena, what are these sausages for three hundred rubles a kilo? Have you lost your mind?” Yelena froze by the stove, continuing to stir the contents of the frying pan. Her fingers gripped the wooden spatula more tightly. “Maksim, there weren’t […]
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When Fyodor and Tasya got their marriage registered, there was nothing special about their life. No wealthy relatives, no dowry—just a tiny one-room apartment with peeling wallpaper and a creaky sofa that barely fit the two of them. But to Tasya, all that seemed like funny little trifles. She believed—they had everything ahead of them. […]
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Natasha hurried home, wrapping herself tighter in her long, warm scarf. Autumn this year was unusually raw: one day a fine drizzle hung in the air, another the wind blew so hard the trees bent, and today it all came down at once. Natasha was coming back from the institute. Her bag dragged on her […]
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Three days Maria scrubbed every corner of the house, as if her enemy weren’t dust but time itself—the time that had separated her from her son. She woke before dawn, even though the bus wouldn’t arrive in the village until after lunch. She still couldn’t sleep. Andrei was coming home after five years in Germany. […]
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“You’re no longer my daughter. No one knows who he is or where he came from. I’m ashamed of you. Move into your grandmother’s hut and live like an adult. Feel the responsibility for your actions.” “Olya, did you hear? They sent people here on a business trip to help ours. Let’s go to the […]
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Grandfather left me a crumbling village house while my sister inherited a two-room apartment in the very heart of the city. My husband called me a failure and moved in with my sister. After losing everything, I went to the village—and the moment I stepped inside the house, I was stunned… The notary’s office was […]
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He sat on the cold metal bench, wrapped in a threadbare cloak—the same one he used to wear as a housing maintenance foreman. His name was Nikolai Andreevich: retired, widowed, father to one son, and—so he had once believed—a contented grandfather. All of that unraveled in a single day. When his son brought Olga home, […]
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Galina stood by the window and watched Viktor stride toward the neighboring entrance. Again. For the third time that week. He had some kind of little toolbox in his hands. “Where are you off to?” she shouted from the balcony. “To Alina’s! Her outlet’s acting up!” he waved and disappeared into the stairwell. An outlet. […]
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