Lena was tallying the month’s expenses when the doorbell rang, followed by a familiar voice. Her heart skipped a beat—Marina again. On a Monday morning. As if she could sense when Lena’s husband was home and when he was at work. “Andrey, where are you?” Marina called from the hallway, barely saying hello. “I need […]
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Elena stood at the window, watching an overloaded GAZelle van pull into the courtyard. Her heart tightened with anxiety—she knew what that meant. For three days now Andrey had been walking around the apartment with a guilty look, clearly gearing up for a serious conversation. “Len,” he began cautiously the night before, “remember I told […]
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The call came on Saturday morning, while Andrey and I were still in bed, savoring a rare chance to sleep in. My husband reached for the phone reluctantly, and from his voice I immediately understood—it was my mother-in-law. “Yeah, Mom… When? For how long?…” Andrey spoke cautiously, as he always did when talking to his […]
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Anna stood at the kitchen window, watching raindrops slowly trickle down the glass. Behind her came the familiar hiss of the frying pan—dinner for two was on the stove. For her and Mikhail. As usual. Like every day for the last eight years of their married life. “Anya, we need to talk,” her husband said, […]
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It all began on the day the air turned thick and heavy, foretelling a storm. Into the stifling quiet of her little apartment, which smelled of tea and old paper, there burst an insistent knock at the door. On the threshold stood the postwoman, Klavdiya Ivanovna, and in her hands was not an ordinary envelope […]
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The stifling city air felt especially suffocating to Alice the day the letter arrived. The envelope was yellowed with age and smelled of the sea, of salt, and of something elusively familiar—the scent of childhood. With trembling fingers she opened it and read the lines written in a neat, old-fashioned hand. Grandma Sofia was leaving […]
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Anna wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, trying not to smear the kitchen towel with tomato sauce. Valentina Petrovna’s apartment was steeped in the aromas of garlic, basil, and stewed meat. Three pots bubbled on the stove at once: spaghetti boiled in one, minced meat with vegetables simmered for […]
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Katya had always known that beauty was her main trump card. Her mother had been saying it ever since her daughter learned to walk in high heels without tripping over her own feet. “Katenka, you need to make a good match. You’ve got everything for it—looks and charm.” Then she would turn to her elder […]
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Graduation night was supposed to be a shining bridge between childhood and adult life, but for Alisa it turned out to be just another door slammed in her face. The air in the apartment was thick and stale, smelling of old cabbage and dashed hopes. “Go to the dance? Buy a dress?” Her mother, Vera […]
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The first sound forced its way through the thickness of a heavy, dead sleep like a rusty nail through rotten wood. Faint, thin, it was barely distinguishable from the creak of floorboards or the wind moaning in the stove pipe. But a mother’s heart—that tireless, eternal watchman—answered it instantly, clenching tight in her chest. Arina […]
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