Category: ДЕТИ

The phone rang in the middle of dinner. The whole family was at the table—Katya with her husband Denis, his parents, and his younger sister Angela. “Don’t answer,” the father-in-law grunted. “It’s rude to be on the phone at the table.” But it rang again. Katya gave the relatives an apologetic look and picked up. […]

Lyudmila was sitting in the kitchen by the window when it happened. She simply got up to fetch the salt to finish the soup—and suddenly her legs turned to cotton, чужие, not hers. She didn’t make it to the table—she sank to the floor, knocking over a jar of grains. Buckwheat scattered across the linoleum, […]

—Have you completely lost it?! Open up right now—I’ll get in anyway!—the mother-in-law’s voice thundered through the stairwell so loudly that neighbors were already peeking out of their apartments. —This is my home, my property! I’ll show you how you dare drive my son away from his family! Vera pressed her back against the door […]

The message came on a Thursday evening while I was chopping salad for dinner. My husband’s phone was lying on the table, screen up—he’d forgotten it in the kitchen again, as usual, when he went to take a shower. I wasn’t even planning to look. But the notification practically pulled my eyes to it. “Igoryok, […]

“Earrings!” her mother-in-law snapped. “The ones I gave you for the wedding. Take them off right now.” “Lyudmila Borisovna, I… I don’t understand,” Kristina began. “Why are you—” “Just take them off,” the woman cut her short. “They’re my earrings. I changed my mind about giving them to you. And I want them back.” Kristina […]

— Yesterday I saw it myself: your “poor” mom was striding cheerfully down the alley with her friend, laughing her head off. And today—on my birthday—she’s suddenly at death’s door? How convenient! Larisa was a Scorpio. Not just by horoscope, but by her very nature—prickly, closed-off, unable to tolerate hypocrisy and lies. She was already […]

Elena Sergeyevna scrubbed at a stain on the kitchen oilcloth for a long time. The stain was old, ground in—an orange ring left by a hot mug of tea her husband had set down three years ago, back when he was considered a healthy man. Now that stain had become her point of support. When […]

The one-and-a-half-carat diamond ring on my left ring finger shimmered, catching the light from the crystal chandelier in the Metropol restaurant. Igor had reserved a table by the window. He said he wanted everything to be perfect for meeting his parents. I adjusted my modest black mass-market dress, which I’d bought специально for this evening […]