Month: July 2025

The gray sky had been pressing down on the city for the third week already. Elizaveta Andreevna stood by the window, watching as ragged clouds clung to the roofs of the high-rises. In the courtyard, among puddles, children were playing, oblivious to the damp chill. Their ringing voices reached the seventh floor in muted echoes. […]

Taya came to her sister not without a reason — she needed to look after Vladik, a smart and lively second-grader, while Albina went to an important corporate event. The very thought of spending the evening alone with a child felt unfamiliar to Taya, but she couldn’t refuse. Her sister’s boss, a strict and uncompromising […]

Ivan was a man whose life resembled an endless carnival—dazzling and unrestrained. His world was woven from luxury, power, and permissiveness: pristine white yachts, sparkling champagne, wild parties lasting until dawn, multimillion-dollar deals capable of shaking entire markets. He lived as if he had stepped right out of the pages of a glamorous novel—where every […]

The phone was literally exploding with calls. It didn’t stop for a second, trembling on the table like a living creature ready to bolt into a furious run. I had muted it yesterday when the first journalist tried to squeeze a comment out of me, but even in silent mode, the screen still beckoned, blinking […]

I stood in front of the mirror, staring at my reflection as if trying to see the person I used to be. But instead of a confident, radiant woman of thirty-two, I saw a pale, exhausted shadow. My skin had lost its former glow, turning gray as if lifeless. Deep shadows lay under my eyes—not […]

The sterile cleanliness of the private clinic room struck the eye like a temple of soulless medicine, where every corner was polished to a flawless shine. The air was saturated with a barely perceptible scent of disinfectants — bleach, medicines, and something else, elusive and cold, as if even the smell here was not allowed […]

Vera Ivanova, hunched over, walked out of the courthouse—as if her soul had stayed behind on the cold benches among dry words and indifferent glances. She looked like a shadow of herself, as if she had been crossed out of life like an unnecessary word from a text. Her gray coat, crumpled and carelessly thrown […]

Orphan Maria sat in the cold, grave-like room of the notary, hunched under the weight of hostile, malicious glances. On either side of her—like wolves at the edges of a pen—sat Grigory, her husband, and his mistress, Lidia. He wore a smug grin, as if he had already won; she gave a venomous chuckle, as […]