Month: September 2025

She got pregnant early, at sixteen. It came to light by accident: during a routine school medical exam, the girl flatly refused to go into the gynecologist’s office, and the teacher informed her parents.

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The shadow of the tall poplar outside had already fallen across half the yard when the worst thing in all sixteen years of the Beketovs’ life together began. The air in the living room—thick with cigarette smoke and mute tension—felt like you could slice it with a knife. Artyom Viktorovich, a man with hands etched […]

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That desperate cry rang out over the glassy surface of the river and then died away, almost unheard and uncomprehended, swallowed by heat thick as honey.

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“Don’t touch me! Let me go! Don’t!” That desperate cry rang out over the river’s smooth surface and died away—heard by almost no one, understood by no one—swallowed up by heat thick as honey. The languid, exhausting swelter pressed the grasses to the ground, silenced the birds, and muffled sound itself, as if brushing aside […]

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“I’m not dragging myself out to that godforsaken backwater to bury your mother,” her husband snapped. And when he heard about her bank account, he came crawling back with flowers.

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Natalia woke to the insistent ringing of the phone. The clock read just before eight on an August Monday. Vitaly beside her grumbled and pulled the pillow over his head. “Hello?” Natalia’s voice was hoarse with sleep. “Natalya dear, it’s Valentina Ivanovna, your mother’s neighbor,” came the anxious voice of an elderly woman. “Sweetheart, be […]

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“Maybe stop telling me what to wear? I earn my own money for my clothes,” the daughter-in-law retorted at a gathering of relatives.

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Natalia stood in front of the bedroom mirror, assessing her appearance. The dark-blue dress with an elegant stand-up collar fit her perfectly, accentuating her waist and concealing small imperfections. It hadn’t been cheap—Natalia had spent almost half of her monthly salary as a design engineer on it—but her mother-in-law Raisa Dmitrievna’s jubilee seemed a worthy […]

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