An orphanage girl was late for the interview, spilled coffee on some con men, and stole the heart of a cynical billionaire

Anton Petrovich sat in his spacious office furnished with expensive pieces, rereading for the umpteenth time the stack of papers lying on his desk. They were résumés. More résumés. It felt like the process would never end. Thirty-five years old, a stable, thriving business, three major electronics stores in different parts of the city. And […]

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He came back from the institute earlier than usual—and, overhearing his parents’ conversation at the door, was so stunned he dropped his keys…

In the house that once smelled of apple pie and laughter, there now hung a strange, sticky air of things left unsaid. Artyom increasingly noticed the way his mother Anna’s gaze slid over his father Dmitry’s figure with a detached, almost outsider’s interest. And Dmitry, in turn, seemed to be seeking refuge— in the garage, […]

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— Lock her in the bedroom so she doesn’t embarrass herself in front of the guests! — hissed the mother-in-law at the anniversary… But what happened next made her face break out in blotches.

Marina froze in front of the large hallway mirror, slowly turning to assess her look from every angle. The dress she had chosen after long deliberation fell softly along her figure, shimmering in a deep emerald hue. At her throat sparkled a modest yet elegant necklace—a gift from her husband on their last anniversary. Forty […]

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“Guests are coming to see you, so you can be the one standing at the stove,” Kolya’s wife replied coolly.

Kolya Vorontsov had been used since childhood to having his merits recognized without question. His mother idolized him, teachers admired him, girls swooned. And how could it be otherwise? Tall, well-built, with a perpetual half-smile on his lips and a sly squint in his gray eyes. At university they called him “the lucky one”—he always […]

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The husband decided on a divorce and demanded that his wife vacate the apartment, but ended up on the street himself

Elena slowly leafed through the photographs in the worn leather album she had carefully kept all these years. Her fingers trembled as they touched each picture, lingering on the ones where Olga—her adopted daughter—smiled sincerely at school parties, prom night, the first day of university, birthdays. Twenty years of motherhood had flown by in a […]

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— My mother and I have decided that you’re leaving. And the apartment stays with our family. You’re nobody to us, Polina!

Polina woke up ten minutes before the alarm. As always on this day. Sleep slipped away quietly, without any scene—like someone who knows they weren’t especially awaited here. Not anxiety, not joy, just that feeling—as if somewhere inside you’ve been keeping a calendar for a long time. Where, drop by drop, tiredness and resentment and […]

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