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Arina froze in the bedroom doorway, watching her husband, Dmitry, adjust his tie in front of the mirror. “Dima, have you seen my sapphire earrings? The white-gold ones my mom gave me for my thirtieth.” Dmitry kept fussing with his tie without even turning around. “No, I have no idea where they could be. Why—are […]

– Gena, sei sicuro di aver pensato a tutto? – Mamma… – So quello che dico. Lei sta con te solo per i soldi, non è così? Gennady sospirò profondamente. – Mamma, capisco le tue preoccupazioni, ma sono del tutto infondate. Discutere con te è inutile; tanto non cambierai idea. Pensa quello che vuoi. Non […]

Evening began with silence. The kind of weary, viscous silence that makes you think if you stuck a needle into it, it would ring like a taut string. I stood at the stove, stirring the soup. Just a simple chicken soup our four-year-old daughter, Sonya, loved. Outside, the colors of the autumn day were slowly […]

The silence of the night was shattered like a crystal bell by twelve strokes from the antique mantel clock—an heirloom sentinel on the fireplace. Each strike was heavy and ringing, as if cast from pure time itself, and it thudded in his temples with a dull ache. Arthur Vandermond—whose name in business circles was spoken […]

— Katya, I’ve got bombshell news! My folks are coming! Gena burst into the kitchen, beaming like a freshly polished samovar, and dropped his backpack onto a chair. Katya, who was stirring vegetables in a frying pan, turned her head for just a second, noting how his boots once again left a trail of street […]

“Kira, can you imagine what joy! Marinka, her husband, and the kids are coming to stay with us for two weeks! They’ll be here in three days already!” Kira froze with a damp cloth in her hand, the one she’d just used to wipe an already spotless countertop. She slowly turned to her husband. Stanislav […]

— “Dim… Dima, please… go to the pharmacy.” The voice was strange, dry and brittle, like last year’s leaves. Alina barely recognized it. It scraped her parched throat, and each word thudded through her head like a dull, red-hot blow. She lay there, pressed into a sweat-soaked pillow, staring at the ceiling that seemed to […]

“So? Where are you? Did you pick it up?” Kira’s voice was tense, stripped of its usual gentle notes. She sat in the kitchen, her head propped on her hand, staring at the dark screen of her old backup netbook. It could barely manage to open email, let alone the heavy graphics editors where all […]

Victoria woke up early, before dawn. Outside, the autumn wind was rustling, chasing yellow leaves around the yard. The rain had stopped only by night, and now puddles made the asphalt gleam. Victoria got out of bed, threw on a robe, and went to the kitchen. Her mother-in-law was coming today, which meant everything had […]

Svetlana had never liked Fridays. Before, when she stayed home with the children, Friday meant Igor would come back from work exhausted and spend two days sprawled on the couch, demanding quiet. Now Friday had become payday—and somehow that pleased her even less. She walked from the metro at a brisk pace, pressing the bag […]