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— Sveta, did you put onion in the cutlets again? I told you, it gives me heartburn. Angela’s voice, lazy and drawling, seeped into the kitchen from the couch in the living room, which had become her personal lair over the past three months. Without turning around, Svetlana brought the heavy knife down on the […]

When I got married at thirty, I didn’t have a penny to my name. No, I wasn’t poor—I just had no savings, no inheritance, no financial cushion. My wife, Anna, came from the same kind of family, where every kopek was accounted for. Her only close relative was her father, a quiet, taciturn man in […]

— “Olya, I’ll wash them. Just later, okay? I’m completely wiped,” Maxim’s lazy, relaxed voice drifted from the living room, where he’d already settled comfortably on the couch in front of the TV. The sounds of gunfire and car chases from the movie blended dully with his words, turning them into background noise. Olga stood […]

— Dimochka, my son, it’s me… — the voice on the phone was weak, cracked, laden with universal grief. Dima, sitting at the kitchen table scrolling through mortgage offers on his laptop, tensed up. He shot a quick, almost guilty glance at his wife. Sveta stood at the stove with her back to him. She […]

— Yegor, don’t forget, it’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow. He waved her off without taking his eyes off the laptop screen, where some graphs and tables were flashing by. The gesture wasn’t so much rude as automatic—like a man shooing away an annoying fly. — Nastya, I remember everything, don’t start. I said I remember. […]

“I moved everything. We own nothing now.” Oleg tossed the line out as casually as he’d fling his car keys onto the hall table. He didn’t even glance at me—just stripped off the pricey tie I’d given him for our last anniversary. I stopped with a plate in my hand. Not from shock. From a […]

The bank’s text pinged in at 7:15 a.m. “Debit transaction in the amount of…” I flicked it away without opening. Dima was always wiring money for dacha supplies. I barely noticed anymore. A second alert arrived a minute later. Then a third—while I was filling the kettle. The phone kept buzzing—shrill, relentless, like a fire […]

— “Vitya, I’m back! I grabbed your favorite buns for tea—want some?” Lena’s bright, anticipatory voice flew into the apartment ahead of her. She set the grocery bag down in the hallway and, without taking off her shoes, walked into the room. Viktor sat on the couch, staring at the dark TV screen. He didn’t […]

“— And what is this supposed to be?” Alexey’s voice—steady and cold, like a scalpel—cut through the cozy evening quiet. Larisa, absorbed in her reading, didn’t look up right away. He stood in the living room doorway, arms folded across his chest, his gaze fixed on a small paper bag with a bookstore logo lying […]

— “Al, I’m coming from Mom’s. She’s decided to start a renovation,” Igor tossed his keys onto the hall table and walked into the kitchen, where Alla, bent over a large sheet of drawing paper, was meticulously sketching with a fine mechanical pencil. The air smelled of freshly brewed coffee and graphite. “She wants everything […]