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No one wanted to play with little Alisa. Every morning, as she tied the bows on her dresses, her mother saw in her eyes a quiet, almost soundless hope that by evening invariably went out, like a candle in the wind. Although Alisa had the kindest smile in the whole world and eyes in which […]

Valentina Sergeyevna—my husband’s mother—set her cup down on the saucer with such force that the porcelain gave a plaintive clink. “An empty apartment. Echoes roaming the corners.” She swept the living room with a heavy, appraising look, like an inspector searching for cracks in the foundation. Her perfume—withered lilies she’d worn forever—filled the space, pushing […]

Olga was washing the dinner dishes when the doorbell rang. It was just before nine in the evening—late for visitors. Her husband, Pavel, was in the living room with his laptop, finishing up a project. “Open it, please,” she asked, drying her hands on a towel. Pavel reluctantly got up. A minute later, loud voices […]

I always thought betrayal was something loud, theatrical. Like in the movies: shattered dishes, shouting, a slamming door. In my life it arrived on tiptoe, in the silence of an empty house that smelled of apple pie and broken hopes. That day, as usual, I was waiting for Viktor to come home for dinner. For […]

The taxi smelled of gasoline and a tiredness not its own, soaked into the seats. The driver glanced a couple of times in the rearview mirror at Katya and at the white envelope in her hands, but kept quiet. Wise guy, or just indifferent. Katya watched the city lights flicker by, smeared into dirty streaks […]

The cedars rustled overhead as if trying to warn of something, their mighty branches swaying with the gusts, weaving a mysterious, almost mystical music. Liza had grown used to their language—the hiss in the wind, the creak of powerful trunks, the quiet whisper that told her stories through long winter evenings. Five years in this […]

My childhood unfolded in silence. Not the silence you find in libraries or morning forests, but the kind born of constant tension—the need to keep quiet so as not to betray something that wasn’t supposed to exist. We lived in an old house on the edge of the city, in a neighborhood where the asphalt […]

“Do you clean the toilets here?” Victoria threw out with a smirk, stopping by my desk. Her voice—loud and deliberate—spread across the office floor, making even the clatter of keyboards pause for a moment. She stood before me in a tight cream dress that fit her figure perfectly, with impeccable makeup and hair, as if […]

My life split into two unequal parts: before the two lines on the test and after. That second part turned out to be much harder than I could have imagined. Every morning began with long minutes on the cold bathroom tiles, and the day turned into an endless struggle with my own body. The swelling […]

That evening carved itself into my memory like sharp shards, each one searingly bright and painful. He stood in the doorway, and his stance, his gaze, every feature spoke of detachment and of a decision made somewhere far away, without me. — I’m leaving, — he said quietly, but to my ears it was the […]