Tatyana, this is outrageous!” Galina Ivanovna, her mother-in-law, kept shrieking. “Look at this bathtub! How can anyone live in such a mess?”
Tanya flinched, turning away from the stove where she was making breakfast. At seven in the morning on a Saturday, a visit from her mother-in-law was the last thing she expected.
“Galina Ivanovna,” she said tensely. “The bathtub is clean. I washed it yesterday.”
“Clean?” her mother-in-law marched into the bathroom, clicking her tongue loudly. “There’s a week’s worth of dirt in here! And yellow water comes out of the tap, and there’s limescale… What, you can’t even clean properly?”
“It’s a rented apartment,” Tanya explained patiently, following her. “We’re living here temporarily. The plumbing is old. No matter how much I clean it, it still won’t shine.”
“Exactly! Temporarily!” Galina Ivanovna turned to her daughter-in-law. “And why temporarily? Because you keep studying and studying! You’re almost thirty, and still a student!”
Sergey came out of the bedroom, disheveled and annoyed at being woken up so early.
“Mom, what happened?”
“What happened is that your wife has let the house fall apart!” his mother pointed toward the bathroom. “You live like pigs, there’s no money, and she keeps running around to institutes!”
Tanya clenched her fists. Her final year of distance learning was not easy. Between classes, she worked part-time as an assistant accountant at a small firm, but the salary was symbolic. Paid tuition swallowed half of their modest budget.
“Galina Ivanovna, I’ll get my diploma in six months,” she said restrainedly. “Then I’ll find a good job, and we’ll be able to…”
“Six months!” her mother-in-law interrupted. “And what are you supposed to live on? Sergey works himself to the bone alone, and what about you? You bring in pennies and spend money on studying besides!”
“Mom, don’t,” Sergey tried to intervene, but Galina Ivanovna was on a roll.
“No, let her listen! Normal women support their families and keep house, not study at that age! Look at your neighbor Klavdia. She raised three children, bought a house, and yours keeps dreaming about something!”
Tanya returned to the stove, trying to hold back the irritation rising inside her. Every weekend it was the same thing: complaints about cleanliness, reproaches about her studies, hints that she was an unworthy wife.
“Education is an investment in the future,” she said quietly without turning around.
“An investment!” her mother-in-law repeated sarcastically. “Will you be investing when you’re forty? You’re wasting time, girl!”
Tatyana silently stirred the scrambled eggs in the pan, mentally counting the days until her diploma defense. Only four months remained.
Three years later, Galina Ivanovna stood in the spacious living room of a three-room apartment, examining the new furniture with an expression of extreme displeasure.
“You bought something again,” she grumbled, running her finger over the polished surface of a dresser. “And expensive, I bet?”
“Good-quality things can’t be cheap,” Tanya answered calmly, hanging new curtains.
Outside the window were neat rows of new apartment buildings. They had taken out a mortgage a year earlier, after Tatyana had been promoted for the third time in two years. Now she headed the finance department of a large company, and her salary was three times higher than Sergey’s income.
“You know,” Galina Ivanovna said, sitting on the edge of the sofa, “I don’t like the way things are turning out.”
“What exactly?” Tanya turned around, hooks in her hands.
“That you’re now the head of the household,” her mother-in-law said bluntly. “My son earns less than his wife. That isn’t right.”
Sergey, who was assembling a new shelving unit, froze with a screwdriver in his hand.
“Mom, what does right or wrong have to do with it? Tatyana did well to get an education and find a good job.”
“Did well!” Galina Ivanovna snorted. “And what about you? Are you worse than her? Why don’t they give you bonuses or promotions?”
Tanya sighed. Here we go again.
“Sergey has a stable job and a good team,” Tanya said diplomatically.
“Stable!” her mother-in-law got up and began pacing the room. “And what do you have? Unstable? Then why do you get bonuses and raises every month? What’s so special that you do?”
There were nasty notes in Galina Ivanovna’s voice. Tatyana understood: her mother-in-law wasn’t angry at her success itself, but at the fact that this success had changed the balance in the family. Now it was Tanya who made most of the financial decisions. It was her income that allowed them to live comfortably.
“I just do my job,” she answered quietly.
“Just your job!” Galina Ivanovna stopped by the window. “And what is my son doing, playing around? He works at the factory from morning till night, his hands covered in calluses, and he earns pennies!”
Another two years passed. The renovation in the apartment was finally finished. The walls were covered with expensive wallpaper, the floors shone with parquet, and a new kitchen set stood proudly in the kitchen. Tatyana surveyed the result with satisfaction. No major expenses were expected anymore.
“Well, that’s it,” she said to Sergey, leafing through a bank statement. “Now we can start saving money. I opened a deposit account with good interest.”
Sergey nodded without looking away from the television. Lately he had become more silent, especially when the conversation turned to finances.
Galina Ivanovna visited them more and more often. Tatyana noticed that her mother-in-law spent long stretches talking to her son in the kitchen, lowering her voice. Once, as she passed by, she heard fragments of a sentence:
“Lena urgently needs again…”
Later it turned out that Sergey had been regularly transferring money either to his mother or to his sister Elena. Tatyana said nothing. It was his money, his relatives. But irritation was building up inside her.
“Tanya?” Galina Ivanovna appeared in the living room with a satisfied expression. “You got a bonus yesterday? A pretty big one, they say.”
“An annual one,” Tatyana answered curtly, folding the washed laundry.
“And where will you spend it? On something useful, finally?”
“Nowhere for now. I’m saving it.” Tatyana did not raise her head. “I’m planning to buy a car or go on vacation. Maybe travel around Europe somewhere.”
“A car! A vacation!” Galina Ivanovna’s voice rang with outrage. “And do you know that my Lena hasn’t been able to pay off her loan for the third month? That they turned off her hot water because of debts?”
“Galina Ivanovna,” Tatyana began carefully, “those are Elena’s family problems. If Sergey wants to help his sister…”
“Sergey!” her mother-in-law waved her hand. “Can Sergey’s income even be compared to yours? You constantly get bonuses, and my daughter is drowning in debt!” she blurted it out as if it were an accusation.
Tatyana straightened and looked at her mother-in-law. Silence hung in the room, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock.
“And what are you suggesting?” she asked slowly.
“Share!” Galina Ivanovna stepped closer. “You’re family! Lena is your sister-in-law, and you act as if she’s a stranger!”
“A stranger?” Tatyana carefully folded the last shirt. “Interesting. When was the last time Lena even said hello to me? At Sergey’s birthday, she didn’t even look in my direction.”
“So what?” her mother-in-law brushed it off. “The girl is shy. And you’re an adult, you should understand.”
“Understand what?” Tatyana’s voice became harder. “That I’m obligated to support your daughter? For what merits?”
“Because you’re my daughter-in-law!” Galina Ivanovna raised her voice. “Because you live comfortably while she suffers!”
“And why does she suffer?” Tatyana stood up, folding her arms across her chest. “Could it be because she lives beyond her means? What did she take out loans for? New clothes? Expensive cosmetics?”
“That’s none of your business!” her mother-in-law snapped. “You need to help, not judge!”
“Galina Ivanovna,” Tatyana said slowly, “I have listened to your reproaches for eight years. When we were poor, I was guilty because I was studying. When I started earning well, I was guilty because I earned more than your son. Now I’m guilty because I won’t give money to your daughter, who can’t stand the sight of me.”
“You’re greedy!” Galina Ivanovna shouted. “Sitting on money like…”
“Mom!” Sergey entered the living room, his face gloomy. “What is going on here?”
“Your wife refuses to help your sister!” Galina Ivanovna complained. “She got a big bonus, and she doesn’t want to share!”
Sergey looked at his mother, then at his wife. Tatyana saw something change in his eyes.
“Mom,” he said quietly, “you constantly tormented my wife when we were poor. You blamed her for not earning enough. Now that we’ve made something of ourselves, you’re demanding money from her.”
“I’m not demanding! I’m asking her to help family!”
“This isn’t normal!” Sergey’s voice grew louder. “I won’t allow you to treat Tanya like this! She is my wife, not a cash cow for your whims!”
Galina Ivanovna opened her mouth in astonishment.
“Sergey! How dare you…”
“Mom,” her son interrupted, “leave our house. And if you plan to keep begging us for money, don’t come here again.”
Galina Ivanovna clutched her heart, acting deeply shocked.
“Serezha! How can you! I’m your mother!”
“That is exactly why it hurts me to see what you’ve turned into,” he answered firmly. “Get ready.”
His mother-in-law angrily pulled on her coat, throwing looks full of hatred at Tatyana.
“Don’t think this is the end,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “I’ll talk to you again.”
The door slammed shut. Sergey sank onto the sofa, covering his face with his hands.
Over the following weeks, the phone did not stop ringing. Aunt Klara called, cousins called, even distant relatives from another city called. All of them tried to talk sense into Sergey at once.
“Seryozha,” his aunt wailed into the phone, “how could you offend your mother like that? The woman asked for help for her daughter, and you threw her out!”
“Seryozha,” his cousin Anatoly lectured him, “what does it cost you? Your wife has more money than she knows what to do with. Share with Lena!”
Even Galina Ivanovna’s neighbor managed to call:
“Young man, your mother has been crying for three days! Aren’t you ashamed? You abandoned your own mother because of some wife!”
Sergey endured it for the first week, answering calmly, explaining. In the second week, he began cutting conversations short sharply. By the third week, he simply hung up as soon as he heard familiar voices.
“Enough,” he said to Tatyana one evening. “I’m blocking all their numbers.”
He took out his phone and methodically began adding contacts to the blacklist. He tapped the screen with a kind of fury, as if breaking invisible chains.
“Mom, Aunt Klara, Anatoly,” he muttered. “Blocked. All blocked.”
When the list was finished, Sergey put the phone aside and turned to his wife.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “that you had to endure so much because of me, because of my family. I should have protected you earlier.”
Tatyana came over to him and sat beside him. Her hand rested on his head, her fingers tangling in his hair.
“It’s all right,” she whispered, pulling him close. “You don’t choose your relatives. What matters is that you love me, and I love you.”
Sergey hugged his wife tighter. Outside the window, the lights of the evening city glowed, and inside their apartment it was warm and quiet.
Finally, truly quiet.