“Kolya, you absolutely have to teach her a proper lesson,” Anna Sergeyevna instructed her son coldly over the phone while sitting proudly in the back seat of an expensive car.
She listened to her son’s response with obvious displeasure.
“Listen, I can’t be expected to deal with your Varvara’s upbringing all the time!” Anna Sergeyevna replied irritably. “Good Lord, even her name sounds like the croaking of a crow…”
Once again, she did not like Nikolai’s answer.
“All right, if you’re really stuck there… Fine. I’m already on my way to the office. It won’t matter if I’m a little late. I’ll stop by and see for myself what’s going on.”
After ending the call, she sighed in annoyance and looked at the driver through the rearview mirror.
“Misha, change the route!”
When the snow-white SUV carrying Anna Sergeyevna approached the barrier blocking the entrance to the prestigious residential complex, it was met by a confused security guard.
“I’m sorry, but entry into the courtyard is temporarily closed,” he said.
“What’s going on?”
Anna Sergeyevna leaned out of the window herself to find out the reason.
“Something strange is happening in there,” the guard explained. “We’re waiting for the police.”
Anna Sergeyevna frowned. Instinctively, she felt that the sudden commotion had something to do with her. She ordered her driver to park nearby, got out of the car, and headed toward the apartment buildings.
A crowd had gathered in the courtyard, and several people were filming what was happening on their phones. Anna Sergeyevna pushed her way through the spectators, feeling more anxious with every step.
Then she saw her sister Zoya.
Barely dressed, Zoya was shouting with her head tilted upward, shaking her fist and trying to gather an armful of belongings scattered chaotically across the courtyard. More items continued flying down from the window of a seventh-floor apartment.
A pair of underwear drifted gently onto Anna Sergeyevna’s head. She brushed it away in disgust and quickly fixed her hairstyle. Then she hurried over to her sister.
“Zoya, what is going on here?”
“Can’t you see for yourself?!”
Sobbing, Zoya continued gathering her possessions as they rained down around her. Finally losing her temper, she threw the heap of clothing onto the ground and turned toward the playground.
“Igor, what are you doing sitting over there?” Zoya shouted. “Can’t you come and help me?”
Only then did Anna Sergeyevna notice that Zoya’s husband was sitting on a swing, smoking gloomily. Unlike his wife, he was fully dressed. He did not react to her shouting at all.
Anna Sergeyevna gradually realized what had happened, and rage began boiling inside her. Her sharp, bright-red fingernails dug into her palms.
“It’s a good thing I came here instead of Kolya,” she thought. “That spineless weakling wouldn’t have solved anything. But I’m not going to stand on ceremony with that girl!”
Anna Sergeyevna marched decisively toward the entrance, pulling the magnetic key to the intercom from her handbag. She always carried one with her.
However, she did not get the chance to use it.
The wail of a police siren echoed through the courtyard. A patrol car approached the barrier, and the guard allowed it inside.
Anna Sergeyevna stopped and waited for the officers, deciding to postpone taking justice into her own hands. When three police officers walked toward her, she greeted them with a friendly smile.
“I’m glad you’ve arrived,” she said. “I’m the owner of the apartment where this disgraceful mess is happening. We’ll sort it out together.”
The four of them entered the building, took the elevator to the seventh floor, and stopped in front of the unfortunate apartment.
Anna Sergeyevna tried to unlock the door with her key, but it would not turn.
“Someone may have left a key in the lock on the other side,” one of the officers suggested.
Anna Sergeyevna knocked irritably.
“Varya, open the door immediately!” she ordered harshly.
There was no response.
Silence filled the apartment beyond the door.
Anna Sergeyevna’s anger began rising again. She knocked even harder.
“Open the door, you little wretch, or you’ll regret it!” she shouted.
At first, neither Anna Sergeyevna nor the police officers standing beside her paid attention to the sound of the elevator doors opening behind them. There were five other apartments on the spacious landing.
However, the person who stepped out of the elevator walked directly toward their group.
“Good afternoon,” he said. “Is there some kind of problem?”
The moment Anna Sergeyevna saw him, all the color drained from her face.
“You?”
What happened next became a complete disaster for the self-confident businesswoman…
Anna Sergeyevna could not stop laughing, even though she was sitting in a restaurant full of people.
Her son Nikolai looked at her in embarrassment, glancing nervously around the room from time to time.
“Mom, why are you reacting like this?” he finally asked.
Nikolai also kept looking anxiously toward the restrooms, where Varya had gone.
Anna Sergeyevna continued laughing, wiping tears from her eyes. At last, she managed to calm herself down.
“My God… Where did you dig up that ridiculous creature?” Anna Sergeyevna looked at her son with confusion and even pity. “Don’t you find your own choice funny?”
“Mom, please stop.”
Nikolai looked like a schoolboy who had been caught misbehaving.
“So where did you find her?” his mother asked again.
“At the checkout in a supermarket,” Nikolai replied quietly.
“Bravo! What an excellent match!” Anna Sergeyevna applauded mockingly. “Of course, you couldn’t have come up with anything more absurd. Kolya, are there really so few respectable young women around you?”
“All those women think about is money, clothes, and luxury vacations. Varya is different. I really like her,” Nikolai declared. “I feel comfortable and relaxed with her. She’s simple, without arrogance or endless demands.”
“But apparently clever enough to trap you.”
Mother and son had to stop their conversation because Varya came out of the restroom and began walking back toward their table.
Against the background of the wealthy, pretentious guests in the expensive restaurant, the young woman truly looked completely out of place.
She was far too ordinary, or “nothing special,” as Anna Sergeyevna described her, choosing unusually mild words.
Varya herself felt extremely uncomfortable in the luxurious establishment where Nikolai had brought her to meet his mother.
Anna Sergeyevna generously decided to spare the “country bumpkin” for the time being and managed to restrain herself from mocking her too openly.
Nevertheless, the evening remained tense.
Despite everything, Nikolai and Varvara got married.
Anna Sergeyevna reconsidered her attitude toward the girl slightly. Perhaps the marriage was even for the best. The plain little mouse would spend the rest of her life kissing the hands of her benefactor—meaning her mother-in-law.
Anna Sergeyevna herself had divorced Nikolai’s father when the boy was only seven years old.
She and Dmitry had married while they were still university students. Together, they had built a business from nothing and successfully developed it.
Financially, the family lived extremely well. However, affection and warmth disappeared from the marriage very quickly. Both spouses realized that they had become strangers to one another.
There were rumors that Anna Sergeyevna had cheated on her husband and had been caught in the act.
However, Dmitry Sergeyevich never commented on the situation.
Their property and business assets were divided, and the former spouses each went their separate ways.
Nikolai remained with his mother, although Dmitry Sergeyevich initially insisted that his son should live with him.
“You’re going to turn him into a weakling,” he told his wife.
However, Nikolai was already completely dependent on his mother, so he reacted hysterically to his father’s suggestion.
As a business manager, Anna Sergeyevna was highly effective. She came to believe in her own power and invincibility, and she gained complete control over her son.
Unfortunately for Nikolai, he rarely communicated with his father.
Then the boy grew up, and Varya appeared in his life.
Anna Sergeyevna rented an apartment for the newlyweds in a prestigious residential complex. Business partners often visited her own home, and her plain daughter-in-law did not fit into the elegant surroundings.
However, whenever Anna Sergeyevna was not hosting social gatherings, she never denied herself the pleasure of ordering her daughter-in-law around and sending her on all kinds of errands.
Varya frequently had to replace the housekeeper.
“You must always remember who you owe and what you owe them,” her mother-in-law kept repeating. “Surely you don’t imagine that my son is the one providing you with this standard of living?”
Varvara remained silent.
She had been forced to leave her job at the supermarket so that she would have enough time to satisfy her mother-in-law’s demands.
Back in her native village, the young woman had a sick mother and a younger brother to whom she regularly sent money.
Now she had to take that money from the allowance given to her by her husband—or, more accurately, by her mother-in-law.
Nikolai had a job, but he was not particularly successful.
At one point, the company headed by Anna Sergeyevna began experiencing financial difficulties, and she had to dismiss her housekeeper.
Varvara officially took the woman’s place, although her mother-in-law naturally had no intention of paying her.
Varya tried not to complain to her husband, while Nikolai pretended not to notice anything.
The situation reached its peak when Anna Sergeyevna’s younger sister Zoya came to visit with her husband, Igor.
Nikolai was away at the time, and Anna Sergeyevna came up with another way to torment her daughter-in-law.
She moved Zoya and Igor into the newlyweds’ apartment.
“You are required to serve my relatives,” the mother-in-law ordered the stunned Varya. “You’ll simply have to work on two fronts now.”
Compared with her older sister, Zoya was considered the poor relative, and she constantly suffered from feelings of inferiority.
Now, however, she decided not to miss the opportunity to torment the village “Cinderella.”
Sometimes Zoya went so far that even her husband Igor tried to reason with her.
“Stay out of it, will you?” Zoya snapped at him. “Why do you care so much about that little stray? Have you taken a liking to her?”
That day, Varvara had gone somewhere without informing anyone.
When she returned, an enraged Zoya confronted her.
A stream of insults and curses fell upon Varya’s head, after which Zoya reinforced her argument with a sharp slap across the face.
Igor was not at home at the time. He had gone out to buy cigarettes.
Suddenly, Varya struck Zoya back.
Then she grabbed a kitchen towel and began whipping her with it, driving her toward the exit.
The stunned “lady of the manor” did not even understand how she had ended up on the landing outside the apartment.
Zoya tried to force her way back inside, but Varya locked the door.
Through the window in the stairwell, Zoya watched as her belongings and her husband’s possessions began flying down into the courtyard.
She called her sister using the phone of one of the onlookers, but she was too hysterical to explain what had happened properly.
Anna Sergeyevna stared at her former husband in shock.
He calmly walked past her and the police officers, approached the apartment door, and knocked.
“Varyusha, open the door. It’s me,” he said.
The door opened immediately.
Dmitry Sergeyevich turned toward the visitors.
“So, what seems to be the problem?” he asked calmly.
“We received a call from this citizen…” The police officer glanced at Anna Sergeyevna.
“How interesting,” Dmitry Sergeyevich said with a smirk. “This citizen moved her relatives into someone else’s apartment without permission and without the owner’s consent.”
“What owner are you talking about?” Anna Sergeyevna tried to protest.
“Varvara is the legal owner of this apartment. I bought it and registered it in her name,” Dmitry Sergeyevich explained. “I am her father-in-law. Do you have any further questions?”
Then he turned toward Varvara.
“By the way, my dear, you have every right to file a police complaint for unlawful entry into your home.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Dmitry Sergeyevich noticed his former wife turning pale.
Anna Sergeyevna had not known that Nikolai had introduced his young wife to his father as well.
The man had taken a liking to the village girl and had learned about her difficult situation.
“Did you do all of this just to spite me?” Anna Sergeyevna asked furiously.
“I did it for the well-being of the young couple,” Dmitry Sergeyevich replied. “I hope Nikolai draws the proper conclusions. After all, whether he continues living here now depends entirely on Varvara’s wishes.”
The daughter-in-law invited her father-in-law inside for tea and a conversation, while Anna Sergeyevna went downstairs to deal with her relatives.
She understood that her world would never be the same again.