“The apartment is mine, the salary is mine, but somehow the debts are ours? You’re not a rescuer, Alexey. You’re just very good at lying to someone’s face.”
Maria stood in the kitchen in her winter coat, snow melting in her dark hair. She had just come home after nearly thirteen hours at work, exhausted and hungry.
Alexey sat at the table with a cooling cup of tea. Beside him lay his phone, open to a jewelry store page.
A gold bracelet cost 23,900 rubles.
“Masha, don’t start the second you come home,” he said. “I was only asking. Mom’s anniversary is next week.”
“Only asking?” Maria laughed bitterly. “You already chose it. Now you’re waiting for me to say, ‘Of course, darling, spend half a month’s grocery budget on your mother.’”
“She isn’t a stranger.”
“To you.”
“She’s my mother.”
“And who am I?”
“My wife. Why are you acting like I have to choose?”
Maria removed her coat and dropped it over a chair.
“Because you already chose. You just forgot to tell me.”
Alexey had been unemployed for three months. At first, he genuinely seemed worried. He called former colleagues, sent résumés, promised he would find something quickly.
Then he started waking up later.
Then he spent more time on the couch.
Then his job search became occasional while his visits to his mother became frequent.
Meanwhile, Maria paid for everything: utilities, groceries, internet, medicine, gasoline, Alexey’s cigarettes, even his shampoo.
And now, apparently, expensive jewelry for his mother too.
“Money in a family belongs to both people,” Alexey said.
Maria slowly nodded.
“Convenient philosophy when only one person earns it.”
“You always throw that in my face.”
“Because I’m paying for our entire life.”
“So I’m not allowed to give my mother a gift?”
“You can give her anything you want. With your money.”
“I don’t have any right now.”
“Then you don’t have money for expensive gifts either.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
Maria poured herself water.
“Where were you today?”
“At Mom’s. Her faucet was leaking.”
“Did you fix it?”
“She needs a plumber.”
“So you went there to look at a faucet?”
“Don’t start.”
“Did you send any résumés?”
“Two.”
“Where?”
Alexey hesitated.
“Masha, am I being interrogated?”
“No. I’m wondering where you’ve supposedly been applying for work for three months.”
“You’re humiliating me.”
“I’m trying to understand whether I live with an adult man or an attractive attachment to the couch.”
His face hardened.
Maria was tired of the expressions he used whenever he wanted sympathy: wounded son, misunderstood husband, unemployed victim.
Then she remembered something else.
“Three thousand disappeared from my wallet last week. Five thousand from the bedroom drawer. And there was a transfer made from my phone.”
Alexey froze.
“I was going to return it.”
“When?”
“When I get a job.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“We’re family.”
“Family members ask. They don’t secretly take money.”
The next morning, Maria blocked her bank card, ordered a new one, changed the password on her phone, and hid her cash inside her work bag.
The fact that she needed to protect money from her husband made her feel sick.
Two days later, Valentina Ivanovna called.
“Mashenka, is Alexey home?”
“He’s sleeping.”
“At ten in the morning?”
“He must be exhausted,” Maria said dryly.
Her mother-in-law ignored the sarcasm.
“You have to support a man when he’s going through a difficult period.”
“I support him completely. Food, bills, internet, gasoline—and apparently mysterious amounts of cash that disappear.”
“Don’t speak about him that way. Alexey has always been a kind boy.”
“Yes. Especially with other people’s money.”
Valentina Ivanovna sighed.
“You young people measure everything in money.”
Maria suddenly remembered another conversation.
“Speaking of money, how is your refrigerator?”
“My refrigerator?”
“The one Alexey says needs replacing urgently.”
There was a pause.
“I don’t need a new refrigerator. It was making noise, but a repairman fixed it.”
Maria sat down.
Alexey had recently told her that his mother needed fifty thousand rubles for a replacement.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Why?”
“Nothing. I’ll deal with it.”
That evening Maria waited until Alexey came out of the shower.
“I spoke to your mother.”
His expression changed immediately.
“Why?”
“Her refrigerator is fine.”
“She doesn’t want to burden you.”
“Stop lying.”
Maria placed a printed document on the table.
Earlier that day, she had visited the bank after finding an unfinished credit application in her account.
The application was in her name.
Alexey’s phone number had been entered as the contact.
“What is this?”
Alexey looked at the paper.
“I wanted to help.”
“Help whom?”
“Us.”
“A loan in my name helps us?”
He sat down.
“Mom asked me not to tell you.”
Maria closed her eyes.
“Of course. Your mother.”
“She has debts.”
“How much?”
“Around one hundred and twenty thousand.”
Maria stared at him.
“What debts?”
“She borrowed money from a woman she knows. Then interest piled up.”
“And you’ve been paying it?”
“I was trying.”
“With my money?”
“Our money.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Masha—”
“You stole money from my wallet and account. That isn’t ‘our money.’”
He raised his voice.
“I was desperate! Mom was crying. She was ashamed.”
“And your solution was to secretly make me responsible?”
“I planned to return everything once I got a job.”
“With what job? The one you search for between naps?”
Alexey stood abruptly.
“You think this is easy for me? I lost my job. I don’t even feel like a man anymore.”
“And stealing from your wife improved that?”
“You’ve become cruel.”
“No. I’ve stopped being convenient.”
His phone rang.
The screen showed “Mom.”
He didn’t answer.
A message appeared seconds later.
Alexey read it and went pale.
Maria took the phone before he could stop her.
The message said:
“Lyosha, that woman called again. She says if you don’t give her forty thousand by Monday, she’ll come to Masha’s workplace.”
Maria read it twice.
“Why does she know where I work?”
Alexey said nothing.
“You gave her my work address?”
“She wanted a guarantee.”
“A guarantee from whom?”
“That the debt would be repaid.”
“By me?”
“I wrote an IOU in my name.”
“Then why did you give her my information?”
Alexey lowered his head.
“So she would believe I could pay.”
Maria felt something inside her turn cold.
Before she could say more, the doorbell rang.
Alexey’s face told her who it was.
“Don’t open it.”
Maria walked toward the hallway.
“It’s a little late for you to teach me caution.”
Through the peephole, she saw two women.
One was Valentina Ivanovna.
The other was a short, angry-looking woman in a winter jacket.
Maria opened the door with the security chain still attached.
“You’re Maria?” the stranger asked. “Good. Tell your husband to come out. I’m tired of chasing him.”
Valentina Ivanovna looked uncomfortable.
“Masha, let’s not make a scene.”
Maria stared at her.
“Your son gave a stranger my workplace address, and you’re worried about a scene?”
Alexey came into the hallway.
“Irina Petrovna, I told you I’d pay by Monday.”
“You’ve been saying ‘Monday’ for months.”
Valentina Ivanovna whispered, “Maybe Masha can help, and then we’ll—”
Maria turned toward her.
“What exactly will we do?”
Her mother-in-law fell silent.
Irina Petrovna pushed a folded paper through the doorway.
“Here. Your husband borrowed 110,000 rubles. The deadline passed.”
Maria unfolded the IOU.
Alexey’s signature.
Her home address.
Her office phone number.
“Excellent,” Maria whispered.
Then Valentina Ivanovna suddenly began crying.
“I borrowed the money for my sister’s treatment,” she said. “Then my pension was late. Interest accumulated. I didn’t want Alexey involved.”
Maria looked directly at her.
“Did you know he was taking money from me?”
Valentina Ivanovna shook her head.
“He said he had side jobs.”
“And the jewelry?”
“What jewelry?”
Maria slowly turned toward her husband.
“The twelve-thousand-ruble earrings?”
Valentina Ivanovna looked confused.
“I never received earrings.”
“The bracelet?”
“No.”
“The handbag? The shawl?”
“No.”
Maria looked at Alexey.
“Where did the gifts go?”
He stayed silent.
Irina Petrovna answered instead.
“He gave some jewelry to me as payment. I sold it.”
The hallway went completely quiet.
Maria finally understood.
For months Alexey had been using his mother as an excuse.
The earrings for Mom.
The bracelet for Mom.
The refrigerator for Mom.
All of it was a cover.
“You bought jewelry with my money and gave it to your mother’s creditor?”
“I was trying to pay the debt faster.”
“You were trying to stop me from asking questions. You knew that if you said ‘Mom,’ I would feel guilty for refusing.”
“I was afraid you’d leave me.”
Maria gave a tired smile.
“So you decided to make sure I would?”
She removed the security chain and opened the door fully.
“Alexey, pack your things.”
He stared at her.
“You’re throwing me out?”
“I’m sending you somewhere you can solve your own problems.”
“Masha, I made a mistake.”
“No. A mistake happens once. You built an entire system.”
“I’ll find a job.”
“I hope you do. Just not while living here.”
“You’re destroying our family.”
“The person who finally closes the door isn’t always the one who destroyed the family.”
Maria pulled a travel bag from the closet and dropped it at his feet.
“Pack what you need.”
Twenty minutes later Alexey stood near the door with his bag.
Before leaving, he looked at Maria.
“At least give me money for a taxi.”
For several seconds she simply stared at him.
Then he understood.
“Fine.”
“Walking might help you think.”
Valentina Ivanovna remained behind after he left.
“Masha, I’ll repay whatever I can,” she said quietly. “I truly didn’t know.”
Maria believed her.
For years, she had thought her mother-in-law was selfish and manipulative.
Now she realized that Valentina Ivanovna had been deceived too.
“I used to think you were cold,” the older woman admitted. “I thought you wanted to control my son. But you were carrying everything alone.”
Maria nodded.
“Take care of yourself.”
“You too.”
After Maria locked the door, the apartment became silent.
Not peaceful yet.
Just silent.
She opened her banking app, blocked every access she could find, contacted customer support, and gathered the statements and IOUs into a folder.
Tomorrow she would change the locks.
Then she would file for divorce.
Her phone vibrated.
A message from Valentina Ivanovna appeared:
“I found your earrings in Alexey’s bag. He was probably planning to give those away too. I’ll bring them tomorrow.”
Maria stared at the screen.
And suddenly understood that she had not lost her husband tonight.
She had lost him slowly, every time she stayed silent because she didn’t want to seem greedy, difficult, or selfish.
She opened the kitchen window.
Cold air rushed inside.
For the first time in months, she made herself tea and drank it while it was still hot.
No requests.
No invented gifts.
No hidden debts.
No husband asking for taxi money after stealing from her.
And for the first time, the silence did not feel empty.
It felt like space.
Space that finally belonged to her again.