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The voice of my dear husband, Artyom, which usually echoed through the walls of our apartment with the intonations of a weary Roman patrician, was now dripping with a sweetness as cheap as syrup. He was talking on speakerphone. “Mom, you don’t understand the concept of scaling,” Artyom proclaimed. He was a middle manager whose … Read more

  — Have you completely lost your mind?! — Artyom burst into the living room and threw his jacket over the back of the armchair, where he never hung it. — How many times have I told you not to touch my things on the shelf! Katya was standing by the window, looking at him … Read more

— Olya, just don’t interrupt me, I’ve already planned everything, — her mother-in-law’s voice rang through the phone like brass, leaving no room for maneuver. — We’ve decided to celebrate Auntie’s anniversary at your place this weekend. There will be twenty of us! You have a country house, plenty of space, the lawn is trimmed. … Read more

“Vera, we’re having guests on Saturday.” I put the frying pan on the stove and turned around. Oleg was sitting at the kitchen table, scrolling through his phone, and he didn’t even look up. “What guests?” “Aunt Shura. Birthday. I said we’d celebrate at our place. About twelve people will come.” Aunt Shura was a … Read more

Friday evening promised to be warm and cozy. I set the table in the living room, laid out plates from the new dinner set, and lit candles. The apartment shone with cleanliness and expensive renovations, which I had finished literally a month before the wedding. A luxury three-room apartment in a new residential complex on … Read more

The morning began with scrambled eggs. Anna stood at the stove, stirring the yellowish mixture in the pan with a spatula, and looked out the window. Outside, a drizzle was falling; drops ran down the cornice and gathered in puddles on the asphalt of the parking area beside their country house. She loved this time … Read more

Irina was sitting at her desk when someone knocked on the office door. Oleg peeked inside, looking around the familiar space with some kind of new expression. “May I come in?” he asked, although he had already stepped over the threshold. She nodded without taking her eyes off the screen. The house had come to … Read more

“What?” Liza whispered, freezing at the entrance. Her heart gave a painful jolt, as if someone had squeezed it hard from the inside. She had just come home from work a little earlier than usual. She had wanted to surprise him, to make dinner together. The bedroom door was slightly open, and voices could be … Read more

“Ridiculous,” Inna Valeryevna said with disgust, pinching the edge of the gift box between two fingers as though there were a dead mouse inside. “Honestly, Tanechka, it would have been better if you hadn’t given me anything at all than embarrass yourself like this.” “Mom, now say that again to my face,” Andrey said in … Read more

The champagne glass froze in midair. Around me, people were laughing and clapping, while I sat there, unable to move. “Repeat what you just said.” My mother-in-law smiled radiantly. “I’m leaving the apartment to Marina. She is my own daughter, after all, not just some daughter-in-law. Right, son?” Viktor, my husband, looked away. Fifteen years. … Read more